Diana ferris murder in conn story

On April 11, 1996, M. William Phelps’ sister-in-law, Diana Ferris, 35, was strangled to death in her apartment in Hartford. The crime has never been solved.

At the time of her deathFerris was estranged from and on bad terms with not only Phelps, but also from Phelps’ brother, her common-law husband.

“She had been in our lives since she was 15, but at the time of her murder, we hated each other,” Phelps said of his sister who was addicted to heroin.

But none of that matters. “You have to be careful who you’re at odds with and who you want out of your life, because someday, they might be,” Phelps said in an interview in his home, in an east-of-the-river farming community.

Phelps thinks about Ferris a lot these days, especially since he created a reality show about unsolved murders.

“Dark Minds,” which reopens investigations into cold-case serial killings nationwide, premieres Wednesday, Jan. 25, on the Investigation Discovery ch