Fred Tokars was, at best, an unlikely criminal. As a one-time prosecutor and a current defense attorney Tokars had seen both sides of the process and what happens to those convicted of crimes. Yet Tokars was faced with exposure of exactly what he was (a felon with ongoing criminal enterprises) by a wife who knew a little too much. That drove Fred Tokars to murder.

Sara Tokars knew of Fred's infidelity. She knew of his foreign bank accounts and shady dealings with unsavory characters. She did not know about the almost $2 million in life insurance that Fred Tokars had taken out on Sara. That fact might have warned about her impending death.

Sara also knew something was amiss, however, and she began to make copies of incriminating evidence, which she gave to her sister, whom she also told of her suspicions. She was returning home from a Thanksgiving visit with her Mom and Dad in Florida when Curtis Rower kidnapped her and her two sons, Ricky and Mikey. After forcing the three into the Tokars' van, Rower made Sara drive for a mile, then blasted Sarah's head with a sawed-off shotgun in front of her two children.

Initially the crime appeared to be robbery gone bad, but as the case was investigated, the police realized something far more sinister was occurring. Investigators quickly found a real-estate developer, Eddie Lawrence, with whom Fred Tokars had a business connection. It was through Lawrence that they found the shooter, Curtis Rower.