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For 20 years, friends and family members of two slain men have kept track of Barbara Stager, wondering what would happen when she first gained a chance at freedom from prison.

Last week, a parole board returned an answer: At least three more years.

A jury sentenced Stager to death in 1989 for fatally shooting her husband, Russ Stager, in the bed of their Durham home. The sentence later was changed to a life sentence which, under the law of the day, allowed for the possibility of parole.

Jo Lynn Snow, Russ Stager’s first wife, said the first thing she did after receiving the letter from the parole commission was to call Stager’s 83-year-old mother.

“My hands were just shaking,” Snow said. “His mom was just overjoyed. We’re all just tremendously relieved.”

Barbara Stager’s 1989 trial and 1993 resentencing both attracted plenty of attention. The case was thick with drama, including an audiotape with what prosecutors described as Russ Stager’s voice talking about his fear that his wife wanted to harm him.

Stager’s next parole review is scheduled for 2012. Her family members declined to comment.

The saga has roots in the Triad.

Barbara Stager’s first husband, Larry Ford, was fatally shot while in the bed of the Trinity home they shared at the time.

Ford died in 1978, a decade before Russ Stager was murdered.

Barbara Stager maintained that Ford shot himself accidentally, and no one was ever charged in connection with the death.

But in recent years, with Barbara’s Stager’s first parole hearing looming, family members — both Ford’s and Russ Stager’s — began raising questions.

Snow said Ford’s death deserves some kind of resolution.

“Larry hasn’t had his day in court,” she said. “It just seems like Larry’s kind of left out.”

Regardless of what happens with that case, Snow, who wrote a letter to the parole commission opposing

Stager’s release, said she won’t let up.

“I think she’s extremely dangerous. It’s my hope that she never gets out,” she said. “Every time she comes up, as long as I’m still here and kicking, they’ll hear from me.”

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com