How did the police solve Dianne Keidel's murder case after two decades? Details explored ahead of ID's Evil Lives Here

The disappearance of Dianne Keidel remained unsolved for nearly 27 years. Haunting questions from the September 1966 missing person's case were only answered when her youngest daughter, Lori Romaneck, came forward alleging that she witnessed her father, Gene Keidel, murder her mother and later bury her in the backyard of their home in Phoenix, Arizona.

Moreover, about four months after Dianne's disappearance, two out of her four children died in a house fire. Lori and her brother survived the incident, with the former merely escaping with severe burns and the latter walking out of it unharmed.

Gene Keidel was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in 1994 and was found guilty by a jury in April of the following year, receiving a life sentence. He subsequently died in prison in 2004.

This article will further discuss Dianne Keidel's disappearance and subsequent murder ahead of an upcoming episode of ID's Evil Lives Here, titled I Watched Daddy Bury Mommy, which airs this Sunday, January 22, 2023, at 9 pm ET.

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The truth behind Dianne Keidel's 1966 disappearance and subsequent murder surfaced after her youngest daughter's confession

Dianne Keidel pictured with her husband Gene, who was convicted in her murder (Image via IMDb)

Gene Keidel managed to evade justice for 29 years after he reportedly murdered his estranged wife, Dianne, in their home in September 1966. However, his daughter Lori had complete recollection of the events that transpired that night when she was five years old. She witnessed her father hitting her mother and then burying her body in the backyard.

Dianne Keidel's surviving daughter, Lori Romaneck, came forward in 1993, 27 years after she was reported missing. She wrote a letter to investigators, admitting that all those years ago, she saw her father repeatedly strike her mother in the head until she lost consciousness. Her next recollection was of her mother, who was dead on the pool deck, and her father digging a hole in the backyard.

According to Lori's account, after that night, she and her siblings were prohibited from playing in that particular area of the backyard, which was eventually layered with concrete. She also claimed that she kept what she witnessed to herself out of fear of her father harming her.

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Dianne Keidel's remains were found in the backyard of the family's Phoenix home

Authorities then utilized "ground-penetrating radar" to search the backyard after hearing Lori's shocking narrative and discovered an "anomaly" exactly where she said her mother, Dianne Keidel, was buried. Buried in the ground were items of women's clothing from 1960s, along with a single skeleton with a nylon stocking around her neck beneath the concrete.

On September 23, 1994, Gene Keidel was charged with murder. He was found guilty on April 17, 1995, and persistently maintained his innocence, appealing his conviction on multiple occasions. Moreover, he was suspected of arson in 1967 when their house burned down, killing two of his daughters.

Gene denied murdering Dianne and claimed that following a marriage of ten years, they were going through a divorce when she went missing. She allegedly had several relationships and abortions. He stated that although they were no longer married, the night she disappeared, he took his wife out for dinner, after which he never saw her again.

According to reports, Gene Keidel died in 2004 while serving his lengthy sentence in prison.