Where is Dana Chandler now? Details explored about the subject of 48 Hours on CBS

More than 22 years after Michael Sisco and Karen Harkness were found fatally shot in a Topeka duplex, Dana Chandler is awaiting judgment. A Pottawatomie County jury convicted her on March 7, 2025, during a third trial relocated from Shawnee County, as per a WIBW report dated May 30, 2025. Dana Chandler, 64, remains in custody with sentencing set for June 3 in Westmoreland.

48 Hours has chronicled the saga since 2009. Its two-hour season finale, My Mother’s Murder Trials, aired this Saturday and revisited the contentious divorce, stalking claims, and Dana Chandler’s disputed 27-hour gap on July 6-7, 2002. Prosecutors cite jealousy and obsession; the defense highlights the absence of DNA and alleges investigative tunnel vision.

Chandler’s initial 2012 conviction was overturned in 2018 for prosecutorial misconduct, and a 2022 retrial ended with a hung jury. Despite maintaining innocence, Chandler now faces a sentence that could keep her behind bars for life.

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July 2002: Sisco, 47, and Harkness, 53, were fatally shot, Dana Chandler was questioned but initially uncharged

Michael Sisco and Karen Harkness were discovered in the basement bedroom of Harkness’s Topeka duplex on July 7 2002, each struck multiple times by a 9 mm handgun. Investigators found cash, casino winnings, and jewelry undisturbed, ruling out burglary as a motive. Detective Richard Volle later testified, noting the volume of shots fired, as per a CBS News report dated May 4 2013:

"There was no profit motive in this. This was pure revenge."

Attention quickly turned to Dana Chandler, Sisco’s ex-wife, whose acrimonious 1990s divorce included stalking complaints and a contested custody battle. Despite lengthy interviews, detectives found no DNA, fingerprints or eyewitness evidence tying Dana Chandler, then living in Denver, to the scene, and the double homicide went cold for nearly a decade.

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From cold case to three trials

Renewed publicity in 2009 after 48 Hours aired the episode Haunted prompted a fresh review. Authorities arrested Chandler in 2011.

A Shawnee County jury convicted her in 2012, but the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 2018. This was after finding “an intolerable pattern of deception” by prosecutor Jacqie Spradling, as per the Kansas Supreme Court opinion quoted by a CBS News report dated May 20, 2022.

The second trial in 2022 relied on circumstantial evidence and more than 60 witnesses. Prosecutors argued that “jealousy, rage, and obsession” drove Dana Chandler to kill, while the defense said police exhibited “tunnel vision” and failed to test a stray hair found on a shell casing.

The jury deadlocked seven-to-five for conviction after six days, ending in a mistrial, as per Oxygen.com report dated September 2, 2022. A third proceeding was moved to Pottawatomie County for jury selection. On March 7, 2025, jurors returned guilty verdicts on both counts.

Her motion for a new trial, filed pro se, was denied on April 22, 2025, when a judge ruled it missed the statutory deadline, as per the WIBW report dated April 24, 2025. Sentencing is set for June 3, 2025, and Dana Chandler remains in county custody without bond.

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Current status of Dana Chandler after My Mother’s Murder Trials

48 Hours revisited the case in a two-hour season finale titled My Mother’s Murder Trials on May 31 2025. Correspondent Jim Axelrod examined disputed alibis, alleged gas-can purchases, and the 27-hour window in which Chandler’s whereabouts remain unresolved.

Today, Dana awaits formal sentencing that could keep her incarcerated for life. She continues to assert innocence and may pursue further appeals, but the prime-time special presented viewers and the parole-ineligible defendant with the latest chapter in a legal battle spanning more than two decades.

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Stay tuned for more updates.