Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Blue Moon Murders

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The Blue Moon Murders · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: When a mother and her two adult sons were found
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: brutally murdered inside their Florida home, with their bodies hidden
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: beneath piles of clothing and blankets, investigators were confronted with
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: a crime scene unlike anything they'd expected. All three had
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: been beaten and their throats had been cut. One had
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: even been shot in the head. But with the rare
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: blue moon approaching, police began to wonder whether this massacre
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: had been part of something ritualistic. Now behind the eventual
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: talk of witchcraft, Wicca and the occult was a deeply
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: fractured family with a possible motive for murder that was
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: far more familiar than anything supernatural. This is the story
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of the Blue Moon Murders. My name's Ben.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: A true crime podcast.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Listener discretion is advised.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Have you noticed that we never have the same energy levels?
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: It's either one of us is like, woohoo, and the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: other is just like, eh. But it's never the same.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Okay. I'm sure we've got it the same sometimes. And
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: why are you saying this today?
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Well, last episode, I feel like I was like you,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: like just like fidgety and just like, well, let's go
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: like run a marathon. And today you're like that. And
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I do not want to run a fucking marathon. I
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: am not about to do that.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, but you know, just have like some good energy
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: about you. You're like dancing and you're singing and Yeah.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: It's a good old day for Ben. I'm sorry.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I listened to a little bit of money for nothing
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: by dire straits. And now I've just got the best
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: freaking guitar solo intro bridge, whatever you want to call
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: it in my head this morning. And I'm just in
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: a good mood because of it.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: That's good. Yeah. Have we ever talked about how honey
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: really likes music or something?
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know what it is exactly.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: She gets, I call it big fields because like, if we,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: it's not like music in general, but live music, if
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: you sing or like I have a guitar, a four
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: chord hero. I've got a few songs I can play.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: If I play them live, she'll like get up and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: go get all like energetic and howl and like grab
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: a toy and pace and wag her tail. She loves it.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But then it also does seem like she doesn't either.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Like it almost makes her a little anxious too. But
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I think it's like you said, the big feels.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: It's not like she's upset though. She's like happy, but
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: it's like she doesn't know what to do with herself.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Big feels.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: She doesn't know how to express the emotion she's feeling.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Touche.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's how I kind of am today, apparently,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: but I'm certainly not going to run a marathon to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: express it. I'm going to rock out to some freaking
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: dire straits instead.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: There you go. That actually sounds better, hey?
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm not going to say that running is bad.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Running is definitely good. I've been trying to do a
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: bit of running this summer and get a little bit
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: more heart healthy, but I would definitely take rocking out
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to music over going for a run for sure.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I've done one half marathon. I think about doing more,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: but it sucked kind of too. So I don't know.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: I wish I could be someone to enjoy running. Like
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: some of these people say that there's like that runner's high.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I wish that was something I got. I just get
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: like this voice inside of me was like, you're not
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: going to make it. You're going to die. You're going
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: to collapse. You're fucked.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: The brain is so rude sometimes.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Hey.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Anyways, I've got a bit of an interesting story today.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: It ties in a little bit of spooky stuff. I'm
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: talking about the Blue Moon murders. So, yeah, if you're ready,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: we should just dive in.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm ready. Let's do her.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: In the summer of 2015, the Smith family was living
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: quietly on Deerfield Drive in Pensacola, Florida, and they had
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: been for years. The household was made up of 77-year-old
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Von Seal Smith and her two adult sons, Richard Thomas Smith,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: who was 49, and John William Smith, who was 47.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: They were private people, enough so that some neighbors who
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: had lived nearby them for years, honestly, barely knew them
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: at all. But inside the family, they had a well-established routine,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: and they depended heavily on one another. Now, Von Seal, well,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: she was known to relatives as Aunt Bonnie, or Bonnie,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: so I'll be referring to her as Bonnie from here
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: on out. She'd not always lived such an isolated life.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Early on, she and her husband, Richard A. Smith, traveled
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: often and were very active and outgoing. Richard had served
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: in the Navy, which meant the family had moved around
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: before eventually settling into Pensacola in 1986. Bonnie's health eventually
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: declined as she grew older, and after her husband died
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: in 2012, she spent much more time inside her home.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Her family knew her as a good mother who had
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: enjoyed traveling and being around people, but as her health worsened,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: that made her world a lot smaller. A lot of
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: her time was then spent watching TV, particularly the QVC
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: shopping network, and she frequently began ordering things on TV.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Packages accumulated along with clothing, boxes, and other purchases until
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the Deerfield Drive house became extremely cluttered and was approaching
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: hoarding status, though not quite reaching that point. Now, John
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: had an intellectual or developmental disability. and he had remained
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: living with his parents into adulthood, but that did not
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: stop him from maintaining a steady job. At 47 years old,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: he had worked for roughly 20 years at Walmart on
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Mobile Highway, where his duties included helping move merchandise and
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: bringing in shopping carts. He was described as sweet and
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: almost always smiling, and his co-workers saw him as something
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: like the little brother of the group. His life was
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: mostly structured around home and work. And transportation was another
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: part of their family routine there. Their father had once
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: taken John to and from work, but after his death,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: his brother Richard took over that responsibility, and he had
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: been doing it for the past few years. Now, Richard
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: was older of the two brothers. He was 49. He
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: had also remained in the family home, but much of
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: his life revolved around helping care for his mother Bonnie
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and his brother John. The family understood that John would
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: continue needing support, and Richard had effectively taken on that responsibility. Now,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: at the time, Richard held an important information technology position
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: at the Department of Homeland Security at the Naval Air
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Station in Pensacola. His work involved cryptography, codes, and computers,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and he established that he had access to classified materials.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Even within his family, Richard, though, didn't discuss the details
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: of what he did. When the subject at work came up,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: he generally just kept that part of his life to himself.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's what someone's probably supposed to do when
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: you have a secretive job like that.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Now, from the outside, they were maybe a little bit odd,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: but there was nothing extraordinary about them. Bonnie spent most
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: of her time at home. John worked at Walmart. Richard
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: went back and forth to the naval base and to
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the house itself, which was packed with stuff. Now, Bonnie
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: had also had an older son from an earlier relationship,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Donald Wayne Hartson Jr., was born on January 11, 1957.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Donald had a different father from Richard and John. When
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the Smith family settled into Pensacola, Donald remained in Virginia,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: where he married and had a son of his own. Then,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: after his marriage ended, eventually he moved to Pensacola himself
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in 2013, settling in roughly three miles from his mother.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Okay. See, I just want to touch on the three
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: of them first, because maybe, like, odd slightly, but also...
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: you can only hope for that really, that you could
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: have like a family that close and helpful to each
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: other and stuff. So I feel like it's quite nice.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, for sure. I mean, I think that's kind of
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: what everyone dreams of is having, you know, a family
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: that that's tight knit, you know, when aging kind of
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: takes over and health decline begins, you have, you know, your, your,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: your children there to look after you. And when you're
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: growing up and you need help from your parents, you
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: have them to look after you and you rely on
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: each other, but yeah. Unfortunately, it's not every case that
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: ends up like that.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Well, even the brother, too, kind of took over driving
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: his younger brother to work and stuff. I think that's great.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: It's a great family dynamic they have. You're right. Now,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Donald worked as a security guard. And according to one account,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: he even earned only about $ 10 an hour, which, I mean,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: isn't terrible, especially considering you're talking about 2013 here. So
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: by today's standards, it's probably not a whole lot. But
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: by then, definitely a little bit more. Now, Donald was
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: not a stranger to the Deerfield house. He had a
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: standing routine there, actually. Every Tuesday, he came and he
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: visited Bonnie and John and cooked dinner for them. Richard
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: generally worked later on Tuesdays and normally did not eat
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: with Donald. And that meant Donald was usually gone before
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Richard got back to home from work sort of situation.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: So generally, the routine was Donald came back to Deerfield
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Drive on Tuesday, made dinner for everyone. Didn't get to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: see his brother Richard, but then left and then Richard
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: would come home and then enjoy the dinner as well.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Okay. So was it kind of him helping out or
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: was it them avoiding each other?
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: It was him helping out.
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: Okay. Yeah.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Now that regular routine brought donald back to the house
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: on tuesday july 28th 2015 richard and john had both
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: gone to work that day and donald arrived at the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: house early that afternoon somewhat earlier than usual in fact
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: A neighbor who was familiar with his weekly visits and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: routine noticed him arrive sometime at around 1 or 1.30 p.m.,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: which is earlier, but, you know, not extraordinary. He'd come
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to make dinner, and he spent part of that afternoon
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: outside and part of it inside with his mother, Bonnie.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Now they watched TV together, and eventually Bonnie continued watching
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: TV while Donald prepared the meal. Now John had actually
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: chosen it for that week. It was fried chicken, corn,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: green beans, french fries, and Mary B's biscuits.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Yum.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Donald estimated that he began cooking at about 2.30 p.m.,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: and the family ate early, somewhere around 3.30 to 4 p.m. Now,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Richard was not there for dinner. As I mentioned, he
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: normally wasn't. Donald routinely prepared a separate plate for him
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and then left it in the oven so he could
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: eat a warm meal when he got home. After eating,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: John handled most of the dishes, while Donald helped load
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the plates into the dishwasher. They also did laundry for
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the household, too. Donald smoked cigarettes, and he smoked a
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: few outside between chores and spent some time sitting with
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Bonnie before he was supposed to leave. Normally, he left
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: fairly early, typically watching the 5.30 p.m. national news with
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: his mother Bonnie, and then he'd leave to go home. Now,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Richard was still usually at work when he left, and
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: that Tuesday, Richard was in fact still at the Naval
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Air Station in Pensacola. As the evening approached, at about 6.36 p.m.,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: workplace surveillance recordings saw him leave. He was still wearing
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: his work clothes as he walked out of the building.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: And a short time later, at 6.46 p.m., Richard's personal
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: cell phone registered what would become his final known outgoing call.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Back on Deerfield Drive, however, Donald had actually not left
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: according to the neighbors of the Smith property. Typically, he
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: left after that 5.30 p.m. news, but not today. In fact,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the neighbors saw Richard return home first before Donald had left.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Only afterwards did they then see Donald leave, which stood
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: out because Donald was normally gone before Richard arrived. The
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: neighbor said he left around twilight, which places it at around, well,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: after sunset, which he recalled as approximately 7.40 p.m. Now,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: there was another unusual detail, too. See, Donald normally brought
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: his dog with him on Tuesdays and allowed it to
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: run around the Smith's backyard. But on this visit, according
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to the neighbor, the dog wasn't with him. And when
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Donald finally drove away, the neighbors noticed something else too.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: His headlights on his vehicle were off.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Which is pretty darn sketchy. But I just want to
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: touch on this, like, being a neighbor thing. The shit
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: that you just have in your head rent-free, hey? That
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: you just, like, end up learning about your neighbors and
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: it's just there and then if it's off you notice
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: or whatever. Yeah. I never really sat back to think
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: about that, but the little things that you pick up
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: that you don't really know that, you notice until it's off.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Well, you kind of have a front row third party
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: seat to their life.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Anything that happens outside their house, but still on their property,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: you kind of know. If they're mowing their grass, you
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: typically know.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Or if their grass isn't mowed as regularly as usual,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: or they're not doing their nightly walk, like you notice shit.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: You do.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't know. I just never really thought
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: about it that way. But yeah, and this neighbor does
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: seem awfully helpful right now.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Well, and think about it this way. Say you are
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: noticing that your neighbor's cutting their grass. In fact, say
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: you notice that they cut their grass every Saturday morning
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: at 8 a.m. on the nose, but you want to
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: sleep in. You want to sleep in till like 9.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: So when their lawnmower starts at 8 a.m., you become
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: pissed off. And of course, here it goes every fucking Saturday.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: But then imagine that Saturday rolls around and you sleep in.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: They didn't mow. Their cars are there. They should be there,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: but there's nothing. Okay, that's weird. He's probably just busy,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: you know. Maybe they'll mow tomorrow and the next day
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and the next day. Maybe they'll mow and they don't
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: and you don't see anything. All of a sudden, yeah,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: now you're like, well, what the fuck's going on?
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're getting concerned.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: So that's exactly what you're saying is like these things
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: that you notice, it's funny how they live rent-free. And
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: then when they're not there, uh-oh.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: It's like, oh man, what the shit's happening?
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Now the following day, Wednesday, July 29th, came and went.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Donald went about his routine. He worked his evening security
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: shift from 3 to 11 p.m. However, inside the Smiths'
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: family normal routine, something was off for them. Richard didn't
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: report for work. John also failed to appear for a
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: scheduled doctor's appointment. Calls and normal signs of activity from
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: the house just disappeared. Thursday passed, with Richard still absent.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And by Friday, July 31st, his co-workers were concerned that
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: this was no longer being treated as someone simply taking
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: an unexpected couple days off work. So the supervisor called
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: the county sheriff's office and requested a welfare check, and
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: deputies were sent to their home. They knocked on the door,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: but two did not receive an answer. Now the house
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: was locked, and from the outside there was no obvious
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: sign of what had happened. So a family member was
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: contacted so deputies could get permission to enter. And once inside,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the first thing that stood out was the condition of
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the home, with boxes, clothing, and other belongings crowding the rooms,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: much of it connected to Bonnie's habit of ordering things
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: off QVC. Then came the smell. As deputies moved further inside,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: they noticed what appeared to be a foot sticking from
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: beneath a pile of blankets and clothing. Pulling back the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: edges of the fabric exposed a woman's hand too. And
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: beneath all that material, they found 77-year-old Bonnie Smith. They
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: continued searching the home and they found two more bodies too,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: hidden beneath separate piles of clothing and blankets. It was
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: her son John and her son Richard. Police had just
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: discovered what appeared to be a triple homicide. The three
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: victims had been concealed, but the violence used against them
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: was obvious and extreme. All three had suffered deep cut
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: wounds across their throats. Investigators also found evidence of repeated
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: blunt force trauma to the head, consistent with a claw hammer.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Now Richard had another injury the others did not. A
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: gunshot wound that entered around his right ear and exited
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: behind his neck. Now, because both Richard and John were
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: large men, investigators believe that this gunshot was likely used
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: to incapacitate Richard before he could physically resist. And then,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: whoever was doing this had a greater chance of being
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: able to incapacitate the others. Now, John was found in
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the den, positioned on the couch where he regularly watched TV.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: An investigator saw no significant defense wounds on him, suggesting
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: he had little or no opportunity to fight back before
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: he saw the attack coming. Detective Matt Infinger, who took
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the lead on the homicide investigation, considered the possibility that
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: John had either been asleep or had allowed his attacker
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: to approach because he knew and trusted this person. Now,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Bonnie's scene was a bit different. Physical evidence indicated she
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: had been attacked while sitting in the chair she normally
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: used in the family room to watch TV. But blood
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: evidence showed that she had not remained where she was, attacked.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Her body had actually been moved and ultimately was found
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: in John's bedroom. But unlike John, Bonnie showed signs that
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: she had tried to protect herself, as there were in
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: fact defensive injuries to her hands. In fact, part of
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: her left pinky finger was even missing. But there was
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: no explanation why. A claw hammer was also recovered from
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: the kitchen counter. It appeared to have been cleaned and washed,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: but it remained an obvious item of interest given the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: blunt force injuries. Now, outside among the household trash, investigators
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: recovered bloody paper towels, also along with discarded cigarette butts,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: which were preserved for forensic testing. There were also signs
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: that someone had made an effort to conceal what had happened,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: at least to some degree, or at very least to
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: delay what was going to be found. Each victim had
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: been covered with clothing, blankets, or other textiles. In a
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: house already filled with piles of belongings, that concealment made
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the bodies easier to miss at first glance. Yet other
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: things about the house did not fit an ordinary robbery.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: There was no sign of forced entry. Doors and windows,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: for example, did not show the kind of damage expected
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: if a stranger were to break in. And nothing obvious
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: appeared to have been ransacked for valuables. And, for example,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: in Richard's bedroom, investigators found an unlocked safe. containing a
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: large amount of cash that totaled about $ 13, 651. Whoever had
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: killed these three people had apparently left the money behind,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: so if someone had entered the home intending to steal,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: they had left thousands of dollars sitting within easy reach.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: But the house itself presented another challenge. Being packed with
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: all these belongings, and every surface, every room, and container
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: had potential to hold evidence, it made it extremely difficult.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: So investigators spent roughly five days just processing the scene alone,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: collecting biological material, fingerprints, clothing, items, anything else that might
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: explain what had happened there. DNA testing would be especially
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: complicated because the victims were closely related to one another,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and other relatives routinely visited the home too. So simply
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: finding a family member's DNA inside would not automatically mean
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: that the person had been involved in these killings. Investigators
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: also immediately began looking at the people who could have
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: entered Deerfield Drive without causing alarm. And that brought them
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: back to Donald Harting. Donald had legitimate reason for being
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: inside the Smith home. He visited every Tuesday. He cooked dinner,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: helped with dishes and laundry. He even smoked outside and
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: spent time with Bonnie and John. And when he was asked,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: he acknowledged that yes, he was there on July 28th,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the last day investigators could confidently place the family being alive. Now,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the evidence supporting Tuesday being that likely date included Richard
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: leaving work at 6.36 p.m. with his final cell phone
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: activity being 6.46 p.m. John missing a medical appointment on
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Wednesday was another. Newspapers and other belongings not being collected
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: after Tuesday and even stomach contents consistent with the meal
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Donald had prepared for Bonnie and John. But Richard's stomach contents,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, was consistent with the lunch he
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: had eaten earlier that day. He did not consume that dinner. Now,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Detective Matt Ingfinger made contact with Donald on July 31st,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and he found his reaction rather strange to learning the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: fact that his family was just murdered in a triple homicide.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: He said he was calm and nonchalant, with little visible
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: emotion after the deaths were announced to him.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: Which is pretty messed up. You'd think you'd be losing
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: your shit.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: You would think so. Now Donald agreed to accompany investigators
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to the sheriff's office, and it was only a few
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: hours after the bodies were found when he waived his
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Miranda rights and sat for an interview without an attorney present.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Now Donald denied hurting his family and described his relationship
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: with them as being very good, He explained the dinner routine,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: insisted that he had left before Richard had returned home
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: from work, and said he had not seen Richard at
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: all that evening.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, so he's disagreeing with what the neighbor said then.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and investigators weren't convinced either. After the first interview,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Donald was taken home. But then at approximately 1.30 a.m.,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: detectives brought him back for another round of questioning. And
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: this time, though, the tone was considerably more direct. Detective
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Infinger challenged Donald over the killings and his relationship with
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: the victims. But Donald repeatedly denied responsibility, and at one
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: point asking whether investigators really thought he looked like some
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: kind of maniac. Donald also allowed authorities to search his home, though. Inside,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: investigators found something that suddenly seemed to offer a possible
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: explanation for the unusual crime scene. Donald had what he
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: described as a prayer room, and openly acknowledged practicing Wicca, Now,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the room contained books and religious material associated with witchcraft, symbols,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: ritual objects, and reportedly, there was even a Ouija board
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: that was found among the items in his house. Now,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: Donald described himself as a solitary practitioner and said he
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: had practiced Wicca for several years at that point. But
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to investigators trying to understand finding three people dead with
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: slit throats who were either shot or attacked with a hammer,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the discovery certainly grabbed their attention because they began developing
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: a much stranger theory about these murders. They began thinking
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: differently because they knew all three bodies had been deliberately
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: covered with piles of clothing and blankets. And Donald acknowledged
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: that he practiced Wicca in his time. He was a
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: solitary practitioner. But detectives began searching for information about supposed
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: occult practices and began wondering whether the way the bodies
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: have been covered could be related to some sort of
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: ritual or have some sort of significance. They also learned
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: in that research that a blue moon, the second full
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: moon occurring within the same calendar month, was approaching. And
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: they began trying to connect that lunar event with Donald's
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: religion and the unusual crime scene that they had. Detective
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Aimfinger brought that theory directly into interrogation too. He asked
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Donald about the blue moon. Donald said, yeah, he knew
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: about it. He knew what it was. And so did
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. In fact, it was recently widely
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: discussed on the radio because it was a lunar event
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: that was coming up. I mean, think about today. As
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: soon as there's an extra large moon or a full
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: moon or something like that, it's usually all across social media.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: You hear about it.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's typical. Detective Infinger then referred to information detectives
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: had apparently been given about a supposed Wiccan ritual in
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: which murder victims were covered after death to, quote, keep
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: them warm. But Donald immediately rejected the idea. telling the
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: detective that he knew nothing about any such ritual and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: asking what kind of person would do something like that.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: The problem was that this supposed ritual itself, though, had
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: no legitimate basis in Wicca at all. The material investigators
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: had relied upon was later described as coming from a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: dubious and debunked source about witchcraft and conspiracies. But still,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: this theory went public. On August 4th, 2015, County Sheriff
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: David Morgan reported held a press conference and announced that
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: investigators were considering the triple homicide as a possible ritualistic killing,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and he even went further and openly referred to witchcraft.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: The timing, he suggests, might be connected to the blue moon.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's kind of interesting that they're really diving down
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: this theory.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: You don't hear that very often. Like, I feel investigation
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: lots of times, it's like, pretty black and white. And
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: this is like very gray, I guess, in my opinion.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Well, I think a big part of it is they're
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: searching for a motive. Money was left behind, for example, right?
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: A lot of money. Yeah.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: So if it's not a robbery, what else could it be?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: A ritualistic killing, you know, a cult, that sort of
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: thing could explain why. And I think that's what they're
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: grasping at is, well, why were these three people killed?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: And this is the only you could really find.
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: Hmm.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I just do find it interesting that
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: they even found this though. Like, cause it just seemed,
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: it seems unique to me, right? That you would go
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: down that little rabbit hole.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: That's true. I agree. It does seem unique. And in
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: all honesty, it even seems like a stretch. It seems
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: like they're really reaching. They can't explain a motive. So
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: they're trying to make a motive fit, you know, they're like, oh,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: well this guy, he's into Wicca and there's a blue
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: moon nearby. That must be it.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: Boom.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Here's our motive.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like they almost kind of have already determined that
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: it was him, Donald, in a way, in their minds, maybe.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Hopefully not. I hope it wasn't him, but like hopefully
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: they're still like exploring other ideas and stuff too.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: For sure. Now with this Blue Moon theory though, this
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: whole occult situation, there was an obvious problem with this explanation.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: The Blue Moon occurred on Friday, July 31st of that year.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Investigators believe Bonnie, John, and Richard- were killed on Tuesday,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: July 28th, which was three days before the blue moon.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: And many reporters actually noticed this discrepancy like right out
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: of the gate. But there was no clear explanation offered
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: for why the murders on Tuesday should have any sort
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: of tie on this blue moon on Friday. It was
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: just a matter of investigators trying to make it fit. Still,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the idea spread rapidly. A brutal family massacre involving hammer blows,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: cut throats, gunshot wound, Witchcraft in a rare blue moon
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: was irresistible to national and international media alike, and the
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: case became known as the Blue Moon Murders, and Donald
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: was increasingly described as being the possible Blue Moon Killer.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: The Wiccan community pushed back almost immediately. Keith Vallis, leader
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: of the Pentecostal area Three Moon Wiccan Grove, said that
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the Smith family had no known association with with local
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: pagan or Wiccan groups, and rejected the suggestion that the
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: killings resembled Wiccan practice in any way whatsoever. Other practitioners
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: were even more direct. Modern Wicca did not involve human
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: or animal sacrifice, and the murders had not even occurred
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: on the full moon itself. Now there was another interesting
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: detail that detectives couldn't seem to ignore, and that was
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Richard's job. You mentioned hopefully they're looking for other motives too. Well,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what they were doing. Richard worked in a
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: very sensitive, cryptographic, and computer-related role for the Department of
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Homeland Security. A Federal Protective Service investigator was sent from
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Texas to Pensacola, specifically to determine whether the murders had
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: any connection to the federal government. Computers, laptops, and a
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: cell phone associated with Richard were seized and examined as
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: investigators considered whether his classified work had somehow put the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: family in danger. But nothing was found. and it didn't
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: produce a clear national security motive. However, another motive was
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: beginning to take shape as well, one far less mysterious
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: than secret government information, witchcraft, or a blue moon. Now,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: regarding Donald's account of Tuesday, July 28th, he maintained that
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: he had cooked dinner for Bonnie and John, then left. Now,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Richard still hadn't returned home from work, so he said
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: before he was gone. He said he had not seen
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Richard for nearly two or three weeks at that point,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Richard had been recorded leaving work at 6.36pm. His phone, again,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: final outgoing activity was 6.46pm. A next-door neighbor, though, said
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Richard had arrived back at Deerfield Drive while Donald was
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: still there. In fact, that same neighbor placed Donald's departure
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: at around 7.40pm after sunset. That meant Richard and Donald had,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: in fact, been in the same house together, which directly
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: contradicted Donald's statements. Now, forensic testing created a more complicated problem.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Donald visited the house every week. His DNA on ordinary
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: kitchen surfaces or chairs, household objects would prove very little.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: So detectives therefore focused on where his DNA appeared and
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: whether those locations matched what he had told police. Now,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: during his second interview, Donald was very specific when he
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: asked whether he handled Richard's possessions. He said no. But
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: testing showed Donald's DNA on a fabric notebook case belonging
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: to Richard. The case contained financial papers, bills, and even
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Richard's checkbook. An investigator said that that case itself even
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: had blood on it. But the checkbook, these things had been, well,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: they were recovered in the kitchen, which is where Donald
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: regularly prepared Tuesday dinners. So, Simply finding his DNA on these,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: it didn't establish that he shouldn't have been there because
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: he was always there.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: He could have just moved them or something.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Now, another location, though, was harder for detectives to
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: dismiss as routine contact. Donald's DNA was reportedly found on
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the inside of Richard's belt. Investigators considered that significance because, well,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Donald had claimed he hadn't seen Richard for weeks and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: he denied handling any sort of personal belongings. So how
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: did his DNA get on the inside of his belt?
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Sounds to me like a great place to grab hold
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: of someone if you're moving a body.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: DNA associated with Donald was also reported on the handle
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and latch of Bonnie's purse and on the claw hammer
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: recovered from the kitchen. But all in all, the trash
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: became particularly important. Among the discarded material were towels and
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: paper products that were stained in blood, likely used in
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: an attempt to clean portions of the scene. but there
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: was also cigarette butts that were mixed among the contents,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and testing identified Donald's DNA on that cigarette evidence. Investigators
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: focused heavily on one butt in particular, because it was
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: described as sitting on top of all the bloody material.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: To them, its position suggested that whoever had been smoking
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: that cigarette was present after all of it had been
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: thrown away. The bloody mess was cleaned up, thrown into
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: a trash, then whoever had done that, or was present
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: after the fact, smoked a cigarette and threw it on
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: top of the bloody paper towels. And Donald's DNA was
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: on that cigarette.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Ooh, dang, that does not look good.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Searches of Donald's own property didn't produce the kind of
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: evidence investigators were hoping to find. Despite searching his home
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: and via his coal and even seizing his clothing... No
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: blood belonging to Bonnie, John, or Richard was identified. No
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: firearm could be conclusively identified as the gun used against
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: Richard either, and the relevant clothing did not provide a
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: simple gunshot residue link like they were hoping. The case
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: at hand remains largely circumstantial at best.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Okay, I just want to touch on the stomach contents too,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: because that seems like really red flag to me.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: But it's only circumstantial.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: I know what you're saying.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: But I feel like Yeah. Say Donald was there for
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: like an hour when Richard was home and Richard last
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: ate at lunchtime. Like he would be eating. Like he
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: would eat dinner.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: You would assume he would eat dinner.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Like I would think he would eat. He's probably hangry.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Like he's probably famished. Just like shoveling food in his face.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Maybe he's stressed that day. Maybe he's too busy that day.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe he didn't like fried chicken. Maybe he's on a diet.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: There's a plethora of reasons. I guess.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Or he came in the house and was attacked. Who knows?
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You can't say one over the other.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: I guess. Yeah.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Was it because he was attacked or was it because
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: he was on a diet? Prove it. That's the problem.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. I agree with you 100%. Likely
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: because he was attacked. That makes the most sense. But
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: when it comes to defending something in court.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: It's not enough.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: It's not enough. You have to prove it. Prove he
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: wasn't on a diet. over the fact that he was attacked.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: You can't, which means it's circumstantial. But I agree with you.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: You are right. Where was I?
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: As the weeks passed, detectives also began looking harder at
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: the Smith's family finances. And this is where the other motive,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the other theory comes into play. Investigators soon discovered that
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: appearances can be misleading. The quiet family household on Deerfield Drive, well,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: it controlled substantial assets. At first, you could think this
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: is a small hoarding house with, you know, one son
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: with developmental issues working at Walmart and an aging mother
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: who has a shopping problem, but financial records place the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: combined holdings of Bonnie, Richard, and John at close to $ 900, 000.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: Investigators then examined Bonnie's estate documents. Bonnie's will was structured
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: so that her husband, Richard A. Smith, would inherit first,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: but since he died before she did, That meant the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: estate would instead pass to Richard and John in equal shares.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: But Donald, however, he was not included alongside them as
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: a beneficiary, meaning that if Bonnie died while Richard and
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: John were still alive, the estate would go to them
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: rather than Donald. That mattered because with Bonnie, Richard, and
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: John all dead, that meant Donald's position as the only
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: surviving family member changed dramatically. Then a co-worker of Donald's
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: gave investigators something even more troubling. See, Donald had spoken
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: about his family's money before and claimed that he had
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: expected to inherit it because he was the eldest of
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: all the sons. He was the eldest living heir. Police
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: now had a possible financial motive. They had disputed timelines, DNA,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: and locations they considered suspicious, and Donald's acknowledged presence in
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: the house on the day they believed the Smiths were
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: in fact killed. For nearly three months, investigators continued forensic
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: testing before detectives finally moved in on October 27, 2015.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Donald Wayne Herdung Sr. was then 58 years old and
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: was arrested without incident and charged with three counts of
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: first-degree premeditated murder for the deaths of his mother, Bonnie,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: and his two half-brothers, John and Richard. State Attorney Bill
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Eddins announced that prosecutors intended to seek the death penalty
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: in this case, citing that the multiple victims was an
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: aggravating factor. Donald was held without bond while prosecutors prepared
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: for the case before the grand jury. The case against
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: Donald was no longer centered on witchcraft or the blue moon, though,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: and investigators and prosecutors began digging more deeply into the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: relationships inside the family, trying to understand whether that quiet
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Tuesday dinner had any sort of hidden layers beneath it,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: maybe years of resentment. Now, Donald was Bonnie's oldest son,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: born before she was married to Richard A. Smith. Richard
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Thomas and John William Smith were, therefore, Donald's half-brothers, and
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Donald spent much of his adult life in Virginia, where
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: he married and had a son, Donald Harding Jr., while Bonnie, Richard,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: and John eventually settled in Pensacola. After Donald's marriage ended,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: he lived alone near the oceanfront in Virginia Beach for
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: a period before moving to Pensacola in 2013. But there
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: seemed to be a much deeper family history than anyone knew.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: And Donald's son, Donald Jr., or Junior as I'm going
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: to refer to him just to keep things easier, well,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: he provided one of the more personal accounts of that history.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: And he described a serious incident from his childhood involving
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: his uncle, John. According to Jr., John exposed himself to
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: him while he was still a child. Junior disclosed what
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: had happened to his mother within several days, and the
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: allegation caused a major split between the two sides of
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: the family. Junior believed his grandmother, Bonnie, sided with John,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: and communication between the families broke down for a substantial period.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: And Junior described his father as becoming, quote, the black
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: sheep of the family, separated from Bonnie, Richard, and John,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: even when contact eventually resumed. Donald's decision to move back
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: to Pensacola after his divorce actually surprised his son, Junior,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: because of all that history. But now during his first interview,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: Donald described his relationship with Bonnie and his brothers as
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: essentially excellent, which was a stark difference from the story
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Junior was just telling. And as investigators spoke with other
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: people who knew the family, they heard more descriptions of
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: this relationship that was more distant. Donald's regular Tuesday dinners
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: was true. And it was normal. But according to those accounts,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: his contact with the household was limited largely to just
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: those visits. Other relatives described tension as well. Bonnie's niece
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: and Donald's cousin, Faye Hayes, well, portrayed Donald as someone
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: who could be mean, who could pick on other people's weaknesses.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: And investigators had also heard claims that Donald resented Richard's
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: success and had sought financial help from Bonnie. Now, those
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: accounts gave prosecutors a possible emotional background for the hostility
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: they were beginning to associate with the murders, but none
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: of them by themselves proved Donald had killed anyone. Again,
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: circumstantial at best.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: But they sure found some family drama, that's for sure.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: They certainly did. Now, the money, on the other hand,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: still stood out to investigators. Bonnie, Richard, and John were
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: worth roughly $ 900, 000, and Richard had.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Had $ 13, 651 in cash untouched inside the unlocked safe in
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: their home. Not to mention Bonnie's will giving equal shares
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: to Richard and John, but not Donald. In fact, there
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: was allegedly wording within the document that was deliberately excluding
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: him Not that he was just not mentioned. The document
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: explained that no provisions were going to be made for
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: him because he already had sufficient assets of his own.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Damn. See, when you were first talking about the will,
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: I kind of forgot that Donald was Bonnie's. I thought
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: that it was the dad's.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: So the fact that he's not in the will actually
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: makes like no sense.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, this is interesting though when it comes to
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the will. There was, however, an oddity that prosecutors would
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: eventually have to deal with. The will didn't actually exclude
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Donald from everything. In fact, it did not mention him.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: Who it did exclude was Donald Jr., while the man
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: charged with the murders, Donald Sr., was not mentioned at all.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: So was it a typo? Was it an error? Was
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: it a mix-up of Jr. and Sr.? We're not certain. Now,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: the defense would argue that this created uncertainty over exactly
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: who Bonnie meant to exclude. And whether the wording was
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: mistaken or not, though, Donald was not named as one
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: of the direct beneficiaries. So he was excluded, whether he
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: was mentioned to be excluded or not. One of the
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Donalds was targeted, the other just excluded entirely. For investigators,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: if Bonnie died, Richard and John stood to receive her estate.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: But if Richard and John were also dead, Donald's position
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: as the surviving son became much more important. Prosecutors began
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: forming the theory that one death would not have been enough.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: For Donald to benefit in the way that they believed
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: he expected to, all three members of that family had
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: to die. And that theory was strengthened when one of
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Donald's co-workers told investigators that he had spoken about his
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: family's wealth. Now, the case now had something the original
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Blue Moon theory never provided, a a very real possible
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: reason for why Bonnie, John, and Richard had in fact
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: been killed. But Donald still denied killing them. Now, Donald
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: remained in the county jail for years as the murder
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: case slowly moved towards trial. But soon a new witness
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: would come forward, one who claimed Donald had actually told
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: him exactly what had happened. And his name was Marlon Purifoy. Now,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Marlon was an inmate with a substantial criminal history, including
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: multiple felony convictions, and was serving a very lengthy sentence
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: for attempted murder. Now, jailhouse informants always come with obvious
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: credibility problems, and even prosecutors acknowledge that they prefer not
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: to rely on them if they could avoid it. Still,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: in this case, Marland wrote a letter to the state
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: attorney's office claiming he had information about Donald, and soon
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: an investigator was sent to actually go speak with him
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: about it. Now, according to Marland, Donald had spoken openly
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: about these murders to him. Marlin said other inmates were
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: very uneasy around Donald because they knew about his Wiccan beliefs.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: But Marlin decided to talk to him on that subject,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: pretending he himself to be interested in voodoo. He said
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: that opened the door to longer conversations. And soon enough,
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Donald allegedly confessed. Marlin claimed Donald told him that he
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: had killed his mother and both half-brothers. When he asked why,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Marlin said Donald's explanation was the money. Bonnie had left
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: him out of her will. He wanted the family assets.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: He also claimed Donald had been thinking about killing them
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: for three to four years at that point. And the
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: occult element even returned, but in a very different way
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: from what the original Blue Moon theory was. See, Marlin
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: said Donald had been uncertain whether to go through with
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: the murders, and he had consulted a Ouija board. Now,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: according to Marlin, Donald believed the board gave him that
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: confirmation that he wanted, and it pushed him towards actually
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: carrying out this plan. And if you remember, a Ouija
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: board had in fact been found among the religious material
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: in Donald's home. But the claim, you know, purely hearsay, again,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: circumstantial at best. Marlin also described what Donald supposedly told
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: him about the killings themselves. He claimed Donald said he'd
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: gone to the house for the normal Tuesday dinner. but
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: deliberately did not bring his dog. Donald then described attacking
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: John first before turning to Bonnie and then waiting for
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Richard to return home from work. The most disturbing part
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: of Marlin's account actually involved Bonnie though. Marlin testified that
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Donald said he wanted the combinations to the safes in
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the house and he tortured his own mother to get them. Specifically,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: he claimed Donald cut off Bonnie's left pinky finger Until
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: she gave him the information that he wanted.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: Holy, that is something.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: Marlon said the combination or information was kept in a
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: black purse. And now this immediately caught investigators' attention. Because Bonnie,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: she really had been found with part of her pinky
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: finger missing. And they had established this was gone, but
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: they didn't establish why. And Marlon gave them another unusual detail, too.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: He described a safe apparently inside Bonnie's bedroom closet that
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: law enforcement had not even located during the original crime
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: scene search, which proved credibility of Marlon and the fact
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: that he learned information directly from Donald.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: See, because at first I'm like, can we even trust
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: this Marlon guy? Like, you know, he's also a criminal,
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: but he's really laying out some things that he probably
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: that are connecting, right?
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: So then you're, oh man, okay, that's really alarming.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Well, the thing is, yeah, how does he know this
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: information otherwise?
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Like the pinky and stuff.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: So he also repeated highly personal information about Donald's family.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Marlon said Donald had told him about the childhood sexual
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: assault allegations involved in Donald Jr. and John, along with
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Bonnie's refusal to side with Donald over the accusations. And
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: when Junior eventually testified himself, he confirmed the underlying family
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: incident and the long riff that it had created. But
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Marlin's testimony came with very serious problems, ones you were
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: already alluding to. He admitted that he hoped that his
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: cooperations in this case would help him in his own case.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: On cross-examination, the defense emphasized his numerous felony convictions, including
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: the crimes involving dishonesty, and argued that informing on another
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: inmate could provide exactly the sort of leverage a prisoner
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: might want. But more importantly, Florida's open discovery rules meant
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Donald had been given arrest reports, deposition transcripts, and other
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: case material while he was awaiting for his trial. Marland
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: had spent time inside Donald's cell, and according to the defense,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: he could have gone through Donald's possessions. Michael Griffith argued
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: that Marland could therefore have learned a large amount about
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: the murders without hearing a confession at all. The defense
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: also challenged the pinky finger story itself. The missing finger
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: was in fact real, but there was no forensic proof
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: that it had been deliberately cut off as part of torture. Again,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: circumstantial at best. Bonnie had suffered a violent hammer attack
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: and defensive injuries, but the defense argued the finger could
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: have been severed when she raised her hand to protect
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: her head and face. The alleged torture therefore remained Marlin's account,
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: not an independently proven fact.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: Okay, but as far as you know, they never found
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: the finger, right?
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: I couldn't find if they did or not. I searched
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: and searched, but I could not find. I found some
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: people saying it was missing, some people saying it was found,
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: but I couldn't find a source that I'm confident in
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: enough to give me the fact on that one.
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: Because I feel if it was an attack, that it
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: would have been somewhere within all their possessions, right? And
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: you would have found that.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so.
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: So the fact that you maybe say if they didn't
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: find it, then it kind of, I would feel like
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: points more to a torture type thing.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Because I mean, you could like
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: remove the finger and like, you know, use it as like,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to take another one, throw it in the
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: garbage or something like that. But if it's just comes
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: off in a frantic assault, it probably fell on the
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: floor and you know.
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: So I see exactly what you mean.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: But if someone actually is torturing their mother to that
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: extent and cutting off A finger? That is freaking next
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: level shit right there.
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: But I'm going to say from what I could find,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: most reports say that like the pinky finger is missing.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: So I'm assuming they did not find it.
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: That's my assumption.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Now in January of 2020, more than four years after
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: the murders, jury selection finally began in Pensacola. The prosecution
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: entered the court with the inheritance theory. And when the
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: defense began presenting the case in January of 2020- Attorney
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Michael Griffith did not need to prove who else had
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: killed Bonnie, John, and Richard. His job was to convince
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: the jury that the state had not proven that Donald
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: was the one responsible, beyond a reasonable doubt. Attorney Michael
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Griffith started the defense by attacking the investigation itself. He
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: argued detectives had focused on Donald too quickly, and had
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: interpreted his calm demeanor, wiccan belligerence, and routine present at
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: the Smith home as signs of guilt before the forensic
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: evidence was ever complete. He also questioned whether other possibilities
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: had been explored thoroughly enough, particularly the sensitive nature of
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Richard's work. Now, I mentioned the Homeland Security investigator from
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: the Federal Protective Services being sent from Texas to go
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: through the computers and all that sort of stuff, right?
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: So computers, laptops, cell phones were all seized, but one
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: of the government-issued laptops was never even opened and gone through.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Federal investigators said other information indicated that the computer had
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: rarely been used, but Griffiths stressed the simple point that
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: nobody could say with certainty that What was on this computer?
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: It was a piece of unknown evidence. They never went
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: through it. So you cannot rule out that his job
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: did not play a factor in this.
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: That seems like something that was kind of overlooked.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: I agree. Well, it's a matter of not so much overlooked.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: It was a decision made. But I agree. It is
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: like it's overlooked.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: It should have been looked through.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But they're saying, well, it's like it's never freaking used.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: So why bother? Now, the defense then turned to the
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: physical investigation team. of Deerfield Drive. See, crime scene technician
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: Christine Rollins had collected important forensic evidence in the case
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: and had since been fired and prosecuted herself for stealing
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: drugs from an evidence room. And during questioning, the jury
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: heard that she was facing 24 felony counts and potentially
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: more than a century in prison for her own crimes.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: And the attorney, Griffiths, used that history to challenge her
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: credibility and the reliability of the evidence that she had
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: handled in the case. There were also questions about contamination.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: The defense argued that investigators had failed to maintain proper
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: logs showing everyone who entered and left the Smith house.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: A crime scene that size, they said, should normally have
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: someone stationed at the entrance recording access and egress. And
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: without that, Griffiths argued, It was impossible to know exactly
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: who had moved through the home or who had touched
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: what particular objects, who could have contaminated, moved, or reorganized
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: things without you knowing. Now, when it came to Donald's
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: genetic material that was in the house, they argued he
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: visited every Tuesday. Of course, we know that. His DNA
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: on Richard's checkbook could have come from simply moving it
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: while preparing food. Even the cigarette butt found among the
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: bloody cleanup material, though, was challenged. because the trash container
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: had been moved and transported before its contents were fully examined.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: So you cannot say with confidence that that cigarette butt
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: was placed on top of those bloody rags, because it
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: was moved, and you don't know if any other people
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: moved it even more. More importantly, investigators had not found
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: the evidence that Griffith argued showed any sort of existence
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: that he, Donald, had committed before. this bloody triple homicide.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: There was no murder gun, no gunshot residue found on
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: the clothing investigators tested, no victim's blood was established in
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: Donald's home, vehicle, no blood splatter evidence, or anything that
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: directly tied him to this attack. Then came the defense's
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: strongest argument. When the Smiths had actually died. The state's
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: entire timeline depended heavily on on them dying Tuesday, July 28th.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: That was the night Donald was seen at Deerfield Drive,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: and Richard was found wearing the same clothes, captured leaving
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: work's surveillance at 6.36 p.m. And the neighbors saw Richard
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: arrive before Donald left the house. However, forensic pathologist Dr.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Arden questioned whether the bodies had been dead that long.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Using body temperature and rigor mortis, Dr. Arden placed the
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: deaths no earlier than late Wednesday, July 29th. And if
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: that was correct, that created a full day gap between
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: Donald's known visit and the murders. But other details troubled Dr.
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: Arden as well. The family's dog had remained inside the
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: house with these bodies.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: Dr.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: Arden explained that animals trapped without food can eventually scavenge
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: human remains. Yet, the Smiths' bodies showed no evidence that
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: the dog had fed on them at all. He also
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: noted the absence of significant insect activity. If three bodies
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: had remained inside the house from Tuesday until Friday, there
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: would ordinarily be flies, larvae, but there was none. Under questioning, however, Dr.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: Arden stopped short of saying a Tuesday death was impossible.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: His conclusion was narrower, but still very important. He believed
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: Tuesday was inconsistent with the scientific and medical evidence, but
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: not impossible. Now that left the jury with two competing pictures.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: The prosecution had Donald at Deerfield Drive when Richard returned home.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: Contradictions in Donald's story, unusual DNA locations, an inheritance motive,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: a neighbor's observations, and Marlon's alleged confession. The defense had
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: no recovered firearms. No victim's blood in Donald's property. Questions
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: surrounding evidence handling. A jailhouse informant seeking a benefit. An
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: unexplored government laptop and medical testimony that challenged the state's
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: most important date. Ultimately, on January 29th, 2020, the case
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: went to the jury. They deliberated for a little more
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: than four hours. And when they returned, the juror's decision
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: was read out loud. Donald Hartung Sr. was found guilty
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: of the first degree murder in all three deaths of
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: Bonnie Smith, John Smith, and Richard Smith.
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: Okay. I was not certain the way that was going
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: to go or not.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Were you watching my lips as I was reading?
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Cause I did go for like a not guilty at
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: first cause I thought you were.
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: I was.
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Cause yeah, this one does seem a little bit tough.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: Like it makes sense that it's him, but there's also
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: a few little things in there that throws you, throw
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: you off a bit.
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: For sure. And this entire case, they found this verdict
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: purely on circumstantial evidence.
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: Huh?
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: There is not a concrete piece in this whatsoever.
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: But I mean, the jury, they all came together and
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: they had the same decision. They did.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: I'm not arguing with the jury.
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: I do think, though, I was thinking, I was like, gosh,
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: this would be a hard case to be a jury
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: member on. Because it is just circumstantial, like you said.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: That's tough.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: That's extremely difficult. Not many cases actually find a conviction
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: on circumstantial evidence. That's rare. Now, the case then moved
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: into the penalty phase. And prosecutors asked the jury to
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: recommend the death penalty. for all three murders. Now, Donald
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: attempted to have the proceeding declared a mistrial and attacked
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: the performance of his own lawyers, but Circuit Judge Thomas
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Danheiser rejected that request, and the jury then answered the
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: death penalty question separately for each victim. For Bonnie, there
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: would be no death penalty. For John, there would be
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: no death penalty. For Richard, there would be no death penalty. Ultimately,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Donald Wayne Harding Sr. was sentenced to three consecutive life
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: terms imprisonment for his crimes. The Blue Moon murders had
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: begun in the headlines as a supposedly ritualistic massacre connected
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: to witchcraft in a rare full moon. But by the end,
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: the Blue Moon angle itself had almost disappeared from the case.
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: What was left was the prosecution's far more ordinary explanation.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: There were three members of one family who had been
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: murdered in cold blood because another member of the family
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: believed their deaths could make him rich. And that's the
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: story of the Blue Moon Murders.
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: Frickin' brutal story.
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: It's a tough one, too.
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: With that little evidence being all circumstantial. And that's why
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: I was highlighting circumstantial evidence only throughout the entire thing.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Because there is no concrete evidence. It's hearsay. It's circumstantial.
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: It's hard to make a call. But I think they
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: made the right one.
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: I kind of do too. I guess the things that
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: are really sticking out for me are like his DNA
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: on Richard's belt. That's odd.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: It's odd.
• 58:19
  Speaker 2: That's really odd, I think. So there's that. And then
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: the fact that he covered the bodies. Usually I feel
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: like when people... Oh, I just hit my mic there.
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: When people cover bodies, they're showing... I don't know if
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: it's necessarily signs of regret, but they're covering up what
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: they did. It wasn't maybe easy or something.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: There's a couple angles on that. It could be, one,
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: a sign of respect for the dead, or it could
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: be shame for what you did. So there's a couple reasons.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: You're definitely right. But I want to point out something
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: in regards to the insects and not developing earlier enough.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: There's no flies or larvae found in the body. They're covered.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: It's harder for insects to access... a body when they're
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: covered in blankets and clothing. So that would explain a
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: delay of larvae and all that sort of stuff. hatching
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: and taking place on a corpse.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: Because yeah, that was honestly the other thing that was
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: really throwing me off because the fact that they maybe
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: weren't murdered until the following day, that was throwing me
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: off big time. Yeah.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: Well, put it this way. Put two stakes on your counter.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Leave one uncovered, and cover one with a tea towel
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: after a week, which one do you think is going
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: to have more maggots and flies on it?
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: The uncovered one for sure.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: So that would expect to say that in this case,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: it would delay bug activity on a corpse in the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: same manner. But also I think you've pointed out earlier,
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: one of the biggest pieces of evidence in this case
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: that I think it is circumstantial, but I think it's
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: the biggest piece of evidence to say that that it was,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: in fact, Donald. The fact that Richard's stomach contents contained
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: his lunch, not dinner. Because if you're saying, okay, Donald
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: left and Richard stayed home and someone else killed them,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Richard would have had to eat at some point, especially
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: if you're saying, okay, the killings occurred the next day
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: or the next day. Like this Dr. Arden was saying.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: So if he went another 24 hours at least before
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: being killed, there would have been something else in his stomach.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: There had, would have had to have been.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: The only way there would not be is if Richard
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: himself did the killings and then committed suicide. But as
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: far as I can tell, there is no evidence of
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: any sort of suicide being reported in this case. I
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: don't know about the gun angle. I don't know about
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: residue on his hands or clothing. I don't believe it
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: was investigated at all, but I believe if Donald is
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: in fact innocent, the only other way it could have
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: played out would have been Richard doing it unless they just,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: all three of them decided not to eat for extended
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: periods of time for some reason, which does not make sense.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: Because Richard was the one too with the gunshot, right?
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: Not the throat thing.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, well he had his throat cut too.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: So he would have had to like, I believe he
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: was beaten in the head with a hammer as well.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: So he would have had to beat himself in the
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: head with a hammer, cut his own throat, and then
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: shoot himself in the head, which is not happening.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: No, I do think that they probably got the right person.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: Because Donald did have the motive. He really did have
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: the motive.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: He had the motive. He did.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: Like the fact that he was, I don't know, there
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: and like helping out at once a week and like
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: still remained out of the will and stuff. Like there
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 2: was still... There was still, I don't know, what do
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: you want to call it? Like skeletons in their closet.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: Resentment, bitterness.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Skeletons in their closet.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: A hundred percent right.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: So something wasn't quite right there and it, yeah. So
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 2: the fact too, like the inmate had said he had
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: this plan. He probably did have this plan for a while.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: Probably did. I, I think the jury made the right decision.
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: I think it was Donald. I do not think it
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: was Richard killing himself. I do not think it was
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Someone else coming in. It makes no sense.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 2: Richard walked into a scene and a half, I think.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: I bet you the other two were already dead.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's exactly. That's what the jailhouse.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, he killed killed John first, then went after
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: his mother, Bonnie, tortured her a bit, got the information
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: he needed, then waited for his brother to come home.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: And Richard walked through the door probably as soon as
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: that door was closed. Bang.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That is literally one of the most fucked up
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: things I've heard. Those like torturing your mother like that. Like,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: God damn.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: It's fucked up.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, the whole thing is fucked up.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. No, it really is.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: Just like torturing your mom like that while she's not,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: she wasn't a hundred percent. Like she was slightly not
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: a hundred percent healthy.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: Elderly and like in her chair watching the news or whatever.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: And you're, oh my gosh. I don't know. That just
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: is a scene in my head that I don't want there.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: Understandably so yeah but good.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: Job with this one that was that was a lot.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you um so if you guys have thoughts on
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: who you think did it or if you want to
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: contact us with any sort of maybe information you think's
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: important to this case or a thought or an angle
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: or anything check out the description of this podcast you
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: can find our email or social media and you can
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: go ahead and send us a message and contact us
• 1:03:41
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• 1:03:43
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• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: and everything where people talk about cases often and you
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: know dissect things and We really just kind of hang
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: out over there. It's a pretty good time too. So
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: you can do that too, but no pressure. It's all good.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: We appreciate that you're here and supporting us and it
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: means the world. But I think I'm going to keep
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: it at that until next time.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 2: Stay wicked.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: © transcript Emily Beynon
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: Thank you.