Innocent Victims: The True Story of the Eastburn Family Murders

On Mother's Day 1985, Kathryn Eastburn and her two young daughters were found dead in their Fayetteville, North Carolina home. Kathryn, an air force captain's wife, had been raped and stabbed. Kara and Erin's throats had been slit. Their toddler sister Jana survived. The murders alarmed a community still affected by Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald's conviction six years earlier for killing his pregnant wife and two daughters. The Cumberland County Sheriff's Department investigated US Army soldier Tim Hennis. Based on circumstantial evidence, a jury convicted him and imposed a death sentence. His defense team challenged the conviction, discrediting the state's case by exposing false testimony, concealed evidence, and prosecutorial misconduct. At a second trial, Hennis was acquitted and released from death row. Twenty-five years after the murders, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation tested DNA evidence from the crime scene. The results led to an unprecedented third trial. Scott Whisnant documents the investigation from the discovery at 367 Summer Hill Road through the jurisdictional change that enabled the third prosecution, examining whether the mystery of the Eastburn murders has been definitively solved.