Love Triangle: Diana Haun

In this episode of Unspeakable: A True Crime Podcast by Kelly Jennings, KJ unpacks the  disappearance of Sherry Dally, examining her troubled marriage and the ensuing investigation, which raises suspicions about her husband, Mike, and reveals unsettling evidence.

Chapters
05:10 The Lead-up
30:25 The Search for Sherry Begins 
31:02 Media Attention and Family Struggles
34:42 Investigation Takes a Turn
45:48 The Discovery of Remains
48:05 Autopsy Results 
57:58 Arrest and Evidence Collection

Unspeakable Listener Deals! Eric Javits
Chic, Provactive, and Iconic-Eric Javits hats are the essence of designer elegance. Made famous by sex and the city and worn by Melania, these travel friendly sun hats and accressories are known worldwide. 
20% off for my listeners by using the code UNSPEAKABLE via the link below
 Eric Javits Designer Hats and Accessories

Follow “Crime Wire Weekly” on it’s new channel HERE:
Apple Podcasts  
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crime-wire-weekly/id1815864889
Spotify 
https://open.spotify.com/show/3zyrgjtW6gLUVbicJaYXV9?si=0dbf4983938344a2
Amazon Music 
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/3738411d-828e-4138-9976-223ab5de2c87/the-crime-wire-weekly

Sources

1. https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/columnists/2018/09/08/colleen-cason-sensational-ventura-murder-case-back-news/1213689002/
2. Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 4
3. https://www.the-sun.com/news/8556909/michael-dally-diana-haun-now-dateline/
4. https://ciris.mt.cdcr.ca.gov/details?cdcrNumber=W71808
5. https://dotcomstories.com/sherri-and-michael-dallys-kids

     6. https://www.cetient.com/case/people-v-haun-ca26-9357028

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Unspeakable, a true crime podcast where I tell
stories of real crimes with real victims, whose cases are
so shocking that many are left wondering how is this
even real? I use my experiences in law enforcement corrections,
and combined with my years as a criminal justice educator,

(00:28):
dig deep into complex cases of evil acts, some so
evil many feel they are unspeakable. Warning. Unspeakable as intended

(00:52):
for mature audiences. If you are easily offended, then I'm
not your girl. Listening discretion is advised. Hey, y'all, it's
kJ You're back for another episode of Unspeakable. What is
up with you? I am recording this. You're not listening
to it at this moment. But I'm recording this right
before we kick off our football season. So if you
can see me on Patreon, I'm wearing my LSU purple

(01:13):
and gold. Go Tigers. By the time you hear this,
you'll already do the outcome of the game. So how
cool is that? But for now, let me give you
a bang up episode that you can really enjoy. And
so for this one, I want you to go with
me to Ventura, California. And this is a place right
near the Ocean, super beautiful place, a very middle class area,
as with anywhere, there's highs and lows and incomes, but

(01:36):
a real generally good area for someone to set up
their life and start out. And this was the home
of Mike and Sherry Dally. Now by the time I'm
telling you this story, they were both in their thirties
and well established as a couple. And it's going to
be nineteen ninety six that we are jumping into this story.
Now they were high school sweethearts turned spouses for the

(01:58):
last twelve years, and they were, by all accounts, a
match made in heaven. Mike had been the big man
on campus and a popular boy that other younger guys
looked up to and honestly probably wanted to be. He
drove a black money Carlo that he liked to tool
around the school with and really show off. And the
girls they really took to this. Now, Sherry, she was

(02:21):
no different than these other girls when Hawaiian Mike as
he was known, asked her out, and she was completely
over the moon he picked me. Can you remember being
in high school? It's like that Taylor Swift, you know,
when you're fifteen you just want to date the football
player and all that kind of stuff. The quarterback, Well,
that's kind of how she felt and she could not

(02:42):
wait for this first date. Cherry was just so, you know,
the younger of two kids, and her mom was really
tickled by her because as she got older, Sherry really
became spunky. She was a very feisty type of girl,
and it was a girl that guys, they may not
have paid a lot of attention to her overall, but

(03:03):
that personality shown through for her. So Michael, whenever the
two of them met, they really seemed to mirror that
energy on each other, which was really fun. And her
mom was even impressed with Mike when she met him.
She agreed, Yes, he's handsome and really really boosted the
self esteem of Sherry that she was getting to go

(03:24):
out with him. She was impressed with him. She saw
the excitement that was on her daughter's face and how
happy he made her. This was every girl's dream date
and she was getting to go with the handsome boy
on campus. And Sherry was really getting to just live
in this moment and it just meant a lot to
her mama to see her girl thrive and after that
first date, from that point forward, they were a couple,

(03:47):
and by the age of eighteen, things were going strong
for these two. They never looked back. He wanted to
take her to dinner on the night of her birthday
one time, I believe it was her eighteenth birthday, and
before he arrived to pick her up, he had seventeen
roses delivered to the house. And it really impressed her
mama that he had to wherewithal to do that, and

(04:09):
it was expensive, but she was eighteen, not seventeen, and
it was like oops, you know, But this wasn't a mistake.
He knew exactly what he was doing because whenever he
pulled up to get her, he had actually pulled one
of those roses out and he gave it to her
when he took her to dinner. So he had game.
If you're slipping what I'm dripping here, the boy had game.

(04:32):
Romance was his play, and Sherry was just completely smitten
with it. So right after high school they moved in together,
and by nineteen eighty two they were officially man and wife,
and so they settled into that middle class beginner home
that I mentioned, and they really just began their lives
together and they were just down the street from Michael's parents,

(04:52):
which is also a good thing. And within a year
of getting married, she was pregnant, and soon after they
would become the proud parents of two boys that would
be pretty close in age. Sherry had loved babies and
animals and kids her entire life, and everyone who knew
her knew that her dream was really to be a mama.

(05:13):
You asked some people, what do you want to do
with your dream? You know, Oh, I want to travel,
I want to go to Paris, I want to do this,
I want to do that. She wanted to be a mama,
she wanted to have her babies. And watching these dreams
come true, all I can say again is it was
a Taylor Swift moment and the song it was right
in itself. It was going great. So Sherry was a homemaker,
as was her dream, but that didn't mean that she

(05:34):
wasn't pulling her weight. She was raising their babies, and
while Mike held down a job at a pretty big
grocery store, she would eventually open up an in home daycare. Now,
from what I understand, this wasn't and on the books
or probably really a legitimate business, but she cared for
people's children, just as she would care for her own

(05:55):
with love and with protection, so as words spread with
the help of mine, even telling customers at the grocery store.
She soon had kids to care for and was bringing
in money and contributing to the family in that way
as well. And by nineteen ninety six, Mike was now
a manager at the grocery store. The name of the
store was Vonn's and I believe that he was a

(06:15):
deli manager is what he was. Over and both Mike
and Sherry each had their daily routines. Very settled into
their life, and Sherry had made friends with a neighbor.
This woman's name was Debbie English. They had become good
friends because their kids were starting to play together. They
were about the same age, and then Debbie also started

(06:36):
watching kids at her house, so they had a lot
in common. That said, she and Sherry pretty much knew
each other's schedules. They spoke often, often helping each other
and sometimes just being a voice, a friend, you know,
a voice, a shoulder to lean on, and someone that
she could rely on. So on May sixth, nineteen ninety six,
Debbie was shocked to receive a phone call that Cherry

(06:58):
never showed up to pick up her two young sons
from school. Sherry was an absolutely devoted mother to her children,
and this was something that she would never do without question.
She would never just not show up for her kids,
at least not on purpose. Maybe she got a flat,
maybe she got sick, hell, maybe she lost track of

(07:20):
time or something like that, but she was certainly not
actually gone. She would never just up and leave. And
Debbie knew something. She knew that it was a Monday,
and on Monday, Scherry was supposed to swing by a
target to run errands. The errand, by the way, it
included purchasing a Mother's Day gift for Sherry's own mama
because it was coming up, but no one could get

(07:42):
a hold of her. Mike wasn't gonna waste time either,
so he called the local police to report her missing.
Police kind of dismissed the idea though, that she was
actually missing, and they told Mike, look, hang up, go
ahead and make sure you check with all of her friends. Well,
the police kind of dismiss this idea that she was
actually missing, and they told Mike, look, why don't you

(08:03):
go home and call all of her friends. Make sure
you call all of her family members that y'all are
close with and that you talk to and make sure
that this isn't just some type of miscommunication. Maybe she
ran an extra errand that you don't know about, or
something like that. So Mike did as he was told.
He called friends, and he also called her parents. Now,
her parents happened to not be home, and this wasn't

(08:23):
the day of cell phones and instant connectivity or anything
of that nature, so they were not very quick to
speak back with him. All he could do was leave
a voicemail at the house and wait for his mother
in law to call him back, because he wasn't going
to get in his car and drive over there. He
was going to just call back to the police. So

(08:44):
Mom of Sherry didn't actually even get the message untilmost
eight o'clock that night when she returned, so she was
actually really slow to realize that there was even an issue.
So Mike also he did his due diligence. He called
the local hospitals, He called neighboring police departments. I think
he even may have called the jails nearby to say
do you have her? If not, have you gotten in

(09:07):
any Jane does or someone that you can't identify, but
nobody had any Jane does or his wife by name.
That said police turned right back around, called the police
and was like, okay, look, I've done what you asked
me to do. Nobody has seen her or heard from her,
the hospitals haven't. Nobody has and this is just not
like her. I really think you should listen to me.

(09:28):
And so this time police did take the report and
they even added her to the list of briefings for
shift change so that people could be on the lookout
or officers rather could be on the lookout for her.
And the obvious place for anyone to start looking for
her was it Target, because that was the last known
place that people thought she would be headed. So police

(09:49):
went to the store and they reviewed cameras, which did
in fact find her checking out. She was buying that
very Mother's Day gift that she had said she was
going to get. That was at nine to twenty two
am that morning. So after this there was no record
of her whereabouts. So that said investigators went on location

(10:11):
while they were at Target and looked around, and they
actually were able to locate her vehicle still at the store,
but in the extensive search of the store proved she
was not still there all these hours later. She drove
a large fifteen passenger van that she used to tote
around all the kids that she watched after school, and
so this made it very easy to find too. The

(10:34):
van was a tan or like a cream color, and
it had this large blue gray stripe running down the
side of it. A very obvious vehicle to pick out.
So whatever had happened to her must have happened after
nine twenty two am and before she put the vehicle
into drive to leave, and this was believed because a

(10:55):
search of the vehicle showed that all of the doors
were unlocked. The gift that she had bought in side
the target was left right inside of the van, and
the key was actually in the ignition. So, as is common,
the spouse is going to be looked at closely for
any possible motive to disappear their wife. But Mike was upset,

(11:16):
and the officer who interviewed him at his house actually
knew the couple because he went to high school with them,
and this gave some good rapport between the two. Mike
didn't really have anything to say though that was out
of line or a red flag, and he even allowed
that detective to look around him his home and check

(11:37):
and see for anything. The detective said, look, the house
is in good condition. There's no evidence of a fight
or anything of that nature. It was clean and orderly.
When asked if they had any marital problems, Mike said,
nothing beyond the normal husband and wife relationship. Sure, we bicker,
sometimes we argue, but we make up and we move on. Certainly,

(11:58):
nothing had happened to warrant her, just up and leaving.
And in terms of an alibi, Mike's was solid. He
had been at work that day all day and this
was verified by not only the boss, but the coworkers
and everybody in their Mama Mike was at work. So
during the morning discussion of cases and things of that nature,

(12:21):
the lead detective who initially spoke to Mike was approached
by another female detective who said she may have some information.
It turned out that female detective's sister was at the
very same target at the same time as Sherry, and
the sister said that she saw Sherry outside leaving the target,

(12:44):
but the thing was it wasn't actually her driving off
and leaving. She said that when she was in the
parking lot, she saw Sherry getting arrested like handcuffs arrested. Now,
this was almost laughable, off the top, completely and totally laughable.
Cherry was never in trouble, She was not even someone

(13:07):
known to the police. She didn't have a record, nothing
that would indicate that Cherry was the woman that was
actually getting arrested. But maybe it was mistaken identity, you know. Again,
they had found her van and she was gone so
for a moment in time that that could actually explain things,

(13:28):
because this was so odd. Maybe a police officer mistakenly
identified Cherry as someone else and had arrested them under
that name, but detectives didn't find that to be the case.
They also searched for any known warrants for Sherry and
that maybe the arrest was warranted for this, but they

(13:48):
found none, nor was she on any other police agency's
custody list anywhere. But the thing was this, as detectives
asked around other people, they also said that they saw
a woman matching Sherry's description being arrested as well. So

(14:10):
now multiple people confirmed what definitely was pretty much unbelievable,
and so it kind of seemed like there may be
some legitimacy to this Basically, all of the witnesses agreed
that the officer that was doing the arresting was a female.
She was in a tan suit, she had blonde hair,
and was in what appeared to be an unmarked unit,

(14:33):
and the vehicle was believed to be unmarked because it
was not a traditional police unit. It was described as
a Teal Nissan Altima. The officer, based on all of
these witnesses, had pulled up and that officer briefly spoke
with Sherry before she turned around, placed her hands behind

(14:55):
her back and was cuffed. The officer even walked she
to the back of the vehicle, opened the door. She
even covered her head so that Sherry wouldn't bump it
whenever she was getting into the back seat. The color, however,
of the unmarked unit just really bothered the detectives and
Teal just seems like a really odd color for an

(15:18):
unmarked unit. But continuing on with the investigation, more questions
were going to be asked of Michael. When the original
missing person's report was made that phone call that he
originally made, Michael was asked all the traditional questions, what
does she look like when it was the last time
you saw her? Etc. But Michael was also asked did

(15:40):
Sherry have any medical issues? He said none. Does she
have any no mental issues? He said none. He matter
of fact added, she doesn't have anything wrong with her.
There was nothing wrong, and he said all that would
stand out was her beautiful blue eyes, that there's nothing
going on here. Asked do you have any marital issues?

(16:03):
He said no. So what he had initially told investigators
and what he initially said on the call in it
seemed like it was lining up. But when the investigators,
now actively involved in this case, started asking more in
depth questions in person, Michael realized that this was a
little bit more serious, and so he decided to spill

(16:25):
his guts and he admitted, well, okay, look, I do
have a girlfriend. In all honesty, it was not expected
that he would have a girlfriend, but Mike really wanted
to clear the air, and I guess he wanted to
do this pretty quickly because, you know, this was seeming

(16:46):
to become a very big issue and lying to the
police was not going to turn out well for him.
And he knew that because the thing was he kind
of had been having this affair in a very less
than discreet way. Everyone at the supermarket knew that Mike
was messing around with another worker. And this woman's name

(17:08):
was Diana Hahn. So she was a cute woman too,
very small, soft spoken, kind of meek. She was a
former model, which was kind of interesting, and she did
aspire at one point to be an actress, but her
best role she ever got was being an extra in

(17:29):
a movie once, and you couldn't even see her face.
So I guess everyone dreams of being an actress, and
she was no different in that it just didn't pan
out for her. She had lived with her mom and
now I guess her main role was being the catch
of the supermarket deli. So it wasn't like this woman
was of a high power person or someone that people

(17:52):
recognized out there. But everyone who worked at the supermarket
knew that the two were messing around. That affair had
started with small talk, but the couple quickly realized I
hate to even say the couple, but the two of
them quickly realized that they had a whole lot in common.
And there was probably only one real red flag for

(18:17):
me personally, and that was that she did tell him
that she dabbled in witchcraft. But when they checked up
on her. She had no criminal record, she had nothing
of that nature. It wasn't like she was some you know,
thug out on the streets, slang in deli meat or
something that affairs. Small talk also revealed that they both

(18:38):
had mothers from Japan, and they both had fathers that
were in the military. So once that affair began and
they found all these commonalities and these interests in one another,
it really went full throttle, and everybody and their mama
knew it. But I do have to say this, being
a cheating spouse does not equal will murder. We all

(19:01):
know this. We are true crime fans, people interested in
true crime. We've heard that a million times. So detectives
we're going to still have to dig into this because
we know that the spouses are always going to be
looked at first, so detectives in their research would find
out it's kind of interesting. But Sherry knew about Diana.

(19:23):
This wasn't a complete secret. She had even been consoled
by her close friends because she had opened up to
them saying how hurt she was that this was happening
in her to her, and she even told one of
her neighbors. She said, you know, one day I just
may up and leave and not come back. I'll just
do it for a little while because I want Mike

(19:43):
to know what it feels like to be abandoned. I'm
his wife, I'm the mother of his children, and he's
just treating me like I don't matter. But I don't
want you to think for a second while i'm telling
you this story that Sherry was just a doormat. No, ma'am,
do not get this twisted. Sherry was a feisty thing.

(20:04):
She was a go getter, and she was someone that
could have taken Diana on if she really wanted to smoke. Okay,
if the opportunity were to arise. Sherry wasn't going to
cower to this, and so friends, in talking to her
were even saying things to her, and it kind of
made me laugh a little bit because my friends tell

(20:25):
me this. But her friends were like, girl, we don't
want you to go to jail either behind this, you know,
just because this woman's interfere and we don't want to
see you get messed up over this. But their fears
were warranted because Cherry had gotten winned that not only
did Diana want her husband, but she also wanted to

(20:48):
just be a mama with him, and like kind of
wanted to be around her children, and that my friends,
wasn't gonna happen, no frickin' way. So Sherry took the
opportunity to address Diana directly, and she basically said, you
will not be destroying my family without a fight. The

(21:12):
line in the sand was clearly drawn. So this was
a little bit different than I think most of the
affair stories that have been spoken about in terms of
true crime. Sherry knew, and Sherry wasn't playing around. That
was her husband and she would defend her family with
everything she had. What was Sherry's position on this, Okay, Basically,

(21:35):
she felt like Diana had come on to Mike and
because they you know, every couple argues from time to time,
because they had had some weaknesses and arguments that this
Diana woman was basically a whore and that she had
honed in on Mike and inserted herself into their marriage.
But it wasn't quite Mike's fault in her. She loved

(21:58):
her husband. It just that it just happened to be
a circumstance and he had weakness. So her opinion was
that basically, if this Diana woman would go away, then
they could mend their marriage and these family troubles could
be could be fixed. But the thing was, Diana had
her nails deep into Mike and this had become pretty
much an uphill battle for Sherry. So detectives flat out

(22:23):
were less than impressed by the infidelity of Mike. But
they still had to be keeping their eyes on the
prize and be searching for Sherry, and this would include
wanting to speak with that other woman, Diana Hahn. But
when detectives asked Mike what was her last name, because
he just said he was having an affair with a

(22:44):
woman named Diana, he said, you know, I actually don't
really know. I don't know what her last name is.
It kind of made me go, wow, you must really
care about this woman you only know her first name.
But I digress. So they said, okay, well, where does
she live? You're having this affair openly, where does she live?
We really want to go talk to her, and he said,

(23:05):
I actually don't know that either, but he was more
than willing to give them her cell phone number, which
he did. Now, detectives may have not had Diana's last name,
but y'all they didn't get their shields from watching paint dry. Obviously,
they knew how to do their job, and so they

(23:25):
could find people. And Diana's not only her last name,
but her address was quickly located. So they took a
drive to her house to go have a word with her.
And amazingly, y'all, listen, I'm a woman of faith. Miracles happen.
Don't ever think they don't. And amazingly a miracle happened

(23:50):
when they drove up to Diana Hawn's house. No, they
didn't find Sherry, but Mike. He must have been doing
his detective work as well, because when the officers pulled up,
he was there. Wow, what a change. Mike found out

(24:13):
where his lover lived. How awesome was this? What are
the chances of the cops and Mike finding where she
lives at the same time. What a kuwinky dink? What
a miracle? Said? No one ever? Right, if you're following
with me. His van was in the driveway, and so

(24:33):
the officers kind of look at each other like wow, Okay,
they get out and they go knock on the door,
but no one would answer it, so they left. I'm
just kidding, y'all. Okay, these are real cops. They didn't leave.
They actually then used the other numbers that they had found,
which was including a home number, and they started blowing
that phone up until finally someone answered, and it was Diana,

(24:57):
and the police basically said, hey, it would be in
your best interest to come answer this front door. So
just moments later, the door was unlocked and the door
opened and there stood Diana in Well, let me ask
you this before I tell you. If the police called
you and said, ma'am, we need to speak with you,
and you went to the door early in the morning,

(25:19):
what would you be wearing? Because I asked myselfself, what
would you do? And I would have quickly thrown on
a brawl and some clothes and ran to the door.
I probably wouldn't even brush my teeth because I'd have
been scared of why they were there. But that's what
I would have done. But not Diana. When she opened
the door, she was wearing a very short, very skimpy

(25:44):
piece of black lingerie. Hey, I guess if you got it,
flawn it. But detectives were almost shooketh by this behavior.
It seemed very out of place, and it especially was
odd when Mike came walking out of the bedroom in
nothing but his boxers. So this man went from not

(26:07):
knowing her last name or where she lived to being
in nothing but as skivvies in the house the next day. Hmm.
So it was obviously time to have a chat, and
everybody took a ride down to the police station. Now,
Diana was given a notepad and she was asked to
list everything that she did on the specific day that

(26:30):
Sherry had gone missing, and she complied. She listed everything
out that she did that day, everything down to the
moment that she busted her ass during a bike ride.
So while all of this is happening, the questions are
being asked, detectives are kind of trying to figure out
what's really going on here and if she knows anything
about this. The media was now actively pushing this story

(26:54):
out that a missing mother of two is is we
can't find her and oh my god, these children were
picked up from school and so it's all over the
television and it really had people stirring what was going
on here was just not normal. And this included a
co worker of Mike and Diana, and that coworker decided

(27:16):
to make a phone call and speak to police and
she says, look, I don't know if this is anything,
but this woman that is missing. The day after that
woman is now being reported missing, I was at work
and my coworker Diana, showed up and her face was
actually really red and she looked like she may have

(27:39):
been in a fight, like she had been scratched in
a fight or something. But the interrogators are with her,
you know, and they're looking at her in this interrogation room,
and she doesn't look like what this woman is describing.
But the interrogator, the detective, was looking at her, and
he did notice that she did have bangs, okay, some

(28:00):
pretty heavy bangs, and that they were swooping to one side.
Now that's a pretty common thing these days, right Your
banks kind of swooped off to the side. So the
detective says, look, go ahead and pull your banks back
for me. Do you mind just pulling them completely back
and let me see your forehead? And she was like, okay,
and she pulled back her banks, and sure as shit,
there was a little gash. It wasn't huge, but there

(28:22):
was a little gash on her forehead. So when she
was asked, you know, what is what's that about what's
that little scratch on your forehead about? She said it
was from that bike crash. I just told you I
busted my ass on that bike. These men were driving
down the road. They swerved. I don't know if they
thought it was funny or what, but they ran me
off the road and I crashed the bike. I already

(28:44):
told you this. But if that was the case, why
weren't there other injuries? And that was something that stuck
out to them. If you crashed your bike hard enough
that you spill off on the side of the road,
I mean, think about it, your wrists, your elbows, you
would assume there would be scrapes. Even maybe on the
side of the leg where you wiped out, like that

(29:04):
side that slid on the gravel or the dirt or whatever,
you would have a scratch. But she had nothing. When
they looked her over. She only had that gash on
her forehead. So on it seemed kind of odd that
you would get in a wreck like that and swan
dive straight to your forehead and hit the ground and
nothing else. But she had said she was in a

(29:25):
bike crash. So they did take pictures of this to
document it, and then they released her for the evening.
Mike happily picked up his lover with no problems and
drove her home. The reality was this. We can sit
here and say, oh, man, where there's smoke, there's fire,
but there wasn't anything to hold her on. The woman

(29:47):
that the cops, or the woman that was a cop
that people had seen arresting Sherry, was also a white
woman with blonde hair, and if you looked at Diana Hahn,
it's very clear that she was a brunette and that
she was part Asian. Also, she drove a different car
than that teal Ultima that everybody saw the arresting cop

(30:08):
arrest Sheririan. So while Mike is shitty husband of the
Year of the Universe, he would still be out there
looking for his missing wife. Okay. He brought the kids
to pass out flyers to look for their mama. They
even went to the target where she was last seen

(30:29):
handing out flyers. Jim, did you see what happened in
Texas today?

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you
what happened in New York.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
It cannot be as crazy as the case I told
you about yesterday in Louisiana.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
You know, what we should do a podcast.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
About it, and with that we did. Crime Wire Weekly
covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
We cover trending crimes from all over the country and
even sprinkle in a few globally.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Simply by searching crime wi Weekly or clicking the link
in the description of this podcast.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
He was also willing to speak with the media, as
were the kids. They were trying to be active in
looking for their mama and he was helping. Now I'm
not saying he was a great husband, but he was
helping to look for her. Her parents, though her parents
were no fools during all of this, and her mama,
her mama's name was Carleen. Miss Carlen was obviously very

(31:39):
hopeful that her daughter was going to be found alive,
but her mind knew something that her heart simply just
would not allow. Mother's Day passed and Sherry never called her.
The following Monday after Mother's Day was Miss Carlene's birthday,
and Sherry didn't call that day either. Her daughter, if anything,

(32:04):
would not miss talking to her own mama on these
two very specific days, and more than that, she would
never have left her boys. So Miss Carlene in her
heart knew Sherry wasn't likely coming back home, but she
wasn't gonna let that take her over. She was going

(32:25):
to continue to search for her daughter. So detectives by
now knew that the woman or they believed at this
point that the woman who handcuffed Sherry was probably not
a real cop. There was a couple of reasons. I mean, hell,
the car was Teal. Okay, let's start there. Cops back
then and even today, that for sure in that area,

(32:48):
they drove Crown Vicks. So that Teal car just stood
out to them and they couldn't shake it. And so
this made them wonder, what if that vehicle was actually
possibly a rental And so they went to go check
a bunch of the rental companies in the area to
see did they Basically they asked these questions, do you
have a Teal car? And if so, was it rented

(33:10):
for a week or so and specifically during the week
of May sixth, If that's the case, who rented it? Okay,
the obvious questions here. Now in the meantime, this struck
me as a just testament to a mother's love. Miss
Carlen only had a home phone line back in these
at this time in the nineties, and she was so

(33:32):
worried that her precious daughter may try to call her
that she could not stand the fact that what if
I'm on the phone and she's trying to get through
and I can't get through to her because there wasn't
called waiting or any of that either. She was so
dedicated to making sure there was always a chance for
her daughter to speak to her that the very next
day she had another phone line put into her home.

(33:55):
She wanted the number that her daughter knew by heart
to be an excit accessible line in the event that
she was able to get break free or whatever the
situation was, contact her. And those are little details that
I just can't overlook because as a mama, I know
what she's saying. There. There's no place I'll never be

(34:19):
so far that you can't contact me, and I'll never
cut off any way for you to be able to
find me. And so she told people, do not call
this number. This is only for Sherry. I have an
additional line, you call this one. She changed her whole
life around as far as communication went, so Sherry could
get to her, that's a mama. I don't care how
old you are, you never stop being a mama. So

(34:43):
one rental company back to this that was near the
airport did have a teal vehicle and they told the
detectives not only did we have one, but we did
rent one and we rented it that very week you're
asking about. So I know, it's kind of what we're
all wondering here. Did a Michael Dally rent that vehicle?

(35:04):
And when they looked at their records, they said, no,
it's not a Michael Dally that rented it. And matter
of fact, the person who rented it damaged it. The
rear view mirror was missing. We had to send it
off and have it replaced. And they had like stained
it up and just kind of mistreated this vehicle and
didn't treat it very well. Okay, well, not one to

(35:26):
ignore anything. The detective said, well, facts over the agreement anyway,
I'd like to look it over, and they said, no problem.
When that agreement was faxed over. It's almost comical. But
the car had been rented by none other than a
woman named Diana Hawn and she had rented it on

(35:48):
May fifth, just one day before Sherry went missing. And
I don't know that any of us are probably shocked
by this now that I'm telling you, but Diana haun
share as hell when she was brought back to the
station to discuss this. Diana, by the way, and I
don't mean to get caught up on the things that
she wears. I know some people are like, why do

(36:08):
you always focus on what they're wearing? Well, I want too,
damn it. And what she was wearing was interesting to
me because she showed up in a slinky, slinky, very
low cut, tight dress to speak with detectives. And I'm

(36:29):
no psychologist, and I don't ever claim to be, but
I will tell you this. When people are nervous or
worried or upset about something that maybe they're being questioned on,
just biologically, like physically, people will try to make themselves small,
like they might crunch up in a chair or cross
their chest, sit on their feet, things like that. But
one thing that we usually do when we want to

(36:50):
be comforted is maybe put on a sweatshirt or something.
And it feels protective of us, you know what I'm
talking about, Like if you're out of place, ladies, when
you're out of place, and you're going somewhere not normal.
It feels weird to not bring your person. Your purse
almost gives you safety and comfort, you know that, to
carry it with you. This woman shows up in a
sex pot outfit and the detective even commented on her look, saying, wow,

(37:15):
you have a unique look, and she was very flattered
by this. This was before they even started the questioning.
But after those little exchanges, he then took that signed
rental agreement and he turned it around and he wanted
answers for it. So you can come in here looking hot,
but you're going to be hot, and you got some

(37:35):
explaining to do. Lucy, what's going on with this? So
she leaned over and she looked at it, and she
read it. She paid attention to it, and then she
points to the signature on the rental agreement and she says,
you might want to look at this because that's my name,
but that is absolutely not my signature. Look at it,

(37:58):
and so he did. He even looked at it in
comparison to her license signature, and they weren't the same.
Truth be told. Detectives took a picture of Diana Hahn
brought it up to the rental company and said, is
this the woman that filled out that agreement? And they
couldn't id her as the person who had rented the
car either, So it was kind of like a HM moment.

(38:22):
But police had something else up their sleeves that I
don't know. She was expecting. Those stains that the car
when it was returned to the rental office. They said
that there were some stains in the carpeting. Well those
happened to be big ones, and it was on the
back seat on one side of the floorboard. And police

(38:43):
had gone and taken that vehicle and processed it for
any possible evidence, including that big stain that was on
the floor, and the preemptive test for that stain did
come back positive for blood. Now I'm not a detector
of y'all, but I mean, Ray Charles could see that
this is obviously like they're going down to probably a

(39:04):
pretty solid path. The large stain I want to talk
about it. It was on the passenger side, back seat floorboard,
and it seemed to it was so much blood that
it seemed to be that someone was seated in the
seat but had slumped forward or was leaning forward and

(39:25):
they had been gravely injured or injured at least significantly,
and so it looked like blood maybe had poured out
of a nose or a mouth or something like that
because of the way that it was positioned on the floor.
So also in that testing, they sprayed luminol all over
the car and it lit up like a Christmas tree.
I mean, this car had been through some shit. When

(39:48):
it was gone for just that short amount of time,
blood was everywhere, literally from the headliner of the vehicle
all the way down to the handles and the floorboard
was blood everywhere. So it was clear that some type
of epic fight for life had taken place in that car.
But was it animal blood? Was it a person's blood?

(40:09):
All of this has to be hammered out. So detectives
went to Sherry's parents and got samples of their blood
to compare to this sample that was from the vehicle.
And they wanted, you know, you get half of your
DNA from your mother and half from your father, So
if you get both and you can at least identify
if the blood donor of the vehicle sample was from
these known people, and it was a match. It was

(40:34):
absolutely a match. It was now for certain that Sherry
had not only been in the back of that teal vehicle,
but she had been gravely injured and by the amount
of blood, it's very likely she was dead. There was
also blonde hair found in the back seat of that
same rental car, five blonde hairs to be specific. Sherry's

(40:54):
hair was blonde. What more does someone need to believe
that she had to be in some type of more
danger and possibly still was. But that was until a
woman who saw Diane on the news or Diana on
the news called the police and said, hey, I think
I recognize her, because this was now big news. Days

(41:15):
were going by and this was not big news. And
when she called, she said, look, I think that that
woman has come into my place of business. I'd like
to talk to you. And the police say, okay, no problem,
we can come down, we can interview, interview you. Where
do we go and she gave the address and when
they pulled up, it was a wig shop. A wig shop,

(41:40):
so suddenly the bells and the whistles were chiming. Wouldn't
you know that that blonde hair that was in the
backseat of the vehicle would coincidentally come back as not
human on the lab report, and that had been strange.
They fully thought that was going to come back and
be Sherry's hair, but it wasn't. Well, now they ought

(42:00):
they knew why it was Diana Hahn. They believed, and
they believed that she was wearing a wig that day.
And yes, they confirmed the purchase she made was of
a blonde wig. So twenty five days later, on June
first of nineteen ninety six, Sherry's friends, who had not

(42:21):
stopped giving up hope that they would find her, they
had continued to look for her. They decided that they
were going to stop near this ravine in the area.
It was off Canada Lago Road, and they were going
to do a search there. It was a more remote
area and it had a road that wasn't accessed a
lot that went to it. When they got out, they

(42:42):
didn't search very long before one of her own friends,
Sherry's direct friends, found some sunglasses and she knew immediately
that they were Sherry's. That to me is so impressive.
I mean, hell, my friends shout out guys. I love y'all,
but I'm not convinced they know my stuff because I'm
always wearing the weirdest shit and you know they wouldn't know.

(43:04):
I guess if there was glitter and a trail of sparkle,
you'll know it was me. But she knew from the sunglasses,
and so I don't know if maybe she was like,
oh God, I don't want to go look. But they
sent some men down into that ravine from the search
team to go into this steep drop off and look.

(43:24):
And while they were down there, they said, hey, we
found something, and they pulled out a pair of black
shorts that still had the belt attached, and so they
passed them up, and sure enough, Sherry's friend was watching,
and she was torn between the hope that this would
end all of this unknown sickness of what had happened

(43:45):
to her, but also at the same time she didn't
want it to be her. Please just let this be
some clothing that someone discarded out of their window or something.
But when the shorts made it to her and she
got a good look at them, she knew that they
were her friend, Sherry's. Matter of fact, they were the
very same ones that Sherry is seen wearing in the
surveillance video at the target. So the call was made

(44:07):
to the police, we need you here now. We think
that we found her. When the police got there, they
did all of their searching, and eventually they recovered pieces
of the skeletal remains of what was believed to be
Sherry Dally where they had started down the ravine. They

(44:27):
no longer actually remained because police would eventually meticulously search
an area roughly thirty by thirty yards to find what
was left of Sherry. She was no longer intact, and
animals had scavenged her body parts as she was decomposing

(44:49):
nearly a month out in these open elements combined with
wild animals. She just simply was not in the same
condition that she had been when she was dumped nearly
a month before. And this body was found just three
miles from her abduction site, off of that remote road,
and the police would then eventually have to make the

(45:10):
call to her mama to break this news, and they
did it pretty late. They did it around five thirty
Saturday evening, but they had to make sure to get
that phone call in because they were very fearful that
this would hit the news and they did not want
her mama to find out that way, and they wanted
to do it personally, so they go share the news clearly,

(45:32):
the family was devastated that their nightmare was now confirmed.
I think they knew something bad had happened, but to
hear the words just really hits different. Cherry was dead
and she would not be coming home to her baby boys. So,
although Sherry's remains were now collected and at least could

(45:53):
be treated with dignity, they were far from being laid
to rest because the forensic examination would need to take place.
So a forensic odontologist, his name was doctor Michael Bowers.
He compared the skull that was recovered to Sherry's dental
records and was able to confirm, yes, this is Sherry,

(46:14):
and then an autopsy was going to be done of
these remains, and the truth about what Sherry had endured
was uncovered. Even with the limited remains that they got.
Sherry had suffered a devastating attack that included a massive
beating and being stabbed multiple times in the chest. The

(46:37):
stab wounds, and I need you to understand this, they
were so horrific that the knife had left scrapes in
her rib bones that were recovered. A metal fragment was
still found embedded in her jaw, and so they put
this underneath a microscope to try to figure out what

(46:58):
it was, and when they got a real good look
under the microscope, they realized, oh my god, that is
the tip of the serrated knife blade that broke off
in her jaw during this attack. I mean this was vicious.
She was believed to have been stabbed at least eight times,
including a stab in the heart, but there was even more.

(47:23):
The medical examiner would write in the report that he
believed Sherry died very shortly after her abduction, but her
body was not just dumped as is, because based on
the wounds assessed of the skeletal remains in the neck area,

(47:43):
the medical examiner believed that the killer had tried to
behead her or may have beheaded her. She had multiple
fractures caused by blunt force trauma to the skull, to
her jaw, and the repeat he needed stab wounds to
the chest were determined and believed to be her ultimate

(48:04):
cause of death. That pool of blood in the back
seat proof that she expired and that she bled out
slumped over in the back seat of a rental car,
now believed to have likely have been handcuffed and unable
to effectively defend herself when she was attacked by this person.

(48:26):
This was pure animalistic rage that had rained down on
this handcuffed mother of two. So, like I told you,
Mike had a solid alibi. He was at work. This
was proven. He was stacking the shelves, he was stalking
them actually during the time that Sherry went missing. Diana, however,

(48:49):
she wasn't working that day, and so she did not
have a solid alibi where people saw her necessarily or
was on video. But looking at Diana, she was tiny,
and so it was kind of questionable whether she would
have been physically capable of this level of violence. And

(49:10):
Diana was still insisting that someone had forged her name,
that she was being set up. I mean, hell, everyone
knew they were having an affair. What if somebody else
who had beef did this and they're setting me up
because they know that we're having an affair. I mean,
it was something to be considered. So Jack Harris, that

(49:33):
was the man's name. He was a forensic document examiner
and he specialized in handwriting. He was sent this document
and basically, this is the deal. If someone is forging
a document, usually what that person's trying to do is
to duplicate the name as closely as possible, so they
might they've got to have a known handwriting sample that

(49:54):
they're trying to copy. And so when someone's doing this,
and if you took a pen right now someone that
you're with, have them sign their name, and then you
go and you try to copy that while looking at it, okay,
And what people do is they'll start writing and then
the ink will stop at points while they're slowly writing
because they're trying to copy or forge what they're looking at.

(50:16):
And so there's this back and forth comparison of the
known signature while you're trying to copy it. I hope
I made that explanation. Well, the signature that was in
question was very different from Diana's known signature. It was
certainly not a forged signature, but maybe it could have

(50:36):
been a fake signature. So follow me out looking at
Diana's non handwriting and looking at this signature. They didn't
match in any way, shape or form. There was nothing
similar about them. But that wasn't where this document examiner stopped.
He went and he got known signatures from Diana, but

(50:59):
from the last ten years. Because if there's anything we
all know your handwriting changes, mine will change based on
the pen that I'm using. Some days I look like
there's something wrong with me, and then other days if
I have a pen, I have some favorite pins that
I use. It's nice and bubbly and it's easy to read. Also,
throughout time, our signatures will change. From when you're in

(51:21):
your twenties till you're in your forties, people change up
the way that they sign So while he was looking
at these prior signatures, he felt like those were very
similar to this signature on the rental agreement, so maybe
not a current one, but old ones. And what stood
out to him was that she would sign her name

(51:43):
like Diana or the han, and then at the end
of the end of han, she would go straight out
with the pen. There was this extension off to the
end of the pen. Well, this was the same thing
and in the same manner on this signature that did
not map her current signature. And after looking over this,
it was his professional opinion it was Diana Hahn's signature,

(52:09):
but it was just a variance of how she used
to sign. So it was also interesting to know that
whomever had bought the blonde wig had paid with a check,
which is almost again comical in today's society. But this
person paid with a check. And when they took Diana

(52:32):
Hahn's check register where she had documented all of her expenditures,
more checks had been written about the same time, and
these were all written by Diana, no doubt. And it
kind of revealed where she had been leading up to
this disappearance, and it included not only that wig shop,
but also some other stores like a hardware store and

(52:54):
another department store. And what did she purchase with those checks?
Detectives and followed up and got records of those purchases. Well,
she had purchased an axe, not a big axe, a
little many like camping acts, sunglasses, lighter fluid matches, things

(53:15):
that I guess we all might purchase, but very suss
considering the situation at hand. Another oddity I guess you
could call it, was that she used green ink in
her checkbook register as well as whenever she was signing
some of those checks. Green ink. That's just not a
very common color of ink. So police now had her back,

(53:39):
I'm going to say, in custody, but at the station
to do some more questioning. And at this point they're
looking at her and being pretty upfront. They're like, look, lady,
you're kind of screwed here. You need to come clean.
And there's a lot here that we can pretty much prove,
but you've got to give the information to us. You're
gonna be the one that takes the fall for this.

(53:59):
Don't quote question it. It's whether you try to save
yourself or not. And Mike, Mike had a wife and
Mike had a lover, and Mike was going kind of
between y'all. It looks like, so how much did he
really care about you? Han? And they kind of took
that angle, but she wouldn't budge. She was very, very

(54:20):
soft spoken. She looked up and was like, I would
help you if I knew, but I don't know anything.
I can't give you something I don't have. But they
felt like the more that they were digging in that
maybe she would possibly be breaking. So they're filling out

(54:40):
paperwork and they tell her, all right, well, i'll just
tell you this. You're not leaving today. You are under arrest. Well,
as they're filling out the paperwork of her arrest, Mike
happened to be in the adjoining interrogation room and he
was talking at a level that she hurt him. And
this is on the video of the interrogation. Okay, she
kind of perks up in the entiregate room and looks

(55:00):
at the detective filling out the paperwork, and she sayss
Mike here. He says, yes. She said, he's right here,
he's right next to us. Yes, And the detective looks
up and says, would you like to talk to him? Yeah? Yeah,
I would like to talk to him, please, And so,
making kind of a an audible here, they decide that,

(55:23):
all right, we'll let him come in and talk to you,
no problem, And so they all exit the room, or
he exits the room, and they let Mike in because
the thought here was, hey, maybe the two of them
together will start talking and we'll give up something incriminating.
So they let him in, and the detectives were watching
from another room the live feed of that camera. And

(55:45):
I'm gonna tell you this, regardless of what the detectives saw,
I'm me tell you what I saw because I'm looking
at a man whose wife and mother of his children
is missing. She's been gone for almost a month at
this point, and what I watch in his behavior is

(56:08):
absolutely repulsing to me. He comes in and he sits
down and he gets knee to knee with his mistress.
They're right up on top of each other. She kind
of leans in and hooks one of her arms around him,
and he strokes her hair. He pulls her bangs back
and he says, I don't think you did this. I

(56:30):
believe you. I don't think that you did this. She goes,
I didn't do it. So tender and a tender moment,
and they start whispering these almost sweet nothings to one another,
including if you listen very closely, she whispers, I think
I'm gonna go to jail. Y'all. It's almost like a

(56:52):
down daytime soap opera your grandmama watched when you were young.
And the passion is cringey. It's gross you you don't
want to see it, and it would be funny if
it weren't such a serious situation. It's so gross ill.
It's like watching teenagers make out in a hallway. Nobody
wants to see that shit. But they put on this,

(57:15):
this love story right in front of the camera. It's
unbelievable what you see, so based on everything so far,
and they discuss what's going on. He believes she didn't
do it, and she didn't do it, and then he
walks out. The detective comes in, and she seems re

(57:37):
energized in her statements that she didn't do it. But
the police officers don't care at this point. They feel like,
based on what we know so far, you're a problem.
And so they affect the arrest on Diane Hahn, but
they still had work to do if they were ever
going to ensure a conviction. While they're arresting her, they

(58:03):
search her purse incidental to that arrest. Matter of fact,
when they take it from her, she goes, oh, well,
is this under warrant searched too? And he says, well,
it is now because you're under arrest. And when they're
going through and they're documenting the things in her purse,
guess what they find? A green pen. A green pen.

(58:25):
They went as far as to send that very pen
to an ink comparison specialist. I didn't even know that
was a real thing. I will show my ignorance here.
I didn't even know that was a real thing. And
I won't bore you with this, but I will tell
you that they were able to find through this specialist
that the ink from the very pen taken from this

(58:46):
woman's purse came from the exact same batch of ink
that was used to sign those checks on those purchases.
Now we are getting somewhere at least proof that she
had purchased these items, but it wasn't definite proof of

(59:09):
murder because killing her. Proving she killed her, now that's
gonna take more time. And honey, the next episode will
complete this saga, and I am telling you it is
worth the weight. Do you think you know about toxic relationships?

(59:31):
You may, but hang on, baby, because I'm about to
introduce you to toxic relationships. Evil Twin