A North Texas family has started an online campaign using social networking sites to keep a murderer from being paroled out of prison.
Sandy Dial, 34, was reported missing on Dec. 13, 1991, and found dead two days later inside her car, which was parked along Hunt County Road 2646 just north of Greenville. Dial died from a single gunshot wound to the head. She was a mother of two children.
DeEllen Bellah was convicted of conspiracy to commit capital murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison. She is the accused mastermind behind the fraudulent insurance scheme that led to Dial's death. Bellah became friends with Dial and obtained a $100,000 insurance policy that named her as the beneficiary.
A second defendant, Don Kindall Dial, the victim's brother-in-law was also convicted in the case. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2012. He was a former officer with the Hunt County Sheriff's Department.
Charges were dropped against a third defendant, the victim's ex-husband, Earl Kindall Dial, because of a lack of evidence.
Now, almost two decades after the notorious murder, Sandy Dial's sister, Janet Holley, is fighting to keep Bellah from being released on parole.
Holley is using the social networking sites MySpace and Facebook to spread the word and persuade others to send protest letters to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, hoping they'll influence the board to deny Bellah's parole.
"I'm worried for her to get out of prison. I feel like she will do this again. She has a long history of committing fraud," Holley said.
Holley estimates hundreds of her friends and family have already sent electronic letters of protest through www.paroleprotest.com.
"I have friends who posted it on Facebook for me. We wanted to reach as many people as we could and I knew that those networking Web sites would be the quickest way to get it out there and it was," said Holley's daughter, Jennifer Ellis.
Those who visit the Web site simply have to click on Bellah's name to file a letter.
Holley and her daughter said the murder ripped their family apart and changed the way they look at the world.
"You're not as trusting of people, you're always looking over your shoulder," Ellis said. "You just have to be on guard because you can't trust anybody."
