Thomas Joseph Capano was born on October 11, 1949, in Delaware. He was the second of four brothers in a family that was well-known for their work in real estate and construction. His family was prominent in Delaware, involved in developing properties. Thomas attended Archmere Academy, a private school in Claymont, Delaware.

After high school, Capano pursued a law career. He became a successful lawyer and held several important positions in Delaware. He was a state prosecutor and served as the Wilmington city attorney. He also acted as legal counsel to then-Governor Mike Castle and worked as a political consultant. His connections made him well-known in Delaware's political scene.

In 1994, Capano became involved with Anne Marie Fahey, who was the appointments secretary for Governor Tom Carper. At the time, Capano was married and had four daughters. He separated from his wife, Kay, in 1995.

Anne Marie Fahey was last seen on June 27, 1996, when she had dinner with Thomas Capano in Philadelphia. Her family reported her missing three days later on June 30. The FBI became involved in the investigation in July. For over a year, a federal grand jury looked into the case. Capano was the last known person to see Fahey alive and became the main suspect. He was arrested for her murder in November 1997, but her body had never been found, and authorities could not prove how she had died.

Prosecutors claimed that Capano killed Fahey in his rented house. They said that he and his brother Gerry took her body out to the Atlantic Ocean in a large cooler. Gerry’s boat was noted to have missing anchors after it was sold. When detectives interviewed Gerry on November 8, 1997, he said Capano had confessed to killing someone who was trying to extort him. He claimed they traveled to Stone Harbor, New Jersey, sailed 62 miles out to sea, and discarded the cooler overboard. Gerry also stated that Capano shot the cooler to sink it but that it stayed afloat. Capano reportedly then grabbed the cooler back, removed the body, and tied it with anchor chains. He asked Gerry to help him throw away a sofa and carpet stained with blood in a dumpster that another brother, Louis, managed. Capano told Louis to empty the dumpsters at unusual times. A local fisherman found an empty cooler on July 4, 1996.

Authorities had no murder weapon or body to support their case. However, Capano's other mistress, Debby MacIntyre, had purchased a gun and said she had given it to Capano. The highly publicized trial began on October 26, 1998. It lasted 12 weeks. The defense's argument was that MacIntyre entered Capano's room in a fit of jealousy and threatened to shoot herself while Capano was wrestling the gun away from her. They asserted that the gun fired and accidentally killed Fahey. On January 17, 1999, the jury found Capano guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection, making history as the first person in Delaware convicted of murder without a body or murder weapon.

In January 2006, the Delaware Supreme Court confirmed Capano's conviction but required a new sentencing since the jury's decision had not been unanimous. In February, the state decided not to seek the death penalty and instead gave Capano a life sentence without parole. He filed a habeas corpus petition in April 2008, but it was rejected. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in September 2008. Capano did not take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, ending his appeals.

Capano died in his jail cell on September 19, 2011, at the age of 61. A routine check by a prison officer found him unresponsive. The medical examiner reported that Capano had died from sudden cardiac arrest, with underlying health issues contributing to his death. After his passing, a feud over the family's real estate business erupted between his brothers, Louis and Joseph.