The Murder of Jeanne Tovrea

Jeanne Tovrea

Jeanne Gunter, originally from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, was used to moving around. She bounced from one state to another with her brother and parents since her youth and continued to do so well into her thirties. She and her family landed in Redmond, Oregon and, after graduating from high school in 1950, she married a lumber-mill worker named Stan Nolan. One year later, the couple welcomed into the world their first and only child, Deborah.

Jeanne with Daughter Debbie

Jeanne's marriage to Stan was short-lived and ended in divorce soon after their daughter's birth. Jeanne found single parenthood a challenge but did whatever she had to do to make ends meet. She traveled once again from state to state with her daughter looking for work and held temporary jobs including that as a waitress, secretary and hairdresser.

Jeanne remarried several years after her first divorce to a man named Daniel Daniels. Paul Rubin reported in the Phoenix New Times that "it isn't certain how long they were married or if they were together when Daniels," allegedly a professional gambler, was murdered. In the early 1960s, Jeanne found work as a cocktail waitress in Scottsdale, Arizona before moving back "to her native Arkansas for a few years to battle cervical cancer," from which she was cured, according to Paul Rubin. Thereafter, she returned to Arizona and her job as a cocktail waitress. Yet, she didn't plan to work there for long. She had much higher aspirations and decided to work towards a real estate license.

Jeanne worked in real estate in Scottsdale, a job which suited her outgoing personality. She was determined to succeed and she believed real estate was her chance at making her dreams come true. During the early 1970s a friend of hers introduced her to a man who would become the love of her life and make her dreams come true.