Shraman MitraInvestigation Discovery’s ‘Till Death Do Us Part: Don’t Shoot’ takes a look into the strange murder of Martin Duram, where the key witness was a parrot who had witnessed the brutal killing. In 2015, police were investigating a call at a house in Ensley Township when they found it in extreme disarray. They found Martin in the bedroom, killed by five gunshot wounds. Nearby lay his wife who they thought to be dead as well but soon discovered was alive. Strangely the case went cold for more than a year before a curious re-enactment by a parrot brought the police back on the right track. Intrigued to know more about this case and how the police were able to nab the murderer? Here is what we know.
How Did Martin Duram Die?
Martin Duram lived with his wife, Glenna Duram in their Ensley Township home. The Durams were married for 11 years and had 5 children, all from previous marriages. Martin was in a car wreck in 1995, which shattered the left side of his body and jarred his brain, leaving him without clear memories of his past life with his first wife and kids. Thus, Glenna was the only earning member in the family with Martin just getting his disability benefits. Glenna had a gambling addiction and she gambled away huge sums of money through casinos and lottery tickets. This addiction forced the Durams into financial trouble and led to their home getting foreclosed. Martin on the other hand was a penny-pincher and this repeatedly led to quarrels in the Duram household.
On May 13, 2015, Authorities were alerted to a call at the Ensley Township home, which was first reported as a suicide. The call was made by a neighbor, Connie Ream, who was the first to find the Durams after the incident. Upon investigation, they found the home to be in extreme disarray with several broken items strewn across the living room. Martin was found with 5 gunshot wounds, lying dead in the bedroom. Authorities found his injured wife nearby with a gunshot wound near her head. Police initially thought Glenna was dead but when she recovered and came to her senses in a little while, she was hospitalized.
While combing the murder scene, police came across numerous bullets on the bed and in the living room. A Ruger Single-Six pistol was also discovered under a living room chair, which was later tested and found out to be the murder weapon.
Who Killed Martin Duram?
Glenna, Martin’s wife, has been tried and convicted of the first-degree murder of her husband. When the police found Martin and Glenna on their bedroom floor, they thought the couple had been assaulted by a third party and that Glenna herself was a victim, but the discovery of a pile of suicide letters made them question their views. A day after the murder, when the adult Duram children were cleaning the house, they came across a manila envelope overlooked by the police. Inside were a bunch of suicide letters written by Glenna Duram and addressed to her children. The letters left police questioning Glenna’s intent but when asked about the letters Glenna said she didn’t remember writing them.
On further investigation, detectives discovered that Glenna’s phone was used on the day of the murder to look up information about the Ruger Single-Six. Statements from neighbors and friends of the couple also attested to the Durams bickering and quarreling a lot and that Glenna Duram often joked about waiting for her husband to die. Furthermore, the couple was described as people who kept their lives private and their door always dead-bolted, yet on the day of the homicide, police reports said that there was no sign of a possible break-in.
Based on the evidence, police began suspecting Glenna’s involvement in her husband’s murder but still couldn’t manage to get a warrant for her arrest. The most incriminating evidence then came from an African Grey parrot named Bud, who lived with the Durams in their house. Bud, who had lived with Christina Keller, Martin’s ex-wife, since the murder, is believed to have witnessed the entire exchange before Glenna fatally shot her husband and turned the gun on herself. Keller shared a video with a local tv news network that showed Bud imitating two people in an argument with his voice changing back and forth. She claimed that the voices were Martin and Glenna’s. She also said only two weeks after she took Bud into her home, the parrot started squawking: “Don’t f****** shoot!” which is believed to be Martin’s last words before Glenna shot her.
Where is Glenna Duram now?
Once there was enough evidence, police arrested Glenna Duram and charged her with her husband’s murder. The police maintain that Glenna tried to commit a murder/suicide but failed at taking her own life after killing Martin. Bud, the parrot was not called to the witness stand, of course, even though he was a key witness in the case. The case against Glenna was established with the help of numerous family and friends’ testimony. After a day of deliberation, a Newaygo County jury found Glenna Duram guilty on the charges of first-degree murder and awarded her with life in prison with no possibility of parole. Currently, Glenna Duram is serving out her life sentence in Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Pittsfield Charter Township, Michigan.
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