Kriti Mehrotra
Mike Sisco and Karen Harknes were found shot to death inside the latter’s home following a night out in July 2002. It took more than 9 years for their assailant to be publicly identified as his ex-wife, Dana Chandler, and be arrested, only for the ensuing legal proceedings to span another 14 years. However, as explored in HBO’s ‘A Killer Story,’ some individuals, such as Eileen and Keen Umbehr, truly believe in her claims of innocence and have even become amateur sleuths on her behalf.
Married Couple Eileen and Keen Umbehr Have Long Been Fans of the True-Crime Genre
Although Eileen Van Kirk was born in the late 1950s in Cincinnati, Ohio, she primarily grew up in Hudson, Wisconsin, alongside her brother Robert Van Kirk and their devoted, loving parents. The family was reportedly comfortable with their life in the Midwest, yet everything changed in the 1970s when the patriarch’s job with multinational conglomerate 3M took them to Singapore. The then-15-year-old thus enrolled at the Singapore American School in Marsiling in 1973, unaware that she would meet the love of her life there in Kansas native Keen Umbehr.
According to Keen’s own account, the first time he ever saw Eileen was in the halls of their high school, following which he immediately turned to a friend to tell him he was going to ask her out. He took his time gathering the courage to do so, having no idea she also adored him to such an extent that whenever he said “Howdy!” to her in his Kansas drawl, she used to “melt into a puddle.” In fact, she admitted in the documentary series that the man of God and then-football athlete was “literally the picture of the guy I always dreamed about.”
The couple thus began a romantic relationship, ultimately tying the knot on June 10, 1978, while surrounded by all their loved ones. Eileen and Keen returned to the US a year later to settle down in his home state of Kansas, where she became a homemaker, he became a trashman, and they welcomed 4 sons. That’s also where the true-crime aficionados really let their shared interest shine through by looking into real cases, reading similar books, and watching genre shows for fun or casual knowledge.
Eileen and Keen Became Advocates/Sleuths for Dana Chandler Despite No Previous Connection to Her
Eileen has no idea when or why her passion for the true-crime genre took over her life, but she knows she has been interested in it for as long as she can remember. Therefore, she enjoys consuming content on the same topic because she likes to learn how each case was solved and what techniques officials may have used to secure answers. As for her husband Keen, he believes “crime interests us all. I think we are all voyeuristic in the sense that when a crime happens, we want to know they got the bad guy and there is justice for the victims.”
Therefore, they were aware of Mike Sisco and Karen Harknes’ 2002 double homicide, especially as it happened in the nearby area of Topeka, Kansas. They had looked into it and were hence shocked when his ex-wife, Dana Chandler, was arrested in 2011 because they didn’t think she was responsible. According to them, while she did have a possible motive considering their former volatile relationship, no one ever saw her in the area, and there was no physical proof. So, they grew furious when she was first convicted in 2012, driving them to begin communicating with her.
Eileen and Keen believed in her claims of innocence so sincerely that they became not only vocal advocates for her and what they believed to be justice but also amateur sleuths in hopes of figuring out the truth. They were the ones who contacted Dana on their own, began offering whatever aid they could, created evidence folders spanning thousands of pages, and even filed civil cases to investigate other potential suspects. They stood by her every step of the way for over a decade, but after her third trial and conviction in 2025, they decided some distance would be better.
Eileen Umbehr Continues to Fight for Justice Alongside Her Professional Lawyer Husband Keen Umbehr
Eileen and Keen have admittedly stopped communicating with Dana or taking her calls since her 2025 conviction, but they maintain it is not because they have changed their mind. According to the documentary series, they still believe in her innocence, but they can not stand by her as she represents herself in the legal proceedings because they think she herself raised more questions about her role in the matter. So, to this day, the fight for her freedom and what they believe to be justice for Mike and Karen, but they do so without any direct contact with Dana.
As for Eileen and Keen’s current standing, the former remains a homemaker who spends her time delving into more true-crime cases, learning new details, and spending quality time with family. She loves staying in her pajamas until 4 pm, but she also loves the concentration and work required to invest herself in cases. Coming to her husband, after 17 years serving as a trashman, he sold his business in the late 1990s and returned to school. From what we can tell, he graduated from Kansas State University in 2001 before deciding to study law and enroll at Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. He earned his Juris Doctorate in May 2005 and passed the bar exam less than 2 months later, enabling him to obtain his license in September of the same year and then establish his own private practice in Alma, Kansas.
As the former writer of the weekly newspaper column called My Perspective, Keen already had a reputation in the area. That’s because some of his trashman contracts were terminated due to what he had written in his column at one point, and he filed a lawsuit alleging the termination was retaliation for exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. His case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and they ruled in his favor in 1996. His wife later published a book titled ‘Small Town Showdown’ recounting this entire ordeal in 2007, as a result of which they both received a lot of recognition. Therefore, it appears as if Keen’s private practice is thriving to this day, which he operates while also serving as a consultant at Atlas MD, a clinic run by one of his sons. Whenever Eileen and Keen are not working, they are devoting themselves to their family, comprising 4 sons, 3 daughters-in-law, and 10 grandchildren.
Read More: Mike Sisco and Karen Harkness Murder Details and Investigation Timeline
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