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Hi crime junkies. Today I have a solo episode for you. It's about a case that rocked the quiet California community
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where it unfolded. Twin teenage sisters were shot while their house was set on fire and the identity of the biggest
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suspect fractured the family at the heart of the story. But as we dug in, I couldn't help but think maybe there's
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more to the story. On the surface, I can see how someone could think it's an open
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and shut case. But the more I learned, the more I wondered if it was as straightforward as police initially
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portrayed it to be. Or did they miss evidence pointing in other directions? This is the story of Jill and Julie
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Hansen. It's around 3:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 15th, 1986 in Willow Creek, California when 40-year-old Hans Hansen
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suddenly jolts awake from a deep sleep. His feet are on his bedroom floor before
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he knows what woke him up, but he immediately smells smoke and hears something popping. His wife, Betty, is
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already out of bed scrambling to get her robe on and when they throw open their bedroom door, they are met with a
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hellscape. The bathroom across the hall is engulfed in flames and Hans hears that popping noise again. He's assuming
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it's some hairspray cans exploding in the heat of the fire or something like that and Hans knows he has to move
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quickly. He, Betty and three of their children are home and they all need to get out now. They live in a double-wide
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trailer. The bedrooms and bathrooms are on one side, then a hallway leads to the
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kitchen, living room and front room [music] and a fire is going to move through the home fast. Hans rushes to
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the living room where he knows his 21-year-old stepson Donnie was sleeping on the couch, but the sliding glass
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doors open and Donnie's gone, so he must have gotten out. Donnie, check. Hans just needs to find their 16-year-old
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twin daughters Jill and Julie. He tries to get to the bedroom that they were sleeping in, but his stomach drops
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as he realizes that the fire's blocking the door. He grabs a fire extinguisher from a closet and starts frantically
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spraying down the hallway, yelling at Betty to call for help. But the fire is out of control.
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So, he runs to his warehouse to get another fire extinguisher. Betty's on the phone inside the warehouse, and
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their son Donnie is also there grabbing more fire extinguishers. But they soon realize it's not going to help. The fire
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is just too big. So, Hans gets the garden hose, breaks the window leading to the bedroom where the girls are, and
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throws the hose inside, which is when, according to the Time Standard, he hears one of the girls call out for help. So,
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at least one of them is still in the trailer. And within minutes, firefighters are on the scene battling
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the blaze. It's not until that moment that Hans realizes Julie is already outside. In all of the commotion, he
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missed her getting out. First responders are working on her, but she is in bad shape. She's clutching her stomach, and
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paramedics think that the fire caused an explosion that severely injured her, and
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she needs to go to the hospital immediately. Hans knows that he and Betty have to go with her, but there's
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still no sign of her sister Jill. First responders have taken over the scene, so
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as torn as they are, Hans and Betty ask Donnie to wait for word on Jill as they rush to the hospital. Hans and Betty
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have nothing to do but sit and wait for news. And when a doctor finally comes out to give them an update,
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it's something that they're not expecting at all. Julie's stomach injury isn't from the fire. The doctor tells
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them that she was shot at close range. As the reality of what happened to his daughter strikes Hans,
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and he thinks back to the fire, it hits him. That popping sound he heard when he
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woke up. That could have been gunshots, but none of it is making sense. As doctors work to save Julie, Hans and
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Betty stand by for any updates on Jill. They're holding on to the hope that maybe Jill will be okay. But between
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10:00 and 11:00 that same morning, they get news that while combing through what's left of the house, first
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responders found Jill in the kitchen. She died in the fire. And while they were still reeling from the revelation
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about Julie's injuries, they get Jill's autopsy results and find that she had also been shot. So, this is
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now a murder investigation. And as police start cataloging evidence at the crime scene, they find two empty gas
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cans, one in the house and one on the deck, the same kind Hans says he kept in his warehouse. And investigators quickly
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realize gas was used to start the fire intentionally. Investigators want to know who would want to harm Jill and
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Julie, and they start looking into the girls and their lives. And it's an understatement to say that Jill
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and Julie were adored in their community. Everyone knows the Hansen twins because when they were just 10
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years old, Jill was diagnosed with leukemia. And the whole town of Willow Creek rallied behind the family in her
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six-year road to recovery. And just recently, she had been given a clean bill of health. As far as the family can
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tell, there is no one who would want to hurt them. And while the town where the Hansens lived was relatively safe, the
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county around it was a different story. [music] It is literally known as Murder Mountain because of the number of
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killings and disappearances thought to be connected to massive drug deals in the area. And we know crime does spill
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over. And I'm sure investigators have that in the back of their minds as they start to investigate. They ask witnesses
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in the area about what they saw that night. And they seem to get some like half leaves. One neighbor tells them
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that sometime after the fire, she saw two teen boys standing near the trailer watching the fire unfold. And one had
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what looked like ashes on his shoulder. Some neighbors report having heard two blasts and then a car peeling off in the
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distance. Other neighbors say they saw a car driving toward Highway 199, according to the time standard. And I
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wish I could tell you what kind of car it was, but we couldn't get investigative records for this case. So,
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most of the information we have is from archives of local papers. The Time Standard reported that
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investigators also find spent shotgun shells in the trailer. And hidden behind some boxes in the back of Hans'
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warehouse, they find a 12-gauge shotgun with an obvious palm print. And they send the shells and the gun off for
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testing to see if they match. This discovery, of course, sets off alarm bells for police. And they ask Hans
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about the gun, and he tells them it's not his. He only has an old rifle that he kept from his childhood, not a
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12-gauge shotgun like the one they found. But that's when investigators find something else. Something that
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turns the idea of a random attack into something totally different. A few unspent shotgun shells somewhere else.
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Inside Hans' stepson, Donnie's car. In the parks and forests you love, there are stories waiting to be told. I'm
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Delia D'Ambra, the host of Park Predators, [music] a true crime podcast that reminds you sometimes the most
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beautiful places [music] hide the darkest secrets. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
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They send those unspent shotgun shells off for testing, too. And they immediately want to talk to Donnie to
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get his story of what happened that night. And like I mentioned, our request for
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investigative files was denied. So, we had to piece together what Donnie told police from reporting by the Time
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Standard, Unsolved Mysteries, and other records. And from those sources, here's what we know. Donnie says he was asleep
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on the couch in the living room the night of the fire. And he was woken up by a shotgun blast. He sat up on the
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couch, and in the flash from the gun going off, he saw Julie collapse at the end of the hallway that opens up into
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the living room. He says the house was already on fire, and he ran over to pick Julie up and carried her outside. And
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Donnie told police that he didn't get a good look at who else was in the house. He just said he saw a quote dark figure.
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They asked Donnie about the unspent shotgun shells in his car. And Donnie says he'd bought them because they were
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in the store. He'd borrowed a 12-gauge shotgun from his friend and they took it target shooting earlier that week. He
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had meant to return the gun but forgot it in the back seat of his car. Which Donnie's friend later backs up.
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And with no ballistics back yet, investigators are still waiting to see if they're all a match. The gun in the
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warehouse, the unspent shells in Donnie's car, and the spent shells in the house.
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As police continue their investigation, they're surveilling the Hansens property
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to see if anybody comes back to the scene of the crime. And during their stakeout, their waiting pays off. Patrol
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officers watch as a man lurks around the warehouse. Officers call a detective to
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the scene. >> [music] >> And when the detective confronts this person, it's Donnie.
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According to an episode about the case on Unsolved Mysteries, Donnie tells them he is looking for the family dog, who
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sleeps in the warehouse at night. But the police don't buy it. Hans and Betty have been camping out in a motor home
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outside the hospital as they wait for Julie to wake up. And when police later ask Hans, he tells them that Donnie knew
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the dog was being watched by a friend and wasn't at the house. So police think he might be looking for the shotgun that
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they now think he hid. Now, Donnie doesn't know that the police already found it because they didn't mention
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that to him when they first interviewed him. And it doesn't help Donnie when ballistics come back and police are able
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to confirm that the shotgun found in the back of Hans's warehouse was the same gun used to shoot the girls. And the
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same gun Donnie had borrowed and taken target shooting. The unspent shells in his car?
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Also a match. They also find that on Wednesday, which would be a couple of days before the shooting, Donnie had
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asked Hans for the credit card that the family used for gas to fill up his car. Investigators look at the credit card
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statements and see that there was a charge for 5 gallons of gas at a gas station nearby. Police look into the gas
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station Donnie purchased the gas from. They're able to confirm that he purchased gas that day, but Donnie
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didn't fill his car with the gas. He filled a gas can. When police asked Donnie about this, he tells them that
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the fuel spout was bent on his car, so he had to use a gas can to fill up. But all of this coupled together isn't
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looking great. And my question is, why would Donnie do [music] this? By all accounts, Donnie was a good kid. He
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wasn't into drugs or partying. He was a star student in high school. But his parents did say that after
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graduation, he began to drift a little. After one semester in college, he dropped out and didn't seem to have the
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drive that he used to. He'd moved in with his grandmother in Fortuna, about an hour and a half away. He would come
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down to Willow Creek every once in a while to help with the family business, and that's actually what he was doing
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there, why he was sleeping on the couch the night of the fire. The Thursday before the fire, Donnie and Betty got
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into a squabble. Betty asked Donnie to take something out of the freezer for her, and he had an attitude. Apparently,
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Donnie stormed out and said he was going back to Fortuna. But Donnie ended up calling Betty later, apologizing for his
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back, and coming back to Willow Creek the next day, Friday the 14th. That's the day before the fire. But that fight
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that Betty and Donnie had wasn't anything new. Donnie and Betty got into low-stakes arguments often, mostly
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because Betty would get on Donnie about not working or being in school. And to me,
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it seems like kind of a huge leap to go from just bickering with his mom to murder. It seems like just
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run-of-the-mill family stuff. Like my son is only 17, but I kind of get it. Like it seems so normal. And other than
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that moment between Donnie and his mom, Hans said Donnie was in a great mood that week. Hans is Donnie's stepdad, but
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the two were so close that he called Hans dad. And his family said that Donnie also had
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a good relationship with Jill and Julie. So, it doesn't make a lot of sense why he'd just shoot them. And while
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investigators are trying to parse out a motive, a few days after the fire, Julie
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wakes up. And this could be the moment that police find out what really happened. At first, she's only able to
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communicate through writing, but about a week from the fire, she starts talking.
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Investigators waste no time asking her what can she remember. Julie tells police a noise woke her up just before
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3:00 a.m. the night of the fire. It sounded like someone loading batteries into a flashlight. She left Jill asleep
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in the room that they shared that night and walked toward the living room. Julie later told Hans that she didn't
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remember any smoke or fire at that point, which is a little weird to me because by the time Hans said he heard
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popping, he already smelled smoke and the fire was spreading fast. But, Julie's memory is actually pretty shaky.
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Like, she does remember being ambushed at the end of the hallway, but in the darkness, she didn't see who shot her.
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As she gets better, she tells police that as the shotgun fired, she could make out Donnie's face for a split
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second. But, Julie doesn't actually say that he was the shooter. And Donnie did say he was woken up in the living room
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by a shotgun blast, too. So, it really just proves that Donnie was in the room, which we know. And Julie's
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story changes. Detectives speak to a doctor who treated Julie at the hospital, who says, "Julie
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never mentioned that she saw anyone when she was shot." A first responder who was in the
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ambulance with Julie says that she told them Donnie carried her outside after she was shot, which does confirm what he
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said. And even though she's awake, she's still needing round-the-clock medical care. Hans and Betty are still camped
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outside the hospital, and they haven't seen Donnie much since the fire. And that's been bothering Hans. Police told
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Hans about the shotgun that was found in the warehouse, and they They him specifically not to bring it up with
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Donnie while they looked into him more. But Hans has a bad feeling about the whole thing. And despite the directive
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from police, he just wants to talk to Donnie. So, one night, Donnie stops by the motorhome.
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And Hans just straight out asks Donnie about the 12-gauge shotgun. Donnie flips out as if the question was an
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accusation. He yells at his stepdad that he didn't do it and runs out of the motorhome. Hans told us Donnie's
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reaction that night changed everything for him. From then on, he believed that Donnie had something to do with what
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happened. And look, I can see how high emotions must have been for Hans. But to be fair,
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if I'm Donnie and I'm innocent, I just lost my sister and I'm now feeling accused of having something to do with
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it, I'm probably going to react pretty strongly, too. And around 2 weeks after the fire, Donnie voluntarily goes into
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the station and sits through about 2 hours of questioning. And according to Unsolved Mysteries,
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police also give Donnie two polygraph tests. And he fails not one, but both polygraphs. And he tells something new
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to the cops. Something he didn't mention in his first interview. He said he did hide the
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shotgun that they found in the warehouse, but not for the reason they might think. He says in the midst of the
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fire, he was scared he [snorts] would be framed for shooting the girls if they found the shotgun in the backseat of his
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car. So, he moved it. And I don't know, it's kind of tough to follow this thought process, right? I
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mean, your family is dying in a house fire and you're thinking, pause, let me go hide this shotgun so I
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don't get blamed. But it's obvious that police aren't buying any of this. And it's not just this interview and the two
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failed polygraphs. Remember that handprint on the gun? Well, it comes back that it's Donnie's.
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The print is encased in fire extinguisher residue. So, it shows that Donnie had handled both the gun and a
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fire extinguisher that night. And police are thinking all roads lead to Donnie at
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this point, and they arrest him. And he's charged with arson and Jill's murder. But then, 2 weeks after his
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arrest, Julie suddenly dies. And it's a shock to everyone because she was getting better. But after about a
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month in the hospital, an air bubble entered her bloodstream through an IV feeding tube, and ultimately stopped her
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heart. It was a super rare medical accident. But it's then that Donnie's charges are
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upgraded to another count of murder. So now, the family has to cope with the loss of two children. And in another
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way, the loss of a third child. Because Hans said after that night when he confronted Donnie about the shotgun, and
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he reacted the way he did, Donnie has been dead to him. And that could have been it. Like, case
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closed, right? Donnie's prints encased in fire extinguisher residue are on the gun. The gun that he admitted he had
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borrowed from a friend just days before. And the matching shells. The evidence seems pretty damning. But when it goes
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to trial, it becomes clear that the case against Donnie has some significant holes.
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And this case that seemed so cut and dry, suddenly seems to fall apart. Donnie spends the next 18 months in the
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Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County awaiting his trial. He maintains his innocence the whole time and is
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convinced there's not enough to convict him. There's a lot on the line for Donnie because [music] the District
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Attorney Terry Farmer decides to seek the death penalty. And the case is making waves. Local newspapers cover the
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trial extensively. And according to Richard Muha, the private investigator on Donnie's defense, there was a general
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belief in town that Donnie was guilty. So Donnie's defense team has their work cut out for them. While Donnie is in
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jail, they do an investigation of their own, and they uncover some pretty outstanding gaps left by the official
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police investigation. Donnie's defense team finds that the police allegedly refused to pursue evidence that could
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rule him out as a suspect. For example, on the gun, investigators only tested the obvious palm print. They didn't
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check for any other possible fingerprints. They also didn't test the gun or the box of shells in Donny's car
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for other fingerprints. And remember those teens and the car peeling off? Well, neither of those two things seems
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to have been thoroughly investigated. And here's the thing. According to reporting by the
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Times-Standard, police actually did question those two teens. And Hans told us he actually knows who they are
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because they live in the area. But the deputy who questioned them is one of the boys' uncle.
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And apparently, the entire conversation between the deputy and his nephew was excluded from his report. And no note of
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their relationship was made, according to newspaper archives. Which is like a huge conflict of
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interest. And maybe it's nothing. But maybe it's everything. [music] And the fact that it's just never
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mentioned is pretty wild to me. And we actually found one of the boys who was there that night ourselves. And he told
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our reporter that he doesn't remember much because he was high on acid. All he remembers seeing is a fire and walking
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over to it. But police were focused on Donny, so it doesn't seem like those boys were ever investigated any further.
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And the defense's investigation also found that the lock on the trailer's sliding glass door had been tampered
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with. Evidence that someone could have broken into the house that night. So, Donny's trial begins in April of 1988.
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It takes place in Alameda County, hundreds of miles south of Humboldt. A superior court judge moved the
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proceedings because he didn't think Donny would get a fair trial back home. And at trial, Donny's defense paints a
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picture of how the night of the fire played out. A scenario where Donny was one of the victims, not the perpetrator.
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They say, Donny's asleep on the couch in the living room while two mysterious men
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are casing the property outside. Maybe they're the two teens on acid. maybe they're someone else. They notice
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a shotgun inside Donnie's car, grab it just in case. They pick the lock to the sliding glass door near where Donnie is
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sleeping, and the two assailants quietly come inside. They don't notice Donnie sleeping on the couch in the darkness,
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and they set about starting a fire when Julie comes down the hall. They panic, shoot her with the shotgun they found in
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the car outside, and that's when Donnie wakes up. And when Julie sees his face in the blast, the perpetrators are
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surprised by Donnie's presence and hesitate long enough for Donnie to grab Julie and run outside. He leaves her on
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the ground and takes off until he's seen next by Hans and Betty in the warehouse.
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Hans and Betty wake up as the inferno is picking up. And remember, Hans doesn't remember exactly what woke him up, but
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he heard those pops and smelled smoke. Everyone rushes to get out of the house, and Jill is the last one up.
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Jill comes out of the room that she was in and into the kitchen. The gunman, who
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is still inside the house, shoots Jill, who falls to the ground. The defense claims that everyone was outside of the
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trailer when Jill was shot, and therefore Donnie couldn't have shot Jill. After shooting Jill, the
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perpetrators flee, but before they leave the property, they drop the gun back in
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Donnie's car. Later, when Donnie sees it sitting in a different position in his car, he takes
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it and hides it in the warehouse, which I still think that's strange behavior in
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the middle of a fire, but it's also important to note that all the evidence against Donnie is circumstantial. Like,
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his handprint could be on the gun because Donnie shot the girls, or because he simply panicked and moved the
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gun, or because he had used the gun for target practice like he admitted to. There's one more small detail that the
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defense picks up on, and I mentioned it earlier, but Hans said that when he was outside wrestling with the garden hose,
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he heard someone call for help from inside the burning trailer. According to the defense's narrative, Julie and
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Donnie were already outside, so this could have been Jill calling for help, meaning she was still alive when Donnie
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was outside. Therefore, he couldn't have been the one to shoot her, which could be huge. But, I'm just not sure
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how seriously to take that detail because just about everyone involved had a slightly different recollection of how
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the night went down and who was where or when. But, say Donnie didn't do it. Why would someone go through all of this
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trouble and take the gun out of his car? Like, you're just walking by and you decide to try and kill a family. Oh, and
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return the murder weapon where you by chance found it. And that's what I can't make sense of. And it doesn't seem like
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it was a robbery or anything like that because Hans said nothing in the house seemed to be missing. Their brand new
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VCR was still sitting on the TV right beside the sliding glass door where someone would have entered. And in 1986,
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a VCR was a luxury. During the trial, William Bragg, Donnie's attorney, brought in a criminal psychologist to
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testify that he examined Donnie and found no reason to conclude that he was capable of this crime. But, the
00:22:09
prosecution painted a completely different picture. They described Donnie as an irresponsible kid who loves
00:22:15
expensive, fast cars and was looking for quick money. And Hans's logging supply business is booming. Hans and some
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relatives also own a really nice ranch in Fortuna, like million-dollars nice. And Hans openly talked about their
00:22:29
$250,000 life insurance policies with the kids, including Donnie, so that they knew that there was money if anything
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ever happened to Hans and Betty. And that policy would double to $500,000 in the case of an accident. But, Donnie
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would still have to split this with his older sister who wasn't at the trailer that night. Hans buys this narrative.
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He says that he and Betty bought Donnie a reliable car, but Donnie sold it for this old Corvette that always broke down
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on him. According to the Time-Standard, during the trial, an auto mechanic testified that Donnie told him he was
00:23:02
planning on running into some money soon in the six-figure range and had made a deposit on a Corvette, which I assume
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was a new one. But, investigators were never able to track down any proof of deposit.
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And my thought is if he wanted the money, why wouldn't he shoot his parents first?
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Like I feel like if you're trying to get life insurance, they're are the main targets,
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right? But, maybe he shot his sisters because he didn't want to share his inheritance and he assumed his parents
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would die in the fire. Now, I don't think you'd carry someone to safety that you just shot, but we actually don't
00:23:39
know if Donnie did carry Julie to safety or he just told people he did. Then again,
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Julie told the paramedic that he did. The only other alternative we can think of is that she crawled out of a burning
00:23:51
house and across the street, which seems unlikely if you're bleeding from a gunshot wound. Still, from what we know,
00:23:59
the idea that Donnie, who by all accounts is a normal guy, would have schemed up a plan to murder his family
00:24:05
for a few hundred thousand dollars, I'm not sure how convincing that is. And other people feel that way, too, or felt
00:24:12
that way at the time. One of the most dramatic moments of the trial is when Betty goes on the stand. Bragg asks
00:24:18
Betty in front of the entire courtroom if she thinks her son is capable of doing something like this, and she says,
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"No." The trial wraps up in mid-June. When it comes time to deliberate, the jury takes
00:24:29
just six hours before coming back with their verdict, not guilty. According to the Time Standard, jurors were concerned
00:24:35
that the prosecution couldn't really show what exactly happened in the Hansen house that night.
00:24:41
And you're not going to believe this, but Bragg and Donnie actually go out to dinner and drinks with some of the
00:24:47
jurors after he's found not guilty. I mean, I guess there's no rule against it. The
00:24:53
trial is over, but it doesn't look great. Apparently, the defense was able to discredit the prosecution's narrative
00:24:59
so much that the jury members wanted to hang out with the guy accused of the crime. Donnie's other attorney, Alan
00:25:06
Chelfy, later told a reporter that Donnie was acquitted because the jurors were stuck on the fact that the
00:25:11
sheriff's department and the district attorney's office poorly investigated the crime. He went as far as to say that
00:25:17
there was, quote, "Flat-out incompetence bordering on deliberate malfeasance." End quote. And I can agree to a certain
00:25:25
extent, right? There were a lot of holes in the investigation from not testing for other fingerprints to not pursuing
00:25:31
other potential suspects and not painting a clear picture as to what happened that night in the trailer. And
00:25:38
really, one of the teen's uncles questioning them and it not being reported truly takes the cake for me. So, listen,
00:25:45
I'm not saying Donnie is definitely innocent, but I can see why he would be acquitted because I don't think anyone,
00:25:52
considering how the investigation was conducted, could confidently say he did this without a reasonable doubt. In the
00:25:59
years after he was acquitted, Donnie completely disconnected from Hans and Betty. They never spoke again.
00:26:05
Donnie changed his last name to his biological father's last name and later on married and had a family.
00:26:11
He was quoted in a newspaper as thanking his biological father and a couple other
00:26:15
friends and family members for being there throughout this rough time in his life. As we were reporting on this case
00:26:20
for this episode, we tracked Donnie down, but he declined to speak with us. And in May of 2025, he was killed in a
00:26:27
car accident in Indiana. His obituary describes him as a man of character, full of love and generosity, who left
00:26:33
behind a loving wife and children. Hans told us Donnie's death didn't really feel like a huge blow because Donnie's
00:26:39
been dead to him since that November night all those years ago. The last time he spoke to Donnie was that tense
00:26:45
conversation outside the hospital. And in the years since, he's heard so many theories and stories from people
00:26:51
who claim to know what happened. But to this day, he's still convinced that Donnie is responsible for the deaths of
00:26:57
Jill and Julie. He says Betty has had a harder time grappling with the thought that her only son could do something
00:27:02
like this. And after all this time, the family is still desperate for answers from someone who may truly know what
00:27:08
happened. And it's Hans's hope that those answers, that closure, could still come. In 1992, Hans and Betty took Jill
00:27:16
and Julie's $50,000 college fund and offered it as a reward for answers. And that same $50,000 is still being
00:27:23
offered today. If you know anything about the deaths of Jill and Julie Hansen, please reach out
00:27:29
to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office at 707-268-2539 or fill out their online tip form on
00:27:36
their website. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website crimejunkie.com.
00:27:41
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And you can follow us on Instagram @crimejunkiepodcast. We'll be back next week with a brand new
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episode. [music]