Dan Lafferty is the convicted murderer of his sister-in-law Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old niece in 1984. A true-crime story, “Under the Banner of Heaven,” depicts the heinous crime.
“Under the Banner of Heaven” examines the real-life murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter Erica in July 1984. Her brothers-in-law, Ron and Dan Lafferty murdered the 24-year-old and her baby child after Ron felt he had received an order from God to kill them and two others, Chloe Low and Richard Stowe, in a ritual murder.
In separate trials in 1985, both brothers were charged with the double murders and found guilty. The death penalty was not imposed on Dan. On appeal, Ron’s conviction was overturned, but he was re-convicted and condemned to death after a retrial in 1996. As of today, the crime is remembered as one of Utah’s most heinous crimes.
Dan Lafferty Is Still Alive And Incarcerated at Utah State Prison
Dan Lafferty is currently serving two concurrent life sentences at Utah State Prison. He is still alive and not eligible for release at the Draper facility.
However, Ron died of natural causes in Utah State Prison on November 11, 2019, after spending 34 years on death row and requesting to be killed by a firing squad.
On July 24, 1984, Allen Lafferty returned home from work to discover his wife Brenda and their infant daughter Erica had had their throats slashed. Brenda’s body was discovered in the kitchen with a vacuum cable wrapped around her neck, and her 15-month-old daughter was found lifeless in her blood-soaked crib.
After the killing, two of Allen’s five brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, left the state but were arrested weeks later in Reno, Nevada. They did not deny killing Brenda and Erica. Instead, Ron said he had a vision from God to “remove” his sister-in-law and niece, whom he claimed had become “huge hurdles” in his way.
Dan Lafferty Sentence And Parole Update
Dan Lafferty was given two life sentences for his crimes, to be served concurrently and without the possibility of release. He has been spending his time at the Utah State Prison’s maximum-security ward since 1985.
Dan also revealed that the horrific killings of his sister-in-law and niece never once haunted him.
Disclosing Dan Lafferty Age
As reported by gossipnextdoor, Dan Lafferty’s age in 2022 is at least 73 years old. He is one of Watson Leroy Lafferty and Claudine Jones Lafferty’s six kids. Dan was born into a well-known Mormon family with strong ideals in Utah.
His father was born in the Canadian town of Raymond and eventually moved to Utah. Watson was a chiropractor who died of diabetes on September 10, 1983, at the age of 68.
Meanwhile, Claudine, Dan’s mother, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, as the tenth of eleven children. She spent almost 70 years as a cosmetologist, creating lifelong acquaintances. At the age of 96, she passed away on January 28, 2016.