This week on The 1980s: The Deadliest Decade, October, 1981, and 22-year-old Diane Delia is found dead in the Hudson River with four shots to the head and the investigation reveals a complex love triangle that turned deadly.
Delia was a transsexual model who had only undergone gender reassignment surgery in 1980, after being engaged to a female nurse called Robyn Arnold, 26, he’d met whilst still identifying as being a man. Delia had then changed her mind and opted for the surgery, with Arnold paying for the operation. In 1981 she’d married Robert Ferrara, 24, but continued to have a relationships outside of the marriage, including with Arnold.
It was this complicated nature of Delia’s love life that had investigators interested and Arnold and Ferrara were both charged with murder.
In 1982 Ferrara was found guilty of murder in the second degree and given a 25 years to life sentence, Arnold was found not guilty.
The 1980s: The Deadliest Decade airs on Mondays at 9:00 PM on Investigation Discovery.