Murder on Middle Beach (2020) s01e04 Episode Script
Reasonable Doubts
1
When was
the last time you saw Mom?
That day,
I was running late for school,
and Mom took me.
She gave me a kiss, she said
she loved me,
and she left me at school.
What do you think happened?
We all were coming up
with theories.
There was some type
of a confrontation or something.
The person
was very emotional, very angry,
and it usually tells you
that there is a relationship.
There's a rift in our family
because of the murder.
I may second guess
who I think it is at this point.
It's so hard to know
who to trust.
- Vamos.
- Hey.
- Hi.
- Hi! Oh, my God!
- How are you?
- Oh, my goodness.
I have not seen you
in, like, forever.
- So long.
- Oh.
- How are you, sweetheart?
- Good. How are you?
- So good to see you
You okay?
- I'm doing well.
- How was your journey?
- We're tired.
- Yeah, I bet.
- Going in for a kiss.
- Oh, my God!
- Hi, Grammy.
- Oh, I don't believe it, oh.
Today that looks
so much like you.
- Really?
- Uh-huh.
And she was a really neat lady,
and I go,
"She looks
like my granddaughter."
- Really?
- Yeah.
- I've been told.
- Oh.
- How's it coming?
Is it coming along?
- Yeah.
- I don't know
how you deal with it.
You know?
- Yeah.
- And you're trying to solve
a murder and tell a story.
It's a lot. Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
- Solving a murder
and telling a story,
it's a lot.
- Took Stacey,
like, I don't know,
eight hours to get up here,
and they're
a couple hours away.
- Think you're
gonna get married?
- I think so.
- Can I meet him first?
- Yeah.
That's the idea.
The idea
is that you'd be there.
- I'd like that.
- Yeah, I'd like that.
- Would you want to know
what happened?
- To Mom?
- To Mom?
- Yeah.
It would be important
for everyone to know,
to have--you know what I mean?
I think that
you are the only person
who can truly empathize with me
because you're
also Mom's child,
you know what I mean?
Who can truly understand,
you know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- I feel like loss is different
for everyone, you know?
It's different when it's--yeah.
And that's why
it's so important for us
to have each other.
Yeah.
How are you?
- I'm good.
I'm just obsessed
with finding an answer
'cause I just want know.
I feel like I block out
a lot of stuff,
a lot of emotions about it,
you know?
And sometimes, like,
my connection to her is
distanced.
It's like she's a character
from a story to me right now,
and it's kind of--I don't know
if it's healthy or not.
I think I kind of overlooked--
I just pressed everyone
really hard,
and it's really traumatic,
and it--
I just don't want
to hurt anyone.
- Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
- Blow it out, Chris!
Blow out the candle!
- Whoo, he did it!
Yay!
- Who are those kids?
- There's Conway.
- It's Conway.
- That's Doug.
- Yeah, this is--
- That's Madison.
- I still have this CD.
- That's Madison.
- Check out that hair.
- Madison stealing
the show as always.
Molly.
So pretty, Grammy.
- There it is.
- Wow.
- Here comes the Barbie scene.
- There's Mom.
- Yay.
- Oh, and there I am.
- And Ali.
- Oh.
- Oh, God.
- Oh, dear.
- It's not--yeah.
It's not.
It just all breaks my heart
a little bit, man.
- I'm glad
that you're having fun.
Who the hell says?
- I love you.
- I'll see you in a few weeks.
- You too.
- Thank you for everything.
- All right, take care.
What do you think
I'm looking for
with this project?
- You want to know
why it happened
and also to know who Mom was.
- What do you hope that I get?
- Peace.
- Ball?
- Oh, I see.
You want Mommy
to get your ball?
You want Mommy
to get the ball?
- Good boy.
- Ball!
- What?
You wanna get in there?
You want me
to put you in there?
No?
Then what do you want?
- Ball.
- You want your ball?
- That's a good boy.
Maddy.
Madison.
- I'm sure I'm getting blamed
for lots of things
in that family.
- I'm sure.
- Well, there's many victims.
- Yeah.
- I feel the same way
about my mom.
One day, I hope to be able
to talk about
all this stuff with you.
- So if I come to New York
and we talk in person,
can we talk about stuff?
It's a shame
where we are now,
the fact that it's--
everything's so unclear
and just sort of lingering,
you know?
- Mm.
- It's starting to sprinkle.
- I know.
- Look at my little
thing I made.
- It's cool.
- It's my little sitting area.
- It's nice.
- It's really sweet when it's--
Yeah, this is a trailer, dude.
Sorry, I'm a little nervous.
- You're good.
- It's just every time
we reopen, I
- I know.
- Struggle, so I apologize.
- I can imagine.
- Yeah.
I found some things
of your mom's.
- Like what?
- You know, the most important
thing to me is--
if you'll give me one second.
This is the purse
that your mother was carrying
the day she was murdered.
- Oh, my God, that's the purse
on her--on the lawn?
- Yes, I told the police--
- They released it?
- I told the police
I'd put it in the house.
- And they never--
- Took it.
This is why I think
something very bad
is wrong with
Madison Police Department.
- I feel like we shouldn't
even be touching this stuff.
- It's--they didn't
fingerprint it.
- It's, like, evidence.
- They didn't do anything.
You know how many times I've
had to pack it and remove it?
- Did you read this thing?
- No.
- "This being human
is a guest house.
"Every morning a new arrival.
"A joy, a depression,
a meanness,
"some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
"Welcome and attend them all!
"Even if they're
a crowd of sorrows
"who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
"still, treat
each guest honorably.
"Be grateful
for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."
- Okay, so this is
the other stuff
I wanted you to see.
- What is this?
This is from my mom
to her divorce attorney.
- Yes.
- Where was all of this stuff?
- When they opened up
the house,
she had piles of stuff--
- From the divorce or
- Yeah.
- "I feel it necessary
to give you the entire scope
"of the situation in order
for you to represent me
"to your best ability.
"I have many concerns,
and once you know all of them,
"I know you will know
the best course of action
"that we should proceed with.
"Jeff and I were married
for 13 years.
"He started a number
of companies.
"One in particular brought him
overseas to the Middle East.
"He was extremely paranoid
about his deals
"and wouldn't discuss them
with me.
"He said his phones
were tapped
"and his mail
was tampered with.
"Jeff began to basically
live in the Middle East
"and visit us at home.
"The FBI started calling
and looking for Jeff.
"They came to our home
on a number of occasions,
"but Jeff was always
out of the country.
"Jeff is being investigated
for money laundering
"to the tune of $200 million
"using an oil barge
in the Middle East.
"He has three
separate passports
"in different names.
"I was afraid of him,
the FBI,
"how he had ruined
numerous people's lives,
"that I would be next and that
he would take the children.
"He threatened me
that if anyone,
"government or not,
came after him
that I would go down
with him."
Jesus Christ.
Wow. Wait, wait.
"I also need to have
a will made out.
"Could you please let me know
when you could do that?
"I have documents,
computer discs,
"names, bank accounts,
and more
"that would benefit
the INTERPOL investigation.
"They are kept in a safe place
with instructions
"to be sent to INTERPOL
in the event
something should happen to me."
What the f--
She sends that thing
to a lawyer,
and then four
or five years later,
she's murdered.
That's something,
like, I've thought of
in the back of my head.
Like, if my mom
was scared for her life,
would she ever give me a sign?
More divorce stuff.
Bank stuff.
This is credit card stuff.
So much shit.
What is this?
Pinnacle One.
"We now have ready
1.2 billion U.S. dollars."
These are all,
like, tax returns
of businesses
I've never heard of.
Anova Technologies.
So many accounts, man.
I'm looking at hundreds
of millions of dollars
on contracts
with my dad's name
at the bottom of all of it.
$250 million on contracts,
mentions of, like,
Prague and Dubai.
$50 million tranches,
profits will be split
between all of the partners.
It's just kind of insane.
What is this?
- Based on what we found
in the file box,
it looks like these are
sketches of money transfers
which look very shady.
- So Pinnacle One,
a company that,
on some of these papers,
my dad claims
to be the CEO of
- Correct.
- Was transferring money
to Aston Rothbury,
which we know was run by
a convicted money launderer
- Correct.
- To Anchor Bank
in Switzerland,
which has been accused
of money laundering,
and to Bank of Cyprus,
which has faced charges
for money laundering.
- Yep.
You shouldn't be
transferring money
to all these different banks
that you--
in countries that you don't
have any business in.
It's very strange.
- My background
is financial crime,
and as we say in the college,
we follow the money.
- One of the things
that we found
was that the language
of the contracts
that have my dad's name
on them and our home address
match this thing
called a prime bank program.
- People buy and sell
bank guarantees
and use them to invest money
into different banks,
but a lot of times,
it's actually just a scam.
- So I want to add some more
insanity to all this.
These are all shell companies,
meaning they exist on paper.
- Okay.
- All right?
The majority of all this paper
is just paper.
The letters are fake, right?
Or obviously, they're a scam
to a specific customer
on the prime bank.
- Right.
- You'll see where it says,
"The guarantee is governed
by the latest revision
of the Uniform Customs
and practice as,"
blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
- Right.
- There was actually
a fraud alert that went out
that that's totally fraud.
- Wow.
- This is all pretty much
smoke and mirrors.
- Is there any, like,
reasonable explanation
for all of this stuff?
Like, any just
regular business practice?
No.
- After he lost his job
at Southern Electric,
he started his own business,
which was RoadTrac.
Jeff gave me an opportunity
to come work for him.
You know, it all seemed
like it was a great opportunity
for me to get in
on the ground floor
of a business.
For me, it just seemed
as though something
wasn't quite right
with the whole thing
'cause he would
give me stories, you know,
that we were trying to get
people to invest money and--
crazy stories,
like put a million dollars in,
and six months later,
we'd have $10 million out,
and we'd all be making
a ton of money,
and I just
didn't understand it.
I made the decision that
if it doesn't sound right,
it's probably not right,
so I questioned him about it,
and from that moment on,
I was out.
He called me from overseas
on the phone one day and said,
"Sorry, man, it's over."
I went home
to three young kids
flat broke and without a job,
so that's
how that relationship,
shall we say, turned,
you know?
- Did he ever take investment
from the family
for business deals?
- Uh-huh, yep.
He did from us several times
and paid them back,
you know, as promised.
The last one,
we've never seen again.
- What was the last deal?
- It was $125,000,
and it was very hard,
and we'd be a lot better off
if we still had it,
but we don't.
That's tough.
Did you not know that, Maddy?
- No.
- I only ever met him
in person
a small handful of times.
You know, at a deposition,
at mediation,
those types of things.
The character of your father
was this world traveler
who had been very successful
and that he was doing
these deals overseas
in Middle Eastern countries,
and they just never
made any sense,
and to add to that,
some of his idiosyncrasies
sort of just made him
a memorable character.
- There's some correspondence
that I've found
in a box
of my mother's belongings
about my mom claiming
that she was brought in
to the police department
in Connecticut
because of an investigation
into my father's
possible involvement
in a international
money laundering scheme.
I don't know
if you remember that at all.
- I do.
- The investigator
who brought her in
to the police station
on behalf of INTERPOL
disclosed that he had
offshore bank accounts--
one in Switzerland
and one in the Caymans--
that she was trying
to track down.
- I mean, I know your mother
had gathered,
as part of the divorce case,
tidbits of information
about his overseas dealings.
- Your mom told me
that she had gotten a call
and was asked to go to
the Madison Police Department
because they believed
that your father
was being used
as a money launderer
or a mule.
I think they
frightened your mother
into thinking that somehow
they were going to
make her part of his crime.
So she went to Hugh Keefe
to see
how she could protect herself.
She was really,
really concerned.
- I didn't know
what my dad was doing,
and I still don't,
but I never thought
I would see, like,
his name on documents
that have
hundreds of millions
to billions of dollars
in currency exchanges.
- And that's why
meeting with the police
is gonna be so critical,
because we really need
to kind of go back
to the beginning on this.
We need to know
what they've done,
what they haven't done,
what their working theory is
of the case.
That's the big unknown.
- Yeah.
How's it going?
- Well.
How are you, Madison?
- Nice to see you.
- Good to see you again.
- Madison, Mark.
- Nice to meet you, Mark.
- It's a pleasure, man.
- I can just
introduce everybody,
and then I'll give
Detective Sudock
a just brief update
at where the project is at.
- Yeah, I think we ought
to take our cues from Chris,
see where he is,
how comfortable he is,
and, you know, how open he is.
- Yeah, full transparency.
I mean, tell him exactly
what the intentions are
and stress how, you know,
we are looking to work
with them 'cause we
have that common goal.
- Today is gonna be,
you know, show our cards,
and the teamwork philosophy
needs to really come across.
- How's it going?
Good to see you.
Or
- Sure.
- All right, you're the boss.
All right.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- I can't believe
how confident
Detective Sudock was
that they know who did it.
I can't believe
how confident he was.
They've been this close
since March 7, 2010,
to making an arrest--
this close.
- The number one suspect
turned off their phone.
Ali's phone was on
'cause she was calling
and texting.
Conway's phone was on because
she received texts and calls.
The hurdle's gonna be
convincing the chief,
but sounds like the police
are gonna give us
Some information that,
whether or not
someone's taken to court,
may provide an answer.
I'm sorry time goes by
and we don't talk, Conway.
It gets really hectic,
you know?
- I'm just angry, Madison.
I'm angry.
And I'm sorry if I'm
interrupting your day,
but, God damn it,
don't fucking ignore me.
- Conway, I am on your side.
I'm working on it.
We have a really good shot.
- They're fucking
doing nothing!
Those motherfuckers told me
I was the most important
person
they wanted to talk to.
Why aren't you asking them,
"Why haven't you
called my aunt?"
I'm angry, Mad.
- I know.
I got you.
- No, I don't think
you got me, Mad.
You get your little fucking
project thing going
and blah, blah, blah.
You know, hopefully,
it will come
to a fruition at some point.
- Don't push me away, Conway.
- I'm not pushing you away.
I'm telling you, tell me
what the fuck is going on.
You think everything is gonna
work out perfect.
- I don't think that, Conway.
How can you--
I don't think that.
- It doesn't work out perfect.
Ever.
The whole thing
makes me just
so angry.
Your mom was my best friend
in the whole wide world.
I didn't want to witness
that shit.
I didn't want to see that.
Nobody understands.
Nobody understands me anymore.
Ever.
- Something has to change.
And I don't have much time
to wait.
I lost my fucking mind
when I lost my sister.
- Group hug.
- Mwah.
- It's those three sisters!
- We're here.
- We're here!
- Watch out.
- I can't live much longer
without the truth.
- Hey,
this is Madison Hamburg.
I'm hoping to get in touch
with Detective Sudock.
Hey, Detective Sudock,
this is Madison Hamburg.
I'm just following up
from our call two days ago.
- You may start
your message now.
- Hi, Captain Race,
this is Madison Hamburg.
I'm just following up
my previous phone call
about my documentary
about my mom's murder.
- You have reached
the Madison, Connecticut,
Police Department.
- You have reached
the Connecticut State Police
Troop L in Litchfield.
- You've reached
Sergeant Neal Mulhern.
I'm currently unavailable.
- Let me put you in
to the commanding officer
of the major crime unit.
- Okay.
- Unfortunately,
he is out of the office
for the rest of the day.
- "Dear Chief Jack Drumm,
"I'm writing you in regards
to my mother's
unsolved
homicide investigation."
"As you know,
I've been looking for answers
"into what happened
to my mother
for the past six years."
"I've interviewed
many individuals
on camera multiple times."
"I write to you
pleading for the opportunity
"to talk about
how my investigators
may be able to help."
- Put it on your eye.
What you doing?
Pushing all the buttons?
- "My family and I live with
my mother's absence every day.
"We are desperate
to find justice
"for her murder.
"Five months from now
will mark ten years
"since her death,
"and this month
marks four years
since her case went cold."
- "Would be grateful for you
to grant us the opportunity
to, at the very least, talk."
- Madison,
this is Christie Hodge
returning your call,
Madison Police Department.
Yes, the chief
did get your letter.
He's not going
to be available to meet
to discuss this with you,
and he's following
the state's guidelines.
This is still
an open investigation.
If you have
specific questions,
feel free to contact
Detective Neal Mulhern.
I think you already have
his number.
Bye-bye.
- He's not even
gonna talk to me?
No one's gonna answer
their phone for weeks
and just not respond,
wait till it goes away?
How do they think this looks?
- I can't believe
that they wouldn't even say,
"Well, we'd be interested
to meet with you and discuss
whatever new information
you might have."
- Right?
- I think the next step--
well, they leave us no choice
but to do the FOIA request.
- Yeah.
- There must be
some major problems
with the case
that we just don't know about.
- Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, I'm not trying
to create
an adversarial relationship
with them in any way.
- No.
- You know?
I'm just trying
to help motivate
momentum in the case.
- Sure.
- So the one thing
that the police don't have
aside from access
to my mom's Facebook
and some documents
that we have
is, I'm still in touch
with my dad.
- Yep, okay.
- And he has been
asking to meet
in New York.
- Oh, wow.
- Going for a walk?
Here, he's gonna go.
Bye!
- Bye-bye, Mommy.
Bye-bye, Mommy!
- Bye-bye!
- Bye-bye, Mommy.
Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- So do I just text him?
I'll just call him.
- Hello.
- Hey.
- How you doing?
- How's it going?
- Okay.
- So I wanted to tell you
I'm looking at
coming to the northeast,
and I wanted to know
if you're gonna be around
in New York
'cause I'd love to see you.
- Visit, yeah, me too.
- I was thinking
it would be cool
to go to where you grew up.
You grew up
in Forest Hills, right?
- Yeah.
- I remember doing that
as a kid.
- That'd be fine.
- We could have
a vehicle drive by
this big front entrance
as they walk in.
- You guys still
in the same place?
- Hello, check, check.
- I mean, you can't see it,
for sure.
- No.
- All right,
I'm looking forward to it.
- Yeah, me too.
- All right, see you then.
Bye.
- Love you, bye.
Man.
- Fine.
He didn't suspect a thing,
which makes me feel really bad
about what I'm doing.
- Yeah.
- Should make the most
of this meeting.
- Hey.
How's it going?
- Okay.
- Good to see you.
- Yeah, you're looking good.
- Thanks.
- You're looking thin.
- Thank you.
- So we're looking
at the third floor going up.
- Where, here?
- Yeah.
- How did your parents
end up here?
I don't know much about that.
- We lived in a Quonset hut.
- A Quonset hut?
- My father
got out of the service,
and so he had VA assistance,
but he'd live in a Quonset hut
with a fire stove
in the middle.
- Wow.
- And then we moved here.
- And what did--
oh, Grandpa Martin
was in the steel business?
- Oh, really?
- This is it.
Yeah, yeah, I want to know.
You know?
We did this when I was younger.
- Yeah, I know.
- I think I could
just appreciate it more now.
So I've heard
a lot of different stories,
but you are the only one
who can tell me.
We were really wealthy.
Why did we lose
all of that money?
- I
- I feel like
if I don't talk about it
and if I don't
ask these questions,
I don't know
that I'll ever be able
to get past this,
like, giant elephant
that sort of stands between us.
- Right.
Ten years,
I've been accused of things.
- This is not me
accusing you of anything.
- I'm not--okay.
- This is just me
asking you questions,
because I want to trust you,
and I want a relationship
with my father.
- Okay,
I don't want to live this.
I really don't want
to live through this.
- Do you want me
to find parking?
- No, I want to go home.
- This is really unfortunate.
I came all the way up here
to talk to you.
- I know,
but I don't want to be given--
- But, like, think about it.
Like, I'm--
- I don't want to--
I don't--
- I'm here.
I'm listening to you.
- No, this is enough.
- If you could just tell me
one thing that, like,
you feel maybe sorry for.
Do you realize, like,
how all of this
impacted my life as your son?
- You think I did this to you,
the murder of your mother?
You think that--
- Dad, you don't think--
- That I have anything
to do with that?
- No, that's not
what I'm saying.
- Okay, then I didn't
impact your life.
- My childhood.
- I tried to do
the best I could.
Do you know how much
I loved your mother?
- I don't.
I want to talk
to you about it.
- I loved your mother
very much.
She was the love of my life.
Hey, so we got here
an hour early.
Okay.
- Marcia,
can I ask you a question?
- Sure.
- How did you find out about
what happened to my mom?
- I don't want to bring up
something heavy.
I just--you know, I don't
see you guys very often,
and I'll regret
not talking about it,
to be honest.
- What I want to know
is not the answer
to what happened to my mom
but more who my mom was
and who my father is.
- So, Jeff, do you want
to say anything to that?
- Well, I'm--I listen to this,
but fathers don't always
share everything with sons.
There are things that,
in a million years,
I wouldn't share;
I'll take it to my grave.
So forget about whether or not
I have to be
the open book to you.
I'm the father,
and you're the son.
- I'm gonna let you
continue this conversation
and go upstairs.
- Okay.
- Okay?
- Thank you, Marcia.
It's really nice to see you.
- Nice to see you too.
- And thank you so much
for talking to me about that.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- The questions
you're asking to me
are questions
that have nothing
to do with your childhood,
like, you know,
about my business and--
- Sure, what were you doing?
Why were you gone
all the time?
- Okay, I was overseas
because I was doing business.
What is--what's the--
there's no mystery.
- Well, I--
- You don't know people
who travel and do business?
You don't know people
who go and stay--
- Spend, like, months
away from their families?
And, you know, the things
I found within my mom's stuff
is, like--
what is all of that?
- What is that?
- There's multiple letters
from my mom
saying that you
kept telling her
there's an oil rig
that went aground
and that we were gonna be rich
to the tune of hundreds
of millions of dollars,
this deal that you were
putting together.
- This is the first time
I ever heard of that.
What--did you have something
that says--
- I have the letters
between you guys
when you were going
through the divorce.
I have everything.
I have all my mom's stuff.
What am I gonna do with it?
- Show it to me.
Bring it to me.
Show it to me.
Show me everything.
- If that's what I have to do
for you to tell me--
- I don't even know
what you're talking about.
I don't even know
what you're talking about.
- She has all these
weird documents
with your name on 'em.
- Okay. So? So?
- What are they?
The hundreds of millions
of dollars
in currency transactions
in Russia, in--
- Bullshit.
That's all bullshit.
- Well, your name's on it.
Our address is on it.
Your handwriting's on it.
- I have no idea.
I don't know.
Maybe it's forgeries.
I have no idea.
I've never worked in Russia.
And I've never worked
on $100 million deals
with the oil rigs.
Not only that.
Nobody's ever produced those
to show anything.
- What--you say it like it's--
what do you mean
nobody's ever produced?
- I don't believe it.
- You don't believe what?
- I don't believe the letters.
I don't believe they're mine,
and I don't believe
they came from me,
and I don't know
what you're talking about.
- What's the prime bank stuff?
- That was a--
Prime bank?
What's prime bank?
- It's, like, a prime bank
guarantee for deals.
- That was the--
yeah, that was to--
that was to do some deals.
That was--
it's very complicated.
We tried our hand
at trading oil.
It never worked.
There were all these
phony bank guarantees,
all counterfeit.
- Wow.
In letters that my mother
wrote to her attorney,
she references
being questioned
by the FBI about you.
Why would they--
- She reported--
In her drunken stupor,
she called the police
and suggested
that I was laundering money--
$100 million worth of money.
- Why did she think that?
- She was drunk.
She was a drunk.
Don't you understand?
You don't get it.
You were a drunk.
You did things.
They were crazy.
- Yeah, but I didn't, like--
- She was a dr--
You don't understand
how many stupid things
that she could--
she was possible
that she could do
when she was drunk.
She called them.
You know,
I talked to the police,
and they said nothing.
It was all bullshit,
and she was vind--I--
- No, no, I like to hear
your side of this.
It paints a different
picture of it.
- Your mother was vindictive.
She was--she--
she was
You guys have a picture of her
of being
this really nice person.
She wasn't really nice in--
deep down.
She was vindictive
about a lot of things.
She just did some--
the craziest stuff.
She would come back from
going out with her friends,
and she'd just fall down
and pass out
on the bathroom floor.
That's how drunk she got.
She would leave you guys alone
to go out drinking.
- Yeah, I remember.
- She claimed I abandoned you.
It was a fucking lie.
I don't hold it against her.
I never did.
I just figure that she just
revealed who really she was.
- Why did you
bring Hugh Keefe to court?
- I can't talk to you
about the legal issues.
This is what makes me
more suspicious about--
- Suspicious about what?
- Well, what
your endgame here is.
If your endgame
is to know who I am,
I'm telling you who I am,
but don't start asking me
questions that have to do
with the legal strategy
of how I did this.
It's not important to you.
- I'll tell you
how it played out for me.
- At this time,
we are seeking to locate
her former husband,
Jeffrey Hamburg.
- The police are saying,
"We don't know
where your dad is."
Then the next time
I hear your whereabouts,
you have, like,
a criminal defense attorney--
- Well, wouldn't you?
I'm not gonna go talk
to police without a lawyer.
I wasn't even anywhere near
your mother's place.
- You were
in New Haven, right?
- At the court.
- At 9:30?
- I don't know
what time it was.
I called my lawyer
and saying, you know,
"Should I be
waiting here longer?"
Your mother's not here.
It got continued,
and then I left.
Simple as that.
They couldn't prove anything.
They couldn't even
get a subpoena
because there wasn't
any evidence.
- Other than circumstantial.
- Not even circumstantial.
I wasn't there.
Timeline, I think, didn't work,
and DNA didn't work.
- Yeah.
- We tried to re-create it.
- Really?
- Yeah, of course.
It didn't work.
But they were convinced
that I did it,
and they wouldn't
get off of it.
You have to look to the police
to doing a shitty job,
and without them,
unless you hire
your own private detective,
what are you gonna do?
So now you know it.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
But there is more,
and I'm not gonna tell you.
- All right? You ready to go?
- Yeah.
- Whoa.
- You okay?
- Yeah, no, I just
didn't get my foot up.
- Good to see you.
- Yep, same here.
- Yeah.
- What?
- Well, it's just--
it's confusing.
It's just all--
the emotions are
around all of it, you know?
Love you.
- Love you too.
Good to see you.
- Yep.
- Will do.
- I know.
I just don't know
what the fuck
he's gonna do
when this comes out.
- I realized that I could
no longer contest
the things he was saying
if I wanted to glean anything.
Just let's sit there
and listen.
Their version of moving forward
is ignoring it.
- Sweeping it under the rug.
- Acting like
it never happened.
Why should I
have a relationship
if he's not gonna talk
about that shit?
I'm just relieved
that it's over.
- And we're gonna go
to that light
and go straight.
- Got it.
- So we're not B&E?
- All right, there's
a lot of stuff in here.
- Tyler, oh.
And I have
your mother right here.
- What is that?
- Ashes.
- Oh, really?
- Mm-hmm.
It's heavy.
I couldn't give 'em all away.
I'm sorry.
- No, it's good.
Was she sharing with you
about the details
about what was going on
with my dad?
- Abandonment is why
she filed for divorce.
- And you become closer
with her because of that?
- I want to support her
- Okay.
- And help her.
What paperwork can I
help you get together
to get this divorce,
blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
- Yeah.
- And everything done with.
You can go to court.
Ali, fucking Ali.
That's the only reason
she fucking died,
'cause Ali insisted she go
to court and get that money.
When Ali was born,
she was so addicted and
would not let her mother go
out of her sight.
It was awful.
I thought something
was wrong with her
from when she was born.
- Huh.
- Anyhow, that's my opinion,
but
I always tried to love her,
and now I don't.
- You don't love Ali?
- Mm-mmm.
Not at all.
- Because you think she did--
she committed the murder?
- I know she did this.
She called 911.
She comes over to your mother.
"I know"--
she's talking to 911--
"I know CPR.
I'm gonna fix her.
I'm gonna help her."
She got as much blood
all over her body
as she possibly could.
- Ali did?
- Mm-hmm.
I thought
that was very strange.
- Maybe she was
just freaking out.
- Yeah, could be your option.
Not mine.
- I'm just--
- Trying to reason with me
before I go off the deep end?
Thank you.
- It's hard for anyone
to trust a lot of people--
my dad.
People have said things
about the Gifting Tables.
People say things about Ali,
say things about--
- Me.
Everybody thinks I'm crazy,
Madison, and I'm not.
- You're not crazy.
- I'm fucked up.
My life is changed forever.
- Everybody is.
It's a traumatic thing.
- I'm not the same person
I once was,
and I know that.
- Yeah.
She's so open about Ali.
But
If it's not her theory
that I'm entertaining,
she's, like,
immediately defensive.
Like, I want so desperately
to have a change in people
so that when
their, like, intimate--
these intimate versions
of themselves
are portrayed, like,
they don't--
it doesn't cause them trauma.
- Right.
- It's like,
when people watch this,
they're gonna watch that.
They're gonna hear
about the hit man.
They're gonna see
about all of these things.
And it's just like
I just want so desperately
to be like,
"Hey, like, you gotta level
with this shit.
Otherwise this is what
you're leaving people with."
And I'm afraid that she won't
see it like that.
It doesn't feel
like there's a, like, good
that can come from that.
- Right.
- What I know is,
I saw your mom on Monday.
Actually, Monday, I saw her
at one of the table things.
Your mom, I'll tell you,
on that Monday night
when we saw her,
she was glowing, Madison.
She'd, like, bought herself
some new clothes,
which she never did,
and she was just glowing
from ear to ear,
and everybody noticed it.
We all said it.
We said, "You look
so beautiful tonight.
You look so happy."
I'm probably not telling you
anything helpful, but--
- No, it's--honestly,
it's nice to know, to hear.
- Yeah, I mean
that was the last time
I saw her, but
she called me on Tuesday
and she said that, you know,
that she had, um,
court the next day at 2:00,
and, um--
but she really--
her appointment
wasn't at 2:00, but she--
she said it was at 2:00,
and she goes,
"And that's really weird
because it's usually
always in the morning."
- Yeah.
- So somebody had to have
told her that.
I don't know who told her,
but she got the information
wrong.
- Weird.
- Yeah.
- She talked to my mom
at 10:30 at night on the 2nd.
And my mom told her
that the court date
was at 2:00 p.m.
and that that's weird
'cause it's always
in the morning.
Wonder if someone--
- Yeah.
I wonder if someone, like--
This is
kind of ridiculous,
but, like,
I wonder if someone called
impersonating, like, a clerk
and said
it was gonna be at 2:00.
- So she would be--
- So she would be home.
It would explain
why she's in her pajamas.
- Right.
- Pure speculation here.
The assailant shows up
the morning of the 2nd
thinking it's
the last opportunity
'cause it's the day
before the court date.
There's a period of time
while Ali's in school,
so they, like,
arrive at the house
thinking that my mom
has no plans
but see that someone else
is at the house.
- I just remember
dark ski mask
looking in the window
as he was walking
and thinking,
"That was just really bizarre.
How bizarre was that?"
- Fucks that up,
decides not
to go through with it,
is scared shitless
that they are being reported
to the police,
so they need to do it.
The only way to do it
is the next day,
but there's not
a big enough opportunity
'cause my mom
would drop Ali off
and go straight to court,
so they call her and tell her
that court got postponed.
- What is this?
- This is Conway's
witness statement
to the police
- Oh, wow.
- Which we didn't know she had.
- What does she say?
"Barbara told me
that she and her attorney,
Rich Callahan, were to be
at court at 2:00 p.m. today."
For some reason, my mom thinks
that court is at 2:00
or is telling people
that court is at 2:00.
- And this is probably
the best piece
of evidence we have
because it's
from the day.
- And we've confirmed
with the court
- That it was at 9:30.
- That it was at 9:30.
- Police have my mom's phone.
- The road is blocked off
by police.
They are treating this case
as a homicide.
- Police did not talk
about a suspect.
- Continue our investigation
into the death
of Barbara Hamburg.
- Yes, the chief
did get your letter.
He's not going
to be available to meet.
- So ever since
the Madison Police Department
told us that they were
gonna issue a full denial
of our request for records,
I submitted this appeal
to the Freedom
of Information Commission,
and now they've decided
to take our appeal,
so they've assigned
a mediator to our case.
He said that he called
the Madison Police Department
and that they seem very firm
and that we're gonna have
to go to a hearing.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
I know.
- A lot of your project.
- I know.
- My God.
- Thanks. I know.
- So the main issue is,
they've asserted
that this is an ongoing
and active investigation,
and our goal will be to show
that it's not actually
an ongoing and active
investigation
in anything other than name.
- It just undercuts the claim
that they're making
that they can't release
any of this information.
- How do you do?
- Good.
- Hey.
- Hey, how you doing?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you, man.
- Hey, Detective Sudock,
good to see you.
- Hi. Anike.
- Hey, how's it going?
- Do you solemnly
and sincerely
affirm and declare
the evidence you shall give
in the case now in question
shall be the truth,
the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth
upon the pain and penalty
of perjury?
- I do.
- Okay.
- I do.
- To start, what is
your relationship
to the deceased?
- Barbara Hamburg
was my mother.
- And when was
your mother murdered?
- March 3, 2010.
- Have you been
in contact with the police
in the ten years
since the murder?
- Yes, I have.
Specifically meetings
in 2013, 2016, and 2019.
- Turning to the 2019 meeting,
do you remember
which detective you met with?
- Detective Sudock.
Most any interaction
is in some way recorded
with the police
that I've ever had.
- I don't think they do.
- While you were
at this meeting,
did you make a recording
of the conversation?
- I did.
- How did you
make the recording?
- On my phone.
- We're going to, yes.
- Well, I'm going to object.
First of all, this was done
surreptitiously, okay?
Second of all, I don't know
what editing he's done.
Obviously, he's in a business
where he has access
to the ability to edit things.
I'd have to repeat it
to a forensic expert,
so at this point in time,
I would object
to admission of the document.
- Okay, you can take it back.
- Okay.
- He's testifying under oath
what's happening
at this meeting.
- Detective Sudock,
in your opinion,
do you believe
that the disclosure
of the information
would be prejudicial
to any potential
future law enforcement action?
- Yes.
- Do you recall
the last time
you were either analyzing data
or looking into
a new possible lead
in this case?
- Yes, last week,
we had information
on this investigation.
Last week.
- Okay.
- Okay, for the sake of time,
I will cut it off there.
Some key points, thank you.
- Based on the statements
in the 2019 meeting
you had with Detective Sudock,
that goes a long way
towards proving
that this may just be
an open investigation in name.
They've had
the same primary suspect
since March 7, 2010.
- Right.
- Nothing that they've done,
despite the fact
that they've done hundreds
and hundreds of interviews,
has gotten them any closer.
- Yeah.
- So the whole point
is to try to give the image
that what they're doing is,
they're just sitting there
twiddling their thumbs.
Detective Sudock,
is an unsolved murder case--
will that ever be closed by
the Madison Police Department?
- I don't know
the answer to that.
I can't answer that.
- To your knowledge, is there
any unsolved murder case
that has been closed by
the Madison Police Department?
- To my knowledge, this is
the only unsolved homicide
in Madison at this time.
- Sure.
So are you aware
of the FOIA request
that's the subject
of this hearing?
- I reviewed
the documents, yes.
Including the 911 call.
- Right, and is that including
the 911 call?
- Mm-hmm.
- Did you also
review that document
and determine that it was--
- I did not review that, no.
- Okay, and yet
the police department decided
not to turn over
that document
in response
to the FOIA request?
- This is the first time
I'm aware of that, sir.
In the best of my recollection,
there's no information in there
that would identify
a perpetrator.
- Madison Hamburg
today testified
about a 2019 meeting.
Do you recall that meeting?
- Yes, sir, I do.
- "We've got nothing."
Do you recall
making that statement?
- Yes, sir, I do.
- Okay.
Do you recall
making the statement
- Do you remember
making that statement
saying that the case
was held up
and not moving forward?
- It's possible I said that.
- Finally, regarding
the DNA in 2010
in referencing bad kits,
do you recall saying
I remember
discussing the DNA kits.
I don't remember
if we used the word "crap"
or anything like that,
but I remember
that we did discuss those.
- Beyond the potential updates
in DNA evidence
and DNA testing,
is there anything else
to investigate?
- I'm going to object
'cause now we're getting
right into the core
of the investigation,
which this whole process
is designed to protect.
- The detective has admitted
that he stated
that there are no leads
in this case.
- He said they got
a lead last week.
- That's absolutely
correct, sir.
- Did I not hear that
correctly?
- Yes, sir.
- Right, but he hasn't
been able to provide
anything beyond
a conclusory statement
that this is ongoing.
- I have a witness last week,
seven days ago.
That's ongoing.
- The witness that you
interviewed last week,
is that somebody that you had
previously never interviewed?
- I think you're getting
too much
into the details of the case,
and I would object.
- No further questions.
- I just have one question.
You're claiming
release of information
would be prejudicial
to a prospective
law enforcement action.
What prospective
law enforcement action
would be prejudiced?
- It could be a search warrant.
It could be an arrest warrant.
It could be another scene.
I mean, there's so many things
it could be.
I mean, I could go on
with speculating,
but I don't know.
But I know there's
information in there
that I need,
and that information,
in my opinion,
should be kept--remain
with the police department
and not be public
because it's only gonna hamper
any further investigative tool
or technique
that we would have
in the future.
- Okay, that's good.
Thank you very much,
- With that, I will close
this hearing at 4:30 p.m.
- See you, Chief Drumm.
- I'll wait to from you
in the future.
- Sounds good.
- I won't.
I won't.
- Mm-hmm.
It sounds like we're gonna get
the 911 phone call,
but even if they release that,
it's still gonna be months
before we get a decision
about the rest
of the case file.
It says,
"Following the Connecticut
"Freedom of Information
Commission hearing
"on February 19, 2020,
"we reviewed
the 911 telephone call
"placed by
Barbara Alexandra Hamburg
"and Conway Beach
associated with this matter.
"After consideration,
we concluded that such
"should be released to you
"pursuant
to your October 18, 2019,
Freedom of Information
request."
This is the call.
Okay.
I'm gonna listen to it.
- 911.
- I need someone
at 44 Middle Beach Road.
Right now.
My sister .
I don't know.
It just brings me
back to this moment where--
when Ali
told me about it.
I thought that they were wrong
and that, like, there's
a chance that she was alive.
Like, I just listened to them
realizing that she's dead.
- Mm-hmm.
- I know.
We finally found the record
of Ali getting to school,
signing in at Kara's desk
at 7:54 a.m.
- You're shitting me.
- No.
- They finally found that?
- Yeah.
- You're positive?
- Yeah.
So Ali had to wake up Mom.
- Mm-hmm.
- Takes her to school
in her pajamas.
- Drops her off.
Ali signs in.
Mom drives home.
Because she's
still in her pajamas,
she was probably walking
from the car
to the door,
and that's where it happened.
- Mm.
- And that's, like,
my best speculation.
- Mm.
Damn.
Who the fuck--I mean, really,
who would do this?
- I don't know.
- Mm.
You know, maybe I need
to relook at this another way.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Thank you.
- You know,
I was reading your notes
from when you and Ali
were going to therapy.
And I could read
how much you cared
and how much stress
it was putting on you
to take care of Ali.
I know that my mom
would be grateful
that you stepped up.
You didn't have to, but--
- No.
- My mom can't say thank you,
so I'm just gonna say
thank you for doing that.
- Well, your mom
gave me the strength.
I do know that.
- Hey.
- What'd the taxi say
about all of this?
- Hola.
- Oh!
- Hey.
Hello, amigo.
- Yeah, nice to meet you too.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Madison, how are you?
- Good. How are you?
- Has Ali told you
about mi madre?
- Oh, yes.
- He knows everything.
- She was pretty.
The same, Ali?
- Oh, they look alike.
- We look alike.
- Yeah, sí.
- Yeah.
- I love Barbara, yeah.
- So I wanted
to tell you something,
and I'm worried
about telling you.
- Okay.
Go ahead, tell me.
- So
Conway
- Mm-hmm.
- Has suspicions
that you had something to do
with Mom's death.
- Okay.
- And she's been
really adamant about it,
and I don't want you
to find out that out
through the film.
- Okay.
Thank you for telling me.
- I'm sorry
- Yeah.
- That this has affected
her and you this way.
- Yeah, you don't
have to be sorry.
I honestly think
that everyone knows where
that accusation is coming from.
- What do you mean?
- I mean,
it's coming from Conway,
and Conway
has her own problems,
and she's a very hurt person,
and hurt people
don't always act
in the most sound manners
and don't have
the most sound perspectives.
- Yeah.
- And I don't
hold that against her
'cause she's sick.
- Yeah.
- I really don't.
I'm not angry.
I'm not even surprised.
I mean, I've gone through
so much therapy
since Mom died
just trying to work on myself
and become a better person
and overcome
everything that happened,
and you really realize
that when a tragedy happens,
you have a decision.
This is a fork in the road.
You can stay in what happened,
in the trauma,
or you can move forward.
- Mm-hmm.
- And I think that I chose
the path of moving forward
and Conway was not capable
of moving forward
and chose the path
of staying in it.
Moving forward
doesn't mean escaping it,
doesn't mean--no.
It means making something
of your life
'cause that's
what Mom would've wanted.
I'm so happy you're here.
It's important
that I have someone
in my family here with me.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
It means a lot for me
to be marrying here
because all I've wanted
ever since Mom died is a home,
and I've looked,
and I've looked,
and I finally found a home.
It's a home, and it
doesn't matter where I am.
I could be here,
I can be in the United States,
but I have a home.
I have roots.
- Sí.
- Hey.
Mwah.
- Hamburg.
- Barbara Alexandra Hamburg.
- I also came across
a letter I wrote to Ali
but never gave it to her.
"Dear Ali, my heart is broken.
"You are my sister's daughter.
"I love you,
and we are family.
"Blood is thicker than water.
"I hope one day, you'll
understand what I mean by that
"and embrace me
and the idea
"that family includes
the good, the bad, the ugly.
"The tears will never end,
"but you and I
can always begin again.
I love you all the world,
baby girl."
- Madison, who's that?
- Mommy.
- Who's this?
- Mama, Mommy.
Daddy.
- And who's this?
- Mommy.
My relationship with my dad
is really confusing,
and the fact
that I'm making a documentary
about my life
and it's a secret to him
is a huge weight.
Part of me thinks
that the only reason
I'm keeping
this relationship afloat
is because of this documentary.
- Yeah.
- I just hope
that by the end of this,
if he watches this,
that
he'll understand.
The pros and cons are starting
to get really gray
Unless he had something
to do with it.
Fuck, man.
Do I tell him that I've been
making this this whole time?
- Hey.
- Hey, what's up?
- How you doing?
- I'm good.
Sorry to call you so late.
- It's all right.
- Or just a lot later
than I told you.
- Yeah.
Everything all right?
- Um
No.
I need to talk to you
about something.
- Okay.
- I have looked
into every aspect
of my mom's life
- Yeah.
- And I've started
to dredge up things
that she was holding on to
that involve you.
- Uh-huh.
I don't--
- I have no idea
what you're talking about,
and your mom was--you know?
I mean, she made all kinds
of off-the-rail--
I mean, she was--
she was a .
- My mom is writing letters
while she's sober.
There's correspondence
from 2009
saying that you told her
that your life was in danger,
that me and my sister
and my mom were unknown
to your overseas activities
to keep us safe.
You know, I've sort of dug
into public registries
just to see the validity
of these documents.
- Are you recording this?
Are you recording this?
- Yes, I'm recording this.
- Okay, well,
I have nothing to say,
and I have no--
I have no idea
what's going on,
and I don't know what you're--
why you're acting this way,
and I don't know
what you have.
You know,
I'm completely in the dark.
- Okay, well, it looks like
there are deals with IEC,
Summa Finance,
Cleontia Investments,
Pinnacle One.
Your name are on
these business registries
in different countries
and mentioned
in the divorce proceedings.
Why are these different
international businesses
registered to you
if you know nothing about it?
- You're presupposing
something nefarious happened,
so it's a fantasy,
and it's something
that somebody's
making up, and--
- Who is making it up?
- I don't know.
You tell me.
- Who would--
who could make this up?
- I have no idea.
I certainly am not gonna
sit here and speculate
on something that I
don't have in front of me
nor do I care
to answer about.
I mean, it's just in the past,
and, you know, there's nothing
I did that was wrong,
and when you are done
with this,
maybe we'll get together,
but I have
nothing more to say.
- I know,
but I'm going to dig deeper,
but if I do that, am I
putting myself in danger?
- This is absurd.
This is really absurd.
If you want to talk to me
father and son,
it's fine,
but I'm not gonna talk
to you about this anymore.
This is obviously
some crap, so
- I don't know what to say.
I don't know if you got
caught up in this stuff,
and I don't know why my mom
was so worried about it,
and I don't know
if I should be worried.
- Is that it?
Okay.
Bye.
- He hung up on me.
He did say,
"Maybe after all of this,
we can talk about it."
But I think
that until he reaches out
and tells me
something truthful,
I think that's it.
What else do I have to say?
You know,
what's crazy is, like,
outside of all of this
I still want to have
a relationship with my dad.
He keeps talking
about wanting to live out
the rest of his life
without thinking
about any of this stuff.
What the fuck happened?
I may never know
what happened to my mom,
and it may not have
anything to do with this.
We don't know if any
of this stuff is criminal.
We only know that he's never
been charged with anything.
But I'll never stop,
because I wake up,
and I look in the mirror,
and I see her.
- Family and friends
of Barbara Hamburg
gathering at the
First Congregational Church
to remember her life.
She was found dead
outside her home
on March 3, 2010.
We are coming up
on the tenth anniversary
of her death.
- I could say a million things
about my mom.
I think her memory exists
in fragments
spread across the lives
that she touched,
and I think today there's
enough of those fragments
together for this to matter.
Dear Mom,
when you died,
I lost my will to live.
My world suddenly
became a place
where murders can happen
to people I loved
and go unsolved,
and I couldn't handle that.
I decided
that finding your killer
was going to give me
a reason enough to live.
It would give me purpose.
So I started asking questions
seven years ago.
- Whoa!
- And when I started
to look into your life
for clues about your death,
I quickly realized
that I didn't really know you.
I learned
about your childhood,
your first crush,
when you fell in love
with my dad.
I read in your letters
and scrap pieces of paper
about your biggest fears,
the toll of your divorce,
the stark truth
about your alcoholism,
and the inspiring story
of your recovery.
I learned you weren't a saint
and you made decisions
that you morally questioned.
- Watch out!
- But one thing was constant.
- Yay, Madison!
- Your world revolved
around your children,
around me and my sister, Ali.
- You're on, baby.
- There's the carpet
right there.
- Every so often,
something triggers me
to remember
that this is all real.
- Say hi.
- I'll see a mother and son
getting ice cream
Or I'll see
my friends' mothers
watch them get married,
have kids.
I will never
have that with you.
I would give anything
to go back
and tell you how proud
of you I was
And how inspiring
and beautiful you were.
If I could just do that,
maybe that would
give me a purpose.
If my film could be
my way of telling you
"I love you" one last time.
Check, one two, one two.
Mom, all you wanted for me
was to be happy
and healthy,
to have a strong
support group,
to follow my dreams,
and to stand up
for what I believe in.
And through obsessing
over your story
and over your death,
I've learned
that I don't have
to simply accept
the world I was running from,
the world where murders
go unsolved.
I can fight to hold
that world accountable.
I may not have found
the meaning of life
or who and what
I'm doing this story for,
but, Mom,
you don't have to worry
about your son anymore.
Love, Madison.
- Her death has gone unsolved,
listed as a cold case,
adding to the pain here.
Her son with a message
to whoever killed his mother.
- If you're out there,
the person who killed my mom
You must be living
with such a weight,
and I feel sorry
for what you must be carrying.
If I could ask you
one question,
it would just be, "Why?"
Maybe it was
a terrible mistake.
Why not relieve yourself?
Please turn yourself in.
Let us know why, at least.
Come on in.
- Whoo!
- Hi there.
- Hey, guys, before we eat,
I just wanted
to give you guys something.
In 2013, we spread
my mom's ashes
in Maine.
I thought
that there weren't any left,
and when Conway and I
went to Florida,
we found the rest of 'em,
so I called my friend
who is a ceramicist
to make something for you guys
that has a channel
inside of it
that has some
of my mom's ashes in 'em.
- Wow.
- Oh.
Oh, my God,
that's beautiful, Maddie.
Oh.
- I love you, Grammy.
- So update from the Freedom
of Information Commission.
- Mm-hmm.
- Hot off the presses.
"Let's find a time to discuss
after we all have a chance
to read and absorb."
- Go to the last page, just--
- "It is found
that the respondents
failed to prove
that the requested records"--
holy shit--
"are exempt from disclosure."
Holy shit.
- We won.
- Holy shit, dude.
If you combine
the two wells of information,
our investigation and theirs,
you may be able
to come to a conclusion
that gives you
and your family closure.
- Where are your toes?
Are those your toes?
Where are your fingers?
- Madison got a ball.
Nice job, Maddie.
When was
the last time you saw Mom?
That day,
I was running late for school,
and Mom took me.
She gave me a kiss, she said
she loved me,
and she left me at school.
What do you think happened?
We all were coming up
with theories.
There was some type
of a confrontation or something.
The person
was very emotional, very angry,
and it usually tells you
that there is a relationship.
There's a rift in our family
because of the murder.
I may second guess
who I think it is at this point.
It's so hard to know
who to trust.
- Vamos.
- Hey.
- Hi.
- Hi! Oh, my God!
- How are you?
- Oh, my goodness.
I have not seen you
in, like, forever.
- So long.
- Oh.
- How are you, sweetheart?
- Good. How are you?
- So good to see you
You okay?
- I'm doing well.
- How was your journey?
- We're tired.
- Yeah, I bet.
- Going in for a kiss.
- Oh, my God!
- Hi, Grammy.
- Oh, I don't believe it, oh.
Today that looks
so much like you.
- Really?
- Uh-huh.
And she was a really neat lady,
and I go,
"She looks
like my granddaughter."
- Really?
- Yeah.
- I've been told.
- Oh.
- How's it coming?
Is it coming along?
- Yeah.
- I don't know
how you deal with it.
You know?
- Yeah.
- And you're trying to solve
a murder and tell a story.
It's a lot. Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
- Solving a murder
and telling a story,
it's a lot.
- Took Stacey,
like, I don't know,
eight hours to get up here,
and they're
a couple hours away.
- Think you're
gonna get married?
- I think so.
- Can I meet him first?
- Yeah.
That's the idea.
The idea
is that you'd be there.
- I'd like that.
- Yeah, I'd like that.
- Would you want to know
what happened?
- To Mom?
- To Mom?
- Yeah.
It would be important
for everyone to know,
to have--you know what I mean?
I think that
you are the only person
who can truly empathize with me
because you're
also Mom's child,
you know what I mean?
Who can truly understand,
you know what I mean?
- Yeah.
- I feel like loss is different
for everyone, you know?
It's different when it's--yeah.
And that's why
it's so important for us
to have each other.
Yeah.
How are you?
- I'm good.
I'm just obsessed
with finding an answer
'cause I just want know.
I feel like I block out
a lot of stuff,
a lot of emotions about it,
you know?
And sometimes, like,
my connection to her is
distanced.
It's like she's a character
from a story to me right now,
and it's kind of--I don't know
if it's healthy or not.
I think I kind of overlooked--
I just pressed everyone
really hard,
and it's really traumatic,
and it--
I just don't want
to hurt anyone.
- Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
- Blow it out, Chris!
Blow out the candle!
- Whoo, he did it!
Yay!
- Who are those kids?
- There's Conway.
- It's Conway.
- That's Doug.
- Yeah, this is--
- That's Madison.
- I still have this CD.
- That's Madison.
- Check out that hair.
- Madison stealing
the show as always.
Molly.
So pretty, Grammy.
- There it is.
- Wow.
- Here comes the Barbie scene.
- There's Mom.
- Yay.
- Oh, and there I am.
- And Ali.
- Oh.
- Oh, God.
- Oh, dear.
- It's not--yeah.
It's not.
It just all breaks my heart
a little bit, man.
- I'm glad
that you're having fun.
Who the hell says?
- I love you.
- I'll see you in a few weeks.
- You too.
- Thank you for everything.
- All right, take care.
What do you think
I'm looking for
with this project?
- You want to know
why it happened
and also to know who Mom was.
- What do you hope that I get?
- Peace.
- Ball?
- Oh, I see.
You want Mommy
to get your ball?
You want Mommy
to get the ball?
- Good boy.
- Ball!
- What?
You wanna get in there?
You want me
to put you in there?
No?
Then what do you want?
- Ball.
- You want your ball?
- That's a good boy.
Maddy.
Madison.
- I'm sure I'm getting blamed
for lots of things
in that family.
- I'm sure.
- Well, there's many victims.
- Yeah.
- I feel the same way
about my mom.
One day, I hope to be able
to talk about
all this stuff with you.
- So if I come to New York
and we talk in person,
can we talk about stuff?
It's a shame
where we are now,
the fact that it's--
everything's so unclear
and just sort of lingering,
you know?
- Mm.
- It's starting to sprinkle.
- I know.
- Look at my little
thing I made.
- It's cool.
- It's my little sitting area.
- It's nice.
- It's really sweet when it's--
Yeah, this is a trailer, dude.
Sorry, I'm a little nervous.
- You're good.
- It's just every time
we reopen, I
- I know.
- Struggle, so I apologize.
- I can imagine.
- Yeah.
I found some things
of your mom's.
- Like what?
- You know, the most important
thing to me is--
if you'll give me one second.
This is the purse
that your mother was carrying
the day she was murdered.
- Oh, my God, that's the purse
on her--on the lawn?
- Yes, I told the police--
- They released it?
- I told the police
I'd put it in the house.
- And they never--
- Took it.
This is why I think
something very bad
is wrong with
Madison Police Department.
- I feel like we shouldn't
even be touching this stuff.
- It's--they didn't
fingerprint it.
- It's, like, evidence.
- They didn't do anything.
You know how many times I've
had to pack it and remove it?
- Did you read this thing?
- No.
- "This being human
is a guest house.
"Every morning a new arrival.
"A joy, a depression,
a meanness,
"some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
"Welcome and attend them all!
"Even if they're
a crowd of sorrows
"who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
"still, treat
each guest honorably.
"Be grateful
for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond."
- Okay, so this is
the other stuff
I wanted you to see.
- What is this?
This is from my mom
to her divorce attorney.
- Yes.
- Where was all of this stuff?
- When they opened up
the house,
she had piles of stuff--
- From the divorce or
- Yeah.
- "I feel it necessary
to give you the entire scope
"of the situation in order
for you to represent me
"to your best ability.
"I have many concerns,
and once you know all of them,
"I know you will know
the best course of action
"that we should proceed with.
"Jeff and I were married
for 13 years.
"He started a number
of companies.
"One in particular brought him
overseas to the Middle East.
"He was extremely paranoid
about his deals
"and wouldn't discuss them
with me.
"He said his phones
were tapped
"and his mail
was tampered with.
"Jeff began to basically
live in the Middle East
"and visit us at home.
"The FBI started calling
and looking for Jeff.
"They came to our home
on a number of occasions,
"but Jeff was always
out of the country.
"Jeff is being investigated
for money laundering
"to the tune of $200 million
"using an oil barge
in the Middle East.
"He has three
separate passports
"in different names.
"I was afraid of him,
the FBI,
"how he had ruined
numerous people's lives,
"that I would be next and that
he would take the children.
"He threatened me
that if anyone,
"government or not,
came after him
that I would go down
with him."
Jesus Christ.
Wow. Wait, wait.
"I also need to have
a will made out.
"Could you please let me know
when you could do that?
"I have documents,
computer discs,
"names, bank accounts,
and more
"that would benefit
the INTERPOL investigation.
"They are kept in a safe place
with instructions
"to be sent to INTERPOL
in the event
something should happen to me."
What the f--
She sends that thing
to a lawyer,
and then four
or five years later,
she's murdered.
That's something,
like, I've thought of
in the back of my head.
Like, if my mom
was scared for her life,
would she ever give me a sign?
More divorce stuff.
Bank stuff.
This is credit card stuff.
So much shit.
What is this?
Pinnacle One.
"We now have ready
1.2 billion U.S. dollars."
These are all,
like, tax returns
of businesses
I've never heard of.
Anova Technologies.
So many accounts, man.
I'm looking at hundreds
of millions of dollars
on contracts
with my dad's name
at the bottom of all of it.
$250 million on contracts,
mentions of, like,
Prague and Dubai.
$50 million tranches,
profits will be split
between all of the partners.
It's just kind of insane.
What is this?
- Based on what we found
in the file box,
it looks like these are
sketches of money transfers
which look very shady.
- So Pinnacle One,
a company that,
on some of these papers,
my dad claims
to be the CEO of
- Correct.
- Was transferring money
to Aston Rothbury,
which we know was run by
a convicted money launderer
- Correct.
- To Anchor Bank
in Switzerland,
which has been accused
of money laundering,
and to Bank of Cyprus,
which has faced charges
for money laundering.
- Yep.
You shouldn't be
transferring money
to all these different banks
that you--
in countries that you don't
have any business in.
It's very strange.
- My background
is financial crime,
and as we say in the college,
we follow the money.
- One of the things
that we found
was that the language
of the contracts
that have my dad's name
on them and our home address
match this thing
called a prime bank program.
- People buy and sell
bank guarantees
and use them to invest money
into different banks,
but a lot of times,
it's actually just a scam.
- So I want to add some more
insanity to all this.
These are all shell companies,
meaning they exist on paper.
- Okay.
- All right?
The majority of all this paper
is just paper.
The letters are fake, right?
Or obviously, they're a scam
to a specific customer
on the prime bank.
- Right.
- You'll see where it says,
"The guarantee is governed
by the latest revision
of the Uniform Customs
and practice as,"
blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
- Right.
- There was actually
a fraud alert that went out
that that's totally fraud.
- Wow.
- This is all pretty much
smoke and mirrors.
- Is there any, like,
reasonable explanation
for all of this stuff?
Like, any just
regular business practice?
No.
- After he lost his job
at Southern Electric,
he started his own business,
which was RoadTrac.
Jeff gave me an opportunity
to come work for him.
You know, it all seemed
like it was a great opportunity
for me to get in
on the ground floor
of a business.
For me, it just seemed
as though something
wasn't quite right
with the whole thing
'cause he would
give me stories, you know,
that we were trying to get
people to invest money and--
crazy stories,
like put a million dollars in,
and six months later,
we'd have $10 million out,
and we'd all be making
a ton of money,
and I just
didn't understand it.
I made the decision that
if it doesn't sound right,
it's probably not right,
so I questioned him about it,
and from that moment on,
I was out.
He called me from overseas
on the phone one day and said,
"Sorry, man, it's over."
I went home
to three young kids
flat broke and without a job,
so that's
how that relationship,
shall we say, turned,
you know?
- Did he ever take investment
from the family
for business deals?
- Uh-huh, yep.
He did from us several times
and paid them back,
you know, as promised.
The last one,
we've never seen again.
- What was the last deal?
- It was $125,000,
and it was very hard,
and we'd be a lot better off
if we still had it,
but we don't.
That's tough.
Did you not know that, Maddy?
- No.
- I only ever met him
in person
a small handful of times.
You know, at a deposition,
at mediation,
those types of things.
The character of your father
was this world traveler
who had been very successful
and that he was doing
these deals overseas
in Middle Eastern countries,
and they just never
made any sense,
and to add to that,
some of his idiosyncrasies
sort of just made him
a memorable character.
- There's some correspondence
that I've found
in a box
of my mother's belongings
about my mom claiming
that she was brought in
to the police department
in Connecticut
because of an investigation
into my father's
possible involvement
in a international
money laundering scheme.
I don't know
if you remember that at all.
- I do.
- The investigator
who brought her in
to the police station
on behalf of INTERPOL
disclosed that he had
offshore bank accounts--
one in Switzerland
and one in the Caymans--
that she was trying
to track down.
- I mean, I know your mother
had gathered,
as part of the divorce case,
tidbits of information
about his overseas dealings.
- Your mom told me
that she had gotten a call
and was asked to go to
the Madison Police Department
because they believed
that your father
was being used
as a money launderer
or a mule.
I think they
frightened your mother
into thinking that somehow
they were going to
make her part of his crime.
So she went to Hugh Keefe
to see
how she could protect herself.
She was really,
really concerned.
- I didn't know
what my dad was doing,
and I still don't,
but I never thought
I would see, like,
his name on documents
that have
hundreds of millions
to billions of dollars
in currency exchanges.
- And that's why
meeting with the police
is gonna be so critical,
because we really need
to kind of go back
to the beginning on this.
We need to know
what they've done,
what they haven't done,
what their working theory is
of the case.
That's the big unknown.
- Yeah.
How's it going?
- Well.
How are you, Madison?
- Nice to see you.
- Good to see you again.
- Madison, Mark.
- Nice to meet you, Mark.
- It's a pleasure, man.
- I can just
introduce everybody,
and then I'll give
Detective Sudock
a just brief update
at where the project is at.
- Yeah, I think we ought
to take our cues from Chris,
see where he is,
how comfortable he is,
and, you know, how open he is.
- Yeah, full transparency.
I mean, tell him exactly
what the intentions are
and stress how, you know,
we are looking to work
with them 'cause we
have that common goal.
- Today is gonna be,
you know, show our cards,
and the teamwork philosophy
needs to really come across.
- How's it going?
Good to see you.
Or
- Sure.
- All right, you're the boss.
All right.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
- I can't believe
how confident
Detective Sudock was
that they know who did it.
I can't believe
how confident he was.
They've been this close
since March 7, 2010,
to making an arrest--
this close.
- The number one suspect
turned off their phone.
Ali's phone was on
'cause she was calling
and texting.
Conway's phone was on because
she received texts and calls.
The hurdle's gonna be
convincing the chief,
but sounds like the police
are gonna give us
Some information that,
whether or not
someone's taken to court,
may provide an answer.
I'm sorry time goes by
and we don't talk, Conway.
It gets really hectic,
you know?
- I'm just angry, Madison.
I'm angry.
And I'm sorry if I'm
interrupting your day,
but, God damn it,
don't fucking ignore me.
- Conway, I am on your side.
I'm working on it.
We have a really good shot.
- They're fucking
doing nothing!
Those motherfuckers told me
I was the most important
person
they wanted to talk to.
Why aren't you asking them,
"Why haven't you
called my aunt?"
I'm angry, Mad.
- I know.
I got you.
- No, I don't think
you got me, Mad.
You get your little fucking
project thing going
and blah, blah, blah.
You know, hopefully,
it will come
to a fruition at some point.
- Don't push me away, Conway.
- I'm not pushing you away.
I'm telling you, tell me
what the fuck is going on.
You think everything is gonna
work out perfect.
- I don't think that, Conway.
How can you--
I don't think that.
- It doesn't work out perfect.
Ever.
The whole thing
makes me just
so angry.
Your mom was my best friend
in the whole wide world.
I didn't want to witness
that shit.
I didn't want to see that.
Nobody understands.
Nobody understands me anymore.
Ever.
- Something has to change.
And I don't have much time
to wait.
I lost my fucking mind
when I lost my sister.
- Group hug.
- Mwah.
- It's those three sisters!
- We're here.
- We're here!
- Watch out.
- I can't live much longer
without the truth.
- Hey,
this is Madison Hamburg.
I'm hoping to get in touch
with Detective Sudock.
Hey, Detective Sudock,
this is Madison Hamburg.
I'm just following up
from our call two days ago.
- You may start
your message now.
- Hi, Captain Race,
this is Madison Hamburg.
I'm just following up
my previous phone call
about my documentary
about my mom's murder.
- You have reached
the Madison, Connecticut,
Police Department.
- You have reached
the Connecticut State Police
Troop L in Litchfield.
- You've reached
Sergeant Neal Mulhern.
I'm currently unavailable.
- Let me put you in
to the commanding officer
of the major crime unit.
- Okay.
- Unfortunately,
he is out of the office
for the rest of the day.
- "Dear Chief Jack Drumm,
"I'm writing you in regards
to my mother's
unsolved
homicide investigation."
"As you know,
I've been looking for answers
"into what happened
to my mother
for the past six years."
"I've interviewed
many individuals
on camera multiple times."
"I write to you
pleading for the opportunity
"to talk about
how my investigators
may be able to help."
- Put it on your eye.
What you doing?
Pushing all the buttons?
- "My family and I live with
my mother's absence every day.
"We are desperate
to find justice
"for her murder.
"Five months from now
will mark ten years
"since her death,
"and this month
marks four years
since her case went cold."
- "Would be grateful for you
to grant us the opportunity
to, at the very least, talk."
- Madison,
this is Christie Hodge
returning your call,
Madison Police Department.
Yes, the chief
did get your letter.
He's not going
to be available to meet
to discuss this with you,
and he's following
the state's guidelines.
This is still
an open investigation.
If you have
specific questions,
feel free to contact
Detective Neal Mulhern.
I think you already have
his number.
Bye-bye.
- He's not even
gonna talk to me?
No one's gonna answer
their phone for weeks
and just not respond,
wait till it goes away?
How do they think this looks?
- I can't believe
that they wouldn't even say,
"Well, we'd be interested
to meet with you and discuss
whatever new information
you might have."
- Right?
- I think the next step--
well, they leave us no choice
but to do the FOIA request.
- Yeah.
- There must be
some major problems
with the case
that we just don't know about.
- Yeah, I don't know.
I mean, I'm not trying
to create
an adversarial relationship
with them in any way.
- No.
- You know?
I'm just trying
to help motivate
momentum in the case.
- Sure.
- So the one thing
that the police don't have
aside from access
to my mom's Facebook
and some documents
that we have
is, I'm still in touch
with my dad.
- Yep, okay.
- And he has been
asking to meet
in New York.
- Oh, wow.
- Going for a walk?
Here, he's gonna go.
Bye!
- Bye-bye, Mommy.
Bye-bye, Mommy!
- Bye-bye!
- Bye-bye, Mommy.
Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye.
- So do I just text him?
I'll just call him.
- Hello.
- Hey.
- How you doing?
- How's it going?
- Okay.
- So I wanted to tell you
I'm looking at
coming to the northeast,
and I wanted to know
if you're gonna be around
in New York
'cause I'd love to see you.
- Visit, yeah, me too.
- I was thinking
it would be cool
to go to where you grew up.
You grew up
in Forest Hills, right?
- Yeah.
- I remember doing that
as a kid.
- That'd be fine.
- We could have
a vehicle drive by
this big front entrance
as they walk in.
- You guys still
in the same place?
- Hello, check, check.
- I mean, you can't see it,
for sure.
- No.
- All right,
I'm looking forward to it.
- Yeah, me too.
- All right, see you then.
Bye.
- Love you, bye.
Man.
- Fine.
He didn't suspect a thing,
which makes me feel really bad
about what I'm doing.
- Yeah.
- Should make the most
of this meeting.
- Hey.
How's it going?
- Okay.
- Good to see you.
- Yeah, you're looking good.
- Thanks.
- You're looking thin.
- Thank you.
- So we're looking
at the third floor going up.
- Where, here?
- Yeah.
- How did your parents
end up here?
I don't know much about that.
- We lived in a Quonset hut.
- A Quonset hut?
- My father
got out of the service,
and so he had VA assistance,
but he'd live in a Quonset hut
with a fire stove
in the middle.
- Wow.
- And then we moved here.
- And what did--
oh, Grandpa Martin
was in the steel business?
- Oh, really?
- This is it.
Yeah, yeah, I want to know.
You know?
We did this when I was younger.
- Yeah, I know.
- I think I could
just appreciate it more now.
So I've heard
a lot of different stories,
but you are the only one
who can tell me.
We were really wealthy.
Why did we lose
all of that money?
- I
- I feel like
if I don't talk about it
and if I don't
ask these questions,
I don't know
that I'll ever be able
to get past this,
like, giant elephant
that sort of stands between us.
- Right.
Ten years,
I've been accused of things.
- This is not me
accusing you of anything.
- I'm not--okay.
- This is just me
asking you questions,
because I want to trust you,
and I want a relationship
with my father.
- Okay,
I don't want to live this.
I really don't want
to live through this.
- Do you want me
to find parking?
- No, I want to go home.
- This is really unfortunate.
I came all the way up here
to talk to you.
- I know,
but I don't want to be given--
- But, like, think about it.
Like, I'm--
- I don't want to--
I don't--
- I'm here.
I'm listening to you.
- No, this is enough.
- If you could just tell me
one thing that, like,
you feel maybe sorry for.
Do you realize, like,
how all of this
impacted my life as your son?
- You think I did this to you,
the murder of your mother?
You think that--
- Dad, you don't think--
- That I have anything
to do with that?
- No, that's not
what I'm saying.
- Okay, then I didn't
impact your life.
- My childhood.
- I tried to do
the best I could.
Do you know how much
I loved your mother?
- I don't.
I want to talk
to you about it.
- I loved your mother
very much.
She was the love of my life.
Hey, so we got here
an hour early.
Okay.
- Marcia,
can I ask you a question?
- Sure.
- How did you find out about
what happened to my mom?
- I don't want to bring up
something heavy.
I just--you know, I don't
see you guys very often,
and I'll regret
not talking about it,
to be honest.
- What I want to know
is not the answer
to what happened to my mom
but more who my mom was
and who my father is.
- So, Jeff, do you want
to say anything to that?
- Well, I'm--I listen to this,
but fathers don't always
share everything with sons.
There are things that,
in a million years,
I wouldn't share;
I'll take it to my grave.
So forget about whether or not
I have to be
the open book to you.
I'm the father,
and you're the son.
- I'm gonna let you
continue this conversation
and go upstairs.
- Okay.
- Okay?
- Thank you, Marcia.
It's really nice to see you.
- Nice to see you too.
- And thank you so much
for talking to me about that.
- Bye.
- Bye.
- The questions
you're asking to me
are questions
that have nothing
to do with your childhood,
like, you know,
about my business and--
- Sure, what were you doing?
Why were you gone
all the time?
- Okay, I was overseas
because I was doing business.
What is--what's the--
there's no mystery.
- Well, I--
- You don't know people
who travel and do business?
You don't know people
who go and stay--
- Spend, like, months
away from their families?
And, you know, the things
I found within my mom's stuff
is, like--
what is all of that?
- What is that?
- There's multiple letters
from my mom
saying that you
kept telling her
there's an oil rig
that went aground
and that we were gonna be rich
to the tune of hundreds
of millions of dollars,
this deal that you were
putting together.
- This is the first time
I ever heard of that.
What--did you have something
that says--
- I have the letters
between you guys
when you were going
through the divorce.
I have everything.
I have all my mom's stuff.
What am I gonna do with it?
- Show it to me.
Bring it to me.
Show it to me.
Show me everything.
- If that's what I have to do
for you to tell me--
- I don't even know
what you're talking about.
I don't even know
what you're talking about.
- She has all these
weird documents
with your name on 'em.
- Okay. So? So?
- What are they?
The hundreds of millions
of dollars
in currency transactions
in Russia, in--
- Bullshit.
That's all bullshit.
- Well, your name's on it.
Our address is on it.
Your handwriting's on it.
- I have no idea.
I don't know.
Maybe it's forgeries.
I have no idea.
I've never worked in Russia.
And I've never worked
on $100 million deals
with the oil rigs.
Not only that.
Nobody's ever produced those
to show anything.
- What--you say it like it's--
what do you mean
nobody's ever produced?
- I don't believe it.
- You don't believe what?
- I don't believe the letters.
I don't believe they're mine,
and I don't believe
they came from me,
and I don't know
what you're talking about.
- What's the prime bank stuff?
- That was a--
Prime bank?
What's prime bank?
- It's, like, a prime bank
guarantee for deals.
- That was the--
yeah, that was to--
that was to do some deals.
That was--
it's very complicated.
We tried our hand
at trading oil.
It never worked.
There were all these
phony bank guarantees,
all counterfeit.
- Wow.
In letters that my mother
wrote to her attorney,
she references
being questioned
by the FBI about you.
Why would they--
- She reported--
In her drunken stupor,
she called the police
and suggested
that I was laundering money--
$100 million worth of money.
- Why did she think that?
- She was drunk.
She was a drunk.
Don't you understand?
You don't get it.
You were a drunk.
You did things.
They were crazy.
- Yeah, but I didn't, like--
- She was a dr--
You don't understand
how many stupid things
that she could--
she was possible
that she could do
when she was drunk.
She called them.
You know,
I talked to the police,
and they said nothing.
It was all bullshit,
and she was vind--I--
- No, no, I like to hear
your side of this.
It paints a different
picture of it.
- Your mother was vindictive.
She was--she--
she was
You guys have a picture of her
of being
this really nice person.
She wasn't really nice in--
deep down.
She was vindictive
about a lot of things.
She just did some--
the craziest stuff.
She would come back from
going out with her friends,
and she'd just fall down
and pass out
on the bathroom floor.
That's how drunk she got.
She would leave you guys alone
to go out drinking.
- Yeah, I remember.
- She claimed I abandoned you.
It was a fucking lie.
I don't hold it against her.
I never did.
I just figure that she just
revealed who really she was.
- Why did you
bring Hugh Keefe to court?
- I can't talk to you
about the legal issues.
This is what makes me
more suspicious about--
- Suspicious about what?
- Well, what
your endgame here is.
If your endgame
is to know who I am,
I'm telling you who I am,
but don't start asking me
questions that have to do
with the legal strategy
of how I did this.
It's not important to you.
- I'll tell you
how it played out for me.
- At this time,
we are seeking to locate
her former husband,
Jeffrey Hamburg.
- The police are saying,
"We don't know
where your dad is."
Then the next time
I hear your whereabouts,
you have, like,
a criminal defense attorney--
- Well, wouldn't you?
I'm not gonna go talk
to police without a lawyer.
I wasn't even anywhere near
your mother's place.
- You were
in New Haven, right?
- At the court.
- At 9:30?
- I don't know
what time it was.
I called my lawyer
and saying, you know,
"Should I be
waiting here longer?"
Your mother's not here.
It got continued,
and then I left.
Simple as that.
They couldn't prove anything.
They couldn't even
get a subpoena
because there wasn't
any evidence.
- Other than circumstantial.
- Not even circumstantial.
I wasn't there.
Timeline, I think, didn't work,
and DNA didn't work.
- Yeah.
- We tried to re-create it.
- Really?
- Yeah, of course.
It didn't work.
But they were convinced
that I did it,
and they wouldn't
get off of it.
You have to look to the police
to doing a shitty job,
and without them,
unless you hire
your own private detective,
what are you gonna do?
So now you know it.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
But there is more,
and I'm not gonna tell you.
- All right? You ready to go?
- Yeah.
- Whoa.
- You okay?
- Yeah, no, I just
didn't get my foot up.
- Good to see you.
- Yep, same here.
- Yeah.
- What?
- Well, it's just--
it's confusing.
It's just all--
the emotions are
around all of it, you know?
Love you.
- Love you too.
Good to see you.
- Yep.
- Will do.
- I know.
I just don't know
what the fuck
he's gonna do
when this comes out.
- I realized that I could
no longer contest
the things he was saying
if I wanted to glean anything.
Just let's sit there
and listen.
Their version of moving forward
is ignoring it.
- Sweeping it under the rug.
- Acting like
it never happened.
Why should I
have a relationship
if he's not gonna talk
about that shit?
I'm just relieved
that it's over.
- And we're gonna go
to that light
and go straight.
- Got it.
- So we're not B&E?
- All right, there's
a lot of stuff in here.
- Tyler, oh.
And I have
your mother right here.
- What is that?
- Ashes.
- Oh, really?
- Mm-hmm.
It's heavy.
I couldn't give 'em all away.
I'm sorry.
- No, it's good.
Was she sharing with you
about the details
about what was going on
with my dad?
- Abandonment is why
she filed for divorce.
- And you become closer
with her because of that?
- I want to support her
- Okay.
- And help her.
What paperwork can I
help you get together
to get this divorce,
blah, blah, blah, blah, right?
- Yeah.
- And everything done with.
You can go to court.
Ali, fucking Ali.
That's the only reason
she fucking died,
'cause Ali insisted she go
to court and get that money.
When Ali was born,
she was so addicted and
would not let her mother go
out of her sight.
It was awful.
I thought something
was wrong with her
from when she was born.
- Huh.
- Anyhow, that's my opinion,
but
I always tried to love her,
and now I don't.
- You don't love Ali?
- Mm-mmm.
Not at all.
- Because you think she did--
she committed the murder?
- I know she did this.
She called 911.
She comes over to your mother.
"I know"--
she's talking to 911--
"I know CPR.
I'm gonna fix her.
I'm gonna help her."
She got as much blood
all over her body
as she possibly could.
- Ali did?
- Mm-hmm.
I thought
that was very strange.
- Maybe she was
just freaking out.
- Yeah, could be your option.
Not mine.
- I'm just--
- Trying to reason with me
before I go off the deep end?
Thank you.
- It's hard for anyone
to trust a lot of people--
my dad.
People have said things
about the Gifting Tables.
People say things about Ali,
say things about--
- Me.
Everybody thinks I'm crazy,
Madison, and I'm not.
- You're not crazy.
- I'm fucked up.
My life is changed forever.
- Everybody is.
It's a traumatic thing.
- I'm not the same person
I once was,
and I know that.
- Yeah.
She's so open about Ali.
But
If it's not her theory
that I'm entertaining,
she's, like,
immediately defensive.
Like, I want so desperately
to have a change in people
so that when
their, like, intimate--
these intimate versions
of themselves
are portrayed, like,
they don't--
it doesn't cause them trauma.
- Right.
- It's like,
when people watch this,
they're gonna watch that.
They're gonna hear
about the hit man.
They're gonna see
about all of these things.
And it's just like
I just want so desperately
to be like,
"Hey, like, you gotta level
with this shit.
Otherwise this is what
you're leaving people with."
And I'm afraid that she won't
see it like that.
It doesn't feel
like there's a, like, good
that can come from that.
- Right.
- What I know is,
I saw your mom on Monday.
Actually, Monday, I saw her
at one of the table things.
Your mom, I'll tell you,
on that Monday night
when we saw her,
she was glowing, Madison.
She'd, like, bought herself
some new clothes,
which she never did,
and she was just glowing
from ear to ear,
and everybody noticed it.
We all said it.
We said, "You look
so beautiful tonight.
You look so happy."
I'm probably not telling you
anything helpful, but--
- No, it's--honestly,
it's nice to know, to hear.
- Yeah, I mean
that was the last time
I saw her, but
she called me on Tuesday
and she said that, you know,
that she had, um,
court the next day at 2:00,
and, um--
but she really--
her appointment
wasn't at 2:00, but she--
she said it was at 2:00,
and she goes,
"And that's really weird
because it's usually
always in the morning."
- Yeah.
- So somebody had to have
told her that.
I don't know who told her,
but she got the information
wrong.
- Weird.
- Yeah.
- She talked to my mom
at 10:30 at night on the 2nd.
And my mom told her
that the court date
was at 2:00 p.m.
and that that's weird
'cause it's always
in the morning.
Wonder if someone--
- Yeah.
I wonder if someone, like--
This is
kind of ridiculous,
but, like,
I wonder if someone called
impersonating, like, a clerk
and said
it was gonna be at 2:00.
- So she would be--
- So she would be home.
It would explain
why she's in her pajamas.
- Right.
- Pure speculation here.
The assailant shows up
the morning of the 2nd
thinking it's
the last opportunity
'cause it's the day
before the court date.
There's a period of time
while Ali's in school,
so they, like,
arrive at the house
thinking that my mom
has no plans
but see that someone else
is at the house.
- I just remember
dark ski mask
looking in the window
as he was walking
and thinking,
"That was just really bizarre.
How bizarre was that?"
- Fucks that up,
decides not
to go through with it,
is scared shitless
that they are being reported
to the police,
so they need to do it.
The only way to do it
is the next day,
but there's not
a big enough opportunity
'cause my mom
would drop Ali off
and go straight to court,
so they call her and tell her
that court got postponed.
- What is this?
- This is Conway's
witness statement
to the police
- Oh, wow.
- Which we didn't know she had.
- What does she say?
"Barbara told me
that she and her attorney,
Rich Callahan, were to be
at court at 2:00 p.m. today."
For some reason, my mom thinks
that court is at 2:00
or is telling people
that court is at 2:00.
- And this is probably
the best piece
of evidence we have
because it's
from the day.
- And we've confirmed
with the court
- That it was at 9:30.
- That it was at 9:30.
- Police have my mom's phone.
- The road is blocked off
by police.
They are treating this case
as a homicide.
- Police did not talk
about a suspect.
- Continue our investigation
into the death
of Barbara Hamburg.
- Yes, the chief
did get your letter.
He's not going
to be available to meet.
- So ever since
the Madison Police Department
told us that they were
gonna issue a full denial
of our request for records,
I submitted this appeal
to the Freedom
of Information Commission,
and now they've decided
to take our appeal,
so they've assigned
a mediator to our case.
He said that he called
the Madison Police Department
and that they seem very firm
and that we're gonna have
to go to a hearing.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
I know.
- A lot of your project.
- I know.
- My God.
- Thanks. I know.
- So the main issue is,
they've asserted
that this is an ongoing
and active investigation,
and our goal will be to show
that it's not actually
an ongoing and active
investigation
in anything other than name.
- It just undercuts the claim
that they're making
that they can't release
any of this information.
- How do you do?
- Good.
- Hey.
- Hey, how you doing?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you, man.
- Hey, Detective Sudock,
good to see you.
- Hi. Anike.
- Hey, how's it going?
- Do you solemnly
and sincerely
affirm and declare
the evidence you shall give
in the case now in question
shall be the truth,
the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth
upon the pain and penalty
of perjury?
- I do.
- Okay.
- I do.
- To start, what is
your relationship
to the deceased?
- Barbara Hamburg
was my mother.
- And when was
your mother murdered?
- March 3, 2010.
- Have you been
in contact with the police
in the ten years
since the murder?
- Yes, I have.
Specifically meetings
in 2013, 2016, and 2019.
- Turning to the 2019 meeting,
do you remember
which detective you met with?
- Detective Sudock.
Most any interaction
is in some way recorded
with the police
that I've ever had.
- I don't think they do.
- While you were
at this meeting,
did you make a recording
of the conversation?
- I did.
- How did you
make the recording?
- On my phone.
- We're going to, yes.
- Well, I'm going to object.
First of all, this was done
surreptitiously, okay?
Second of all, I don't know
what editing he's done.
Obviously, he's in a business
where he has access
to the ability to edit things.
I'd have to repeat it
to a forensic expert,
so at this point in time,
I would object
to admission of the document.
- Okay, you can take it back.
- Okay.
- He's testifying under oath
what's happening
at this meeting.
- Detective Sudock,
in your opinion,
do you believe
that the disclosure
of the information
would be prejudicial
to any potential
future law enforcement action?
- Yes.
- Do you recall
the last time
you were either analyzing data
or looking into
a new possible lead
in this case?
- Yes, last week,
we had information
on this investigation.
Last week.
- Okay.
- Okay, for the sake of time,
I will cut it off there.
Some key points, thank you.
- Based on the statements
in the 2019 meeting
you had with Detective Sudock,
that goes a long way
towards proving
that this may just be
an open investigation in name.
They've had
the same primary suspect
since March 7, 2010.
- Right.
- Nothing that they've done,
despite the fact
that they've done hundreds
and hundreds of interviews,
has gotten them any closer.
- Yeah.
- So the whole point
is to try to give the image
that what they're doing is,
they're just sitting there
twiddling their thumbs.
Detective Sudock,
is an unsolved murder case--
will that ever be closed by
the Madison Police Department?
- I don't know
the answer to that.
I can't answer that.
- To your knowledge, is there
any unsolved murder case
that has been closed by
the Madison Police Department?
- To my knowledge, this is
the only unsolved homicide
in Madison at this time.
- Sure.
So are you aware
of the FOIA request
that's the subject
of this hearing?
- I reviewed
the documents, yes.
Including the 911 call.
- Right, and is that including
the 911 call?
- Mm-hmm.
- Did you also
review that document
and determine that it was--
- I did not review that, no.
- Okay, and yet
the police department decided
not to turn over
that document
in response
to the FOIA request?
- This is the first time
I'm aware of that, sir.
In the best of my recollection,
there's no information in there
that would identify
a perpetrator.
- Madison Hamburg
today testified
about a 2019 meeting.
Do you recall that meeting?
- Yes, sir, I do.
- "We've got nothing."
Do you recall
making that statement?
- Yes, sir, I do.
- Okay.
Do you recall
making the statement
- Do you remember
making that statement
saying that the case
was held up
and not moving forward?
- It's possible I said that.
- Finally, regarding
the DNA in 2010
in referencing bad kits,
do you recall saying
I remember
discussing the DNA kits.
I don't remember
if we used the word "crap"
or anything like that,
but I remember
that we did discuss those.
- Beyond the potential updates
in DNA evidence
and DNA testing,
is there anything else
to investigate?
- I'm going to object
'cause now we're getting
right into the core
of the investigation,
which this whole process
is designed to protect.
- The detective has admitted
that he stated
that there are no leads
in this case.
- He said they got
a lead last week.
- That's absolutely
correct, sir.
- Did I not hear that
correctly?
- Yes, sir.
- Right, but he hasn't
been able to provide
anything beyond
a conclusory statement
that this is ongoing.
- I have a witness last week,
seven days ago.
That's ongoing.
- The witness that you
interviewed last week,
is that somebody that you had
previously never interviewed?
- I think you're getting
too much
into the details of the case,
and I would object.
- No further questions.
- I just have one question.
You're claiming
release of information
would be prejudicial
to a prospective
law enforcement action.
What prospective
law enforcement action
would be prejudiced?
- It could be a search warrant.
It could be an arrest warrant.
It could be another scene.
I mean, there's so many things
it could be.
I mean, I could go on
with speculating,
but I don't know.
But I know there's
information in there
that I need,
and that information,
in my opinion,
should be kept--remain
with the police department
and not be public
because it's only gonna hamper
any further investigative tool
or technique
that we would have
in the future.
- Okay, that's good.
Thank you very much,
- With that, I will close
this hearing at 4:30 p.m.
- See you, Chief Drumm.
- I'll wait to from you
in the future.
- Sounds good.
- I won't.
I won't.
- Mm-hmm.
It sounds like we're gonna get
the 911 phone call,
but even if they release that,
it's still gonna be months
before we get a decision
about the rest
of the case file.
It says,
"Following the Connecticut
"Freedom of Information
Commission hearing
"on February 19, 2020,
"we reviewed
the 911 telephone call
"placed by
Barbara Alexandra Hamburg
"and Conway Beach
associated with this matter.
"After consideration,
we concluded that such
"should be released to you
"pursuant
to your October 18, 2019,
Freedom of Information
request."
This is the call.
Okay.
I'm gonna listen to it.
- 911.
- I need someone
at 44 Middle Beach Road.
Right now.
My sister .
I don't know.
It just brings me
back to this moment where--
when Ali
told me about it.
I thought that they were wrong
and that, like, there's
a chance that she was alive.
Like, I just listened to them
realizing that she's dead.
- Mm-hmm.
- I know.
We finally found the record
of Ali getting to school,
signing in at Kara's desk
at 7:54 a.m.
- You're shitting me.
- No.
- They finally found that?
- Yeah.
- You're positive?
- Yeah.
So Ali had to wake up Mom.
- Mm-hmm.
- Takes her to school
in her pajamas.
- Drops her off.
Ali signs in.
Mom drives home.
Because she's
still in her pajamas,
she was probably walking
from the car
to the door,
and that's where it happened.
- Mm.
- And that's, like,
my best speculation.
- Mm.
Damn.
Who the fuck--I mean, really,
who would do this?
- I don't know.
- Mm.
You know, maybe I need
to relook at this another way.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Thank you.
- You know,
I was reading your notes
from when you and Ali
were going to therapy.
And I could read
how much you cared
and how much stress
it was putting on you
to take care of Ali.
I know that my mom
would be grateful
that you stepped up.
You didn't have to, but--
- No.
- My mom can't say thank you,
so I'm just gonna say
thank you for doing that.
- Well, your mom
gave me the strength.
I do know that.
- Hey.
- What'd the taxi say
about all of this?
- Hola.
- Oh!
- Hey.
Hello, amigo.
- Yeah, nice to meet you too.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Madison, how are you?
- Good. How are you?
- Has Ali told you
about mi madre?
- Oh, yes.
- He knows everything.
- She was pretty.
The same, Ali?
- Oh, they look alike.
- We look alike.
- Yeah, sí.
- Yeah.
- I love Barbara, yeah.
- So I wanted
to tell you something,
and I'm worried
about telling you.
- Okay.
Go ahead, tell me.
- So
Conway
- Mm-hmm.
- Has suspicions
that you had something to do
with Mom's death.
- Okay.
- And she's been
really adamant about it,
and I don't want you
to find out that out
through the film.
- Okay.
Thank you for telling me.
- I'm sorry
- Yeah.
- That this has affected
her and you this way.
- Yeah, you don't
have to be sorry.
I honestly think
that everyone knows where
that accusation is coming from.
- What do you mean?
- I mean,
it's coming from Conway,
and Conway
has her own problems,
and she's a very hurt person,
and hurt people
don't always act
in the most sound manners
and don't have
the most sound perspectives.
- Yeah.
- And I don't
hold that against her
'cause she's sick.
- Yeah.
- I really don't.
I'm not angry.
I'm not even surprised.
I mean, I've gone through
so much therapy
since Mom died
just trying to work on myself
and become a better person
and overcome
everything that happened,
and you really realize
that when a tragedy happens,
you have a decision.
This is a fork in the road.
You can stay in what happened,
in the trauma,
or you can move forward.
- Mm-hmm.
- And I think that I chose
the path of moving forward
and Conway was not capable
of moving forward
and chose the path
of staying in it.
Moving forward
doesn't mean escaping it,
doesn't mean--no.
It means making something
of your life
'cause that's
what Mom would've wanted.
I'm so happy you're here.
It's important
that I have someone
in my family here with me.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
It means a lot for me
to be marrying here
because all I've wanted
ever since Mom died is a home,
and I've looked,
and I've looked,
and I finally found a home.
It's a home, and it
doesn't matter where I am.
I could be here,
I can be in the United States,
but I have a home.
I have roots.
- Sí.
- Hey.
Mwah.
- Hamburg.
- Barbara Alexandra Hamburg.
- I also came across
a letter I wrote to Ali
but never gave it to her.
"Dear Ali, my heart is broken.
"You are my sister's daughter.
"I love you,
and we are family.
"Blood is thicker than water.
"I hope one day, you'll
understand what I mean by that
"and embrace me
and the idea
"that family includes
the good, the bad, the ugly.
"The tears will never end,
"but you and I
can always begin again.
I love you all the world,
baby girl."
- Madison, who's that?
- Mommy.
- Who's this?
- Mama, Mommy.
Daddy.
- And who's this?
- Mommy.
My relationship with my dad
is really confusing,
and the fact
that I'm making a documentary
about my life
and it's a secret to him
is a huge weight.
Part of me thinks
that the only reason
I'm keeping
this relationship afloat
is because of this documentary.
- Yeah.
- I just hope
that by the end of this,
if he watches this,
that
he'll understand.
The pros and cons are starting
to get really gray
Unless he had something
to do with it.
Fuck, man.
Do I tell him that I've been
making this this whole time?
- Hey.
- Hey, what's up?
- How you doing?
- I'm good.
Sorry to call you so late.
- It's all right.
- Or just a lot later
than I told you.
- Yeah.
Everything all right?
- Um
No.
I need to talk to you
about something.
- Okay.
- I have looked
into every aspect
of my mom's life
- Yeah.
- And I've started
to dredge up things
that she was holding on to
that involve you.
- Uh-huh.
I don't--
- I have no idea
what you're talking about,
and your mom was--you know?
I mean, she made all kinds
of off-the-rail--
I mean, she was--
she was a .
- My mom is writing letters
while she's sober.
There's correspondence
from 2009
saying that you told her
that your life was in danger,
that me and my sister
and my mom were unknown
to your overseas activities
to keep us safe.
You know, I've sort of dug
into public registries
just to see the validity
of these documents.
- Are you recording this?
Are you recording this?
- Yes, I'm recording this.
- Okay, well,
I have nothing to say,
and I have no--
I have no idea
what's going on,
and I don't know what you're--
why you're acting this way,
and I don't know
what you have.
You know,
I'm completely in the dark.
- Okay, well, it looks like
there are deals with IEC,
Summa Finance,
Cleontia Investments,
Pinnacle One.
Your name are on
these business registries
in different countries
and mentioned
in the divorce proceedings.
Why are these different
international businesses
registered to you
if you know nothing about it?
- You're presupposing
something nefarious happened,
so it's a fantasy,
and it's something
that somebody's
making up, and--
- Who is making it up?
- I don't know.
You tell me.
- Who would--
who could make this up?
- I have no idea.
I certainly am not gonna
sit here and speculate
on something that I
don't have in front of me
nor do I care
to answer about.
I mean, it's just in the past,
and, you know, there's nothing
I did that was wrong,
and when you are done
with this,
maybe we'll get together,
but I have
nothing more to say.
- I know,
but I'm going to dig deeper,
but if I do that, am I
putting myself in danger?
- This is absurd.
This is really absurd.
If you want to talk to me
father and son,
it's fine,
but I'm not gonna talk
to you about this anymore.
This is obviously
some crap, so
- I don't know what to say.
I don't know if you got
caught up in this stuff,
and I don't know why my mom
was so worried about it,
and I don't know
if I should be worried.
- Is that it?
Okay.
Bye.
- He hung up on me.
He did say,
"Maybe after all of this,
we can talk about it."
But I think
that until he reaches out
and tells me
something truthful,
I think that's it.
What else do I have to say?
You know,
what's crazy is, like,
outside of all of this
I still want to have
a relationship with my dad.
He keeps talking
about wanting to live out
the rest of his life
without thinking
about any of this stuff.
What the fuck happened?
I may never know
what happened to my mom,
and it may not have
anything to do with this.
We don't know if any
of this stuff is criminal.
We only know that he's never
been charged with anything.
But I'll never stop,
because I wake up,
and I look in the mirror,
and I see her.
- Family and friends
of Barbara Hamburg
gathering at the
First Congregational Church
to remember her life.
She was found dead
outside her home
on March 3, 2010.
We are coming up
on the tenth anniversary
of her death.
- I could say a million things
about my mom.
I think her memory exists
in fragments
spread across the lives
that she touched,
and I think today there's
enough of those fragments
together for this to matter.
Dear Mom,
when you died,
I lost my will to live.
My world suddenly
became a place
where murders can happen
to people I loved
and go unsolved,
and I couldn't handle that.
I decided
that finding your killer
was going to give me
a reason enough to live.
It would give me purpose.
So I started asking questions
seven years ago.
- Whoa!
- And when I started
to look into your life
for clues about your death,
I quickly realized
that I didn't really know you.
I learned
about your childhood,
your first crush,
when you fell in love
with my dad.
I read in your letters
and scrap pieces of paper
about your biggest fears,
the toll of your divorce,
the stark truth
about your alcoholism,
and the inspiring story
of your recovery.
I learned you weren't a saint
and you made decisions
that you morally questioned.
- Watch out!
- But one thing was constant.
- Yay, Madison!
- Your world revolved
around your children,
around me and my sister, Ali.
- You're on, baby.
- There's the carpet
right there.
- Every so often,
something triggers me
to remember
that this is all real.
- Say hi.
- I'll see a mother and son
getting ice cream
Or I'll see
my friends' mothers
watch them get married,
have kids.
I will never
have that with you.
I would give anything
to go back
and tell you how proud
of you I was
And how inspiring
and beautiful you were.
If I could just do that,
maybe that would
give me a purpose.
If my film could be
my way of telling you
"I love you" one last time.
Check, one two, one two.
Mom, all you wanted for me
was to be happy
and healthy,
to have a strong
support group,
to follow my dreams,
and to stand up
for what I believe in.
And through obsessing
over your story
and over your death,
I've learned
that I don't have
to simply accept
the world I was running from,
the world where murders
go unsolved.
I can fight to hold
that world accountable.
I may not have found
the meaning of life
or who and what
I'm doing this story for,
but, Mom,
you don't have to worry
about your son anymore.
Love, Madison.
- Her death has gone unsolved,
listed as a cold case,
adding to the pain here.
Her son with a message
to whoever killed his mother.
- If you're out there,
the person who killed my mom
You must be living
with such a weight,
and I feel sorry
for what you must be carrying.
If I could ask you
one question,
it would just be, "Why?"
Maybe it was
a terrible mistake.
Why not relieve yourself?
Please turn yourself in.
Let us know why, at least.
Come on in.
- Whoo!
- Hi there.
- Hey, guys, before we eat,
I just wanted
to give you guys something.
In 2013, we spread
my mom's ashes
in Maine.
I thought
that there weren't any left,
and when Conway and I
went to Florida,
we found the rest of 'em,
so I called my friend
who is a ceramicist
to make something for you guys
that has a channel
inside of it
that has some
of my mom's ashes in 'em.
- Wow.
- Oh.
Oh, my God,
that's beautiful, Maddie.
Oh.
- I love you, Grammy.
- So update from the Freedom
of Information Commission.
- Mm-hmm.
- Hot off the presses.
"Let's find a time to discuss
after we all have a chance
to read and absorb."
- Go to the last page, just--
- "It is found
that the respondents
failed to prove
that the requested records"--
holy shit--
"are exempt from disclosure."
Holy shit.
- We won.
- Holy shit, dude.
If you combine
the two wells of information,
our investigation and theirs,
you may be able
to come to a conclusion
that gives you
and your family closure.
- Where are your toes?
Are those your toes?
Where are your fingers?
- Madison got a ball.
Nice job, Maddie.