00:00:00
a new 48 Hours investigation is looking into The Disappearance and death of a very wealthy and successful
00:00:06
businesswoman named audreen McDonald she had turned a assisted living business into a million-dollar company and she
00:00:12
seemingly had it all gorgeous home high-end cars lavish lifestyle Peter Van Sant reports now for this week's 48
00:00:20
Hours 29-year-old andreen McDonald a businesswoman wife and mother who had turned her Assisted Living health care
00:00:29
business into to a million dooll Enterprise had seemingly vanished from her home recalls childhood friend Mandy
00:00:37
Hall I remember like a panic setting andrean is not the person to go take off somewhere no one knows where she is her
00:00:45
purse was still there her keys were on the counter and her Vehicles were still there investigator Frank stubs saw
00:00:52
something startling in the bathroom I found there was blood on the wall in an area that was kind of OD
00:01:00
there was blood and hair on a light switch Andre's husband of 10 years Air Force Major Andre McDonald told
00:01:08
investigators the last time he had seen his wife was the night before did you see any signs of bruising on his body
00:01:17
any signs of of any injuries that perhaps he'd been in a struggle nothing that we could that we could determine
00:01:24
but the next day investigators discovered items inside Andre's car that were not there during their initial
00:01:31
search including a shovel and in a trash can some clothing that appeared to be Andre's we found Blood on the pocket of
00:01:41
the jeans although investigators had suspicions about Andre without a body none of the evidence collected proved
00:01:49
that a murder had occurred law enforcement along with volunteer search teams family and friends came out to
00:01:58
search for Andre how many miles did you cover it was hundreds of miles their search ended when a local farmer made a
00:02:06
shocking Discovery I saw the what appeared to be a human skull that must have been a shock a shock
00:02:13
yes and Peter vanand joins us now wow Peter so what happened after andrene's body was found well it took a couple of
00:02:20
days to positively identify her uh and then Andre her husband was arrested charged with first-degree murder and he
00:02:28
pleaded not guilty M why did it take a couple days to to figure out what had happened she had been put out in this
00:02:34
field and her remains had been there for 133 days and as you can imagine there wasn't much left and they had to do the
00:02:42
dental record identifying do we know Peter what actually happened to her all we know is what Andre has said because
00:02:49
she's gone she he claims that at their home they got into an argument over the family business you know the marriage
00:02:56
was ending this argument ends up escalating into a physical altercation she ends up falling on the ground and he
00:03:04
admits that he kicked her twice one of those kicks seemed to knock the wind out of her at that moment they notice their
00:03:10
he notices their young daughter on the second floor in the interior of the house how old was she at the time 8
00:03:16
years old so he goes up to her and gets her back to her bedroom and he says he was there for sometime comes back down
00:03:22
and his wife he says is dead that's an unusual defense wow well the defense turns into
00:03:30
that that this fight that his wife who and they introduced video during the course of this trial you can see her you
00:03:37
know pressing more than 300 lbs he says he feared for his life and that this was
00:03:43
self-defense and he also tried to blame his wife for this entire altercation it's a very powerful time when he's on
00:03:51
the stand it's must SE television if you want to see it Peter V thank you very much if you want to see it I know you do
00:03:57
you can watch Peter's report audreen Donald A Millionaire vanishes on 48 hours tomorrow night at 109 Central
00:04:03
right here on CBS and on Paramount Plus