In Australia, about one person goes missing every 15 minutes. The majority are found within a week. Most missing persons cases take hours, days, or even weeks before an in-depth investigation is put into action. In the case of 43-year old mother of three Allison Baden-Clay, it took mere minutes.
Constables arrived at the Baden-Clay home at 8am, took one look at Allison’s husband Gerard, and strongly suspected foul play. He was dressed for a normal work day when he walked out the front door of his suburban home and greeted the officers. Right away, they took notice of the fresh gouges running down the side of Gerard’s face. Jagged and raw, they inflamed his cheek and trailed off at the edge of his jaw.
Those scratches told a story that didn’t match the story Gerard told them. He said he had cut himself shaving. They looked at this supposed concerned husband and long-standing pillar of the community and saw a killer.
In the days after Allison’s disappearance, investigators learned that her marriage was not what it appeared. Gerard had been unfaithful and his mistress was expecting him to ask Allison for a divorce. It could have been a case of a suburban mom who needed time alone. Maybe she would come walking up the driveway any minute. Or maybe they would find her injured on a walking path waiting for help. But they didn’t think so.
A former Miss Queensland beauty queen, Allison Baden-Clay seemed to be living a charmed life. Her husband was a successful and well-known real estate agent. Their three young daughters were healthy. Their home was in Brookfield, a very desirable suburb. So, what led to Allison’s body being found in a secluded creek?
Like thousands of women who suffer from domestic violence, Allison lived with underlying misery as she worked to present herself and her family in the best light. In our quiet end talk today, we’re looking into the development and destruction of Allison and Gerard’s relationship. What went wrong and did the punishment fit the crime?
The Italian Hall Disaster was a tragedy that occurred on December 24, 1913, in Calumet, Michigan. Seventy-three men, women, and children, mostly striking mine workers and their families, were crushed to death in a stampede when someone falsely shouted "fire" at a crowded Christmas party.
Lump of Coal beer is served.
Dan Broderick was one of California's most successful attorneys. His wife, Betty, was a beautiful socialite. But when Betty discovered Dan's hidden life, the façade of LaJolla's golden couple was shattered. What followed was a vicious five-year battle that finally ended in a shocking double-murder. Dan was a Harvard Law School graduate who, according to Betty, manipulated the law to strip Betty of everything she loved: her home, her friends--even her children. When she frantically tried to fight back, he had her committed to a mental hospital. Consumed by hatred and thoughts of revenge, Betty's rage exploded on the night of November 5, 1989. Before the sun rose the next day, Dan Broderick and his lovely new wife were dead--their bullet-riddled bodies wrapped in the blood-soaked sheets of their bed.
The prosecution claimed it was a clear a case of premeditated murder. Betty claimed she had gone over to the house to talk to Dan - or maybe to commit suicide in front of him - but when someone shouted, ‘Call the police’, she got flustered and started firing.
Betty Broderick was acquitted of first degree murder in her second trial but found guilty of second degree murder.
To some, Betty Broderick is virtually the patron saint of the sanctity of marriage, executing her abusive, cheating husband and his "nineteen year old college dropout of a Polack whore" (actually Linda was twenty-eight and a professional paralegal). To others, Dan Broderick suffered his wife’s abuse of him for fourteen years of marriage, left her well provided for and then married the love of his life, only to be continually stalked for seven years, and ultimately killed.
We will try to look at both sides of this case and discuss how a marriage can go so horrible wrong. If Betty were a man, there would be no question of her guilt. Did Betty use feminism and nationwide concerns of domestic abuse to build a cause for women scorned? Or, was she just a jealous, violent woman?
Dick reviews AleSmith's Speedway Stout!
After Susan Powell's disappearance in 2009, investigators' scrutiny extended not only to Josh Powell, but also to his father, Steven. Steven Powell was said to have become romantically obsessed with Susan. Computer images seized from his house in 2009 turned up 4,500 images of Susan Powell taken without her knowledge, including close-ups of specific body parts.
Josh Powell claimed that on the night Susan Powell vanished, he took his sons, Charlie and Braden, from their home in West Valley City, Utah, on a late-night camping trip. Authorities eventually searched the central Utah desert but found nothing. Susan Powell's father said that when police went to the family home after she was reported missing, they found a wet spot in the house being dried by two fans.
As the authorities honed in on Josh Powell as a suspect in his wife's disappearance, a mentally unhinged man became even more dangerous. At a scheduled visit with his sons, Josh Powell killed them both before taking his own life.
In a case steeped in depravity and deception, a family falls into darkness, leaving only sorrow and regrets for those left behind.
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Michele Harris' empty minivan was found the morning of Sept. 12, 2001, with the keys still in the ignition at the end of her and her husband's long driveway. Prosecutors argue Calvin Harris killed his 35-year-old wife when she came home the previous night to the secluded estate they still shared with their four young children. He was wealthy from his family's car dealerships and court papers say he told people she would not get half his business as divorce loomed. Defense lawyers claim authorities overlooked likely murder suspects she met during the freewheeling life she led as her marriage broke up. Prosecutors presented evidence of blood stains in the home but relied on a largely circumstantial case to convince a jury in 2007 that he was guilty of second-degree murder. That conviction was set aside when a new witness potentially helpful to the defense came forward. A second guilty verdict in 2009 was overturned based on trial-court errors. Jurors in the third trial last year failed to reach a verdict after 11 days of deliberations. The fourth time was the charm for Cal Harris when he was recently acquitted in his fourth trial. Join Jill and Dick for a discussion of this case. What happened to Michele? There are four children missing their mom. The beer on tap is Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms.
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Jill and Dick discuss the death of Michele MacNeill, a Utah mother found unresponsive in her bathtub in 2007. The trial which convicted her husband is discussed.
The Michael Peterson trial takes an unexpected turn when his past in Germany comes back to haunt him. A German beer is in order!