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Background

Dana Sue Armburst was born in Southern California on December 6th, 1956. Her parents divorced when she was two, and she didn’t see her dad much after that.

As Gray grew older, she began stealing and acting out at school.

Although she was a poor high school student, she did enough to graduate in 1976.

Four years before graduating, she had lost her mother to breast cancer. She saw how the nurses treated her mother, and eventually went to nursing school, graduating in 1981.

In October 1987, she married Tom Gray, a guy she met in high school. They lived in a gated community in Canyon Lake, California, and ran a few businesses. Dana also worked as a delivery nurse. They looked like they were wealthy, but in reality, they were living above their means.

Their marriage fell apart, and in 1993, Dana left her husband and moved in with her lover. Later that year, she filed for divorce. In September 1993, Dana and her estranged husband filed for bankruptcy so they wouldn’t lose their home.

Two months later, Gray was fired from her job for stealing drugs.

Crime Spree

On February 14th, 1994, Dana contacted her soon-to-be ex-husband’s family and asked them to arrange a meeting between her and Tom. Dana couldn’t contact Tom directly because he concealed his phone number and address from his estranged wife.

Tom agreed to meet her, but he decided not to risk it.

Later that day, Dana went to the home of 86-year-old Norma Davis. Dana’s stepmother, Geri Armburst, was connected to Davis through her first marriage, and she introduced Dana to her.

Authorities believe Davis let Dana in her Canyon Lake home. Once inside, Dana killed her with a fillet knife. She ripped out the phone and fled.

She left behind a bloody Nike shoe print. Davis’s neighbor found her body two days later.

On February 28th, 1994, Gray went to the home of her former neighbor, 66-year-old June Roberts, to borrow a book. With Roberts distracted, Gray disconnected the phone cords; then, she used one of the cords to strangle her neighbor and beat her with a wine bottle. She stole two of Robert’s credit cards.

An hour later, she took the cards to a nearby shopping center to treat herself. She bought an expensive crab and shrimp meal. Later, she got her and her boyfriend’s son’s hair done for $164.76.

She ended the night by spending $511 on a new jacket and $161 on diamond earrings.

On March 10th, 1994, Gray entered an antique store to buy a picture frame. When she realized 58-year-old Dorinda Hawkins was working alone, she decided to attack her.

She strangled her with the telephone cord like she did Roberts weeks early. She stole $25, left the scene, and went on another shopping spree with Robert’s credit cards.

While Dana was out shopping, Hawkings was describing Dana to the cops as she had played dead and was still alive.

On March 16th, 1994, Dana went to the home of 87-year-old Dora Beebe. She pretended to be lost, and Beebe invited her in and pulled out a map.

Gray attacked her, killed her, and then stole two credit cards. An hour after the crime, she went on another shopping spree.

As Dana was on her depraved crime spree, clueless detectives were looking at her stepmother, Geri, as the killer. They developed a rapport with her once they realized she wasn’t the perpetrator.

After some time, detectives learned the person using the dead woman’s credit card had newly dyed hair and had a kid named Jason with her on some of her spending sprees. When they ran this info by Geri, she pointed the finger at her stepdaughter Dana.

Hours after Beebe was murdered, authorities started following Dana and saw her shopping with Beebe’s credit cards.

They arrested Dana the next day. They found that many of her ill-gotten goods were in her home.

When questioned about the case, she proclaimed her innocence and said she found the victim’s credit cards. Despite hours of questioning, she refused to confess.

Prosecution

She was charged with murder, and prosecutors planned to pursue the death penalty. Dana, on the other hand, pleaded insanity.

On September 9th, 1998, she gave up the act and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder to avoid the death penalty.

For unknown reasons, she did not want to be prosecuted for Davis’ murder, and the state agreed to that.

She was sentenced to life without parole.

The serial killer is in the California Women’s Prison in Chowchilla.