A Northern California man at the center of one of the state’s most notorious murder-for-hire cases has died after spending more than 45 years on California’s death row. He was 76.
Elaine Bunyard, who was nine months pregnant and due to give birth within days, was found dead in the garage of the San Joaquin County home she shared with her husband, Jerry Bunyard, and the couple’s 7-year-old daughter on Nov. 1, 1979.
Investigators said half her face had been blown off by a shotgun blast that was initially meant to look like a suicide. Her unborn daughter died shortly after from a lack of oxygen…