One Drop From Murder

One Drop From Murder Every year, Harold Henthorn takes his wife, Toni on a trip for their anniversary. On September 29, of 2011, he calls up Toni’s office where she works as an Opthamologist. He gets the staff in on the surprise by having them pretend he’s a patient and when Toni walks in the room, he sweeps her off to a trip. Toni doesn’t seem thrilled, just more confused than anything. He has a go-bag ready for her, their daughter Haley is being cared for by their nanny, and the trip is a go. They make their way up to Estes Park Colorado and stay in the infamous stanley hotel which we’ve talked about before. The next day, they get a late start for a hike that Harold had planned up Deer Mountain trail which is about 3 miles. Not something you’d typically want to start out later in the day like they did at 2 in the afternoon. If it’s 3 miles in, it’s 3 miles out and this is pretty rugged terrain. Sunset comes at about 6 that time of the year so unless you’re an avid hiker and no dilly-dallying, it would likely be dark or near dark on your way back. At 5:54pm, 911 receives a call from a man saying he’s in Rocky Mountain National Park and his wife has fallen from a ledge on the north summit of deer mountain. She’s had a bad fall, he says. Probably 30-40 feet and is in critical condition. He says it will take too long for rescuers to get there on foot – can they send a helicopter? However, the terrain is very rugged and rocky and there’s nowhere to land a helicopter, so Toni will have to be reached on foot. At the time Harold had called in – right before 6pm is right at dusk. Mark Faherty, a park ranger is dispatched to aid in the rescue. Mark got to the trailhead at 6:15 and starts hiking quickly towards where Harold is guiding him. When he gets to the area near where Harold described the accident was, he blows his whistle and Harold has a whistle as well and guides him to where he had toni laid out. Mark noticed Toni laying on her back with a cloth wrapped around her head which was obviously bleeding badly. Harold was performing chest compressions. Toni’s eyes were slightly open and when Mark checked her breathing and pulse. He could tell she was already dead. They had to hike down and leave Toni’s body with another ranger to wait to be retrieved in the morning. So at this point, field investigators come out to check the area and take photos. They notice a tree with a limb broken off about ½ way down the cliff where Tony had fallen. So, she had probably impacted the tree before going the rest of the way down. The investigator did notice a few strange things at the scene, however. The area of the fall was a kind of concealed area, far off of the trail and not something you would be able to see from the trail. There was an untied boot there and the investigator knew that in a fall, shoes don’t typically come untied. Toni’s backpack was very close to her body, not on it, and her camera was beside her as well. Typically, those things would be near an impact area or would have fallen at a different location than the body as they tumbled down the cliff. Harold’s car was searched and investigated as well. A map of the area was found in the car which isn’t weird, but the markings on it were. Deer Ridge Trail was highlighted and below the trail was an x with the word Hike by it. Above the trail was an x drawn in highlighter which was really suspicious, as that’s exactly where Toni had fallen. The investigation was handed over to the ISB which is the Investigative Services Branch. They investigate complicated felony crimes. If it happens in a national park, they’ll investigate it. In certain national parks, they become federal offences because they are considered federal property. Beth Shott, a special agent with the ISB is one of the detectives of the national parks. The rangers called her about the suspicious map and as soon as she saw it, heard the details and saw the place of Toni’s death, she knew they had a case. A couple of days after Toni’s death one of the rangers went to Harold’s house in Littleton, where they met the couple’s young daughter, Haley. They continue down to Harold’s office in the basement. The ranger had brought along the memory card from Toni’s camera that had been recovered from the scene. He showed him some of the photos taken from it and Harold seemed upset seeing the last moments of the day of Toni’s death. The ranger tried to delve deeper into the events of that day. Harold told them he hiked until the trail plateaued and wanted to walk off the trail for privacy. Um, literally already the most private place anyway. It’s difficult hiking to the spot the two went to have lunch and it wasn’t one you could see of the beaten trail so it’s not something you’d see, and think, let’s go explore that. You had to have previously scouted it out to even know it’s there. What they couldn’t figure out is why the couple would climb down part of a rocky mountainside to the area where toni fell. Harold told them it was because toni had seen turkeys heading that way and she wanted to go watch them. The ranger found that odd as turkeys don’t usually hang out on rocky mountainsides. When questioned about that, it changed a bit, oh – maybe it wasn’t turkeys, it might have been deer. Then it changed again saying, actually, they went down there to be intimate. When going down there, you have to climb down a 60 degree boulder field. Halfway down, there’s an outcropping where one of her boots was recovered and the tree she hit on the way down. Harold said Toni was walking quickly towards the edge of the ledge and that he hadn’t witnessed her actual fall because he was preoccupied with his phone and was receiving a text saying that Haley had just won a soccer game. So the ranger asked to see the text and he saw it was time stamped as received at 5:54. That was the EXACT same time that 911 had picked up their call with Harold. Harold had told Mark, the ranger initially that it had taken 45 minutes for him to scramble down to the bottom of the ledge where Toni’s body was and THAT’S when he said he called 911. Mark didn’t point out the discrepancy at that time but he does pull out the map and asks Mark - what’s with the markings on this map we found in your car? That’s the first point where Mark seems speechless. He said he didn’t know and after that, wouldn’t return any of the ranger’s calls. Investigators begin to call the friends and family to get an idea of Harold and Toni’s relationship. Toni grew up in Louisiana with 2 brothers. Their dad was an oil geologist and make hella good money. Though they had money, all of them were very hard workers. Toni was an overachiever in everything she did. She had always wanted to be a doctor and made her way to became an opthamologist. She had been married before Harold but it hadn’t worked out which bothered her terribly. She felt like getting a divorce was a major failure. But, she was a successful doctor and was makng a good living for herself. She loved her church where she sang in the choir and counseled young professionals at the church. Toni had always very much wanted children, but having just gotten divorced and in her 40’s, she worried that wouldn’t happen since she just didn’t seem to be finding the guy while living in Mississippi. So, she turns to her computer and an online dating site called Christianmatchmakers.com. There she met the man of her dreams in Harold. He said all the right things and he too was looking to start a family. He said he was independent fund raiser for non profits, specifically churches, and hospitals. He’s made a good amount of money doing this apparently as he seems to be very well off. Harold came off as an exuberant person, happy and trying to impress others. Toni’s family described Harold as a guy like a used car salesman – he’s great because he tells you how great he is. Shortly after meeting in person, the couple got engaged. They got married after meeting in person only maybe 6 or 7 times during their courtship. They had a huge, extravagant church wedding. 2 years after marriage, they decide to move to Colorado. Toni sold her practice and they relocate to an upscale community called highlands ranch. They wanted children right away since Toni was in her 40’s. She got pregnant in her mid forties. The marriage seemed ideal. So it seemed like a good marriage from the outside and investigators go back to look at the details they could find about that day because they still felt something was out of whack with her death. In the autopsy report, she had multiple blunt force injuries showing she had tumbled down the cliff. She had a massive head wound -we’re talking she had almost been scalped. When Harold called in, he claimed it was likely a concussion. Her head would have been bleeding a ton and why didn’t he say she was bleeding profusely? Behind where her body lay, Harold built a fire that he claimed was a signal fire, but it was way too small to have been used as that. He had claimed he had done CPR the whole time, but toni’s lipstick was still cleanly applied instead of all over her face. When asked if they could see all the text messages received that day, Harold had said no – he’d only been willing to show them the one he’d received about his daughter’s soccer game. He got rid of that phone after the incident. During the 911 call, he kept hanging up on dispatch, claiming his battery was low and he didn’t want to lose total power so that he could tell rescuers where he is. He then texted Toni’s brother. He’s a surgeon so he texts back and forth with him telling him that she’s fallen, here’s her pulse and respiration, but never tells him about the head wound, never said she’s bleeding out. He's saying he did CPR the whole time he’s waiting for EMTs but he started a fire, he’s texting, - how does he have time to do any of that if he’s busy giving mouth to mouth and chest compressions? He sent or received 98 texts that night. For toni’s memorial – he had everything ready immediately, even having put together a memorial video montage within 36 hours of her death.Turns out, the day after toni died, Harold had contacted a photographer to put together the slideshow. She’s expecting him to just send whatever he can drum up quickly. But, she’s shocked when he sends 70 carefully selected photos that he had at the ready immediately. Harold was in every photo – none were of Toni’s family or her youth. Everyone at the service felt it was bizarre and he never spoke about toni, but mentioned to others that he was angry that there was an investigation and said, “toni had to go and get herself killed on federal lands.” Toni’s family felt like Harold had something to do with toni’s death. They kept in contact with Harold though because of Haley and so they could feed info to the feds. They talked to the nannies, one nanny told them how toni and Harold slept in different rooms. Harold had the office in the basement, but he would also occasionally go on biz trips during his marriage to Toni. He’d leave on these trips but without any luggage and then show up again the next day. So investigators start searching for info on his business. The address was his house, but if you talked to him, he’d say he had 90 employees working all over the country for him. He portrayed that he had a lot of money, but it was coming to light that there were money issues. Toni’s parents bought the couple’s house, their car, paid tuition. If someone has a business, expecially as a fundraiser, you’d have an online presence. Harold had none. His business didn’t exist on the states records. On his signature line, he’d have CFRE which means he’s a certified fundraiser – which means that has to be recorded somewhere as well. That agency said he’s non existent in their records. He really doesn’t have a business at all. Then investigators receive a letter about Harold’s first wife who had died in a tragic accident in 1995. The similarities between the deaths were earie. Her name was Lynn Henthorne and most people didn’t know he’d had a first wife or that she’d died. He told most people that she had died in a car accident. Harold doesn’t say more than that – some people were told she had cancer. Then more anonymous letters and calls began coming in to investigators telling them they needed to look into Toni’s death further. To receive these letters and calls is very unusual but they got a lot of them. Harold and lynn lived in Centennial Colorado in the early 90’s. He actually lived in that house until he married toni. In 1984 Harold and Lynn got married. She died just a year later. Lynn was very sweet, religious, and loving. She excelled at everything much like toni. The family never felt like they knew Harold well, but that he was outgoing salesman type. To Lynn’s friends and family he seemed wonderful – very warm and exuberant. He was in charge of the wedding which everyone found weird. He had binders and binders of wedding planning. He would have lynn fill in the binders with endless info to make the best choice. Almost immediately after marriage, he moves her to Colorado. Everything seemed great, and they enjoyed the mountains. Over time, though, Lynn got quieter, and Harold became louder. Lynn tried to be a good wife and do anything to please Harold. She had grown up in a very Christian household where she was taught that the man is always in charge. Lynn was a strong woman, but she ended up always having to serve him in some way as he was always claiming back issues. She worked full time and took care of him often. Lynn had rheumatoid arthritis so she herself was in a lot of pain. Harold was also obsessed with Lynn getting pregnant and pressured her to, like she has any control over it. She told friends they were having marital issues and she asked Harold if she or they could go to therapy, but he considered that disloyal. When Lynn’s family found out that Toni died, they were sure he had killed lynn as well. On the night lynn died, someone driving past on a dark and deserted road see Harold and Lynn’s jeep. They see Lynn and she looks frightened. Next episode? In 2011, the Coroner in Douglas county had someone came to visit her. A neighbor knocked on her door and said, aren’t you the coroner? She said yes – he said he belonged to cherry hills community church and that toni who belonged to that church and mentioned her strange death in RMP. She replied, well, RMP isn’t in douglas county so I’m not the coroner for that. He said, well the guy’s first wife died in douglas county long ago. He told her the story about Harold and how churchgoers found him strange. The next morning, she, the coroner went to the sherrifs and asked for the file. They told her it was a closed case, but they’d print it for her. So goes through the files and began reading all the things that stood out to her. She realized her neighbor was right – something was off. Here’s what the case file said about Lynn’s death in 1985. Harold claims he was driving the road and the right front tire seems spongy. He pulled off into a dirt shoulder and decided to change the tire. He got the jack out and went to put it under the right front wheel well and realized the jack didn’t work. So he put it back, but he happened to have 2 boat jacks in the jeep as well. So he used the boat jacks to jack up the truck. Boat jacks are basically a tube with another telescoping tube that comes out of it. Not safe for a car. Then he took the lug nuts off the wheel and Lynn had a cloth in her hand and he handed her the lug nuts for safe keeping in the cloth. He pulled the tire off, went to the back of the jeep and tossed the tire into the jeep. When he did that, it dislodged the jeep off the jack, he heard a scream and the jeep had dropped onto lynn. So now Lynn is stuck under the brake rotor because he hadn’t put the other tire back on yet. He thinks Lynn must have dropped the lug nuts and had crawled under the car to get some that had rolled under. There were lug nuts under the car in the autopsy photos. Investigators wondered how she had gotten under the rotor since you only jack up the car enough to replace the tire, which isn’t that high off the ground. To get under the rotor would take some work. So the detective in Douglas county was asked to look back into Lynn’s death. The 18 year old case had to be analyzed from old info. They have to Go back to old witnesses which is hard in such an old case. But they do find them. Dwight DeVries had stopped to offer help when he saw the jeep pulled over at 9:30pm. Harold was outside the car, Lynn inside the car. Dwight described that lynn looked scared and that Harold told him that he didn’t need help. He said, that’s fine, but do you want me to pull my car up to light up the area so you can better see? Harold told him no, I’m fine – go on. One of the first witnesses on the scene of the accident after Lynn was crushed was called and she said she knew they were contacting her about that lady on the mountain. She still has nightmares about it. She said on that night of Lynn’s death she and her husband drove around a curve and they saw a man on the side of the road with a flare. He told them there was an accident, he had a flat and his wife is stuck under the car. They hurried over, could see legs under the car. They all worked together to get her out from under the car. She was on her stomach and they tried to gently roll her onto her back. They start CPR, but Harold came over screaming, don’t touch her, leave her alone! Get the fuck away from her. At that point, she’s turning blue. Harold did nothing to help, not even to take his coat off to cover Lynn to warm her, so they did. Sirens were coming – they asked how she got under the car and Harold told them, well there’s a lug nut that rolled under there – she must have went under to get it. She wondered what kind of dumbass would let his wife get underneath a car for a single lugnut? When they heard the sirens coming, he seemed panicked instead of relieved that help was coming. The detective reviewing the case, noticed 3 striking things. 1. Why would lynn be in that position. 2. Could he get a jeep to fall off jacks the way that Harold claimed it did. 3 lug nuts aren’t round, they don’t roll. It’s also very weird because Harold has been described as the type obsessed with safety and doing things to the utmost letter. Douglas county recreated the events but COULD NOT get it to fall like he did. They’re like aggressively throwing tires in the back, pushing on the jeep and all but nothing worked until they lowered the bottle jack. There was a grade that the jeep was parked on, so the front of the jeep was angled slightly upwards. The lugnuts would have had to roll uphill. Also, no logical person would crawl under the rotor, especially with Lynn having arthritis like she did. There was nothing under her nails at autopsy or on her hands to indicate she was struggling to get out. Plus, Harold with his bad back wouldn’t likely pick up a tire and toss it in the back of a truck like he’s throwing a basketball. Dectectives theorize that maybe she was given a sedative, placed her there and then lowered the bottle jack. Shortly before lynn’s death, Harold had purchased life insurance for 150k with a clause on it that said if she died in a car accident, the payout doubled. When the douglas coroner got the info from the investigation, she changed lynn’s cause of death to undetermined. Women that Harold dated were interviewed. They described their dating experiences as midly uncomfortable to I thought he was going to drive me off the road and kill me. After his first wife lynn’s death, he wants to date again so he creates a profile on Christian matchmakers.com he’s saying he wants eternal love and a Christian wife. The women interviewed said he was super controlling. One of them came forward saying that she had known Harold and lynn as a couple and that when lynn died, she and Harold began dating within months of the death. Then he began controlling her. During an argument, he had actually pinned her against a wall until she agreed to say he was right and she was wrong. She called it off after that. Another woman had a story that they had been at lunch, he left his sunglasses, told her to go back and get them. She drove back, the place was closed and she went on to work. Harold calls and yells that she didn’t get them, showed up at her work yelling and finally her boss had to make him leave. Yet another woman, he took up to Estes park and he pulled over, said, you know I could kill you and dump your body here and no one would find you until spring time. She called him that night and told him never to contact her again but he shows up banging on her doors at 3 in the morning. She obviously never called him back. He was very interested in women that were well off, if they had a good position in society. Finances were very important to him. He had files on these women he dated and would keep notes about them. Toni’s was underlined with doctor. Within 9 months online dating, he married toni. On his cell records, a friend of the couple, grace Rochelle popped up often. They called and texted a lot before Toni died. They needed to find out if she was Harold’s lover. 18 months after toni’s death. All these unexplained, obviously not work related over night trips – She was his former sister in law. Lynn’s brother’s ex-wife. Harold and grace aren’t related, but they texted and called all the time. Starts off understandable – he’s her kids uncle and brother in law. Was she why he killed toni? Grace was shocked when detectives came to her and told them she’d tell them everything she knew. In 2007, she had separated from her husband – they lost their home right before Christmas, they had no money but 4 girls to care for. During the divorce, Harold involved himself – he wanted to get the girls to like him and be more involved with him. He claimed he just wanted to help her. He tried to help grace in every way. He told her she should get an insurance policy and have the girls be the beneficiary – she’s now a single mom, if something happens to her – she needs to make sure they have something. He helped pay for it. They pretty quickly saw she was not involved with Harold in any romantic way, but that Harold was probably grooming her as a future love interest. He's in soooo many photos through the years looking like Grace’s husband and her girl’s dad. In march of 2010, Grace’s divorce is final, she’s moving to Texas and Harold is pissed. He didn’t want her to take the job. He desperately wants her to move to Colorado and they get in a big fight about it. He leaves tons of voice mails and is pissed she won’t call him back. He tried to control her. So, Grace remembers the insurance policy he took out for her and she called the insurance broker and asked them to cancel the policy. But detectives found out that Harold had never cancelled it. He had put himself as the beneficiary, not Grace’s daughters at all. It was for 400k and was paid for through that year. He was likely intending her for his next victim. It was created just prior to toni’s death. He was setting up for his next wife that he could kill. While checking insurance policies, detectives made more discoveries. Several months before Lynn died, they had gotten life insurance policies on each other. She already had a policy on her, so he got over 600 k for her death. He said toni had only 1 policy on her, but when they checked into it, they found out there were at least 4 policies on her. 1.5 million, another 1.5 and after haley is born, another in 2008 and totaling 4.7 mil in all. Meanwhile, Toni’s family comes to investigators with more info. After he married Toni, Harold started controlling all communication with her family. Her mom went an entire decade without talking with her daughter privately. Every detail of the house was controlled. Toni began giving up everything she loved because Harold felt it took away from their marriage. Friends started to drop off more and more. Toni looked for Christian women because he knew they’d be more likely to be controlled because of their belief that the man is the head. Toni’s mom relayed a story where she told them this wasn’t the first time something bad had happened to her. Toni and Harold had a cabin up at grand lake in the mountains and on a stay up at the cabin, Late at night, 18 months before her death. Haley is asleep and Harold wants to clean up outside late at night. The house has a sizeable deck. Harold’s on the deck and points out a light had broken below. He tells her to go pick up the broken pieces and she’s bending over to pick it up. No one knows for sure (except Harold) what happened next. Something hits toni in the back of the neck and knocks her down. They call 911 – her story is that a large piece of wood fell off the deck and accidentally hit her. She had to go to a hospital in Denver and suffered from a fractured vertebrae. Once again, remote location, late at night – he’s the only witness. Turns out, it was a huge 20’ beam, he claims that just flew off the deck while he was next to it. Toni had later told her mom that had she not bent over at just that moment, the beam surely would have killed her Harold’s movements began being tracked – he always stayed near his home. So what was he doing with his time after klling toni? Investigators begin looking at his bank accounts and women he may have victimized. So, they serve a search warrant and search Harold’s house. They seized computers and all files – they find a huge smoking gun in his tax returns. Luckily for investigators, Harold’s office is full of everything. He’s a pack rat and saved every scrap of paper you could imagine. They begin going through his tax returns and his work history. He worked at chevron out of college and ended up quitting. He did some fundraising at Colorado Christian College but he sucked at it, so they fired him. He claimed to be working his fundraising business for 20 years, but he made nearly no money for 2 decades. He faked his jobs and hadn’t had one since 1992. So, Harold is a proven liar and had a motive, but proving the killing was harder. For 2 years after toni’s death, Harold continued to live in their family home. Investigators think that once he had a child, he didn’t want toni anymore. He had someone he could control forever. Harold’s family refused interviews, but they tried to dig up whatever info they could find. His childhood was found in bits and pieces from friends that would speak. He was obnoxious and charming, and didn’t want to be at his own home. His dad was likely abusive from things they’d heard. A violent alcholic. Harold was probably drawn to loving women – he wanted to be a family man – he had to condition himself to show emotion. Harold was all about presentation. Toni’s family would go on vacation with Harold and haley then call the fbi with any information they could. Harold begins changing dramatically. He’s overconfident, cocky – he thinks he’s gotten away with it. After visiting Harold in Denver, it was obvious he was using toni’s family as a tool to show he was innocent, so they began speaking up. They spoke to reporters saying they believed Harold was a killer. Of course, all contact with haley was ceased. Finally after 2 years, an arrest warrant was issued for Harold. When asked his occupation, he paused, and chose not to answer. A young attractive marshall asks the same question and he comes out with his fake fundraiser story. He was charged with 1st degree murder and investigations showed that Harold was moving lots of money, so a bond was denied. Meanwhile, investigators were digging deeper into financials and they found that Toni got regular oil royalties from her family and all of those went to harold’s accounts. A couple months before she died, Toni had opened a checking account in her name and got her own phone because Harold had controlled her phone and all calls she received. He began to realize she might have been preparing to divorce him. A divorce would entail financial inquires that would reveal his fraud and that he had no job. As for where Harold was traveling to every Thursday and Friday – it was really tough to figure out because there were no cash withdrawls or hotels he was staying at. And cell towers showed he was only about 10 miles from his house, so why did he need a babysitter to go so close to his home? When looking at a map of things within 10 miles of his house, investigators find there’s a mall in the area called southwest plaza mall. There’s a panera there and they went and showed a photo of Harold to the manager who said he was there all the time, always on his computer. He would also go up to estes park often. From the cell tower pings off of his phone, they found Aug. 16, was the first time Harold traveled up to Estes to the same exact area where toni fell. He was scouting locations. Sept. 9, again, he goes up to estes and the very next morning is when he calls Toni’s office to have them block off the date for their anniversary trip. It all started after toni had opened her own account. Harold hired a well-known defense attorney. The worry for investigators is proving he’s guilty on an entirely circumstantial case. They needed to make sure all the evidence including Harold’s previous wife’s death could be submitted. They couldn’t try to prove that lynn was murdered, but that it was likely a pattern. Luckily, the judge ruled that Jurors were allowed to learn Lynn died under mysterious and similar circumstances. After all their hard work at digging up every detail they could, Harold was found guilty of Toni’s murder. He was given life without parole – he appealed and lost, appealed again and was denied. All of his ppeals have been exhausted. As for Haley; she was so controlled, that she was actually behind on her maturation. Haley’s uncle adopted her and she’s having a much less controlled life. kdvr.com, nypost.com, wikibiography.in, rollingstone, Wild crime on hulu: she had a bad fall