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Dead by Sunset:
Brad Cunningham (1995)

Ann Rule

Dead by Sunset is a horrific true crime account of Brad Cunningham, who appeared to all, a handsome, charming, and loving father, and caring husband. In reality, he considered his wives and children to be nothing more than disposable possessions.

Cheryl Keeton and Brad Cunningham met and married in Seattle in the late 1970s. Cheryl was his fourth wife. At that time she was a law student and he was a banker. After Cheryl's graduation, she joined a Seattle law firm. Shortly thereafter, Brad became involved in a large real estate development project in Texas and eventually the family moved to Texas. The project encountered difficulties, and the family filed for bankruptcy. Cheryl  returned to Seattle to work for the same law firm, while Brad remained in Texas. In 1985, Cheryl transferred to the firm's Portland office. Brad also moved to Oregon and went to work for a savings and loan association. The Cunninghams purchased a home in Gresham. However, the marriage was deteriorating, and Brad eventually moved out.

In February 1986, Cheryl filed for divorce. The divorce proceeding was scheduled to go to trial in October 1986. During the period that followed, the relationship between Cheryl and Brad became increasingly bitter. Both of them sought custody of their three sons: Tyler, aged six, Travis, aged four, and Spencer, aged two. There were discussions of joint custody arrangements, and the parties agreed to an interim visitation schedule under which Brad would pick up the children on Friday evenings and return them to Cheryl's home on Sunday evenings.

In the spring of 1986, a psychologist performed a custody evaluation. He observed that Brad made contradictory statements, claiming to be the children's primary parent but also claiming that he worked very long hours at his job and admitting that he had not even lived in the same state with the children for a significant period of time. Brad also told the psychologist that the Cheryl did not like, and could not handle, the children. Brad confided that he believed that his mother-in-law, Cheryl's mother, was planning to poison him and kidnap the children.

Cheryl told the psychologist that Brad was harsh and inflexible with the children. The psychologist observed that, at a joint meeting with both Brad and Cheryl, Cheryl seemed intimidated and did not want to be alone with Brad, while Brad was "aggressive" and "bombastic." The psychologist concluded that the children seemed well-adjusted and happy with their mother and that Cheryl was the more appropriate custodian of the children because the children's needs were central to her life, whereas Brad had many other pursuits in which he was engaged. 

In the summer of 1986, Cheryl consulted with a bankruptcy attorney because she was concerned that Brad had some assets that had not been disclosed in the couple's pending bankruptcy. The attorney told Cheryl about penalties that could result from a failure to disclose assets in a bankruptcy proceeding. Cheryl seemed anxious and fearful of retribution from Brad if she disclosed the assets.

During this period, Brad and Cheryl had numerous disputes about the children. In the spring of 1986, Brad and Cheryl had a loud fight at the children's preschool during which Brad became quite agitated. They also violently disagreed over where their oldest son, Tyler, would attend school in the fall. While Cheryl wanted to enroll Tyler in a school near her home, Brad resisted.  He instructed the preschool not to forward Tyler's records to that school. When school began on September 2, Cheryl brought a friend with her to the school to try to keep Brad from interfering with the enrollment. When Brad arrived at the school, he confronted Cheryl angrily, yelling at her. They never resolved their differences about Tyler's schooling.

On September 16, 1986, depositions were taken in the divorce proceeding. Cheryl's attorney tried to question Brad about the couple's taxes, which had not been filed for several years, and about the property that Cheryl believed had not been properly disclosed to the bankruptcy court. Brad gave evasive answers. After the deposition, Brad was highly upset, telling friends that Cheryl had lied and that she was not a fit mother. He told one of his friends, "I'll kill Cheryl." Brad's girlfriend, Hermens, said that Brad was agitated after the deposition, and that he called Cheryl and told her that she would pay for lying at the deposition. Cheryl's brother overheard a telephone conversation between Brad and Cheryl on the evening of September 16 during which Brad called Cheryl a "dumb cunt" and stated, "I'll get you." On September 18, 1986, the divorce court denied Brad's request for a lengthy schedule of the divorce proceeding. The trial was scheduled in one week.

On Friday, September 19, Brad and his girlfriend went to Cheryl's house in southwest Portland to pick up the children for weekend visitation. Brad was irritated and accused Cheryl of having lied. He also told Cheryl about his suspicions of being poisoned. Later, Brad made a statement to his girlfriend that, "when somebody killed one parent but the other parent wasn't convicted of something, being better off for children." The children spent the weekend at Brad's apartment also in southwest Portland.

On Saturday, September 20, Brad took the children to a soccer game in which Tyler was playing. Cheryl also went to the game. When Brad saw her there, he became upset and took the children to the other side of the field because he saw Cheryl's presence as an intrusion on his time with the children. Cheryl, who was also distraught because she couldn't speak with her children, told a friend that Brad did not want her at the game and that he had threatened her.

In the early evening of September 21, Brad, his girlfriend, and the children went out for an early dinner. After dinner, Brad borrowed his girlfriend's car, saying that his vehicle was having some problems. He left his girlfriend at the hospital where she worked at about 6:40 p.m., saying that he had forgotten one of the children's blankets and that he was going back to the apartment before taking the children home to their mother. Brad told his girlfriend that he would return to the hospital to visit her after he took the children home. 

At 7:11 p.m., Cheryl made a telephone call from her home to her mother's home in Washington state. Cheryl told her mother that Brad had called to tell her that he wasn't able to return the children to her at 7:00 as arranged because he was having some problems with his vehicle. He would not tell her where he was. She was hysterical when she called her mother and suggested that she might call the police. From Cheryl 's recounting of her conversation with Brad, her mother was under the impression that the children were out somewhere in a broken-down car. At around 7:30 p.m., Cheryl also called her brother, who lived with her and the children but was away from home that evening. She was upset and crying when she talked to him. She told him that Brad had not brought the children home yet and that he claimed to be having car trouble, which she described as a "typical maneuver."

At 7:59 p.m., Cheryl called her mother again. She told her, "Mother, I want you to remember this. I'm going down to the Mobil station by the IGA store, ah, down the hill and I'm going to meet Brad and pick up the children. And I want you to remember this."  Cheryl 's mother called her boyfriend and had Cheryl repeat the information so that he could hear it as well. Her mother suggested that Cheryl should not go alone to meet Brad, but Cheryl replied, "No, I cannot leave the kids in the car any longer. I have to go pick up my kids." She told her mother that she would call back when she returned.

At about 8:30 p.m., Cheryl's body was found in her van. The van had traveled down the intersecting side street into the eastbound lanes of the Sunset Highway leading into Portland and crashed on the highway. A motorist on the highway stopped traffic and attempted to rescue Cheryl from the van. He found Cheryl with her head on the passenger floorboard and her feet on the driver's seat. He noted that the van was still running and that a purse had been stuffed onto the accelerator. Paramedics arrived several minutes later and reported Cheryl dead on the scene. Investigating officers noted a substantial amount of blood spatter in the van. They also observed that Cheryl had numerous injuries that were not consistent with being caused by a vehicle accident.  They concluded that Cheryl had been murdered and that the murderer had attempted to cause a vehicular accident on the Sunset Highway and make it appear that Cheryl had died in the accident. An autopsy later showed that Cheryl died of head injuries. Both her upper and lower jaws were fractured, and there was evidence of approximately 25 blows.

Around 11:00 p.m. on the night of the murder, police officers went to Brad's apartment. When the officers told Brad that Cheryl was dead, he asked if she had been in a vehicle accident. Brad told the officers that he had last seen Cheryl on Friday evening, two days before the murder, when he picked up their children for his weekend visitation with them. He stated that he had called Cheryl around 7:00 or 7:30 p.m. on the evening of the murder and told her he was running late and that the children were watching "The Sword and the Stone." He stated that he called Cheryl again about an hour later, and she said that she was going to come to his apartment to pick up the children. Brad further stated that the only time he had left his apartment that evening was to put something in his car. Witnesses had a different story.

In the days following the murder, Brad instructed the staff at his office not to disclose information about his whereabouts to the police. He also expressed concerns that Cheryl's mother posed some sort of threat to him and the children. Brad arranged for the children to be moved out of state. He spoke disdainfully of Cheryl after the murder, suggesting that she had probably been killed by someone she had picked up in a bar. Brad told his girlfriend that Cheryl had been nasty to the children and that they would not miss her. Several days after the murder, his girlfriend observed a large bruise on Brad's left arm. He said that he got the bruise on the day of the murder when playing at a park with the children.

It appeared the Brad was going to get away with the murder until Cheryl Keeton's estate filed a civil suit for damages against Brad in 1991. A criminal trial followed in 1993, in which Brad chose to represent himself. He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life for the murder of Cheryl Keeton. He is currently serving his sentence at the Oregon State Penitentiary. In 2002, he was granted a new murder trial by the Oregon Court of Appeals after his objection to Cheryl's mother's testimony who told jurors about a phone call from Cheryl just before she went to meet Brad on the night of her death. She described the fear in her daughter's voice. Brad claimed that that testimony was hearsay. In February 2005, the Oregon Supreme Court reversed the Appeals Court ruling.

In March 2004, he requested a pardon from the governor based the fact that Author Ann Rule wrote a book about the case. He asked the governor to "grant him a pardon and approve his immediate release because he was "convicted solely on hearsay" and was "tarred by a best selling book and television movie about his case." The governor denied his request for a pardon.

He is now a very overweight old man who is growing rapidly bald. He is no longer the smooth "ladies' man".  However, his arrogance continues undiminished, and he continues to file lawsuits and appeals.

Ann Rule's Full Length Bestsellers
with Case Background
 

• Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal(2007) - Tells the story of a Georgia dentist named Bart Corbin, and how two women, a beautiful dentistry student named Dolly Hearn, and Bart's wife, Jennifer Barber Corbin, found themselves fatally involved with Corbin over the course of two decades.

• Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer-America's Deadliest Serial Murderer (2004) - This is the extraordinary true story of the most prolific serial killer the nation had ever seen -- a case involving more than forty-nine female victims, two decades of intense investigative work...and one unrelenting killer who not only attended Ann Rule's book signings but lived less than a mile away from her home.

• Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death (2003) - An idyllic Hawaiian wedding held the promise of a wonderful future for handsome, athletic Chris Northon, an airline pilot, a confirmed bachelor-turned-devoted family man; and Liysa, an acclaimed surf photographer, loving mother, and aspiring Hollywood screenwriter. But few, including Chris, had seen Liysa's other side -- her controlling behavior and dark moods, her insatiable hunger for money and property. And no one anticipated the fatal outcome of a family camping trip in an Oregon forest. Liysa soon revealed herself as a victim of domestic abuse that culminated at the campsite, where she shot Chris in self-defense. But crime scene evidence led detectives to wonder if Liysa was a killer, not a victim.

• Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder (2001) - Although happily settled securely in a loving second marriage, and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila never truly escaped the vicious enslavement of her ex-husband, multi-millionaire Allen Blackthorne, a handsome charmer -- and a violent, controlling sociopath who subjected Sheila to unthinkable abuse in their marriage, and terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was slain in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge. Shelia had said, "If anything ever happens to me... find Ann Rule and ask her to write my story."

• And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer (1999) - On a June evening in 1996, 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey, secretary to the governor of Delaware, vanished without a trace following a restaurant rendezvous with her secret lover of more than two years: Thomas Capano. One of Wilmington's most prominent and respected figures, a millionaire attorney and former state prosecutor, "Tommy" was a charming, soft spoken family man. But in the weeks and months that followed Fahey's disappearance, investigators would gradually uncover the shocking truth: Capano was a steely manipulator driven by power and greed -- and capable of brutal murder.

• Bitter Harvest: A Woman's Fury, A Mother's Sacrifice (1998) - Rule probes the case of Debora Green, a doctor and a loving mother. A small-town girl with a genius IQ, she achieved an enviable life: her own medical practice, a handsome physician husband, three perfect children, and an opulent home in an exclusive Kansas City suburb. But when a raging fire destroyed that home and took two lives, the trail of clues led investigators to a stunning conclusion.

• Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (1995) - When attorney Cheryl Keeton's brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare....

• Everything She Ever Wanted: A True Story of Obsessive Love, Murder, and Betrayal (1992) - For their wedding portrait, petite Pat Taylor and handsome Tom Allanson posed as Rhett and Scarlett.  Less than two months later, their dream exploded in terror and murder: their beautiful home mysteriously burned to the ground and Tom was convicted of the brutal slaying of his mother and father. Pat's only brother had died in a puzzling suicide, her grandparents-in-law were poisoned with arsenic, and no one -- from her wealthy employers to her own children -- was safe when Pat Allanson didn't get her way. It took Georgia lawmen more than two decades to stop her for good -- if indeed they have.

• If You Really Loved Me: A True Story of Desire and Murder (1991) - David Brown was a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown unfolded revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. Did David Brown convince his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him?

• Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder (1987) - A shocking and powerful account of the destructive forces that drove Diane Downs, a beautiful young mother, to shoot her three young children in cold blood.

• The Want-Ad Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1983) - After his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death--using want ads to lure his young female victims.

• The I-5 Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1984) - As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all--a star athlete, good looks, and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.

• Possession - A Novel (1983) - Joanne Lindstrom's camping trip to Washington's Cascade mountains goes terribly awry, leaving her husband dead and Joanne's only hope for survival in the hands of a twisted stranger. (This is Ann Rule's only novel. Based on a real Northwest Case.)  

• Lust Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1983) - To his neighbors, Jerry Brudos was a gentle man whose mild manner contrasted with his awesome physical strength. To his employers, Jerry was a fine worker. To his wife, he was a good husband. And to the Oregon police, Jerry Brudos was the most hideously twisted killer they had ever unmasked.

• The Stranger Beside Me - Ted Bundy: The Classic Story of Seduction & Murder (1980) - Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that Ted Bundy, her close friend, was the savage slayer she was hunting.

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