Don’t Look Behind You

partner, was on active duty with the reserves when the Tarricone case broke. He returned to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department in time to join Benson in interviewing two homicide suspects.

    Dawn Farina, the Pierce County prosecutor who faced two defendants charged with murder in the courtroom. Gypsy Tarricone called Dawn “the little spitfire,” and it fit her when she was cross-examining Renee Curtiss.

    Gypsy Tarricone at her father’s grave in Mount Calvary Cemetery. Joe’s seven children chose this cemetery in Albuquerque because it is always “full of life,” with families visiting, luminarias to light the pathways, and the laughter of children and old friends.

TOO LATE FOR THE FAIR

    Robert Milton Hansen (left) and his older brother, Kenneth, pose for a Eugene, Oregon, photographer in 1926. The two brothers grew up to be total opposites.

    Bob Hansen in Ledo, India, assigned to the Burma Road project. He hated his long chin, hid it when he could, and later had plastic surgery.

    Lester and Helen Hansen pose with their sons in front of the Danish Home in February 1929. Robert is sitting on his mother’s lap, and Kenneth sits between their parents. During the Great Depression, the couple separated—but only in order to survive. Robert went with his father to the “Stump Farm” in Kent, Washington, and Kenneth with his mother and sisters to Seattle.

    Bob Hansen in the army in 1945 in Ledo, India, working under the command of General “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell on the Burma Road.

    Joann Cooper Hansen feeds wedding cake to her groom. This probably happened in early 1957, although some believe they weren’t legally married until 1962. She had great hopes for the marriage—a safe place for her first son and, hopefully, more children.

    Joann Hansen with her first two babies with Bob Hansen: Nick and Kandy Kay (in bouncy chair).

    Joann and her fourth child, Ty, on a camping trip.

    Patricia Martin and Joann Hansen were best friends for years, and Patricia tried to save Joann. It was she who heard Joann’s last horrifying words over the phone: “Pat! Oh no! He’s in the basement . . . he’s coming up—” Then there were only screams.

    Christmas at the Hansens’ house in about 1961. They look like a happy family, and Joann had done her best to decorate the way Bob preferred, but the holiday was tense. Joann (left), Nick, Bob, and Ty. Kandy Kay has her back to the camera.

    Left to right: Ty, Kandy Kay, and Nick no longer had their mother, and babysitters came and went. “One thing I never understood,” Ty said. “Why didn’t someone notice our black eyes, broken teeth, and bruises?”

    Ty, Nick, and Kandy Kay show off the fish they caught. They went on scores of hunting and fishing trips with Bob, and tried to smile as he snapped their pictures with the dead animals.

    Mrs. Rilda Moses’s kindergarten in Des Moines. Nick Hansen is in the top row, third from left. My daughter, Leslie Rule, is in the front row, fourth from right. And yet, I didn’t know the Hansen family at all.

    Kandy Kay was a Brownie in a North Hill troop. She told friends that her mother had been hit by a train. None of them knew the truth.

    Kandy Kay was her father’s favorite; Bob bought her Poker Chips, her own horse, and urged her to show off her riding skills to his male friends.

    Kandy Kay was crowned Miss Des Moines in 1977. She went on to compete in the Miss Washington pageant.

    Bob Hansen was proud as he escorted his daughter into one of the Miss Des Moines formal functions.

    Miss Des Moines, 1977, in her royal robes. Kandy had mother figures in her chaperones for the pageant, but it was too late; she had grown up too fast, without her mother.

    Kandy Kay Hansen was an absolutely beautiful young woman. Bob Hansen was full of pride when he brought her to the Danish reunions he organized.

    Kandy Hansen and her best friend since third grade—Barbara Kuehne Snyder. Bob Hansen embarrassed the girls when they were younger, and ruined prom for them. Barbara fought to save Kandy from the evil that was permeating her life—and she failed.

    Nick Hansen felt he had disappointed his father because he wasn’t an athletic star—nor did he have much interest. In 1981 and 1982, he helped Bob build a cabin in Westport, Washington. That helped—but a bigger shock was coming after Nick married.

    One of the last “family photos” with the Hansens. Left to right: Nick, Kandy Kay, Ty, and Bob share dinner at