Naman Shrestha
In 2012, Dr. Toni Henthorn met her unfortunate and seemingly accidental demise during a trip with her husband, Harold Henthorn, who seemed devastated after her passing. Later, it would be found that behind his grief, he had been carrying the guilt of killing his wife. In the episode titled ‘Mountain of Lies’ of ABC’s ’20/20,’ the entire case of the brutal killing is explored in a detailed manner. Thanks to the exclusive and insightful interviews with Toni’s loved ones, including the couple’s daughter, Haley, we also get investigative details on how Harold Henthorn was finally brought to justice for his crimes.
Harold Henthorn Managed to Evade Capture For More Than Two Years
When Harold Henthorn married Dr. Toni Jill Bertolet on September 30, 2000, little did she know that several years later, her husband would end up killing her. During the marriage, the couple also parented a daughter named Haley. From the outside, they seemed to lead a happily married life but the truth about their marriage came out at the expense of Toni. In order to celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary, Harold took his 50-year-old wife to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Just a day before the anniversary, on September 29, 2012, he reportedly pushed her over the edge of a remote cliff in the national park.
It took the authorities more than a couple of years to connect Harold to the crime, which was considered an accident at first. During the investigation, they delved deeper into the killer’s life and learned that he had been leading a double life for over two decades. His claims of being a successful businessman and entrepreneur turned out to be false, as he reportedly had been unemployed since 1992. His source of income was the insurance money he received after the demise of his first wife, Sandra Lynn Henthorn (née Rishell). Coincidentally, Sandra had also been killed in an accident in May 1995.
According to Harold, he and Sandra were on Highway 67 in Douglas County when he stopped the Jeep to change a front tire. He said that while his wife crawled under the car to retrieve a lug nut, the vehicle fell from the jack’s grip and landed on her, leading to her demise. Given the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death, the detectives believed that he was also responsible for killing Sandra, with the motive being the life insurance money. They also found that he had three different life insurance policies worth over $4.5 million in Toni’s name, and one of them had him as the sole beneficiary. Finally, with enough evidence against him, on November 6, 2014, the police charged him with the first-degree murder of Toni and took him into custody.
Harold Henthorn is Currently Behind Bars, Serving His Life Sentence
In September 2015, Harold Henthorn’s trial for his involvement in the murder of his wife, Toni Henthorn, commenced. During the two weeks of the trial, the prosecutors presented several pieces of evidence against the defendant and emphasized the life insurance policies as the possible motivation for the crime. They also reportedly brought up the death of his first wife, Sandra, who also died under mysterious circumstances. In his defense, Harold claimed that Toni wanted to capture a photo, and that’s how she fell face-first over the cliff. His defense attorney also argued that the prosecution had not proven that he murdered her.
After ten and a half hours of deliberation, in September 2015, the jury returned with a guilty verdict and convicted the 59-year-old killer of first-degree murder. Before his sentencing, the convict maintained his innocence and claimed that he loved his wife with all his heart. During the sentencing, several members of Toni’s family also took the stand and spoke up. In December 2015, he was finally brought to justice as he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Not long after his conviction, Harold and his defense appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit that the incident involving the death of his first wife should not have been allowed as evidence during the trial. However, the 10th Circuit found the evidence appropriate and denied his appeal for a new murder trial.
In 2019, Harold filed another motion claiming that his lead defense allegedly provided him with ineffective assistance. However, the district court deemed that his allegations were insufficient to prove the defense attorney’s ineffectiveness. In May 2022, the killer tried to appeal for a new trial again, claiming that he received poor legal representation. About a couple of months later, in July, the judge rejected his claims and refused to overturn his conviction and grant a new trial for the same. In September 2023, he reportedly raised the same complaint yet again and met with the same result as the court denied his appeals again. As of 2022, Harold Henthorn was imprisoned at USP Terre Haute, a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Read More: Joel Pellot: Where is the Wife Killer Now?
You must be logged in to post a comment.