Harold Henthorn had taken out three life insurance policies totaling $4.5 million before the death of his wife, Toni, on Sept. 29, 2012. 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. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. He had no real mentor to help him, Weaver said recently, in his first public comments since his retirement in August. 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. "We don't have to worry anymore.". var scJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? Harold told her he was a wealthy businessman who fundraised for schools and Churches. var sc_security="9a0f0d6e"; As always, Dateline NBC will use experts, law enforcement officials, and friends and family members to shape the story. The Defendant evidently perceived a strong and viable mother / daughter relationship as a threat to his authority in his warped world. As was the case with the crime scene photos, we can close our eyes to things that we dont want to see, but we cant close our hearts to the hurt that we dont want to feel.Tonis life was ruined by the lies and deceitfulness of the Defendant, but, in the end, the Defendant was exposed and convicted by the truth. Was that a dream?". He had to give his bosses credit; they were telling him he was likely going to find something that embarrassed them, but encouraged him nonetheless. In photographs released by the US Attorney's Office after the. Of Henthorns defense, Peter Christofolo said, It didnt meet the common-sense barometer., It was supposed to be the perfect weekend #Dateline pic.twitter.com/ccPUf1sDEy, Dateline NBC (@DatelineNBC) November 23, 2016, A few weeks later, in early December, a judge handed down the official sentence: life in prison. Related: Man Accused in Wife's Deadly Fall Also Killed First Wife: Prosecutor, They seized on Henthorn's inconsistent accounts of the fatal fall and said the evidence did not match his shifting stories. Feds say Henthorn pushed his wife over a cliff at Rocky Mountain National Park. I would not go anywhere alone with this man.. This is "Dateline NBC: Henthorn Case" by Vicky Collins on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them. She said she believed Harold was living off of his first wifes life insurance, a death that everyone in the Bertolet family understood to be the result of a tragic car accident. Toni. 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. Yet every time Toni managed to sneak a look at the couples finances, she found that their bank accounts werent nearly as flush as he made them out to be. Dale Archer, M.D., is a clinical psychiatrist and the author of Better Than Normal: How What Makes You Different Can Make You Exceptional. 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hulus Wild Crime tells the story of Harold Henthorn and how he almost got away with murder. How does she know that a person of perceived trust will not cause her harm? I will never celebrate my birthday again. Yvonne and I will never again hear Toni say, Hi Momma, Hi Daddy, this is Sissy.We hear you, Sissy, in our hearts. 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. Harold Henthorn, convicted of killing his second wife by shoving her off a cliff, will not get a new trial according to a ruling. For most of their lives, Toni and her mother Yvonne had been best friends. Toni Henthorn's brother, Todd Bertolet, told CBS4, "They're going to go after assets that should be in Toni's estate." The silence of the victim, Toni Bertolet Henthorn, in the court today is another word for the pain that she lived at the hands of the Defendant. Nevertheless, even in this case, Harolds numerous statements widely differed from each other and were not believable. In fact, the Defendant has never been unlucky; only the Defendants wives have been unlucky with their untimely and obscure deaths. 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. She had already suffered through one previous marriage, and her parents knew that her deepening faith and the fact that she and Harold now had a child of their own meant it was unlikely she would ever choose to divorce him. He was constantly talking, often bragging, and always had to be the center of attention. Lynn Henthorns death was a tragedy, not a crime. To the young medical physician in need of an accomplished mentor to guide a promising medical career, Tonis life mattered and was indispensable. Harold Henthorn, 59, was convicted of one count of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of his second wife, Dr. Toni Henthorn. It was only a few days into the new year, 2013, and only a few weeks after the Douglas County Sheriffs Department received a curious letter. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. There was something else, too, buried inside the file. At that time, her death was quickly deemed an accident. Only then did it come crashing down. However, Harold kept insisting on his innocence and in 2017 appealed for a retrial which was subsequently shot down. As fate would have it, the couples Jeep Cherokee suddenly had a problem with one of its tires in the middle of the road. She had insurance policies, and Henthorn collected $496,000 from her death. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice James 3:16. How else to explain all the strangeness? Tom Sizemore, Heat and Saving Private Ryan Actor, Dead at 61 It's a mandatory sentence for first-degree murder. 48 Hours examines the case of Harold Henthorn whose wives died 17 years apart in supposedly freak accidents. Harold Henthorn with Sandra Lynn, his first wife. The Defendant preyed on women of faith in a Christian environment because, as with Toni, Christian women move forward in life with goodness in their heart as opposed to vigilance in their eyes. To others he said the flat tire actually bounced out; it was the spare, which he said he loosened, that fell and provided the impact necessary to jolt the Jeep off its moorings and crush his wife. As an ophthalmologist, Tonis commitment was her recurring choice to make a positive difference in the lives of so many. They were out hiking when Toni lost her balance on a steep cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park on September 29th, 2012, bleeding out on the ground 130 feet below where she fell. Even though Harold had money, he refused to travel with Toni back to the South. The Bertolets had accepted those quirks early on because thats what a good family does they worked hard at liking the person that made their daughter happy. His attorney, Craig Truman, said prosecutors failed to prove he killed her. When Harold Henthorns second wife, Dr. Toni Henthorn, appeared to lose her life after a tragic fall, authorities became suspicious of the two times widower. Shatterdaymorn Plot summary Add synopsis Genres By the time Detective Weaver called Roberts, she had been promoted all the way up to chief of the department, and had witnessed more deaths than she cared to count. Selena Gomez vs. Hailey Bieber: Why Everyone Thinks They Need to Pick a Side. "); A federal jury on Monday convicted a man of murder for pushing his wife off a cliff as they hiked in Colorado to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The Defendant chose his own selfishness and greed over the needs of his family. A federal jury on Monday convicted a man of murder for pushing his wife to her death off a cliff as they hiked in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate their wedding anniversary, rejecting his claim that her fall was a tragic accident. Bertolet said he and his family believe Harold Henthorn funneled the $500,000 to his brother anticipating that he would eventually be charged criminally for Toni Henthorn's death and might not have access to the money. Barry Bertolet, Toni Henthorn's brother addresses the media following the guilty verdict (credit: CBS), Harold and Toni Henthorn (courtesy to CBS), Watch the CBS4 special "Inside The Investigation: Harold Henthorn. After all, they had been witness to Harolds efforts at trying to alienate his second wife from her close ones. We never imagined that murder would come into our lives like a thief in the night. Harold stopped to check and had the vehicle propped up on a jack. The Sheriffs Office grew with it, from a few dozen to some 500 employees. They can keep it under control most of the time, but sometimes when the opportunity arises, they strike. The money was purportedly for a business investment, according to evidence presented at an earlier federal court hearing. Friends and family were delighted for the pair, who seemed to be the perfect match. Now that effort is laid to waste. The sentencing today is the final act in completing our first goal and has opened the door to achieving the second goal. His first wife Lynn died in 1995 after a car held up by a jack fell on her. Investigators searched deeper and found that Henthorn's first wife, Sandra, died in 1995 when their Jeep Cherokee fell on her. Family, friends and co-workers were convinced Harold Henthorn was responsible for his wife's death. So Yvonne continued with a final warning. That saying served him well working sex crimes for most of a decade. The preparation of the Victim Statements by Barry, Todd and myself have helped us move ahead in the journey to recovery.Prepared by Bob Bertolet, October 19, 2015Amended December 5, 2015, My name is Todd Bertolet, and I am the younger brother of Toni Bertolet Henthorn.Toni Bertolet Henthorn was blessed with the gift of intellectual brilliance, impeccable character, extraordinary talents, and a big heart. The innocence of a child should not be violated by evil within and, more importantly, evil within a trusted family unit. 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. This despite the fact that the Bertolets had been extra generous to Harold and Toni, gifting them some half-million dollars for a down payment on their house in Colorado, for cars and new appliances and for anything else the couple needed in the 10 years since theyd married. He pushed her.. 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. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". By Kirk Mitchell. As Warren Buffet stated, Honesty is a very expensive gift. The Defendant severely limited and constrained the mother / daughter relationship of Toni and her mother and closely monitored all communication, not because they didnt get along, but merely because they were too close. But, as the lead investigator would later testify to in court, theyd never checked the print against the shoes to see if they were a match. Then, when she found out that Lynn had died, she asked the follow-up question, the one record of her that still remained in the case file and made it clear how she felt about Harold.

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