Patricia Wright, a semi-retired Berkeley school district teacher, was tragically murdered on November 11, 2016, in her East Oakland home. She was 57 years old at the time of her death. The incident also claimed the lives of her wife, Charlotte Reed, 56, and her 19-year-old son, Benny Diambu-Wright. The family was found with fatal gunshot and stab wounds. The suspect, Dana Rivers, a 61-year-old former school teacher and transgender activist, was arrested at the scene.
Rivers was covered in blood and attempting to flee on a motorcycle belonging to Reed when apprehended by the police.
The investigation revealed that Rivers had tried to set the house on fire to destroy evidence, but the fire was quickly contained. Rivers was charged with special circumstance murder for the triple homicide. The motive behind the murders was linked to Rivers' involvement in an all-female motorcycle gang known as the Deviants. Reed had briefly joined the gang in 2016 but left on bad terms with the club president. Prosecutors presented evidence of threatening texts from the club president to Reed, suggesting a possible motive for Rivers' actions.
During the trial, Rivers initially claimed legal insanity and self-defense but was found legally sane at the time of the murders. In November 2022, Rivers was found guilty of the murders, and in June 2023, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case was described by the presiding judge as one of the most depraved crimes he had encountered in his career. The brutal nature of the murders and the subsequent trial highlighted the tragic loss of a family and the complex motivations behind the crime.
