The Colorado Doctor Bride Murders: Unmasking the Black Widower | The Case of Hayley Bertolet | UNSEEN

"You know I've been so far from here." "And my goal is to buy that other object that you know, that's really, really destiny to buy a modern world." "Come on in." This is Harold Henthorne. He just hung up on 9-1-1, as his wife, Tony, is about to die. He claims it's because he has no battery, but the real reason Harold hangs up is far more disturbing. Five hours before this 9-1-1 call was recorded, Harold and his wife, Tony, had been living a picture-perfect life with her seven-year-old daughter, Haley. To everyone around, Harold was known as the best father, spending every morning and evening with Haley, cooking meals, installing cameras to make sure she was safe, and even spending more time with his daughter than his own wife. As for Haley, she loved her dad more than anything in the world, and trusted him with all her heart. In her mind, her father could do no harm. But on September 29, 2012, Haley's life took a disturbing turn for the worse, when her mom fell to her death, and she was left alone with her dad. She was told it was an accident, but what no one knows is that Harold had a first wife who also died under mysterious circumstances. And what's worse, he recently took out a $1 million life insurance policy on his own daughter, Haley. The circumstances surrounding Haley's mother's death would remain a mystery, if it wasn't for her uncle, Barry Burtale, who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, and who may be the only person who can save the seven-year-old girl. It's September 29, 2012, 5pm. For Haley's uncle, Barry Burtale, it's a normal Saturday afternoon in Tupelo, Mississippi. Barry is a successful cardiologist, devoted father, and is close with his large family, including his younger sister, Tony, despite her living hundreds of miles away in Colorado with her husband, Harold, and their seven-year-old daughter, Haley. So, when Barry receives an unexpected phone call from his brother-in-law, Harold, there's no reason to think anything is wrong. Until suddenly, he hears something he can't quite comprehend, something that will change everything. On the other end of the phone, Tony's husband, Harold, is frantic and not making much sense. He keeps repeating that he can't talk right now, and that Barry needs to check his phone. And then, before Barry can ask any questions, his brother-in-law suddenly hangs up. His sister is on a weekend trip to Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate her and Harold's 12th wedding anniversary, while Haley is at home with a babysitter. For an outdoorsy couple who loves the mountains, it's the perfect place to get away, just a two of them. Everything seemed like it was going according to plan, until now. Barry immediately grabs his phone to check for Harold's messages, still trying to understand why Harold sounded so frantic. "This says Barry, urgent. Tony is injured, fall from rock. She has been in a critical accident." The message is short, and Harold gives him minimal details. But to Barry, that only makes things more alarming. His sister is in trouble, and Harold needs his help. And knowing that they are in a remote area, likely far from emergency services, means that Barry needs to use his medical experience to try to support and guide him. He may be her only hope. "Right after that, he sent me some vital signs. He said, "Pulse of 60 in respirations of five." With a pulse rate of 60, it sounds like her heart's okay. I'm optimistic at this point. She's a strong lady. Then, Barry receives several more text messages from Harold. One after another, with every message, he begins to understand that this is not a minor fall. His sister's situation is rapidly declining, and she needs CPR. "The fact that Harold needs to do CPR tells me that Tony has now lost her ability to breathe, and that her heart is no longer getting a signal to be. Either one of those is critical, and they both together are horrible." "Being the big brother and supposed to take care of your sister, you can't do it. It's a bad feeling. I need to be there for my sister, and I couldn't." As Barry waits for more information from Harold, he begins alerting the rest of Tony's family, her mother, her father, and others are told that something's happened, though no one has any clear answers yet. Suddenly, a seemingly ordinary Saturday has become a terrifying nightmare for the Burtale family. As Barry waits anxiously for an update from Harold, minutes turn into hours. Then, he gets a text that no family member wants to hear. Harold, a text of me, didn't say that she's gone. That's when I knew that Tony had passed away. It's hard to believe that that would happen to somebody that you know that you love. That's my sister. And Barry said, she's gone. It's the worst. Two words I've ever heard in my life. I was not there to protect her. That's something that eats and to the heart of a dad. Barry has lost his little sister. Her parents have lost a daughter, and his seven-year-old niece, Haley, has just lost her mother. Her family is in shock. Only hours earlier, it was a normal weekend. Now, they're being told she died in a tragic fall. And from the outside, that is exactly what it appears to be, a terrible accident, the kind of unimaginable tragedy that no family can ever prepare for. Everyone is mourning their loss, unsure how to move forward. Everyone except one person who seems to be pushing through in spite of the tragedy, Tony's husband. Within 24 hours of Tony's death, a full memorial page is already up on the funeral home's website. It is filled with pictures, a complete biography, and a detailed history of Tony's life all created and published by Harold. He single-handedly arranges Tony's funeral down to the very last detail. The cremation is planned, the date is set, and all that is left is to notify her loved ones. 48 hours after his wife has passed. He then shows us his plans for her funeral. He's got a video made, he's got the songs picked out, he's already contacted the people that are going to sing the songs. He's got it completely planned out. I was thinking that it was my wife that had died. And I would be this bucket of mush over here, much less being able to have planned on this. Five days after Tony's death, hundreds of people gather for her memorial service. Purpose today is to honor and to remember Tony and her. And we were all grieving, and it was just an emotional event. And we look over and Harold is, he's got his two or three friends, and they are shaking hands, joking around, talking about playing golf. Very detached from the situation. It was more like he was hosting the party. We expected to find a grieving husband. We found something quite the opposite. To Barry and his family, Harold's behavior feels unusual. He's friendly, talkative, and personable, but what Barry can't help but notice is the stark contrast between his brother-in-law and his seven year old niece, Haley. Haley appears the complete opposite. She's barely speaking, and she hasn't even shed a tear, almost as if she's afraid to show any emotion. We are thinking that there could be something darker that has gone on. We had no concrete evidence. It was that gut sensation that this isn't right. As a family, we all thought we need to start taking notes. In the following days, Barry keeps replaying the events of his sister's death in his mind, especially the panic texts he received from Harold on that evening. Though it was described as a tragic accident, a freak fall during a romantic anniversary trip. He can't shake the nagging feeling that something's not right. Barry quietly brings his doubts to other family members, trying to piece together what really happened during Tony and Harold's weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park. And the more they talk, the more the family realizes that Barry is not the only one who feels something is wrong. Barry starts pushing the cops for answers, demanding that police take a closer look at what happened on that mountain that night. But the family suspicions in mind, Harold's 911 call from the night Tony died, is re-examined. On Saturday, September 29, Tony and Harold were meant to be celebrating their 12th wedding anniversary. It was supposed to be a romantic weekend getaway, carefully planned by Harold, just the two of them in the mountains. But the trip took a devastating turn when, according to Harold, Tony slipped near the edge of a cliff on a hike and fell almost 140 feet. Harold seems panicked and in distress, but he appears to be doing everything he can to save Tony's life, asking for help, even demanding that a helicopter be sent to rescue her. "I don't think any of you will exist for a helicopter. I don't think it's private. I don't care if it's personal or public. Any of you will exist right now." "They can't drop somebody out of the helicopter. I don't think it's a group." "No, I'm sorry. That has not been done in my experience." "She needs to get out here. She needs to get the helicopter." Harold waited in the dark until a park ranger finally reached them, around 8pm. Tony was taken off the mountain and rushed to the hospital, but by then, it was already too late. After reviewing the 911 call, it seems this was just a tragic accident, and Harold did everything he could, and that his strange behavior in the days after Tony's death was just Harold's way of dealing with his grief. The burglars choose to support Harold and Haley as best they can, trying to move forward as a family. Harold is now the single father to a little girl, who is also grieving the loss of her mother. Tony's family does everything they can to stay close to Haley, and they visit as often as possible, remaining a steady presence in her life. But as the months go by, a troubling pattern emerges. Harold stops returning phone calls as often, and visits become harder to arrange. They get to see Haley less and less. On the surface, he does seem loving, protective, and devoted, the kind of father who is always there for his daughter. But what they don't know is that behind closed doors, the reality is far more disturbing. Harold keeps an extremely close eye on Haley. His daughter needs to ask permission for everything. He sets extremely strict limits on her behavior, constantly watching her. She can't do anything unsupervised. He even controls when she can drink water. Worse yet, to ensure she follows the rules at all times, he has set up a baby monitor in her room, even though she's already seven years old. To his relationship with Haley, there was almost to a point of obsession. We were on baited breath. What's he going to do with her? From Harold's perspective, his ex-wife's family has been on his side. But what he doesn't know is that the family has been working with the police this whole time, slowly gathering as a much incriminating information about him as they can in an attempt to save Haley and explain what really happened to Tony. They agree that to the outside world, Harold may look like a protective father, but to those looking closely, the seemingly loving father-daughter relationship hides something much darker. Harold's odd behavior, the inconsistencies, the growing distance between them and Haley, all of it keeps pointing back to the same, terrifying thought. Tony's daughter could be living with the man who killed her mother. But what no one realizes is that Harold has been hiding another horrifying secret all these years, a secret that makes Tony's death look less like an accident and more like a carefully plotted murder. 20 years earlier, long before Harold met Tony, he had been married to a woman named Lynn Rochelle, until on May 7, 1995, she tragically passed away. The couple was driving in a remote part of Colorado, south of Denver, when Harold claims Lynn was killed in a car accident, and the local authorities quickly ruled that her death was not suspicious. In five short days, the Sheriff's Office had determined that the death of Lynn Hemthorn was an accident. There are so many similarities in these two deaths. Both occurred in very remote locations in Colorado. In both cases, Harold Hemthorn is the only witness. This is either the unluckiest guy in the world whose two wives have died under freakish unusual circumstances, or it could be murder. Harold is never seriously investigated for Lynn's death. To the authorities, it was an accident, tragic, but not criminal. The problem is, although Harold claimed Lynn died in a head-on collision, eyewitness reports at the time indicate that the alleged accident had been staged. And Harold's story was completely fabricated. But unfortunately, there isn't enough evidence to prove it. Four years later, in 1999, Harold joins a Christian dating site where he matches with a woman named Tony Bertolay. When Harold first meets Tony, he presents himself as a wealthy entrepreneur running his own business. But behind that carefully constructed image, the truth is something very different. When investigators look into Harold's background, they make a stunning discovery. He has no employment history. The IRS has no history of him earning income in well over 20 years. There's no deposits from any businesses, no evidence of having a successful company at all. The life he has shown the world is a facade, and the money he did have came from a $650,000 life insurance payout he received after Lynn's death. And now nearly 17 years later, it's happened again. After Tony's death, Harold stands to receive another life insurance payout of more than $4.5 million. And if that wasn't alarming enough, Harold has also taken out a life insurance policy on Haley, his own daughter. If something were to happen to her, he could receive another $1 million. The family's worst nightmare is coming true. Not only did Harold seemingly have a hand in Tony's death, but seven-year-old Haley could be his next victim. We all felt like we were dealing with taking time off. Really, he's a danger. This man has killed supposedly two wives, and the last thing he wanted was him going home to his child. Everybody's primary concern was Haley. They need to get Haley away from Harold as fast as possible, but even with everything they have uncovered, there's still one major problem, no DNA, no eyewitnesses, no single piece of evidence that can prove that Harold killed Lynn, or Tony, or even that he has plans to hurt Haley. The entire case is still built on convenient coincidences, strange details, and suspicious patterns. Investigators have a possible motive, but they need something that ties everything together. Time is of the essence. Haley is still being kept completely isolated from her mother's family, who are all desperate to protect her. He controls everything, her schedule, her home, and the people she is allowed to see. If they want to get Haley away from him and finally hold him responsible, they need more. That is when they noticed several inconsistencies from the night Tony died. During the 911 call, Harold claimed his battery was too low and hung up, but then proceeded to make 22 additional phone calls and sent and received 98 text messages. And when cop speak with Barry, he explains that in Harold's initial frantic texts, he had sent Tony's vital signs, but as a seasoned cardiologist, he now wonders if Harold was lying. The way that my sister had died was inconsistent with the way that Harold had described it. If my sister did bleed to death, the vital signs that Harold had sent me did not match. She should have originally had a rapid heart rate issue of bleeding out and then go down as she got closer to the time of death. None of this made sense to me at all. Then investigators uncover another detail. Near her body, they find a digital camera. According to Harold, Tony fell while holding it. However, much to their surprise, the SD card inside is still intact and on the card are photos from Tony and Harold's hike. Take in throughout the day, the pictures look exactly what Harold had described. A happy couple, smiling together, enjoying a beautiful anniversary trip in the mountains. Because they took so many photos, investigators can follow their movements and see that during the hike, the couple left the main trail and moved into a remote part of the park where hikers rarely go. Then they find one photo in particular that catches their eye. In it, Harold is standing near the edge of a cliff, holding onto a tree. As they study the location more closely, they realize something chilling. The spot directly behind Harold is the same place where, moments later, Tony would fall or be pushed to her death. The cliff actually is raised, that is to say, that you can't walk over it. You have to step over several feet to fall down the cliff. Our conclusion in looking at it was that Tony had to have been pushed because she couldn't have fallen. The final nail in the coffin though is something entirely unexpected. Inside Harold's car, investigators discover a map of the park and the couple's hiking route. On that map, Harold has marked an X on the exact spot where his wife fell. It is suddenly clear to investigators, Harold Henthorne is not a grieving husband, he is a cold, blooded killer, and Haley is in grave danger. The FBI are called in and begin tracking Harold's movements, trying to understand his routine, to have enough evidence to arrest him, but Haley's safety is the number one priority. We had our surveillance team watching him for a couple days because we did not want to arrest Harold with his young daughter there and create some sort of positive situation. And then, on the morning of November 6th, 2014, Harold drops Haley off at school just like any other day, then starts driving back home. But he never makes it there, with Haley's safely out of his reach, law enforcement moves in. and put in handcuffs on her own kept saying, "I'm here to end thorn." FBI agent said, "We realize that. That's why we're putting handcuffs on." A little over two years after Tony Hendorn died, federal authorities finally arrest Harold and charge him with the first degree murder of his wife. At just nine years old, Haley is about to find out her father has killed her mother. Her world will never be the same again. The day that he got arrested, I got called down to the Prince's office. At that point, my principal told me that my father had been arrested. I just remember feeling just so cold and detached because I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know what was happening to me. And at this point, I thought there must have been some mistake because he would never do that. At this moment, Haley has not only lost her mother, but she has also lost her dad. As she comes to terms with her new reality and her father's case moves through the courts, she is temporarily placed in the care of family friends. Then, in September 2015, three years after Tony's murder, Harold's trial begins. Well, this is a case that's gained national attention. A husband accused of pushing his wife to her death to collect on her insurance policies. The family of Harold's first wife, Lynn, joins the Burtley family at the trial. Although they do not have enough evidence to charge Harold for Lynn's death, her family knows that their testimony will strengthen the prosecution's case against Harold and despite the insurmountable odds, the jury believes them. The reshells and the Burtley's have won their fight against Harold Henthorne and he is convicted of first-degree murder. On September 21, 2015, he is sentenced to life in prison without parole. All of this is to get justice for Tony. Justice for Haley and it's a really, really satisfying moment. An emotional exchange between Tony Henthorne's mom and a juror. She just said, "As one mom to another, I feel your pain." Now with the trial behind them and Harold behind bars, there's just one more thing to do. On December 23, just two days before Christmas, Barry Burtley and his wife Paula to get the best gift they could ever ask for. Haley's adoption has been officially approved by the court, bringing an end to years of uncertainty and giving her a permanent home with a family who fought so hard to protect her. - On Christmas Eve. - Oh, we got Haley. Does like the best Christmas present ever. I think as me as the big brother, I couldn't be there to guard my sister. But I'm there to guard her daughter now. - At that point, I feel like they were my family that I belonged with them. - Tony's memory will live on through her family, friends, and through the Tony J. Burtley endowment, established by the Burtley family, which helps other aspiring medical students carry on where she left off. In life and in death, her legacy has made the world a better place. Haley honors her mother by making a conscious effort to embrace life to the fullest and by working to move beyond the trauma of her past. - I think that mean her in pictures that I see of me now. You know, I feel like I look so much like her. And I think that choosing every day to forgive Harold for what he did, not for his sake, but for mine. I know that I'm freed from him, from his control. That I am my own person. - Being who I am is not something that came from, from easiness. You know, I had to go through something terrible to become as powerful as I am today. I want to use my story really good, because my story is similar to what happens to a lot of people. And I want them to know that, regardless of what they've been through, there's always a way out of the darkness. [BLANK_AUDIO]