Six People Accused In Murder, Arson Plot Man Allegedly Killed Ex-Wife, Boyfriend

Six people have been arrested for their alleged roles in an elaborate murder, arson and coverup conspiracy that left Donna Fontaine and Fred Palahniuk dead last May.

The bodies of Fontaine, a Missouri attorney, and Fred Palahniuk, the Newman Lake man she was dating, were found in a burning building near Kendrick in north-central Idaho.

A Latah County grand jury convened for at least three weeks in January on the case before handing down indictments late Friday. That led to a series of arrests over the weekend.

The indictments allege that Dale C. Shackelford, Fontaine’s ex-husband, shot and killed Fontaine and Palahniuk with a shotgun and a .32-caliber pistol on May 29 in the remote Latah County building where she was staying - a garage with upstairs living quarters.

Shackelford then poured flammable liquid on the building and set fire to both floors, prosecutors allege.

Shackelford is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, first-degree arson and preparing false evidence for a faked tape prosecutors allege he intended for a recent grand jury proceeding.

In the year prior to her death, the Missouri attorney had told residents in the small Ozarks region where she had run for county prosecutor that she feared Shackelford would harm her.

The indictments allege that Shackelford’s crimes were committed with the knowledge and help of his fiancee Sonja Abitz and her mother, Mary Abitz, a Kendrick school bus driver. Both have been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree arson and principal to preparing false evidence.

Prosecutors believe the Kendrick women watched Fontaine’s movement and activity in Latah County, threatened to kill her, hid Shackelford when he came into town, and arranged to have Fontaine’s brother absent from her temporary Kendrick home.

The alleged lies that followed also ensnared Sonja Abitz’s father, John Abitz, also a Kendrick bus driver, who is charged with perjury for lying to a grand jury about a tape recording.

Shackelford is accused of tape recording a staged argument between himself and Bernadette Lasater, who worked for his trucking company. Prosecutors believe he planned to provide the tape as evidence to the grand jury.

Lasater and Martha Millar, also of Missouri, are charged with preparing false evidence. Lasater and Shackelford called a news conference in Kendrick several weeks ago, claiming they had new evidence that pointed blame for the murders on someone else.

Appearing in court Monday, an agitated Shackelford accused Latah County authorities of a shakedown. “My secretaries have been arrested, my friends have been arrested,” said Shackelford, chained in leg irons and wearing his glasses and shoes for the first time since being arrested Saturday after voluntarily coming to the Sheriff’s Department at investigators’ request.

“My whole family, everyone I have and everyone I work with has been arrested on this - this is a shakedown by the prosecutor’s office.” Shackelford, appearing without an attorney, said prosecutors have evidence that would clear him and others of wrongdoing. He filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with the court. The petition is a legal option used by people sometimes to assert they are being unlawfully restrained.

Second District Judge John Stegner offered public defenders or court-appointed attorneys to Sonja, Mary and John Abitz, Lasater, and Shackelford, who all face hearings this week. Millar was arrested in Missouri and is awaiting extradition to Idaho.

Mary and John Abitz’s other two children, a 16-year-old son and 20-year-old daughter, watched, sometimes tearfully, as their mother, father and sister were brought in on first appearances.

Deputy Prosecutor Robin Eckmann requested that the family members and Shackelford not be allowed contact with one another, given the “substantial amount of communication” going on between family members. Mary Abitz requested that she and her husband be able to discuss their business and other important financial matters.

Shackelford has a prior criminal history. He was serving a 15-year sentence on a sodomy conviction when he met Fontaine, he said in earlier interviews with The Spokesman-Review. She was teaching at the prison. The two married in 1995, after he was paroled. The couple later came to Kendrick, where Fontaine’s brother was building a home. In 1996 they bought property together in a rural area on Three Bear Road, property records show. After they separated and later divorced, Fontaine kept ownership of the land and Shackelford leased some separate land nearby, because he loved the area, he said.

But Fontaine feared Shackelford and told residents in her hometown - including the local sheriff - that she felt she was in danger.

Fontaine was bringing rape charges against Shackelford for an incident she alleged occurred the year prior, court records show.

In a letter addressed to the “Citizens of Iron County,” Fontaine told residents she was risking her career, even her life, by pursuing the rape charges against Shackelford.

In the letter, Fontaine claimed Shackelford was spreading rumors while she was campaigning for county prosecutor in 1998 because he was angry she was going ahead with the charges.

“I am the victim that he has been terrorizing, stalking and abusing for over a year,” Fontaine wrote in the letter. “He is a desperate man who faces life imprison (sic) unless I do not testify against him or because of any pressure he can put on me.”

Fontaine, 44, was planning on writing a book about the last two years of her life. She had documented Shackelford’s background and sent it to friends “in case there comes a day when something happens to me and the press seeks information.”

Last spring, over Memorial Day weekend, she invited Palahniuk, 59, to join her at a community festival in Kendrick, where she was building a summer home.

She died one week before Shackelford was slated to appear in court to set a date for a trial on charges of forcible rape, forcible sodomy, felonious restraint and second-degree assault.

IDAHO HEADLINE: 6 accused of murder, arson plot