An American woman, known as Sharon Kinne, who was implicated in three homicides and vanished from a prison in Mexico over 50 years ago, has passed away in Canada while living under an assumed identity, authorities reported on Thursday.
Kinne was charged with the murders of her husband from Missouri, her boyfriend’s wife, and a man she met in a bar in Mexico before she turned 25. After her escape from a women’s prison on December 7, 1969, her whereabouts remained unknown for decades, attracting attention in various media forms, including podcasts, television programs, and the book titled “I’m Just an Ordinary Girl: The Sharon Kinne Story.”
Through a tipoff, authorities confirmed that Sharon Kinne died of natural causes on January 21, 2022, in Alberta, Canada, where she had been living as Diedra Glabus. Sgt. Dustin Love of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office in Kansas City, Missouri, made this announcement during a press briefing. As a result of Kinne’s passing, all outstanding charges against her were formally dismissed.
Love expressed his desire to have confronted Kinne during her lifetime, indicating that her adeptness at evading capture was impressive. “I would love nothing more (than) to one day sit across the table from her, and I would like to pick her brain. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t catch her when she was alive. She was really good at what she did,” he remarked.
Kinne’s family released a statement during the news conference, highlighting that the revelation of her death offered a sense of closure. They remarked, “Sharon was a woman that never faced the consequences of her actions, leaving them for her children to deal with. She caused great harm without thought or remorse.”
Kinne had married at the age of 16 and, in March 1960, was residing in a ranch home in Independence, Missouri. It was there that her 25-year-old husband, James Kinne, was shot in the back of the head while resting. Kinne claimed to have witnessed her 2-year-old daughter asking, “How does this thing work, daddy?” shortly before the gunfire. She asserted that she found the toddler holding her husband’s .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol, leading to a ruling of accidental death.
However, marital issues surfaced, and Kinne was implicated in concurrent romantic entanglements, as later revealed in court. During this tumultuous time, she met car salesman Walter Jones when using funds from her husband’s life insurance and the sale of their home to purchase a new vehicle. Kinne attempted to convince Jones to leave his wife, but he declined.
In May 1960, Kinne manipulated Jones’ wife, Patricia, into meeting her before she vanished, leading to an extensive search operation. Later, Kinne was present when the body of Patricia Jones, who had been fatally shot four times, was discovered. Kinne feigned surprise and instructed her partner not to inform law enforcement about her presence, but he did anyway.
By June 1, 1960, Kinne faced charges for Patricia Jones’ murder. Subsequently, investigators reopened the case regarding James Kinne’s death, resulting in a grand jury indictment for that homicide as well. In June 1961, during her trial for Patricia Jones’ murder, she was acquitted by an all-male jury to applause in the courtroom.
Kinne was convicted of her husband’s murder in January 1962, but the conviction was later overturned by the Missouri Supreme Court due to issues with jury selection. In a second trial, jurors could not reach a verdict, allowing her release on bond, a scenario that Love noted would be unlikely today. Kinne subsequently moved to Mexico with a new partner in September 1964.
Not long after, while she was out, she met and later murdered a man named Francisco Ordonez, which resulted in a 13-year prison sentence. Ballistics evidence later linked a gun found in her motel room in Mexico to the murder of Patricia Jones. Kinne gained notoriety in Mexico, being dubbed “La Pistolera,” or “The Gunslinger.” During a 1965 interview, she remarked about feeling trapped in her circumstances.
The investigation into her life went cold until a tip was received in December 2023. Eventually, investigators could confirm her identity through a match of her fingerprints with those taken during the initial investigations into the murders. Kinne’s life revealed that she had remarried multiple times over the years, including a union in 1970 with James Glabus in Los Angeles. She built new families under various identities.
Capt. Ronda Montgomery from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office emphasized the wider impact of Kinne’s actions, stating, “Not only are the victims’ families affected by this, but so are her families.” It was noted that the families of her victims wished to remain anonymous and requested privacy during this time.
Although her exact activities during the 1970s remain unclear, officials noted Kinne had been in Alberta, Canada, since at least 1979. Authorities are still interested in information about her life, particularly her activities from 1969 to 1979. Love expressed regret over the inability to apprehend her while she was alive, explaining that the tip only surfaced posthumously.
