Melody Kairns was usually the first person out of bed in the mornings. However, on this cool, spring morning in Oklahoma, she was still in bed at nine. All others in the Kairns household slept late that day, so they would say, and did not notice Melody’s absence from the kitchen until Nancy, the last person to arise, voiced her concern.

It fell to Vernon, Melody’s husband of twenty-four years, to return to the bedroom and check on his wife. He found Melody, a handsome woman of forty-four years, dead and mostly unmarked. The only noticeable evidence of foul play was a small, round head wound near her temple, crusted over with a small amount of dried blood.