The State - News from Feb. 26, 1986

The case against Stephanie Stearns for the 1974 killing of San Diego socialite-yachtswoman Eleanor (Muff) Graham on Palmyra Atoll in the South Pacific is “full of missing pieces, ambiguity, speculation and brimming with reasonable doubt,” a San Francisco federal court jury was told by defense attorney Vincent Bugliosi. Bugliosi maintained that Stearns’ then-boyfriend, Buck Walker, killed Graham and her husband, Malcolm Graham, then told Stearns they had drowned. Stearns and Walker were convicted of theft in 1975 after they arrived in Honolulu with the Grahams’ ketch. They were charged with murder in 1981, after the skeletal remains of Mrs. Graham were found on the atoll. Walker, now 48, was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison. Assistant U.S. Atty. Elliot Enoki accused Stearns, 39, of lying and said it was time she accept responsibility for the murder. Malcolm Graham’s body has not been found.