TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A woman who always maintained she was hiking and driving in Colorado when her ex-husband and his girlfriend were slain is free on bail for the first time in a decade as prosecutors prepare to try her for a third time in the 2002 Kansas killings.
Dana Chandler, now 62, was released Wednesday from the Shawnee County Jail after a judge last month lowered her bond to $350,000 from $1 million.
Chandler was originally charged with the Topeka shooting deaths of 47-year-old Mike Sisco and 53-year-old Karen Harkness after a decade of investigation, and in 2012 was found guilty of two counts of murder.
But the Kansas Supreme Court overturned that conviction in 2018, citing misconduct by prosecutor Jacqie Spradling, who was later disbarred.
Jurors were unable to reach a verdict last month during a second trial in which prosecutors alleged Chandler killed the couple because she was jealous of their relationship after her acrimonious divorce from Sisco.
But the defense underlined the limited physical evidence found at the scene and questioned the way it was handled by investigators and forensic scientists.