They had a second child, a boy named Troy, and by now Sharon was having an affair with an old schoolmate named John Boldizs. James eventually caught onto his wife's behavior and by 1960 was considering divorce. On his last day alive, he told his parents about his plans and that Sharon had consented to a divorce if she got to keep their house, custody of Danna, and received $1,000 in alimony, but his parents, staunch Mormons, opposed divorce and urged him to not give up on his marriage. Sharon apparently felt the same way as she reportedly offered John Boldizs $1,000 if he could kill James, or failing that she'd find someone who would, although he just thought she was joking around.

On the afternoon of March 19, Sharon claimed that she heard Danna in the couple's bedroom asking "How does this work, Daddy? How does this work?" followed by the sound of a gunshot. She went in the room to find James laying on the bed, a gunshot wound in the back of his head. She called police but James was DOA. The wooden stock of the gun had been oiled which prevented any fingerprints from sticking to it and Sharon and Danna were not checked for powder residue; the sheriff's department said they didn't do the test because it was unreliable. Although Danna was not yet three years old, her paternal grandparents remembered that she often played with her father's firearms and he made no effort to take them away from her. She seemed to recognize the gun when it was shown to her and started playing with the safety, so the cops believed she could have done it.