Just before midnight on Nov. 17, 1958, Olga Kupczyk Duncan, 30, almost eight months pregnant, heard a knock on the door of her Santa Barbara apartment.
A nurse at Cottage and St. Francis hospitals, she had spent the evening playing bridge, knitting and chatting with two other nurses. They had left the apartment at 11:10 p.m.
When she opened the door, she faced an agitated young man, who told her that her husband, Frank Duncan, was drunk in a car downstairs and that he needed her help to get him upstairs.
Olga Duncan had not seen her husband in 10 days, not since he had packed up and moved back with his mother. Concerned, she pulled her quilted robe tight against the nighttime chill and accompanied the man -- Moya -- to the car. In the darkened back seat, Baldonado crouched low, pretending to be Frank Duncan. As Olga Duncan leaned forward to see her husband, Moya hit her head with the butt of a gun and pushed her inside. Baldonado grabbed her.
Olga was stronger than they anticipated. Though stunned, she began to scream and struggled with Baldonado. The two men beat her again and again until she was bloodied and unconscious. Then they taped her hands together. The killers had talked of taking her body to Tijuana, but the 1948 Chevrolet sedan they had borrowed -- they had paid acquaintance Sara Contreras of Santa Barbara $25 for its use -- was in no shape for such a long trip. Instead, they headed south on Highway 101 into Carpinteria, where they turned onto Casitas Pass Road because Baldonado remembered using that lightly traveled roadway to get to a winery near Ojai.
Every time Olga Duncan came to during the drive, they beat her into unconsciousness. Finally, in one particularly vicious blow, the gun broke on her head. Almost seven miles inside Ventura County, they stopped and dragged Olga's body down a small embankment. Because the gun was useless, they choked her until Baldonado, once an Army medic, figured she was dead. They then dug a shallow grave in the soft silt at the edge of a drainage ditch with their bare hands and buried her and her unborn daughter. They left the wedding ring Frank Duncan had given her on her taped hands. Later, dirt would be found in her lungs indicating Olga had suffocated after being buried alive.
Back in Santa Barbara, Baldonado and Moya ripped out the blood-soaked seat covers and tried to cover up by saying a cigarette had been dropped and caused a large burn hole.
For their night's work, the killers had been promised a payoff of $6,000 from Ma Duncan. In the end, they received only the $137 she had given them before the murder to buy a gun and rent a car. Olga's mother-in-law was later convicted of murder for hiring the 2 men and was executed in the gas chamber.
A nurse at Cottage and St. Francis hospitals, she had spent the evening playing bridge, knitting and chatting with two other nurses. They had left the apartment at 11:10 p.m.
When she opened the door, she faced an agitated young man, who told her that her husband, Frank Duncan, was drunk in a car downstairs and that he needed her help to get him upstairs.
Olga Duncan had not seen her husband in 10 days, not since he had packed up and moved back with his mother. Concerned, she pulled her quilted robe tight against the nighttime chill and accompanied the man -- Moya -- to the car. In the darkened back seat, Baldonado crouched low, pretending to be Frank Duncan. As Olga Duncan leaned forward to see her husband, Moya hit her head with the butt of a gun and pushed her inside. Baldonado grabbed her.
Olga was stronger than they anticipated. Though stunned, she began to scream and struggled with Baldonado. The two men beat her again and again until she was bloodied and unconscious. Then they taped her hands together. The killers had talked of taking her body to Tijuana, but the 1948 Chevrolet sedan they had borrowed -- they had paid acquaintance Sara Contreras of Santa Barbara $25 for its use -- was in no shape for such a long trip. Instead, they headed south on Highway 101 into Carpinteria, where they turned onto Casitas Pass Road because Baldonado remembered using that lightly traveled roadway to get to a winery near Ojai.
Every time Olga Duncan came to during the drive, they beat her into unconsciousness. Finally, in one particularly vicious blow, the gun broke on her head. Almost seven miles inside Ventura County, they stopped and dragged Olga's body down a small embankment. Because the gun was useless, they choked her until Baldonado, once an Army medic, figured she was dead. They then dug a shallow grave in the soft silt at the edge of a drainage ditch with their bare hands and buried her and her unborn daughter. They left the wedding ring Frank Duncan had given her on her taped hands. Later, dirt would be found in her lungs indicating Olga had suffocated after being buried alive.
Back in Santa Barbara, Baldonado and Moya ripped out the blood-soaked seat covers and tried to cover up by saying a cigarette had been dropped and caused a large burn hole.
For their night's work, the killers had been promised a payoff of $6,000 from Ma Duncan. In the end, they received only the $137 she had given them before the murder to buy a gun and rent a car. Olga's mother-in-law was later convicted of murder for hiring the 2 men and was executed in the gas chamber.
Just before midnight on Nov. 17, 1958, Olga Kupczyk Duncan, 30, almost eight months pregnant, heard a knock on the door of her Santa Barbara apartment.
A nurse at Cottage and St. Francis hospitals, she had spent the evening playing bridge, knitting and chatting with two other nurses. They had left the apartment at 11:10 p.m.
When she opened the door, she faced an agitated young man, who told her that her husband, Frank Duncan, was drunk in a car downstairs and that he needed her help to get him upstairs.
Olga Duncan had not seen her husband in 10 days, not since he had packed up and moved back with his mother. Concerned, she pulled her quilted robe tight against the nighttime chill and accompanied the man -- Moya -- to the car. In the darkened back seat, Baldonado crouched low, pretending to be Frank Duncan. As Olga Duncan leaned forward to see her husband, Moya hit her head with the butt of a gun and pushed her inside. Baldonado grabbed her.
Olga was stronger than they anticipated. Though stunned, she began to scream and struggled with Baldonado. The two men beat her again and again until she was bloodied and unconscious. Then they taped her hands together. The killers had talked of taking her body to Tijuana, but the 1948 Chevrolet sedan they had borrowed -- they had paid acquaintance Sara Contreras of Santa Barbara $25 for its use -- was in no shape for such a long trip. Instead, they headed south on Highway 101 into Carpinteria, where they turned onto Casitas Pass Road because Baldonado remembered using that lightly traveled roadway to get to a winery near Ojai.
Every time Olga Duncan came to during the drive, they beat her into unconsciousness. Finally, in one particularly vicious blow, the gun broke on her head. Almost seven miles inside Ventura County, they stopped and dragged Olga's body down a small embankment. Because the gun was useless, they choked her until Baldonado, once an Army medic, figured she was dead. They then dug a shallow grave in the soft silt at the edge of a drainage ditch with their bare hands and buried her and her unborn daughter. They left the wedding ring Frank Duncan had given her on her taped hands. Later, dirt would be found in her lungs indicating Olga had suffocated after being buried alive.
Back in Santa Barbara, Baldonado and Moya ripped out the blood-soaked seat covers and tried to cover up by saying a cigarette had been dropped and caused a large burn hole.
For their night's work, the killers had been promised a payoff of $6,000 from Ma Duncan. In the end, they received only the $137 she had given them before the murder to buy a gun and rent a car. Olga's mother-in-law was later convicted of murder for hiring the 2 men and was executed in the gas chamber.
A nurse at Cottage and St. Francis hospitals, she had spent the evening playing bridge, knitting and chatting with two other nurses. They had left the apartment at 11:10 p.m.
When she opened the door, she faced an agitated young man, who told her that her husband, Frank Duncan, was drunk in a car downstairs and that he needed her help to get him upstairs.
Olga Duncan had not seen her husband in 10 days, not since he had packed up and moved back with his mother. Concerned, she pulled her quilted robe tight against the nighttime chill and accompanied the man -- Moya -- to the car. In the darkened back seat, Baldonado crouched low, pretending to be Frank Duncan. As Olga Duncan leaned forward to see her husband, Moya hit her head with the butt of a gun and pushed her inside. Baldonado grabbed her.
Olga was stronger than they anticipated. Though stunned, she began to scream and struggled with Baldonado. The two men beat her again and again until she was bloodied and unconscious. Then they taped her hands together. The killers had talked of taking her body to Tijuana, but the 1948 Chevrolet sedan they had borrowed -- they had paid acquaintance Sara Contreras of Santa Barbara $25 for its use -- was in no shape for such a long trip. Instead, they headed south on Highway 101 into Carpinteria, where they turned onto Casitas Pass Road because Baldonado remembered using that lightly traveled roadway to get to a winery near Ojai.
Every time Olga Duncan came to during the drive, they beat her into unconsciousness. Finally, in one particularly vicious blow, the gun broke on her head. Almost seven miles inside Ventura County, they stopped and dragged Olga's body down a small embankment. Because the gun was useless, they choked her until Baldonado, once an Army medic, figured she was dead. They then dug a shallow grave in the soft silt at the edge of a drainage ditch with their bare hands and buried her and her unborn daughter. They left the wedding ring Frank Duncan had given her on her taped hands. Later, dirt would be found in her lungs indicating Olga had suffocated after being buried alive.
Back in Santa Barbara, Baldonado and Moya ripped out the blood-soaked seat covers and tried to cover up by saying a cigarette had been dropped and caused a large burn hole.
For their night's work, the killers had been promised a payoff of $6,000 from Ma Duncan. In the end, they received only the $137 she had given them before the murder to buy a gun and rent a car. Olga's mother-in-law was later convicted of murder for hiring the 2 men and was executed in the gas chamber.
