00:00:04
[Music] went to their bedroom. I opened the door and I just kind of stood over their bed
00:00:14
watching them sleep for a few minutes. My body was trembling. I was nervous but excited and exhilarated.
00:00:30
I was actually going to do it. I was there. It's finally happening. >> I will never understand how he did what
00:00:40
he did. >> My name is Victoria Herd and Claudia was my mother. I'm her eldest daughter.
00:00:52
My mom was my best friend. [Music] In 1995, Claudia Mopin packed up her bags and left her home in Fairfield,
00:01:14
California to move 30 m northeast to Davis. In her late 50s, she was looking to start a new life. She had been single
00:01:24
for a while and she had decided that she was ready to settle down. >> When I talked to Claudia's daughter,
00:01:32
Victoria, she was sitting with her own daughter and they couldn't stop giggling as they recounted the move.
00:01:41
>> I remember very well. It was very intentional. Oh, really? Yeah. She was ready to have a companion and she knew
00:01:50
that she wanted somebody smart and she knew that she wanted somebody who lived in Davis. Claudia was funloving with a
00:01:58
boisterous laugh. She wanted to be somewhere young, progressive, and full of life. And the city of Davis was kind
00:02:08
of a paradise. Located in the central valley of Northern California, it's home to the
00:02:15
University of California, Davis. It's also rich in farmland, nature preserves, and towering trees. There's greenery
00:02:26
everywhere. Claudia was also drawn to the spirituality there. She had been a spiritual traveler through many
00:02:38
different religions and denominations and she just had fallen in love with the Unitarian Church. So she said to me, "My
00:02:46
husband is at the Unitarian Church." And she was right. Only a few months later,
00:02:52
Claudia called Victoria to tell her that she had met someone there. His name Oliver Chip Northup. He was so smart and
00:03:02
brilliant and they were like Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy meeting over the pews at the Unitarian Church. I mean,
00:03:10
was this true love? I think it was true friendship. I don't think it was youthful passion. Let's put it that way.
00:03:18
I think it was the recognition of a kindred soul. The next year, Chip and Claudia got married. The church was
00:03:26
packed. They blended their big, loving families in a joyous ceremony. Chip had eight children and Claudia had three,
00:03:36
>> two big families. What a gift. What an absolute gift. And we were older. We were adults when they got together. So I
00:03:46
think both families were very appreciative that the other had come into their parents' life.
00:03:52
Time passed and by 2013 they had been together for 17 years. Their family had grown to include a whopping 22
00:04:02
grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Claudia was 76 and Chip 87. >> They had an idyllic life. They did what
00:04:15
they wanted. They had so many loved ones around them. They had so many great neighbors.
00:04:20
They lived in Davis. Every evening, Claudia looked forward to being home with Chip. It didn't matter
00:04:30
what she was doing or who she was with. >> She'd say 9:30. Have to go home to Chip.
00:04:36
Our programs are on. Have to get my feet rubbed. And Chip would watch with his headphones and rub my mother's feet
00:04:44
every night. They adored each other in that way. They loved going to movies, holding hands, and just being with each
00:04:53
other, and being with each other's families. >> That's exactly how they were together.
00:05:00
On a beautiful night in April, home from a long day of activities, Claudia and Chip left their window open as they
00:05:08
drifted off to sleep in the cool of the evening. Hours later, a figure appeared outside
00:05:18
their window. >> When you think about the terror um that these two people just asleep in their
00:05:25
own bed where we all feel the most secure and you wake up to this horror movie happening to you.
00:05:38
>> I'm 48 hours correspondent Aaron Morardi. I've been reporting on murder cases for over three decades. So, you
00:05:47
probably think that after all this time, I've seen it all. And actually, I thought I had too until I encountered
00:05:56
two senseless, inexplicable murders, just the torture of the bodies, the postmortem cutting,
00:06:03
>> you know, putting in objects in their body >> and the mastermind behind them. Has
00:06:10
anybody even had the strength to do that? And and why wouldn't somebody want to do that?
00:06:19
>> This is 15 inside the Daniel Marsh murders, episode 1, a quiet life shattered.
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Before we begin, just a trigger warning. The following episode contains references to graphic physical violence.
00:06:43
Please listen with care. My parents started the Unitarian Church here in Davis back in the 50s and it was
00:06:55
a very big part of my life growing up and and theirs and my father and mother continued to be active even after they
00:07:01
were divorced. >> This is Chip's daughter Mary Northup. When Chip met Claudia at the church he
00:07:07
helped start, he was actually married to his second wife, Maron, and was still on
00:07:13
good terms with his first wife. But Maron was now dying of cancer. >> He had supported her in her wish to die
00:07:23
at home. And it had been hard for him. Claudia had started attending church while Marlin was still alive. Um, and so
00:07:31
she watched my father go through this. And when Marlin died, she gave him a shoulder to cry on. I don't think her
00:07:39
intent was, "Oh, now I'll go grab him." As much just that she was that compassionate person and she saw this
00:07:46
and uh and and wanted to help him through that grieving. >> I think he was a little embarrassed
00:07:53
because it was barely 6 months after after his second wife had died, but we were all incredibly supportive.
00:08:01
Chip's son, Robert Northup, said that even though his father's relationship with Claudia moved quickly, the whole
00:08:07
family was on board. >> When you talk about Claudia, how would you describe Claudia?
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>> An angel who walked the earth? >> Really? An angel. >> Why do you say that? Even just the sensation you could get
00:08:22
from a distance, just the the serenity in her face, the welcoming smile, the just putting people at at ease. Even
00:08:30
from, you know, 50 ft away, she could do that. >> Chip's family knew Claudia was good for
00:08:35
him. Chip was used to running nonstop, and Claudia reminded him to take time for the most important people in his
00:08:44
life. And she also often acted as sort of a a liaison ensuring that he remembered to communicate with people
00:08:51
and >> because I heard he worked a lot. >> Yes. Yes, he did. >> Chip had spent decades working as a
00:08:58
lawyer. Even after he retired, he still worked part-time as an appellet attorney
00:09:04
to keep his mind sharp. His daughter Mary said he was kind and dedicated to doing the right thing. Every once in a
00:09:13
while there was an injustice and it was important to him to make sure that when he found that he did the best he could
00:09:21
to get them a fair trial, to get them a fair hearing in the justice system. A lot of the times he told me, "I get one
00:09:29
or two years shaved off because there have been errors. That's a victory." >> Even in his late 80s, Chip stayed
00:09:37
incredibly active in the broader Davis community. He had been a proud member of the Rotary Club and the school board and
00:09:45
worked the Sunday barbecue at the county fair. He was also a founding member of a
00:09:51
local folk band, the Peuda Creek Crawads. [Music] >> He had a beautiful voice. He he really
00:10:06
had a beautiful voice that gave him the most joy. All my siblings, kids really loved. Whenever Grandpa Chip came, they
00:10:16
would say, "Sing us a song." And of course, he would carry his guitar with him. He got to that point.
00:10:21
>> Chip also performed music at his church, which was like a second home to both him
00:10:26
and now Claudia. So when they didn't show up to the service that second Sunday in April, friends and family knew
00:10:36
immediately that something was wrong. I can tell you what happened from my view. April 14th, uh, I was supposed to
00:10:56
be seeing my father at church. >> On the morning of April 14th, 2013, Chip Northup's daughter, Mary, and her
00:11:06
mother, Chip's first wife, Peggy, arrived at the Unitarian Church, expecting to meet Claudia and Chip,
00:11:14
there. He's part of this group, the musical group that they've been together since literally since the late 60s, part
00:11:23
of the church. And he didn't show up. And that was very unusual. It was unusual enough that my mother said to
00:11:30
me, you need to try to find your father. So, you know, I said, you know, you guys
00:11:34
have been divorced for 40 years. Let it go. But I it it saddened my brain. So I went to try to call him, but our church
00:11:41
is sort of out in the country here and didn't get any cell reception. So I let it go until we went home afterwards and
00:11:47
I called and I called his number and I called Claudia's number and they both went to voicemail.
00:11:54
>> How unusual is that? >> It was very unusual. Claudia always answered her phone. Peggy then called
00:12:01
her son Robert >> and I I tried to reassure her that she was overreacting that you know oh
00:12:06
there's all kinds of reasons he might have missed that performance and uh I dutifully went to check but I everything
00:12:12
I saw indicated they were out of town. >> It was evening when Robert rang his father's doorbell. No one answered. He
00:12:20
looked through the front windows and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. >> I didn't realize they had their car
00:12:27
locked in the garage. If they were home, the car would have normally been in the
00:12:30
driveway. And then there were some newspapers piled up, and I thought, "Oh, that's proof that they're out of town."
00:12:36
>> Robert decided if no one was home, it wasn't worth going inside, so he left. Another hour passed, but still, no one
00:12:47
could get in touch with Chip and Claudia. Around 7:30 p.m., Claudia's daughter Laura decided to visit the house. Like
00:12:59
Robert, she rang the front doorbell and again, no one answered. But Laura wasn't satisfied leaving it at
00:13:08
that. She walked around the back of the house. She saw a few lights on inside. And that's when she noticed that one of
00:13:19
the back windows wasn't just open. The screen had been meticulously cut. She stepped forward to get a closer
00:13:29
look. She could just barely see into Chip and Claudia's shared bedroom. But even in the dim light, she could see
00:13:39
something wasn't right. I think I think she saw blood stains, but she didn't see bodies. She saw
00:13:47
enough that she made a call to get other people over there. >> It wasn't clear to her what had happened
00:13:56
or whose blood it was, but it was enough to make her call 911. Several officers from the Davis Police
00:14:05
Department arrived at the scene. They tried to get into the house but couldn't gain entry through the front door. They
00:14:13
went around to the back to look at what Laura thought she had seen through the window. As they shined their flashlights
00:14:21
through the screen, it became very clear that they had stumbled upon a crime scene.
00:14:32
Inside were two bodies completely covered in blood. Police forced their way inside. Hours later, Laura got in
00:14:43
touch with her sister Victoria. And I pick up my phone and there's 12 missed calls from my sister. And so that was
00:14:54
really strange. I called her back and she was sobbing and she said, "Something's wrong with
00:15:06
mom and Chip." And I said, "What? What's wrong with mom and chip?" And she said, "Well, honey,
00:15:13
there's been a breakin and there are two dead bodies in the house." Victoria was in disbelief. I thought
00:15:24
somebody had broken into the house and Chip had killed them. I didn't think I really didn't think it was Mom and Chip.
00:15:33
And Laura didn't say that they were dead. >> Laura asked Victoria to pass the phone
00:15:40
to Victoria's partner, Casey. So, I'm starting to shake, right, and break down. And I run to Casey and I
00:15:48
hand her the phone. And I sat there just and I'm hearing Laura talk to Casey. And
00:15:55
I sat there and I feel myself like falling to the floor, but I don't know why I'm falling to the floor, but I'm
00:16:01
falling. And I I feel her spirit. It's almost like she's standing there and she says, "You have a choice in this moment.
00:16:15
You can stay on the floor or you can get up and face this with love. It was so clear from your mother.
00:16:25
>> From my mother. And I I was then I was like got up like her words infused me and I said, "Okay, let's go. Let's go
00:16:34
right now." >> Did you know at that moment I just knew that something was wrong?
00:16:42
Victoria and Casey made their way from Sacramento to Chip and Claudia's house. We went and made the turn onto their
00:16:51
street and the corner's van was there and I still didn't know. I get out of the car and I go marching to the police
00:16:58
officer and I said, "I'm I'm Claudia's daughter. I need to see Claudia." And he said, "You can't go in there. That's a
00:17:05
crime scene." and and I got angry and started pushing him and said, "I need to see my mother. I need to see my mother.
00:17:14
She needs me." >> No one would tell Victoria anything. Instead, she was told to get into the
00:17:23
police car and wait. >> My partner was pre-law, so she said, "Is she under arrest?"
00:17:30
And the officer said, "No." And then she we said, "Well, we're not getting in the
00:17:34
car. we'll meet you at the police station. And as we were getting into the car to go to the police station, I saw
00:17:41
the corners bringing out their bodies, and I still didn't know it was them. Victoria and Casey rushed to the Davis
00:17:50
Police Station, but still no one seemed willing to share any information with them. So Casey began asking yes or no
00:17:59
questions. >> She asked, "Is Victoria's mother dead? And then then they said yes and then I
00:18:07
lost it. My brain couldn't process that. I was in complete shock. She said, "Was
00:18:15
Victoria's mother shot?" And the officer said, "No." "Was Victoria's mom strangled?" The officer said, "No." "Was
00:18:23
Victoria's mother stabbed?" And then the officer lowered his head and I started screaming
00:18:32
because I couldn't imagine. I couldn't imagine it. It's impossible even now and everything we've been
00:18:40
through and seen to imagine anybody doing that to somebody who was so kind and so precious.
00:18:51
Meanwhile, Chip's children still had no idea that anything was wrong. Chip's daughter, Mary, hadn't heard anything
00:19:00
since her brother went to check on Chip the night before. The next morning, she turned on the TV
00:19:07
to watch the news. >> I noticed there was this shot with police caution tape and in from a tree
00:19:14
to the garage and it says double homicide in Davis. And I'm like, "Wow, that's that's unusual." So the next time
00:19:23
it came on, I looked at it again. I said, "That that looks like where my dad lived." So I I paused it and rewound it
00:19:31
and I at this point I'm calling the kids and my wife to come out and and look and
00:19:36
say, "Is that is that Grandpa Chip's place?" >> She was finally able to see the number
00:19:42
by the door and it confirmed the unthinkable. It was Chip and Claudia's house. She
00:19:50
called the police to see if they could tell her what was happening. >> It took him about 10 minutes before they
00:19:58
would tell me, "Well, yes, that is the house where they found bodies, but they wouldn't tell me it was my father." They
00:20:03
wouldn't tell me anything. They said I had to come down to the police station. But at this point, I started calling my
00:20:08
family because I didn't know. I didn't want the rest of my family to find out this way.
00:20:13
>> That's a horrible way to find out. I I I cannot I mean I literally nearly collapsed on the floor when I realized
00:20:20
that it was their house that I'm watching this on television. To start from there just made everything all of
00:20:28
the events that began to unfold worse and worse. It was very very unusual homicide.
00:20:41
>> What do you mean? The victims were an elderly couple, which didn't seem to make a lot of sense. It was uh it was a
00:20:50
very brutal murder. >> Lieutenant Paul Durishav was one of the Davis police officers who arrived on the
00:20:58
scene that April day. He would later become one of the leaders in the investigation.
00:21:05
>> The couple was still in their bed and you know, multiple cut stab type murder.
00:21:10
It was it was it was horrific. Much more so than let's say a a bullet wound. >> Chip had been stabbed 61 times and
00:21:20
Claudia 67. >> It was something that uh it was up close and personal. >> The cause of death was clear, but the
00:21:29
how and why would take a lot more time to determine. >> How did the killer or killers get in?
00:21:37
>> Yeah. Through the window. It didn't look like a typical burglary. There was no sign of ransacking and
00:21:46
nothing of value appeared to be missing. Both bodies were still in bed. No evidence that either victim tried to
00:21:54
escape. And there was another odd thing about the crime scene. Was there a lot of
00:22:01
evidence left behind by the killer? >> Not really. We were coming up pretty dry on the crime scene. Any fingerprints
00:22:08
that seem clearly connected? DNA left at the scene? >> No. >> Did you have the weapon?
00:22:13
>> We didn't have the weapon. No. >> Still, while the crime scene was unusually clean, the bodies were
00:22:22
anything but. Both victims had stab wounds everywhere in their necks, the torso, the legs. And that wasn't even
00:22:34
the most horrifying part. It was a very bloody scene, >> right? >> And there were some strange details,
00:22:43
too, weren't there? >> Yeah, there were um there were a couple objects inside the bodies. Um one of
00:22:50
them being a shot glass or glass of some sort >> put inside the body >> and a cell phone in the other. Right.
00:22:56
>> Right. >> I mean, who does something like this? >> Like I said, we we didn't know. The
00:23:01
first thing we thought is perhaps looking at people they know that are connected especially strongly connected
00:23:07
to the victims where there would be feelings involved. >> I mean it sounds like a lot of anger
00:23:11
toward these people. >> Sounded like it. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. >> Police believe that whoever attacked
00:23:17
Chip and Claudia may have had a personal vendetta. >> I think even one theory was because he
00:23:23
was a defense attorney. um perhaps someone who was in his life as a client that you know felt like they were
00:23:30
wronged and he didn't do a good enough job fighting for them. Um so we were kind of looking at everything
00:23:36
>> but neither Chip nor Claudia had any obvious enemies in town. >> No, you know, everybody liked them. They
00:23:44
were involved in music. They were involved with a lot of people in the community and we were just coming up
00:23:48
with everybody who who really liked them. The police department had to start piecing together a story based on
00:23:56
statistics and crimes they had dealt with previously. They had to ask, "Was one of the victims having an affair?
00:24:05
Could they have had a falling out with a close friend or family member?" >> Usually to us when it's that violent, um
00:24:12
there's anger behind it, some type of feeling. Uh you'll see it with domestic violence, family related murders, things
00:24:18
like that. But usually we felt like, okay, maybe there's a connection between the suspect and and and the victims.
00:24:25
Here, >> with little to no evidence to lead them, the police started their investigation
00:24:32
by looking close to home, very close to home. >> I understand that they had few options.
00:24:41
They had very, very little in the way of good evidence to work with, so they had
00:24:46
to make the best they could with very few clues. Chip's son, Robert, was one of the first people they talked to
00:24:54
>> at that point. Then those clues pointed us. We we lived in the same town, not
00:24:58
very far away. We would have had we certainly no motive, but easily had the opportunity.
00:25:04
>> Coming up on the next episode of 15, inside the Daniel Marsh murders. And what did they think when they heard
00:25:14
you had just cleaned the carpet? It looked like I was covering up, removing evidence.
00:25:21
[Music] This series was reported by me, Aaron Morardi. Alan Pang is our producer. Mora
00:25:41
Walls is our story editor and Jamie Benson is the senior producer. Megan Marcus is the vice president of podcast
00:25:50
editorial for CBS. Special thanks to 48 hours executive producer Judy Tyiggard along with 48
00:25:59
hours producers Judy Ryback, Stephanie Slifer, and Greg Fiser from Goat Rodeo. This podcast was written and produced by
00:26:09
Cara Schillin, Max Johnston, Jay Venibals, Isabelle Kirby McGawan, Megan Nadulski, and Ian Enright.
00:26:19
Additional reporting and recording by Cara Schillin. Our executive producers at Goat Rodeo are Megan Nadulski and Ian
00:26:28
Enright. Original theme in music by Hans Delshi with additional music from Paramount. Final mix by Rebecca Sidell.
00:26:40
Then Fulton is our fact checker. Our production manager is Carara Schillin. I'm Aaron Morardi. If you're enjoying
00:26:49
this show, be sure to give it a rating and review. It helps more people find it and hear our reporting. If you liked 15
00:26:59
Inside the Daniel Marsh Murders, check out the rest of our 48 Hours podcasts by searching 48 Hours on your favorite
00:27:09
podcast app. Thanks for listening. [Music]