Murder With My Husband - 170. Mabel Greineder - The Park Murder

Episode Date: June 26, 2023

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the murder of Mabel Greineder while she was walking her dog with her husband. https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: A Murder in Wellesley: The Inside Story of an Ivy-League Doctor's Double Life, His Slain Wife, and the Trial that Gripped the Nation (2017, ForeEdge), by Tom Farmer and Marty Foley Murder at Morses Pond (2010, Pinnacle), by Linda Rosencrance Ancestry.com vanceholmes.com/court/trial_greineder.html metrowestdailynews.com/story/news/2010/09/21/spitz-wellesley-s-dirk-greineder/41218826007/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This summer, PXU Energy is back with Ultimate Summer Pat, starting 50% off energy charges all summer. Everybody's on for automatic energy savings. Plus free energy on the hottest day. Don't you see it? Free days are now the coolest days. In this summer's hottest blood flow start guaranteeing to keep you cool. The savings for coming from inside the house. Ultimate Summer Pat, Energy Savings and Reveals so cool. Open it summer path, energy saving has been developed so cool.

Yes, you energy, energy for everything. Cast the banner now to learn more. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's a husband. I'm a husband. Okay, I don't think we have any, you know, announcements or anything like that.

So I think we can jump straight into your 10 seconds today. A bonus episode Just one out so if you were subscribed to Apple or patreon you will have that now so we're just letting everyone know Well, we have a couple of rodents that are attacking our backyard So let's number one priority at the moment. We will find them And they will be gone anytime. there's like mice or rats, I mean, they're pooping all over a backyard.

No, but it's sad. Anytime there's like mice, rats, rodents in general, I think of the movie Malfstrap. We seen that movie? Classic. Where the mouse is so smart. So it's such a good movie. If you haven't seen that movie, it's an older movie,

but it's a classic movie. Pretty sure it's a Disney movie. I think you might be right. It's a good one, a mouse trap. So yeah, we're getting rid of those. We finally, we have been without one of our cars for like a month, like a month, that's finally fixed. And it was, I mean, just partly my fault.

It's had in our driveway for like two and a half weeks because I don't know. I had to get it towed somewhere and I was just being lazy. But I finally got it towed to the dealership, it fixed it, a bunch of electrical issues, all good. So between mice, are we between rodents and cars?

You know, keeping myself busy. You know, I think that shirt is your color. Green, I feel like a lot of people tell me this. I think it's probably because I've green eyes. Okay, I can you can't even see your eyes. I just think it looks good. Well, I've green eyes, maybe burning consumer. If you're watching on video, if not, just imagine my sparkly, extremely extravagant green eyes with a green shirt. And on that note, let's hop into today's episode. Our episode sources are a murder and well-eslee, murder at Morse's pond, ancestry.com,

vancehomes.com, and MetroWestDailyNews.com. All right, today's case was a big story back in the late 90s in early 2000s, but it's sort of fallen off the radar in the decades since. It has all of the ingredients though for a sensational true crime case. A murder in an affluent crime-free community, an esteemed doctor, a murdered wife, a secret life, even Nazi heritage. Dr. Dirk Grenator was a guy whose life began in darkness. He was born in 1940 in Berlin in Nazi Germany to a father who was a doctor in Hitler's army. When the war ended in 1945, his parents fled Germany with the family and settled in Lebanon

where they lived until the insurrection and political crisis of 1958. And at that time, Dirk graduated from high school speaking four languages, German, English, French, and Arabic. He won a scholarship to Yale and moved with a single suitcase to Boston to begin his studies majoring in biochemistry, on his way to becoming a doctor just like his father. When Dirk finished his undergraduate studies in 1962, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio to pursue a combined MD-PhD in pharmacology and medicine at Case Western Reserve University. And during his studies in Ohio, he met a woman named Maybel Chegwin or May, as everyone

called her. And just like Dirk, May was an immigrant. Born in Columbia, South America, she moved with her parents to New York City when she was just a year old. She grew up in relative financial comfort in New York's Upper West Side and then Queens. She was the youngest of four children born to Angel Cheguin, a financial auditor and Marty Cheguin, a financial auditor and Marty Cheguin. She graduated from William, Colin Bryant High School with honors, attended nursing school at Hunter College,

and then moved to Ohio to pursue her master's degree in surgical nursing, and that's where in 1964 she met Dirk. So just two smarties. Respect to people that go to school for a very long time, because it is not something that I can do or did do. So Dirk's intensity of focus and his ambition would, Mabel, and they began dating. Dirk was a man that projected authority and perhaps too much authority. During their courtship, as the possibility of marriage became more and more imminent, Dirk told Mabel that if she wanted to marry him, she'd have to learn how to speak German and how to cook German food. And so she did.

That's how much she was into Dirk. And in 1968, they eventually married. When Mae graduated from Cases Masters program, she joined the faculty as an assistant professor. And then once Dirk finished his studies, they moved together to New York City where May had grown up. She took a position as an assistant professor at Cornell Nursing School, while Dirk did an internship at one-year residency at Cornell's Medical School and the New York Hospital. But May left her position in 1970 when she got pregnant with their first child, a daughter born in April 1971 that they named Kirsten. They relocated to Maryland for a few years

where Dirk began a three-year program at the National Institutes of Health in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. And the couple had two more children during that period, a son, Colin, and another daughter, Britt. Two girls, one boy. When Dirk finished his three-year program in 1975, the Grenaders relocated to where they would ultimately

settle down in the affluent town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Wellesley is located just outside of Boston and is one of the safest and wealthiest towns in the state. And over the next two decades, the Grenaders were, by all outward appearances, the model of a successful upper-class American family. Dirk became the chief of clinical allergy at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He taught at Harvard.

Too smart for me, man. Yeah. Maybell worked as a nurse while raising their three children, all of whom excelled academically, and were competitive swimmers, which is not surprising. All three children attended and graduated Yale, just like their father, and two of them, Colin and Britt, went on to medical school like their father and his father. Kirsten studied in Germany and Spain on a full bright scholarship and moved to Michigan in 1998 for her medical residency, and in 1999 she broke the news to her parents that she had become engaged, which thrilled her parents. But Kirsten was sad to have left New England, and with all three children now moved out

of the house, Kirsten worried about her parents now that the nest was empty. She was worried about what might happen to them. And well, as it turned out, her concerns about her parents were even more valid than anyone might have imagined. On Halloween morning, 1999, the day began ordinarily enough. It was a clear, beautiful morning, not a foggy one like the day before. The clocks had just been set back, but Durkin may woke up around 6 a.m. which was typical for this couple They were in their three-story house on Cleveland Road

Their morning routine on weekends usually consisted of eating breakfast together Which was usually fresh fruit salad and bagels and then afterward they would take their German shepherd on a walk down in the woods in the 100-acre park around Morse's pond. This just seems like the, it seems like I'm watching a movie and it's like, you know, like the rich family, they get up, you know, fruit, their bagels, eating their bagels,

they're empty nesters. They got their 10 story house. Take their German Shepherd out for a walk in the beautiful part. It's a perfect life. Yeah, I'm trading Well, it's you don't want to trade because it's not about to be okay. So far it sounds good The Grenaders actually had two German shepherds, but for the past several years They had to leave the other one wolfie at home because he was aggressive around other dogs

So this morning they were just taking their usual one German Shepherd out following their usual routine May through some bedding into the washing machine while dark prepared breakfast This morning, they were just taking their usual one German Shepherd out, following their usual routine. May threw some bedding into the washing machine while Dirk prepared breakfast. Instead of bagels, this morning though, it was muffins. And after they ate, they got Zaefer, their German Shepherd, who could be around other dogs ready for his walk. Dirk got his red backpack, which is where he kept the dogs leash, an extra pair of gloves, and some zip lock bags. In case May wanted to pick some berries to put into their bird feeder, which is something she like to do. They loaded everything into the van, but Zaefer, the dog, was being difficult because he was preoccupied with the other dog Wolfe,

who did not appreciate being left home alone. So once they got the dog under control, they headed out and arrived at Morse's pond a little after eight in the morning. They parked the van on Turner Road in front of a locked gate. They let Zae for out, walked around the gate, and headed into the pine tree forest to walk him. And whatever happened next is known only to Dirk and May. But only one of them would make it out of the woods that morning alive.

And that was Dirk. Around 845, he came running from the woods, encountering a man walking his dog. Dirk told the man his wife was hurt and asked if he had a cell phone, but the man did not. Dirk then ran into a second man who also did not have a phone. So he returned to his van with the second man from the trail following him. And at first he dialed his house line, which he'd later claim was an accident. And then at 8.56 am, he called the Wellesley police. Okay, so just to confirm, they were in the woods walking the dog. His wife got her, they were in it to two other guys. And one of the guys basically

is going to help them. Yeah, he followed him back to the van. He accidentally called home first and now he's calling police. Okay. His voice was wailing like a siren. Someone attacked my wife at Morse's pond. He said he explained a police that while they were walking their dog, his wife heard her back. So he continued walking the dog solo, leaving her.

When he returned, he found that she'd been attacked and he believed she was dead. Red flag. Right. You would red flag. Oh, she someone attacked her, she heard her back and I thought she was dead so I ran off. It's just not the worst luck. If it's true and he had absolutely nothing to do with it, it is really bad luck. So when the police arrived, he told him he'd found May at the foot of an embankment and she appeared to be hurt. He said he'd checked her artery for a pulse and it was weak. Later, Dirk's more fleshed out version of the story went like this. He explained that after he and May got out of the van, they began walking down the path that

wound through the pine forest, throwing the dog's ball at various points for him to go fetch it. A couple times they threw the dog's ball down the embankment because it's good exercise for her. They eventually made their way to a gravel pit and as they were walking into it, Mae suddenly slipped and groaned in pain. When Dirk turned around, he saw that she was unable to move any further, explaining that her back problems were flaring up again. She had been ordered to wear a back brace, but on this particular morning she had forgotten to put it on.

May told Dirk, she'd be fine after a few minutes, just to go on without me, I'll be fine. She said she'd meet him at the rock in the parking lot. So he walked the dog down to the beachy shore of Morse's pond, and when he returned to this spot where he was supposed to meet me, she wasn't there. So he began looking for her, he said, and Zyfer the dog then ran down the embankment. And when Dirk looked over it, that's when he saw May, lying at the foot of it. Zyfer was nuzzling her at this time. He climbed down the embankment and pushed the dog out of the way, proceeding to ask

me if she was all right, but she was unresponsive. He said he reached down to check her pulse, and that's when he said he noticed blood, a lot of blood. He tried picking her up, but couldn't shift her. He freed the dog's leash from May's body and took the dog from the scene and began looking for help. After hearing this story, police went into the woods to the location that he had described and they found May.

From the looks of it, she had been brutally attacked. She had multiple wounds on her head, her throat, and her chest. And Dirk himself, when they arrived, he was covered in blood, all over his windbreaker, his sleeves, a spot of blood on his shoes, and a smudge of blood on his eye glasses. Which is hard, you can't really use for evidence at the moment because it's his wife. Well, and he said he touched her. Yeah, he found her. But curiously, there was no blood on his hands. Which, if he did touch her and check her, that would be the one spot you think would be covered. Yeah, it was kind of weird. Dirk seemed nervous. He couldn't keep still. He was pacing back and forth, which, okay,

yeah, I mean, you just found your wife dead, like, I would be nervous too. So happens when you kill your wife. But it does kind of remind me a little of Chris Watts. If you remember the body cam footage of Chris Watts, one police were at the neighbor's house. They were about to view the surveillance footage that Watts knew would be damning, and he's just pacing back and forth. And this is kind of how Dirk is behaving as well. And at one point, he laid down on the ground on his stomach with his elbows on the pavement and his chin resting in his open hands, and then he got back up. So it's just kind of bizarre.

And then when the cops told him that they located his wife and she was deceased, he asked the cops, are you going to arrest wife and she was deceased, he asked the cops, are you going to arrest me? That was his response. Which again, a pretty unusual response. More police arrived at this time to process the crime scene and among other things, they found hill prints and drag marks near the body. And a Ziploc bag, which they later determined was from the Grenadier's house, detectives arrived at the scene as well,

and proceeded to question Dirk further and to get his story. And already, Dirk was looking pretty suspicious. And so by making him tell his story as many times as they can, they increased the likelihood of the suspect slipping up and introducing inconsistencies. Which is hard because I 100% agree, but I also try to think, when I tell stories, I tell them over and over again.

Sometimes I might add something or take something away, just for the fun of it. I mean, maybe be different if it's like you died and I had to say where I was that day and what I did. But I don't think that I would be instantly convinced that he was guilty if he did a small slip-up. Well, it's just so we went in the forest There was no one around yeah like how many times and heard her back which is why she was alone

Yeah, and Here's the thing human behavior is just so bizarre Especially in trauma. Yes, I Like so he left a part out of the story and then told it the second time, I don't find that that odd for a man who's in as traumatic of a situation as finding his wife dead if that's really what happened. Yeah, but as we know, we are doing a true crime podcast.

So instantly he killed her. Instantly, you're suspicious. Well, and in this instance, one inconsistency in his story did surface. Jumping into an ad and it is native. I use their body wash. I use their shampoo. We use their sunscreen. Everything. Or deodorant. We are big native fans over here. And the funny thing is is I caught myself wanting to buy native products at stores and then I was like, why am I doing that?

Murder with my husband literally has a code. You can use promo code husband and get money off your native purchases. So go do it. Native sunscreen offers a quickly absorbing ultra sheer and lightweight formula that hydrates your skin while providing broad spectrum SPF 30 protection from harmful UVA and UVB rays. And native sunscreen offers three delightful scents, coconut and pineapple, rosé, and sweet peach in nectar.

They're also for your face and body, I use them every day. But if you prefer unscented, they've got you covered too. Give your skin the protection it deserves with natives and mineral sunscreens. Go to nativedo.com slash husband or use promo code husband at checkout to get 20% off your first order. That's native deo.com slash husband or use promo code husband at checkout.

nativedo.com slash husband and use promo code husband. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads unsure of which direction to take in life? We all face those moments of uncertainty where the right path seems elusive. But guess what, there's a solution that can help you find clarity and confidence. And that's therapy. As you guys know, I talk about therapy all the time. I go to therapy weekly. I definitely am a big supporter of it.

It's helped me manage my stress and anxiety and really helped me work through difficult times. Therapy is not just for major traumas, it's for anyone who wants to learn positive coping skills, set healthy boundaries, and become the best version of themselves. It's about staying connected to what truly matters, as you navigate life's challenges. Here's how it works, simply fill out a brief questionnaire and better help will match you with a licensed therapist who meets your specific needs. If you ever feel the need to switch therapist, you can do so at no additional charge. That therapy be your map to a better life. Is it betterhelp.com slash husband today and get 10% off your first month?

That's betterhelp. H-E-L-P.com slash husband. He claimed he'd checked his wife's artery for a pulse and he couldn't fill any. Whereas previously, he said he'd felt a faint pulse. So the first time he says, no, I did fill a pulse. Figured I couldn't help her and ran away. This time he says, no, no, no, she was dead. They asked Dirk if he and his wife slept in the same bedroom, which he said they did. They also asked him if he and his wife had any sexual intercourse that morning.

The rationale behind this is that if they do find foreign DNA on or in the body, they'd be able to rule Dirk out as a suspect. But he told the police he and his wife had not. And in fact, they hadn't had sexual intercourse in several years. About five minutes into this questioning, Dirk suddenly got antsy and said he needed to leave so he could take care of his dogs. He explained that he had two dogs and that one was home alone and didn't like to be left alone this long.

But he was instead asked to accompany them back to the police station. Investigators asked him if he had washed his hands since checking his wife's artery, which was severed, by the way, and he said he hadn't. So they responded to this by asking why his hands were clean and didn't have any blood on them and he couldn't offer an explanation. The investigators then advised him to call his daughter and ask for a change of clothes because they needed to confiscate the clothes he was wearing. It was at this time that Dirk decided he should call his friend Terry Sagole who happened to be an attorney. And when he returned from his phone

call with Terry, the attorney, he said that Terry told him not to talk to them anymore. Obviously, I've told you everything. I'm not trying to hide anything. You say you want my clothes and it suddenly scares me. But really, Dirk, if you truly have nothing to hide, why should this scare you like just them asking for the clothes? That's pretty, that's normal protocol. Yeah, I mean, I feel like it could make me nervous too. Well, I think I'd just be nervous because my wife is dead.

Yeah, but I mean, like, yeah, if you, if you'd been killed and it wasn't me and they needed my clothes, I mean, I'd be nervous too. I'd be like, well, I swear I didn't do it. Like, I swear it wasn't me, why didn't you my clothes, you know? I would too, but only because of what we do and because I know the husband is always a suspect, so immediately you'd be like, I'm going to jail.

Exactly. I'm sure he's probably thinking the same thing. Right. So later in the morning, Dirk decided that maybe his wife had given him a back rub earlier that morning, and because of that, they may find his skin under her fingernails. So he tells police, if you find my skin under your under her fingernails, it's because she gave me a back rub and then the couple's daughter Brit arrived at the police station hysterically crying She was like incomplete disbelief. Yeah, why do these effed up things always happen to our family?

She cried they're gonna think it's me dark said to her. I've seen it on TV But you know, we need to probably discuss what the effed up things She's a firm. Back in 1968, her uncle, Fred Chegwin, drove to his father-in-law's home in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles and opened fire with a 32-calibre handgun, killing his wife, her sister, their two parents, and then himself. This was the culmination of a love triangle involving his wife and sister and his father-in-law, who was also his boss, finding out about it and then firing him.

Before Dirk was allowed to leave the police station, he was photographed both with and without his clothing. With his clothing off, police noticed scratch mark and bruises on his face and chest. One question about it, Dirk claimed he had cut himself shaving. Just like how later on on he would try to explain the presence of blood by giving an account of nosebleeds that he and me experienced at the same time. So he's like, oh my blood and her blood are on me because we both had a nosebleed at the same time. I can't believe I still can't believe that happened to his family.

Yeah. So I'm not kidding. Seriously, he told police that as he was putting Zyfer the dog into the van, may suddenly got a nosebleed, which he said she'd been getting for quite a while now. He said he found a towel and handed it to her and suddenly the dog became agitated and started bouncing around the van and then hit Dirk in the nose, causing his nose to start bleeding. So they both got nose bleeds that morning around the same time. And already this is sounding really strange. And if I were a cop, this would definitely raise my eyebrow, like how improbable does that sound.

Both dark and his wife get nose bleeds at the same time in the same place caused by entirely different circumstances. But anyway, before they let dark leave, they confiscated his clothing and took fingernail clippings, both of which he consented to. However, when asked to surrender his eyeglasses, which had spots of blood on them, he refused saying he would need them for driving,

which makes sense. Meanwhile, back at Morse's pond, photographers and helicopters took aerial photos of the crime scene, and canine units were brought to the scene where the dogs immediately led handlers to a storm drain near where the body was found. The iron grate was lifted off the storm drain and inside

were the head of a drilling hammer, which is similar to a sledgehammer. The brass end of a knife with the inscription old timer on it and a right-handed brown cotton glove with dog hair on it. Oh my gosh, okay. At one o'clock in the morning, investigators arrived at Dirk's home with a search warrant. They rang his doorbell and he appeared at the door with a dog's barking behind him. He told the police they'd better not come inside unless they wanted to kill his dogs, to which they replied by ordering him to secure his dogs because they're entering regardless. He relented and let them in and then went upstairs to wake his three children, all of whom had returned home by this point, so all the adult children are home. While the police searched the house, the lead detective sat down with Dirk on

his couch and told him about what they found in the storm drain near his wife's body. If you tell us where the left hand glove is, the detective reasoned, it will be a lot better for you and your family, because remember, they only found the right hand. Oh, so they automatically are just assuming it's him. Yes, there was zero. There was zero doubt about that. And Dirk claimed he's like, I have no idea what you're talking about. The detective then told him we've got DNA and Dirk looks startled by this and doubly so when he was read his Miranda rights. So he called this Renteri again, the lawyer and then he led his children to a neighbor's house where the neighbor let them chill while their house was being searched. Police were specifically looking for packages and receipts for an old-timer knife and a drilling hammer.

Though they didn't find these items specifically, they did find other stuff of interest, such as credit card statements and a pair of eyeglasses. At autopsy, it was found that May had been bludgeoned on the back of the head with a blunt instrument consistent with that of a drilling hammer. Her throat had been cut, she had been stabbed twice in the chest and five times in her head. So she was a brutal, brutal murder. The next day, May's niece Belinda showed up in advance of her mother, Ila, who was May's sister.

And while she was at the house, Dirk suddenly pulled his knee aside and told her, Hey, man, I had intercourse yesterday morning, but there's nothing wrong with that because we're married. And this totally weirded Belinda out. She was like, okay, but remember, he told police he didn't he then explained what had happened in the park afterward without ever explaining why he volunteered this information to his niece about his sex life. But it seemed like maybe he was trying to lay groundwork for explaining the presence of his DNA on the dead wife, but this is only after police told them they had DNA. So Wellesley was a very safe neighborhood, like I said, and this was the first murder there in 25 years.

and this was the first murder there in 25 years. However, there had recently been two other murders in the same county that remained unsolved. A 75-year-old woman named Irene Kennedy had been killed in a park in December 1998 after she became separated from her husband, and a man named Richard was murdered in August of 1999 near a park pond. So similar circumstances in both of these murders. But police talked to other people who'd been around Morse's pond that morning and no one in the area saw anyone leaving the park around the time of May's murder. But Durkin's three children were supporting him and believed him to be

innocent and they started drawing connections to the other park murders. Okay. So the children are like, no, no, are dad didn't do this and what about these other park murders? That proves that like, no, no, are dad didn't do this and what about these other park murders? That proves that there may be a killer in the area who's targeting people in parks. And the community kind of feared this too that maybe there was a serial killer on the loose. Which, how convenient for the husband.

Right. But police tried to assure the community that this murder wasn't the work of a serial killer. They were, by this point, convinced Dirk had killed his wife. Only they needed more evidence and so far the evidence was lacking, but when they searched Dirk's computer, they found a bananza of evidence that further implicated him. Before May was killed, Dirk had been reading up on those other murders, the ones in the parks.

So now it looks like Dirk was possibly trying to stage his wife's murder to look connected to those. But beyond that, when they searched his computer, police also discovered that Dirk had been living a secret life, one full of internet porn, erotic stories, extramarital affairs, and trists with sex workers. And this was a computer that generally only dark would use. His wife ordinarily did not use the computer as Mae was not very computer literate. But they did also find Mae's turn paper on asthma on dark's computer, the one she'd been working on in her pursuit of becoming a nurse practitioner. So they saw as a possibility that when Mae used dark's computer, she maybe discovered his

secret life. And what a secret life it was. All right, we're jumping into an ad real quick. Enter to Shopify and we love Shopify. And if you've listened to the podcast before, you've probably heard us do a Shopify ad because we use it and we love them. Shopify is the commerce platform revolutionizing millions of businesses worldwide? Whether you're selling candle holders or herbal teas, Shopify simplifies selling online and in person, so you can focus on successfully growing your business. Shopify covers every sales channel from the M person PUS system to an all-in-one ecommerce platform. It even lets you sell across social media and marketplaces like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

And thanks to 217 Help and an extensive business course library Shopify is there to support your success every step of the way. If you're selling anything online or you're starting any type of e-commerce company, you need to check out Shopify. It's super easy to use, super user friendly and patronize both love it. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband all lower case. Go to shopify.com slash husband to take your business to the next level. shopify.com slash husband all lower case.

Okay, you guys, we are getting into an ad. I know you guys have both heard the story about how Garrett and I were both paying separately for peacock, and then we used rocket money and realized how dumb we are and our so happy rocket money helped us stop doing that. Rocket money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions,

monitors your spending and helps you lower your bills all in one place. And like Payton said, I'm always on it, checking things out, seeing what's going on, seeing how many Amazon packages Peyton are buying. Is that how you find out about my Amazon packages? No, I just get emails. Oh my email.

God. Over 3 million people have already used rocket money saving the average person of the 720 hours a year. Imagine what you could do with that extra cash and your pocket. Stop throwing your money away, cancel unwanted subscriptions and manager expenses the easy way. By going to rocket money dot com slash husband. That's rocket money dot com slash husband, rocket money dot com slash husband. Dirk was not only signing up for porn sites and making rendezvous with sex workers, but he was also downloading a Roddick short stories to his laptop and writing erotic short stories featuring BDSM,

kinky sex, and then there was an email correspondence with a woman he'd clearly been having an extra marital affair with. Again, motive. This is just speaking to motive. But it seems like the motive would be the other way around, right? You think that she would have found it and she would have been pissed off and killed him, but he killed her. So what happened? Unless she found it and threatened to leave him or expose him, and he wanted his secret life to stay a secret life, or he wanted his wife to not divorce him. So Dork had been using the name Thomas Young as a character in his erotic short stories, and also as a pseudonym in online sex chat rooms. In just a week before Maze Murder, he joined a dating service called People to People and

used to the screen name Casual Guy 2000. He created a profile advertising that he was a 49-year-old white male with a doctorate and was looking for white women between the ages of 35 and 60 who were slim to slightly overweight and lived within 30 miles of Boston and at least had a high school diploma. So, very specific category he wants for these women. He also had an American Express corporate credit card under the name Thomas Young which he used to pay for the subscription as well as hotel rooms and encounters with that.

Had he get a card under Thomas Young. That's really interesting. Right. And also, I didn't know you could use a credit card to pay sex workers, especially back in 1999. That's a good point, too. Like, they had the little sliders. I didn't know there was, I mean, I guess there was online websites that you can do that. And then just one day after May's murder, the morning that his niece and sister had arrived

in town, he was already contacting one of his regular sex workers to arrange another meeting. So it wasn't really looking good for Dirk at this point. He was expected to be charged and so he hired as his attorney Martin F. Murphy who didn't come cheap. And after May's memorial service, which was attended by 800 people, Dirk approached Maybell's sister, Ila again, and get this. He asked her if he could borrow $500,000 for his legal defense. $500,000.

Police meanwhile searched that storm drain again and again and found the other brown glove eventually, the left-handed glove, which they'd apparently overlooked the first time. And DNA from the gloves both matched Dirk. Four months after May's murder on February 29, 2000, playing close police descended on Dirk's office in Brookline and arrested him, charging him with first-degree murder. He was a rain the following day and pled not guilty. It seems like an open and shut case. It kinda does.

The trial began on May 23, 2001, anticipating the prosecution presenting that porn and sex life, the defense team reminded the jury that, Dirk was not on trial for infidelity. He was on trial for murder. And he had no motive to kill his wife. They claimed. But in the state of Massachusetts, or sorry, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, prosecutors do not have to establish a motive. What do you mean? You don't have to say this is why he killed her. You have to provide evidence saying he killed her. Interesting.

You don't have to give a motive legally. Okay. But I still personally think there's a motive here. During the trial, 473 exhibits of evidence were presented to the jury, including that Dirk's DNA was found on the gloves, and he could not be ruled out as the secondary source of DNA on the knife. The primary source obviously was May. May's blood was also found on his windbreaker, his t-shirt, the dog's leash, and his red backpack. May's sister Ila testified that Dirk was controlling and was always borrowing money from his wife's family, which clearly he was still doing after

her murder shamelessly. He was asking for money for his legal defense from the family of the wife that he murdered. Essentially, like he's going up on trial for her murder and he's asking them to pay the bills. I swear, it's always the people who look the most perfect on the outside that there's a bunch of crap going on behind the scenes. And according to mace sister Dirk forced his German heritage on the family forcing the kids to play with wooden German dolls prohibiting them from playing with American toys More over in the living room of Dirk's house hung a photo of Dirk's father in his Nazi uniform Oh, and Dirk had an original German copy of Hitler's autobiography. Oh, that's not okay

I've said it before, I think it was in our inaugural episode of Binge, an affinity for Hitler and the Nazis is never a good sign. Yeah. And the sister also testified that she had to pick up May's ashes and also pay for the cremation. So he didn't even do that for his wife. Durkin, his three kids neglected to do this.

Another key witness for the prosecution's case was the blood spatter expert who testified that the blood spatter on Dirk's shoe was consistent with high velocity impact spatter, not like dripping or going near the body. It would have been consistent with Dirk standing in close proximity to someone as they were being bludgeoned. So while the DNA evidence in this case was admittedly a bit lacking, the blood splatter evidence more than made up for it. It was also revealed that the medical examiner found, among other injuries, seven bruises and contusions on May's leg, some more fresh, and some more a week or so old. The wound to May's neck was five

inches long and two inches deep and cut into her fifth cervical vertebrae. That wound was so deep that her neckless was embedded inside of it. Oh, this is horrible. How can you kill your own wife? I know. Like how can you do that? Yet, she had no defensive wounds on her hand, suggesting her killer had blitz attacked her by surprise.

On June 29, 2001, more than a month after the opening statements, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. And Dr. Dirk Renator was sentenced to life in prison. The couple's three children still believe their father is innocent and they continue to stand by him. All of his appeals have been denied. And before we end, those other murders that Dirk was reading up on, Irene Kennedy's murder, it was solved in 2004 and Richard's murder

remains unsolved. Oh man, I mean, that kind of just escalated and then ended. I know, because here's the thing. It was open and shot. It was just open and shut. I mean, I feel like sometimes you have these cases where a husband murders his wife. And it's like, did he do it though?

I mean, there's just so much doubt. Where is this one? How many coincidences had to have happened? The gloves used in the murder had dark DNA on them, and then they were found in the drain near her body dumped. Why would a stranger have gloves with dark DNA? And they lived in a very safe city. There hadn't been a murder there in like about 25 years. He had researched the murders on the computer beforehand. He obviously, I mean, there was like he said,

there was motive with, I mean, he was cheating on his wife. No one saw them. No one can account for his story. Obviously, he's going to go down with, he's going to die with. I'm not guilty. Yeah. It's hard because the kids don't think he's guilty, which is even worse. Well, it's their father. Oh, man. I don't know though. Like if there's just so much like how we tried to lay the groundwork with her sister saying, oh, we had sex, but told police,

we didn't. And that was only after he found out that there was DNA. And you know, it's hard because I get like it's family or it's your significant other, but I feel like I can like separate the two. Yeah. Like if you'd killed someone all of a sudden, I'd be like, okay, I'm out later. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know, I feel like I can separate the two. It's just, it's hard.

I don't know. I mean, that's great. And how do you argue with the blood spatter DNA? It proves that he had to at least be standing there someone when they were bludgeoned. And their mom died too. I mean, which is, that's horrible. Right.

But, I mean, the husband did it. Their dad did it. I mean, a court, I mean, I can say that. I personally think there's a motive. I can say that because he was convicted. Yeah, yeah. It's not like I'm according to the law, he did it. According to the law, he did it. So I don't get sued or anything.

But also, I just, I personally think there's plenty of motive here. I think that he probably was living a secret life. She found out about it. He hurt her the week before when she found out about it. And then she was threatening to either out him or leave him or uproot his life in some way. So he just killed her. I'm surprised there wasn't more information about like what was going on in their day today. I mean, because she's the rest of the investors. They lived alone.

So it's like why like he could have kept cheating on her. You know what I'm saying? Like why kill her? Because fear of his ego. Just weird. And then why was he barring so much money? Like weren't they making good money? They were both, they both had careers. I just I don't I think it was just shameless

He just didn't like where was all this money going that he apparently may like what was going on with everything Like there's so many just like random But the important thing is is he was convicted all Alright you guys that was our case for this week. Remember we did have a bonus episode and we will see you next week with another regular one. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye. you