Kriti Mehrotra
It was April 2013 when Wapato middle-school art teacher Desiree Sunford was found shot to death in her own home, leaving the officials baffled as to what transpired and why. They initially suspected her husband because of his strange behavior, as per Investigation Discovery’s ‘A Time to Kill: Three’s Company Four’s a Crowd’ and NBC’s ‘Dateline: Deadly Entanglement,’ but a man named Marty Grismer was soon found to be her killer. This case is one of jealousy, lust, and obsession, and the truth is sadly still unclear.
Marty Grismer Became a Suspect in Desiree Sunford’s Murder Case Via a Tip
Although a lifelong native of Washington, Marty reportedly wasn’t a very social person and had his fair share of ups and downs in his personal life. However, he did have some friends, including his co-worker at Basic American Foods, Paige Blades. He was extremely close to her, as per records, so he reportedly knew all about her relationship with married army veteran and marine trainer Scott Sunford, as well as the fact that he had allegedly impregnated her. While it hasn’t actually been confirmed or denied, many believe that he himself was obsessed with Paige and wanted her to be happy.
Therefore, as per Paige’s report to the police, once Marty found out she was pregnant, he decided he would remove Desiree from the picture entirely because he knew she wouldn’t be happy about it. However, he reportedly didn’t tell Paige this until more than a year later, when Scott had already moved on with another woman. As per Paige, Marty had asked her if she wanted him to take care of this new woman just like he had Desiree, leaving her baffled. After all, Desiree was shot at point-blank range 9 times at around 3:30 am on April 7, 2013, and she and Scott had been suspects for a year owing to their relationship. It later came to light that Paige had fallen pregnant by an ex-boyfriend, not Scott.
According to reports, Paige immediately went to the authorities with this information, knowing there was a possibility they wouldn’t believe her, so she even agreed to record his confession by wearing a wire. Unfortunately, though, when she tried to push Marty to reveal the details to her again by asking if there was any evidence left behind because she was worried about him, he shut down the conversation. He genuinely believed he had gotten away with his offense, that is, until his employers called 911 in October. During a cleaning of his office, they found gun parts in the cabinets.
The Real Motive Behind Marty Grismer’s Actions Remain Unclear
Because Marty was already on the authorities’ radar, they didn’t hesitate to secure the gun parts and send it for analysis, just for it to reveal that this gun was indeed the murder weapon. The shell casings recovered from the Sunford home and the bullets recovered from Desiree’s body were an exact match to the weapon found in his office. So, in November 2014, he was charged with aggravated first-degree murder, with the officials believing he had killed her to make Paige’s life easier because he was obsessed with her.
Another hypothesis the officials had was that Marty had killed Desiree to frame her husband Scott so that he could possibly get Paige all to himself, which later became more prominent. That’s because while he was held on a $2 million bail, an inmate came forward to claim that Marty had confessed a much different story to him. As per the inmate, Marty was actually obsessed with Desiree and not Paige, and it was to such an extent that he had even bought the married school teacher a car. This alleged obsession ultimately culminated in him killing her to frame Scott because she was going to choose her husband over him. However, this inmate later recanted his statement.
Marty Grismer is Currently Serving His Time in State Prison
Marty was scheduled to stand trial for the charge against him in December 2017, but he decided to throw everyone for a loop the day the hearings were to begin by agreeing to a plea deal. He actually entered into an Alford plea for second-degree murder, which means he didn’t admit to any guilt but did admit that the evidence against him was enough to result in a guilty verdict if he stood trial. As a result of this, in January 2018, he was sentenced to 15 years behind bars without the possibility of parole, and he made no statements.
However, despite not having stood trial, Marty had to sit through victim impact statements from Desiree’s loved ones during his sentencing, but he remained expressionless throughout. Therefore, today, at the age of 37, he remains incarcerated at the Minimum Security Unit (MSU) at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington.
Read More: Scott Sunford: Where is Desiree Sunford’s Husband Now?
