In 2013, Sarah Rice's grandparents were murdered in their home in Davis, California. Over the next decade she became her family's voice and her Granza's advocate, and she refused to let the world forget them. This is that story.
Sixty-Seven Times is a gripping true crime narrative about extraordinary love, unimaginable loss, and the unexpected discovery of purpose in the aftermath of tragedy.
In 2013, in the quiet town of Davis, California, Sarah Rice's beloved grandparents, Claudia Maupin and Oliver "Chip" Northup, were brutally murdered in their home by a fifteen-year-old boy. What followed was far more than a murder investigation. As Sarah and her family searched for answers, endured the trial, and navigated a justice system they barely understood, Sarah found herself becoming the voice of her family and an advocate for the grandparents she refused to let the world forget.
Told from the intimate perspective of a granddaughter who adored her Granza, Sixty-Seven Times moves between cherished memories and the devastating reality of violent loss, taking readers behind the scenes of a case that remained largely unknown outside the community where it happened. As new information surfaced and California laws threatened to change the future of the case, Sarah discovered a strength she never knew she possessed. What began as a desperate fight for justice became a profound journey of leadership, advocacy, grief, and healing.
At its heart, it is about what remains after the unthinkable happens.
The lessons we inherit from the people we love. The courage we find when they can no longer speak for themselves. And the radical power of showing up.
A note for readers: this is a true story that includes violent crime and its aftermath. It is written with care, and it is centered on love, grief, and justice rather than violence.
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April 15, 2013, was one of those unpredictable Colorado days where the weather flipped on a dime. A cold, snowy blizzard had rolled in overnight, blanketing everything in white and making the dreaded stretch of Highway 36 heading east into Denver even more treacherous than usual.
The snow whipped against my windshield, my wipers working overtime as I tried to stay focused on the slick, slushy road ahead.
Then I saw it; a missed call from my mom.
I hesitated, glancing at my phone on the passenger seat. Something didn't sit right. My gut tightened. My mom didn't usually call me during the week. Monday. At 11:30 AM, she should've been at work, not calling me out of the blue.
Read "The Call" in full, and be the first to hear the release date, launch events, and where Sarah is speaking next.
Before they were a case, they were a love story. They met at church, married in 1996, and built a blended family of eleven children and fourteen grandchildren.
Claudia was a pastoral associate at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, a lifelong lover of the theater, and the kind of woman who sang the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack at the top of her lungs in the car. She built a career at a time when women were expected to stay home, and she opened her heart and her door to anyone who needed a place to land.
To Sarah, she was simply Granza.
Born in Grand Island, Nebraska, Chip served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, studied law at UCLA and UC Berkeley, and went on to serve as Woodland's city attorney. He was a founding member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis and was remembered as a critical thinker with a deeply compassionate heart.
He and Claudia were, in the family's words, a "power couple."
"Sarah and Mom were two sides to the same pancake. They just adored each other."Victoria Hurd, Sarah's mother
A conviction should have been the end of it. Instead, two changes in California law reopened the case, and Sarah and her family had to fight for the sentence again and again.
The couple are murdered in their Davis home. The next morning, Sarah gets the call in a Colorado snowstorm.
After two months without answers, a tip leads police to a 15-year-old local boy, DM, who confesses.
Tried as an adult, the murderer is found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and found sane. He is sentenced to 52 years to life.
The new law requires a judge, not prosecutors, to decide whether a juvenile is tried as an adult. Courts later apply it to cases like this one, and the conviction is conditionally reversed pending a new hearing.
A video of the murderer presenting himself as reformed appears online. Sarah finds it and pushes until it is taken down within days.
The bill bans trying 14- and 15-year-olds as adults. If it applies here, the murderer could walk free at 25.
At the transfer hearing, Sarah delivers her victim impact statement, and more than 300 Davis residents write letters. The judge sends the case back to adult court, and the original sentence is reinstated that December.
Sarah stands with the Yolo County DA and crime survivors at the launch of the Hear Us Yolo coalition and co-launches the Scrap SB 1391 campaign.
The Third District Court of Appeal dismisses the murderer's bid for early release under SB 1391.
Sarah speaks at a Yolo County District Attorney town hall marking the anniversary: "I found my passion that my Granza always saw in me."
Anatomy of Murder devotes two episodes, titled "Granza," to the case. CBS News' 48 Hours releases a six-part podcast with Erin Moriarty, and Sarah joins Moriarty onstage at CrimeCon in Denver.
A Kickstarter campaign funds the independent publication of Sixty-Seven Times.
The murderer's first parole eligibility. Sarah will be there.
Sarah Rice is an author, speaker, and advocate for the families of violent crime victims. In April 2013 she was driving through a Colorado snowstorm when her mother called with the news that her grandmother, Claudia Maupin, and Claudia's husband, Chip Northup, had been murdered in their home in Davis, California.
Over the decade that followed, Sarah became her family's voice. She delivered victim impact statements, got the murderer's prison TEDx talk taken offline, co-launched the Scrap SB 1391 campaign, and joined the Hear Us Yolo coalition alongside other survivors. When changes in California law threatened to set her grandparents' killer free at 25, she kept showing up, and the sentence stood.
Today Sarah shares that journey through her book, on podcasts including CBS News' 48 Hours, and on stages like CrimeCon, speaking about grief, resilience, and the power we find when we refuse to look away. She shares her life with her wife, Patti.
Sarah speaks with honesty and warmth about what it takes to keep going when the unthinkable happens, and about the strength that showing up builds in each of us.
What a decade of grief taught Sarah about presence: how it outlasts perfect words, and how it carries people through the worst days of their lives.
How an ordinary granddaughter became her family's advocate, and how any of us can find the strength we didn't know we had.
An inside look at what victims' families face long after the headlines fade, and at what advocates, prosecutors, and communities can do to help.
Available for keynotes, panels, fireside conversations, workshops, and virtual events. Fees vary by event. Please inquire.
A six-part podcast series hosted by Erin Moriarty on the murders of Claudia and Chip and the decade that followed.
Listen →Scott Weinberger and Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi take a two-part look at the case and the lives of Claudia and Chip.
Sarah shares her family's story with true crime host Kelly Jennings.
Listen →Sarah joined Erin Moriarty and Dr. Matthew Soulier onstage to discuss the case before a live CrimeCon audience.
Read coverage →Sarah and her family speak out as the murderer seeks early release under SB 1391.
Watch →The case will be featured in the new season of the classic true crime series.
Air date to be announcedMedia, podcast, and press inquiries: contact Sarah. Press kit download (bio, headshots, cover)
For speaking engagements, podcast and media requests, book clubs, or a note for Sarah, use the form or write directly.