48 Hours Mystery: Haunted

(CBS)  It was July 7, 2002, and Harold and Betty Worswick were going to meet their daughter, Karen Harkness, and her boyfriend, Mike Sisco, for a Sunday afternoon fish fry.

"Well, the day started off like any other day for my wife and I. It was a happy day and it was a Sunday," Harold recalled.

But when they arrived at their daughter's house, the door was locked.

"And I rang the doorbell and knocked on the glass and couldn't raise anybody," Harold said. "I thought, 'This is strange.'"

Mike's mom, Carol Sisco Engler, was also invited that day.

"The front door was locked, which was unusual," she told "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Harold Dow. "And so we went around to the back, and the back door was open just a little bit. And so, we walked in - couldn't find anyone."

The house was quiet and Mike and Karen were nowhere to be found.

"So, anyway, Harold went downstairs, which was Karen's bedroom," Carol explained.

"As I got down there, just as I got to the foot of the stairs, I could see Karen," Harold said. "She was layin' face down on the bed, head kinda off the right side of the bed and her arm was off there… And I said, 'Oh, Christ.' I knew she was dead. I reached over and touched her, but she was cold. And then I found Mike on the outside of the bed. And - I could see that he'd been shot a number of times and had lost a lot of blood."

"Well, it didn't seem real, you know. It just seemed like a dream," Carol continued. "But, Harold wouldn't let Betty or I go downstairs, and I'm very glad he didn't. I've got my own horrible scenes of it anyway. And then, immediately, we called 911."

It was seven years ago when Topeka Detective Richard Volle got the case that would haunt him to this day.

"I got a radio call just after two o'clock on July 7, 2002. It was a report of two dead bodies in a basement," he explained. "Well, the first thought is, you gotta consider a robbery."

Mike and Karen had been dating for about four years. On the night of the murders, they had gone to a casino north of Topeka and had won big.

"The electronics were all there, there was no forced entry. There was just nothing to suggest a robbery," Det. Volle explained. "In fact, we ended up finding a fairly substantial amount of cash in the pockets of the victim."

With robbery ruled out, Det. Volle focused on the victims.

"They were such a sweet couple," Carol said. "He really loved Karen. And I know Karen loved Mike. She took up fishing and they went on camping trips."

It's a mystery - who would want to kill Karen and her boyfriend?

Det. Volle retraced the couple's evening, starting at the casino.

"Looked like they were having a good time. Didn't have any issues with anyone. And in a - you know - casinos have cameras everywhere. And we didn't see any indication that they'd had a struggle with anybody, any kind of altercation." And, he said, no one suspicious was following them out.

Karen Harkness, 53, was divorced with two grown children; Chad and Erin.

"I remember telling her on several occasions that if I could be half the mom that she was to me, then I would be the best mom in the world," said Erin Sutton.

"It was a surprise to everybody that this would happen to somebody like her," said Chad Harkness.

Detective Volle was unsentimental in his investigation and looked at Karen's son, Chad, and Karen's ex-husband as possible suspects.

"I was asked to come down to the police station… I was hooked up to a polygraph machine and asked if I had murdered my mother or in any way participated in the murder of my mother," Chad explained to Dow. "They looked at my father as well."

Both Chad and his father were eliminated as suspects. But if Karen wasn't the intended target, then maybe it was Mike. His son, Dustin, couldn't believe anyone would want to kill his father.

"I mean everyone that I saw that knew him, you know, would, you know, shake his hand and give him a big smile," Dustin said.

Mike Sisco, 47, sold welding equipment in Topeka. The divorced father had custody of his two teenage children.

"He was a wonderful son, and he was a very good father," said Carol.

But Mike was having real problems with his daughter, Hailey.

"I wasn't happy with my dad. I wasn't happy with my mom. I wasn't happy at my school," Hailey Sisco said.

In the months before the murder, the 17-year-old was angry at everything, but it was her father who she really turned against.

"I hated my dad," Hailey said. "I - I flat-out hated him."

Things only got worse when Hailey spent more and more time with her boyfriend, Chris Seel.

"My dad hated him," she told Dow. "Chris was the bad - you know, bad boy - definitely didn't follow the straight and narrow.

"You ultimately moved out of the house?" Dow asked.

"My dad gave me an ultimatum: 'Either you follow my rules or you move out.' And I moved in with Chris. And then my dad was killed and…"

Because of that tension with her father, Hailey and her boyfriend attracted police attention. Hailey said "they searched Chris's house completely."

Mike's sister, Cathy Boots, and her husband, Mark, thought maybe the young man and Hailey could be involved in the murders.

"She was acting so irrationally, no one knew what was going on," said Cathy.

So at the same time Hailey had to deal with the murder of her father, she also had to defend herself and her boyfriend from police suspicions.

"Me and Chris were interviewed, I mean, they came and talked to us. I'm sure we were on their list of who, you know, of people who did this," she said.

"All the checking that we've done on Hailey and her boyfriend, there was nothing there that - that suggested that she could be responsible for this," Volle said.

All the leads in Topeka went nowhere.

"If money's a motive, that's easy to track. If revenge is a motive, that's a little bit easier to track. But there was nothing that was in Mike and Karen's lives that would lead to revenge," Volle said. "I mean, they didn't do anything to anybody. We just don't have any ideas."

But Mike Sisco knew who might want him dead. And he told his brother-in-law Mark Boots a week before the murders.

"He said, 'Mark - you're gonna wake up some morning and you're gonna find out I'm dead. And you're gonna know who did it.'"

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[d2bd2b]

I was watching this tonight on ID. Went to google Dana Chandler and low and behold after 9 years she was finally arrested TODAY.

48 Hours keeps getting it done. Amazing.

[jesi2j2]

I watched this 48 hours program just today which is July 31 2011 and it did NOT give any info about an arrest of Dana Chandler.....what were you watching?

[lgk1964]

Having just watched this two things stuck me very odd. They said she stated Saturday she ran errands and finished by filling her car up. Then stayed hone Saturday night. The later it meantioned that some of her Sunday liable is a gas receipt -- why would she need gas if she filled up the day before.

And a heavy heavy smoker hiking in the mountains in Colorado....again seems unlikely unless this is something people knew she did often.

[Vodianova-]

What frustrates me is how such obvious cases can be left unjustified. I watched this segment the other night, it was the first time I've heard about the story, and I couldn't believe that Dana was able to walk away a free woman without punishment. There were so many faults on the police front - they should have closed off the crime scene and searched extensively for possible evidence. Those bottles in the closet were evidence that shouldn't have been thrown away. But there was still evidence to be used against Dana: the story she gave to police was filled with plot holes, and based on the recorded phone conversations between Dana and her daughter, Dana changed some details in the story she told police. Her gas purchases are an obvious link to the crime. Her frequent episodes of stalking the couple and their family only add to her violent behaviour. Can't people of authority put two and two together? It was so obvious that Dana committed this crime. I don't believe that Dana's daughter had anything to do with it. The girl is riddled with guilt: she didn't have a good relationship with her father, and her father is gone. A bad relationship doesn't mean she would go to great lengths to have him killed. She struck me as someone who simply didn't want to be around her father because he angered her so much, not someone who would peer over his shoulder and stalk his every move in the way Dana did. I feel so upset that such an obvious case is left unsettled, although nothing angers me more than the 'Dear Zachary' case, where a man was killed by his ex girlfriend. It was painfully obvious that the woman killed him, without a doubt. All the evidence was present, all fingers were pointed to her, no one could deny that she did it, and yet she wasn't given the proper punishment. She later went on to kill herself and her son. The judge who let her off... I don't know how she can possibly live with herself.

[skbsoccermom]

This woman seems like a total nutcase. Jumping on a trampoline at your ex's house? Stalking them? Cold case units solve cases that seem unsolvable. Maybe they should get one involved. This crazy killer should be taken off the streets and put where she belongs!

[heavon01]

i was just wondering how dana, can sleep at nigt,after murder 2 people, the children father,was one of them, i hope she gets wat coming to her soon, this case should be closed by now, i hope the get her soon,hope that gum has her dna on it ,

[sn1955]

Re the theory she must have bought gas along the way or on the return trip to Colorado: Dana could have paid cash for gas instead of using cards.

[An_Attorney_in_Kansas]

I hope the family sees this post. However, people tend to forget about K.S.A. 75-702: Duties and responsibilities; authority (of Attorney General) to prosecute. The family could pursue this option if the county prosecutor again refuses to prosecute the case. I represented a family many years ago that sought to pursue this avenue in the murder of a family member.

[Repubwife]

All really good, valid points. I didn't get to see the show, but did read the transcript. Very sad story. I pray for Mike & Karen's families, especially the children. My comment, though, is directed at DSW385...most cops are NOT lazy OR stupid. Most cops are hard-working, decent individuals who do a wonderful job protecting us from the evil that is out there today for not nearly enough pay and a lot less gratitude than they deserve. I'm guessing that if someone in YOUR family was killed or needed help, you would not hesitate to call those officers. And know what? They would assist you just like they would anyone else who didn't have their head up their heinie!

[raydernation]

You know what, most of the comments have been right on point. But I have to play devils advocate. I wouldn't rule out the daughter. I really wouldn't, she made some statements in the beginning of the episode that led me tocast a wary eye at her as well.. Remember how she said she hated her father. How her father told her my house my rules. She didn't care for that and moved, she was very vindictive. I wouldn't rule her out, At all.

[DSW358]

Yes, this was bungled police work. Unfortunately, most police are lazy, stupid, lazy, stupid, mostly lazy...it isn't like CSI Miami or NCIS, there is the occasional diligence but these cops botched it from the start. Sickening. Dana fits a psychological profile for being the killer like OJ Simpson fit the profile for killing his wife. This was a crime of passion, that is the key piece of evidence, the violence with which they were killed. I am sad for this kids, they need to get away from their mother and not return to her. She is evil, it just happens sometimes. As for the family of Karen, they should bring a wrongful death civil suit against Dana, that should "show her for what she is." I hope Dana is arrested and brought to justice. I also hope that law enforcement realizes how important it is to our society and that the "botching" of such an obvious case does not go on elsewhere.