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Rozanne Gailiunas was smart, caring, and a devoted parent. In 1983, her marriage to physician Peter Gailiunas was on the rocks.  She was in love with contractor Larry Aylor, a man also in the middle of a contentious divorce. In fact, the two were making plans to spend the rest of their lives together.

Then, a little past 6 p.m. on Oct. 4, 1983, police found Rozanne murdered in her suburban home.  She was bound, nude and face down on her bed. Her 4-year-old son was in the home, thankfully unharmed.

Rozanne’s husband, Peter, and her lover, Larry, were the first people police wanted to speak with.  Rozanne appeared to have been sexually assaulted.  There were no signs of a burglary.  Peter seemed to have the strongest motive, but he pointed the finger at Larry or his wife, Joy.  All three had an alibi.

Join us at the quiet end for Murder on Her Mind. The events leading up to the murder of Rozanne and the events that followed her death make up a complex web of lust, hatred, and greed.  It would take years for police to solve the case. When the truth was finally exposed, it shocked an entire community.

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Read “To Hatred Turned” by Ken Englade

Heart surgeon Dr. Darryl Sutorius thought he had found a second chance at true love when he married attractive divorcee Dante Britteon.  But soon after the wedding, Darryl was depressed and disillusioned.  Dante wasn’t who she had claimed to be and she worked hard to alienate him from his children.

Much of what Dante had told Darryl about herself were lies.  Her real name was Della Hall.  She was not a college graduate as she had claimed, but a high school drop-out.  She had a secret daughter and grandchildren.  And she had been married five times.

Join us at the quiet end for the story of a man who found himself married to a complete fraud. He tried to make the marriage work in spite of it all, but Della had a history of violence. She purchased a gun and Darryl began to fear for his life.  When he decided to leave and he began divorce proceedings, Della made her own evil plans to end their marriage and inherit his fortune.

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Read “Della’s Web” by Aphrodite Jones

Family life is not always rooted in love.  For the blended family of Lieth and Bonnie Von Stein, life was marked by disappointments, resentment, and deep-seated hate.  One summer night in 1988, Bonnie and Lieth were viscously attacked in their own bed. Daughter Angela said that she had slept through the attack.  Son Christopher was away, living in student housing at North Carolina University.

The primary investigation led to Christopher and his Dungeons & Dragons playing friends. During this era of satanic panic, there was a public perception that the brutal attacks were a real life manifestation of the role-playing game.

At the quiet end today, we’re looking into the dark heart of family life in a small southern town.  It’s a terrifying story of greed and callousness and the story of a mother forced to consider the worst about her own son.

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When Palo Alto music teacher Kristine Fitzhugh was found in a pool of coagulated blood at the bottom of her basement stairs, her husband Ken blamed her shoes. That’s right, her shoes. He had warned her over and over, he said, that those shoes were dangerous.  She must have stumbled and fallen in them.

But it didn’t take long for investigators to question Ken Fitzhugh’s theory.  The position of Kristine’s body and her injuries were not consistent with a fall.  And the blood evidence made Ken the primary suspect in her suspicious death.  Blood found in the Fitzhugh’s kitchen suggested that she had been attacked there.  Further inquiries exposed financial problems and an extramarital affair resulting in a pregnancy.

Join us at the quiet end for No Accident: The Death of Kristine Fitzhugh.  Ken Fitzhugh denied any involvement in his wife’s death, but inconsistencies in his story and forensic examination results led to his arrest and a dramatic, highly publicized trial.

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On the remote island of Palmyra, about 970 nautical miles south of Hawaii, a series of crimes occurred against experienced sailing couple Mac and Muff Graham.  A handful of other sailors spent time with the Grahams on the island, but the Grahams were eventually left alone with a desperate young couple:  Stephanie Stearns and her fugitive boyfriend Lesley “Buck” Walker.

Then the Grahams went missing.  Soon afterward, their boat was seen at a busy marina, repainted and in the possession of Stearns and Walker. The logical conclusion was that they had stolen the Graham’s boat and murdered the couple, but finding evidence and bringing Stearns and Walker to trial would take years.

Join us at the quiet end for Seaworthy: Murder on Palmyra.  Learning what it takes to sail the ocean on a small sailboat and survive on a deserted island has been fascinating.  At the core of the case is the seaworthiness of Stearns’ and Walkers’ boat. The couple sailed to the island on a rickety boat with inadequate food and supplies.  This leads to the very valid question of whether their plan from the beginning was to steal a seaworthy, well-stocked boat and murder its crew.

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In 2006, Jeffrey Deskovic’s indictment charging him with the rape and murder of a high school classmate was dismissed on the grounds of actual innocence. Post conviction DNA testing proved his innocence.  It also identified the real killer.

When a classmate of 16-year old Jeffrey was found raped and murdered in a local park, he was upset.  The police said his behavior seemed odd. They were suspicious of him because he was late for school the day after the murder and he seemed “overly distraught” about the death of a girl who was not even a close friend.  Jeffrey was questioned at length and eventually manipulated into giving a false confession.

Since his release from prison, Jeffrey has earned his law degree and established the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation for Justice, devoting his life to fighting wrongful convictions and helping those exonerated to reclaim their lives.

Join us at the quiet end for the story of Jeffrey Deskovic.  Dick was able to be in touch with Mr. Deskovic for an interview recently.  We hope you will find what he had to say as fascinating as we did.

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