On March 6, 1990, 53-year-old Richard Schaefer was shot to death on the front porch of his estranged wife Patricia's home at 3908 Prosperity Avenue in Fairfax.

The couple had been engaged in a long and acrimonious divorce, which was to be finalized the following day. Schaefer had arrived at the home at 7:30 in the evening to visit with the couple's youngest daughter, Sibyl, and his wife shot him approximately 10 minutes later.

At the preliminary hearing for Patricia S. Schaefer, four of the couple's six children: 12-year-old Sibyl, 14-year-old Garth, 18-year-old Quin, and 20-year old Corbin, testified that they did not know or care how their mother came to shoot their father six times with a five-shot Smith & Wesson revolver that evening.