The Murder of Sandra ‘Sandy’ Duyst
For this case, I watched an episode of Forensic Files. It’s season 11 episode 27, titled ‘Murder She Wrote.’
A loving wife and mother is found dead in her bedroom.
Background
Sandra Bos met her future husband, David Duyst in high school. After graduation, they went to the same college, got married and started a family. They were church going people, and described as pretty conservative. They lived in Alpine Township, Michigan. David worked as an insurance salesman and made pretty good money. Sandra worked on their land training horses.
Sandra loved horses and her favorite place to be was her barn. On November 19, 1998, Sandra was working with a horse. The horse had gotten spooked, and kicked her in the head. Sandra was barely conscious and bleeding, but was able to get to a neighbors house to call for help.
After the accident, Sandra suffered from depression and mood swings. It caused her marriage to David to deteriorate.
Sandra and David Duyst
The 911 Call
Sandra was prescribed antidepressants. They worked until about 18 months after the accident. On March 29, 2000, David called 911. David said his wife had tried to kill herself again, and this time she might have done it. David said Sandra had shot herself in the head.
Sandra was rushed to the hospital, but she was pronounced dead. She was only 40 years old.
In Sandra’s room, there was a .9mm semi automatic that the family kept for protection.
David admitted that he and Sandra were having problems, and no longer slept in the same room. He said he had heard a shot, went into the bedroom, and took the gun out of Sandra’s hand. The children were in their bedrooms, and said they had heard their dad moving around the house.
David’s clothing were collected. It tested negative for bloodstains. David was also asked to take a polygraph test, and passed.
The Note
An autopsy was performed. The medical examiner was expecting to find one bullet wound to the head. Instead, there were 2 entrance wounds about an inch and a half apart. Each of the wounds went through the middle of the brain. The first shot would have incapacitated Sandra.
The investigators had found blood on the pistol, but not on Sandra’s arm or hands. It was clear that she wasn’t the one that had been controlling the gun.
The police received a phone call from Sandra’s sister. She and Sandra had a conversation about a year before she died. Sandra had said if anything happened to her to look in the china cabinet because she had left her a note.
The police obtained a search warrant to search the Duyst home. There was a white envelope in the last drawer behind some dishes. The name of Sandra’s sister was written on it. The note was sent to the crime lab. Sandra wrote that if anything had happened to her, to look into David.
Sandra also mentioned what had happened to her in the barn in November. She said that David had come up behind her, and beat her with a hammer ax. She also wrote that she would never had committed suicide, and that David had killed her.
A forensics document investigator looked over the document and compared it to Sandra’s handwriting. He found the handwriting samples to be consistent. Sandra’s fingerprint was found on the letter, and her DNA was left behind from her licking the envelope.
The Evidence
The police obtained Sandra’s medical records from her accident. The physician had written that they doubted her injuries were from a kick to the head by a horse.
David was confronted with the letter. He denied anything, and said it was an accident. He did admit that he had been having an affair with his secretary, Linda Ryan. He said Sandra had found out about it. He handed over a voicemail that Sandra had left on his office phone. He said it would prove that she was suicidal.
Sandra loved David, and didn’t want to leave him or the kids, so she stayed in the marriage to try to make it work. Family was the most important thing to her.
David still claimed that the horse barn incident was an accident, and that Sandra had shot herself. He claimed that the gun must have double fired.
The gun was sent to a gun examiner. The specific gun was designed for safety reasons, and wouldn’t have been fired twice unless the trigger was pulled. The testing showed that the gun would have required about 12 pounds of pressure on the trigger to fire the gun. Based on Sandra’s injuries, she would have been incapacitated after the first shot. She wouldn’t have been able to apply that much pressure to the trigger to shoot herself again. The medical examiner was able to conclude that Sandra had died of homicide not suicide.
David’s clothing had been looked at by the naked eye because the investigators were told that it was a suicide. The clothing was examined again, this time using a high powered microscope. Under high magnification, they found stains. They were tiny blood stains, which wouldn’t have been seen with the naked eye. There were also high velocity blood stains found on the back sleeve of David’s shirt.
David was arrested and charged with first degree murder. He denied being involved. This time, he said when he found Sandra, she was coughing, which is how the blood transferred to his shirt.
The Motive
During the investigation, the police learned that Sandra and David were in debt. David had taken out a $500,000 life insurance policy. The prosecution also argued that Linda, David’s girlfriend, was asking him to leave Sandra.
David had attempted to kill Sandra the first time in the barn. She survived, so David had planned to kill her again. 18 months later, he took the pistol and shot Sandra while she slept.
David still maintained, and told anyone that would listen that he was innocent. He said the gun had double fired and that the note was Sandra’s way of trying to frame him.
David testified on his behalf at trial. He claimed that Sandra’s mindset was that everything was always bad. This backfired on him as he came off as lighthearted and almost jolly when he spoke.
The trial lasted for about a month. David was found guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The prosecution and police still wonder why David had shot Sandra twice. They do say that was his downfall, as well as the note that Sandra had left behind.
Other
David has since passed away in prison due to an illness. He was 58.
David in prison
FINAL THOUGHTS
Those closest to Sandra said that family was everything to her. She wasn’t going to just walk away from her marriage. David wanted to be with his secretary, but didn’t want to lose his home or have to pay alimony. Instead of divorcing Sandra, he killed her instead. It’s heartbreaking because a life was taken and these children had to grow up without both of their parents. I mean thank God Sandra wrote that letter to her sister, and that David is an idiot and left behind evidence.
Sources
https://forensicfilesnow.com/index.php/tag/sandra-duyst/
https://www.woodtv.com/news/kent-county/man-convicted-of-wifes-2000-murder-dies/
https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2018/04/david_duyst_convicted_in_high-.html
