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Note: pseudonyms are in bold italics.

Carole Alden: A Utah artist whose fanciful works and cloth sculptures have been featured in galleries and at the Utah Arts Festival. The mother of two boys and three girls by her first two husbands. When she was forty-six, on the morning of July 29, 2006, she called police to report that she had shot and killed her third husband, Marty Sessions.

Melloney Bozeman: Carole Alden's first daughter, from her first husband, Richard Senft. Age twenty-three at the time of the homicide.

Andy Bristow: Carole Alden's drug-addicted boyfriend between her second and third husbands. Died due to “combined drug intoxication” under mysterious circumstances.

Morris Burton: A sergeant in the Millard County Sheriff's Office—one of the first to arrive, along with Deputy Tony Pedersen, at the scene of the killing.

Patrick Finlinson: Deputy County Attorney in Millard County, Utah. As a new arrival on the job, he assisted Michael Wims and Pat Nolan in the prosecution of Carole Alden.

Richard Jacobson: A star detective in the Millard County Sheriff's Office—key investigator in the homicide of Marty Sessions.

Allen Lake: A friend of Carole Alden's. Upon discovering Carole had killed Marty Sessions, Lake also called police the morning of July 29.

Michael McGrath: A forensic psychiatrist from Rochester, New York, who has researched battered woman syndrome.

Patrick Nolan: Assistant Attorney General for the State of Utah—a key player on the prosecutorial team in the State's case against Carole Alden.

Penny Packer: Carole's junior high school art teacher and a longtime friend and confidante.

Tony Pedersen: A deputy sheriff in Millard County, Utah—one of the first to arrive at the scene of the killing.

Brian Poulson: Carole Alden's second husband.

Emily Poulson: Carole Alden's third daughter, ten years old at the time her stepfather, Marty, was killed.

Jason Poulson: Carole Alden's second son, fourteen at the time of the killing.

Conner Rusek: Carole Alden's first son, from her first husband, Richard Swift; age twenty-five at the time of the homicide.

Krystal Rusek: Carole Alden's second daughter, from her first husband, Richard Senft; age twenty at the time of the homicide.

Anna Sessions: Marty Sessions's older daughter, age twenty-nine at her father's death.

Dennis “Denny” Sessions: Marty Sessions's brother—two years younger than Marty.

Edee Sessions: Marty Sessions's younger daughter, age twenty-seven at her father's death.

Marty Sessions: Carole Alden's third husband, whom she killed sometime between late evening July 28 and early morning July 29, 2006. Age forty-nine at the time of his death.

Richard Senft: Carole Alden's first husband.

James K. Slavens: Carole Alden's defense attorney—in a confusing turn of events, he had also previously served as Marty Sessions's defense attorney.

Lenore Walker: An academic who devised the term “battered woman syndrome” in the late 1970s to describe why women who are physically abused often remain with their abusers.

Michael Wims: Chief of the Special Prosecutions Section of the Criminal Division of the Utah Attorney General's Office. Chief prosecutor in the Carole Alden case. Wims also played a role in prosecuting extremist murderer Ron Lafferty, as described by Jon Krakauer in his book Under the Banner of Heaven.

Carolyn Zahn-Waxler: A distinguished researcher at the National Institutes of Mental Health whose career has centered around the origins and development of empathy and caring behaviors.