Toni Bertolet Henthorn died after she was pushed off a cliff during an anniversary hike in Rock Mountain National Park. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. We agonize over the question: Did Toni know she was being murdered and what were her thoughts as she fell 140 feet? Her husband calls 911 but she dies and, at first, it seems like an accident. He was constantly talking, often bragging, and always had to be the center of attention. He's 38 years old, a married, religious person and he's shoplifting underwear in JCPenney." For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice James 3:16. Haley is not fine without her mother. The Defendant now denounces and rejects a judicial system that convicted him of his crime beyond a reasonable doubt.The public needs to be able to forget Harold Henthorn, because he does not belong in anyones future. The Defendant created his own reality and everyone in it. This development recalls the story of another notorious convicted Colorado killer: Harold Henthorn, who was convicted of killing his second wife, Dr. Toni Henthorn. He refused to allow Toni to help put Haley to bed at night, insisting that the hour or so before Haley fell asleep was his daddy-daughter time. That detail led to a much closer investigation of Tonis death. When Weaver finally left the Air Force and asked her where she wanted to live, she chose Denver. He had arrived with grand promises, including a claim that he was so rich that Toni would never have to work again. He had her body cremated, scattered the ashes on Colorados Red Mountain, and collected the $4.7 million life insurance payout from the plan she had recently signed up for. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Several of the jurors spoke with the Denver Post following the verdict, and one jurors comment summed their thinking up maybe better than any other. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. If you would like to donate, you can visit www.umc.edu/tonibertoletendowment. The couple met online in late 1999 and got married only nine months later, both in a rush to. Yvonne had spent more than a decade suppressing her motherly intuition about Harold so that her daughter would be spared the consequences. (Photo credits: Harold Henthorn case update via Dateline, Tyler Cipriani) Prosecutors argued during a two-week trial that Henthorn carefully staged Toni Henthorn's death to look like an accident because he stood to benefit from her $4.7 million in life-insurance policies, which she didn't know existed. According to the testimony later given at a trial, instead of learning for themselves how much money Harold was due to receive from his wifes life insurance, Douglas Countys detectives took his word for it that the payout was $300,000 still a large amount considering his wifes modest social workers salary of $14,000 a year. Haley Henthorn is the daughter of Harold Henthorn. For most of their lives, Toni and her mother Yvonne had been best friends. He's either guilty of two murders or he has a perplexing attraction to exceedingly unlucky women. Detective Weaver further discovered that the department was woefully undertrained: the man in charge of the investigation had been a detective for all of five months, had never been the lead on any homicide, and had never undergone any formal training before becoming a detective. However, his first wife, Lynn . It does not store any personal data. Do not expect it from cheap people. The defendant is morally cheap and is bankrupt of all honesty.In the Defendants sociopathic world, no person, place, or thing had any power over him, as his thoughts and his mind were the only authority. I know he killed her, he says. CBS4 Investigator Brian Maass has been with the station more than 30 years uncovering waste, fraud and corruption. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". So Yvonne continued with a final warning. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Harold planned every one of the little girls days and nights. var scJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? First he convinced her to move to Colorado. Harold Henthorn, 59, was convicted of one count of first-degree murder in the 2012 death of his second wife, Dr. Toni Henthorn. The file contained a note from a woman named Patricia Montoya, who called the day after the accident with a question. If Harold said they needed a new car, the car got bought. In the Defendants selfish quest to hoard a child as a possession, he interfered with and severed a sacred relationshipthat of a mothers love for her child and the childs need for the love her mother. This despite the fact that the Bertolets had been extra generous to Harold and Toni, gifting them some half-million dollars for a down payment on their house in Colorado, for cars and new appliances and for anything else the couple needed in the 10 years since theyd married. She had fallen 128 feet, and suffered numerous severe injuries. She had a passion to console and give advice to those who were in need of direction and comfort. Toni had fallen off a cliff? Barry Bertolet, Toni Henthorn's brother addresses the media following the guilty verdict (credit: CBS), Harold and Toni Henthorn (courtesy to CBS), Watch the CBS4 special "Inside The Investigation: Harold Henthorn. Gary Clexton, a court-appointed special administrator representing Toni Henthorn's estate, declined to discuss the new court case involving Rob Henthorn and the half million dollars. Harold Henthorn, accused of pushing his second wife to her death in Rocky Mountain National Park, is being eyed in the 1995 death of his first wife. Prosecutors and authorities learned that before Tonis death, she had been subjected twice to injuries allegedly caused by a wooden beam. Similar to his first wifes death, Harold Henthorn began showing inconsistencies in his statements, but the police were cautious this time. She was a volunteer with the West Douglas County Fire Department who arrived on scene shortly after Montoya left. : "http://www. She told Detective Weaver that she had been at accident scenes where family members of victims were crying, screaming, and in some cases so emotional they punched her. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. My child now asks the appropriate question of how do I know. Harold was usually cheery, often irrepressibly so. How does she know that a trusted person is not lying to her? Related The Bertolets could sense that Toni was unhappy but felt there was little they could do about it. It was Yvonnes job as a surgical nurse and the fact that she kept medical textbooks lying open around the house while Toni was growing up that first inspired Toni to get her start in medicine. The Defendant claimed to be a provider, when, in fact he offered and gave nothing. And that was the end of the story, except for one detail: according to investigator Robert McMahan, On the front passenger fender of the vehicle, right behind the wheel well of the missing wheel, was an apparent partial foot print type mark. Meaning it looked like someone had tried to kick the car off its jack. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". And, strangest of all from Montoyas perspective, Harold refused to hand over the coat he was wearing. var sc_invisible=0; Tonis alma mater, the University of Mississippi, has set up an endowment in her name that will raise money for ophthalmology education and surgical equipment. How does she know that the person she chooses loves her for who she is and not for her wealth and lifestyle? The Defendant chose his own selfishness and greed over the needs of his family. Psychology Today 2023 Sussex Publishers, LLC. This trial was about the last moment in Tonis life and the moment that Toni took her last breath, he saidand he was actually speaking for two Bertolets; his brother, Todd, wrote the statement. To another he said it wasnt him Lynn was actually rescued by a random group of helpful strangers. He insisted at both the verdict and the sentencing that he would appeal the decision. Then came more subtle attempts to choke off any contact Toni might have with those who loved her. The most recent Harold Henthorn case update comes courtesy of NBCs Dateline, which devoted an entire two-hour episode to the bizarre chain of events that led to Henthorns conviction on a murder charge. It would take a lot less time to find out that for Harold, their son-in-law, his tragic present looked very much like his past. Lynns death and Harolds behavior, Montoya told him, were still the creepiest thing Ive ever seen.. The letter was from the Department of the Interior, which oversees every one of the countrys 417 national parks. Finally, Detective Weaver took his foot and, in the same place where the original partial print was found, kicked the Jeep. Although the police found a partial footprint on the Jeeps tires and Harolds statements about the tragedy kept changing, Lynns death was soon determined an accident. IE 11 is not supported. In photographs released by the US Attorney's Office after the. He had to give his bosses credit; they were telling him he was likely going to find something that embarrassed them, but encouraged him nonetheless. Alex Murdaugh Found Guilty of Murdering Wife and Son. Had they checked, they would have found that Harold actually received twice that much. The Douglas County Coroner had ruled Lynns death as accidental. As an ophthalmologist, Tonis commitment was her recurring choice to make a positive difference in the lives of so many. We never imagined that murder would come into our lives like a thief in the night. Yet every time Toni managed to sneak a look at the couples finances, she found that their bank accounts werent nearly as flush as he made them out to be. She called the Sheriffs office the next day to ask where she could pick up the coat. From the time of Tonis death, the Defendant has made it abundantly clear that he just wanted to move on with his life. After all, they had been witness to Harolds efforts at trying to alienate his second wife from her close ones. They spoke to a co-worker of Lynns who said the whole scenario seemed suspicious. His attorney, Craig Truman, said prosecutors failed to prove he killed her. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. He organized playdates with other parents, told Haley when and what to eat, and made it clear to everyone paying attention that he, not Toni, was in charge. IE 11 is not supported. For both wives of Harold Henthorn, the locations where they died were deserted and Henthorn was the only other person present. To one cop, Harold said the tire they pulled over to change was completely flat. Case closed. The Defendants estate planning was grossly disproportionate as to his gained benefits from the death of his wife, yet showed little or no reciprocity had the circumstances been reversed and he met his untimely death.Grief is the human emotion that is exhibited by the loss of a loved oneit is the price of love. It took Harold 45 minutes to get to her, and he claimed he performed CPR as best he could after dialing 911. This is an adapted chapter from Caleb Hannans new Kindle Single The Accidents; read the full story here. Even early on, Weaver could see that the truth was leading somewhere he didnt want to be. The Defendants phony status and perception took priority over his family, and he chose family and friends based solely on his ability to deceive the same. Her husband, Harold Henthorn, was convicted of first-degree murder in her death. First published on September 23, 2015 / 11:02 PM. My name is Bob Bertolet, father of the victim, Toni Bertolet Henthorn. In 2000, Harold Henthorn married eye doctor Toni Bertolet after they met on a Christian dating website. Author Vissarion Belinsky appropriately noted, Nothing is more sacred and selfless like the love of a mother; every affection, everylove, every passion, is either weak or selfish in comparison with her. Bob and Yvonne watched as Harold slowly took control of Tonis life. Toni Henthorn fell to her death off a cliff while hiking with her husband, Harold. Harold even called 911, and when first responders reached the scene, they noticed that Toni had fallen from a height of 140 feet to her death. This begs the question, why was he deceiving himself? We ask: How could money be so important to a man, that he would kill the mother of his seven year old daughter? What kind of mind thinks like that to kill based on an opportunity? Reached this week, Rob Henthorn declined to discuss the half million dollars and referred questions to his attorney, Pam Mackey. To another he said west. We feel some of the information in the article is misrepresented or incorrect, Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock toldRolling Stone in a statement, but we still have an ongoing criminal investigation and are not at liberty to discuss the case any further.). (This was also brought up in court.) Harold and Toni Henthorn Toni and Harold met online in 1999 and married just nine months later. Then, while she was standing below a raised porch with her back turned, Toni felt the weight of something heavy hit her on the neck and knock her to the ground. The silence of the victim, Toni Bertolet Henthorn, in the court today represents her loudest cry for her daughter and the injustice at the hands of the Defendant.In closing, this trial was about the last moment in Tonis life and the moment that Toni took her last breath. They were out hiking when Toni lost her balance on a steep cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park on September 29th, 2012, bleeding out on the ground 130 feet below where she fell. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. var sc_project=9846729;