Dana Sue Gray: The Shopaholic Serial Killer Who Terrorized California’s Retirement Communities

In the early 1990s, a wave of terror swept through the quiet, gated retirement enclaves of Southern California. Elderly women were being brutally murdered in their own homes by a killer who didn’t break in—she was invited. The woman responsible was no shadowy drifter. She was attractive, athletic, impeccably groomed, and drove a nice car. Her name was Dana Sue Gray, and she killed for the sheer thrill of going on shopping sprees with her victims’ credit cards.

A Troubled Beginning Behind a Perfect Facade

Born in 1957, Dana Sue Armbrust entered a turbulent family. Her mother, a former beauty queen and minor Hollywood starlet, was vain, volatile, and physically abusive. Her father left when Dana was two. Raised amid screaming matches and belt-whippings, Dana learned early to hide chaos behind a polished exterior.

As a child she stole money for candy, forged excuse notes, and threw violent tantrums. Yet she was also athletic, fearless, and driven. After watching nurses care for her cancer-stricken mother when she was 14, Dana decided nursing would give her the control she craved. She graduated nursing school in record time, became an expert skydiver, a skilled windsurfer, and an avid golfer. Friends called her a daredevil who lived for adrenaline.

In 1987 she married Tom Gray in a lavish winery wedding. The couple spent money like water—three cars, boats, an ultralight airplane—until bankruptcy loomed. By the early 1990s her marriage was collapsing, her Canyon Lake home was in foreclosure, and she had just been fired from her labor-and-delivery nursing job for stealing prescription drugs.

Outwardly, nothing seemed amiss. Neighbors saw a charming, beautifully dressed woman who waved cheerfully as she drove through the gates.

The Killings Begin

February 14, 1994 – Valentine’s Day Eighty-six-year-old Norma Davis was found dead in her Canyon Lake home, a utility knife in her neck and a fillet knife in her chest. There were no signs of forced entry. (Unbeknownst to investigators at the time, Norma was the mother-in-law of Dana’s own father from a later marriage.)

Two weeks later Sixty-six-year-old June Roberts let a polite woman into her home to “borrow a book about Hawaii.” The visitor strangled Roberts with a telephone cord, stole her credit cards, and went shopping.

March 16, 1994 Eighty-seven-year-old Dora Beebe, living in nearby Sun City, gave directions to a lost motorist who asked to use her phone. Beebe was later found strangled; her credit cards were missing.

The gated communities descended into paranoia. Elderly widows began sleeping in groups for safety.

The One Who Survived

Dana’s arrogance eventually betrayed her. On March 17, 1994, she walked into a boutique in Temecula and tried to strangle the 29-year-old clerk, Dorinda Hawkins, with yet another telephone cord. Hawkins fought back and survived. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was the attacker whispering, “Relax. Just relax.”

Hawkins’ description, combined with store surveillance and credit-card tracking, led police straight to the stylish woman with the freshly dyed hair and the young son named Jason.

Arrest and a Lifetime Behind Bars

Investigators were stunned. “The thought of her being able to take someone’s life is just totally unbelievable,” said one of her former coworkers.

Confronted with overwhelming evidence, Dana initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Facing the death penalty, she accepted a plea deal in 1998: life without parole for the murders of June Roberts and Dora Beebe, plus the attempted murder of Dorinda Hawkins. Prosecutors agreed not to charge her with Norma Davis’s murder (the case many still believe was her first).

When asked why three women had to die so she could go shopping, Dana replied coolly: “I got desperate to buy things. Shopping puts me at rest.”

Receipts recovered by police told the story: cowboy boots, Opium perfume, vodka, a spa massage, a ski mask, sneakers for men and women—impulsive, extravagant purchases paid for with blood.

Today: The 67-Year-Old “Reformed” Killer

Dana Sue Gray, now 67, is housed at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. She has appeared in documentaries and was the subject of a 2025 episode of Very Scary People titled “The Angel of Death.”

In recent interviews she refuses to discuss the murders in detail, saying she does not want to re-traumatize the victims’ families. Instead she positions herself as an advocate for female lifers, arguing that women serving LWOP are denied rehabilitation opportunities.

She claims she has changed profoundly and says she would welcome any victim’s family member who wanted to confront her.

“I want them to know I feel it,” she said in one interview, voice breaking. “Thirty years later, I feel it. And I’m so sorry.”

Whether that remorse is genuine or simply another performance from a woman who spent her life perfecting masks, only Dana Sue Gray knows for certain.

What is certain is that between February and March 1994, three trusting grandmothers opened their doors to a smiling, well-dressed stranger—and paid for that kindness with their lives, all so their killer could enjoy one more frivolous shopping spree.