Latest / The Path Went Chilly / Jill and Julie Hansen Pt. One

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Jill and Julie Hansen Pt. One · The Path Went Chilly

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Welcome back to the Pathway, Chili. I'm Robin, I'm Jules, and
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I'm Ashley. Let's dive right into this week's case. November fifteenth, nineteen
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eighty six, Willow Creek, California, when a fire breaks out at the
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mobile home of sixteen year old twin sisters Jill and Julie Hanson. Both girls
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receive shotgun blasts to the stomach well. Jill dies at the scene, Julie
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passes away at the hospital one month later. Since evidence implicates their twenty one
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year old half brother, Donnie Hanson, he's charged with arson in murder and
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goes on trial for the crime. However, since eyewitnesses reported seeing two other
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unidentified men near the murder scene, this creates enough reasonable doubt for the jury
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to acquit Donnie, so there are no conclusive answers about who actually killed Jill
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and Julie. After that, the path went chilly. So today we're going
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to be covering a case from Unsolved Mysteries in which the victims were a pair
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of twin sisters, the nineteen eighty six murders of Jill and Julie Hansen.
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This was a pretty unique segment for the show. Because it aired after a
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suspect had already gone on trial for the crime and was found not guilty.
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In essence, it was almost like a reverse final appeal segment, since a
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number of people still believed that the defendant was complicit in the murders. Jill
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and Julie live with their parents in a mobile home, but after a fire
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broke out in the middle of the night and burned the trailer to the ground,
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it would turn out that both sisters received shotgun blas, which ultimately led
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to their deaths. At the time, the twins' half brother, Donnie Hansen,
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was visiting from out of town and had spent the night at the trailer.
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But a lot of evidence would soon emerge that Donnie was responsible for the
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crime, and he may have intended to wipe out his entire family. While
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Donnie would go on trial for double murder, his defense team managed to create
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just enough reasonable doubt for the jury to vote not guilty, and because of
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double jeopardy, he can never be charged with this crime again. However,
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there was evidence to suggest that other people may have been at the murder scene
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that night, and if Donnie was not completely innocent, these people could have
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been his accomplices. Even if Donnie did not personally pull the trigger and shoot
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his sisters, he may have known who did. The circumstances of how this
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crime were carried out are so bizarre that it's really difficult to figure out what
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actually happened. But there may still be people out there who have yet to
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face justice for this crime, so the story is definitely worthy of discussion.
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Can you imagine being in us or home where you're supposed to be safe and
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no one's supposed to be able to get you. You're with your family and
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a fire breaks out, which in and of itself would be horrifying, but
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as you wake up to the fire, you're actually shot with a shotgun and
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murdered alongside your twin sister. I can't even fathom who's in that scene,
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who's setting this fire, and how they're in this place where they're comfortable enough
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to set a fire and stay put to shoot the two girls. I know
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that can happen in a few seconds, but you've got to remember they set
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this fire and then or likely set the fire and then shoot these two girls
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and flee. Who else was in the home at the time other than Donnie?
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The two parents, the mother and stepfather, And this is so traumatic
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for them because they're going through the situation where they think that they've lost their
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home, that there's this big fire, and that they're potentially going to lose
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both of their girls. And then they found out, oh my god,
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they were both shot. So this was an intentional homicide. So this pretty
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much is the worst nightmare imaginable for a parent. And also find out that
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your other child might be involved and responsible. Well, that's what's really heavy,
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is that not only are your babies murdered, but then you start to
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wonder is it your child that actually killed their siblings. So it adds that
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layer of not only are we mourning the victims, but we're also mourning the
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offender potentially in this case, and the physical and emotional loss and financial loss
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of our home as well. So I can't even imagine. I got to
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learn more about how people got out, how this fire was started, Tell
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me more. Our story begins in nineteen eighty six in Willow Creek, California,
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a small mountain town located in Humboldt County near Six Rivers National Forest,
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which had a population of around one thousand people at the time, Well,
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this doesn't hold any relevance to today's featured case. I thought it was worth
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mentioning that Willow Creek is the self proclaimed Bigfoot Capital of the World due to
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the many Bigfoot sightings which have taken place in the region, and the town
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also has its own Bigfoot museum and holds an annual Bigfoot Days festival every September.
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While this may sound like a cliche, Willow Creek was described as one
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of those tight knit communities where everyone knows everybody else and no one ever expected
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that such a horrific crime would take place there. Our victims in this story
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are Jill and Julie Hansen, a pair of sixteen year old twin sisters who
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live with their parents, Hans and Betty Hanson. Hans and Betty had been
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married for eighteen years and moved their family to Willow Creek in nineteen seventy one
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so that Hans could operate his own logging supply business, and they currently live
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in a mobile home located next to the business's warehouse. Betty also has two
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older children from a previous marriage, named Becky, who has since gotten married
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and Donnie, who's twenty one years old. At this point and living in
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the town of Fortuna. On the night the crime occurred, Donny had stopped
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by the residence to visit his family and stayed over by sleeping on the living
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room couch. At around three a m. On the morning of November fifteenth,
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Betty and Hans were sleeping in the primary bedroom when they were suddenly awakened
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by what they described as popping sounds, and they soon started smelling smoke.
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When they opened their bedroom door, they were shocked to discover the trailer was
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now on fire and flames were burning in a long strip down the hallway.
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Hans immediately grabbed a fire extinguisher and attempted to douse the flames, and while
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he called out for Jill, Julie, and Donnie, he did not hear
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any responses from them. When the extinguisher emptied, Hans exited out the back
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door, but wound up kicking an empty gas can, which was now resting
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on the porch. Betty made an attempt to run down the hallway to check
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on her children and finally saw Donnie next to the couch. He ran through
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the open sliding glass door while yelling get out of here, but Betty could
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not see who he was shouting at. He could have been shouting at so
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many people. He could have been trying to shout at the girls get out
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of here, like get out of the flames, possibly shouting at somebody he
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quote didn't recognize, which I assume would have been his whole defense if that
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was what he said he saw. Or could he have been shouting at his
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mom, you know, catching a glimpse of her running, just screaming,
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get out, get out. The house is on fire. I'm assuming these
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popping sounds are the shotgun blast. And at that point Donnie is present inside
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the residence. Mom and Dad are there, and the two girls. That's
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all we know of who's in the residence. And like I said, to
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set a fire to the house very very very brazen. So if you were
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going to go in to execute the girls, it's easier just to go in
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and shoot the girls and leave without the fire, because you run the risk
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of getting caught as the offender with burns, with gasoline on you, with
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all these ways of getting into these murders. So it's so bizarre that you're
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going to execute a murder with the arson while there's a whole family inside that
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house. It's not like you just killed you know, all the victims that
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could have I witnessed you. You left people alive and run out of that
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home. Yeah. That's the thing with this crime is that nothing about it
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really makes any sense. Like, regardless of whether you believe Donnie was an
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innocent victim or he was involved in the crime, even if he planned it,
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the way he carried it out really did not make a lot of sense.
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And I know on the moment when his mother saw him yell and get
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out of here, she didn't think anything of it because she figured, well,
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he's taught, she's yelling at he's yelling at the twins, or maybe
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he's trying to yell at me and his head's in the other direction, And
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it's just one of those moments in retrospect where she starts thinking, maybe he
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was yelling at the people who actually set the fire, and he was working
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alongside them. And no matter who did it, what would ever be the
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motivation if it clearly wasn't sexually motivated to kill two sixty year old girls with
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a bunch of shotgun blasts to the stomach and then to set the entire place
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on fire. It's just bewildering. And this was like a very well liked
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family who didn't have any enemies, So it didn't make any sense for just
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random strangers to come in the middle of the night and commit a crime like
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this. Now, how often did Donnie come visit the house? Like?
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Is it odd that Donnie decided to come that night? Uh, not that
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I know of. I mean, I've heard some rumors about Donnie that he
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might have been kind of the black sheep of the family, but I haven't
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heard any specifics about how. It just seemed weird that he would be stopping
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by the house at this particular night. So Jill and Julie slept together in
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the same bedroom, which was now blocked by flames. So Betty exited the
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trailer and ran to the warehouse, where a number of extra fire extinguishers were
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stored. Hans and Donnie soon joined her there, and Hans grabbed a ladder
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and took it back to the trailer, where he used the ladder to break
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the window of the twins bedroom. He yelled inside for Jill and Julie,
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but received no response, and by this point the bedroom was engulfed in flames.
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By this point, Betty had already called the fire department, and the
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family kept going back and forth from the trailer to the warehouse to grab fire
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extinguishers to attempt to dowse the flames. While this was going on, Hans
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asked Donnie if he had seen Jill or Julie anywhere, and he replied no.
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The fire and department finally arrived at the scene to handle the situation,
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but one of the Hansens neighbors noticed a body in a vacant lot across the
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road, and it turned out to be Julie, who was bleeding from a
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large wound in her abdomen. She was barely still alive, so she was
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given immediate medical attention by paramedics and rushed to mad River Community Hospital in the
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town of Barcada. Even though he had previously told Hans he never saw either
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of the girls, Donnie now claimed that he had gotten Julie out of the
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trailer himself, and when Hans asked how badly she was burned, Donnie didn't
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answer. Unfortunately, there was still no sign of Jill, and no one
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would find out what happened to her until daylight hit. After the fire was
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completely put out. Jill's charred body was discovered in the trailer's rubble, but
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like your sister, she had a large hole in her abdomen. Paramedics had
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initially assumed that the wound in Julie's abdomen had been caused by an explosion,
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but once she went into surgery, they realized that she had been shot at
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point blank range with a twelve gate shotgun. Okay, I hate judging people's
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reactions in the midst of trauma and grief. Right you're watching your house burn
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down, You're watching your parents run back and forth trying to put the flames
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out. You don't know where your sisters are. Necessarily, it would be
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so overwhelming. I do not know how I would react. My prayer would
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be that I would continue to fight to get everyone out of that house until
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everyone was safe in sound. But I don't know. It's possible I shut
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down. It's possible. I don't respond to people. However, it's really
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interesting when Donnie is talking about, like, oh, yeah, I actually
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got Julie out of the trailer myself, and when Hans asked details about how
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badly burn she was, he doesn't answer. He can't answer, yeah,
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supposedly he was holding her or pulling her out himself. And remember we see
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him run out as mom is running down the hallway. She said she saw
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him by the couch and then watch him run out the back door. Did
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he actually bring her out? I don't think so. No. I think
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she was shot and wounded and she crawled out there on her own. And
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when Hans asked Donnie for the first time if he had seen Julie, he
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probably was telling the truth when he said no, because he probably figured she
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was just inside burning. But then I think when he realized that she was
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out there, he just kind of changed his story to kind of make himself
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look like a hero, because it would seem like an odd choice to try
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to rescue her after I mean, I guess if you thought she was likely
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going to die from her injuries and she wouldn't be able to articulate who shot
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her, if Donnie was indeed responsible to pull her out, would be like,
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see, I couldn't be responsible. It had to have been a third
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party, because if so, why would I go back in and retrieve her
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if I wanted her dead? That's what I think he was trying to do
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to plant the seeds is that maybe he was thinking that she would die before
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she had a chance to talk, and he figured, well, if I
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tell this story, then no one will think that I'm responsible for killing her,
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because why would I rescue her. Surgery was performed on Julie in order
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to repair her internal organs, and even though it took six hours, she
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wound up surviving and remained in critical condition in the intensive care unit. It
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wasn't long before an autopsy confirmed that Jill had also been shot in the stomach.
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When police performed a forensic investigation of the scene, they discovered three shotgun
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shells and an empty five gallon gasoline can, in addition to the second empty
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gas can that hans had almost tripped over when he exited out the back door.
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A search was also performed in the warehouse, which was left undamaged by
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the fire, and a twelve gage shotgun was found hidden behind some boxes.
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Ballistics tests would show that it was the same gun used to shoot Jill and
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Julie, conclusively proving that arson and murder had taken place. But since the
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Hansons were known for being a very friendly family in the community without any enemies,
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and the twins were popular in school. No one could figure out a
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motive for this crime. And how sloppy is this murder anyway, because you
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have two gasoline cans and you have the twelve gage shotgun found behind some boxes
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in the warehouse that they own right by the mobile home, and so there
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is all the evidence sitting at the scene of the crime. So either you
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know, a young inexperienced criminal, but if you had these multiple offenders working
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together, you would think someone in that group would say, we need to
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get the supplies we bring and make sure they leave with us, not leaving
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them at the scene of the crime, because that shows, like you said,
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it conclusively proved arson and murder took place and how it happened. Yeah,
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it definitely was a very sl crime, and I have a feeling that
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whoever was responsible kind of had to think on their feet and leave the scene
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right away and did not even think about the fact that they left crucial evidence
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behind. Well, the case went in an unexpected direction during the early morning
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hours of November seventeenth. At the time, the hands in property was corned
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off by the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department, who kept it under twenty four hour
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surveillance, but the officer on duty was taken by surprise when Donnie showed up
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at the warehouse at five am and tried to climb in through one of the
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windows. When the officer caught him and brought in the lead detective to question
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Donnie, he told them that he had stopped by to feed the family dog,
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even though the dog had recently been placed in the care of some neighbors
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and Donnie would have known this. The detective suspected that the real reason for
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Donnie's visit was because he wanted to retrieve the twelve gate shotgun, which had
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been hidden behind some boxes inside the warehouse, and he was unaware the police
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had already found it. It wasn't long before the investigation uncovered some pretty troubling
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evidence against Donnie. It turned out that the shotgun belonged to a friend of
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his, and Donnie had decided to borrow it only three days before the shooting.
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A search of Donnie's car would turn up some unspent shells which matched the
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empty shells found at the crime scene, and Donnie had purchased these shells only
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hours before his sisters were shot. Credit card statements showed that Donnie also purchased
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five gallons of gas two days before the crime, and witnesses from the service
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station were called seeing Donnie fill up a five gallon can which was identical to
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the gas cans found at the scene. Yeah, it really does point to
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this fact that, of course Donnie's the one responsible for this. But why
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is it possible that there's a life insurance policy or there's something that the girls,
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maybe being the youngest, have larger beneficiary duties or assets coming to them.
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If somebody happens to mom and dad he wants to get rid of them.
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Is he resentful of the way they're treated versus the way he feels like
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he's treated, So he's trying to take out who he's you're jealous and resentful
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of? What would motivate someone who doesn't even live with these girls and they're
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teenagers, Like, how much could you despise them? What would motivate a
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brother to come home and do that? What if he had been abusing them
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in some way, like whether physically or sexually, and maybe one of them
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had said, well, you know, we're going to tell I can't Like,
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honestly, I'm just totally spitballing here. I can't think of any other
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thing that would motivate someone to act out like this against two really well liked
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girls. I can't imagine that he would harbor that much animosity towards Jill and
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Julie that he would want to commit murder. And can colock this whole hair
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brain scheme that involves setting the entire trailer on fire and possibly killing his parents,
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Or does he hate his parents so much that he wants to take out
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their pride and joy, which are their baby twin girls. That's also possible.
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Like you talked about life insurance, that people have speculated that was the
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motive, and that he wanted to kill every like, not just the twin
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girls. That this was like intended for him to possibly inherit the family business
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or collect on their insurance policy, but the whole thing went awry and so
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the parents woke up before they could be killed. Julie continued to recover at
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the hospital, but two weeks after the fire, she finally started talking again.
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She told her parents and the police that she remembered being woken up by
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a noise. Julie climbed over her sister, who was still asleep in their
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bed and exited their bedroom into the hallway. She then saw a flash and
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instantly collapsed to the floor after she was shot in the abdomen. Julie said
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she did not get that she didn't get a good look at the shooter,
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but she managed to escape the trailer while she was wounded and made it across
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the road to the vacant lot where she was found. While this contradicted the
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original story that Donnie had shared with Hans, where he claimed that he pulled
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Julie out of the trailer himself. When pushed for more details, Julie revealed
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that she briefly recalled seeing Donnie's face in the flash of the gunshot. However,
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according to Julie's doctor, she had previously shared her story with him on
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multiple occasions and never mentioned Donnie, as she specifically said she saw no one
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hm. So at one point she says it was Donnie, but that's after
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people are pushing her to say somebody, like maybe you had to have seen
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somebody. Who did you see And it is possible she saw Donnie running from
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the fire or something like that, but she doesn't ever actually conclusively tell the
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doctors my brother shot us. I saw my brother. That's complicated because at
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one point she does mention Donnie, so maybe it came to her only for
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that brief moment. She's an extreme trauma, she's under extreme stress. So,
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man, poor Julie. It's pitiful to hear her describe how she got
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out of the fire, and then you're thinking about this boy who's says,
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oh, I was helping her. He's putting on this hero complex, and
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Julie sitting there in her last moments describing how she had to climb over her
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sister and instantly a shot and still manages to pull herself out of that house
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somehow. I guess the alternate explanation is if Donnie was innocent because Julia gone
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into the hallway and he was out there sleeping on the couch, that if
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there was someone else there who fired the shot, she could have seen Donnie's
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face in the background nearby, because he was in the living room. But
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of course, the hole in that theory is that Donnie never mentioned anything about
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someone coming into the house and seeing them fire a shotgun at his sister,
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so it's really hard to explain, like her being able to see his face
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if he had no involvement in the crime. But then again, is her
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memory reliable? Is she just dealing with trauma or does she legitimately remember seeing
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him and someone coming into the house and firing his shotgun at his sister's.
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It's just such an implausible theory that, like, you borrowed shotgun three days
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before the murder and were to believe that somebody else came in potentially used it
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to shoot your sisters and the gas cans. Remember they actually went in and
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got his gas cans too, and used the gasoline he had just purchased,
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the shells that he had just purchased. All of that makes absolutely no sense.
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Donnie would be questioned by police on December the second and continue to deny
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any involvement in the crime, but he wound up failing two polygraphs. However,
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he did finally admit that he had been keeping the shotgun inside the car,
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but panicked and decided to hide it in the warehouse while the fire was
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taking place because he feared he would be blamed for the crime. Regardless,
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investigators still believed that there was enough circumstantial evidence tying Donnie to the crime,
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so following a two hour interrogation, Donnie was arrested and charged with Jill's murder
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as well as arson. Unfortunately, tragedy would strike just under three weeks later
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on December the nineteen, when Julie suddenly died at the hospital during a freak
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medical accident. Her intravenous feeding tube had become separated from her neck, causing
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an air bubble to enter her bloodstream, which resulted in an air embolism that
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stopped her heart. Donnie would be charged with a second count of murder for
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his role in Julie's death, but since she could not be cross examined by
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Donnie's defense attorneys, Julie's story about seeing Donnie's face in the flash of the
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shotgun blast was ruled to be inadmissible as evidence at his trial. Due to
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the extensive publicity surrounding the case in Humboldt County, the defense felt it would
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be impossible to assemble an impartial jury, so they filed a motion for a
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change of venue. The motion was granted so the trial would take place in
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Alameda County. In April of nineteen eighty eight, before the trial began,
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the Humboldt County District attorney and now said he would seek the death penalty against
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Donnie if he was found guilty. I'm trying to even understand an ounce of
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how these parents would be feeling. They lost their one daughter that evening during
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the fire, along with all of their personal belongings. Their second daughter is
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clinging to life, trying to recover in the hospital, and then some freak
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medical incident and error causes her death, which would have never happened had the
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fire not occurred and the shotgun blast hadn't happened. And then here's Donnie.
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He's arrested in getting charged with both their murders. Do we have information about
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where the parents felt in this moment about what their son's culpability would be.
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Were they assisting law enforcement, did they feel as if Donnie was likely responsible?
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Or are they advocating with Donnie's defense attorneys that he's absolutely innocent. At
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this time, they were supportive of Donnie. They did not think, even
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in spite of the overwhelming evidence, they thought he was incapable of murders.
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So they did stand by him at the trial, But as time went on
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they would change their tune. The primary piece of evidence supplied by Donnie's defense
23:59
team was eye witness testimony from two of the Hansen's neighbors who claimed that on
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the night of the crime they saw two unidentified men standing outside the trailer while
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it was on fire. Witnesses also were called hearing the sound of a car
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screeching down the street a short time later, and these men were not present
24:18
when the police and fire department arrived. A few hours later, two men
24:22
were seen walking near the crime scene and were briefly questioned by police, and
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while they claimed to have not been present when the fire took place, they
24:30
appeared to have ashes on their clothing. The defense's theory was that these two
24:36
unidentified men were the real perpetrators and found the shotgun, the shells, and
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the cans of gasoline the Donny had recently purchased inside his car when they arrived
24:45
at the scene at around three a m. After picking the lock on the
24:49
sliding glass door and breaking into the trailer, they then proceeded to pour the
24:55
gasoline all over the interior. At some point, Julie woke up and egged
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in her bedroom into the hallway, so one of the intruders shot her since
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he was sleeping on the living room couch. Donnie was woken up by the
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shotgun blast, and after finding Julie's wounded body, he took her out onto
25:11
the front porch before running over to the warehouse to help Hans and Betty grab
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fire extinguishers. While all this was going on, at least one of the
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intruders remained inside the trailer and fired a fatal shotgun blast into Jill. After
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running outside, the assailant placed Donni's shotgun back inside his car, and the
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two men subsequently fled the scene in their own vehicle before the rest of the
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hands and badly saw them. Since Donnie was paranoid that he would be blamed
25:41
for the shooting of his sisters, he decided to take a shotgun out of
25:44
the car and hide it behind the boxes inside the warehouse. There was evidence
25:48
that the trailer's sliding glass door had been tampered with, and since the shotgun
25:52
was not thoroughly fingerprinted and the empty shell casings were never fingerprinted at all,
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it could not be proven or disproven that the items had been handled by an
26:03
outside party. No, no, I do that. I say no,
26:11
I don't think that that's at all possible. As to what happened. And
26:14
here's the thing. Remember, if you're Donnie, the story is you're on
26:18
the couch, you wake up to the house on fire and these sounds of
26:22
popping, and you run out the door. Maybe you rescue your sister.
26:25
Who you see is, you know, struggling to get out. Does he
26:29
even know that they're shot? He's not mentioning that he didn't even know how
26:33
burned his sister was. So to say that you thought you were going to
26:37
be blamed and instantly, while your house is burning down and your sisters are
26:41
dying, you think, my god, I own a shotgun. Those are
26:45
definitely shotgun wounds. They've been shot with a shotgun. I could be the
26:48
main suspect. Let me go hide this weapon and then come back and figure
26:52
out what's going on the fire. None of that makes any sense. It
26:57
just not at all lines up. Yeah, the answer is no, hard
27:03
passed Donnie. Ten out of ten did not happen like that. Does not
27:07
happen like that exactly. Yeah, because it's true because no one was aware
27:11
at all that Julie had been shot until they did surgery on her at the
27:15
hospital, and of course they didn't realize Jill was shot until they found her
27:18
ashes the following morning. So if you're dealing with the trauma of your house
27:22
burning down, not knowing what's gonna happen to your sister, you're just gonna
27:25
think to yourself, Oh, they're gonna blame me that I shot, or
27:26
I better get rid of the gun just in case, Like normal people do
27:30
not operate like that. No, that shows that you knew they were shot
27:33
with that shotgun. Aka, you're guilty, and then you hid the evidence.
27:38
The paramedics thought that she had been in an explosion, which is what
27:42
caused the abdomen injury, until doctors later said, oh, no, this
27:47
is a shotgun blast. So just the defense's statement alone, their defense says
27:53
Donnie knew what was happening, and the withholding of that evidence since he so
28:00
strongly believed this, that his priority was to hide it so that it wouldn't
28:03
implicate him, And then he doesn't articulate what he knows to paramedics so that
28:08
they can properly render aid to his sister. It just speaks to guilt knowledge
28:14
and he thinks that he's like giving himself it out here that this is plausible,
28:18
But like, I'm going to go hide the weapons so that nobody thinks
28:22
that I did it, he said, no innocent person ever. And isn't
28:26
it just like great luck for these intruders that they stopped by at three am
28:30
and find these shotgun shells and gasoline and a shotgun in the car parked outside.
28:34
It's like, we didn't even have to bring our own weapons. They're
28:37
just waiting right here for us. And why why would they do this?
28:41
Like what would be their motivation? Well, needless to say, the prosecution
28:48
felt that the defense's theory was absurd and did not find it believable that intruders
28:52
would show up at the Handsome residence to commit a crime without bringing any of
28:56
their own weapons and rely entirely on Donnie's shotgun and cans of gasoline. The
29:02
trial lasted two months, but in the end, the jury ultimately sided with
29:06
the defense on June the sixteenth. After deliberating for six hours, they wound
29:11
up finding Donnie not guilty on all the counts of murder and arson. According
29:15
to the prosecutor, many of the jurors would later tell him that they still
29:18
believed Donnie was responsible for the crime, but did not feel his guilt had
29:22
been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. You know, it is all circumstantial.
29:26
I mean, there just wasn't forensic evidence to link him to it, if
29:30
the shotgun had not been thoroughly dusted, if the shells had not been thoroughly
29:36
finger printed. And the reality is, if he said I moved it,
29:40
we know his fingerprints are on that shotgun. So it's like, how do
29:42
you prove that I wasn't the murderer who put them there? But I was
29:47
moving the evidence in there for my fingerprints are on it. It's a complicated
29:51
case, highly circumstantial. Pointing to Donnie, he was known to have filled
29:56
those gas cans up, he was known to have bought shells. We know
30:00
that was his shotgun. He admits that he hid the shotgun because he was
30:04
fearful that he was going to get caught. And so what's so sad in
30:10
this case is that even the defense actually has evidence when you're when you're saying
30:15
Donnie moved all this and did all this because he was fearful that people would
30:18
think he murdered his sisters. He should have never known that information. So
30:22
even the defense points to his guilt, and yet the jurors said, you
30:26
didn't prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. You allowed for other explanations to be
30:33
presented, and you weren't able to explain those away, and so that reasonable
30:40
doubt. We have juries all the time that say, you have course on
30:42
the surface, he's guilty, but our right is to be proven beyond a
30:48
reasonable doubt ninety nine point nine nine nine percent, and if you do ninety
30:52
eight percent, I'm supposed to find him not guilty. And that's what they
30:55
did here. It is still pretty surprising that after a two months trial that
31:00
he would only deliberate for six hours and not discuss it further before doing an
31:03
not guilty verdict. But I think the eyewitness siding of the other two men
31:07
outside the trailer probably created just enough reasonable doubt where they probably thought, well,
31:12
we believed Donnie was involved in this crime, but we can't technically prove
31:17
that he pulled the trigger. I mean, there was definitely murder here,
31:19
but how do we know those other two guys fired the gun that killed his
31:23
sister and were not charging him with conspiracy to commit murder. We're charging him
31:26
with the murder itself. And I guess they felt that this hadn't been proven.
31:32
The Hansons were initially supportive of Donnie and is not guilty verdict, but
31:36
upon further reflection, they ultimately came to believe that Donnie was involved in the
31:41
crime, or at the very least knew what happened. Hans and Betty suspected
31:47
that, in addition to Jill and Julie, Donnie had planned to kill them
31:51
as well in order to collect on a large life insurance policy Hans had taken
31:55
out for the family. Donnie would become completely estranged from his mother and sie
32:00
stepfather, and he eventually moved out of the area and changed his name.
32:04
Hans and Betty filed a wrongful death lawsuit against mad River Community Hospital, alleging
32:09
that malpractice had taken place and Julie died as a result of the hospital's negligence.
32:15
After years of delays, the case would finally be heard at a civil
32:19
trial in January of nineteen ninety two, but unfortunately for the Hansons, the
32:23
jury sided in the hospital's favor. Since double jeopardy prevented Donnie from ever being
32:30
charged with his sister's murders. Again, the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department did not
32:34
bother to reopen the investigation, but Hans and Betty still believed that there was
32:38
a possibility that others were involved in the crime. As you'll recall, right
32:43
after the fire started, Betty believed that she saw Donnie yelling get out of
32:47
here to an unknown person. And like I said when you first mentioned that,
32:52
it could have been like get out of here, like who are you?
32:55
But he would have run out screaming there is somebody in the house.
32:58
There is somebody in that house. Help you, like Hans, get in
33:00
there. Someone's in that house. If he just walks out, I was
33:04
like, oh yeah. By the way, I rescued my sister and didn't
33:06
mention this other person and there was no fear or anxiety about who this unknown
33:12
person could be. Then Donnie would have known that person and is saying get
33:16
out to like not burn alive in this house or to not get caught for
33:22
the murder of his sisters. So is it possible he could have left all
33:24
the evidence for someone else to help him carry out the crime? Thousand percent
33:30
could have been those two guys, but they didn't do it in absence of
33:32
Donnie. There's just no way. And if so, who like, is
33:37
there anybody in Donnie's life, Robin that could potentially have helped him in the
33:44
commission of this crime. Unfortunately, I don't really have that information. Like
33:49
surprisingly, given this was a big trial, there is a limited amount of
33:52
info out there that's accessible. I mean, I have heard rumors out there
33:57
that Donnie was involved in drugs, that he could have owed a drug debt
34:00
to someone, and that he ran with some rough people, But I never
34:04
heard any specific names or suspects of anyone else who would have helped him carry
34:07
out this crime. Because, as you can imagine, you've got to be
34:10
a pretty like rigid person. If someone says I need your assistance to murder
34:15
my entire family, will you go along with it? And of course,
34:19
like possibly he was going to collect on the insurance money, But it doesn't
34:22
sound like Donnie was a particularly wealthy individual who could pay someone a lot of
34:27
money to perform this murder. So Ever, since the twins were children,
34:30
their parents had been saving up money for them to attend college. They wound
34:35
up saving over fifty thousand dollars and hoped to use it as reward money for
34:38
information. The case would be featured on the tabloid TV show Hard Copy in
34:44
May of nineteen ninety two, and a year and a half later, in
34:46
November of nineteen ninety three, it was profiled on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.
34:51
While Donnie agreed to be interviewed for this segment, he requested that the
34:53
show obscure his face and alter his voice in order to protect his identity.
34:59
However, don Donnie also wound up changing some details of his original story.
35:04
Even though the scenario presented at trial was that Donnie had been awakened by the
35:07
sound of a shotgun blast, he now said that he never heard any shots
35:10
at all. While Donnie had originally stated that he hit his shotgun in the
35:15
warehouse because he feared he would get blamed for the crime, his new story
35:19
was that he moved it there to prevent it from being stolen. In spite
35:22
of these inconsistencies, Donnie continued to maintain his innocence and denied any involvement in
35:28
the crime, even though there has always been speculation that other suspects were complicit
35:31
in the murders. After more than thirty seven years, there's still no conclusive
35:36
answers about who actually killed Jill and Julie Hansen, So I guess you could
35:40
say the path went chilly. I don't blame Donnie EF for wanting to obscure
35:45
his face because he's a liar man. I don't understand. Obviously he's been
35:52
found not guilty, so he could walk out of the courtroom and say I
35:54
did it and got away with it. And that's just how our justice system
35:58
works. A lot of times that protect people. But it's so frustrating in
36:02
a case like this, where you go, come on, Donnie, like,
36:06
either let it go and be quiet about it, because clearly you got
36:10
away with something. But to have him on this show, even with his
36:14
face obscured, and had him telling multiple versions of what happened, none of
36:21
it makes sense. If he didn't hear the shotgun blast, why did he
36:24
need to move the gun, Why did he need to hide the gun.
36:29
It's just so upsetting. I'm so frustrated. I cannot imagine what the people
36:34
who care about this family were thinking when they're listening to Donnie talk, when
36:37
the poor parents are having to watch his version and it just doesn't line up
36:43
with what they experienced that night. It's devastating. So Ashley, if your
36:49
house was on fire, your first priority wouldn't be your husband or your children,
36:52
right, you'd grab your gun. It makes to make sure that no
36:54
one stole it because people are going to steal valuables during a fire. Yeah,
37:00
two thousand percent. I'd be going around making sure what's most valuable in
37:02
here that could get stolen tonight, and everyone's gonna have to find for themselves.
37:07
I mean, especially the nine year old and the dogs. Figure it
37:10
out. I gotta protect us from theft tonight. Hope they're not listening to
37:15
this. I love you guys. So anyway, before I start talking about
37:22
this case, here's a list of some of the most controversial examples of defendants
37:27
who were acquitted of murder after trial. O. J. Simpson, Casey
37:30
Anthony, Lizzie Borden, Donnie Hanson. Okay, obviously, Donnie Hanson is
37:37
nowhere nearest famous as these other examples I just listed, but I would definitely
37:40
say it's one of the most surprising acquittals I've ever come across at a murder
37:45
trial. Even though there seemed to be pretty damning evidence against Donnie which could
37:49
not be adequately explained, twelve jurors only had to deliberate for six hours before
37:54
they decided to find him not guilty. Now, I'm definitely a big believer
37:59
in reason doubt and feel that if a juror thinks that there's any doubt whatsoever
38:02
that the defendant committed the crime, they should vote to acquit. Apparently,
38:07
some of the jurors in this case still believe that Donnie was responsible or at
38:12
the very least involved in the murders, but they just did not feel that
38:15
the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt. We've covered quite a few
38:20
cases on this podcast where a defendant went on trial and was found not guilty,
38:24
and while we personally believed that some of these defendants were guilty all along,
38:29
we can also understand why the jury reached the verdict that they did.
38:32
But with Donnie Hansen, and I'm really not sure I get it. The
38:37
biggest point of reasonable doubt were the eyewitness sightings of the two unidentified men near
38:40
the trailer while it was on fire. I don't know if that's strong enough
38:45
to overcome the mounds of evidence which implicated Donnie. I mean. The Unsolved
38:49
Mystery segment presented a full reenactment of the alternate scenario, Donnie's defense team presented
38:54
in favor of his innocence, and when you watch this whole sequence of events
38:58
from beginning to end, it's hard to imagine how a jury could possibly believe
39:02
it. I do acknowledge that even if Donnie was guilty, there is a
39:07
good chance he had accomplices, and I guess I can see how this might
39:10
have created a dilemma for the jury. While the murder weapon could be linked
39:14
to Donnie, it could not be conclusively proven that Donnie himself used it.
39:19
It's possible that even if Donnie was complicit, it was his accomplices who fired
39:23
the shots into Jill and Julie. Technically, Donnie was not charged with a
39:28
conspiracy to commit murder. He was charged with committing the murders himself, so
39:32
the jury might have felt this uncertainty he created enough reasonable doubt for an acquittal
39:37
even if they did not personally believe that Donnie was innocent. It's so true.
39:43
I mean, it takes one scenario where they say is it likely no,
39:47
is it possible yes? And we just don't have enough. Especially think
39:52
about the fact that jurors they want a clear cut case. They're looking at
39:58
a murdered trial. They are also looking at where the DA has said we're
40:01
going for the death penalty. That's a lot of weight and responsibility on somebody.
40:06
And even when your gut says they're guilty, if your job and you're
40:12
tasked with this is your instructions to the juror. If you have any doubt
40:16
and you do not believe that he's been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be
40:21
guilty, you must acquit him. And so we do see these cases where
40:28
we're screaming Casey Anthony, everyone knew she was going to be found guilty.
40:32
You just knew it. And it was a not guilty verdict. And then
40:37
if you watch how the trial went down, the prosecution didn't overcome some of
40:43
the defense arguments, as ridiculous and as wild as they were. It left
40:47
a question mark. It created a question mark, and jurors said, we
40:52
had to follow the rules of what we were told to do. Any doubt,
40:55
any potential ulterior alternative explanation, we have to vote not guilty. And
41:00
that's what they did in this case too. It's really disturbing because there's no
41:06
way these two random men walked by, saw this car with a shotgun,
41:10
brand new shells, brand new filled gas containers, and said, you know
41:15
what we should do tonight. Not only should we murder whoever's in this house,
41:17
but we should also set it on fire and then keep walking after we
41:22
carefully put back all of the things that we used. It just didn't happen.
41:27
There's no motivation. And although it's so frustrating that the jury came up
41:30
with that verdict, it's commendable that each of the individual jurors were able to
41:36
put their emotions aside and be able to be unbiased, because I can't imagine
41:42
being in that position, like just say Casey Anthony's trial, because that is
41:45
triggering for a lot of people, because little Kaylee's life was taken from her
41:50
and I think the vast majority of people believe at the hands of her mother,
41:53
Casey. So to sit on that jury and to not be able to
42:00
to say that she's guilty and to not sentence her to life in prison or
42:04
it's Florida, right, so it could have been a death sentence, I
42:07
can't imagine what that would feel like. You've got to go home and you
42:10
know that this little girl isn't going to get justice, and that would be
42:15
a lot to live with. So the burden is really heavy on these jurors
42:20
and although us when we're examining these cases and we're looking at the end result
42:24
can be so frustrated. I can only imagine what it feels like for them.
42:30
So I think this would be a good time to bring it in to
42:31
part one. But join us next week as we present part two of our
42:35
series about the murders of Jill and Julie Hansen. Robin, do you want
42:39
to tell us a little bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon? Yes,
42:43
The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and we offer
42:46
these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes, and I also send out
42:52
stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up with us on Patreon.
42:57
If you join our five dollars tier tier two, we also offer monthly
43:00
bonus episodes in which I talk about cases which are not featured on the Trail
43:06
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43:23
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43:30
where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode.
43:34
And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over
43:37
was the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary
43:42
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43:49
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44:27
Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers comedy