ID's Evil Lives Here: Who is Gene Keidel and what did he do?

A tale of over 60 years ago, Gene Keidel, a 58-year-old contractor, murdered his estranged wife and mother of his three children, Dianne Keidel, and then buried her body in the backyard of their Pheonix home in 1966.

He then filed a missing person's report and moved back into the house, which eventually burned to the ground in four months' time, with the children still inside. Only two made it out alive.

Dianne's case remained unsolved until the former couple's youngest and only surviving daughter, Lori Romaneck, wrote a letter to authorities in 1993, claiming to have witnessed Gene murdering her mother all those years ago. He was also a suspect in the house fire, which was eventually ruled arson.

Gene Kiedel was convicted in April 1995 for the murder of his estranged wife Dianne (Image via ABC15 Arizona)

ID's Evil Lives Here will take a fresh look at the case against Gene Keidel and his crimes that have haunted the phoenix community and his two surviving children for decades now. The all-new episode, titled I Watched Daddy Bury Mommy, airs this Sunday, January 22, at 9.00 pm ET.

The upcoming episode's synopsis reads as:

"As a child, Lori Hodge doesn't understand what she sees when her father, Gene Keidel, digs a hole in the yard in the middle of the night, but as she gets older and realizes the truth, she becomes a threat; he will stop at nothing to keep his secret."

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Gene Keidel reported his estranged wife missing in 1966 and lost two of his daughters in a house fire within months

On September 17, 1966, Gene Keidel met his estranged wife Dianne Keidel for dinner. The couple were separated at the time and living in different houses - Dianne was residing in the family home with their three children and her eldest daughter from a previous marriage.

The following morning, the children discovered Gene asleep on the couch, learning that their mother never returned home the previous night. The 58-year-old contractor then reported his estranged wife missing and moved back in with the children, and while there was no sign of Dianne as the months passed, in January of the following year, their house burned down in a fire with all the children still inside.

Two of their daughters died in the fire, while the youngest one, five-year-old Lori Romaneck and the son merely escaped, surviving the deadly incident. The former suffered severe burns while her elder brother escaped unharmed. Although the fire was categorized as "suspicious," no charges were ever pressed.

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Lori Romaneck claimed her father striked Dianne Kiedel in the head 27 years after the missing report was first issued

Nearly three decades later, in 1993, Dianne and Gene Keidel's surviving daughter, Lori Romaneck, came forward, alleging that her father murdered their mother all those years ago. According to reports, she sent a letter to Phoenix Police, 27 years after Dianne was reported missing.

In the letter, Lori claimed to have witnessed her father strike her mother in the head. She stated that she then saw her mother fall to the ground after which Gene struck her head once again. Later that evening, she found her mother "curled up on the pool deck" as her father dug a hole in the backyard.

The backyard was examined by authorities using "ground-penetrating radar," and discovered a skeleton with a nylon stocking around the neck. Moreover, they discovered pieces of a woman's 1960s clothes. The remains reportedly matched Dianne Keidel's description.

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Gene Keidel was charged with murder on September 23, 1994, and a jury subsequently found him guilty of a first-degree murder charge and sentenced him to life in prison. He was reportedly serving time at the Arizona State Prison in Florence, when he died on December 7, 2004.