When a woman is shot to death, evidence and testimonies poke holes in the story of a harmonious three-way affair involving her, her husband, and a mutual friend. Blayne Alexander reports.Blayne Alexander and Josh Mankiewicz go behind the scenes of the making of this episode in ‘Talking Dateline’Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/4kUNejXListen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WNrW3LzRIne6SAQhGTk7J
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Tonight on Dateline. I hear on the news that Desiree Sunford had been found murdered. And I screamed.
We were searching through the house, and I could see Desiree on the floor. She was shot very violently. Scott was very talkative.
I actually stayed with a friend. What's the friend's name? Oh, her name's Paige.
You're wondering, who is Paige?
That's right. Is he having an affair?
Desiree and Paige and Scott all knew each other well. Yes. I was accepted as a part of their marriage. Paige called this tipping. She says, I know who the killer is.
That's right. A name that had never come up before. She's trying to set me up saying that killed someone.
It makes me sick. The psycho swiggled her way into their life and created chaos.
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Chapter 2: What happened on the night of Desiree Sunford's murder?
Talk about twists. I was completely blown away.
I risked my life to do the right thing, and I'm being crucified.
A husband, a wife, a mistress. Did a three-way affair lead to murder? I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline. Here's Blaine Alexander with Deadly Entanglement.
We've all had that fear, that middle of the night, home alone in a dark, empty house kind of fear.
I can't imagine what went through her mind.
We hear a noise, and the imagination runs wild. Of course, we usually just shrug it off, go back to sleep, and wake up the next morning perfectly fine. This is not that story. The woman in this story woke up alone to that very nightmare. It was around 3.30 a.m. Someone was in her house. They'll be there to help her. They'll be there to defend her. Someone who was there only to kill.
And it was pretty clear that this wasn't just a robbery on wrong.
That's correct.
A diabolical plot, born of sex and obsession, where the killer was as unexpected as the victim.
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Chapter 3: Who is Paige and what is her connection to Desiree and Scott?
So a late-night call to report a possible break-in wasn't rare. Like that call on April 7, 2013. Sheriff's Office.
It came out as like a welfare check. Sometimes they're absolutely nothing and sometimes they're bad.
Hi, ma'am. This is Scott Sunford.
31-year-old Scott Sunford was driving home to Yakima County when he saw a notification. An alarm had gone off at his house where his wife Desiree was home alone.
I had three census trips and I've been out of town with family for a funeral. My wife was home. Did somebody break into the residence? I don't know. I've been out of town. I'm just on my way back. And I haven't been able to get a hold of the wife.
Deputies were dispatched to the scene, but Scott got there first. He called 911 again.
I just got home and the board that I have over my back door has been broken. And I still haven't heard back from my wife. I need an officer here now. She stayed home at this address? Yes.
Ed Levesque and two other sheriff's deputies raced to get to Scott, but the house was way out of town.
You have to drive down a series of two-lane county roads. There's no street lights out here. The further out you go, the less homes you'll see.
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Chapter 4: Why is Scott Sunford a person of interest?
Did Desiree still feel comfortable inside her home?
Once the board got up back on the back door, it wasn't the end of the world. She was like, she knew she had her alarm system. She knew that she could take care of herself, handle herself.
Desiree owned firearms, too, and always kept a gun at her bedside. But neither the alarm nor her gun stopped her killer. And now the terrible news of Desiree's death was everywhere.
I was getting ready for work Monday morning, and I hear on the news that local art teacher Desiree Sunford had been found killed or murdered. And I stopped and And I screamed. I'm like, tell me it's a lie. Tell me it's a lie. Tell me it's a lie.
Now, down at the sheriff's office, investigators were digging into the case.
Do I have your permission to keep recording? Absolutely.
Starting with Scott Sunford.
Are you going to keep talking to me now about what happened out at your house? Of course.
Scott explained he had been out of town the day before, at his aunt's funeral, when the weather got bad. He called Desiree.
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Chapter 5: What role does Paige Blades play in the investigation?
A little bit here and there.
So she noticed a shift too?
She did. I think we all did, especially those of us that were close before and after.
People in Desiree's life noticed Scott seemed more detached, less loving. And there was another reason their marriage may not have been rock solid. Had you heard that Desiree was stepping out on Scott? I didn't. Years earlier, Kim found out Desiree had cheated on Scott before they were married. Did she ever tell Scott about this? She did. Did they have to try and patch things up?
What did that look like?
I think that there was a lot of trust lost in that, and I think that it was slowly them trying to rebuild.
Between Desiree's infidelity and the change she saw in Scott, Kim wondered if Scott had just snapped.
I thought Scott lost his mind. Scott found out about things that had happened in the past and he lost his mind.
Desiree's loved ones were grasping for answers, but what they didn't know was detectives thought they might already have one in Paige Blades, who was about to tell investigators her story.
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Chapter 6: How did the community react to Desiree's death?
I understand. Did she come across as believable to you?
For the most part, yes.
But there was still a bit of doubt there somewhere.
There was. We weren't sure if she was really telling us the truth.
Do you kind of put a bookmark next to her name thinking she's somebody we're going to have to dig further into?
Yeah, we need to find out how deep a relationship they have. Do they see each other more than what she was telling us or what Scott was telling us?
Is there anything that you would like to add to this statement? I hope to catch him.
Later, when detectives spoke to those close to Desiree, Paige's and Scott's stories of a lovely, amicable three-way didn't seem plausible. Kim said she'd never heard of Paige. Desiree never mentioned her as a friend. Nope. When you first hear about her and kind of her connection in their world, what did you think?
It just seemed an odd situation. Like, as far as them having a relationship, the three of them, I didn't ever see it from her. I just didn't see that she would ever venture into that. Kayla hadn't heard of Paige either.
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Chapter 7: What evidence was gathered against Scott and Paige?
If I lost my spouse, if I lost someone that I loved and someone that I cared about, sure as hell wouldn't be smiling at their funeral.
Scott was smiling?
Multiple occasions. We watched him on his phone walk outside because the back part of the church that we were in, this open venue, there was a wall of windows. And he's on his phone smoking a cigarette outside with a smile on his face.
Detective Johnson was hearing similar stories that Scott just didn't seem like the grieving spouse.
Just a couple days after the funeral, he was talking to a young lady at a motorcycle dealership. He asked for a hug, which is kind of normal and, you know, need a little emotional support. Then he asked her out to dinner.
Like on a date?
Yeah. It just didn't seem to add up that he was really devastated by the death of Desiree.
Now, devil's advocate, you never know how somebody's going to react in a traumatic situation. This is a military man. Perhaps he just was stoic by nature. This was perhaps his defense mechanism when hearing this hard news.
That's correct. Each individual handles different stress in their lives, handle it different. We did not know what would be normal for his reaction.
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Chapter 8: What new developments emerged in the investigation?
But as the investigation of Scott seemed to cool, interest in Paige was about to get white hot with revelations of some hostile texts. There was one where Paige texted Desiree and said, I'm fairly convinced that in the event of your demise, I would be the chosen one. Oh my gosh. A wannabe boyfriend with a bizarre motive. He worships the girl they walk on. He's obsessed with me.
and even an attempted sting. We talked about it if I came over next weekend. Just how did Paige fit into this twisted case? We would try to find out for ourselves. There are people who would look at this and say that you came into their marriage and basically just tore it apart.
No, I definitely wasn't there to destroy their marriage.
What had seemed to be mounting evidence against Scott Sunford was amounting to very little, and the investigation into Desiree's murder seemed like it had gone quiet. How hard was that time for you?
It was awful. It was awful. There was all the other headlines, all the other things going on, and she was forgotten.
But her students didn't forget, and they still wanted answers. When they became eighth graders, they were like, whatever happened to that teacher? Like, did they ever figure out who did it? And I would just say, I don't know. And I would move on. It's not really a conversation you want to have with a 13 or 14-year-old. Sure.
Michelle thought an art project dedicated to Desiree might help.
We spent a Saturday creating this piece of artwork that is up in our library. We innovated her classroom and used all of her pastels and just built this thing. And then I took it to my classroom and any of the kids who wanted to come in and be part of that and put their artwork on there for her and create a tile of their own for her is what we called it. And they did. That's beautiful.
Meanwhile, investigators were taking a harder look at Paige Blades, the third wheel in the Sunforts' marriage. Turns out, there was another man in Paige's orbit. She'd brought him up in her interview with the detectives.
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