Latest / 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories / Look What You Made Me Do
Transcript
- 0:13Discretion advice. This is ten minute murder. A mistress isn't just a term
- 0:43used for a woman having an extramarital affair. It's also a term that describes
- 0:48a woman in a position of control. David Harris had two women in his
- 0:53life, a mistress and a wife. The question was which one had more
- 0:58control over David. His answer would cost him his life. Clara Suarez was
- 1:03born in Columbia. Her father was an electrical engineer, determined to shield her
- 1:08from the poverty that surrounded them. Unfortunately, when he died she was only
- 1:14five. Her mother was a seamstress and tried her best to provide for them.
- 1:19Clara was a diligent student and worked hard to get through dental school.
- 1:23She knew her father would have been proud. She legally moved to the US
- 1:27in the late nineteen eighties. She completed her residency at the University of Texas
- 1:33School of Dentistry in Houston. She was also crowned Miss Columbia Houston at a
- 1:38beauty pageant. In the summer of nineteen ninety one. She got a job
- 1:42at a dental office. It was there that she met orthodontist David Harris.
- 1:48He was divorced with a younger daughter. David and Clara instantly felt a connection.
- 1:53The two started dating, and by February fourteenth, nineteen ninety two,
- 1:57they were married a Valentine's Day wedding fit for royalty at the Nassau Bay Hilton
- 2:04Hotel. The two were a power couple. They quickly opened their own practice,
- 2:08which did extremely well, so well that they opened more than one office.
- 2:14They bought expensive cars and built a home in a neighborhood with a private
- 2:19airstrip. Clara got along great with Lindsay, David's daughter, and wanted more
- 2:23children. Clara had a difficult time getting pregnant, but undergoing fertility treatments,
- 2:29she gave birth to twin boys in nineteen ninety eight, Brian and Bradley.
- 2:34Their life seemed to be proof that hard work pays off and dreams do come
- 2:38true. So how did this fairytale romance turn into a horror movie? When
- 2:45I say a horror movie, David's murder was actually caught on camera. Yes,
- 2:51David loved Clara, but it really depends on who you ask just how
- 2:54much. Some of David's friends said that he wouldn't even look at other women.
- 3:00He didn't even like to hang out with the guys. But some of
- 3:02Clara's friends gave a different description. They said David was a ladies man,
- 3:08that he flirted with other women openly, quite often in front of Clara,
- 3:13that he even kept notes that waitresses would leave him. Maybe David enjoyed the
- 3:17attention of other women but was loyal to his wife, after all, she
- 3:22had helped him achieve his goals. Or maybe it would take just the right
- 3:25woman to make him question his loyalty. David split time between their offices,
- 3:31working two days a week in the office at Lake Jackson with Clara and the
- 3:37other three days at the Clear Lake office. In two thousand and one,
- 3:39he needed to hire a receptionist for the office where he spent most of his
- 3:44time. He hired a woman named Gale Bridges. She was divorced and had
- 3:50three children. It wasn't long before the other women in the office started questioning
- 3:53Gail's intentions. Everybody likes to be noticed for doing a good job, but
- 3:59she was making being sure she was getting noticed by constantly flirting. Everyone in
- 4:03the office seemed to see what was happening, except for Clara. David and
- 4:09Gail started sneaking away, going to lunch together, and fondling each other in
- 4:14the corners of the office, David started spending late nights at work and missing
- 4:17events. With all the time he was spending away from home and all the
- 4:21money he was spending on lunches, gifts, and hotel rooms, it seems
- 4:26like Clara would have started to question things, but she was busy working,
- 4:30managing their house, and taking care of the kids. The week of July
- 4:34fourth, two thousand and two, the Harris family went to Jamaica. The
- 4:40ladies in the office thought this would be the trip that brought David back to
- 4:44reality, but they were wrong. When he returned, his relationship with Gail
- 4:48seemed as lively as ever, Knowing it was putting her job on the line.
- 4:54A coworker confronted David about his blatant open actions with the receptionist. David
- 4:59realized his little secrets was not really a secret at all, and it was
- 5:03just a matter of time until Clara found out. The morning of July seventeenth,
- 5:09David confessed to Clara that he had been having an affair. Clara was
- 5:14obviously devastated, especially when he told her that they'd been going to the very
- 5:18hotel where he and Clara had exchanged their wedding vows. She asked David if
- 5:24he wanted a divorce, and he quickly answered no, he wanted to work
- 5:28on their marriage and would end the relationship with his mistress. When he revealed
- 5:32that the other woman was his receptionist, Clara went to the office and immediately
- 5:38fired her. Clara asked David what was wrong with her, and he didn't
- 5:43hold back. He didn't even reassure her that it wasn't her fault. He
- 5:46gave her a list as long as the receipts from CVS. He said that
- 5:50while he appreciated how driven she was with her career, it often took her
- 5:56attention off of him, add the kids to the mix, and felt neglected.
- 6:00Maybe many men share that similar sentiment, but what he said next shocked
- 6:05Clara. He said she was too fat and her body had changed. Clara
- 6:11had been a beauty queen, and her husband was telling her that she was
- 6:15no longer attractive. He went on to add that he loved Gail's breast implants
- 6:19and how thin she was, and that she made time to show him affection.
- 6:25At that point, many women probably would have walked away, but Clara
- 6:29didn't. She took that list and started checking the boxes to give David the
- 6:33woman that he wanted. She canceled all of her appointments at work for that
- 6:38week. She hired a personal trainer, dyed her hair blonde, immediately started
- 6:43losing weight, joined a tanning salon, and scheduled surgery for breast augmentation and
- 6:48liposuction. She was completely reinventing herself for David, so when David said he
- 6:55felt like he owed Gail an explanation, Clara said, okay. David told
- 7:00her that he was going to meet her for dinner and let her know that
- 7:02it was over for good. Although the more Clara started to think about it,
- 7:08the more she started to feel uneasy about the whole idea. She went
- 7:12to the Blue Moon Private Detective Agency and asked them to watch her husband.
- 7:16On July twenty fourth, David was supposed to meet Gail for dinner. Clara
- 7:20had a friend go to the restaurant where he told her they would be,
- 7:24and they were not there. The longer she waited, the more she worried
- 7:28her suspicions would be confirmed. Finally, she called the agency and asked for
- 7:32an update. One of their provisions on the contract was that the client could
- 7:38not interfere with the investigation, so when they told Clara that their PI was
- 7:42sitting outside a hotel where David and Gail's cars were located, they had no
- 7:46idea that she knew exactly which hotel they were at. That turned out to
- 7:51be a deadly mistake. Clara told her stepdaughter Lindsey to get in the car
- 7:58and they drove to the Nassau Bay Hillton. Gail's Lincoln Navigator had a heart
- 8:03shaped hitch, so it was easy to find in the parking garage. Clara
- 8:07broke the windshield wipers and keyed the car before marching into the lobby. She
- 8:13couldn't find out what room her husband was in, so Lindsey called her dad
- 8:16and told him one of the boys was sick and they needed him at home.
- 8:20A little while later, the elevator doors opened and the couple stepped out
- 8:26hand in hand. Far from looking like a relationship that had just ended,
- 8:31Clara lunged for Gail, grabbed her hair and started punching her. Lindsay started
- 8:37hitting her dad with her purse, screaming I hate you. Guests and hotel
- 8:41staff stepped in and pulled them all apart. But there in that moment,
- 8:48David could have tried to salvage what was left of his family. Instead,
- 8:52he grabbed Gail's hand and left the lobby with her. His decision was clear.
- 8:58Heartbroken, Clara got in her car. She pressed the accelerator as she
- 9:03headed towards them. Clara's Mercedes Ben sedan made contact with David's body, and
- 9:07he landed thirty feet away. Clara then whipped her car around, driving over
- 9:13medians and went at him again, and then hit him again. Clara got
- 9:18out of her car and cradled David's head, which was missing his ears and
- 9:22losing teeth. She sobbed, saying look what you made me do. At
- 9:28nine forty eight pm, David was pronounced dead. A few minutes before,
- 9:33when the PI saw David and Gale walking out of the hotel, she started
- 9:37recording so that Clara would have the video to use in divorce proceedings. Instead,
- 9:43it was used in the trial when Clara was charged with murder. The
- 9:48PI caught the entire chain of events on film. The story made national news.
- 9:52People quickly picked a side. Some thought Clara was a cold blooded killer.
- 9:58Others thought David signed and his own death certificate when he walked out of
- 10:01the hotel with Gail, leaving his wife and daughter in complete hysteria and embarrassment.
- 10:07Clara's trial started in February two thousand and three. Lindsey testified against Clara.
- 10:13She said that she begged her to stop. She said that she was
- 10:16traumatized by the side of her father getting run over. The pi's video was
- 10:20shown and the jury could hear the eerie sound of the tire's screeching. Although
- 10:26David's body was not clear in the video, you could see Clara circling three
- 10:30times. The prosecution stated that Clara used her seventy thousand dollars vehicle as a
- 10:35four thousand pound murder weapon. The defense argued that it was a horrific crime
- 10:39of passion brought on by David's ultimate betrayal. The question wasn't whether or not
- 10:46Clara did it, The question was what was her intent At the time.
- 10:50The jury was nine women and three men. If Clara would have filed for
- 10:54divorce, she would have done very well. And even though many women could
- 10:58empathize with Clara's emotional state, they just couldn't justify her killing David. She
- 11:05was found guilty of murder during a crime of sudden passion. On February fourteenth,
- 11:09two thousand and three. She was sentenced to twenty years in prison on
- 11:13the very day that would have been her wedding anniversary. In a wedding,
- 11:18when traditional vows are exchanged, it ends with till death do us part.
- 11:22Clara took that last part to heart. She was not willing to let David
- 11:28leave her for another woman. Their marriage could have ended with divorce. They
- 11:31could have still raised their kids, but instead the kids grew up with a
- 11:35deceased dad and an incarcerated mom, which brings to mind the old saying,
- 11:41hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. That is ten Minute Murder for
- 11:54today, brief and bingeable true crime. I'm Joe the host, and thank
- 11:58you so much for taking the time out of your day to listen to my
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- 12:13new ones. And speaking of new ones, coming up on the next episode
- 12:18of ten Minute Murder. If you're into the sports ball football in particular,
- 12:22maybe you've heard of this story. Steve McNair retired NFL quarterback of the Tennessee
- 12:28Titans. He was cheating on his wife and it's similar to the story you
- 12:31heard today, but not really. He was cheating on his wife and he
- 12:35was murdered, but not by his wife. He was murdered by his mistress.
- 12:39And there's a lot more to go into, but you'll hear all of
- 12:41that coming up on the next episode of ten Minute Murder. Connect with the
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- 13:00Thank you so much for listening to another episode of ten Minute Murder. I'll
- 13:05see you on the next one. Bye.