Murder in My House on ID: What happened to Marioara Shand?

In 2002, Marioara Shand's shocking case rattled the tight-knit community of Taos, New Mexico, when she was found viciously r*ped and stabbed to death in her home. She was stabbed over a dozen times, and her throat was sliced open.

Disclaimer: This article contains graphic details of r*pe and murder. Reader discretion is advised.

DNA evidence found at the crime scene later confirmed the involvement of her landlord and next-door neighbor's grandson, Nathaniel Duran, whom Shand had picked up on the morning of the murder. Duran was eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison with an additional term.

Marioara Shand was stabbed 14 times, and her neck was slashed twice after she was r*ped (Image via Find a Grave)

This week's episode of Murder in My House is slated to chronicle Marioara Shand's bloodcurdling murder case. The episode, titled Blood Everywhere, will air on ID this Tuesday, April 11, at 9 pm ET.

Here's the official synopsis for the upcoming episode:

"No one knows who would want to hurt Marioara Shand, a shy, friendly woman; then, about a week later, another single woman is stabbed in Taos, N.M.; this nightmare leaves more questions than answers as police investigate."

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Marioara Shand was found r*ped and stabbed with 14 knife wounds inside her Ranchos de Taos residence

Marioara Shand was found dead inside her house two days after she went missing (Image via TVmaze.com)

Born in Yugoslavia, Marioara Shand was a Swedish native and had previously lived in Hanford, California. She was married to Michael Shand, whom she first met when the latter was a strike officer in Bahrain, and she worked as a flight attendant for Gulf Airlines. The two got married in 1990, but her husband sadly died in a car accident in 1996 after being hit by a drunk driver.

In 2002, Shand lived in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, and was quite renowned in the community for her friendly and down-to-earth nature. But on July 9 of that year, the police found her dead, lying in a pool of blood, inside her house. A subsequent autopsy confirmed that the victim was r*ped and then stabbed 14 times before her throat was slashed twice.

Furthermore, reports state that when the police first arrived at the crime scene, it appeared that a struggle had occurred between the attacker and the 36-year-old victim, but they failed to find any signs of a forced entry. The only crucial piece of evidence found was a foreign DNA sample collected from Shand's inner thighs that would eventually lead to a suspect.

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DNA evidence was used to connect the grandson of Marioara Shand’s landlord to the r*pe and killing

On the right is a picture of Marioara Shand with her husband, who died in a car accident in 1996 (Image via Find a Grave)

After a few initial failures concerning suspects and a lack of leads, the slow investigation into Marioara Shand's stabbing death made a significant development once authorities learned that on the morning of the murder, July 7, she picked up her next-door neighbor and landlord's grandson, Nathaniel Duran, in her car. That day, she went missing and even failed to show up at work.

Duran, who was 17 years old at the time, maintained his innocence but was implicated in the crime using the DNA found in samples of semen recovered from Shand's inner thigh. He then claimed to have had consensual s*x with the victim, denying any allegations of his involvement in the killing. But once he failed to provide proof and an alibi at the time of the murder, the police charged him.

According to reports, Nathaniel Duran pleaded not guilty but was convicted of r*pe and murder. He was given a life sentence and an additional ten and a half years. He later committed suicide while serving his life sentence in prison.

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ID's Murder in My House will shed further light on the decades-old case this Tuesday, April 11.