On October 30, 1982, 22-year-old Dominique Ellen Dunne, an American actress, was strangled outside her home by her ex-boyfriend, John Thomas Sweeney (born October 12, 1956). She fell into a coma as a result and was taken off life support five days later, on November 4, resulting in her death. In a court case that gained significant media coverage, Sweeney was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Dunne's death and sentenced to seven and a half years, serving two and a half years of the sentence before being released on parole.