The most recent Harold Henthorn case update comes courtesy of NBCs Dateline, which devoted an entire two-hour episode to the bizarre chain of events that led to Henthorns conviction on a murder charge. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time The Defendant vilified and chastised each Good Samaritan and rescuer that attempted to come to the aid of his critically injured wives; aid which he never gave nor intended to give. She died after plummeting about 130 feet off a cliff in a remote, rocky area where the couple had been hiking on Sept. 29, 2012, their 12th wedding anniversary. On Thursday, prosecutors released photos and audio used in the murder trial of Harold Henthorn, 59 Henthorn was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of his wife Toni,. Initially, the couple appeared ecstatic in their new life and were happy with each other. Toni was not a life form on this Earth with wings and halo; she was a grounded person living an everyday life while doing remarkable deeds that touched peoples lives.Remarkable deeds didnt always shield Toni from the heartaches and losses seen in the practice of medicine, but those heartaches and losses defined and elevated her compassion and care. The questions from Douglas County police to Harold were perfunctory. On May 6, 1995, Harold and Lynndecided to go on a long drive along a highway in Sedalia, Colorado. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Harold Henthorn was a grieving widower. The sentence to be handed down by this court is the only result that the Defendant has actually earned in his adult life. When she died, her daughter was only 7 years old. If he is ultimately convicted of murder, he will face a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole. Harold Henthorn with Sandra Lynn, his first wife. To another he said west. Follow him on Twitter @Briancbs4. That detail led to a much closer investigation of Tonis death. IE 11 is not supported. Employee communication . If you want to know more about this baffling case and where Harold Henthorn is today, we have you covered. Case closed. Reading through the file 18 years later, Detective Weaver realized something, which would later come out in court testimony from his superiors: that in almost every one of those conversations Harold made a statement that conflicted with something else hed already said. Harold Henthorn faces a mandatory life term when he is sentenced Dec. 8. But for us, there will be, forever in this life, the pain and tears, maybe not seen by others, for our daughter, killed in a cruel, sadistic, senseless and cowardly act of violence.On September 29, 2012, the family as a whole decided on a course of action, not believing that the tragedy was an accident. Several of the jurors spoke with the Denver Post following the verdict, and one jurors comment summed their thinking up maybe better than any other. Even though Harold had money, he refused to travel with Toni back to the South. Detective Weaver further discovered that the department was woefully undertrained: the man in charge of the investigation had been a detective for all of five months, had never been the lead on any homicide, and had never undergone any formal training before becoming a detective. Stranger still was Harolds behavior on phone calls. We feel guilt that we failed to act on our suspicions concerning Tonis welfare in her marriage. The Defendant blamed the press for exposing the truth and destroying his scam and lies to the community in which he lived under false pretense. To the young man who thought he needed a new prescription for his glasses, but was diagnosed by Toni with an aggressive brain tumor requiring immediate intervention, Tonis life mattered and was indispensable. Investigators searched deeper and found that Henthorn's first wife, Sandra, died in 1995 when their Jeep Cherokee fell on her. Nice, right? He pushed her, said Tonis father, Bob. All of Lynns belongings, along with the Jeep, were returned to Harold. The Denver Channel, 7News, brings you the latest trusted news and information for Denver, Colorado, Mile High and. Harold Henthorn, and his wife Toni.. Testimony in the Henthorn trial showed Harold Henthorn never really had steady employment, had brought in no income while married to Toni Henthorn, and had been living off his ophthalmologist wife and her family's money for years. Jul 26, 2017 Slain Woman's Ashes Returned 4 Years After Murder. The Defendant created his own reality and everyone in it. If she hadnt moved a millisecond before it hit her, she later told her mother, it may have landed right on her head, perhaps with enough force to kill. He needed things done his way something that was becoming more and more evident with each passing day. The Defendants jealousy and selfish ambition prevented any of his energies from being expended in considering the good of others, and, as such, his actions were accordingly contemptible.The Defendant mistakenly believes that he is a father and parent just because he has a child. But the rescue team couldnt make it to their position in time, and Toni died. We are forced to say goodbye, forced to learn to live without our loved one, and forced to fill the emptiness that remains in our hearts. The Bertolets hoped life might get better for Toni with the birth of Haley in 2005, but found, to their dismay, that things only got worse. Montoya wanted to cover his wife with something warm. Harold Henthorn, 59, was convicted of one count of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of his second wife, Dr. Toni Henthorn. He pushed her.. Then came the incident at the cabin. His job, for instance. Full disclaimer: I have not evaluated Harold Henthorn, but if he is guilty of murder, then he would fall into the range of what I call a borderline sociopath. Her husband calls 911 but she dies and, at first, it seems like an accident. How else to explain all the strangeness? Since Harold was treated from the start as a victim, not a suspect, and since his wifes death was treated as an accident, not a deliberate murder, clues that wouldve appeared to others as red flags had no discernible hue at all. In 2019, he filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to investigate the matter, which was again denied. Harold planned every one of the little girls days and nights. He insisted at both the verdict and the sentencing that he would appeal the decision. In fact, the most endearing and only statement that has been uttered by the Defendant is that he lost his best friend, a less than committed affirmation of a supposedly loving relationship. This trial was about the last moment in Tonis life and the moment that Toni took her last breath, he saidand he was actually speaking for two Bertolets; his brother, Todd, wrote the statement. Harold was later sentenced to life in federal prison. Only a few years later he was surprised to find that the people who ran the county wanted him to work cases. What kind of mind thinks like that to kill based on an opportunity? ", VIDEO:Watch the CBS4 special "Inside The Investigation: Harold Henthorn. The Douglas County Sheriffs employees registered Harolds conflicting statements and made note of the strange fact that the spare tire he said he was going to use was barely more inflated than the one he was removing. Over the course of those dozen years, Bob and Yvonne Bertolet watched their daughter change. To some people he said the Jeep fell when he threw the flat tire into the open hatch in the back. And that was the end of the story, except for one detail: according to investigator Robert McMahan, On the front passenger fender of the vehicle, right behind the wheel well of the missing wheel, was an apparent partial foot print type mark. Meaning it looked like someone had tried to kick the car off its jack. Thus, considering all evidence and statements, the police decided they had enough to charge Harold Henthorn with Toni Henthorns murder. Now that Harold had taken that daughter away from them, however, and made it almost impossible to talk with her, the quirks became decidedly less charming. Psychology Today 2023 Sussex Publishers, LLC. The file contained a note from a woman named Patricia Montoya, who called the day after the accident with a question. CBS 48 Hours file photos This wasn't the only circumstance that Walsh saw as suspicious. Months later, when they got the news that she was dead, and that she had died while alone with Harold, her father Bob said what most in the family were already thinking. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Although the police found a partial footprint on the Jeeps tires and Harolds statements about the tragedy kept changing, Lynns death was soon determined an accident. If Toni mentioned a stove wasnt working properly or noticed something else that needed fixing, the issue got deliberated for hours, until Toni was so exhausted by the argument that she gave up. The Defendant claimed to have a career and business, when, in fact he had neither. The letter was from the Department of the Interior, which oversees every one of the countrys 417 national parks. Toni was a medical doctor that had this unique perspective on life, and those moments affirmed her compassionate care and concern for others. Toni had fallen off a cliff? As exhibited previously of the mother / daughter relationship between Toni and her mother, the Defendant saw no value in a mothers love; the Defendant only saw the financial value of the life of the mother.To a child, evil and villains are supposed to be easily identifiable. He told them, We are beyond sorry for not seeing through it. He rested the car on the same type of jacks Harold said hed used, in the same spot on the same side of the road where Lynn died. Harold and Toni Henthorn (credit CBS) A federal jury convicted Henthorn of pushing his second wife, Toni, off a cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park in 2012. Every morning, she wakes up asking herself, "Did it really happen? Firstly, we wanted to be a strong voice for Toni and to seek justice in her behalf. But in Detective Weavers mind, none of that mattered to the men investigating the case because every piece of information they gathered was viewed through the same distorting prism. David Lindley, Multi-Instrumentalist Who Shaped the Sound of Soft Rock, Dead at 78 He's 38 years old, a married, religious person and he's shoplifting underwear in JCPenney." A jury returned a guilty verdict Monday in its second day of deliberations. Weaver was the man for the job because even in a room full of patient people, his patience marked him as different. That wasnt really a concern for the Bertolets Tonis father, Bob, had grown wealthy by making smart bets on pieces of land that turned out to be full of oil.
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