A Most Violent Childhood
Richard Sr. was cruel, according to his children.
The family patriarch terrorized his kids with perpetual physical and sexual assaults.
Stacey claimed her dad once locked her and her siblings in a house and set it on fire. Richard Jr. saved them.
Out of fear, Marilyn didn’t try to stop her husband from wreaking havoc on their family.
But Marilyn wasn’t safe from his attacks, either. Stacey remembered in one instance her dad used a knife to carve into her mother’s forehead.
On top of the violence, they moved around a lot. From California to Maine, the family seldom stayed in one place for too long; Richard Sr. kept them secluded, relocating them from state to state in the middle of the night, Stacey said.
It wasn’t until 1978, when they arrived in Orlando, Fla., that they finally stayed put.
Ten years later, Richard Sr. went missing; no questions asked. No one reported the disappearance.
Even neighbors expressed relief.
“We hoped he’d never come back,” Stephen Rucinski said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “I only asked about it once years later. All Marilyn said was that her husband moved back to Maine. I asked if he was coming back. She said ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Thank God.’”
The Kananen Cases Crack Wide Open
In September 2003, Marilyn also vanished, prompting her middle child, Bracken, to report her missing.
According to court documents, that December, Bracken’s 12-year-old son told investigators that his uncle, Richard Jr., bragged about killing Richard Sr. and offered to kill Bracken for his nephew, the Sentinel reported.
That same month, Richard Jr. and Stacey were questioned by police about their involvement in their parents' deaths. Afterward, Stacey said her brother made a stunning confession to her in the car.
“They are going to find our father under mom's garage and our mother in your back yard," Stacey recalled Richard Jr. saying to her, per the Times.
Fearing she and her partner would be implicated in the murders, Richard Jr. convinced Stacey they needed to kill themselves by parking in an outdoor storage and inhaling exhaust fumes.
Before trying to end her life, Stacey penned a suicide note to her partner.
"Rick and I knew it was over for us. We had a part in Mother's Leaving,” she wrote, according to the Sentinel. Stacey said the note wasn’t a confession, rather she felt her mother’s death could have been prevented if she never allowed her brother to live with her, in close proximity to their mom.
The siblings were rescued by an officer surveilling them, and Richard Jr. subsequently admitted to the slayings.
Buried Secrets
Richard Jr. confessed his father was shot on September 10, 1988; his body stuffed in a freezer and buried beneath the family’s garage, per the Times. On the anniversary of Richard Sr.’s death in 2003, Marilyn was tased, suffocated and similarly stuffed in a freezer and buried below Stacey’s rock garden. Detectives alleged Marilyn knew about her husband’s murder and went on to collect $100,000 in his social security checks.
Investigators recovered both bodies.
Richard Jr. pleaded no contest to his parents' deaths and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2007. Following his sentencing, he alleged Stacey was the real murderer, and she stood trial in 2010.
The charge for her dad’s slaying was dropped, and she pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in her mom’s killing.
During the two-week trial, Richard Jr. testified against his sister and alleged they spent weeks planning Marilyn’s murder. He claimed they were motivated to kill their mom for money because she was set to inherit $250,000 following her own father’s death, per the Sentinel.
On the other hand, the defense argued Stacey was a victim of her brother’s manipulation and that he acted alone.
Following three-and-a-half-hours of deliberation, jurors found Stacey not guilty.
Where Are the Kananens Now?
Richard Jr. remains imprisoned at the Zephyrhills Correctional Institute in Florida, but Stacey learned to let go of her resentment towards him.
"Strangely enough, I don't have as much anger as most people think I should," she admitted in 2013.
Richard Jr. is slated for release in June 2029, according to prison records.
Today, Stacey lives with her wife, Susan, in Largo, Fla., according to Susan’s Facebook. “I chose to be in a romantic relationship with another woman because of the sexual abuse inflicted upon me by my father,” Stacey wrote on her website.
Stacey also shared on the site that she planned to advocate for child abuse survivors and create the Marilyn Kananen Foundation to address issues of domestic violence.
