Diedra Glabus died quietly in 2022 at the age of 81 in the corn capital of southern Alberta.
She was well known in Taber, a town of 9,000, working as a Realtor and volunteer.
Outliving two husbands in the community, she left behind one son, but her legacy is now much more shocking as residents learn she was wanted for a series of murders committed in the 1960s in Missouri and Mexico.
“The Taber Police Service had no idea of the background of this individual,” said Taber police chief Graham Abela.
“This individual was never brought to light in any type of law enforcement investigation that we’re aware of that occurred in our community.”
Glabus had been on the run for a series of murders dating back to 1960.
Her real name was Sharon Kinne.
She was the subject of one of the largest manhunts in U.S. history.
Originally from Independence, Missouri, she was charged in 1960 with shooting and killing her first husband and then her boyfriend’s wife.
She was released from prison in 1963 on bond and fled to Mexico.
That’s where, in 1964, she killed a man during a robbery and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
She escaped in 1969.
She made it to Alberta in 1979 and married twice more.
“She was well known here for the decades that she lived,” Abela said.
In 2023, after her death, someone in Taber tipped off sheriffs in Jackson County, Missouri, about her real identity.
Fingerprints eventually proved to be a match.
Police and those who knew her are equally surprised.
“She just seemed to be really nice and personable and, yeah, I’m just totally shocked. I mean, how can you be one person and, you know, totally be this other person?” said Melinda Harris, who used to own a flower shop in Taber where Glabus shopped.
“It just brings up so many more questions.”
