On Mother’s Day time, 1985, the bodies of Kathryn Eastburn and her two young daughters were found in their Fayetteville, North Carolina, home. Katie, an air flow pressure captain’s wife, have been raped and stabbed to death. Kara and Erin’s throats had been slit. Their toddler sister, Jana, was the only survivor of the bloody killing spree that terrified a community still reeling through the conviction, six years prior, of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald for the savage slayings of his pregnant wife and two daughters.

about Innocent Victims: The True Story from the Eastburn Family members Murders

The Cumberland State Sheriff’s Department quickly focused its investigation on US Army soldier Tim Hennis. Detectives and local prosecutors built their case on circumstantial evidence and a jury convicted Hennis and sentenced him to loss of life. But his protection team refused to stop. Piece by piece, they discredited the state’s case, exposing false testimony, concealed evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. At a second trial, Hennis was discovered not guilty and released from death row.

But a far more stunning turn of events was however to come. Twenty-five years after the murders, the NEW YORK Condition Bureau of Analysis tested an essential little bit of DNA evidence from the crime scene. The shocking outcomes led to an unparalleled third trial to determine Tim Hennis’s guilt or innocence.