Jane Alexander.Credit : A&E/YouTube

NEED TO KNOW

A woman who set out to find her aunt’s murderer discovered that the answer was disturbingly close to home.
Jane Alexander was raised in part by her aunt Gertrude, who was murdered in 1983
A PEOPLE story from the archives delved into the case, and what Alexander did next

Jane Alexander was devastated when her aunt, Gertude McCabe, was murdered in 1983. McCabe had helped to raise Alexander after her parents divorced when she was just a child. She couldn’t understand who would want to kill her.

She would spend years gathering evidence to help authorities catch the killer — and over a decade later, it would be her boyfriend who was charged.

Alexander had lead a charmed life — married to a successful San Francisco banker in a wealthy neighborhood and with six children. But her life took a turn when her husband died suddenly in 1977.

When his longtime friend, Tom O’Donnell, called to check in, a romance blossomed — and Alexander and O’Donnell began dating.

As PEOPLE detailed in its March 6, 2000 issue, Alexander soon introduced O’Donnell to her aunt Gertude and began entrusting him to look after her finances. Her life seemed to be getting back on track following her devastating loss, until Oct. 23, 1983, when police phoned with terrible news: Aunt Gert had been murdered.

Ten months after, Alexander discovered O’Donnell had left town, writing her a letter that he was threatened by former business partners. But then, she realized his financial management had not been what it seemed — per PEOPLE, he “nearly bankrupted” her. And then police came calling.

After a police investigator new to the case told Alexander he suspected O’Donnell had been responsible for her aunt’s death, she tracked him down — discovering that he was holed up in Las Vegas and he was arrested for defrauding her.

O’Donnell was convicted on the fraud charges in 1986 and sentenced to nearly four years in prison — and while both Alexander and police believed he was responsible for McCabe’s death, they had only circumstantial evidence.

Alexander was, at this point, nearly penniless, moving from her large home to a one-room apartment in 1986 and taking a job at a local retirement home. In her free time, she worked to solve her aunt’s murder alongside a police investigator. Within five years, they had turned up new evidence: a nephew of O’Donnell’s who said his uncle had told him about the death one day before police knew about it and a photo that showed O’Donnell had altered the crime scene between police visits.

In March 1992, O’Donnell was arrested a second time and, in 1996, convicted of first-degree murder for Gert’s death. He was given a sentence of 25 years to life, with Santa Clara district attorney’s office investigator Grant Cunningham telling PEOPLE: “Without Jane it wouldn’t have happened. She got hold of it and wouldn’t let go.”

As PEOPLE detailed in 2000, Alexander went on to cofound a group called Citizens Against Homicide to help families of murder victims motivate authorities to solve the crimes. Speaking to PEOPLE, she said of her work, “You’ve got to get mad.”

Alexander died on December 14, 2008, at the age of 86 and, at the time of her death, was working on 500 open homicide cases and had helped solve more than 20 cold case murders.

A book about Alexander — Citizen Jane — was released in 1999 and turned into a Hallmark Channel movie in 2009.

O’Donnell, who was denied parole, died in prison in January 2010.