Robert Spangler

Robert Spangler (January 10, 1933 – August 5, 2001) was a serial killer who murdered his first wife, son, daughter, and his third wife.

They married in 1955 and moved to Littleton Colorado.

They had a son, David in 1961 and daughter, Susan in 1963.

On the morning of December 30, 1978, in Arapahoe County, Colorado, Robert Spangler lured his wife, Nancy, into the basement with the promise of a "surprise" and shot her in the head with a revolver.

Going upstairs, he shot his teenage children, Susan and David; David was slow in dying, so Spangler smothered him with a Pillow.

Spangler then altered the scene to make it appear that his wife had shot their children and then herself.

By 1978, he was working for the American Water Works company.

Over the years, Spangler worked for Honeywell's camera and instruments division, served as public relations director for a non profit organization, and as a part-time disc jockey at a radio station.

He also took part in Theatre Arts as an actor.

On the morning of December 30, 1978, the bodies of Spangler's 45-year-old wife, and their 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter, were found in the Spangler home in Littleton, Colorado.

All three had been shot with a .38-caliber handgun.

The daughter, found partially clothed in her bed, had been shot in the back; the son, also in bed, had been shot in his chest; their mother was slumped over a typewriter in the basement with a bullet wound high on her forehead.

A typewritten suicide note on the typewriter was signed with her initial.

Spangler, age 45, admitted that he and his wife had marital problems, that he planned to leave her, and that he was having an affair with a co-worker, Sharon Cooper.

He said he left the house early in the morning and returned only after the bodies had been discovered; but his story changed significantly in a subsequent interview.

Two separate, private polygraph examiners found his answers inconclusive to questions about any possible role in the deaths.

The gun used in the shootings was Spangler's, and evidence of gunshot residue was found on his right palm.

On January 3, 1979, the Arapahoe County coroner closed the case as a murder-suicide.

The sheriff's office was unable to overcome the coroner's findings, and they had exhausted all investigative leads; therefore, they were forced to close the case.

Most of the evidence was either returned to Spangler or destroyed.

Seven months later, Spangler married Sharon Cooper and moved into the house where his family was killed.

He and Sharon shared a common interest in hiking.

She eventually wrote a book of her experiences hiking the Grand Canyon.

Subsequently, the couple began to have marital problems.

Sharon had told people that after Robert's father died that she began to believe that Robert was out to get her.

They divorced in 1988.

In August 1990, Spangler married his third wife, Donna Sundling and moved to Durango, Colorado.

Donna was an active aerobics instructor with five grown children and numerous grandchildren from a previous marriage.

Donna did not share Robert's love of hiking due to her fear of heights which soon led to marital problems.

On April 11, 1993, after Spangler's third marriage to 58-year-old aerobics instructor Donna Sundling went sour, he took her hiking in the Grand Canyon and pushed her off a 140-foot (40 m) drop to her death.

Spangler was raised in Ames, Iowa, where a laboratory at Iowa State University is named after his father, a civil engineer.

Spangler played football in high school where he met his first wife Nancy.

In April 1993 they backpacked in Grand Canyon hoping to save their marriage.

On April 11, 1993, Spangler appeared at a ranger station in the Grand Canyon and calmly told the ranger that his wife had fallen to her death.

He explained that they had stopped to take a picture on the trail and, when he looked back, his wife was gone.

Rangers located Sundling's body approximately 160 ft below the trail.

The autopsy report concluded that she sustained massive injuries, including abrasions, contusions, lacerations, and multiple fractures of the neck, chest, and lower extremities.

Spangler was never directly implicated in this wife's death because it was ruled an accident.

He drew national attention with interviews on several television shows.

As a grieving husband, Spangler discussed his wife's accidental death and the dangers of hiking in the Grand Canyon.