It is Ryan here, and I have a question for you. What do you do when you win?
Like?
Are you at fist pumper, A wooo, A handclapper, a high fiver? I kind of like the high five. But if you want to hone in on those winning moves, check out Chumbuck Casino. At chumbacasino dot com, choose from hundreds of social casino style games for your chance to redeem serious cash prizes. There are new game releases weekly, plus free daily bonuses, so don't wait start having the most fun ever at Chumbu Casino dot com.
No pursiness is every d void for HIPLI lost terms conditions eighty plus.
Hello, It is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino dot com. I looked over the person sitting next to me, and you know what they were doing. They were also playing Chumba Casino. Coincidence, I think not everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino's home to hundreds at casino style games that you can play for free, anytime, anywhere, even at thirty thousand feet.
So sign up now at Chumbuckcasino dot com to claim you're free welcome bonus at chumbuck Casino dot com and live the Chumba Lane.
No pursiness is every d void over hip by lossing conditions eighting plus.
It is Ryan here and I have a question for you. What do you do when you win?
Like?
Are you a fist pumper, a woo, a handclapp or a high fiver? I kind of like the high five. But if you want to hone in on those winning moves, check out Chumbuck Casino. At chumbucasino dot com. Choose from hundreds of social casino style games for your chance to redeem serious cash prizes. There are new game releases weekly plus free daily bonuses, so don't wait. Start having the most fun ever at chumbucasino dot com.
No versus necessary DVOI wherever if I lost thet terms of conditions eighteen plus.
Okay, round two, name something that's not boring.
Laundry, a book club, computer solitaire.
Huh oh, sorry, we were looking for Chumbu Casino.
Chum that's right.
Chumbucasino dot com as over one hundred casino style games joined today and play for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes Chum Chumbucasino dot com, No persiss quail.
You are now listening to True Murder, the most shocking killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about them Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker DTK. Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your host journalist and author Dan Zufanski.
Good Evening. She was his second wife to die. Coming off a failed marriage, a beautiful woman named Tony joined an online dating site hoping to find true and lasting love. Harold Henhorn seemed like her dream come true, a handsome man who said he had a heart for others. Only weeks after meeting, they were wed. But Tony's family began noticing Harold's dark side, especially his controlling nature, which Tony didn't seem to mind until she met her end at
the bottom of a ravine. Was he a grieving husband or a black widower. Harold's tearful story of his wife's hiking accident just didn't hold up with Tony's family or the police. Then a shocking truth was uncovered. Twenty years before Harold's first wife had also died suspiciously in a remote area with no witnesses. Soon, more questions arose, who was Harold Hendhorn a devoted, grief stricken husband or a cold, calculating killer. Could authorities find a way to connect his
wife's deaths and expose the truth? Book that were featuring this evening as The Black Widower, a beautiful doctor, her seemingly perfect a husband, and a chilling death with my special guest journalist and author Michael Fleeman. Welcome back to the program, and thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. Michael Fleeman, thanks for having me, Dan, thank you very much. Welcome back. Incredible story here, The Black Widower.
As you do with this, let's just jump right into this story because we have a lot to cover and it's an amazing, involved, heartbreaking, and interesting and fascinating story. So let's get right to Harold and Tony Hanhorn as you do in the beginning of your book. They're at Deer Mountain and they're middle aged couple and they've spent the night at this Stanley Hotel in ST's Park, Colorado, celebrating their twelfth anniversary. And this is September twenty ninth,
twenty twelve. Can you take it from there what they did after this anniversary? And they say what they were, what he had planned, what they had planned together, what they were going to do as part of this twelfth anniversary.
Sure, this was a very romantic weekend that Harold had meticulously planned for his wife for their anniversary. He in fact, had not even told her that they were going to go away that weekend, and he had conspired with her coworkers to not tell them. And he showed up at a work and whisked her off to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, is a gorgeous, big historic hotel and a beautiful, beautiful location in Colorado in the Rocky Mountains, and they spend the night, they wake up the next morning.
He had made reservations that night at a steakhouse for dinner for their anniversary dinner, and during the day he had made plans for them to take a hike up Dear Mountain. And this is a trail that goes several miles up to an overlook really on the on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, where you can see for miles and miles in every direction, and so before there, before their dinner, they were going to take a hike, and that's what they did.
Now, just for those people that are interested in hiking, and just to explain this as well, there is a ratings on the trail difficulty. Now, what was the trail difficulty at that time and basically overall, what was it considered what they were planning to do, followed the trail the way everyone would, what was the difficulty and so what was the risk of of anything happening likely in this during this hike?
This is not a not a stroll in the park. The trail is rated moderate, which for some of us who are over fifty, moderate can seem very difficult. There were some The trail, like I said, goes for several miles, it's steeped, there's switchbacks, it goes over rocks. You know, we're talking a very high altitude in the Rocky mountains. It is fall, so you know if something goes wrong, the temperatures are going to drop to freezing overnight. So you know this is this is not an easy nature hike.
Now you talk about the where they set out and you describe their venture, and also that there's these well worn paths. But tell us what they as the day wears on again, increasing the difficulty, increasing the risk is spending too much time out there, as you say, before temperatures drop and before they lose the sun. And so what do they do despite what might people might characterize as risky behavior? What did they do?
Well? They went off the trail, which anybody who goes to a national park knows you're not supposed to do for good reason. They they veered off the trail and went down a very kind of steep, rocky incline. It's it's through a bunch of trees and it takes them to what looks like the edge of the earth, to a cliff with hundreds of feet to drop below. It's they called it a knob or a precipice, or whatever you want to call it, but it's just a rocky
outcropping which has a spectacular view. But it took them, you know, a mile or so off the beaten path, away from the trail that the rain want you to stay on.
At some point you put that they are using cameras and are taking photos. And Tony, which is fifty years old, was taking a photo. As we we find out later. Everything's recorded these days digitally, So let's talk about what the next thing that happens and what Harold Henhorns responses, Sure, so the whole the.
Whole morning, we know exactly what they did because they took pictures. They took pictures in the car, on their phone and on her camera. They took pictures on the hike. It looks like somebody else might have even snapped a picture of them. They look happy and Tony. Tony always put on her makeup and did her hair, and you know, even even for a grungy hike, she she wanted to look her best. So we know everything that went on. And while they're out on this rocky precipice, according to
according to Harold, they're looking for wildlife. And you know, he's he's taking a picture of Tony. Uh, he says. He gets a text message from they have a young daughter, and got a tech text message from the babysitter with an update on the daughter's soccer game that day, and out of the corner of his eye he sees a blur and he looks up on this rocky outcropping and Tony is gone.
Now what does he do right away? And what is his message to nine one one.
What happens, Well, he right away does not call nine one one. He does have his cell phone with him and he kind of looks out over the over the ledge thinks he sees Tony far below on the ground. She's wearing kind of a bright pink shirt sweaters, so
she's easy to spot. And he shimmis and crawls and makes his way down down down the mountain takes him about forty forty five minutes to where he finds his wife badly, badly injured from a long fall, you know, fifty hundred feet it looks like to him, And that's when he calls nine to one one looking for help.
Now they ask him certain questions and what is his response? They ask him questions like do you do you know how to do CPR? What's his response? And then what are the directions they give him? And they back and forth between him and that operation.
Well, he's the He first gives them their their location and he's talking to a like an emergency operator of the parks service, and he tells in their location and he becomes increasingly frustrated with the dispatcher because he wants them to send, you know, one of those rescue helicopters, to get them right away and send a helicopter. I'll pay for it, you know. And you know, he tells them his wife's not doing very well, and you know, they say, we can't just land helicopter there on the
side of the mountain. This gets him annoyed, and and they they tell him, look, you've got to do CPR on her, and they transfer him to a police officer as to Spark police who's going to lead him through CPR and kind of explains how do you do the chess compressions and breathing into the mouth. And the police officer gets these instructions, and after about thirty seconds, Harold say, yeya, I already did that, and she said, well, you know we need to do this. No, no, no, I've already
think cared that. And so his behavior is somewhat odd. And all this time it's getting darker and colder, and a ranger has been dispatched to try to find them and can't seem to find them, and so he doesn't seem to want to do CPR. He's becoming testy and irritable with the dispatcher for not sending the helicopter and he's starting to get testing irritable about why this ranger hasn't shown up.
Does he make any other calls at that time as well?
He does his wife's brother. She has two brothers, and one of them is a cardiologist, and he calls and texts, actually, he calls and texts the cardiologist and you know, he's he's giving Tony's vital signs and you know, telling them kind of giving him an update on the health. And you know, the brother is looking at these vital signs and you know, the pulse and respiration and it's not
making a lot of sense to him. The brother, of course, is extremely extremely worried about what's going on with his sister.
And the he has the suspicions arise, but he doesn't think anything of it. He's overwhelmed with this, just concern for his sister. Then you talk about a ranger, a forest ranger or a pardon me, a park ranger. Farity, yeah, charity, and he shows up on the scene and what does he.
Witness immediately well, so he's finally sure the ranger, the forest ranger, National Park Service ranger finally finds the two of them at the bottom of this bottom of this hill and the bottom of this cliff.
And it's an odd scene. You know, it looks like Tony has been dragged across the ground. Harold has started a little fire in the corner, and Verdy goes up and looks at looks at Tony and and realizes she's dead.
And the the idea that he would have done CPR on her, what did he notice concerning the claim later that when he when he looked at it, of the or the idea that anyone would be performing CPR, that may not happen.
Yeah, it seems kind of odd because it looks like Tony has fallen off a cliff. She crashed into some pine trees on the way down, and you know, it just doesn't look like he had done any CPR whatsoever.
Now, how do they proceed with Tony? What do they do? You say, they can't bring in a helicopter, but how.
Yeah, they can't, you know. So they got to get Harold out of there, and he's his wife's dead, and so he has called some friends from the side of the mountain to pick him up at the trailhead, and so some other rangers spend the night there with Tony's body, while Harold meets his friends at the trailhead. Now means he's got to trudge three or so miles back to where they started their hike.
So does anybody officially at that time have any reservations about him and about Harold and his involvement in this at all, And and if such as they often do with police, do they set up an interview with him? What's how with sure?
So ranger faridee. He's a ranger, you know, with the smoky bear hat and all that. But what a lot of people don't realize is that in national parks rangers can also double as police officers. You can have detectives. So he's a trained investigator as well as a forest park ranger. And so he's very suspicious of Harold. The dispatcher was very suspicious. The cop who is on the line with him, you know, trying to get him induced farr was suspicious. And so you know, it's late, it's
been a long day, so they rage. Ferdy makes arrangements to talk to Harold the next day to do an interview, kind of figure out what had happened.
And how does he approach him because he has the official what he was told and now he has a chance at some point to examine that crime scene more carefully. So how does he approach approach Harold about this information.
Yeah, I mean at this point that night, they don't think of it as a crime scene so much as just a death scene. You know, it's a They preserve it, they're careful, but there's no real official suspicion that it's a crime. You know, it's a busy weekend in the park. A lot of people fall in national parks and hurt themselves, and so he's verity proceeding carefully, but he has his suspicions, and he has his suspicions that this is not an accident.
And one of the things he does. Harold has this jeep that he drove to the trailhead, but his friends picked him up, So, you know, he leaves the jeep with the park service people and and hands them the keys and lets them look into the jeep. And one of the first things they do is they go through the jeep and they find a map of Rocky Mountain National Park in the jeep, and they open up the map and right there with a big X is the spot where they found Tony's body. Wow.
No, they don't confront him about that X or or they don't push it's.
What they play it. Yeah, they play it kind of cool. Faridy does go to Harold's house and interviews him, conducts a formal interview, and if Harold's behavior was odd on the phone on the mountain, it was even stranger by daytime. He didn't seem overly concerned about his wife's death. I think he shows the raiders like photos a slide show he was putting together for the funeral. He was very proud of his slide show. He was kind of a braggart, uh self involved, wanted to talk about himself a lot.
Didn't seem to have any sadness much about his wife dying in a horrible fashion and him being unable to save her life. He gets the story again from Harold, you know what, you know, what were you doing up there? And you know why did you go off the trail? And Harold's well, we we wanted to have romantic time. You know, it was our anniversary. You know, it didn't make a lot of sense that you would, you know, go off the trail and shim me down all these
rocks and you know, put yourself at risk. They asked Harold about his dinner plans that I know, yeah, we made reservations. Well, the timing of the reservations there was no way they were going to get back in time to make to make that steakhouse reservation.
You know.
They they don't, as I recall, confront him immediately about this X because his behavior is so suspicious. The ranger one wants to play it cool, and two knows he's going to have to call in, you know, a detective, somebody who is a trained detective, and that's what they do.
At the same time, they bring in the new detective and with far more experience they look into They ask him, Howard or Harold, pardon me about insurance and whether he would have any be a beneficiary. What does he tell him about the yes, does they have?
And as I recall, it was, you know, three hundred and fifty four hundred thousand dollars in life insurance might even been a little bit more than that. On on Tony, she's an ophthalmologist, you know, he tells him he's a business consultant. He does consulting with nonprofit organization, a very nice house in a Denver suburb, so you know, she's
not overly insured for the people of that station. And he says, Harold tells the ranger, Yeah, we have this insurance on her life, but all the money goes to their daughter, who's like eight or nine years old. So that's that's what he tells about the.
Assurance you talk about. On October first, twenty twelve, doctor Wilkinson the Emmy for Larimer County. What does he conclude from that examination?
Yeah, so he's the he's the corner. Then does the does the autopsy on the body, and he finds what you might expect when somebody falls off a cliff and the body was was really ravaged, lots of broken bones and internal injuries. But he finds something kind of interesting, which is that her her breastbone, her sternum was not broken. And normally, when somebody, especially an amateur, is performing chess compressions or CPR, will you will have some injuries, some
bruising or even a broken bone there. And so just from that examination, it appears appears that Harold did not perform CPR, and so you know, you have to ask yourself well, why did he claim he performed CPR when he didn't. And so the medical examiner does not give He gives a cause of death, which is, you know, a fall from a high distance onto the ground, but the manner of death. He says that a homicide cannot be ruled out. He just doesn't come to a conclusion.
He refuses to say it was an accident.
Right now, you cut to how Tony and who Tony is? He said, she's a successful doctor. And one day in nineteen ninety nine, she sees a photo of a handsome man in his forties. Were we claiming to be in his forties on a dating site? Tell us about what kind of site she was looking at and what kind of person Tony was.
Yeah, So Tony grew up in the South, in Mississippi. She came from a very wealthy family. They were in the oil business the hen Thorns, and father owned an oil business. Her other brother was in the oil business. Mother was a nurse. So she grew up in very well to household. She was kind of a jock growing up. She was very athletic, played basketball and other sports, and
very very smart, very very smart. And so after high school, I think she went to I want to say old miss I can't remember, but went to college and pre med, went to medical school and became an opthalmologist, an eye doctor. And after graduation or she she married briefly and uh, it didn't work out, got divorced and it was very very embarrassed by that and felt that she had failed and it was her fault. So she blugs along as
an optthalmologist in Mississippi, remains close to her family. She's very very religious, devoutly religious, and a very good kind soul, just the kind of person who always has something nice to say to everybody. She volunteers her time for sick kids, and you know, she does charity work and and and she's just this warm, wonderful person and it's amazing that you know, nobody would would would fall in love with her. And she doesn't tell her parents this, but she secretly
goes on a dating website. It's called Christian Mingle. It's a it's a website for Christians, and she comes across this profile of a man who seems, frankly from his profile, too good to be true and even by the kind of standards of you know, people are always trying to put out their their best pace forward on a dating site. And this guy just seems perfect. Yeah, you know, he's successful. Uh,
you knows, he's a businessman. He loves the outdoors, long strolls on the beach and you know, and he's devoutly religious, and and you know he's looking for you know, looking for somebody just like Tony. He's She calls up the photo. He's a good looking guy, you know, lives out in Colorado, and you know, she's really smitten frankly, just just reading his his profile. And so they begin, uh they begin kind of an online dating that that becomes in person dating.
And how does the family, because they're really very close family Tony, the Bridolettes, and so what do they think of this whole idea once they do find out that she's been dating online, because there's a meeting they finally after several weeks. So what do they think of him? Well, they have any reservations whatsoever.
You know. They they love their daughter's sister, Tony. They love Tony dearly. They know how devastated she was by the divorce. She's getting older, she wants to have the start a family, you know, and so They know how how eager she is to find love, to get married, to start having kids. They just want the best for her. They are a guest that she went on a dating website.
I mean, this is southern, Southern gentility here, you know, these are these are they're very very you know, he's a part of the kind of the social elite of Mississippi, and so you know, they were maybe not devastated, but they were. They were surprised, you know, and and a little put off, you know. They they finally meet Harold. He comes out from Colorado, and it's one of those situations where, well, you know, probably not the guy they
would have picked for her. He's a little loud, kind of brags a lot, you know, he's one of these guys that has an opinion on everything. But he had studied geology in college and Madison University in Virginia. And one of Tony's brothers is a geologist and her father's a geologist because they're in the oil business. So they have that in common. And he clearly clearly knows what
he's talking about. He says he does volunteer, I mean business consulting for nonprofits, and I think it was her father also knew somebody in the same business, and he seemed to know you know, he could talk to the talk. So you know, it's one of these things where no, they they didn't think he was perfect for her, but she seemed just over the moon and happy, and he seemed financially secure and wasn't after her money, and you know, clearly had her interests in mind, and they both seemed
very much in love. So you know, they wanted her to be happy. So whatever reservations weren't even reservations, whatever kind of feelings they had, they set aside and gave Tony their blessing.
Yeah, they did seem to be impressed and least not suspicious about any of the things that he was telling them. And also this is again shocking information, but they're also announced that they were going to be married nine months later, so yeah, that really it was an acceptance.
Yeah, yeah, that surprised them. I mean, they knew Tony was eager to get married and have children, they didn't know she was that eager. But you know, Tony, she's look, she's a doctor, she's a strong willed, educated woman, and you know, they that's what she wanted. Well, then that's what they were.
Going to do. Now you say things were at least and in retrospect it always seems much more suspicious and telling. But you say, it was very odd right from the start. People noticed just a little odd thing indicative of something talks about the wedding. When you talk about the wedding announcement. What was the problem with the wedding announcement.
For him, Well, he did not on the actual physical announcement, he did not want her identified as doctor Tony, you know, and they thought, well that was kind of strange. You know, he just wanted it, wanted it to be her name. He seemed very very intent on making all the decisions about the wedding. You know, he wanted to plan everything, which you know, they thought not to be sexist, but they thought that was kind of odd that that that he would be the one who had to make all
the decisions and decide how everything should be. Yeah, he wanted the Bertolais to pay for everything, so you know, he just you know, here and there, he just kind of rubbed them the wrong way.
Yeah, you say, he asked the brother to do a favor in terms of setting up a rehearsal dinner, and then he said, well, I'll give you a check. I'll write your check and just never wrote the check. So we started off with the family at least, you know, for a guy that's supposed to be fabulously wealthy promising them build a million dollar home for their sister and their daughter, that he was stiff in them right at this point.
And then you tell it it was you know, it's just one of those things where when you look quit Lucky lands On you can get lucky just about anywhere.
Daily, Beloved, we are gathered here today. Has anyone seen the bride and groom?
Sorry?
Sorry, we're here. We were getting lucky in the limo when we lost track of time.
No Lucky land casino with cash prizes that add up quicker than a guess registered. In that case, I pronounce you lucky ye.
For free at Lucky Landslots dot com.
Daily bonuses are waiting.
No purchase necessary boid. We're prohibited by long eighteen plus terms and conditions applying see website for details.
Hello, it is Ryan and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we just to make up for things like sitting in traffic doing the dishes, counting or steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumbuck Casino has all your favorite social casino style games you can play for free anytime anywhere with daily bonuses. That's your brighten your day, Lowe, actually a lot, so
sign up now at Chumbuck Casino dot com. That's Chumbuck Casino dot com.
You'll be necessary detail like lost terms, conditions eighteen plus back.
Can you say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but again the time. They're not marrying the guy she is, and he's not perfect. She clearly has rose colored glasses. But you know, maybe Tony wasn't perfect either, who knows, you know? He I think that they thought, well, he's not the guy we would pick, but she could probably do a lot worse.
Right. They get married September thirtieth, two thousand, a big formal Southern wedding in Jackson, Mississippi, as you write, and ceremony at the First Baptist Church. And of course you say parents paid for the wedding. But despite that, you say, just like controlling kind of person, he tried to direct the wedding, picking out everything controlling every aspect of it. Then there was a honeymoon in Hawaii. Hawaii. Pardon me, what was it to talk right away about Tony and
her profession? What was what was something that he was adamant about that he wanted to happen?
Well, I you know, I think he wanted and I'm not quite sure which part of it I know. You know, he wanted her to move to Colorado with him, and he wanted her to work. She wanted to, you know, maybe go part time or even take time off to start a family. He not only wanted her in Colorado with him, uh and working, but you know, he wanted to have a bit of a say in in her career.
Uh and to the point where, you know, he wanted to be if she was going to become a partner in a in a practice, he wanted to be involved in the planning and even in the meetings. He wanted to have this really integral role in her career when she kind of wanted to back off a little bit.
Now, once they make the move and they give their blessing for their daughter to move to Denver, thus the relationship between and the closeness change between the family and Tony and you give sort of a sort of a great example of what they sort of sense or what they see or experience.
Yeah, this is when, you know, in the beginning he rubbed them. Harold rubbed the family the wrong way. They had you know, they didn't think he was perfect. But after they got married and moved to Denver, there were some real troubling signs and it appeared that that Harold was not just controlling about the wedding, he was controlling about everything. And you know, Tony's mom would call her
and want to talk to her. They had a very close relationship their whole lives, and Harold would always insist on being on the line, wouldn't let Tony talk to her mother by herself, you know, things like that, and you know, they would the mother and would say, you know, Tony is They were a close family, but certainly at this point they were not the kind of family that would pry into each other's business too much, and her parents were very reluctant to even gingerly asked Tony of
are are there are any problems in the marriage, partly because Tony was very defensive about it and made it very clear that she wasn't going to talk about it, but you know, they didn't in the beginning anyway, really really push if there was any issue.
You talk about an incident near the border of Rocky Mountain National Park where the Henhorns owned a cabin and they couple spent Memorial Day there weekend twenty eleven, bringing her daughter, Haley. One of the things that came true
for Tony was the birth of their daughter, Haley. At that time, she was six or seven, I believe, And on May twenty eighth, you talk about an incident at when they're at this camp that weekend, what happens, and tell us what Tony tells her parents and tell us about this whole incident.
Yeah, so they're working, they have a cabin, a vacation cabin in the mountains, and they go up there for the weekend. And yes, they had a baby, and they're very happy, and Haley was a sweet, sweet little girl, and she's six seven years old at this point, and they're doing some because it's the weekend cabin. They're doing a little bit of work out on the deck and Tony's doing some work on the deck when all of a sudden, a big piece of wood falls down and
bunks her in the head knocked. They're flat onto the ground and to the point where you know, they had to call the paramedics out, and you know, she's she's pretty badly injured and had some nerve damage and and you know, Harold had been kind of working up higher. She I think was on the ground and he was up on the deck or something like that, and you know, it was all like kind of suspicious how this big
piece of wood came down and hit her. And you know, Harold had two or three versions of what actually happened. At one point said, oh, it was just a little piece of flashing or you know, a little small piece of wood, but it was obvious it was like a
piece of plywood that hit her. And you know, he doesn't know what happened, and and he gives one story to the paramedics, and he gives a different story to Tony's parents, and you know, Tony doesn't entirely know, and you know now that the family is really starting to worry. You know, what is he abusing her? Did he try to try to her? And again, Tony's very defensive and just you know, insists that you know that didn't, you know, stay out of my business. I'll take care of it.
It gets to the point where the warning sign is there that Tony's mother, Yvonne, told Tony that you didn't think this incident was an accident. And what was Tony's reaction? You say, you usually defensive? What did she say to her mother when she contended that.
You know, I'm trying to remember what that was. As I recall, Tony finally gets less defensive and and you know, starts, you know, expressing for the first time to her family her own concerns about her marriage and about the future.
And you know, and I can't remember if she told her mother or not, but at this point, she's worried about the money she's making all the money and Harold's not pulling his weight, and that she's going to get her own bank account, and and you know, may even be thinking about divorce.
Right right. What does Barry when Barry hears the news, the brother Barry, what does the physician.
He immediately thinks Harold is is is out to get Tony, and he's angry the whole family is is really really becoming concerned.
At this point, he thinks that Harold pushed his sister, So he's convinced of isn't it Yeah.
Yeah, pushed her or threw the wood at her. But you know, you know this was this was Harold. This is something Harold did. And you know, the family's gone from sort of quietly gingerly walking on eggshells to to really getting worried about Tony's marriage and really worried about Harold.
Henthorne now tell us about just the days before this incident and what police are finding from their investigation.
At the same time, well, you know, police are kind of backtracking and they're looking into and when I say police, it starts out with an investigator from the Park Service, a homicide investigator who works for the Park Service. Now this is because this happened on a national park, this is considered a federal case, which will be very important later on. But you know, they start looking into Harold and his background, and you know, they've got this whole
this map, this with the X marks the spot. But they start finding out that Harold is not telling the truth about his about his career. You know, they get a business card from him and it turns out it's just you know, post office box that he that he hasn't you know, filed any income tax returns with any money, doesn't make any money. He's not this high flying consultant for nonprofits. He basically sits around a you know, Panera
cafe all day. You know, he's not what he appears, and so you know, a lot of a lot of red flags are starting are starting to flap.
When there is news of their of Tony being killed. The family that plays the rule with Harold that they are not really suspicious of them and their support of them. Meanwhile, what do they do and what is their fact in doing what they've planned to do?
Right when you read the press accounts at the time, and it just did not make a lot of news at the time, small stories in the newspaper, local paper, this brief mention on the website of TV. They just it was characterized as a tragic accident. Tony's family immediately thought Harold had pushed her off the cliff, and very
quickly they were in touch with investigators. But they decide not to confront Harold and instead, because there's no evidence really that he pushed her, only their suspicions, they decide to become sort of amateur undercover cops on behalf of the Park Service, and they go out to Denver. They talk to Harold, They observe Harold, they write everything down
that he does, every contradiction in his various stories. They start very carefully prying into his past and they are reporting all of this information to the detective.
What is his decision in terms of burial versus cremation and what's his behavior surrounding that decision.
Well, he is just absolutely crazy. Around the time of the funeral. Now I say funeral, he had dead two funerals. They had one in Colorado and they had a different service out in Mississippi. And Harold is just all he's talking about is this stupid park ranger Charide and Barney Fife and what a dummy is and why you won't leave me alone? And me me, me, me, me me me. Meanwhile,
you know their Tony is dead. You know, they lost a daughter, they lost a sister, and all Harold's talking about me and poor me and why don't they leave me alone and all this kind of stuff, and they're, you know, they're getting really irritated by this. They also
want Tony to have a burial. But but you know, Harold is insistent, insistent that she'd be cremated, and not just cremated, but right away, and he wants to sprinkle her ashes over a you know, off off a mountaintop, and you know they're they're really angry about that.
It's interesting too, you you write how at this memorial he even they have to tell him to turn down the music. He's completely, like you say, crazed at this thing, with no respect for anyone, or it seems.
No, he's he's he's really disrespectful. He's you know, all about himself. He's acting like he's the victim and all this. Uh it was around the time and might even been at the funeral when he got word somehow from the medical examiner that the medical examiner refused to call at an accident. And this gets him angry, you know, And just like the wedding, he wants to micromanage the funeral.
He arranges this slide show that's a bunch of pictures of himself, you know, and it's just everything about him is just really weird. When they go to the service in Mississippi, you know, he's giving different versions of the story about what happened on the Mountain and you know, first it was he got the text from the babysitter who gave the score of the game. But then they find out the game hadn't happened yet or was about to happen or something. I mean, none, none of his
stories add up. You know, Tony's brother already knows that. You know, the report that he gave about our vital signs was just not correct. He was using kind of like made up medical terminology. You know, it's just nothing
about it made sense. Yet at the same time, he has you know, Haley, he's not arrested, he has custody of who is their granddaughter, niece, and you know, so they don't want to rock the boat too much, and they want to try to, you know, use all of these contradictions and crazy behavior against him, So they keep going along with him.
Talk about detectives and interviewing people and talking to all kinds of people related to this. But you talk about detective Shot and Charity retracing the hike and trying to find that use trail that Harold had spoke of.
Yeah, and yeah they trail. Yeah, they did a GoPro camera and you know, they just they couldn't figure out why this middle aged couple. And keep in mind, at this point in life, Tony has bad knees. She's had a couple of knee surgeries. You know, why on earth did this couple decide to take this virtuous hike side of a mountain? And then why did they, you know, go off the trail? And Harold said there was like a use trail or a maintenance trail or something like
that that they went to. Well, they couldn't find that. They clearly just went right off the trail. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that dumb kids do, you know, not not a professional couples. You know, they just his story at every single turn is not making sense.
They also analyzed the photo of Harold when he talks about this crucial photo was timestamped at thirty seconds after five o'clock exactly, which means that they could conclude that he waited nearly an hour to call nine one one, Yeah that was And then they say, yeah.
Yeah, well what were you doing for that hour? And you know, he well, I climbed down the trail. You know, so why didn't you if your wife went off a cliff, why didn't you dial nine to one one immediately while it was still light. You know, we have and it's heartbreaking. We have that photo that he took of her standing and with nothing behind her, you know, and seconds after that picture's taken, she's gone. Wouldn't the first thing you
would do is dial nine to one one help. My wife has fallen off a cliff.
And also when they detectives went down that same route that he said it took forty five, it took them ten minutes.
Yeah, yeah, And you know, at each point they would come back and they would start asking Harold questions and and you know, either he wouldn't talk to them, or they would talk to the family, and they would feed these questions to the family, and he would give, you know, a whole variety of different answers. So his whole timeline just wasn't consistent and didn't make sense.
This investigation. Detectives unearthed Daniel Jarvis tell us a little bit about what they get from Daniel j. Harvests. It seems very odd.
Yeah, I mean, Daniel is like, I don't think he's officially a nephew. He's sort of a very close, you know, friend of Harold's and and you know, at the funeral, Harold is is, you know, just just out of control, and he's he's complaining to Daniel about you know, the verity, the ranger and and and the map, the map, the map, the map. You know, he's got something about this map. He won't leave me alone about the map, you know.
And you know, Daniel, who liked and respected Harold, was very concerned, is like, well, why is Harold so paranoid? Why why won't he just let this business go about the ranger and and looking into the White's death. Because of course they're going.
To do that.
The As this investigation progresses, too, they uncover how this when we talked about the the the savings for Haley, Yeah, the trust for Haley, but that beneficiary changed. So at some point they find out that about that policy and other policies tell us about what they'd uncover.
Sure, they find out that Harold greatly underestimated how much life insurance was on on his wife. In fact, it was over a million bucks. I think I can't remember what the exact amount was, but it was a lot of money. And worse, he lied the beneficiary was not Haley, it was him, And they uncover a couple of other life insurance policies that he didn't even tell them about, and the beneficiary was him.
Now a letter happens sent to authorities talking about well, tell us what this letter sent to authorities talks about and the connection.
Yeah, so this is something Harold doesn't know. It's something the public doesn't know, and it's something the family of
Tony only finds out a little bit later. But within days, within days of Tony going over the cliff, a letter goes to a couple of law enforcement agencies and the letter says, you know that case of the woman who fell off the cliff and Rocky Mountain National Park, Well, the husband had been married before, and there are similarities between what happened to Tony and what happened to this guy's first wife, and you may really want to investigate the death of his first wife.
We're talking about Sandra Lynn Henhorn, and as you write, they they meet in high school. So tell us about their relationship before we talk about her demise.
Sure so, And keep in mind, this is all information that Tony's family doesn't even know. All they knew was that they had They knew that he had been married before and they knew that his previous wife had died, and he kind of made it sound like it was a car accident or something, but it was much more than that. And so, Harold, when this was a college sweetheart. Her name is Sandra Lynch, she went by Lynn. They met at college and he was studying geology and she
was she was studying social work. And they got married and moved to move to Colorado. And you know, she kind of eerily was was very similar to Tony, a deeply deeply religious woman, strong willed. They even look a little bit alike. Another another redhead. And yeah, and they had had this rather long marriage with this other woman that Tony's family knew absolutely nothing about.
They looked into the records. Now because as we're this discovery, is that somebody's looking at these records from seventeen years before you're talking about Detective Stot And what do they see that's pretty evident in these records. What do they conclude at least just by looking at these records or lack of records.
Yeah, so the first Missus Henthorne dies in nineteen ninety five, and like you said, seventeen years previous, and to Tony's death. And they go to the Sheriff's department there in Douglas County and they find out that Lynn Henthorne in nineteen ninety five was out driving with their husband, Harold, and in the middle of the night, the car gets a flat and while they are changing the tire of the car, somehow Lynn gets under the car. The car slips off
the jack and crushes her to death. And this is on a little remote road out in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, and Harold is the only the only witness.
After that, he goes out onto the highway and or at least that's the first witness of what he does. What does he do and what does he say in response to what has happened to his wife?
Well, he flags down this car load of people, the Montoya family. They've been out for the day drinking and you know, they pull over. He kind of flags him down. He said, oh, you know, there's been this accident. You know. A couple of the Montoya people go and remember this is now ninety five, this is before there's even cell phones. So they a couple of them peeled off and went to a little cabin nearby and found a guy who had a phone so they could call UH nine one one.
And you know, one of the one of the Montoya family members tries to put a you know, jacket or something over you know, they see Lynn lying there, you know, and doesn't want he you know, Harald, they not don't cover up. He's acting very acting, very strange. And you know, he's telling this story that just doesn't make any sense about how his jeep slipped off a jack and landed on his wife.
Does he tell them anything about how it comes to be that he's not he's at the back or he elaborates.
Yeah, well, he gives you know, over the course of the evening, you know, eventually rescue people. Helicopter arrives interestingly enough, and and yeah, even though Lynn is very clearly dead on the brink of death. Anyway, they holler off to the hospital see if they can try to revive her. And you know, a series of young basically share his deputies talked to Harold that night, and you know, he gives them this story about how he had a had a not a blowout, but had kind of a soft
tire on the road. It's a little road south of Denver. While they're out taking a day trip. They pulls over to the side of the road. He gets out, you know, he tries to jack up the the car with a with one jack and that jack doesn't work. And and then for some reason he has another jack that he uses for his boat, and so he tries to jack
up the car with that jack. And then he's got a third jack with him and he and he's using that jack and he gets the you know, he gets the jeep up on the jacks and and he's kind of rickety boat jackson. He you know, he's taken the tires, the right front passenger tire off. Uh. He's handing the lug nuts to Lynn. Uh. He gets the tire off, he goes around to the back of the jeep and he throws the tire into the back of the jeep.
And he thinks that the force of throwing the tire into the back of the jeep into the back area hatch area somehow knocks the jeep off the jack and for whatever reason, Lynn had found her way under the jeep and then the jeep tire well rim smashes onto her back.
And so when he tells anyone, not anyone, when He tells several people this story, first with the people that were in the vehicle, then later with detective McMahon that arrives on the scene. Yeah, are they suspicious of this account, this explanation.
Well, if you know, we're looking through what are almost twenty year old police reports, and yes, there is some suspicion. In fact, I think they call it suspicious death. They mark a little box on the form. You know, clearly the story is a little odd. Jeeps just don't fall on women in the middle of the night. You know, they're talking to him, and the interviews go keep in
minds three or four to this. Detective McMahon kind of takes the lead, and you know, he talks to him at night, and then goes by his house a couple of days later with the supervisor and talks to him again. You know, there's a lot of discrepancies in his story. You know, where did you go, Why were you out driving? You know, uh w why did you pull over? You know, did you go to you know, at one point he says they had dinner. At other point he said they
were about to have dinner. You know, there's all kinds of discrepancies in the story and you know it, so, yes, it it seems suspicious, but when you read the reports now it doesn't scream suspicion. But they did call it a suspicious death investigation.
Now the government has expanded its investigative team, as you say, adding FBI agent Jonathan Brusing, Mark Calico, both FBI and local police in Colorado, and they obviously find out about this death and do more research on this. And you say also that the US Attorney for Denver gets a warrant for Harold's cell phone records, isn't it.
Yeah, So now they've got two homicide potential homicides seventeen years apart, two wives, and it's a big investigation spanning a lot of years, and they get enough information to look into a cell phone and what they've what you can find from a cell phone is you can track where a phone was when calls were made, by whichever
tower the calls being pinged. And it turns out that it appears Harold had been casing the location where they went hiking, had been driving around in Rocky Mountain National Park on weekends and days in which he claimed he was on business trips. And their conclusion is that he had been up there making plans and getting the lay of the land.
He also at one point claimed that he was fooling with her phone on that trail that day. What do they find about eventually about that phone?
If I recall right, her phone wasn't even with her, if I'm if I'm yeah, if I'm remembering this correctly, it was just one of many contradictions. They actually left the phone at her business office.
Now, eventually they think they have enough information to try to arrest him and charge him and tell us of what I'm you know, obviously we've seen that they believe that there is definite link that he's killed before and he's killed again. What do they want to do with that information? Potentially? We know that when we watch some cases that past information cannot be admissible on a trial. So tell us a little bit about this endeavor.
Yeah, it's they finally get enough information. And we're talking a long time as past. You know, this is months and months and months and months and months. This investigation has dragged on because they have no eyewitness, because they have no confession, because they have really no physical evidence. They just have a mountain of contradictions and strange behavior.
But they also uncover that Harold had tried to take out a life insurance policy on somebody else and in law of his first wife, and that he had made himself a beneficiary of that life insurance policy and had lied to her about it. So you know, they've getten a lot of information. But it's critical, it's critical that they can use both of these deaths in the same case, even though he was not arrested the first time. In fact, the first investigation ended with the sheriffs deputies concluding that
it was an accident despite all the contradictions. But they want to use the details. They want to use that information. Well, that's in law called a prior bad act, And basically under the law, you're charged with the crime that you're charged with. So if I rob a bank, you're charged with that crime. You face that evidence. So let's say I had, you know, beat up my wife previously, or even robbed a bank previously. You're not. Information is not
allowed into the case. It's prejudicial, it has nothing to do with it. It's what they call propensity evidence. Just because you seem to act like a criminal doesn't mean you're criminal. The law is pretty strict on that that, you know, you are tried on the facts of the case.
So if they're going to arrest him in the death of Tony, it has to only be under a lot of legal theories only about this one incident, and that they would not be allowed to include anything about the first wife's death or even that incident at the cabin. You know, as bad as that stuff looks, what does it have to do with Tony's death. But there is
a legal theory. It's called the doctrine of chances. It goes back over one hundred years and it basically says, if the details are similar enough, it's not prejudicial, it's not prepensantary. It's like, what are the odds? You know, it goes to planning, it goes to a scheme, it goes to a very direct linkage. So if you can convince a judge, if you can convince a judge that the details are so similar that the odds are so astronomical, I mean, how many times does two wives you know,
the same guy die under similar circumstances. If the odds vote astronomically against that, then the judge can allow that into evidence. And that's what they that's what they argued.
Now people awaited this decision, the Burdolettes.
And the.
And pardon me and the other victims family as well. The what is the decision by the judge?
The judge agrees to allow into evidence the first wife's death and all those details, even though he's never arrested. He agrees to allow into evidence details of the wood falling on Tony's head a few months before her murder at the cabin. He doesn't allow. There was this other life insurance policy on another woman I had mentioned. He does not allow that. He says that was a little too remote. But under the doctor and a chance, he
does allow that evidence. So at trial, a jury will be allowed to not only hear about the evidence of Tony falling off the cliff, they will be allowed to hear evidence about the jeep falling on Linn even though even though he's not going to be charged in Lin's death, he's only going to be charged in Tony's death. But under this legal theory, they are allowed to bring in evidence and details about Lin's death.
You talk about the media response with this, and particular one journalist that did some over and beyond the call of duty. We'll say and got some like you say, journalistic cups. Tell us a little bit about this media response, and it's a little unusual, it's true.
Yeah, it's Brian Moss. He's a TV reporter in the Denver He's an investigative reporter in Denvery. And keep in mind this case, after Tony went off the cliff, little tiny story in the local papers, even on Brian's own own website, it was not a big deal. There was, way back in nineteen ninety five a little bit of information about Lynn's death in the local paper, but it was a one day story. Came and went, And so this investigative reporter in Denver is digging, digging, digging, digging,
and he is able to get lots of information. He's able to find the autopsy report in which homicide was not excluded. He's able to get, you know, the contradictions that Harold is saying. He finds out information about the first wife, and he gets enough information to where, yeah, this was before Harold's arrest, that he's able to confront Harold. Harold won't talk to him, but the cat's kind of out of the bag at that point.
This is also covered by forty eight hours and Dateline and People magazine correct.
Yeah, by the time, by the time he is charged, by the time the you know, between Massa's story and the authorities go public with all this, then it becomes a media sensation. And as more details are leaked out about that first investigation and how badly police handled it and how they you know, why they bought his story and came to the conclusion it was an accident. Is anybody's cast, Yeah, it becomes it becomes a real, a real media event.
The real victim in this, especially the victim in this other than Tony's Hayley, the daughter. You talked about the family not wanting to upset the cart and stop visitation. But in twenty thirteen, when they publicly with the media came out and denounced him, tell us from that point up to the trial itself, a little bit about Haley.
And yeah, it's a shame. And you know, she's a sweet by all accounts, a sweet, wonderful girl. And and once the news gets out there and and Tony's family comments publicly, Harold will have nothing to do with them, and it's like an ugly divorce. You know. He starts bad mouthing Tony to his daughter, He starts bad mouthing Tony's family to his daughter. He becomes a real pest at the school, you know, and and Haley really really suffers some some difficult times.
Now a trial, we talk about the US attorney Sunita Hazra, and how they're proceeding with this case, and you talk about all of the witnesses testified. How does this trial proceed?
Well, it's you know, they they they won the big battle up front, which was to get the nineteen ninety five death information. But they still have a circumstantial case. Now, you know, legally, as I'm sure your you know listeners know, circumstantial evidence holds the same legal weight as direct evidence.
But you know, let's be real, Uh, if you have forensic evidence, if you have direct evidence, you have eyewitness evidence, it always seems a lot stronger than if you're trying to build and trying to craft a story and ask
the jury to make inferences. So they have they have a tough go and they're essentially the prosecution essentially asking the jury to believe that, you know, if Harold lied about all these different things from the time the text message came in from the babysitter to you know, why he spent so much time going down the cliff doing CPR blah blah blah. If he lied about all those things, and he's probably also lying about his innocence, and that's
that's what they're trying to prove. And they're also trying to show that, you know, you know, what are the odds obviously he did this. It's just the odds are two astronomical that both of these wives would have died under such similar circumstances. You gotta believe that he killed Tony, you know. At the same time, weirdly, the defense the saying, look, you know, there's no witness, you know, no confession, really no forensic evidence. Yes, he's an odd duck, but that doesn't mean he's a killer.
What were the what was it like for the families? Tell us a little bit about any Yeah.
I think that the most difficult time a trial, you know, and this is stuff that they always do a trial, and it's very difficult. They show pictures of the crime scene, they show pictures of the body, they sometimes show autopsy photos, and you know, her family, Tony's family is there while they're seeing pictures that they're crushed and and dead, you know, daughter, and and you know even for even for this family, and they you know, they guarded themselves and tough in
themselves up. They just it was just too much to bear.
You know.
They're also sitting there watching Harold all day, you know, and and you can only imagine the anger and the sense of betrayal they had to have felt looking at this guy sitting there having you know, in their minds killed their killed their loved one. And then finally, I think the family and they were very you know, they're very open about that. When I talked to him, they felt a lot of guilt. You know, they blamed themselves.
Could we have done something differently? You know, should we have intervened more when we were worried, you know, were we too concerned about hurting Tony's feelings? You know, should we spoken up? You know, could could we have prevented this? And and you know, they they're really really racked with guilt.
Yvonne had said earlier that she had asked her husband to investigate after the incident at the cabin, to investigate Harold, and yet the husband or husband, Robert, didn't want to interfere.
As you say, oh, she wanted. She raised the issue of hiring private investigator, and they talked about it and decided not to. You know, we're dealing with a woman who's you know, forty nine fifty years old, you know, not a child. And and you know, when they look back and in twenty twenty hindsight, yes, they should have dropped everything and hired investigative, looked into it and even if it meant you know, getting Tony upset, they should have done it. But they didn't.
You talk about his Harold's demeanor and eye contact and behavior at this trial, what was that like, was there any flashes of acknowledgment of anything arrogance?
Well, he was, you know, and you know this is you want them to be a monster. You know, this diabolical black widower. He did such horrible things, the prosecution said, Yet in court he was just kind of this pathetic figure, wouldn't look anybody in the eye. You know, lost a lot of weight in prison and jail rather and you know, he was just kind of pathetic.
There was talk earlier where they found to discover that he had sent his brother because we don't really hear anything about his family at all, but talk about Harold's brother and the money he received a half a million dollars for his so called back.
Yeah, there was, and that was the hardest nut for me to crack as a writer. As you can imagine, his family did not want to cooperate with this book. He had a brother, has a brother, and there were some financial shenanigans involving the life insurance money and money. You know, he Harold stood to inherit a lot of money from Tony, not just this whatever I think was ultimately millions of dollars in life insurance. But you know, she stood to inherit a lot of money and had
a lot of money from family oil business. You know, so there's a lot of money bouncing around, and there were some financial shenanigans involving the brother, Harold's brother, and that he was trying to hide half a million dollars. And you know, he made a brief appearance in this thing, never really gave any comment and has drifted away.
There's some interesting testimony to Tamara Gordon, a photographer, testifying again about how Harold had a different story for what he was doing at that exact time that he noticed she was gone, and then her describing well, maybe you can tell us about her experience at the memorial.
Yeah, it was just it was another one of these things, like all the witnesses, he couldn't tell the same story twice about what happened up there on the mountain. And again, you would think a moment like this would be just etched in your psyche. I mean, this has to be
the most traumatic moment of a person's life. She had actually worked with Harold before and knew him, and you know, she was another one who just talked about his bizarre behavior and how you know his wife is lying on a slab at the morgue, and you know, he's all excited about the slide show and picking out the photos and you know, and people at the funeral call it the Harold Henthorne show, you know, all these pictures of
himself and picking out the music. And you know, she was she was really put off by that.
And also he shared with her that he had lost his first wife in a car accident. Incredibly, yes, yes, and this is the story.
He told a lot of people that it was a car accident if he if he mentioned it at all, but there were never any details, and he certainly never gave any details to Tony's family. In fact, again, these are very mannered, nice people. They thought it would be untoward of them to ask or to press. And I'm you know, I always we don't know now, of course, but I'm always curious how much Tony knew, you know, and whether he ever told her anything. My guess is she didn't know.
You Also, you talk about the the other witnesses as well. Daniel Jarvis does some damaging testimony when he talks about the map, and when he talks about the conversation. Tell us about that conversation. That's somewhat damaging at troll, wasn't it?
Is this the one and you're gonna have to you probably remember this one better than I do. But didn't you want Daniel to hold the map or keep the map? Something like that?
Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it was you know, it just sort of fell under you know, It's just it's just this web, this this this cascade of strange behavior and seemingly incriminating behavior. And I think he asked Daniel, you know, hold on to this map, and I think there was some issue about the photos. He didn't he wanted Daniel to to hold on to some of the photos from that day. But it kind of falls under the category of, well, he's acting odd, but he's not admitting to murder. You know,
he's not saying I killed the beat. You know, he's not I plan this. You know, he's just acting strange. And and even after all the investigation, that's really the crux of the case is one witness after another is saying he changed his story and he acted odd, he acted inappropriately. But you know, the question for the jury is does that all add up to a murder conviction? You know, did he change his story enough? Did he act strangely enough to where you could vote for murder?
And that's you know, that's a you know, there's a lot of reasonable doubt there.
Yeah, and you say it's circumstantial, But in this case, there is a lot of stuff that they're chipping away in because they're trying to counter as many get as many witnesses to say, Okay, in hindsight, he had odd behavior, and yet some of these people didn't put that in a report. But then they say, well, he did this and he did that. But again that's in retrospect, it's odd behavior now considering but there was a lot of that type of evidence that they just tried to stack up in volume.
Yeah, what it really meant is the prosecution had to tell a story. It wasn't enough to just lay out the evidence, present the evidence, show it to the jury. Here's a picture. Here, here's the police report. They really had to be storytellers. They had to do what I did, you know, which is tell a compelling story. And because it was all about the connections, it was all about the inferences, it was all about the you know, if you didn't believe this, do you believe that? If you
didn't believe this, do you believe that? You know? And this man, you know, telling lie after lie after lie, and at what point, at what point, what's the tipping point where he lied so much you have to believe he's a killer.
Now you talk about the important testimony of of Beth's stought, how important is that testimony and what does she really be able to help the prosecution?
Yeah, so she was the park Service investigator, and you know, she is one who is sort of on the front lines of unmasking Harold. You know, and he didn't just lie about what happened up on the mountain. He lied about his entire being. He claimed to be this this businessman, well, in fact he was not. He claimed to have all this money, In fact he did not. He claimed to be taking business trips. No, he was out casing the scene. And you know, so she did a lot of that,
a lot of that grunt work. You know, there was a whole other subplot here involving the diamond on on Tony's wedding ring, you know, wedding set. Right when she went to the U went to the morgue, that diamond was missing, and you know, nobody saw it at the scene, and you know, Harold's kind of asked about it, and you know, they go back to the scene a little bit later, and there it is. You know, I mean, the whole thing is just kind of weird, you know.
And so you know, investigator shot in. The FBI guys, you know, they they they're able to keep you know, piling this this lie upon lie upon lie. You know, No, the insurance didn't go to Haley, it went to him. No, it wasn't you know, four hundre thousand dollars insurance. It was you know, millions of dollars in insurance. No, you know, one thing after another. And you know, it's not sexy police work, it's not gotcha police work, but they were able to build this huge, circumstantial case.
We're talking about September twenty fifteenth and what would have been the Hendhorn's fifteenth wedding anniversary. Tell us what Sanita Hazro says to the jury.
You mean, is this their summation or is this her?
Yeah? Basically basically what she thinks she's done in this in this trial, in this case which she's proven.
Yeah, I mean, you know, she's she's painting the picture of kind of the ultimate betrayal. That Tony Henthorne that morning got up and put on her makeup and put on her lipstick, and and you know, wanted to look her best for the world and for her husband, and and even though she had bad knees, she was game. You know, her husband wanted to have this romantic hike. She went on a romantic hike, even though must have
been very difficult. And and you know, the prosecutor this is a multi story courthouse, and the prosecutor recalls looking out over the window and looking down on the street and realizing just how far, how far Tony felt and how sort of the last hand that touched her was the the hand that the man she thought she loved and thought loved her. And what a betrayal that is, what a betrayal. That was the last touch, and that was that last touch was her husband pushing her off
a cliff. And it was poignant and difficult and emotional. And you know something I don't think a male prosecutor would have would have jumped on. But you know, the prosecution to women prosecute women prosecutors, you know they wore lipstick and they know about lipstick. And it was a small detail of all this evidence, but if Harold Hanthorne had been doing CPR on his wife, he should have
been covered in her lipstick, and he wasn't. And it's just one of those little, almost novelistic details that helped make this such a compelling story for the jury.
In this too, in your book, we find out again he might not seem like a Ted Bundy that level, but the ability of this psychopathic killer to be able to have a close relationship with the woman he murdered her parents and they supported him and inviting the nieces over it to his cabin for a week. They was trusted, and he would have attempted to do that with this other the next Tony's family as well. Incredible composure he had and his behavior is especially despicable when you think
about it. And by that time, the jury and everyone had known actually who he really was.
Yeah, and it's you know, monsters come in many, many forms and and some monsters are born and some are made, and some are born and then made. And I think I think Harold was a He was a monster who was born, but he had some help. And I think I think, and I know this might seem unfair, but he he probably was emboldened by the fact that he got away with Linz allegedly got away sure Lyn's death.
He might have been emboldened by the idea that he was let go, not even arrested, not not even held as a suspect, not even really questioned, certainly not interrogated. Even at the police department they talked to him. You know that he may have felt I got away with it once, I can get away with it again. And
one has to wonder. And I'm certain that the investigators in that first case, who all stayed with the department, they were young cops at the time, and they all became supervisors and high ranking police are all still there, same guys, DETECTA McMahon, all of them are still there. Have to wonder if we had done a better job, if we had done a better job, would Tony be
alive today? Because the fact that he was not considered a suspect, was not put under the microscope in that first death, might have might have made him even more of a monster, might have made him feel invincible. I got away with it once, I can get away with it again.
At the same time, he seemingly so easily got away that maybe he was careless, which seemingly was in some regards the second time.
Yeah, you know what's scary about this case is that, you know, despite the fact that he couldn't keep his stories straight and he was acting strange in front of a lot of people, if you can put up with the heat, you can get away with murder if you don't have witnesses, if you don't leave it, I mean, another jury may have acquitted. And keep in mind, he has still not been charged with Lynd's death. Case remains
officially open. But let's face it, it's never going to happen So the reality is, if you believe he killed Lynn, as the prosecution clearly did, he did get away with one of them right now, despite everything we're saying. So if you can put up with it, and if he had just not been such a big mouth, if he had not let his ego and his hubris get in the way, you know, he might be sitting at home right now with Haley.
It seemed like too that for a smart guy, he didn't do his all the research he needed, not to give anybody advice or inspiration with this, but he didn't seem to do all the research.
No, and you know, here's the here's where the first case comes into play. This is Douglas County Sheriff's department, you know, very competent sheriff's department. But these you know, these investigators, these are kids in their twenties, you know, McMahon. This his first first death investigation. Okay, they did the best could arguably made a lot of mistakes, but they were not they were not great cops. They were not experienced.
Second time around, he's dealing with the FBI. Okay, he's dealing with the federal government and all of its resources. He's dealing at a time when there's electronic communication, electronic evidence GP, I mean cell phone evidence, and he thought he was perhaps thought he was dealing with Douglas County again, and now he's up against the FBI, and it was a whole different ballgame.
Interestingly, you say that because he said as much in that If it was, you can tell us what he actually said. But he said it was fifty yards difference.
Yeah. Yeah, if he had been just you know, if this had happened in Esta's Park or somewhere else, not in the confines of Rocky Mountain National Park, it would not be literally a federal case. It would have been a local case. Now it's who knows if the local cops would have done, you know, as good a job. But clearly he underestimated what he was up against.
Yeah, it's a fascinating story for those people that will pick up the book. It's incredible. The Christian Mingle profile, you talk about it in the beginning, it was so over the top. I've never read anything so customized to sound like the most wonderful man in the world.
You know, a lot of this is sort of it's all about twenty twenty hindsight you know, and when you're looking for love, you overlook things. Right, when you're looking to love somebody, you overlook things. When you want your daughter to be happy, you overlook things. And this is the whole case about a bunch of people who overlook things and now look back and I said, oh my god, what what did I do?
Yeah? Yeah, incredible tale. Thank you very much Michael Fleeman for coming on and talking about the Black Widower. For those that might want to look at other work, do you have a website or.
Facebook Oneleman dot com or if you go on Amazon, put in my last name f L E E M A N. I'm the only one and you'll find my author page. You can buy any of my books on Amazon and or go on my website, or you can go on Wild Bluepress dot com is another website that you can buy a book.
Sounds great. I want to thank you very much, Michael. You have a great evening. Hope to talk to you again soon.
Thanks so much, Nean, thank you, good night,