Survived: Toni henthorn left behind a daughter, Hayley, who was seven when she died. The $1.5 million policy at the center of the legal dispute was for ‘estate planning and income protection/planning to have children’.
Very similar story broadcast twice on network TV News show, mother of two girls (one son?) killed in same way. Father acquitted and moved to Texas with new wife.
[From article]
Double wife killer’ Harold Henthorn is fighting to keep a $1.5million life insurance payout from a policy taken out on his second wife, whom he is accused of murdering.
Henthorn was charged with the murder of second wife, Toni Bertolet, 51, last November and police have reopened their investigation into the suspicious death of his first wife some 20 years earlier.
Both women died in ‘freak’ accidents to which Henthorn, 59, was the sole witness. Dr Toni Jill Bertolet plunged 140ft to her death shortly before her 12th wedding anniversary while hiking with Henthorn in a remote stretch of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Lynn Rishell - his first wife - was crushed to death under the front of Henthorn’s Jeep when, he told first responders, the jack gave way as she reached under the vehicle for a lug night while changing a flat tire in the dark.
In both cases Henthorn was named as the sole beneficiary in a string of lucrative life insurance policies totalling $500,000 on the death of his first wife and $4.5million on the death of his second.
[. . .]
Henthorn has not relinquished the claim he made in September 2013, one year after his wife’s death the previous September. He cited cause of death as ‘Accidental Fall.’ At the time of making this claim Henthorn was unaware that he was under investigation by the FBI who painstakingly scrutinized every aspect of the widower’s life across two years before swooping and arresting him in November last year.
But an autopsy carried out on Dr Bertolet had already concluded that she ‘died as a result of multiple blunt force injuries when she fell or was pushed down a cliff’. The manner of death was noted as ‘undetermined,’ by the coroner who stated: ‘Homicide cannot be excluded.’
[. . .]
Grace Rishell was going through a divorce and ‘concerned for her financial stability,’ when she initially agreed to Henthorn taking out a policy that would pay $50,000 to Grace’s brother and each of her four daughters for a total of $250,000.
According to prosecutors in Dr Bertolet’s murder case, ‘the evidence will show that Henthorn had a romantic interest in Rishell’. But Rishell had a change of heart in spring 2010 and told the insurance agent to stop the policy from going through. Instead she took out a policy of her own with another insurer.
Unbeknownst to her ‘her signature was forged to procure the original policy as well,’ with Henthorn making payments on the policy until December 2012 and listing himself as sole beneficiary.
The policy was cancelled in 2013 when the insurer concluded that Henthorn had no insurable interest in Rishell. But the very fact of its existence raises the specter that Henthorn had Rishell in his sights as a third potential victim.
[. . .]
Investigators have also established that Henthorn ‘extensively scouted’ the fatal hike trail. Contrary to what he told law enforcement he made nine different trips to the area around Rocky Mountain Park that summer.
The fortnight before their anniversary – the date of her death – Henthorn had hiked six trails to ‘find the perfect one for the trip.’ And damningly a map found in his car showed the spot where Dr Bertolet fell to her death, marked with a pink X.
In both Lynn Rishell and Dr Toni Jill Bertolet’s deaths Henthorn was eager to have his wives’ bodies cremated quickly despite family requests against it and, disturbingly, he spread both women’s ashes on the same mountain near Ouray, Colorado.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2965769/Double-wife-killer-legal-battle-1-5-million-life-insurance-payout-received-murdering-second-wife-pushing-cliff-Rockies.html
EXCLUSIVE: Double wife 'killer' in legal battle to keep $1.5 million life insurance payout he received after 'murdering second wife by pushing her over cliff in Rockies'
Harold Henthorn is charged with murdering his second wife in criminal trial which will also hear that he killed his first wife
Both died in freak 'accidents' to which he was sole witness and FBI spent months investigating second death before he was charged
Court papers disclose he is trying to keep $1.5 million paid when second wife - Dr Toni Jill Bertolet - plunged 140ft to her death in Rockies
Civil case in Douglas County, Colorado comes ahead of May criminal trial
By LAURA COLLINS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 08:42 EST, 24 February 2015 | UPDATED: 09:06 EST, 24 February 2015
Double wife killer’ Harold Henthorn is fighting to keep a $1.5million life insurance payout from a policy taken out on his second wife, whom he is accused of murdering.
Henthorn was charged with the murder of second wife, Toni Bertolet, 51, last November and police have reopened their investigation into the suspicious death of his first wife some 20 years earlier.
Both women died in ‘freak’ accidents to which Henthorn, 59, was the sole witness. Dr Toni Jill Bertolet plunged 140ft to her death shortly before her 12th wedding anniversary while hiking with Henthorn in a remote stretch of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Lynn Rishell - his first wife - was crushed to death under the front of Henthorn’s Jeep when, he told first responders, the jack gave way as she reached under the vehicle for a lug night while changing a flat tire in the dark.
In both cases Henthorn was named as the sole beneficiary in a string of lucrative life insurance policies totalling $500,000 on the death of his first wife and $4.5million on the death of his second.
[. . .]
Henthorn has not relinquished the claim he made in September 2013, one year after his wife’s death the previous September. He cited cause of death as ‘Accidental Fall.’ At the time of making this claim Henthorn was unaware that he was under investigation by the FBI who painstakingly scrutinized every aspect of the widower’s life across two years before swooping and arresting him in November last year.
But an autopsy carried out on Dr Bertolet had already concluded that she ‘died as a result of multiple blunt force injuries when she fell or was pushed down a cliff’. The manner of death was noted as ‘undetermined,’ by the coroner who stated: ‘Homicide cannot be excluded.’
[. . .]
Grace Rishell was going through a divorce and ‘concerned for her financial stability,’ when she initially agreed to Henthorn taking out a policy that would pay $50,000 to Grace’s brother and each of her four daughters for a total of $250,000.
According to prosecutors in Dr Bertolet’s murder case, ‘the evidence will show that Henthorn had a romantic interest in Rishell’. But Rishell had a change of heart in spring 2010 and told the insurance agent to stop the policy from going through. Instead she took out a policy of her own with another insurer.
Unbeknownst to her ‘her signature was forged to procure the original policy as well,’ with Henthorn making payments on the policy until December 2012 and listing himself as sole beneficiary.
The policy was cancelled in 2013 when the insurer concluded that Henthorn had no insurable interest in Rishell. But the very fact of its existence raises the specter that Henthorn had Rishell in his sights as a third potential victim.
[. . .]
Investigators have also established that Henthorn ‘extensively scouted’ the fatal hike trail. Contrary to what he told law enforcement he made nine different trips to the area around Rocky Mountain Park that summer.
The fortnight before their anniversary – the date of her death – Henthorn had hiked six trails to ‘find the perfect one for the trip.’ And damningly a map found in his car showed the spot where Dr Bertolet fell to her death, marked with a pink X.
In both Lynn Rishell and Dr Toni Jill Bertolet’s deaths Henthorn was eager to have his wives’ bodies cremated quickly despite family requests against it and, disturbingly, he spread both women’s ashes on the same mountain near Ouray, Colorado.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2965769/Double-wife-killer-legal-battle-1-5-million-life-insurance-payout-received-murdering-second-wife-pushing-cliff-Rockies.html
EXCLUSIVE: Double wife 'killer' in legal battle to keep $1.5 million life insurance payout he received after 'murdering second wife by pushing her over cliff in Rockies'
Harold Henthorn is charged with murdering his second wife in criminal trial which will also hear that he killed his first wife
Both died in freak 'accidents' to which he was sole witness and FBI spent months investigating second death before he was charged
Court papers disclose he is trying to keep $1.5 million paid when second wife - Dr Toni Jill Bertolet - plunged 140ft to her death in Rockies
Civil case in Douglas County, Colorado comes ahead of May criminal trial
By LAURA COLLINS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 08:42 EST, 24 February 2015 | UPDATED: 09:06 EST, 24 February 2015
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