Keith Yunk Murder What Happened With Him & His Wife?

Publish date: 2024-06-05

Keith Yunk Murder happened in December 1991.

At the time of the attack on December 15, 1991, Keith Yunk and his wife Anita were living in Largo, Florida, as a mixed family with both of their kids from prior marriages. 

At around three in the morning, a murderer wearing a ski mask entered their bedroom and attacked the couple while they were sleeping.

Anita Yunk was the victim of the man’s initial assault when he slashed her throat and hit her in the head with an axe. Keith, 41, attempted to free Anita from the invader after being roused by the commotion, suffering many stab wounds. 

The attacker was forced to run after Anita struck him with a baseball bat.

Jason Rawley, Anita’s 12-year-old son, was also awakened by the sounds of the attack. 

Along with two of his siblings from the blended family, he had been sleeping in another bedroom. Jason noticed Keith, hurt and heavily bleeding, in the corridor.

 In “Sleeping with Death,” Jason also saw the attacker wearing a disguise but “had murder in his eyes.”

Anita ran to a neighbor’s house to make the 911 call after Jason attempted, but the phone line was down. Anita, 34, was evacuated to a nearby hospital after suffering severe injuries.

The police Investigation

While police investigated the crime site, chaperones were brought to be with Jason and his two siblings. A back sliding door was open, and a phone connection was cut outside. They saw.

Anita claimed that, despite the seriousness of her wounds, she didn’t recognize the assailant who stabbed and struck her with an axe. Anita added that a two-month-old unsolved event had caused the phone line to be severed.

Later, one of the critical pieces of information sought, according to former Largo police detective Mike Short, was whether Anita or Keith was the target of the attack at first.

Anita was a part-time bookkeeper and a stay-at-home mother, the police discovered. Keith worked as an HVAC specialist.

Who was charged of Keith Yunk Murder?

Investigators looked into Anita’s ex-husband Luther Basse, a firefighter in Boise City, Idaho, and Keith’s ex-wife Linda, who lived close by. Dave Smith, a former detective with the Boise PD’s Violent Crimes Division, was called by the Largo police for assistance.

When Smith contacted Basse, his girlfriend Connie informed him that Basse had gone hunting and would return home that evening at 7 o’clock. 

Outside Basse’s house, Detective Smith put a patrol car in position. Sixteen hours after the incident, he returned at precisely 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Although he claimed to be alone on a hunting trip in Oregon at the time of Keith Yunk’s death, which couldn’t be verified, Luther Basse, an Oregon fireman and the ex-husband of Anita Yunk, was immediately thought to be a suspect. 

However, because there was no evidence linking him to the attack, authorities could not place him under arrest.

But about three months later, in March 1992, researchers discovered a critical discovery. According to rumors, Luther’s fiancée told the police that he had a cut on his head when he returned from his claimed hunting trip. 

When Luther was eventually called in for more questioning, he finally confessed to the attack and murder after initially denying any involvement.

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