Odell: White.
Detective Thomas: Caucasian. And how about the third baby?
Odell: I believe he was white.
Detective Weddle: (Later) No one has forced you to be here, told you that you have to be here to give this statement?
Odell: Nope.
Detective Weddle: Are you feeling different now after giving the statement prior to, say, two hours ago before you gave it?
Odell: Relief.
Detective Weddle: That’s good, I hope so. It’s a relief for us, too. We appreciate you talking to us, we really do.
Odell: But I still need to get my affairs in order.
Detective Weddle: Sure you do, sure you do. That’s okay. You’re going to have time to do that. Like I said, we can’t tell you, none of us know what is going to happen at this point.
Odell: Well, I have a good idea.
Detective Weddle: Well, I don’t think it’s going to be as, I don’t know—I don’t know, so don’t wash yourself away until you find out what is going to happen.
Detective Thomas: What do you think is going to happen, Dianne? What should happen, which is what?
Odell: I think I should go to jail.
Detective Weddle: Why?
Odell: Because I don’t, it’s hard to live every day, every day, knowing that you have to look at yourself in the mirror and know that you didn’t have the courage or the tenacity to stand up for three little kids that, who needed a mother, and a life because if…if my mother hadn’t been alive, none of this ever would have occurred.
Thomas Bright purchased the contents of this self-storage unit at an auction in Safford, Arizona. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
To his shock, Bright found the remains of three dead babies in one of these boxes. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
Among Bright’s purchases: this tattered and torn box, soaked in bodily fluids. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
The Graham County Sheriff’s Office found the remains of a second baby in this box on May 12, 2003. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
Inside these boxes were the mummified remains of one baby and the bones of two others, all murdered more than twenty years before. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
These blankets and a lone bone fragment were culled from the boxes containing the bodies. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
DNA extracted from these blankets would provide clues to the brief lives and untimely deaths of the three babies. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
Residents of Safford, Arizona, set up a memorial outside the storage unit. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
This box, sealed with black electrical tape, contained the remains of one of the babies. (Author photo.)
Another baby was wrapped in blankets and bound in plastic, then stuffed inside this cardboard box. (Author photo.)
The Graham County Sheriff’s Office was the hub of the initial investigation into the lives and deaths of the three babies. (Photo courtesy of Diane Thomas.)
Graham County Sheriff’s Office Detective Diane Thomas flew from Arizona to Towanda, Pennsylvania, to investigate the babies’ deaths. (Photo courtesy of Martha Hendrix.)
Diane Thomas dons a lab coat and latex gloves and examines the remains of a third dead child. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
The box that Diane Thomas opened and searched contained two smaller boxes with the remains of one of the babies. (Author photo.)
This x-ray shows the skeletal remains of two of the babies. (Author photo.)
This x-ray shows the curled up skeleton of one baby, which, when found, appeared to be nothing more than a pile of dust and bones. (Author photo.)
This x-ray proves that the mummified remains of one baby were those of a full-term infant. (Author photo.)
Graham County Sheriff’s Office Detective Bruce Weddle, who flew to Towanda, Pennsylvania, with Diane Thomas, was instrumental in getting the babies’ mother to admit that the babies were hers. (Photo courtesy of Martha Hendrix.)
Dianne Odell posed for this photograph shortly after talking to Diane Thomas and Bruce Weddle on May 18, 2003. (Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania State Police; Towanda Barracks.)
Odell was still wearing her Rite-Aid uniform when Pennsylvania State Police took her photo on May 18, 2003. (Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania State Police; Towanda Barracks.)
This mug shot of Dianne Odell was taken shortly after she admitted to her role in the deaths of three of her children. (Photo courtesy of New York State Police; Liberty Barracks.)
Diane Thomas snapped this photograph of Robert Sauerstein, Dianne Odell’s paramour, before questioning him. (Photo courtesy of Graham County Sheriff’s Office, Safford, Arizona.)
These photographs were taken by a New York State Police trooper after a junk dealer in Bethel, New York, discovered the remains of a fetus inside a blue suitcase—a fourth dead baby that would eventually be tied to Dianne Odell. (Photo courtesy of New York State Police; Liberty Barracks.)
Investigator Paul Hans, of the Sullivan County, New York District Attorney’s Office, worked closely with veteran District Attorney Steve Lungen to secure evidence in the Odell case. (Author photo.)
Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office Investigator Robert Rowan was also instrumental in putting together evidence in the Odell case. (Author photo.)
New York State Police Senior Investigator Thomas Scileppi got Dianne Odell to admit that three of her dead children had made sounds, which meant they were alive when they were born. (Author photo.)
These two excerpts from a statement Investigator Scileppi took from Odell on May 19, 2003, clearly show her signature next to his. (Author photo.)
Roy Streever was the first New York State Police investigator to interview Odell. (Courtesy of Corinne Streever.)
Sullivan County District Attorney Steve Lungen and the courthouse where he prosecuted Odell. (Lungen photo courtesy of Susan L. Parks; author photo of courthouse.)
Court TV set up cameras inside this Sullivan County, New York courtroom to broadcast the Odell trial in December 2003. (Author photo.)
Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals connected to this story.
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Copyright © 2006 by M. William Phelps
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ISBN: 978-0-7860-2695-1
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BONUS SECTION
ce (Pinnacle True Crime)
Sleep In Heavenly Peace (Pinnacle True Crime) Page 39
