Each and every other day individuals pass on and many are long-buried with some even cremated without anyone knowing the actual cause of death. When most of these deaths are looked into, what you’ll discover will shock you. The passing of Lynn Henthorn which was a result of a car jack falling, prompting the vehicle to rest on her and Toni Henthorn who went hiking on a rocky mountain and missed her step, leading to her falling 130 feet below all seemed like an accident and an unintentional act but upon investigation, it was discovered that they were both murdered by their cherished husband Harold Henthorn.
Harold is from Colorado and was born on January 10th, 1962, in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. Harold is a businessman by profession. The instances of the murder of his spouses were what drew the attention of the world to him.
Where is Harold Henthorn these days?
Harold Henthorn is as of now serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana after the U.S Circuit court of appeal judgment on December 8th, 2015, for the demise of his wives Lynn Sandra Henthorn and Dr. Toni Bertolet Henthorn.
Lately, it’s been made known that Harold Henthorn is requesting for the case to be reopened. The accused is arguing for a new trial with claims that his lawyer who he hired with a huge amount of money sold him out. He petitioned for this new motion with a plea that his life sentence is dropped and he is given a new trial date due to “ineffective assistance of counsel”.
We are yet to get any information if his request is being looked into by the justice department and the possibility of it being granted.
Truths about the mysterious deaths of two Mrs. Henthorns
Harold Henthorn has been married to two women so far. His first wife was named Lynn Sandra and after her death, he got married to Toni Bertolet. Let’s get to know more about these women and the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
Lynn Sandra Henthorn
Harold and Lynn attended the same college situated in Virginia which was where the couple met each other. Lynn is said to come from Englewood and worked as a social worker. Data on when the couple got hitched is not known as that detail has been kept private.
On the faithful day of May 7th, 1995, Lynn and Harold were on the road in their vehicle when they had a flat tire. Harold got down from the vehicle to see how he could get it changed and Lynn also came down to assist her husband in changing the flat tire. The victim was said to have been trying to pick a lug nut that fell from her hands underneath the vehicle while her husband threw the flat tire into the car trunk, causing the car which was held up by a jack to fall on his wife and pinned her to the ground.
She was effectively pulled free from under the car by passing motorists and was then airlifted to Swedish Medical Centre in Englewood which was where she died while the doctors were carrying out a medical procedure on her. It was clear that there was zero chance of her surviving thousands of pounds of metal weight on her.
Harold was the only witness to the mishap and there was not enough evidence to prove he was responsible for her death. The Douglas County Sheriff’s office closed the case after six days of no concrete evidence, saying Lynn Sandra Henthorn’s death was an accident. The accused had bought his wife insurance coverage worth AUD$688,000.
Toni Henthorn
Approximately five years after the demise of Lynn, Harold was in a good place again and ready to date once more. Through a Christian dating site in 1999, Harold found love again with Toni Bertolet who was a doctor (ophthalmologist) by profession. The couple got married in 2000 in Mississippi.
On their 12th wedding anniversary, Harold had arranged an unexpected end-of-the-week escape for him and his wife. On the fateful day that the couple went hiking tragedy struck again. Toni was said to have fallen off a steep cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park and bled to death. The autopsy carried out on the body had shown that she incurred numerous injuries from the fall such as brain hemorrhage, trauma to the chest, abdomen, and pelvis, fractured neck, including rib fractures but there was no sign associated with CPR.
How Harold Henthorn was caught
As opposed to what Henthorn had claimed that he tried to resuscitate his second wife through CPR, Toni’s lipstick was not even smeared from the supposed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This display of dishonesty by Harold was so obvious that even his own attorney who was supposed to defend him ended up tendering a self apology to the jury in closing arguments that his client was unable to tell the same story twice.
It was after the death of Toni and a look at her autopsy report that made the authorities revisit the case of Lynn Henthorn and that was when they discovered her death was more suspicious than they assumed.
Two years after the death of Toni Henthorn, Harold was arrested and charged to court by federal authorities for both the deaths of Lynn and Toni to which he pleaded not guilty. The case was deliberated for over 10 hours after which the Jury found Harold Henthorn guilty of murder.
Similarities both Henthorn women share
The striking similarity between both deaths was that Lynn has life insurance which Harold bought for her; at the time of her death it was worth AUD$688,000 and likewise, Toni had three life insurance policies summing up to $6.2 million.
Another similarity is the fact that Harold had the bodies of both wives cremated after which he spread their remains at the same spot they died. However, their deaths are 17 years apart.
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Fast facts
Did Harold Henthorn get convicted?
The 10th U.S Circuit Court of Appeal had declared the conviction of Harold. It affirmed that the accused had been convicted of one count of first–degree murder and condemned to life imprisonment in federal prison for killing his two wives. Henthorn who was found guilty of killing his wife had claimed in his appeal that the judge erred in allowing evidence in the case of the death of his first wife “Sandra Lynn Henthorn”.
Who has custody of Haley Henthorn?
Harold has a daughter named Haley Bertolet from his marriage with Toni Bertolet after several years of their trying to conceive. Haley was born in 2005 and was 10 years old when she lost her mother. Her uncle Barry Bertolet and his wife Paula took Haley in as her guardian following the death of her mother and imprisonment of her father. The couple had since then been responsible for her and are so glad to be an important part of her life.
Is there a movie about Harold Henthorn?
There was a documentary titled ‘The Accidental Husband’ which was televised on April 4th, 2015. It’s a 45 minutes documentary that focuses on the case of Harold Henthorn and how his wives died 17 years apart in strange accidents. A series titled ‘Wild Crime’ was released on ABC News to this effect also.