Grief doesnt move on and doesnt end for those that are loved. However, Harold kept insisting on his innocence and in 2017 appealed for a retrial which was subsequently shot down. Only a few years later he was surprised to find that the people who ran the county wanted him to work cases. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. To the young man facing total blindness from an injury requiring the skilled hands of a surgeon, Tonis life mattered and was indispensable. Todd Bertolet, Toni Henthorn's brother said, "That was what was so odd. This is "Dateline NBC: Henthorn Case" by Vicky Collins on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Yet Toni remained silent. July 26, 2017 at 11:59 a.m. All of this led to the filing of murder charges last week. In 1994, Henthorn was arrested for shoplifting $47.49 worth of men's underwear from a JCPenney store. The Defendants entire adult life was a lie and scam to live his life and lifestyle while others paid the price. She Used the Bathroom And Became a Target of the Culture War, Here's How LaRussell and Intuit are Helping Independent Artists Understand How to Achieve Their Financial Ambitions, Alex Murdaugh Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder of Wife and Son, Alex Murdaugh Found Guilty of Murdering Wife and Son, Tennessee Enacts Nations First Law Restricting Drag Shows, The National Stay Up Late to Perform 'Tropic Morning News' on Fallon, David Lindley, Multi-Instrumentalist Who Shaped the Sound of Soft Rock, Dead at 78, Suki Waterhouse Won't Take Romance for Granted on New Single 'To Love', Travis Barker Says His Finger Ligament Surgery Was a 'Success' After Postponing Blink-182 Tour. Tyler Hadley's Killer Party The file contained a note from a woman named Patricia Montoya, who called the day after the accident with a question. And the only reason Weaver was even looking at this thin excuse for a file was that now that same husband was a widower once more. The sentence to be handed down by this court is the only result that the Defendant has actually earned in his adult life. 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. var scJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? Harold Henthorn with Sandra Lynn, his first wife. 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. The innocence of a child should not be violated by evil within and, more importantly, evil within a trusted family unit. The silence of the victim, Toni Bertolet Henthorn, in the court today represents her loudest cry for her daughter and the injustice at the hands of the Defendant.In closing, this trial was about the last moment in Tonis life and the moment that Toni took her last breath. Years removed from the original investigation, with Toni Henthorns suspicious fall raising new concerns, Detective Weaver was told to go where the truth led him. "); In the upcoming documentary, Brian Maas will investigate the crime that captured the nation when Harold Henthorn was finally arrested for the murder of his second wife 20 years after the death of his first wife, Sandra Lynn Rishell, aka Lynn . statements about the tragedy kept changing. It does not store any personal data. Nice, right? Technically Weaver wasnt even supposed to be a detective. 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. On September 29, 2012, Harold and Toni Henthorn went for a hike at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Buried inside the report, Detective Weaver found a reference to a footprint. At the bottom it reads: In Loving Memory, January 10, 1962-September 29, 2012. In a horrible turn of events, Lynn crawled under the car to retrieve a lug nut when the vehicle came down on her crushing her fatally. Prosecutors argued during a two-week trial that Henthorn carefully staged Toni Henthorn's death to look like an accident because he stood to benefit from her $4.7 million in life-insurance policies, which she didn't know existed. 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. The Defendant evidently perceived a strong and viable mother / daughter relationship as a threat to his authority in his warped world. The Accidental Husband: With Peter Van Sant, Brian Maass, Barry Bertolet, Toni Henthorn. It's a mandatory sentence for first-degree murder. After meeting on a Christian dating website, the two got in touch and connected over their love for religion. Thus, considering all evidence and statements, the police decided they had enough to charge Harold Henthorn with Toni Henthorns murder. Something wasnt right, and Yvonne wanted to talk with Toni. 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. Prosecutors and police. Can Humans Detect Text by AI Chatbot GPT? Her greatest asset was her ability to feel what others were feeling. First published on September 23, 2015 / 11:02 PM. It appeared instead to be a terrible accident. Stranger still was Harolds behavior on phone calls. Where Is Harold and Toni Henthorns Daughter Now. Harold had her body cremated, scattered the ashes on Colorados Red Mountain, and collected the $500,000 life insurance payout from the plan she had recently signed up for. The Jeep was then salvaged. Now that effort is laid to waste. To another he said it was merely spongy. Then, he said, he saw nothing but a blurand Toni was no longer standing there. Toni Henthorn was a skilled ophthalmologist and loving mother. Of all the titles that the Defendant has bestowed upon himself without merit, the title of Murderer, bequeathed by the jury, is the only title that the Defendant has earned. After years of trying, the two managed to have a daughter, Haley. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. | 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. It had been a full day, and the sun had set. Lynn Henthorns death was a tragedy, not a crime. Dateline Toni Henthorn, Harold Henrhorn's 37-year-old wife, was killed in October 2015. The lead investigator made mention of a partial print on the wheel well, above the missing tire, the same one that Lynn had supposedly been trying to help change when she was killed. 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. Storyline Edit 48 Hours re-examines and updates the case of Harold Henthorn whose wives Lynn and Toni died 17 years apart in what were supposedly freak accidents. To one cop, Harold said the tire they pulled over to change was completely flat. He insisted at both the verdict and the sentencing that he would appeal the decision. The family had enough money. They were the first people to witness his incredibly odd behavior the evening his first wife died. I think of how desperately she wanted a child and now she will never see that child grow up, never see her grandchildren.There is a picture of a smiling Toni resting on an easel in our home. But at the time of Lynns death, there were only five detectives covering an area half the size of Rhode Island. The money was purportedly for a business investment, according to evidence presented at an earlier federal court hearing. If you want to know more about this baffling case and where Harold Henthorn is today, we have you covered. Her brother, Todd Bertolet, after learning about the theft arrest, said, "I'm blown away. Feds say Henthorn pushed his wife over a cliff at Rocky Mountain National Park. 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. 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. PostedNovember 18, 2014 Henthorn was able to keep his shoplifting arrest a secret from everyone who knew him. var sc_security="9a0f0d6e"; Maybe even that she would leave Harold. To another he said it wasnt him Lynn was actually rescued by a random group of helpful strangers. And, though hes already serving a life sentence for killing his second wife, the total lack of charges stemming from the strange, mysterious death of his first continues to fuel general outrage and disbelief. 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. Their grandchild was now in the care of the man they believed to be her killer. 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. We can forgive a child for being afraid of the dark, but we cannot forgive the darkness of selfish desolation that lies within the Defendants heart.The Defendant would have us erroneously believe that he is an unlucky man, a hard luck husband, and a person in which lightning has tragically struck twice. He then let them take the lead when it came time to give her CPR. Storyline Colorado, 2001: Toni Bertolet Henthorn, a doctor and mother, falls from a cliff in the Rockies. Still, Harold persisted in his innocence, and in 2017 he filed an appeal for a retrial, which was subsequently denied. My wife is Yvonne and our two sons are Barry and Todd. In September of 2015, three years after the incident, a jury found Harold Henthorn guilty of first-degree murder in the case of Toni Henthorns death. Three years later we are still heavy laden with the emotional shock of her death.Toni was a special child, a precious gift to us from God. First he convinced her to move to Colorado. The Bertolets said goodbye to their only daughter a few days later. 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. Employee communication . The Defendants so called estate planning banked on and invested heavily in the premature demise of his wife. Although Toni lived near her family in Mississippi and was a well-established opthalmologist, Harold persuaded her to leave her roots behind and move with him to Colorado. Harold Henthorn faces a mandatory life term when he is sentenced Dec. 8. Toni and Harold Henthorn were celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary the weekend when she died. Detective Weaver now had no doubts. In 1995, long before Weaver ever stepped foot in Douglas County, a woman died on the side of a dark road on a cold night. Then he tried to get the car to fall. Grief means coping, emptiness, adjusting, loss, and sadness. 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. How else to explain all the strangeness? Harold said Toni got a text message from the babysitter, letting her know that her daughters soccer team had won. Nevertheless, even in this case, Harolds numerous statements widely differed from each other and were not believable. scJsHost+ Yvonne had spent more than a decade suppressing her motherly intuition about Harold so that her daughter would be spared the consequences. 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. Harold Henthorn, and his wife Toni.. She was an eye surgeon. Do it carefully, not quickly, was Weavers. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Yvonne always considered Toni the best birthday present she ever received. I dont think that was an accident at all, she said, sitting on a bed next to Toni. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Henthorn had been living a lie for years. Harold even called 911, and when first responders reached the scene, they noticed that Toni had fallen from a height of 140 feet to her death. It would be years before they would find justice. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The Defendants phony status and perception took priority over his family, and he chose family and friends based solely on his ability to deceive the same. To another he said west. Finally, Detective Weaver took his foot and, in the same place where the original partial print was found, kicked the Jeep. 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. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. 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. / CBS Colorado. She was killed while trying to change a flat tire when the car she was underneath fell on top of her, thousands of pounds of metal pinning her to the ground. He pushed her, said Tonis father, Bob. According to the show, Tonis family passed a statement claiming that their daughter was quite disturbed in the days leading up to her passing. They even uncovered a startling fact: Harold was already a criminal. His bosses told him to work the case the same way he worked every other case, which meant to go where the truth led, no matter where it led. The basic facts of the case are these. Harold owned a little house in the mountains west of Denver and took Toni and Haley there often. Harold told her he was a wealthy businessman who fundraised for schools and Churches. Lynns death and Harolds behavior, Montoya told him, were still the creepiest thing Ive ever seen.. The Bertolets have always been a close-knit family, loving, helping and protecting one another. Yvonne wanted Toni to say something, anything. A chance to speak frankly with her daughter was something she hadnt had for a long time and Yvonne didnt waste it. Only then did it come crashing down. The Defendant chose his own selfishness and greed over the needs of his family. It took the jury about 10 hours to find Harold Henthorn, 59, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his second wife, a wealthy Mississippi native. From the time of Tonis death, the Defendant has made it abundantly clear that he just wanted to move on with his life. But there was something else. Over the course of those dozen years, Bob and Yvonne Bertolet watched their daughter change. Technically he was retired. I disagree with the Defendants counsel when he proclaimed that the Defendant told lies to his detriment; the truth is the Defendant told lies for his direct benefit. We ask: How could money be so important to a man, that he would kill the mother of his seven year old daughter? Related My name is Bob Bertolet, father of the victim, Toni Bertolet Henthorn. Harold Henthorn was a grieving widower. Even after shed fallen asleep, Harold found a way to keep his eye on his only child. 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. Hulus Wild Crime tells the story of Harold Henthorn and how he almost got away with murder. No. The Defendant slandered the victims family for not publicly supporting his lies and deception and taught his daughter to hate as punishment of the same. 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. She called the Sheriffs office the next day to ask where she could pick up the coat. Following the death of his first wife, Harold married a second time after meeting Dr. Toni Jill Bertolet Henthorn on a dating site. In the process of his own investigation, Detective Weaver discovered that no officer had called the restaurant where Harold claimed, at least in one version of his story, he and Lynn had eaten before the accident. 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. Toni Henthorn fell to her death off a cliff while hiking with her husband, Harold. Before becoming a detective hed spent decades moving his wife from base to base. At one point, Sandra ended up underneath the car looking for a lug nut and the car crushed her when it fell off the jack. The travel for work that didnt seem, to Yvonne at least, to be real? I know he killed her, he says. He was a good guy, a loving husband, a good father to their daughter, and extremely busy working as a fundraiser for churches, charities, and non-profit groups. Her mother, Yvonne Bertolet, says two years since her death, she still finds herself reaching for the phone to call her daughter. Her husband, Harold Henthorn, was convicted of first-degree murder in. When Weaver finally left the Air Force and asked her where she wanted to live, she chose Denver. (The detective would later testify to this in court.) Prosecutors said Harold. 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. To one cop, Harold said he and Lynn left their house to go on the drive around 1 p.m. To another he said 7. 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. Then came more subtle attempts to choke off any contact Toni might have with those who loved her. As Warren Buffet stated, Honesty is a very expensive gift. To another he said they were on their way to the restaurant. She told Toni she thought Harold wasnt working as much as he said he was, if at all. Reviewed by Ekua Hagan. Eventually, Harold is arrested and convicted of first-degree murder. Was that a dream?". Special administrators representing Toni Henthorn's estate are trying to recover the money so it eventually benefits Haley Henthorn, Toni Henthorn's daughter, not Harold Henthorn or his brother. The Harold Henthorn-Toni Henthorn murder case will be aired on the latest episode of 48 Hours. Now that Toni was home by herself in Mississippi, Yvonne could no longer hold her tongue. 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. : "http://www. There were other inconsistencies too. The Bertolets could sense that Toni was unhappy but felt there was little they could do about it. We never imagined that murder would come into our lives like a thief in the night. Montoya and her family had been driving home that night from a day of fishing and picnicking when Harold appeared in the glow of their cars headlights and waved them down. Douglas County had changed tremendously in the intervening years. A jury returned a guilty verdict Monday in its second day of deliberations. In December, Toni Bertolet's husband, Harold Henthorn, received a mandatory life sentence for her death. Then, he asked Sandra to come help him. Black Widower: How One Man Allegedly Murdered Two Wives. Perhaps the most difficult part to understand is that Henthorn had it made. He refused to allow Toni to help put Haley to bed at night, insisting that the hour or so before Haley fell asleep was his daddy-daughter time. Yet as soon as she moved to Colorado, Toni was no longer able to speak to her mother alone. My child now asks the appropriate question of how do I know. The couple seemed quite happy initially and even gave birth to their only child, Haley, in 2005. Nor did the coroners office report whether the contents of Lynns stomach indicated one story was more plausible than the other. We feel guilt that we failed to act on our suspicions concerning Tonis welfare in her marriage. When Detective Weaver called her nearly 20 years later and asked if she had any idea why he, an officer from Douglas County, might be calling out of the blue, Montoyas answer came quick and definitive. Overwhelmed by the loss of the child, Toni never wanted to see the hurt in another persons eyes, much less a childs eyes. Henthorn was able to persuade police his first wife died as the result of a tragic accident. We grieve that we were not by her side in her dying moments. Taking the aforementioned points into account, the police suspect foul play. Toni Bertolet Henthorn died after she was pushed off a cliff during an anniversary hike in Rock Mountain National Park. 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. Afterwards she would discover what it was that had hurt her so badly: a large piece of lumber that Harold said fell off the porch. The couple met online in late 1999 and got married only nine months later, both in a rush to have a child. A government auditor testified at a grand jury hearing that Henthorn not only kept things from friends and family but also deceived on many occasions. Reached this week, Rob Henthorn declined to discuss the half million dollars and referred questions to his attorney, Pam Mackey. He's 38 years old, a married, religious person and he's shoplifting underwear in JCPenney." "That was very meaningful," Bertolet said. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The Sheriffs Office grew with it, from a few dozen to some 500 employees. Yet it was hard for the Bertolets not to notice that so much about Harold seemed not to make sense. I am haunted by my wifes lament: When Toni died, I died. The Defendants estate planning was grossly disproportionate as to his gained benefits from the death of his wife, yet showed little or no reciprocity had the circumstances been reversed and he met his untimely death.Grief is the human emotion that is exhibited by the loss of a loved oneit is the price of love. The Defendant feels no guilt, and, as is the case with most criminals, blames the victim, the victims family, the Good Samaritan and rescuers, the press, the investigative authorities, and the judicial system for his troubles. The lies? The only witness to the accident was her husband. The Defendant is neither a good father nor a replacement for a loving mother. Harold Henthorn, and his wife Toni. But the rescue team couldnt make it to their position in time, and Toni died. The Bertolets found it odd that long after shed ceased to be a baby, Harold kept a video monitor running in his daughters room. Then came Harold. Weaver was the man for the job because even in a room full of patient people, his patience marked him as different. Video marketing. He said he believed Henthorn's brother, who lives in Massachusetts, was served Monday in Denver federal court because "'obviously they knew he was there.". At least that's what he told family, friends, and everyone else. It would have been, except that Toni plunged down a 50-foot cliff to her death.