Hawkins’ description, combined with store surveillance and credit-card tracking, led police straight to the stylish woman with the freshly dyed hair and the young son named Jason.
Arrest and a Lifetime Behind Bars
Investigators were stunned. “The thought of her being able to take someone’s life is just totally unbelievable,” said one of her former coworkers.
Confronted with overwhelming evidence, Dana initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Facing the death penalty, she accepted a plea deal in 1998: life without parole for the murders of June Roberts and Dora Beebe, plus the attempted murder of Dorinda Hawkins. Prosecutors agreed not to charge her with Norma Davis’s murder (the case many still believe was her first).
When asked why three women had to die so she could go shopping, Dana replied coolly: “I got desperate to buy things. Shopping puts me at rest.”
Receipts recovered by police told the story: cowboy boots, Opium perfume, vodka, a spa massage, a ski mask, sneakers for men and women—impulsive, extravagant purchases paid for with blood.