On July 6, 1979, Diana and John Wanstrath, along with their 14-month-old adopted son Kevin, were found dead at their residence in Texas. The housekeeper alerted the Houston Police Department about the Wanstrath Family Murders. The housekeeper caught a glimpse of Diana and John lying dead in the living room through the window. The authorities, led by Johnny Bonds, then searched the house to find young Kevin Wanstrath shot dead in his crib. Forensics suggested that the couple was shot nearly 12 hours before the police’s arrival.
Neighbors and friends reportedly only had good things to say about the Wanstraths. John was an oceanographer, and Diana maintained an active social life. They had no apparent animosity with anyone. The Wanstrath home, however, was worth $ 1 million, raising suspicions about relatives who might benefit from the Wanstrath Family Murders. The close relatives’ alibis were cross-checked, and they were asked to take a polygraph test.
Markham Duff-Smith, Diana’s brother, claimed to have been with his wife at the time of the homicide but couldn’t get through the polygraph test. Despite Diff-Smith being the primary suspect, according to Bonds, the polygraph wasn’t enough evidence to detain him. This caused a long break in progress in the case.
Wanstrath family murders explained
Upon deeper investigation into Duff-Smith’s life, Johnny Bonds found that he had moved into a mansion with a man named Walt Waldhauser in 1980. Both Diana and Duff-Smith had received $100,000 each after the death of their mother five years earlier. The Wanstraths recently edited their will and stated that Kevin would inherit their property. And upon his passing it would go to Markham.
A few weeks after the triple homicide, Rick Nelson, a reporter at The Houston Post, received a call, and the caller told him that the death of Markham and Diana’s mother, Trudy Zabolia, wasn’t a suicide as it was reported to be, but a murder perpetrated by a coin dealer. “But Diana’s mother’s death four years earlier was not a suicide,” Nelson quoted in Prosecuting Evil. At the same time, Bonds worked a deal with Waldhauser’s ex-wife and extracted letters from Allen Janecka to Waldhauser, Janecka being a coin collector.
Digging deeper into Janecka’s history revealed that he was previously convicted of the order of a marijuana dealer alongside his Richard Bufkin. While Bufkin was serving his sentence, Janecka was set free. However, the resentment remained, making it easy for Bonds to extract the truth from him. Bufkin claimed that both he and Janecka were given a deal to kill a family, referring to the Wanstrath Family Murders.
Authorities tracked down Janecka’s movement and got hold of his girlfriend, who provided them with a gun and said that Janecka told her he killed a family in Houston with it. The 22-calibre magnum pistol was the gun used in the Wanstrath Family Murders. With that being sufficient evidence, the police captured Janecka. Waldhauser was also caught after his payments to Janecka were discovered.
Trials and sentencing of the three accused
Waldhauser testified against Markham in exchange for a lighter sentence while Janecka explained that Markham had brought up the idea of constructing a home in their area with the Wanstraths. Janecka and Waldhauser pretended to be contractors and visited the Wanstraths before shooting the couple and the child down. Markham was also found to be behind the murder of his mother who was strangled to death by Janecka. Janecka then staged the death to be a suicide.
Janecka was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 1981 and was executed in 2003. Markham Duff-Smith was also sentenced to death and executed in 1993. Waldhauser, despite only serving 30 years in prison, was made to go back behind bars for other money-related crimes. Johnny Bonds, who expresses an emotional investment in The Wanstrath Family Murders, retired in 2008. He received multiple honors for his service concerning the case.
Johnny Bonds reveals details of the investigation on Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.
