Does Murder Sleep? on ID: How did public school teacher Ken Eaton die?

ID's upcoming Does Murder Sleep? episode is all set to cover the death of public school teacher Ken Eaton. He was murdered in his Des Moines, Iowa, house, where his 17-year-old daughter was peacefully asleep. This case dates back to February 1988 and is well remembered for the unusual circumstances under which Franklin Ken Eaton was murdered by two assailants who had just met him that day.

The upcoming episode of Does Murder Sleep? is titled Slept Through It All. The synopsis for the episode reads:

"A teenager sleeps through the murder of her father, Ken Eaton, at their home; as detectives probe into the beloved teacher's secret love life, they unravel a web of heartbreak, deceit and desire."

Ken Eaton (Image via Oxygen)

The shocking case continues to be discussed and debated in the community. Thankfully, the murderers of Ken Eaton were ultimately identified and charged with first-degree murder, leading them to life imprisonment.

This case was also covered in Oxygen's Sleeping with Death.

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Who was Ken Eaton, and how did he die?

Ken Eaton (Image via Oxygen)

Born March 28, 1946, to Franklin Kennedy Sr. and Gloria Eaton of Manhasset, New York, Ken was the oldest of three brothers. The family moved to Houston, Texas, in the early '60s, where Franklin Kennedy Sr. worked at Exxon oil company.

A few years later, Ken moved to Des Moines, Iowa, to attend college and became a part of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. He always dreamed of pursuing a career in education. The future public school teacher graduated with a Bachelors of Science degree in Education and later received his Master of Science degree in Secondary Education and Administration.

His passion for teaching was well-known, and he contributed in many ways to society, including teaching Indochinese refugees in Iowa.

He married Lynn in 1968 and had two daughters, Jennifer and Kristin. But at the time, Ken was leading a secret life as he was homosexual. As society changed, Ken accepted his identity and divorced his wife in 1980. His two daughters initially went on to live with Lynn, but Jennifer returned to live with Ken Eaton and his partner, Ed, with whom he shared a long and fruitful relationship.

At the beginning of 1988, Ed and Ken had a bitter breakup, and the latter moved out. On February 13, 1988, 17-year-old Jennifer Eaton woke up and found her home in Des Moines completely ransacked. Eaton was a neat man and had everything always in order. This shocked Jennifer, who went to her father's room to find him stabbed to death. His face was also reportedly beaten up.

As the police arrived, they found certain items to be missing, including a kitchen knife (the probable murder weapon) and some Hard Rock Cafe t-shirts that would later help apprehend the guilty.

After initially doubting Jennifer and Ed, police finally tracked Ken's movement on the night of his death. The authorities discovered that he had gone to the gay loop, which was a regular place for the LGBTQ+ community back in the 1980s.

With alibi from witnesses and some forensic tests, the police ultimately reached Gary Titus and James Michael "Billy" Green. After the police apprehended them, they revealed they had posed as gay men to get into Ken's house in hopes of robbing him. But things got violent, and they ended up stabbing Ken Eaton. Both of them were sentenced to life imprisonment.

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Does Murder Sleep? will cover this case in detail on August 9, 2023, at 10 pm EST.