ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Lawyers are trying to pick a jury for the first-degree murder trial of an Orange County woman accused of killing her mother. Prosecutors say Stacey Kananen and her brother killed their mother in 2003 and, 15 years earlier, they say her brother murdered their father. The crimes were hidden for years.
Potential jurors have been asked about everything from their feelings about law enforcement to fights over money and they've been told to prepare for testimony that will last more than a week.
Stacey Kananen's brother Richard is already serving a 30-year sentence for killing their father in 1988 and then their mother in 2003. But it's Stacey Kananen who's standing trial for allegedly helping her brother in his act of matricide.
Prosecutors aren't seeking the death penalty, but cautioned jurors the case and evidence wouldn't be as simplistic. Jurors may hear many plot twists.
The defendants' older brother, Richard Kananen Jr., is expected to testify. He's the one who implicated his sister in the murder of their mother, Marilyn Kananen.
Fifteen years before her own death, Richard Kananen Jr. told investigators his mom Marilyn stored her husband in a freezer for five months.
Richard Jr. finally buried his abusive dad in the garage of his mother's home. Years later, Marilyn Kananen would disappear, too. Investigators say it was just around the time she would've received a $250,000 inheritance.
Marilyn Kananen's body was discovered just blocks from her husband's body, buried at the East Orange County home shared by her children Richard and Stacey. Before Richard Kananen's no contest plea in the deaths of both his mother and father, investigators say there was a suicide attempt.
Richard Kananen parked a truck inside a storage facility with the engine running. His sister was right there with him. Both survived to live out what's become a decades-old family drama.
If all goes according to plan, attorneys will start opening statements Thursday morning.