Marie Deans

Prosecutors called Penny's young daughter to the stand, apparently intending to ask her about the man she had seen the night her mother was killed.

The scene is described in writings by Penny Dean's daughter-in-law, Marie Deans, included in the book A Courageous Fool by Todd C. Peppers and Margaret A. Anderson.

The young girl stepped up to the witness stand, took one look at Wayne Northup, and crumbled into tears from the trauma of it all.

Penny's son, Bill, took her from the courtroom and left.

Marie Deans later wrote that she felt Bill was manipulated by the Maine prosecutor.

Wayne's defense attorney attacked the state's case, emphasizing how much of the prosecution's theory relied on inference rather than anyone actually seeing Wayne with Gloria.

And there was one problem with the state's case that the defense seized, the timeline.

The trauma of the trial in Maine had been enough for them, and the prosecutor in South Carolina agreed.