Grandparents Took Her In and Helped Raise Her. Then She and Her Boyfriend Did the Unthinkable Heidi Dutton was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her grandparents, who she confessed to killing at the age of 17. An Oklahoma teenager convicted of murdering her grandparents appeared in court for her sentencing. Heidi Dutton, 19, entered a guilty plea in May to two counts of first-degree-murder, conspiracy, and two counts of desecration of a human corpse in the deaths of Deborah and Larry Dutton, who were her biological grandparents and adoptive parents. On June 6, a Washington County Court judge sentenced Dutton to life in prison on the recommendation of the jury in the case. That comes on the heels of Dutton's boyfriend and accomplice in the murders, Lucas Walker, being sentenced to 35 years in prison after a federal trial. Walker's case was tried at the federal level because he is a member of the Cherokee nation. Deputies with the Washington County Sheriff's Office did not launch an investigation into the deaths of Deborah and Larry until a month after the murders, according to a copy of the criminal complaint. On Jan. 20, 2023, deputies responded to a welfare check at the couple's residence in Dewey, a city located approximately 130 miles southeast of Wichita. Dutton, then 17, and Walker were at the residence when deputies arrived that day, and later left the residence in handcuffs after detectives discovered blood that had seeped under the baseboards of Deborah and Larry's bedroom. Once in custody, both Walker and Dutton confessed to the murders, according to the complaint. Walker told police that he hid out in Dutton's bedroom on the night of Dec. 19, 2022 after taking a .22 caliber pistol from the garage, and then lay in wait outside the door to her grandparents' bedroom once the two were asleep. Deborah died first, according to the complaint, which says that when she "opened the door to the main bedroom, Walker shot her in the face and slit her throat." When her husband "got out of bed and rushed him, Walker attempted to shoot Larry Dutton but the pistol jammed," according to the complaint. Walker said that he decided to repeatedly stab Larry in the face with a knife. Walker and Dutton then dragged the couple out on bedsheets and buried them in the backyard — an act that was captured by the home's Ring Camera — according to a copy of a search warrant request. Two days after that welfare check the bodies of Deborah and Larry were exhumed from the backyard. Larry Dutton, 73, was a retired Master Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force and former manager of Lt. William M. Milliken Airport in Eureka, Kan, per an obituary for the couple. He "had a big heart and would give anyone the shirt off his back," one friend of his remembered in a funeral guestbook entry. His wife Deborah was a retired Staff Sergeant in the Air Force and had also worked as a chef. A lawyer for Dutton did not respond to a request for comment. #Murder, #Crime, #Prison,

On May 4, 1976. Young woman and her married lover arrested for killing her family. Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca are arrested for the brutal slaying of Columbo’s parents and brother in Elk Grove, Illinois. Twenty-year-old Columbo had left her family home two years earlier to live with DeLuca, a 36-year-old married man. The pair later killed Frank, Mary and Michael Columbo in order to receive the family inheritance, unaware that the Columbos had written Patricia out of their wills years earlier. As a 16-year-old, Columbo worked in a suburban coffee shop where she met pharmacist Frank DeLuca, who managed the pharmacy next door. He soon hired her to work in his store and the two began an unusual sexual relationship; Columbo showed classmates pictures of her having sex with DeLuca’s dog. In April 1974, DeLuca brought Columbo to stay in his own home, despite the fact that he still lived with his wife and five kids. Her parents were relieved when she later told them she was going to move into her own apartment, and even provided her with money. However, they soon learned that DeLuca had left his wife and moved in with their daughter, prompting Columbo’s father to beat DeLuca severely. On May 4, 1976, Patricia Columbo, then 19, and Frank DeLuca, 39, decided to carry out the plan themselves. They crept into the Columbo family home and shot Columbo’s parents. They then bludgeoned Mike with a bowling trophy and stabbed him nearly 100 times with scissors. Police questioned Patricia but had no reason to suspect her until the following week. Inspired by the promise of reward money, a friend led police to the men who had discussed killing the Columbo family with Patricia. After the couple was arrested, DeLuca’s employees revealed that they had seen him washing and burning bloodstained clothes on the day after the murders. Apparently, he had kept them silent by threatening their families. While in jail, DeLuca attempted to have these witnesses killed by a cellmate, but another inmate thwarted the plan by telling the police. The jury convicted Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca, and they were each sentenced to 200 to 300 years in prison. But Columbo managed to keep herself in the spotlight: In 1979, it was reported that she had assisted in organizing sex orgies involving guards and wardens at her prison in Dwight, Illinois. High-ranking officials at the prison, including the warden, were forced to resign in the wake of the scandal. #True Crime, #Murder, #Prison, #Sex,

1987 Torture chamber uncovered in Philadelphia. Responding to a 911 call, police raid the Philadelphia home of Gary Heidnik and find an appalling crime scene. In the basement of Heidnik’s dilapidated house is a veritable torture chamber where three naked women were found chained to a sewer pipe. A fourth woman, Josefina Rivera, had escaped and called police. Gary Heidnik was a former mental patient and sex offender who had managed to become a wealthy stock investor. He owned a Rolls Royce and beat Uncle Sam on his income taxes by making himself the bishop of his own church. The sign on the front of his house read, “United Church of the Ministries of God.” One room in his house was partially wallpapered with money. At the end of 1986, Heidnik decided to create his own harem and began kidnapping women off the streets of Philadelphia. Six women were kidnapped and held in Heidnik’s dungeon. All were raped and tortured while the others were forced to watch. He killed one of the women by putting her in a pit, filling it with water and putting a live electrical wire into the water. Another of the women was killed when Heidnik let her starve to death while chained to the wall. In perhaps the most grisly and horrid episode of the entire incident, Heidnik dismembered one of his victims, cooking parts of her body and feeding it to his other captives. The women who were found alive recovered after being treated for dehydration and malnutrition. Although Heidnik was clearly mentally disturbed, he was found guilty and convicted of murder on July 1, 1988. He received a death sentence, and was executed on July 6, 1999. Heidnik was one of the inspirations for the Buffalo Bill character in Thomas Harris’ Silence of the Lambs. #TrueCrime #Murder, #Torture, #Disturbed, #Convicted, #Guilty, #Executed, #Death,