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Double Shooting in a Mountain Town Uncovered a Twisted Plot of Greed and Betrayal · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Ever heard of Camp Nelson Lodge. It's this gorgeous place,
• 0:04
  really secluded up in the California mountains, owned by this woman,
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  Bonnie Hood. Sounds peaceful, it does, doesn't it, except it's
• 0:12
  anything but Bonnie Hood was found shot dead in her
• 0:15
  own lodge. And get this, despite a huge investigation, the
• 0:20
  case is still unsolved.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Unsolved huh So what makes this case so interesting so intriguing?
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  It's not just a who done it? It's a why
• 0:28
  done it? You See, you've got all these people seemingly unconnected,
• 0:32
  and then you hear these whispers of local disputes. You've
• 0:35
  got infidelity, financial troubles. I mean, it's like something straight
• 0:38
  out of mystery novel.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, so walk me through it. Bonnie and her husband, Jim,
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  they bought this lodge, right, What were they thinking coming
• 0:45
  to this quiet mountain community.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: See, that's the thing. Jim and Bonnie they bought Camp
• 0:49
  Nelson Lodge, hoping to escape the city, looking for a
• 0:52
  quieter life. But owning a business, especially in a tight
• 0:55
  knit community like that, it's not always easy, let's just
• 0:58
  say not. Everyone was thrilled about city folks buying up property,
• 1:01
  and then there were whispers rumors of financial strain on
• 1:04
  the Hoods, underlying tension, perfect recipe for disaster, and then
• 1:09
  the unthinkable happens. Take me back to that day. What
• 1:13
  do we actually know about the crime.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: It's a crisp autumn morning. Rudy Manuel, the lodge caretaker,
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  he makes this frantic nine to one one call reports
• 1:22
  a break in, a shooting.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: And what did the authorities find when they arrive?
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  Speaker 1: A truly chilling scene. Bonnie Hood dead in her bed,
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  shot at close range. Manuel, He's injured, a grays wound,
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  but alive.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Killing is right? Was anything stolen? Were there any signs
• 1:39
  of forced entry? Like the caretaker.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Said, And here's where it gets interesting. There were signs
• 1:43
  of forced entry, yes, but nothing, I mean nothing of
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  value was reported stolen. The whole scene it felt almost staged,
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  you know, like someone wanted it to look like a
• 1:50
  robbery gone wrong.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Well that's suspicious, isn't it? So the investigators they knew
• 1:54
  something was off from the get go.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, you've got a stage burglary. You've got Manuel. So
• 2:00
  with just a Gray's wound, it all points to something more,
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  something planned, calculated.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, So if Bonnie was the target, who would want
• 2:07
  her dead. And what about Manuel? What was his involvement?
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Remember those rumors I mentioned, the incidelity, the financial troubles, Well,
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  those become central to the investigation. Turns out Bonnie Hood
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  was having an affair and guess with who Rudy Manuel
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  the lodge caretaker.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Wow, talk about a twist and the financial troubles. Did
• 2:28
  investigators uncover anything concrete?
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  Speaker 1: Well, they discovered that Jim Hood he stood to gain
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  a significant amount of money from Blonnie's life insurance policy.
• 2:38
  And get this, it was a double indemnity clause.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Double indemnity meaning.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: The payout was doubled in the case of an accident
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  or murder.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so now we're talking about a possible motive for
• 2:49
  Jim right. Did investigators consider him a suspect.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Of course they did, But motive alone isn't enough. They
• 2:56
  needed hard evidence.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: And did they find any Well, this.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Is where the case take a very interesting turn. Remember
• 3:02
  the lodge was pretty remote, so anyone out of place
• 3:05
  would stick out like a sore thumb.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Someone must have seen something exactly.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: An emt Helen Herb She was working at a nearby
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  lodge around the time of the murder and she remembers
• 3:14
  very clearly asking this man to leave the bar. His
• 3:17
  behavior was.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Well inappropriate, okay, creepy, But was there anything tying this
• 3:22
  guy to Bonnie's murder?
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  Speaker 1: This is where a tiny detail becomes crucial. The man
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  he brought his own beer to the bar, not exactly
• 3:30
  standard practice. When he left, he left the bottle, police
• 3:34
  dusted it for Prince and boom, they got a hit.
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  Speaker 2: A hit. Who was it?
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  Speaker 1: The Prince belonged to a man named Bruce Beauchamp. And
• 3:42
  get this, Bruce Beauchamp he was connected to Jim Hood,
• 3:45
  connected how through his construction company down in Fontana. Jim
• 3:49
  Hood was actually Beauchamp's employer.
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  Speaker 2: Hold On. So, not only do we have a possible
• 3:53
  motive for the husband, but now there's this link between
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  him and this strange guy from the bar.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: It gets even more complicated. Remember those initials as viisions
• 4:00
  about Rudy Manuel, the caretaker the affair. Well, during the investigation,
• 4:05
  Manuel he identifies Beauchamp.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: He identifies him as in the intruder at the lodge
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  that night. That's right, But if Beauchamp worked for Jim
• 4:13
  down in Fontana, what was he even doing all the
• 4:16
  way up at the lodge that night, and how could
• 4:18
  Manuel identify him? If it was a break in, it
• 4:21
  would have been dark.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Those are the million dollar questions, aren't they. But here's
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  the prosecution's theory. Jim hired Beauchamp to kill Bonnie, hoping
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  to cash in on that life insurance policy get out
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  of debt the whole nine yards.
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  Speaker 2: So a classic murder for higher plot exactly.
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  Speaker 1: But here's the catch. They had motive, they had a connection,
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  but they didn't have hard proof. It was basically his
• 4:44
  word against theirs.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm guessing Rudy Manuel's testimony didn't help much well.
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  Speaker 1: During the trial, Under all that pressure, Manuel he crumbled,
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  backtracked on his identification of Beauchamp through the whole case
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  into chaos.
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  Speaker 2: He changed his story on the stand. Wow, what did
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  the jury make of all that?
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  Speaker 1: With no oh physical evidence and a key witness changing
• 5:02
  his story, the jury found Boo Shop not guilty, all
• 5:05
  charges dropped.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Wow, So Beauchamp walks free just like that he did.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: But this case, oh, it was far from over. Remember
• 5:14
  I mentioned a dark turn. Well about a year after
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  Bouchamp's acquittal, Jim hood he calls nine to one to
• 5:19
  one claims Bouchamp showed up at his office, threatened him
• 5:22
  with a gun, and he shot him self defense.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: A year later, are you serious?
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  Speaker 1: What happened? Well, police arrive at Jim's office and find
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  Bouchamp dead, but not just dead, seven gunshot wounds. And
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  get this, the forensic evidence didn't match Jim's story.
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  Speaker 2: Seven gunshot wounds. That doesn't exactly scream self defense. What
• 5:41
  didn't add up? Seven gunshot wounds is a lot for
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  self defense. What did the forensics say?
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  Speaker 1: Well, they found Beauchamp clutching a gun right hand. But
• 5:49
  here's the thing, Bouchamp was left handed. Didn't make sense.
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  Speaker 2: So it looked like Jim staged the whole thing.
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  Speaker 1: It certainly seemed that way. The gun, the blood spatter
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  is none of it added up. And then remember a
• 6:00
  double indemnity clause. It gets more interesting. Bouchamp after he's
• 6:03
  acquitted and he contacts Jim demands more money.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: More money. What was he talking about?
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Extortion? See Bouchamp's wife Sharon. She told police that Bruce
• 6:12
  confessed her, admitted he killed Bonnie, said he was paid
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  fifty thousand dollars for it, even showed her ten thousand
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  dollars in an envelope said it was part.
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  Speaker 2: Of the payment, So he was trying to squeeze more
• 6:22
  money out of Jim knowing what he knew. What did
• 6:24
  the prosecution do with that?
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  Speaker 1: Well, at Jim's trial, they went all in on this
• 6:28
  extortion angle. They said, look, this combined with the forensics,
• 6:32
  it paints a clear picture. Jim killed Bouchamp to shut
• 6:35
  him up for good.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Even though Jim wasn't on trial for Bonnie's murder, he
• 6:40
  was facing charges for Beauchamp's.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Exactly and it was a wild ride. The first trial,
• 6:45
  it ended in a mistrial, the jury couldn't agree. But
• 6:48
  the second trial, something really unusual happened. What do you mean, Jim,
• 6:53
  he changed his story a little from the first trial
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  to the second, and because of that, jurors from that
• 6:58
  first trial they were actually allowed to testify, and the
• 7:00
  second one talk about what they'd heard.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Wait, jurors from a previous child testifying.
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  Speaker 1: That's incredible, it's incredibly rare. But in this case, because
• 7:08
  Jim changed his story, those jurors from the first trial
• 7:12
  they became witnesses. They'd heard his original story, the one
• 7:15
  that contradicted his new one. It was a game changer.
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  What was the verdict the jury? They found Jim Hood
• 7:21
  guilty first degree murder for the death of Bruce Beauchamp.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Wow, what a story. So even though Jim was never
• 7:28
  tried for his wife's murder, he ends up convicted of
• 7:32
  killing the man who might have killed her.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: It's a case full of twists, that's for sure. And
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  while we know what happened to Bruce Beauchamp, what truly
• 7:39
  happened to Bonnie Hood that night at Camp Milson Lodge, Well,
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  we may never know.
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  Speaker 2: It's a haunting thought. Even with the investigation, the trials,
• 7:47
  the conviction, there are still so many unanswered questions in
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  this case.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: There are. It makes you think, doesn't it what really
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  happened that night was just as truly served. We may
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  never have those answers.
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  Speaker 2: And that's what made this case and others like it
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  so fascinating. It's a reminder of how complex people are,
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  the secrets they keep, and the lengths they'll go to
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  to keep those secrets buried.