Solved Murders - True Crime Stories - Fatal Desire in Riverside The Forbidden Affair That Ended in the Colfax Murder PART1 #45

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

#horrorstories #reddithorrorstories #ScaryStories #creepypasta #horrortales #TrueCrimeAffair #ForbiddenLove #RiversideMystery #MurderousPassion #ColfaxTragedy “Fatal Desire in Riverside: The Forbidden Affair That Ended in the Colfax Murder (PART 1)” unravels the shocking beginning of a deadly love story hidden behind suburban normalcy. Set in Riverside, California, what began as a secret affair soon spiraled into deceit, jealousy, and emotional manipulation. Beneath the calm surface of a seemingly perfect neighborhood, dark desires grew unchecked — until one fateful night when passion turned to violence. This first part sets the stage for a chilling true-crime tale where love, betrayal, and obsession collide, leading to the infamous Colfax murder that stunned an entire community. horrorstories, reddithorrorstories, scarystories, horrorstory, creepypasta, horrortales, truecrime, forbiddenlove, murdermystery, tragicromance, darksecrets, passioncrime, realcrime, colfaxmurder, riversidestory, psychologicalthriller, deadlyaffair, realhorrorstories, fataldesire, crimeandobsession

The Colfax Tragedy It all started back in 2011, in a quiet suburban neighborhood in Riverside County, California, the kind of place where people mowed their lawns every Sunday and waved politely at their neighbors. It wasn't a place where tragedy usually struck. But that spring, behind the doors of a neat beige house with trimmed hedges and wind chimes on the porch, something dark began to take shape. Something born from loneliness, temptation, and the kind of of emotional drought that can rot a marriage from the inside out.

At the center of it all was Raina Colfax, a 46-year-old woman who'd spent more than two decades married to Dale Colfax, a man who believed that love could be measured in bills paid on time and light bulbs replaced before they burned out. He wasn't cruel or distant by nature, just the kind of man who lived life by habit. Every morning at six, he'd grab his thermos, kiss Rayna absent-mindedly on the forehead, and head off to work as a technical supervisor for a food distribution company. His world revolved around schedules, mechanical checklists, and the endless repetition of routine. Raina's world, on the other hand, had shrunk over the years. After a back surgery that left her with chronic pain, she stopped working and stayed mostly at home. Her days

were a mix of chores, pain medication, daytime TV, and the dull hum of the ceiling. fan. She used to love painting and gardening, but those passions had faded. Now, she mostly watched the sunlight crawl across the kitchen floor and wondered if this quiet, numb existence was all she had left. Their marriage wasn't full of fights or drama, it was just empty. Two people sharing a house, not a life. They slept in the same bed but hadn't touched each other in months. conversations were about grocery lists or electricity bills. If emotions had once lived there, they'd packed up and left a long time ago. Then came Saar Colfax, Dale's younger half-brother.

He was 20 years old, restless, and kind of a screw-up. The kind of kid who always promised he'd get his life together next month. He dropped out of community college and got kicked out of his apartment for not paying rent. Their father had remarried years ago, and Saar was a product of that second marriage. Dale didn't know him that well, but when the kid called asking for a place to stay, he couldn't say no. Family was family, after all. So, one late March afternoon, Saar showed up with a duffel bag, a guitar, and that mix of charm and recklessness that only young men seemed to carry.

Raina stood at the door, polite but reserved. She hadn't seen him since he was a teenager, and back then, he was just Dale's annoying little brother. Now he was taller, broader, with messy dark hair and a grin that felt like sunlight sneaking into a dim room. At first, things were perfectly normal. Saw helped around the house, mowed the lawn, fixed the squeaky hinge on the back door. He played guitar in the evenings, softly humming to himself. He called Raina's man, though she told him to drop the formalities. There was something easy about him, easy in the way he laughed, the way he told stories,

the way he didn't seem weighed down by life the way she was. Days turned into weeks, and that easy charm started to seep into Raina's lonely world. While Dale was at work, she and Saar would cross paths more and more. It started small, chatting over breakfast, watching TV together in the list. living room, talking about movies she hadn't seen in years. He'd tell her about his failed college plans and his dreams of moving to the coast. She'd listen, smiling, feeling something she hadn't felt in a long time, interest. Soon, those conversations became longer, more personal. They'd talk about things that had nothing to do with chores or bills. He made her laugh.

and every time he laughed she felt something flutter inside her chest, something dangerous, but thrilling. She began putting more effort into her appearance. Just subtle things at first, brushing her hair differently, wearing perfume, a touch of lipstick even though she had nowhere to go. When Sarr complimented her, you look really nice today, Raina, she'd blush like a teenager. He noticed her too. Maybe it's started as harmless flattery, maybe not. But the way he looked at her began to change. Longer glances, small smiles that lingered too long. There was electricity in the air, the kind that hums quietly until someone finally touches the wire. Most people think affairs start with lust, but that's rarely true. This one started with

loneliness. Two people who felt invisible, suddenly seen. Raina wasn't a reckless woman, but she was desperate to feel alive again. Sarr wasn't a bad person, just immature, impulsive, and drawn to danger like a moth to a flame. Together, they created a space that didn't feel wrong, not at first. It just felt, alive. The first time something really crossed the line was one rainy afternoon. Dale was working a double shift. Raina and Saar were in the living room watching a movie.

A storm raged outside, and the power flickered out halfway through. The room went dark except for the flashes of lightning through the window. They laughed nervously. Then silence. She could hear his breathing, close, too close. One moment, she was thinking about how quiet the house was, and the next, his hand brushed hers. She didn't pull away. What followed was inevitable.

A kiss that shouldn't have happened but did. Quick, hesitant, but real. After that, everything shifted. Every glance, every word was heavy with unspoken meaning. In most stories like this, people stop before things go too far. But this wasn't most stories. Raina convinced herself it was harmless, that Dale would never know, that it was just a fleeting mistake. But mistakes have a way of growing fangs when you try to bury them.

Their secret meetings became routine. While Dale worked long hours, Raina and Sarr found excuses to be alone. Sometimes they'd talk in her garden, other times, he'd slip into her room late at night when Dale was out on business trips. They told themselves it was love, though deep down they knew it was something more complicated, a mix of need, rebellion, and confusion. By summer, their relationship had turned into a full-blown affair. And as it deepened, so did the guilt. Raina started to act differently, distracted, anxious. Dale noticed but assumed it was her pain meds or her back acting up again. He had no reason to suspect betrayal, it wasn't in his nature to doubt. But things were starting to unravel.

Tsar began skipping job interviews and staying out late. He'd become jealous, possessive even, questioning Raina about Dale, about their marriage, their intimacy. The line between passion and control blurred fast. And for Raina, what once felt like liberation was turning into panic. She was trapped between the life she'd built and the one she'd secretly destroyed. One evening, Dale came home early from work, something he never did. He walked in to find Raina in the kitchen, flushed, startled, dishes half-washed.

He didn't see Sar's slipping out the back door, shirt half-buttoned. But he noticed something, the tension, the way she wouldn't meet his eyes. He asked if everything was fine. She smiled too fast and said yes. From that day on, suspicion began to crawl into the corners of his mind. He didn't want to believe it, but small things didn't add up. His brother avoiding eye contact, whispered conversation stopping when he entered a room. The faint smell of Cologne that wasn't his.

Dale started keeping track, quietly. He checked his work schedule, noticed when his wife seemed nervous about certain days. The truth crept closer, piece by piece, until he couldn't ignore it anymore. The breaking point came one late August night. Dale came home early again, this time intentionally. He parked his car down the street, walked quietly through the backyard, and looked through the kitchen window. Inside, he saw exactly what he feared most, his wife and his brother's arms.

The world didn't explode right away. He didn't storm in or shout. He just stood there, frozen, watching the life he built collapse in silence. When he finally walked through the door, they were gone, maybe sensing his presence, maybe just lucky. He didn't say a word to either of them that night. But silence, as always, was more dangerous than rage. The next morning, Raina tried to talk.

to explain. But what could she possibly say? That she'd felt dead inside and Sarr made her feel alive. That it just happened. Every excuse sounded hollow even to her own ears. Dale's calmness scared her more than if he'd shouted. He just said, he's leaving today. And Sarr did. He packed his things and walked out, mumbling apologies no one wanted to hear. But leaving the house didn't mean leaving the problem. The damage was already done, and something inside Dale had broken beyond repair. For a while, it seemed like they might survive it. Raina begged for forgiveness, went to therapy, cut off contact with Saar.

But Dale couldn't unsee what he saw. The images haunted him. And worse, Saar kept trying to reach out to Raina, texting, calling, saying he missed. her. She ignored him, terrified Dale might find out, but eventually, he did. One night, Dale found SARS number on her phone again. That was it. The fragile piece shattered completely. Neighbors later said they heard shouting, a loud crash, then silence. When police arrived, they found Dale sitting in the living room, covered in blood, staring blankly at the wall. Raina lay on the floor near the kitchen table, lifeless.

Beside her was the hammer Dale had used, the same one he kept in the garage. The officers found a note on the counter, scrawled in Dale's shaky handwriting, she chose him. Sara was found two days later in a motel 15 miles away, crying hysterically when he heard the news. He couldn't believe it, or maybe he didn't want to. He told detectives he never meant for. for any of it to go that far, that he loved her, that he didn't think Dale would ever hurt her. The case tore the community apart. Some blamed Raina for crossing a line no wife should cross. Others blamed Dale, saying no betrayal justified murder. But most saw it for what it was,

a perfect storm of loneliness, bad timing, and human weakness that spun out of control. In court, Dale didn't deny anything. He sat through his trial silent, unresponsive, as prosecutors painted him as a man who snapped under the weight of humiliation. His defense tried to argue temporary insanity, claiming years of emotional repression led to an explosive breakdown. The jury wasn't swayed. He was sentenced to life in prison. Tsar never recovered from the guilt. He moved away, changed his name, and lived quietly, reportedly battling addiction for years.

He told a friend once that every time he closed his eyes, he still saw her, Raina's face, not in passion, but in terror. As for the house in Riverside, it stood empty for a long time. Neighbors said they could still see the curtains move sometimes, even when no one had bought it yet. Others swore they heard footsteps at night, or smelled Raina's floral perfume drifting through the yard when the wind blew just right. Maybe that's just how small towns deal with horror, by turning it into ghost stories. But behind the whispers and myths was a very human tragedy, three lives ruined by silence, unmet needs, and choices that crossed one line too many. And maybe that's what makes the Colfax story so haunting, not the blood, not the betrayal,

but how easy it is to see yourself somewhere in it. because at the start it wasn't about evil or madness. It was about loneliness, about wanting to be seen, about believing, for one dangerous second, that love could fix what was broken inside. And that's how it always begins, quietly, almost tenderly, before the storm. To be continued.