Detective Weaver (3:21)
This is Park Predators. On May 6, 1995, a few weeks after their 12th wedding anniversary, Harold and Sandra Henthorn were driving on Highway 67 west of Sedalia, Colorado. They were just a few short miles from their home when they got a flat tire. Now, this was really a big inconvenience because it was particularly a very chilly night, and the spot where the couple had to pull over was dimly lit. As Harold and Sandra make their way onto the shoulder in their Jeep Cherokee suv, they want to figure out what's caused the tires damage. And when they take a look, the tire isn't in dire condition, but it definitely had to be replaced. They're ready to get out of the cold and get this dealt with and get back to their warm house. So the two of them begin unpacking tools, tire jacks, and the spare tire to replace the busted. They lift the vehicle onto two jacks and begin unbolting and replacing the tire. Sandra, who often goes by the name Sandra Lynn or just Lynn, makes her way beneath the wheel well of the flat tire to grab something. And that's when the unspeakable happens. The car falls and crushes Sandra underneath of it. Somehow, in a tragic turn of events, the car had fallen off of the two jacks while she was underneath of it. And as soon as the car fell, a family driving on the same stretch of road pulls over to see what's going on. At first, they saw Harrell in their headlights, and he was waving his arms erratically, trying to direct them onto the shoulder. This family quickly realizes that the Jeep was on top of a woman's body. So they got out and jumped into action to help her. By the time they got her out from underneath of the wheel well, it was too late. Sandra was dead. Harold told police when they arrived on scene a few minutes later that Sandra was chasing after a lug nut when she had dropped it and it rolled under the vehicle, and that's when the car fell and crushed her. The Douglas county sheriff's office is brought in to investigate Sandra's death. But their investigation didn't last long. To them, it was clear what had happened to her. A week after the county coroner ruled Sandra's death as accidental, the sheriff's office labeled it the same, and it was case closed. In the weeks that followed, Harold received between $500,000 and $600,000 in life insurance money, which the insurance company didn't delay in paying out because the nature of the death was ruled as accidental. Also during that time, Sandra's belongings that were inside of the car were turned back over to Harold and the Jeep was sent to a salvage yard. No physical evidence of how the accident happened remained. And that was the end of it for a really long time. Now Fast forward to September 29, 2012, and Harold. He was still living in the outskirts of Denver, but now he was happily married to his second wife, Toni, with whom he shared a daughter. The couple had been together for 12 years, and Harold was planning a surprise hike with Tony in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was meant to celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary. When Harold and Tony set out for their hike that afternoon, they went up a popular trail on Deer Mountain. And this trail is rocky. It's rugged and full of scenic overlooks. Toni and Harold are taking all of these beautiful sights in, and they get near the ledge of a cliff. Toni picks up her camera and starts taking photos because she wants to share the view with her daughter. That's when all of the sudden, she tumbles over the ledge. Plunging face first, 130ft to the rocky terrain below. Toni's body slams with a horrific thud, and she began bleeding out immediately. According to her autopsy results, that tremendous fall is what caused her death. But the coroner noted that even though it looked accidental, homicide was not out of the question. According to police reports, Harold told authorities that it took him 15 minutes to scramble down the cliff and get to his wife's body on the mountainside. He said that she was still breathing when he got to her. But by the time emergency responders arrived an hour and a half later, Toni was dead. And Harold was the only witness to her fall. Investigators questioned Harold right then and there, very suspicious of him. They asked to search the couple's suv, which was parked at the trailhead. And when they went inside, they found a park map tucked into the glove box. On the map was an X marked at the same exact spot where Tony had fallen. Harold couldn't explain that piece of evidence to the park rangers who were questioning him. Because Tony fell within the boundary of the national park, the national park service, the FBI, took over the case from the Douglas county sheriff's office. Right after her death. Toni's family was made aware by these agencies that they were questioning Harold. Relatives did some digging on their own, and they uncovered that Toni had three life insurance policies taken out on her. Harold was listed as the main beneficiary to the combined policies that totaled 4.5 to $4.7 million, according to court records. A claim for one of those policies was sent in for collection just two days after Tony's death. And the couple's bank accounts were hundreds of thousands of dollars that Harold was set to inherit. The family provided all of this information to investigators, and then they waited. In addition to their financial history and records, authorities took a close look at the couple's marriage. Who were Harold and Tony Henthorn? They learned that Tony was an eye surgeon, and Harold worked raising funds for large charity organizations like churches and hospitals. Together, the couple was making a very good living, with Tony's eye practice thriving in the suburbs of Denver. Before marrying Harold, Tony had owned her own practice in Jackson, Mississippi, where she was from. She grew up there in a very affluent, wealthy family and was considered a debutante by most standards. She'd met harold online in 1999 through a Christian singles dating website, and Toni was very dedicated to her Christian faith. She'd already been through one divorce in her life, which left her very hurt and lonely, and she was determined to make her next committed relationship work. And Harold was that next committed relationship. It took less than a year of dating before the two got married in 2000, and right away, they wanted to start a family. After just a few short years together, Tony gave birth to their daughter Haley. Toni's family says almost as soon as Tony and Harold met, they noticed that he strongly encouraged her to be more independent and move away from her friends and family in Mississippi. He wanted them to buy a home in Denver. Over time, Tony's brother Todd and her dad, Bob, both felt that Harold was becoming too controlling of Tony and their daughter. And as they got to know him, More, they saw little signs of deceit and inappropriate behavior. That really caused them to worry. They felt that he was dishonest when it came to the couple's financial situation and the businesses he supposedly owned and would make money from. For years, Harold had claimed that he was a very in demand fundraiser for churches and hospitals. And he even promised Tony that once they got married and moved to Denver, she would never have to work again. But over the years and Harold's behavior growing more and more controlling of Tony, the family noticed that even things like the phone calls between Tony and them were entirely monitored by Harold. A lot of times, Tony wouldn't even talk at all. In the conversations, it was like Harold would be the one to talk about their life and jobs, and Tony was just in the background. As their relationship grew slowly but surely, Harold also began controlling the schedule of the couple's daughter. He was said to have planned out her days meticulously. And even after she wasn't a baby anymore, he still kept a baby monitor camera inside her room. Tony's family also became concerned that Harold might be having an affair on Tony because she often spoke about how he would go on long business trips and he wouldn't reveal where he was going or how long he'd be away. According to Caleb Hannon's book, the Accidents, Toni's mother, Yvonne, got a chance to speak with Toni alone before her death. And this was a very rare occasion that she visited Mississippi without Harold. Yvonne remembered that on that trip, Toni had mentioned a few months prior, her and Harold and their daughter had been visiting Yvonne and Bob's mountain cabin near Denver. She said while they were there, the couple had started working outside at night to clear the debris around the cabin. It had been Harold's idea to have both he and Tony work together and leave Haley ins. Toni told her mother that while working and standing below a raised porch with her back turned, she suddenly felt a large weight hit her in the neck and upper back. After that impact, she just collapsed. Toni said that on the way to the emergency room in the back of the ambulance, she could barely move. She was in extreme pain and had numbness in her arms and legs. After the accident, Harold told Toni that a piece of lumber had rolled off of the porch and hit her as she was standing below. Toni told her mother that if she hadn't moved just a split second before she was struck, she could have been killed. This entire story disturbed Yvonne so much so that she told Toni outright that she didn't think it was an accident and that perhaps she should stay away from Harold for a little while. Toni didn't say anything, but just told her mom not to worry. With all of this information in mind, authorities suspected Harold was probably involved in Tony's fall from the start, but they needed to find the evidence to prove it. And as they dug into his past, they realized Harold Henthorn had been hiding a very dark secret.
