Nurse Olga Duncan disappeared from her Santa Barbara apartment November 17, 1958.

Luis Moya and Augustine Baldonado with Ventura County deputy sheriff Ray Higgins. Baldonado confessed to Higgins that he and Moya kidnapped and murdered Olga.

Baldonado led authorities to Olga’s shallow grave on Casitas Pass Road in Ventura County.

Luis Moya with deputy Ray Higgins on December 26th, the day of the grand jury hearing. Moya had confessed to Higgins on Christmas night, backing up the details in Baldonado’s confession.

Mrs. Duncan seemed to be in a cheerful mood while being questioned by reporters the day after her daughter-in-law’s body was discovered. She claimed that she knew nothing about Olga’s death.

Elizabeth Duncan poses with her famed Los Angeles criminal defense attorney S. Ward Sullivan. Frank hired Sullivan to represent his mother as soon as Olga’s body was discovered.

Moya, Baldonado, and Mrs. Duncan with deputy Higgins in the Ventura courtroom during their arraignment on charges of first degree murder.

Mrs. Duncan stands beside her attorney Ward Sullivan at her arraignment hearing. Ventura County District attorney Roy Gustafson sits at the table to her left.

Moya, Baldonado, and Elizabeth Duncan wait for an elevator on their way back to the jail. Mrs. Duncan covers her face while reporters snap photos.

Elizabeth Duncan kisses her son Frank goodbye after he visits her at the jail to discuss her upcoming trial.

Mrs. Duncan poses with attorney Sullivan and insists to reporters that she’s innocent and the victim of lies.

Ventura County District attorney Roy Gustafson, the youngest district attorney ever elected in the county at age 32, had just begun his third term in office at the time of the trial.

Elizabeth and Frank Duncan pose for reporters before court begins.

Prosecution witness Barbara Jean Reed, a carhop at the Blue Onion Drive-In restaurant in Santa Barbara, testified that Mrs. Duncan tried to hire her to kidnap and murder Olga.

Prosecution witness Luis Moya testified in excruciating detail about the brutal murder of Olga.

Eighty-four-year-old Emma Short was Elizabeth Duncan’s constant companion and the chief prosecution witness against her friend.

During a court recess, Mrs. Short passes in front of the defense table. Mrs. Duncan screamed at her friend, calling her a bitch, a thief, and a liar. Reporter Bob Holt (in bow tie) is at the end of the line of men walking behind Mrs. Short.

Elizabeth Duncan testifies in her own defense. She claims that she is innocent and calls the prosecution witnesses liars.

Frank Duncan was his mother’s only defense witness against the charge that she conspired to murder his wife and unborn child. At the end of the trial Frank testified, “… if I had a choice for a mother again, as much as I’ve been humiliated and hurt, I would still pick the same mother.”

Elizabeth Duncan crosses her fingers for luck before the district attorney began his final arguments.

As his mother watches during final arguments, Frank closes his eyes while DA Gustafson relates the brutal details of his wife’s murder.

Elizabeth Duncan is escorted to jail after the jury retired to deliberate her guilt or innocence on charges of arranging for the murder of her daughter-in-law.

After the penalty trail, Mrs. Duncan stares straight ahead at the jury (unseen) as the court clerk announces her sentence—death in the gas chamber.

Picture that appeared above my father’s weekly column, Bob Holt Reporting. During his thirty-four-year career as a reporter for the Ventura County Star Free-Press he penned a weekly column on every subject imaginable. From the mundane to the lofty, he wrote about anything that interested him and everything interested him.

My ten-year-old self at the time of Olga Duncan’s disappearance. I couldn’t stop wondering and worrying about what happened to Olga.

My sister, Betsey, and me all dressed up in dresses our grandmother made for us.

Betsey, our father, and me. This photo is a “mug shot” taken by a deputy during an outing to the Ventura County Sheriff’s office.

My mother Lois Holt holding me. She was the sane, calming voice in a hectic household.

The Elizabeth Duncan murder trial was the highlight of my father’s career as a crime reporter, but he covered an eclectic array of stories, from crime to politics to local happenings. He always said that he loved the variety of people he got to meet and the subjects he got to write about while working for a small-town newspaper.

Interviewing a pilot at Oxnard Air Force Base.