ID's Murder in the Heartland: Who was Joplin resident Anita Dunn and how did she die?

ID's Murder in the Heartland is all set to shed light on the death of Anita Dunn, a 61-year-old resident of Joplin, who was allegedly strangled to death by her former landlord, Todd Greathouse, in a bid to keep his secret affair safe from his wife. Murder in the Heartland focuses on harrowing narratives from quiet Middle American towns like Belle Center, Missouri, in this case.

Anita Dunn was allegedly having an affair with Todd Greathouse, from whom she rented a place behind his house previously. When she decided to end the affair and tell his wife the truth, he strangled her to death and allegedly disposed off her body in an abandoned mine shaft filled with water.

Todd Greathouse was later found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison. The upcoming episode, titled Truth Will Kill, will premiere on May 30, 2022, on ID. Read on for more details about the gruesome murder of Anita Dunn.

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How did Anita Dunn die? Details ahead of Oxygen's Murder in the Heartland season 4, episode 11

Willanna "Anita" Dunn was born in 1954 in Dallas, Texas. Not much has been revealed about her personal life or profession, but the 61-year-old Joplin resident once rented a house from the convicted murderer Todd Greathouse, behind his family home.

This may have been the time Anita Dunn began an affair with the landlord Todd Greathouse. Though the sister and daughter of Willana “Anita” Dunn claimed that there was no affair involved, it was a part and the chief motive in the defendant’s story.

Mona Caylor, Anita's sister, told the court:

"There was no affair. There was no room in her life for a man."

Caylor and Anna Simovski, Anita's daughter, also claimed that Dunn was not the kind of person who would have an affair. She loved her dogs and her job as a housekeeper at Freeman Hospital West, which was enough to keep her happy and busy.

However, Greathouse claimed that he and Anita had a brief affair before the events of her death. He allegedly went to her place at 1101 S Jackson Ave that morning with the intention of making love to her. Instead of things going right for Greathouse, Dunn refused his advances that day and informed him that she plans to let his wife know about the affair.

Greathouse allegedly begged her not to do it. A part of Greathouse's defense statement also claimed that he went to the bathroom in the middle of the argument and when he returned Anita had placed a gun on the counter, which he took as a threat and instinctively attacked her. In his statement, he said:

"I was scared,...I wanted to get out of the situation. I wanted out of the house."

The prosecution stated that he first smacked her and then started choking her with his hands. As Dunn continued to struggle, he tried to finish it off by first using a kitchen towel and then an electric cord to strangle her to death. He then stuffed her body in the back of his car and drove to a nearby abandoned mine shaft along Pump Lane.

He allegedly tied Anita Dunn's corpse to a slab of concrete with a grass trimmer cord and dropped the body. He went on to act as if nothing happened for the next two days.

After investigations, he was tried and found guilty by a jury in September 2017.

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When will Murder in Heartland air?

The upcoming episode of Murder in Heartland will air on May 30, 2022, on ID. It will chronicle the story of Anita Dunn's murder. The official synopsis for the episode reads:

"A woman vanishes from her home in the neighbourhood of Belle Center, Missouri, without a trace. Hoping to find Anita Dunn before it's too late, the community aids investigators in an exhaustive search."

New episodes of Murder in the Heartland air every Monday.