Secrets and Sins in Ventura, California: Sherri and Mike Dally

When a devoted wife and mother is handcuffed in a Target parking lot in broad daylight by an official-looking woman wearing a badge, witnesses assume they are watching a real arrest. When the woman doesn’t return home and no police department can find any record of the detention, suspicion falls on those closest to her.

Sources

1. Dateline NBC. 1992.

2. Deadly Women. 2008.

3. Diskin, Megan.

“Ventura Man Seeks Clemency in Wife’s 1996 Killing.” Ventura County Star, Ventura, 31 Aug. 2018, https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/communities/ventura/2018/08/31/ventura-man-1996-killing-seeks-clemency/1115644002/.

4. Forensic Files. 1996.

5. “Jury Finds Haun Guilty of Dally’s Kidnap-Murder - Los Angeles Times.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sept. 1997, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-sep-27-mn-36594-story.html.

6. Sederstrom, Jill. “Mike Dally and Mistress Diana Haun Kill His Wife Sherri Dally.” Oxygen, Oxygen, 21 Feb. 2025, https://www.oxygen.com/dateline-unforgettable/crime-news/mike-dally-mistress-diana-haun-kill-wife-sherri-dally.

7. “Sharri Renee Guess Dally (1961-1996) - Find a Grave Memorial.” Find a Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78362473/sharri_renee-dally. Accessed 30 Mar. 2026.

8. The LA Times, 10 May 1996.

9. Camarillo Star, 18 May 1996.

10. Camarillo Star, 21 May 1996.

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