The Killer Cadets

They were teenagers with extraordinary futures ahead of them.

David Graham was headed for the U.S. Air Force Academy. Diane Zamora was bound for the U.S. Naval Academy. They were young, ambitious, admired — and engaged to be married.

Then came a lie.

In 1995, sixteen-year-old Adrianne Jones was found murdered in a field outside Grand Prairie, Texas. She had been beaten and shot, and at first, investigators had almost nothing to explain why she had become a target.

Nine months later, the case suddenly broke open.

A confession from a Naval Academy dorm room led investigators back to Texas, where they uncovered a story of jealousy, loyalty, manipulation and murder.

David and Diane eventually confessed. But when their cases reached court, their stories began to tear apart.

And then came the revelation that changed the story entirely:

The affair that was supposedly the reason Adrianne Jones was murdered may never have happened.

The Killer Cadets examines the murder of Adrianne Jones, the relationship between David Graham and Diane Zamora, their confessions and convictions, and the criminological questions surrounding a crime that began with a lie and ended with two teenagers serving life in prison.

This is a story about loyalty taken to its most devastating extreme — and about a sixteen-year-old girl who became the victim of a conflict that may never have been hers at all.

Listener discretion is advised. This series discusses the murder of a sixteen-year-old girl and includes descriptions of violence.