Bed Of Deceit

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A retired police officer was found shocked to death in his bedroom,

but it was unclear exactly what happened.

Some of the evidence pointed to suicide, while other signs suggested foul play.

But it took crime scene reconstruction, an automated teller machine,

and some forensic textbooks in the victim's home to write the final chapter in this real life who done it.

Traverse City, Michigan is a beautiful area for those who love sailing and fishing,

and it was home to Dan and Cynthia McDonnell and their two teenage children.

58-year-old Dan McDonnell was a retired police officer who worked part-time as a maintenance worker.

Cynthia was a freelance writer.

Everything seemed like a normal marriage.

Cindy, taking charge all the time.

I mean, she was a master of the household and the boss.

The last day in December in 1998 was a busy one for the McDonnell family.

18-year-old Patrick was sleeping over at a friend's house, Dan decided to sleep late.

Cynthia and their 20-year-old daughter Erin spent the day shopping in Traverse City.

For several hours, they went from shop to shop, stopping at a local department store and office supply store and a beauty shop.

On the way home, Cynthia picked up hamburgers for the whole family.

But when they arrived home shortly afternoon, they found Dan in bed, dead, of a single gunshot wound.

We just walked down to find you, just sitting, and he's breathing.

He was dead. He was dead. Oh my God, he's dead.

Yes. Help! Help! Help!

The little brother of a retired police officer and we have guns in the house.

Investigators found no gun near the body.

But several hundred dollars was missing from his wallet, so robbery was a possibility.

I was devastated.

I couldn't believe that this good man that hurt nobody was not living anymore.

Police were able to confirm that Cynthia and her children were out all morning.

It would take crime scene reconstruction to determine what really happened to Dan McDonald.

On the afternoon of New Year's Eve 1998, retired police officer Dan McDonald was found dead in his bedroom of a single gunshot wound.

Dan's wife Cynthia told police she suspected a robbery, but there were no signs of forced entry and police were suspicious.

When police questioned Cynthia a second time, she said she had a confession to make.

I got a call that said she had changed her story. It wasn't a robbery.

She came down in the morning and found that he had committed suicide.

This is a tape recording of Cynthia's statement to police.

Aaron was almost ready to go and I told her I'd get her a coat and stuff and he had the car warmed up and I went in to tell Dan.

But you were leaving?

They weren't leaving. Okay. Help.

At that time you found him that he had shot himself? Yes.

Okay. You found his gun that he had shot? I did.

Cynthia told police that Dan had undergone surgery for prostate cancer, which had left him impotent.

According to Cynthia, Dan left the suicide note, but she destroyed it.

The note said I'm devastated over my prostate cancer.

I want you to have the insurance money and to the effect that if they found out that it was a suicide, there would be no insurance and the children would not get the money.

Yes, I didn't want the kids.

You didn't want the kids?

You didn't want Pat and Aaron to know that their father had taken his own life.

Was that a yes?

Yes.

Dan had $300,000 worth of life insurance, but the policies were negated in the event Dan committed suicide.

The only reason we got it was for the kids' college expenses.

Cynthia said she complied with Dan's wishes and altered the scene to make the death appear to be a homicide.

She said she wiped her husband's prints from the gun, then continued on the shopping trip with her daughter, so she wouldn't arouse suspicion.

What we might perceive as normal response would be to just fall apart instantaneously, but not all of us are that way.

Until we're in the situation, I think it's impossible to say how a human being would react.

Cynthia said she threw her husband's revolver into a nearby field, although police search dogs and metal detectors couldn't find it.

She certainly committed foul play by changing the scene.

She committed foul play by disposing of a firearm.

Those are pretty good indicators to open up a serious investigation.

My brother did not commit suicide. He's going to buy a boat. He was going to buy a new truck. He's going to do all these things.

So a man that makes his kind of plans is not one that is attempting suicide.

At the autopsy, Dr. David Stark looked for the telltale signs of suicide.

X-rays of Dan's head revealed the bullet was still inside his skull, so the wound in the back of his head was an entry wound.

It certainly raises the possibility that it's not a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Cynthia's lawyer says that this wasn't proof of a homicide, only that Dan himself may have played a role in the deception.

If anybody has the ability to inflict a mortal injury on oneself and make it look like a homicide, this was a man who had probably as much understanding as anybody else.

And it might have been in his mind that, hey, you know, if I can make this look like a homicide, my family will get the life insurance.

But investigators discovered something else.

Cynthia McDonald wasn't just a freelance writer. She was an aspiring murder mystery writer.

And police also learned that Cynthia had made some derogatory statements about them at a neighborhood cocktail party.

And she said, you could commit a murder and the police were not smart enough in Northern Michigan to catch you.

I didn't sit very well with the state police.

Police decided to take a closer look at some of Cynthia's stories.

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Police were investigating the mysterious death of retired police officer Dan McDonald.

The victim's wife, Cynthia, said her husband committed suicide.

And that initially she hid that fact so the family could collect on his life insurance policy.

Almost immediately, forensic experts found some inconsistencies.

The X-rays show the bullet going from back to front as it goes through the brain

and from left to right as it goes through the brain.

It was obvious it would have had to come from the left side from someone who was left handed

and the victim, Daniel, was right-handed.

A suicide victim rarely shoots himself in the back of the head.

There needed to be some additional investigation done that this case very well could represent a homicide

and allowed the police to further their investigation.

Investigators began their analysis by studying the blood spatter.

Whenever a blood source be it a pool of blood or be it a head if someone in the bullet going through a head

that blood travels in a straight line but it can travel on a 360 degree radius.

So completely out in all directions.

The blood that comes back toward the force that's being applied is what we call the back spatter.

But there was no blood spatter on either of Dan's hands.

Dan's left arm was clutching a pillow and tucked underneath his body.

Next to his arm was a clearly defined pool of blood.

This proved Dan's left arm never moved after the shooting.

It would have been difficult for Dan to use his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of the head.

The right hand in order to inflict this wound would then have to have come around the back of the head around

and then being able to get the muscle to the head, which would have to be a contarsious to do.

So you have a little bit difficulty with your trajectory but definitely it can be done.

However, once it's done, your hand is going to remain up here.

It's not going to be able to tuck itself back underneath the covers, remain completely bloodless

and completely free of stippling from the cylinder gap or any powder and end up next to the body without a drop of blood on it.

That's not possible.

Investigators also found gunpowder and a bullet hole in the pillow next to Dan's body.

This indicated that the gun was pressed against the pillow and fired.

The only way that this could have happened is if this person would have had three arms,

one to hold the gun, one to hold the pillow down and the one that he's lying on his left side.

Dan's death was ruled a homicide.

A look into Dan and Cynthia's marriage revealed a possible motive.

In the months before Dan's murder, the McDonald's were spending more money than they were bringing in.

Cindy was buying all of these objects like computers, like new furniture,

like numerous things that were quite expensive items.

Investigators also discovered that Dan managed to trust fund for a mentally handicapped relative.

In the year before Dan's death, more than $50,000 had been taken from this trust account

and the bank had been demanding answers.

Bank documents showed withdrawals ranging from $200 to $1,000 almost every other day

and the fund was virtually depleted.

And bank surveillance cameras identified the individual who was responsible.

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When police interviewed Dan McDonald's 20-year-old daughter Aaron,

she remembered something unusual about the morning her father was killed.

Aaron places herself in the shower and explain to the investigators

that her mother came in to check on her a number of times, which was out of character.

Also, turned up the radio while Aaron was in the shower.

She told investigators that she heard what she believed to be a car backfiring or a bank.

Inside the McDonald's home, police found forensic textbooks Cynthia was using in her research

for a murder mystery she planned to write.

With titles like Body Trauma and Armed and Dangerous,

there were chapters entitled Accidental Shooting vs. Suicide,

who shot whom and premeditated domestic killing.

Prosecutors believe Cynthia consulted these books to plan what she thought would be the perfect crime.

The motive was money.

Cynthia was in financial trouble,

so she withdrew $50,000 from a trust fund her husband was managing by forging his name.

Surveillance cameras at the bank's automated tele machines proved it.

The bank contacted Dan and demanded answers.

Prosecutors believe Dan confronted Cynthia and told her he was going to local authorities

with a plan to return the funds.

But this would have cramped Cynthia's lifestyle.

On New Year's Eve, while Aaron was in the shower,

Cynthia went into the bathroom to turn up the volume on the radio to mask the sound of the gunshot.

Prosecutors say Cynthia took Dan's service revolver and fired it into the back of his head,

using the pillow to muffle the sound.

She later disposed of the gun, although it has never been recovered.

Cynthia then went shopping with Aaron, thinking the sales receipts would give her an alibi.

Before returning home, she even stopped to buy hamburgers.

She even bought one for her husband, even though she knew he was dead.

It's unimaginable that she was at conniving to think that she could get away with it.

I mean, ordering your dead husband a hamburger.

Cynthia McDonald was charged with first-degree murder.

She pleaded not guilty.

Her defense included testimony from an outside forensic expert, Dr. L. J. Dragavitch,

who said that it was possible Dan McDonald's death could have been suicide.

Dr. Dragavitch demonstrated how he thought Dan could have taken his own life

and left gunpowder residue and a hole in the pillowcase.

You can have the gun in your left hand and pull the trigger with your left index finger

where the pillowcase is in trap between the muzzle and the head.

Dr. Dragavitch also points out that gunpowder residue tests weren't conducted on Dan McDonald's hands,

which might have proved he had fired the weapon.

It would have made some stronger case for the prosecution.

Of course, had there been positive gunpowder residue on the hands of the scene?

Of course, the case.

The medical examiner says it wasn't necessary.

We did not test for gunshot residue at the time of autopsy.

In my opinion, it would not have given any significance to the overall findings of the case

in that a person can be found with gunshot residue on their hands,

even if they're in close proximity to another person firing a gun.

So that's a test that's, although often referred to, is not routinely performed.

But in most cases, it's the jury's job to make the final judgment.

We find the defendant guilty for pursuing the crime.

Members of the jury, listen to your verdict.

As recorded, you do say guilty of first grade premeditated murder.

Yes, you do.

Her daughter, Erin, told the judge to show no mercy.

I don't understand why this had to happen to us.

We had a good family. My father was a good man.

And I thought my parents had very loving relationship.

And I asked that you give them the maximum.

Thank you.

Cynthia McDonald was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

She continues to claim that she is innocent of killing her husband, whom she calls Mac.

Mac committed suicide. I didn't kill my husband.

I loved him, had nothing to gain by his death and everything to lose.

This is devastated by children, split the family apart.

Cynthia is devoid of a conscience, devoid of any responsibility, and she will never admit her guilt.

Even though Cynthia studied books on forensics,

she didn't realize that science would tell the real story.

Well, maybe she had read just enough that she thought she could do it and get away with it.

And had read not yet enough to realize that there's a whole lot more involved in real life than there is in the storybook version.

And Cynthia's other mistake was in changing the plot.

She originally tried to make the death look like an intruder killed her husband.

But when she forgot to create the illusion of forced entry, she had no alternative but to change her story.

When the officers questioned her, she blanked and went with another story that she thought they would buy.

And in this case, if she wanted it to look like a homicide, it certainly did.

Cynthia McDonald bragged, she could write the book on the perfect murder.

Well, she should have read the final chapter where there are no perfect murders.

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