Summary: A Kansas attorney has been accused of shooting her father and his girlfriend and then forging the DNR order for her father to end his life in order to get his money.
Missouri prepares for one of the strangest double murder cases in state history, perhaps in the country. On trial is a well-known lawyer in Kansas City, Missouri. She is accused of murdering her wealthy father and his girlfriend.
The jury selection for the case against Susan Elizabeth “Liz” Van Note started today in Laclede County, MO. Van Note’s father, a successful business man, was killed in 2010. Police charged her for the murder primarily based on the fact that she forged his signature on the do not resuscitate order (DNR) to take him off life support just days after he was shot in his home. His girlfriend, Sharon Dickson, was also shot in his home but died at the scene. The elder Van Note was flown by life-flight to a hospital near the University of Missouri in Boone County.
The elder Van Note was able to call police to his home after being shot in the head. He died four days after being shot when Van Note forged the DNR. For years investigators tried to figure out who shot the couple, digging into Van Note’s possible motives.
Prosecutors allege that Van Note was the shooter because she wanted her father’s money. Using her experience as a probate and estate law attorney, she obtained a copy of his most recent will before his death to discover that she had been moved to the executor. Dickinson, as the primary beneficiary, would receive the majority of his considerable money.
The case originally went to trial in January of 2015 but was declared a mistrial due to jury misconduct. It then moved to Laclede County before Judge Kenneth Hayden. They were disputing the use of cellphone tracking technology used by investigators as constitutional or not. Hayden held a hearing in late summer and fall of 2015 to hear Van Note’s motion to suppress the cell phone data. A “ping” at a tower of her cell phone places her within 7 miles away from her father’s home on the night of the attack. Hayden ruled that since no material was actually “seized” so the cell phone data can be used.
The only thing Van Note has going for her is a testimony from her mother, Susan Van Note. She claims that her daughter was with her near Kansas City, over two hours from the site of the shooting.
Do you think the cell phone “ping” is enough to prove that Van Note was near her father? Tell us in the comments below.
To learn more about lawyers motivated by money, read these articles:
- North Carolina Lawyer Arrested for Taking Money, Not Completing Service
- Lawyer Stole $375,000 from Her Sorority, Kept Money in Shoebox
- Lawyer Impersonates Friend to Collect More Money from Disabled Veterans: Is Convicted
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