Rebecca Carpenter was in the fifth grade at the Gallup Hill Elementary School in Ledyard when she found out her aunt wasn't coming home.

It was 2002, and Beth Carpenter had been found guilty of arranging the murder of Anson "Buzz" Clinton III on March 10, 1994.

"I don't remember how they told me," Rebecca Carpenter, a 24-year-old stay-at-home mother of three said during an interview in early December at her apartment in Norwich. "I didn't get to say goodbye to her that morning because she was sleeping when I left for school. I was sad."

Beth Carpenter had been living in Ledyard with her parents, sister and sister's children, including Rebecca, while her case was pending. Convicted of capital felony, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. She lives now at the Janet S. York Correctional Institution in Niantic.

But for her blond hair and softer facial features, Rebecca Carpenter could easily be mistaken for a younger version of her red-headed aunt.

The two have always had a special bond.

Rebecca's half-sister, Briana Clinton Mahoney, is a brunette like her father, Buzz Clinton. Their mother, Kim Carpenter Clinton, had given birth to Rebecca before meeting and marrying Buzz Clinton.

Briana, who was eight months old in March 1994, said she didn't know the circumstances of her father's death until, at age 10, she saw a television re-enactment of him being shot and run over on the Rocky Neck Connector in Niantic.

"We really didn't talk much about my dad after I found out," Briana, a married 21-year-old, said during an interview in early December at her Groton condominium. "I didn't fully understand."

Even to adults, the circumstances of Clinton's death were unfathomable. Beth Carpenter's boss and lover, attorney Haiman Clein, had paid a client and cocaine dealer, Mark Despres, to kill Buzz Clinton. Beth Carpenter wanted Clinton dead because she thought he was abusing Rebecca. Despres, accompanied by his 15-year-old son, shot Clinton five times in the chest and ran over his body.

The half-sisters, who have hazel eyes in common, are too young to remember much about the murder-for-hire case that captured the public's attention, but the death of Buzz Clinton and subsequent incarceration of Beth Carpenter has shaped their lives and family relationships.

They love one another, but find themselves on different sides of a division that runs deep in the family. Rebecca Carpenter believes her aunt is innocent and visits her in prison. Briana Clinton Mahoney believes her aunt is guilty and writes letters to Clein, the co-conspirator, in prison.

Splintered loyalties

Kim Carpenter rarely speaks of her sister Beth's involvement in her husband's death, according to Rebecca and Briana. Briana said she eventually came to the conclusion that Carpenter was guilty of causing her father's death.

"My aunt (Beth) pretty much hired someone to take him out," said Mahoney, who is small and slim, in a childlike voice. "If she didn't do it, she wouldn't be in jail."

Briana's sister, Rebecca Carpenter, however, believes their aunt is innocent. She says Carpenter's besotted boss, Clein, took it upon himself to hire the hitman.

"That's my outlook on it," Rebecca said. "Obviously, everybody has their own feelings and beliefs."

The half-sisters drove together to Superior Court in Rockville earlier this month to watch a habeas corpus trial for Beth Carpenter, who is seeking relief from her life sentence. The habeas corpus petition is a civil complaint that alleges she is being held in prison illegally. It allows her to produce evidence in an attempt to call into question the results of the original trial.

Once they arrived, they sat on opposite sides of the courtroom.

Briana watched the trial with her aunt, Suzanne Clinton Krach, and her uncle, William "Billy" Clinton.

"I wanted to be there to support my father and aunt and grandma Dee," Briana said.

Buzz Clinton's mother, Daloyd "Dee" Clinton, died in 2009 and, like her son, is buried in the Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme. After the murder, she had become active with the Survivors of Homicide support group and had sought a harsh punishment for Beth Carpenter.

Rebecca Carpenter and her fiance, Keith Leonard, sat on the other side of the courtroom with her maternal grandmother, Cynthia Carpenter, and her grandmother's sister, Linda. Rebecca said she was there to support Beth Carpenter, whom she's been visiting in prison since she was a little girl.

Rebecca was just a toddler when her mother married Buzz Clinton. Her grandparents unsuccessfully sought custody of Rebecca. It was her aunt Beth's belief that Buzz Clinton was abusing Rebecca that led to Clinton's death.

Rebecca has no memories of being abused.

"I don't remember, but I am pretty sure that I wasn't," she wrote in an email.

Knowing she was at the center of the case is "hard and sad," she said.

"Sometimes I let it all go and pretend it didn't happen," she said. "But it's hard, because you see it on TV."

Rebecca Carpenter knows the woman she has seen portrayed as a criminal on shows like "Snapped," "Deadly Women" and "Blood Relatives" from a different point of view. For years, Rebecca and her grandfather, Richard Carpenter, would "make a day" out of going out for a meal, then visiting Beth Carpenter at the Niantic women's prison. In the early years of Beth Carpenter's incarceration, they could have only noncontact visits, speaking with Beth by phone through a glass window. Eventually she was allowed to have contact visits.

Richard and Cynthia Carpenter have moved to Florida, but Rebecca continues to visit her aunt in prison, speak with her on the phone and write her letters.

"She's been like a second mother to me," she said. "She's a loving, caring person. Even though she's in jail, I can obviously talk to her."

'He's really sorry'

While one half-sister has been visiting Beth Carpenter in prison, the other has been corresponding with Carpenter's former lover and co-conspirator, Clein. Briana saw Clein, now 73, for the first time when he testified at Carpenter's habeas trial on Dec. 9. She wasn't sure he knew who she was, even though she said she and Clein, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence, have been exchanging letters.

"He's really sorry for what he did," Briana said.

She said she attempted to get on Clein's prison visiting list but was rejected because she is the daughter of his victim.

Briana doesn't know a lot about her father, who was 28 years old and living in Old Lyme with his pregnant wife, Kim, 8-month-old Briana and 3-year-old stepdaughter Rebecca when he died.

"He was a male stripper for a couple of months," Briana said, laughing. "That was an interesting tidbit. And he was in gymnastics."

"I was deprived of a father," she said. "I didn't have anyone to go to about dating and stuff. Dads are supposed to be protecting their daughters."

Briana said she visits her father's grave every year before the first snowfall.

Growing up, she said, she lived with her mother and at times with the Carpenters in Ledyard and was in the custody of the Department of Children and Families from age 11 to 17. It was a chapter of her life she would just as soon forget.

At 18, living back at her grandparents' home with her mother, Rebecca, and other family members, she met and married a much older man, 58-year-old Bernie Mahoney. He was the 12-step program sponsor for Rebecca's then-boyfriend. Briana said the relationship is experiencing some rough patches.

"She grew up without a father figure," Rebecca said of her half-sister. "A lot of us think that's why she married Bernie - to find that father figure."

The family saga took another strange turn a few years ago. Briana's paternal grandfather, Anson "Buck" Clinton Jr., and her husband Bernie's ex-wife started dating. They are now engaged and live in Arizona, she said.

As difficult as life has been for Briana, she said it has been even harder for her younger brother, Anson B. Clinton IV. Kim Carpenter gave birth to Buzz Clinton's son two months after his murder. Briana said she and her brother steer clear of family history.

"We can't talk about it because he gets angry fast," she said.

Kim Carpenter Clinton, who had four more children after her husband's death, lives in Norwich and works two jobs. She did not attend her sister Beth Carpenter's habeas trial and could not be reached for comment.

Despite the division within the Clinton and Carpenter families, family members keep in touch by phone and social media and see one another now and then.

Briana said she was relieved when her grandmother, Cynthia, told her before the recent court hearing that she didn't care where Briana sat and that they would all still go out to lunch together after.

Cynthia Carpenter declined to be interviewed for this story.

Rebecca exchanged hugs and pleasantries with Suzanne and Billy Clinton, and she said Billy told her, "No matter what, I still consider you family."

They are not blood relatives, but she said she keeps in touch them and with Anson B. Clinton Jr. - "Grampa Buck."

"When we get together, it (the murder) doesn't come up," she said.

Appeal of last resort

Beth Carpenter maintains her innocence and, having exhausted her criminal appeals, has sought relief through a Writ of Habeas Corpus, the civil proceeding that is sometimes referred to as an appeal of last resort.

Her attorney, Norman A. Pattis, admitted after resting his case at her habeas trial that winning, which would result in a new trial, is "an uphill fight." Still, Rebecca Carpenter has hope that her aunt will come home one day.

"It might be better for her to go down (to Florida) with my grandparents so she can get her life together and start new," Rebecca said.

Superior Court Judge Samuel F. Sferrazza will issue a decision on the case some time after April 2015.

Briana, who once accompanied Rebecca Carpenter on a visit to the women's prison, but who "shut down" when her aunt began to talk to her, has mixed feelings.

"What do I hope for Beth? I'm not really sure," she said. "Part of me wants her to get out so I can get to know her more. My sister wants her to talk to me and hear her side of the story. Another part of me wants her to stay there because she conspired to murder my father."

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter:@KFLORIN