Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:00]

Hey, it's Brad Milke, host of ABC's daily news podcast. Start here. And I'm honored to say start here, along with several ABC audio projects, are up for Webby awards. Voting is open to the public, and we're all really excited about these awards, but this vote closes on Thursday, so please don't wait. You can go to abcaudio.com webbys. That's abcaudio.com webbys, webys. To cast your vote for, start here along with other ABC News shows. We really appreciate it.

[00:00:30]

Hi, 2020 podcast listeners. This is Deborah Roberts, co anchor of 2020. It's time for episode four of Wild Murder in the Rocky Mountains. This is the final episode of season one in this true crime series, which grew out of our work at 2020. Wild crime is produced by ABC Studios, and it's streaming on Hulu. Here now is episode four, justice for Haley.

[00:00:59]

Wild Places, Wilder Crimes. These are the stories of the elite team that solves them in the most dangerous crime scenes in the world, our national parks.

[00:01:14]

He's a danger. This man has killed supposedly two wives.

[00:01:18]

And he believes he's not going to be arrested.

[00:01:24]

If she started moving the money he was living on, the gig was everybody's.

[00:01:30]

Gonna find out that he's a fraud.

[00:01:33]

I was in a state of shock that somebody could be so evil. And the last thing that Tony ever had going through her mind was him pushing her off.

[00:01:44]

This is a murder motivated by money and malice.

[00:01:49]

Can you prove the difference between a push and a fall?

[00:02:16]

A woman was killed, and it took a toll on me. Just the stress level was really high, and I did bring it home. My husband got tired of hearing about it, and I would wake up in the middle of the night obsessing about it. What do I need to do next? What's the next thing? Since 1992, Harold has not been employed. He has not had an income. We're still trying to build a snapshot of Harold's lack of income for 18 years leading up to Tony Henthorn's death and $4.7 million in insurance.

[00:02:48]

But to prove it in court's gonna be difficult.

[00:02:51]

That's a lot of reasons to kill someone. All through this is in the back of my mind that I don't want to lose this case because of something that I missed. That's always there, that's always hanging. That's why it took us a long time to actually arrest him.

[00:03:19]

To build a solid case. It's like making a solid table. You can't build a table with one leg or two legs. You have to have four legs. This one he calls the stand on his way up. So there's a lot of witnesses that need re interviewed. There's more data that comes in that we want to make sure we're filling up all the holes in our case.

[00:03:40]

I think it's relevant because he's not telling the truth. Right. It's back to that same thing of we're not trying to prove he didn't have a job.

[00:03:47]

And at the same time, we were very concerned about Haley's safety.

[00:03:55]

Our daughters went to school together since they were about two years old. I remember going to their house for Haley's birthday.

[00:04:05]

Scripted.

[00:04:06]

It seemed. It just seemed a little exaggerated.

[00:04:10]

He had control over everything that Haley ate or drank. Haley had still a baby monitor in her room. He wanted total control. And there's no one you can control more than your child.

[00:04:25]

In my opinion, the reason that he wanted to form the bonds that he had with Hailey was for her to be raised in his exact likeness, be waved.

[00:04:37]

Good to see you.

[00:04:38]

See you later, alligator. Alligator.

[00:04:46]

We knew that if we didn't support Harold while this investigation's going on, then we would be cut off from Haley the bird.

[00:04:57]

Always they would go on vacation with Harold or go visit Harold, and then they would call me, and they were providing our investigation with as much information as they could.

[00:05:07]

This is my brother, the spouses, my parents, very, very close friends. We're all playing this game.

[00:05:18]

I mean, to be honest, I don't know how they lasted as long as they did.

[00:05:32]

Everybody involved is, in their own ways, hopeful on one day and despondent on the next, because it's taking a lot of time. And in that time, Harold's attitude changes really dramatically.

[00:05:47]

We started noticing a change in Harold. He started calling overconfident, cocky. They can't do anything to me. Just really bizarre kind of talk.

[00:05:59]

Harold is back to his old ultra confident self again. He believes he's back in control. He's not going to be arrested. Who's this guy here? It was very difficult on my parents, knowing that this man has killed their daughter. We had run the course of our value to the investigation, and after a visit to Denver, it became very clear that Harold was using our family as a tool to say, hey, look, they are supporting me, therefore, I'm innocent. And we said, you know, enough. So with that, it's time to finally go out in public.

[00:06:53]

We did not want Tony cremated, and Harold insisted. We wanted to bring her home and bury her.

[00:07:03]

I think he was trying to hide evidence. I think that Harold Hinthorn pushed my sister off the mountain. Harold Hinthorne immediately cut off all communication and all contact with Haley. If we sent gifts out to Haley for her birthday or anything, she never received them. He wanted Haley to believe that we didn't care about her.

[00:07:32]

I can only imagine what the Bertilaves were going through. It was a long time coming, but there was a point where we said, we have enough to get an arrest warrant finally in hand for Harold.

[00:07:46]

We had our surveillance team watching him for a couple days because we did not want to arrest Harold with his young daughter there and create some sort of hostage situation.

[00:08:00]

A lot's going on, a lot of moving parts all merging towards this moment where we're going to hopefully arrest Harold Henthorpe. So Harold knew that we were investigating him, and he had told people that he had a bag packed for when he got arrested.

[00:08:28]

We knew that arrest was coming, we just didn't know when. But it occurred on my parents wedding anniversary, and so they got a nice little wedding anniversary. Having Harold Hinthorne arrested, we transported him.

[00:08:43]

To the United States marshals.

[00:08:45]

She's in the backseat of my car with another FBI agent. Beth's in the passenger seat, and you have to fill out a questionnaire as you're going to the US marshal's office. What's your name? What's your date of birth? What's your occupation? So when it came to what's your occupation? Harold paused. Harold knew that we knew he didn't have a job. And I said, mister Hinthorn, you don't have to answer. And he said, okay, I choose not to answer that question. We get there to the marshal's office, and an attractive young female marshal is booking him in. And she goes through the exact same questions. Name, date of birth, occupation, and for occupation, he goes, I'm a fundraiser for hospitals and churches. He just told her the whole story right in front of us.

[00:09:38]

Even under arrest, with handcuffs on, he can't help but lie about who he is.

[00:09:43]

It was surreal for Beth and I to watch that happen.

[00:09:49]

Even when things didn't go his way, he would create a reality to support what he wanted and would relentlessly just ensure that that was the reality portrayed to people.

[00:10:03]

Affair of ours was that Harold Hanthorne would flee the country and nobody would have access to Haley.

[00:10:11]

We thought, really, he's a danger. This man has killed supposedly two wives. And the last thing we wanted was him going home to his child.

[00:10:20]

We needed to indict him pretty quickly.

[00:10:24]

We charged him with first degree murder.

[00:10:26]

We did ask for no bail. Our forensic accountant, who is fabulous, was able to determine that Harold was starting to move money, hundreds of thousands of dollars. So that elevated our concern.

[00:10:41]

He's a flight risk and poses a risk to the community. Those are the reasons a federal judge is given for denying bond to Harold Henthorne.

[00:10:52]

He had to spend all his time in jail. Prior to his trial.

[00:10:58]

Harold had a couple friends that if anything happened to him or Tony, were legal guardians to Haley.

[00:11:05]

I think she was with us for about 14 months. We certainly felt that Haley more rightfully deserved to be with the bertilise and back with her natural family rather than with us. It was obvious that with all the control that Harold had, she hadn't had the ability to mature like kids her age had. She had it tough.

[00:11:31]

We saw a lot of similarities between Lynn Henthorne's death and Tony's murder.

[00:11:41]

After Harold's arrest, the Rochelles and Bertiles began to share information. When we started talking with the Rochelles and we started comparing notes. Both his wives die directly in front of him, yet he doesn't see anything. It occurred around anniversaries. Both of them were supposed to be going to dinner reservations. You could just go on down the line and they were exactly the same. One of the good things that came out of this was that I started communicating with grace again and supporting her as she develops this list. Between what happened with Lynn and what happened with Tony that we gave to the detectives.

[00:12:27]

Once Harold gets arrested, the clock starts ticking. On trial.

[00:12:32]

We have a certain amount of time in which to bring him to trial.

[00:12:36]

We need to prove that he was very key to Lynn's death. So we had to strategize on what circumstantial evidence would be key to our investigation.

[00:12:49]

Circumstantial evidence is not what we think it is. It doesn't mean evidence that should be discounted by a jury. It just means evidence that doesn't point directly to someone's involvement in the crime.

[00:13:00]

You go to bed at night and there's no snow on the ground, and you wake up the next morning and there's snow on the ground. You have not seen it, so there's no direct evidence. It is circumstantial. You see footprints in the snow. How do you know that somebody walked across that snow? You don't have the direct evidence that somebody walked across your yard, but you have circumstantial evidence because the footprints are left behind. So our job is to find the footprints that are left behind and who put them there.

[00:13:30]

Building the case against Harold was a monumental effort. We didn't always agree on that. Like, we would fight as a team about, no, we gotta do this, or how do we do that? How do you take, like, just tons of evidence and distill it down to what matters?

[00:13:50]

A lot was up in the air. My superiors were wondering if we should strike some sort of deal with Harold ahead of time. Just because everybody's primary concern was Haley.

[00:14:03]

Harold hires an attorney named Craig Truman.

[00:14:06]

He's a very well respected criminal defense attorney in town who has decades of experience.

[00:14:12]

I think Harold's lawyer strategy is to figure out what our case is and where he can poke holes in it.

[00:14:21]

Potentially, two women died because of this man. We are the voice of Toni when it comes to the trial. We have to tell her story.

[00:14:30]

Her side of it always in the back of our mind was, how are we going to do this?

[00:14:36]

There are a lot of variables, so this is going to be very critical.

[00:14:46]

Hey, I'm Andy Mitchell, a New York Times bestselling author. And I'm Sabrina Kohlberg, a morning television producer. We're moms of toddlers and best friends of 20 years, and we both love to talk about being parents, yes, but also pop culture. So we're combining our two interests by talking to celebrities, writers, and fellow scholars of tv and movies, cinema, really, about what we all can learn from the fictional moms we love to watch from ABC audio and Good Morning America. Pop culture moms is out. Now. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we've got the exclusive view behind the table. Every day right after the show, while the topics are still hot, the ladies go deeper into the moments that make the view the view, the views behind the table podcast. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:15:48]

So as we did investigation, Harold turns out to be a not very nice person. But that doesn't make you a killer. You know, you could be a jerk, but that doesn't mean you murdered your wife.

[00:16:00]

Tony was set to inherit a lot of money. She was set for life. She knew it. They knew it, and certainly Harold knew it. If Harold and Tony had had a great marriage, then Tony is worth far more alive than she ever would be dead.

[00:16:14]

In December of 2011, we made our last trip to Colorado to see the Henthorns. So, Tony, she looked exhausted. More than just exhausted. She looked worn out, and she looked like she was ready to come home. I just saw something in her eyes that this is not what I signed up for. I know for sure that finances drove Harold's decision making. He was obsessed with finances. There was rarely a conversation when the subject of money didn't come up.

[00:16:52]

So I asked Dana Chamberlain, who was a financial analyst in my office, if she would start digging into the financial records, which meant getting bank records. She went through and demonstrated that all the income that came in was Tony's, but that Henthorn controlled every account, the signatory and the bank accounts, and where all the mail went, it all went to him. So that even though Tony made the money, she had no idea what was happening with it.

[00:17:22]

Money didn't impress Tony. It wasn't important to her. She let him take care of everything.

[00:17:28]

Tony Hanthorn got regular royalty checks from her family because they're in the oil industry.

[00:17:34]

These checks that, that Tony would get for oil and gas, Harold would deposit them. And at one point, Tony's father found out that all of the oil and gas checks went into Harold's account. And he confronted Tony with it. He's like, why don't you have your own account? Why don't you separate your finances from Harold? And that spurred Tony to open up her own bank account. And she actually took the next checks and she deposited them. Harold was not on that account. She got another phone, and so she gave another one of my friends a different number, because I think Harold controlled her phone.

[00:18:13]

I thought to myself, she is. She's about to leave him.

[00:18:18]

If Tony keeps going on the trajectory that she's going on, there's probably going to be a divorce.

[00:18:24]

And I don't think that Harold would have allowed that to happen.

[00:18:29]

Divorce really wasn't an option for Harold Hinthorne. Everybody's going to find out that he has no career, that he has no income, that he's a fraud.

[00:18:42]

Harold took care of the money down to the penny. So the loss of an oil and gas royalty check was significant enough that he realized this is going to be a problem. Tony was taking steps to be independent. If she started moving the money he was living on, the gig was up.

[00:19:05]

Motive started solidifying pretty quickly.

[00:19:10]

Beth shot and Johnny gruesing were insistent then on finding out where Harold was traveling to, because they hired a nanny so that he could travel every Thursday and Friday. We know he's not flying out of state. We can't find any hotels. There weren't any cash withdrawals coming out, so we couldn't figure out what he was doing.

[00:19:28]

So, Johnny, what do you know about Harold's movements? I had a big pile of cell tower information as well as call information, and I gave that pile to Johnny, I said, try to figure out where Harold was going on these business trips.

[00:19:44]

So when you're using your cell phone, it is pinging off the local tower so we can, where your phone has been on given dates and times.

[00:19:55]

It probably took me a week or two to plot all his goings. And I see this as a pattern through the first couple of Thursdays that he's over in southwest Littleton, which is about 10 miles from his house. And I'm wondering, what's he doing over there, and why was he having to hire a babysitter to get there? You know, he's going through a lot of effort to go to Southwest Littleton. The two cell towers kind of look like little pies, and they. They intersected at this mall we call Aspen Grove mall, and there's probably 30 stores there. I called Beth and said, can you meet me down here at Southwest Plaza? She's there probably within half an hour. So we hit up the panera, and I had a picture of Harold to show to the manager, and she said, oh, yeah, I know him. He was in all the time. And he would spend probably three, sometimes 4 hours back there, either on his cell phone or on a computer and just surfing the Internet. Both Beth and I were thrilled. And for me, it also validated the cell phone technology and that I'm looking at these two towers, I know he's somewhere in the middle, and boom, he's right there.

[00:21:13]

Along with the panera hits on the cell tower. Johnny also started seeing a pattern of movement up to Estes park.

[00:21:22]

So I first saw it on August 16, is I saw him hit in Estes park tower. It's the first time that I could see him hit the tower in Estes park, where he was actually reaching out to 911, saying, my wife, my bride is gone. All that sort of stuff.

[00:21:41]

My wife has fallen through a rock on the north summit of deer melting.

[00:21:48]

And then I saw gaps in communication, and Harold was always on his cell phone. And so to see a gap of 8 hours, I'm like, what's he doing? And so I started looking more then for gaps instead of who he's calling of, when is he not calling or texting. And I found six of those gaps, and each of those, it's almost like breadcrumbs, where you could see him go from his house up north of town. Then his cell phone goes off.

[00:22:25]

And.

[00:22:26]

Then you wait about six or 8 hours, and then you can see the breadcrumbs coming back down to his house. Each time it points towards Estes park. On August 16 and August 24, he does the same thing. So he keeps on doing this. I think his most significant trip was on September 9. And he goes up north. You know, the cell phone's off. He comes back down, but it's the next morning when he calls Cherry Creek eye surgeons and says, hey, I need you to block off. September 28, I'm going to take her for this hike at Bene Estes park. So I believe on September 9, he finds his spot.

[00:23:08]

And what Johnny figured out is Harold leaving his home in Highlands Ranch and driving up into Rocky Mountain National park eight or nine times every weekend leading up to Tony's death. And it started once Harold figured out Tony had opened up her own bank account.

[00:23:25]

Eleven days after her death, he drives up to a first bank with an obviously forged signature of Tony for the exact amount that cleaned out that account she opened on her own.

[00:23:36]

We felt that we had enough to present as evidence. We all said, are we ready? Did we have enough to prove it to the jury?

[00:23:53]

We knew we had one last major hurdle. One of the things that we did legally was to make a decision that we were going to try and use the 1995 death of Lynn Henthorne in the case. And in our case, it was to show that this was not an accident and to show the intent and planning that Harold had.

[00:24:16]

Harold's the only witness. Harold's not injured in any way.

[00:24:20]

So to tie Lynn's death to Tony's death, we needed to show that they were similar in a variety of ways. Harold had a lot to gain financially because of the insurance money. One is under a car in the middle of the night. Tony was under a deck in the middle of the night when the beam fell on her head. And then Tony was on the edge of a dangerous cliff. The more similarities we can show the judge, the better chance that Valeria and Sunita could bring these into the courtroom.

[00:24:57]

This was everything. There was nothing more important than this.

[00:25:04]

Judge Jackson asked both sides to brief it, which means submit legal pleadings that lay out why it should be admissible.

[00:25:16]

We had a several day hearing on it. We knew it was absolutely key and important. So did the defense and so did the judge. So we really hammered it.

[00:25:26]

We went to the pretrial very concerned that the evidence was not going to be allowed in.

[00:25:34]

This was going to be a very difficult case to prove. So this was crucial to see what we could get in there ahead of time so that we could have a much better chance. When the trial came in September.

[00:25:52]

Valeri and I put on the various witnesses during the evidentiary hearing.

[00:25:57]

It's difficult to take on a cold case because so many years have gone by. But people who witness a traumatic event really do retain very clear, take them back to the moment kind of memories. It turned out to be almost a mini trial. Within the trial, we were not proving that Lynn was murdered. They could only use it for, for the limited purpose, to show that it was not likely that Tony's death was an accident. Based on the similarities of Lynn's death.

[00:26:31]

Harold's lawyer strategy was to keep Lynne Hethorn's death out of evidence. You know, he definitely was pushing hard and arguing hard that that shouldn't come in.

[00:26:42]

The judge called us to the bench and said, are you sure that you want to get into this? Do you really want to use this? Because if you're gambling now, and you are and you're wrong, you will retry this case. Everyone knew how important it was. Sunita and I looked at each other and said, yes, we're going to use all the cards on the table. We're not going to leave anything.

[00:27:09]

We did not want to lose this trial. When you're playing with, you know, a young girl's life, I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[00:27:23]

New information today about what will be allowed in court during the Harold Henthorne trial. Well, a judge ruling today that jurors will be allowed to learn that his first wife also died under mysterious circumstances. The judge agreed that, yes, Lynn's death and the beam incident, the similarities are too strong to be ignored. The judge has said, yes, we are going to allow that into the trial. So I was elated, very, very grateful.

[00:27:56]

And it really was an incredible feeling of relief as well as knowing what our marching orders were.

[00:28:10]

This morning, the trial begins for a Highlands ranch accused of killing his wife. The federal judge in the case told prospective jurors, this trial, quote, will be a doozy. And we are tracking breaking news just into our newsroom. Harold Henthorn happening today.

[00:28:23]

Disturbing new details, new information in the investigation.

[00:28:26]

It's very rare that we do a case that has such strong media attention. And there were cameras outside the courthouse every day.

[00:28:32]

You just don't get a case like this but once in a lifetime.

[00:28:35]

There was a cover story in People magazine, and I'm actually mentioned in the story, so I've never had a case like this.

[00:28:42]

Prosecutors feel this is a murder motivated by money and malice.

[00:28:47]

You know, this is it. There's no go backs.

[00:28:50]

A sinister plot by a husband determined to control his wife. And her fortune.

[00:28:56]

It's a lot tougher than you think to get a jury to agree. I don't know how twelve people agree on a pizza topping, let alone on the guilt or innocence of somebody.

[00:29:11]

Expect opening statements today in the trial.

[00:29:13]

Against a Highlands ranch man accused of.

[00:29:15]

Pushing his wife off of a cliff.

[00:29:17]

In Rocky Mountain National park.

[00:29:22]

When they brought Harold Hinthorn in, he was in shackles, and he looked like he had aged quite a bit.

[00:29:31]

This is opening day of the trial, and it's laying out the foundation of the case, but also giving that first impression.

[00:29:37]

We knew we needed to start strong. He intended to kill her. The fall broke her neck. We started emotionally. She bled out.

[00:29:45]

So much sculpture.

[00:29:47]

Four and a half million dollars. So you're trying to build the story of what happened that night, but you also want to start introducing evidence. So Harold's lawyer, he recognized that you couldn't explain away all of Henthorn's quirks. He sort of embraced him and said, sure, he might be quirky, but that doesn't make him a murderer. And to really, you know, challenge us because it was a circumstantial case, we're.

[00:30:14]

Hearing things that we didn't know, such as, you know, how in the world did Harold Hinthorne get four and a half million dollars of life insurance policies on my sister?

[00:30:28]

We showed the autopsy photos of TONY BECAUSE he never mentions that she's got a massive head wound and that she's bleeding out profusely. And so we wanted to ensure that the jury understood that there's no way he could mistake the injuries.

[00:30:50]

We were staying in a hotel, and we were on the 15th floor, and I looked down, I said, wow, that's the amount of distance my sister fell. What a terrible way to die.

[00:31:05]

That was VERY hard. It was very hard on Miss Bertile. It broke my heart to see her.

[00:31:19]

Because Lynn's death had never been litigated. There had never been any justice for the family. It was really important to them to see somebody doing something about it.

[00:31:31]

Truman's strategy in general was to try to make Lynn's death seem very innocent. Law enforcement closed the case within a week. So this is a big nothing.

[00:31:42]

We presented so much of who Lynn was and what happened to her that she ALMost had her day in court.

[00:31:49]

So we put on pictures taken at the original scene of the jack and the changing of the tire.

[00:32:00]

We didn't know that other people had stopped by and pulled her out, that he was very agitated at the accident scene with people he didn't want them to touch her.

[00:32:13]

I was angry, but I was more almost in a state of shock and disbelief that somebody could be so evil and have penetrated our family.

[00:32:27]

God bless Barry Birdaway. I remember talking with him once and just saying how sorry I was. And he very graciously just said, there, harold fooled us all.

[00:32:46]

Harold, he's smiling at his friends, and he enough of a narcissist that it's all about him. Beth was our case agent, and so we were going to be putting her on the stand. She was a key witness.

[00:33:02]

I was very nervous. It's incredibly nerve wracking to testify, especially in a homicide. One of the challenges of doing a case like this is, did I miss something? Something that will cause the jury to say, not guilty.

[00:33:20]

Beth was outstanding, like a race of a marathon. This was finally her finish line.

[00:33:27]

I talked about the forensic stuff. The time stamp on the camera helped build our timeline. And then also the scene, because I had been there several times.

[00:33:41]

Beth being able to guide us up and down there multiple times was fascinating to the jury.

[00:33:48]

Because we couldn't bring the jury to the scene, we instead brought the scene to them.

[00:33:53]

What I think had a big impact on the jurors was having about two or three rangers, park rangers, talk them through how difficult it was to get up there and then how dangerous it was to be there. And their testimony was able to almost take the jurors up there to that site.

[00:34:16]

We would play the exhibit of that scene. We're looking at the jurors faces, and they had the aha. Moment. Harold did not get up and speak at all. In the trial, Craig Truman didn't bring in any witnesses. He just cross examined.

[00:34:44]

The prosecution gets two closes. I did the first close, and Valerie did what's called a rebuttal.

[00:34:50]

The defense spent a lot of time on pushing back on Lynn's case.

[00:34:54]

This case has been investigated, and it has been determined that this death was an accident. No criminal charges.

[00:35:01]

And then he kept saying, no need to look at this again. It was an accident. This poor man has lost two wives. How heartbreaking could that be?

[00:35:10]

Truman really hammered home that you can't tell the difference between a fall from a push.

[00:35:16]

What has been no way on God's earth to tell whether someone was pushed.

[00:35:22]

Or has.

[00:35:28]

He did a good job. He also has a different job. Right? We have to convince twelve people, and he just says to have one get some doubt.

[00:35:41]

I remember sitting there thinking, I'm so proud of the prosecution. These women took control.

[00:35:50]

I was trying to imagine how Tony.

[00:35:52]

Walked last human touch Tony Anthony ever felt.

[00:35:56]

The defendant tells Nas, there's no way to tell Bushmall.

[00:35:59]

It was not a loving caress from her husband, but a push, a push that deprived hailey of her mother.

[00:36:04]

It was a lie the whole way through.

[00:36:07]

Valeria, she brought you almost to the. To the top of that cliff.

[00:36:12]

You fell over 128ft to her death.

[00:36:15]

I will never forget Sunita saying, this is the man that is supposed to guard and protect his wife. And the last thing that Tony ever had going through her mind was him pushing her off.

[00:36:34]

So after closing arguments, the case goes to the jury.

[00:36:40]

You sit down and you think, I hope we did it. It's a lot tougher than you think to get a jury to agree.

[00:36:50]

I felt like we made the case, but there's still a lot of anticipation, a lot of, oh, my gosh, I don't know.

[00:37:06]

The defense forces are recruiting the next generation of cadets.

[00:37:09]

We're looking for the best and to recruit the best leaders, we too have to lead.

[00:37:14]

That's why we lead the way. With fully funded opportunities for education and training.

[00:37:18]

We lead with skills you won't learn anywhere else, skills that could be vital to future employers.

[00:37:23]

And of course, we lead. When it comes to being. Being part of a team, developing character and resilience and serving with pride, we lead.

[00:37:31]

Now you can too be more.

[00:37:33]

Apply for Defense forces cadetship at military ie. You're always nervous about what twelve people are thinking and they have to unanimously decide that we have met our burden. I remember Sunita and I looking at each other going, it's gotta be guilty, right? It's gonna be guilty. And I was like, I don't know. I don't know. You just don't know.

[00:38:05]

And the judge reads the verdict. In the matter of the United States versus Harold Hinthorn, we, the jury, find the defendant guilty. There was like audible whoops of joy that came out of the courtroom.

[00:38:28]

I was just so, so happy.

[00:38:33]

We were all very thankful, very relieved. Just elation. I don't think anybody understands how nervous you are and how stressful it is going through that trial.

[00:38:49]

We all look at each other and it's an overwhelming emotion that hits you and you look back at the Berglaze and they're crying. And all of this is to get justice for Tony, justice for Haley, justice for the Birdelaids. And we did it. It's a really, really satisfying moment.

[00:39:21]

When they did convict him, I was able to say, goodbye, Harold. They were walking him out.

[00:39:33]

The sentence was life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[00:39:38]

Harold appealed to the 10th Circuit, specifically the Linhenthorn piece. And he lost. He appealed that to the United States Supreme Court, and they denied it. And so his appeal on the trial is over.

[00:40:02]

There was a time when I wanted to get out more information on Lynn. But at the end of the day, Lynn received justice. Hi, Drake.

[00:40:13]

If it had not been for Lynn's case, he very well would have walked. It wouldn't have been enough. Even the circumstantial. Lynn was a lover, my sister was a giver, and he took advantage of that. The world lost a lover. We need more of that in this world.

[00:40:39]

Here's to celebrating life since we all have it. Family, we're healing, and this was part of it.

[00:40:48]

If Tony was here, I would tell her how much I loved her and how much I made mister.

[00:40:56]

Okay, daddy. Being the elder statesman of the group, you want to say some closing words?

[00:41:03]

I wish everybody had a life as nice as mine has been. And that's enough. These type of interviews are therapeutic for us, and it's good for other people to know the experiences that we had, to recognize those red flags that we saw that we didn't act on.

[00:41:27]

I believe that putting Harold in a position where he cannot control anything is great punishment for Harold. I do think the punishment fits the crime. He robbed Haley of a mother. The city is cold.

[00:41:44]

Through everything that we've gone through, that's one of the biggest rewards that we have received. My brother and sister in law adopted Haley. She is just a thriving, dynamic young lady now, brilliant and allowed to do all the things that she wasn't allowed to do early on in her life.

[00:42:17]

This crime happened on national park land, and it's sort of sacred to citizens of this country. It's where we get to go and see nature unspoiled, to see the wildlife. Rocky Mountain National park is one of the most visited national parks in the country. And I know that the park rangers who work there are really proud of that.

[00:42:43]

Working for the National Park Service, you get paid in sunrises and sunsets and awesome beauty. We care about all the resources, but utmost we care about is human life. There's an honor to the federal land thinking you can get by because it's so remote. Think again. Think again.

[00:43:18]

This is Deborah Roberts. Harold Hinthorn is now serving life in prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the murder of his second wife, Tony. He maintains his innocence and says he did not kill his first wife, Lynn, either. Our series was produced by Lone Wolf Media for ABC News Studios. Next week, we'll be back with season two of Wild Murder in Yosemite. You can find wild crime by ABC Studios streaming on Hulu, where you can also find 2020. And for all new broadcast episodes of 2020, join us on Friday nights at nine on ABC. You.