Sherri Ann Smith Weathers was 24 and a student at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind when she and her two young sons, five-year-old Chad and four-year-old Joseph, were found murdered in their apartment on February 19, 1986. Sherri’s cause of death was ruled strangulation; both boys died from ligature strangulation.

Investigators focused on a man who had introduced himself as Danial Spence, later identified as Danial Lee Siebert, who had recently arrived in Talladega and worked as a set designer for the institute’s theater program. Siebert had a relationship with Sherri. He disappeared after the killings and was captured on September 5, 1986, in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, reportedly carrying a Social Security card bearing the name of one of Sherri’s sons. He was charged with multiple counts of capital murder and later confessed, saying he strangled Sherri after Linda Jarman left and then woke and strangled each boy.

The trial was moved from Talladega County because of pretrial publicity. In June 1987 the jury convicted Siebert of capital murder and recommended the death penalty, and in August 1987 he was sentenced to death. Does anyone have memories of Sherri, her sons, or that Talladega community at the time who could add detail to the timeline or the people involved?