00:00:04
on this episode of women behind bars
00:00:07
one woman was convicted of murdering her
00:00:09
own parents
00:00:10
virginia twinner had opportunity or had
00:00:13
access to that handgun
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i didn't think i'd even go to trial and
00:00:17
then when i did go to trial
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i knew they couldn't get a conviction i
00:00:20
wasn't guilty okay
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then diane metzger tells her story she
00:00:25
was an alleged cohort in the brutal
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death of her husband's ex-wife
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and he said she's dead and i just at
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that point
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everything started to move in slow
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motion you know somebody went upstairs
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suffocated martha wrapped her in a
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blanket
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and they stuffed her in the trunk of the
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car
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two women two brutal crimes these are
00:00:47
the stories of virginia twitter
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and diane metzger
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so
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on the morning of may 5th 1988 54 year
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old john wells was found murdered in his
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own home
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located in rural pettis county missouri
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he'd been shot it didn't look like a
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struggle perhaps somebody that he knew
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there was a large amount of blood
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throughout the living room
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at first investigators suspected his
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wife 49 year old marilyn wells
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that was until her body was discovered
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the following day in a field eight miles
00:01:44
away
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we had a female subject that was located
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about 40 or
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50 feet off into this wooded area
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she also had been killed with a single
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gunshot wound to the chest
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within three days 26-year-old virginia
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twitter a financially strapped single
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mother was arrested
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and charged with killing her own father
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and stepmother in cold blood
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for money
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i think she went there to try to get
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money from her father
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he refused her i think she shot him
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her mother was taken out in the country
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and killed
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she loved her mom and she loved her dad
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did virginia twitter resort to the
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murder of her own parents to erase her
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mounting debts
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or is she an innocent woman who wound up
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on death row for a crime she didn't
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commit
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my dad was in the united states marine
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corps
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he was stationed in okinawa japan
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my birth mother aida is from sasebo
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japan virginia's parents had two
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children in japan
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in the early 60s they were restationed
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to oceanside california
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where virginia and her two other
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siblings were born
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he was a good father as far as providing
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for us we never went hungry
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we always had everything that we needed
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okay
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but if i had to come up with one word to
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just describe him
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the abuse stands out in 1967
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the couple filed for divorce when i was
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six
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my dad married marilyn and she was the
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one who raised me
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i considered my mom marilyn had three
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children of her own
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by 1972 the blended family including
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eight kids
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settled into the rural farmland near
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sedalia missouri
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in order to provide for his family jd
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set up several cash businesses
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jd and maryland ran two local businesses
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a
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restaurant here in sedalia and a bar
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in a small neighboring community
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maryland was primarily running the bar
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jd was running the restaurant
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marilyn was the caregiver and the lover
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and had good relationships that i saw
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with all the kids
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jd was a disciplinarian
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in fact according to virginia even as
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the kids got older
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the former marine continued to rule with
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an iron fist
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i still remember getting weapons and
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spankings and stuff
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but i think at 15 i finally got an
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outlet
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i loved horses i love animals and living
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on the farm
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i always had some place to go to get
00:04:45
away from it
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when virginia was 16 she met another
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local teenager named hugo
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he's about five foot tan he's country
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boy
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real muscular i guess that's what
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attracted me to him because he was just
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so strong
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hugo also represented freedom for the
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teenager who longed to break free from
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her father's grasp
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virginia dropped out of high school
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married hugo
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and moved with him to his new job as a
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farmhand in osceola
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some 200 miles away from her father
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my honeymoon was spent in a trailer
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with no gas no water no electricity
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nothing just a lantern i was okay with
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i was i was free but times only got
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tougher for the young couple when
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virginia gave birth to a baby boy
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there was one more mouth to feed dad
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didn't want us living
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in osceola on this farm anymore he
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wanted us to move back to sedalia
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to keep closer tabs on us the financial
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stress only intensified with the birth
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of another son
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in fact records show that virginia and
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hugo often relied on bailout loans from
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jd
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i don't think hugo was happy that i had
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a second child so soon
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i think i put too much responsibility on
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him
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remember things changed he was hitting
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me
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and he and i went to call the police and
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he took
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the the curly wire on the telephone and
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he wrapped it around my neck
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when he was distracted i run up the
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stairs and close
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the door on him and hit and took off
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got my two boys and got out of there she
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ended up divorced because it was an
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abusive relationship
00:06:30
and she couldn't take that for her and
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her children anymore
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in late 1987 after eight years of
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marriage she got divorced and worked at
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a fast food restaurant to make ends meet
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before long though her car was
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repossessed and the bank threatened to
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foreclose on the house she and hugo had
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bought together
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hugo paid her 400 a month support for
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the kids
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and jenny provided for him the best she
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could by her own admission
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virginia was careless when it came time
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to pay the bills
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at that time it was actually just a big
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party i just partied all the time
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not drinking or none of that i just
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didn't do none of my responsibilities in
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the spring of 1988 virginia once again
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turned to her father for financial help
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asking him for a loan i was very
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desperate
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i needed this loan okay because
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otherwise my kids was going to lose
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their home my kids was going to be
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kicked out of the catholic school
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i had already lost my car but this time
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the answer was no
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virginia had recently defaulted on an
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already existing loan of three thousand
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dollars from her father
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he'd threatened to garnish her wages he
00:07:42
was mad
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my dad was very mad at me i guess i made
00:07:47
maybe
00:07:48
three trips down to the restaurant
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talking to him all together
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when he finally agreed that he would
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give me this loan
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according to virginia her father had
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finally agreed to loan her more money
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a local bank teller however remembers an
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incident several weeks before his death
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when j.d wells entered the bank with an
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unusual proclamation
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he said my name is john wells and i want
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this
00:08:12
bank to know in case anything happens to
00:08:15
me
00:08:16
that within the next few days i'm going
00:08:18
to be making a large deposit
00:08:20
to my daughter's account so how did
00:08:22
virginia twitter wind up being accused
00:08:24
of murdering her own parents
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the two people she says were willing to
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help her most
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when women behind bars continues it
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quickly came to investigators attention
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that she was in financial trouble before
00:08:37
the homicides
00:08:38
and that she was getting herself out of
00:08:40
it may 5th the day the bodies were
00:08:42
discovered
00:08:51
on the morning of may 5th 1988 j.d wells
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oldest daughter made a grim discovery
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as she entered her parents rural
00:08:59
farmhouse outside sedalia missouri
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his daughter anne laos had went to check
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on him
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to see why he wasn't at work that day
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and when she came there she found her
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father dead
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54 year old j.d wells had been shot once
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in the back perhaps mr wells
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was in the master bedroom when he was
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confronted
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and that was used to get him into the
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living room
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and then upon then he was shot
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he was wearing his pajamas
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at the kitchen table was his checkbook
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a calculator that was on the television
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which was on
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and a cup of coffee which looked like it
00:09:51
was fairly full
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it appeared that john had been
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doing his books paying some bills
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gotten interrupted and ended up shot
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well the first things that caught my eye
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were the bloody
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footprints that were on the linoleum of
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the kitchen in the house
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it's always the thought that the one who
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committed the murder stepped in mr
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wells's blood and then left that
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particular clue there in the kitchen
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area so it became very important
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as footprints go it was a fairly
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distinctive
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footprint that is it showed the the sole
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pattern pretty well
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investigators collected several
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38-caliber shell casings and cigarette
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butts
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then began the search for jd's wife
00:10:37
marilyn
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i believe around noon that day there was
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a
00:10:42
another crime scene located about eight
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miles from the residence
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marilyn wells body was found in a field
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she'd been shot once in the chest with a
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38 caliber weapon
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we believe that she was executed here
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it's very rural there's no houses around
00:11:01
nobody to see a crime committed i think
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the most
00:11:05
important piece of evidence we found
00:11:07
besides the body
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and a bullet that was taken from mrs
00:11:11
wells
00:11:12
was a piece of blue denim that was found
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on the barbed wire strand of the fence
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near maryland's body lay a half pack of
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marlboros
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the same type found inside the whale's
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home
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i was just made to learn that we've had
00:11:27
in homicide
00:11:29
at least doubly dismayed to learn there
00:11:30
were two victims
00:11:34
because it was a big deal the local
00:11:35
sheriff called in the mid-missouri major
00:11:37
case squad
00:11:39
dozens of members of the major case
00:11:41
squad began by interviewing anyone who
00:11:43
knew jd and marilyn
00:11:45
including their eight children
00:11:47
twenty-six-year-old virginia twitter
00:11:48
revealed that just hours before the
00:11:50
murder
00:11:51
she and her two boys visited her parents
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house
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he was sitting at the table in his
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overhauls writing bills
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my stepmother come in and
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me and her went into the living room and
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was talking we didn't want to interrupt
00:12:08
him
00:12:09
virginia says she'd come to pick up an 8
00:12:11
400
00:12:12
loan from her father more than half of
00:12:14
which was to pay for a new car
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the first check she'd written to the
00:12:18
dealership bounced
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so my father got up from the table and
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he walked into the bedroom
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and he hollered back and he said he said
00:12:27
marilyn write her out two checks
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write one out to david malemo motors
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in the amount of 4 400 and write her one
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for four thousand dollars
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so my stepmother wrote the checks out
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[Music]
00:12:44
and i said thank you to my dad
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according to virginia she went home made
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dinner and put the boys to bed
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sometime before 9 pm she decided to go
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out with a friend to polos
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or local bar leaving her roommate mike
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to babysit
00:13:02
linda turner had called and said she
00:13:04
wanted to go out to polos
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when i got out there i didn't see her
00:13:07
car but i seen one of the guys that i
00:13:10
was dating
00:13:11
going into polos with another girl so i
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got out of my car
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and i started to go into polos and i
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thought
00:13:18
you know you're worth it she claimed
00:13:20
that she then drove to knob noster 20
00:13:22
miles west of sedalia
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drove around town for a while and then
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came back to sedalia
00:13:28
when she was interviewed a second time
00:13:31
she pretty much
00:13:32
stuck with that same story although she
00:13:34
said she had gone clear to warrensburg
00:13:37
virginia also admitted when she got to
00:13:39
warrensburg she didn't just drive around
00:13:42
as i was pulling out a hardee's there
00:13:45
was one
00:13:46
another guy i had dated robert driving
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by
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and i honked and when he looked up and
00:13:51
noticed me he motioned me
00:13:53
to go into the parking lot at mcdonald's
00:13:56
it's like
00:13:57
nine o'clock now when robert
00:14:00
walked up to the car and he had a friend
00:14:02
with him
00:14:04
and he introduced a miss steve and he
00:14:07
was a really nice looking guy
00:14:09
so robert asked me steve could have i
00:14:12
too i don't know
00:14:13
asked me if i wanted to go out to the
00:14:15
park with them so i said yeah
00:14:17
i just followed them back down the road
00:14:20
to this park area
00:14:23
well we ended up
00:14:27
having sex and she inferred that
00:14:30
the reason she hadn't mentioned that
00:14:32
originally is because she was
00:14:33
embarrassed to say anything about that
00:14:35
i was very very ashamed of myself very
00:14:37
very
00:14:38
can't believe i did this thing
00:14:42
the prosecution says it was unable to
00:14:44
locate a robert arnell
00:14:45
or the man she called steve the two men
00:14:48
virginia twitter claimed she was with
00:14:50
during the same time her parents were
00:14:52
murdered her only other alibi was her
00:14:54
friend linda turner
00:14:56
i walked in the door a little after
00:14:58
eleven o'clock
00:14:59
and mike turner told me that linda
00:15:01
turner called
00:15:03
and i said well i really need to talk
00:15:06
because
00:15:08
i needed to tell somebody what i did she
00:15:10
had said she had been at polos
00:15:12
i think she ran into a boyfriend that
00:15:15
she had just broke up with
00:15:20
and then she talked about meeting a
00:15:22
couple of guys
00:15:24
and she left with them for a while the
00:15:27
problem with linda's testimony for the
00:15:29
defendant
00:15:29
is she picks up at about 11 15
00:15:33
p.m and then goes on through the next
00:15:35
couple hours
00:15:36
linda's testimony doesn't help the
00:15:38
defendant during the two-hour gap
00:15:40
between nine and
00:15:41
eleven fifteen what worried
00:15:43
investigators is that linda turner also
00:15:46
described a route that passed right by
00:15:48
both crime scenes
00:15:50
most suspicious was the sudden activity
00:15:52
in virginia's bank account
00:15:54
on the morning that virginia twinner's
00:15:56
parents were discovered
00:15:58
dead she had a forty four hundred dollar
00:16:00
check payable to malmo motors
00:16:02
to take care of a bad check she had
00:16:05
given there
00:16:06
and she had a four thousand dollar check
00:16:08
which i believe was payable to herself
00:16:10
and she used that to take care of a
00:16:13
number of other bills
00:16:15
witnesses say virginia had also given
00:16:17
conflicting accounts about where the
00:16:19
money came from
00:16:21
there were three or four or five
00:16:22
different versions of events that she
00:16:24
gave such as
00:16:25
my dad gave me the money and i made the
00:16:27
deposit my dad and my former husband
00:16:30
hugo gave me the money and i made the
00:16:31
deposit
00:16:33
according to virginia her father told
00:16:35
her to keep quiet about the loan
00:16:37
worried his other seven children might
00:16:39
also ask for handouts
00:16:41
when people ask me where i was getting
00:16:43
the money i never
00:16:45
told anyone the truth because that was
00:16:48
one of the things my dad asked me not to
00:16:49
do
00:16:50
investigators asked to conduct a search
00:16:52
of virginia twinner's home
00:16:54
the team collected a number of pieces of
00:16:56
evidence
00:16:57
including a pair of tennis shoes linda's
00:17:00
the one who actually said jenny i think
00:17:02
they're starting to suspect you
00:17:07
when women behind bars continues i
00:17:10
didn't understand
00:17:11
why i was sitting in this chair being
00:17:13
charged with two counts of first degree
00:17:14
murder
00:17:15
of my parents and later in this episode
00:17:18
of women behind bars
00:17:20
the murder of a mother of four we know
00:17:22
somebody suffocated
00:17:24
martha wrapped her in a blanket wrapped
00:17:27
cord around it
00:17:38
three days after j.d wells and his wife
00:17:41
marilyn were shot to death near sedalia
00:17:43
missouri
00:17:44
their 26 year old daughter virginia
00:17:45
twitter was arrested
00:17:47
and charged with carrying out the brutal
00:17:49
double homicide
00:17:52
we developed several different people
00:17:55
who might possibly have been involved
00:17:58
one of the people who we looked at
00:18:00
pretty hard was uh virginia's ex-husband
00:18:02
was being involved
00:18:03
his alibi was that he was at work at the
00:18:06
fire station at the time of the killing
00:18:08
which is a pretty good album
00:18:09
for him all of those financial troubles
00:18:12
are over after her parents are killed
00:18:14
and then she's lying about the
00:18:17
the trail of money all caused her to
00:18:20
come into focus as a suspect we talk to
00:18:25
the other people and one at a time
00:18:27
eliminated them
00:18:29
until she was pretty much left
00:18:33
i just couldn't believe this was
00:18:34
happening to me i mean my parents was
00:18:36
dead okay
00:18:37
i think she had severe money problems
00:18:41
she didn't see any way out perhaps she
00:18:44
thought that
00:18:45
her dad would bail her out again maybe
00:18:48
there was a confrontation
00:18:50
virginia would stand trial without the
00:18:52
support of her siblings
00:18:54
their reactions was strong that jenny
00:18:57
was guilty because that's what
00:18:59
sheriff's deputies had told him
00:19:03
on december 9 1988 pettis county
00:19:05
prosecutor jeff mittelhauser presented
00:19:07
the case to a jury
00:19:09
a case that was based almost entirely on
00:19:11
circumstantial evidence
00:19:14
i tried to be fairly careful not to
00:19:17
emphasize
00:19:18
a single piece of evidence because in my
00:19:20
mind
00:19:21
this didn't boil down to one
00:19:25
smoking gun investigators from the
00:19:27
missouri major case squad had failed to
00:19:30
find any fingerprints inside the wells
00:19:32
home
00:19:32
nor did a scrap of denim left at the
00:19:34
second crime scene match up
00:19:37
an expert also testified that while
00:19:39
virginia's tennis shoe was similar
00:19:41
it was not an exact match to the bloody
00:19:43
footprint
00:19:44
found at the crime scene the biggest
00:19:47
problem to me
00:19:48
was helping the jury understand the
00:19:50
whole picture
00:19:51
and not just looking at the bloody shoe
00:19:54
print
00:19:54
and saying well yeah virginia twinner
00:19:57
had a pair of shoes like that
00:19:59
but 10 other people might have bought
00:20:01
the same pair of shoes in the same size
00:20:04
even though the state put forth an
00:20:06
expert that testified he couldn't
00:20:07
positively say
00:20:09
it was virginia toyota's case the jury
00:20:11
was left with the information that she
00:20:12
had shoes that matched them
00:20:14
virginia also smoked marlboros the same
00:20:16
type found at both crime scenes
00:20:18
and then came the murder weapon
00:20:21
ballistics tests showed it belonged to
00:20:23
virginia's ex-husband who'd reported the
00:20:25
gun missing two weeks earlier
00:20:27
testimony reveals he suspected his
00:20:29
ex-wife of stealing it
00:20:31
that handgun was found approximately two
00:20:35
miles
00:20:36
from her residence you have the murder
00:20:38
weapon now
00:20:39
that matches up with the ballistics the
00:20:41
bullets that were recovered
00:20:43
and virginia twinner had opportunity
00:20:47
or had access to that handgun
00:20:52
a second search of virginia twitter's
00:20:54
home had also turned up a puzzling item
00:20:57
we got a search warrant for her home
00:21:00
and it was served may 6th or may 7th
00:21:03
under her waterbed mattress they found a
00:21:05
cash register tape
00:21:07
from the business that jd wells ran
00:21:10
it was dated may 3rd and that would have
00:21:12
been the last
00:21:13
day's worth of cash register receipts
00:21:15
it's important because
00:21:17
jd was sitting at his table when it
00:21:19
appears he was interrupted and then shot
00:21:21
on the night of may 4th
00:21:22
i didn't think i'd even go to trial and
00:21:24
then when i did go to trial
00:21:26
i knew they couldn't get a conviction i
00:21:27
wasn't guilty okay
00:21:30
would the mountain of circumstantial
00:21:32
evidence be enough to convince a jury to
00:21:34
find virginia twitter guilty of two
00:21:36
counts of capital murder
00:21:38
i believe it was a small town it was
00:21:40
election year and it looked good for
00:21:42
them to have somebody in jail for these
00:21:44
murders
00:21:45
i think to them they didn't care
00:21:48
jenny was as good as anybody else
00:21:51
the jury found the defendant guilty of
00:21:53
both counts of first-degree murder
00:21:55
we then proceeded to a penalty phase and
00:21:56
the jury recommended life without parole
00:21:59
for killing john wells
00:22:00
and they recommended the death penalty
00:22:02
for killing maryland wells
00:22:14
hours after the verdict virginia
00:22:15
reportedly attempted to commit suicide
00:22:18
by taking an overdose of pills
00:22:20
there's no possible way for anyone
00:22:24
to even begin to comprehend the
00:22:27
intensity
00:22:28
of another human being or a judge
00:22:32
or anyone saying
00:22:36
death sentence
00:22:46
she was given a new trial by the trial
00:22:48
judge because
00:22:49
he felt that there was numerous things
00:22:52
that the
00:22:53
trial attorneys did in this case that
00:22:55
were ineffective
00:22:56
witnesses that weren't talked to family
00:22:58
members that weren't talked to
00:23:00
things that weren't investigated that
00:23:02
should have been the prosecution
00:23:04
challenged that ruling and virginia's
00:23:06
appeal went all the way to the supreme
00:23:08
court the court ruled against a new
00:23:10
trial but reduced her sentence to two
00:23:12
life terms without the possibility of
00:23:14
parole
00:23:16
in 2005 another team of defense
00:23:18
attorneys phil gibson and mark thomason
00:23:20
agreed to take on her case one more time
00:23:23
it just didn't seem to me that based on
00:23:25
the facts that she could have been the
00:23:27
person that
00:23:28
they committed the crime there was never
00:23:30
another person identified there was
00:23:32
never another person brought into trial
00:23:34
on these cases
00:23:35
but that it was just virginia's winter
00:23:37
we're involved with this case for the
00:23:38
long haul
00:23:39
and if that means we're on it for
00:23:40
another 10 years then we'll be doing it
00:23:42
for 10 more years
00:23:44
separate from twitter's attorney's work
00:23:46
journalist and teacher ellen harris
00:23:47
reviewed virginia's case with a group of
00:23:49
her
00:23:50
students at university college in st
00:23:52
louis
00:23:53
i don't believe virginia twente received
00:23:55
a fair trial
00:23:56
i don't think she received a fair police
00:23:58
investigation
00:23:59
i think there was a rush to justice and
00:24:02
it was rural justice
00:24:05
virginia's attorneys are hoping to
00:24:06
retest the evidence for dna
00:24:08
for now they're relying on old-fashioned
00:24:11
detective work
00:24:13
what we're going to have to do in this
00:24:15
case is find who did it
00:24:16
and that really is probably virginia
00:24:19
twinner's only case of proving her
00:24:21
innocence
00:24:23
[Music]
00:24:26
virginia says 20 years behind bars has
00:24:29
taken its toll
00:24:30
she's had almost no contact with her
00:24:32
children or siblings
00:24:34
i think 19 years without your children
00:24:37
she'll never get that back
00:24:42
her life has changed forever and she
00:24:44
can't get that back
00:24:46
i don't believe in my heart that i would
00:24:48
spend the rest of my life in prison
00:24:51
i believe eventually
00:24:55
somebody will come forward something
00:24:57
will be
00:24:58
found something
00:25:02
and i'll be vindicated
00:25:08
next up on women behind bars a woman is
00:25:10
accused of murdering her husband's ex
00:25:13
i was like okay where's marty and he
00:25:14
said she's dead and i just
00:25:16
at that point everything started to move
00:25:19
in slow motion
00:25:21
for more information about women behind
00:25:23
bars go to
00:25:27
dot www.wetv.com
00:25:33
[Music]
00:25:36
on august 18 1974 29 year old martha
00:25:40
metzger
00:25:41
known as marty was beaten strangled and
00:25:43
suffocated in her home
00:25:45
in a philadelphia suburb a month later
00:25:48
her decomposed body was found in a
00:25:50
shallow grave near buffalo new york
00:25:54
i observed the grave in the backyard
00:25:57
i'll never forget
00:25:58
it sends chills up and down my spine to
00:26:00
this day
00:26:02
according to investigators marty's
00:26:04
husband frank metzger and his
00:26:05
then-girlfriend diane hamel
00:26:07
killed her the prosecution alleges that
00:26:10
diane wanted marty dead
00:26:12
she was so obsessed with him but she was
00:26:14
also obsessed with the fact of getting
00:26:16
marty out of the way
00:26:17
she got involved in a situation that
00:26:19
wasn't her doing made a foolish decision
00:26:21
to stay with the person she was in love
00:26:22
with at the time and
00:26:24
you know it just went horribly horribly
00:26:26
wrong
00:26:28
was diane hamill metzger guilty of
00:26:29
murder or was she an accomplice blinded
00:26:32
by ill-fated love
00:26:40
ridley park pennsylvania a town
00:26:43
17 miles southwest of philadelphia
00:26:46
[Music]
00:26:47
diane metzger was born in 1948 and grew
00:26:50
up in this quintessential small american
00:26:52
town
00:26:54
i was made aware very young that my dad
00:26:56
wanted a boy
00:26:57
as a result i always try i was always a
00:26:59
tomboy i always tried to be like the you
00:27:01
know best in sports and all to make him
00:27:04
like me when she was growing up she
00:27:06
never gave me a problem
00:27:08
such promise i guess i'd say because she
00:27:10
always did so wonderful in school
00:27:12
fran stafford went to school with hamill
00:27:14
from kindergarten to 12th grade
00:27:17
i just remember diane was you know one
00:27:19
of these people that always did
00:27:20
everything she was supposed to do
00:27:22
straight a student the kids thought i
00:27:25
was a nerd and homely and you know
00:27:27
even to get to go to a school dance i
00:27:28
usually had to ask a boy
00:27:30
when diane graduated high school instead
00:27:33
of going straight to college
00:27:34
she decided to take a year off she got
00:27:37
her own apartment and an office job
00:27:39
she also took and passed the mensa exam
00:27:41
a national testing program for those who
00:27:43
have iqs of more than 130.
00:27:47
i might have had an iq of 150 but my
00:27:50
emotional iq
00:27:51
i was like was like 14.
00:27:54
diane was still just a teenager when she
00:27:56
met frank metzger at work
00:27:58
he was a chemist married with kids she
00:28:01
was a statistician's assistant
00:28:03
frank was 30. diane was 18.
00:28:06
he just started to pursue me after that
00:28:08
i was kind of
00:28:10
amazed and flattered and surprised and i
00:28:13
had never had that happen before
00:28:14
and i think it was like because he was
00:28:16
older it was more the daddy type figure
00:28:20
diane enjoyed frank's intellect with an
00:28:22
iq of 150
00:28:23
he also joined mensah on her suggestion
00:28:26
they dated according to diane
00:28:28
while frank was legally separated from
00:28:30
his wife marty
00:28:32
frank and marty had four sons who lived
00:28:34
with their mother in middleton
00:28:35
pennsylvania
00:28:36
their neighbor colleen plyler babysat
00:28:39
the boys when she was 17.
00:28:42
they were very normal very wonderful
00:28:45
children and they had a very good mother
00:28:48
she was very happy she had a lot of
00:28:51
trouble in her life
00:28:52
and we would never know it because she
00:28:54
always looked at the bright side of
00:28:55
things
00:28:57
in 1970 one year after diane met frank
00:29:00
they moved in together but financial
00:29:02
troubles soon began to take a toll on
00:29:04
their relationship
00:29:06
we pretty much had to live on my salary
00:29:08
because he was not only paying support
00:29:10
for his
00:29:10
children but he was also trying to pay
00:29:12
bills that you know he had incurred with
00:29:14
marty
00:29:15
i don't think he was giving her anything
00:29:16
at the time because they certainly
00:29:17
didn't have anything
00:29:18
diane claims that frank's estranged wife
00:29:21
got him arrested for not paying child
00:29:23
support
00:29:24
he did not like that at all so he he got
00:29:27
very mad and started calling her
00:29:28
and harassing her over the phone and
00:29:30
calling her names and
00:29:32
and that sort of thing because he didn't
00:29:34
think that was right for her to do that
00:29:36
diane also claims that frank paid marty
00:29:39
in cash but he had no way of proving it
00:29:41
to the court
00:29:42
so he and diane fled to florida to avoid
00:29:44
authorities
00:29:46
in the spring of 1973 diane learned she
00:29:49
was pregnant
00:29:50
she says frank called marty to see if
00:29:52
their divorce had gone through
00:29:54
she told him on the phone at that point
00:29:56
that she was sick of waiting for the
00:29:57
divorce to go through and then she had
00:29:58
gone down to the islands and got one of
00:30:00
those quickie divorces now this is what
00:30:02
she told him
00:30:02
we never so i never saw any paperwork
00:30:04
there was no way she went to any island
00:30:05
to get a divorce she didn't have money
00:30:07
to go down the street to go to the
00:30:08
mcdonald's
00:30:09
diane and frank then got married but the
00:30:11
marriage would later be considered
00:30:13
invalid because frank could not prove he
00:30:15
was divorced from marty
00:30:17
in november 1973 frank and diane moved
00:30:20
to upstate new york eventually settling
00:30:22
in an old farmhouse in a buffalo suburb
00:30:24
three months later their son jason was
00:30:27
born
00:30:30
wonderful my whole life you know
00:30:33
he um he was just my world
00:30:38
but frank missed his other sons
00:30:41
they did love their father they were
00:30:44
confused and upset and disappointed
00:30:45
because
00:30:46
he just took off like that and they
00:30:49
didn't see
00:30:50
much of them diane claims frank devised
00:30:52
a plan to drive to pennsylvania with
00:30:54
diane
00:30:54
and their baby and simply talk to marty
00:30:56
about getting custody
00:30:58
the plan did not include murder frank
00:31:01
rehearsed with diane what he would say
00:31:03
to marty to get custody
00:31:05
if you don't be reasonable i'm just
00:31:07
going to go away for good and you're
00:31:08
never going to see me again
00:31:10
and then you won't have anything
00:31:12
although she says she was hesitant
00:31:14
diane gave in to frank's plan around
00:31:17
midnight
00:31:18
on august 18 1974 after an eight-hour
00:31:21
drive
00:31:22
they arrived at marty's house he backed
00:31:25
into the driveway
00:31:26
and he said i'm going to the back door
00:31:27
because she never locks that door
00:31:30
diane claims she waited in the car with
00:31:32
their baby and watched as frank went
00:31:34
into the house with a flashlight in his
00:31:35
hand
00:31:36
next thing i know is i'm kind of even
00:31:38
like nodding off a little bit in the car
00:31:40
the baby's asleep
00:31:40
and i hear the trunk open so i don't see
00:31:43
him but i hear him
00:31:44
and i hear like a thump and it sounded
00:31:47
like luggage it was being put in the
00:31:48
trunk
00:31:48
right he came around to the passenger
00:31:50
side and he was just
00:31:53
crazed colleen plyler had her bedroom
00:31:56
window open that summer night in her
00:31:58
house across the yard
00:32:01
i remember waking up at like three
00:32:03
o'clock in the morning and hearing
00:32:05
voices and listening and
00:32:08
i thought for the life of me i couldn't
00:32:10
understand why i heard frank metzger's
00:32:12
voice
00:32:13
and i thought oh oh you're dreaming and
00:32:15
the dream's like what he says come on
00:32:16
come on you got to help me got to help
00:32:17
me get get the boys up um um
00:32:19
got to come on and um i was like okay
00:32:23
where's marty and he said she's dead
00:32:25
and i just at that point everything
00:32:27
started to move in slow motion
00:32:30
diane says she went into the house with
00:32:31
frank and helped get the boys dressed
00:32:33
and into the car
00:32:34
he told them their mother went away on
00:32:37
the drive home with marty's body in the
00:32:39
trunk
00:32:39
frank gave diane the grisly details of
00:32:42
the murder
00:32:43
he went into the bedroom and she you
00:32:46
know jumped up and
00:32:48
and came to the edge of the bed and said
00:32:49
what are you doing here get out of my
00:32:50
house and
00:32:51
he said wait i'm just like here to talk
00:32:53
or whatever and she
00:32:54
discussed him out calling whatever and
00:32:56
ran for the phone and he's like don't do
00:32:58
that
00:32:59
and she kept going and he hit her with
00:33:01
the flashlight he had like a big
00:33:03
police flashlight prosecutor ed weiss
00:33:05
strongly disagrees
00:33:07
i think this thing about frank going in
00:33:09
by himself and hitting her with a
00:33:10
flashlight
00:33:11
is an invention by diane he might have
00:33:13
had a flashlight but they were breaking
00:33:15
into the house in the middle of the
00:33:17
night
00:33:17
to kill martha and to kidnap the
00:33:19
children
00:33:21
you don't turn on the lights but
00:33:23
according to diane
00:33:24
frank told her that when he hit marty
00:33:26
over the head she fell
00:33:27
unconscious onto the bed she was
00:33:29
bleeding from the mouth
00:33:31
and so he ran he said he ran into bed
00:33:33
bathroom
00:33:34
and got a wet wash rag and like put it
00:33:37
in her mouth because he didn't want her
00:33:38
bleeding everywhere
00:33:40
an autopsy later revealed marty died of
00:33:42
suffocation
00:33:43
by swallowing part of the washrag the
00:33:46
prosecution believed the murder was
00:33:47
premeditated
00:33:48
and the diane was the mastermind behind
00:33:51
the murder
00:33:52
i know somebody went upstairs and
00:33:55
suffocated martha he wrapped her in a
00:33:57
blanket
00:33:57
wrapped cords around the blanket now it
00:34:00
seems to me
00:34:01
in a fit of passion you don't happen to
00:34:03
bring with you some cords with you
00:34:05
to wrap somebody in a blanket and i had
00:34:08
the
00:34:09
strongest feeling that she was the prime
00:34:12
person
00:34:12
who actually planned the murder when
00:34:15
they got home
00:34:16
frank buried marty's body in their
00:34:18
backyard while his son
00:34:19
slept diane watched as he dug the grave
00:34:22
she says she thought about going to the
00:34:24
police but decided against it
00:34:27
i knew my husband was getting a whole
00:34:28
lot of trouble
00:34:30
just trying to keep the family together
00:34:33
the next day
00:34:34
colleen plyler discovered marty and the
00:34:36
boys were missing when she came to visit
00:34:38
her father called police the state
00:34:41
police came
00:34:42
and they looked around and they
00:34:45
apparently didn't see anything
00:34:46
suspicious about it
00:34:48
almost six weeks went by before police
00:34:50
suspected something was wrong
00:34:52
during that time diane frank and their
00:34:55
infant son
00:34:56
along with frank and marty's four boys
00:34:58
lived at the farmhouse in upstate new
00:35:00
york
00:35:00
when word reached them about the
00:35:02
investigation diane and frank took the
00:35:04
five boys to a motel in the next town
00:35:06
this is a dunk motel which was the next
00:35:08
little town over
00:35:09
and we just stayed in there and waited
00:35:12
two days later
00:35:13
frank decided they should leave the boys
00:35:15
behind and make a run for it
00:35:18
i said what about the kids and he says
00:35:19
no we leave them here we got to go
00:35:22
but diane refused to go without her baby
00:35:24
frank gave in to her demand
00:35:27
i don't know what else i could have done
00:35:29
for the boys at that time i mean frank
00:35:31
was running the show they were his kids
00:35:33
three days later the boys ranging in
00:35:35
ages from 4 to 11 were discovered
00:35:38
the initial report came in that four
00:35:40
young boys
00:35:41
were found abandoned in a motel the
00:35:44
children
00:35:45
led the police to the farmhouse
00:35:49
martha's body was discovered buried in
00:35:51
the shadow grave behind the farmhouse
00:35:55
when women behind bars continues the
00:35:57
nationwide search for the fugitive
00:35:58
couple begins
00:36:00
i willingly tried to help him but i had
00:36:03
no idea anybody was going to be dead
00:36:05
that night
00:36:13
in september 1974 26 year old diane
00:36:16
metzger and her husband frank
00:36:18
became the focus of a nationwide police
00:36:20
search
00:36:21
they were wanted in connection with the
00:36:22
murder of frank's ex-wife marty
00:36:24
a month before anybody you could have
00:36:27
thought
00:36:28
in high school that would have gotten in
00:36:29
that kind of situation everybody was
00:36:31
shocked
00:36:31
for almost a year the metskers and their
00:36:34
18 month old baby jason
00:36:35
eluded police by constantly moving
00:36:38
around the country
00:36:39
but on july 11 1975 the fbi found them
00:36:43
in boise idaho
00:36:45
the couple was arrested brought back to
00:36:47
pennsylvania and both charged with
00:36:49
first-degree murder
00:36:50
burglary and kidnapping
00:36:54
jason was sent to a foster home and was
00:36:56
later adopted by diane's parents
00:36:59
when the social worker came in that
00:37:00
night she just literally snatched him
00:37:02
right out of my arms
00:37:04
frank metzger confessed to the killing
00:37:06
and waived his right to a trial
00:37:08
a judge sentenced him to life without
00:37:09
parole
00:37:12
but there was more public interest in
00:37:14
diane's trial and why she chose to
00:37:16
shield her husband from the police
00:37:18
and go on the run with him i just didn't
00:37:20
want to lose my husband i know he was in
00:37:22
really you know and deep and um
00:37:26
it's just like you keep you just keep
00:37:27
going until they actually stop you
00:37:30
in february 1976 diane metzger's trial
00:37:34
began at the delaware county courthouse
00:37:36
she was tried under the accomplice
00:37:38
liability law which finds a person who
00:37:40
assists in a crime
00:37:41
as guilty as the person who actually
00:37:43
commits the crime
00:37:45
she may have known after the fact
00:37:49
what happened that front that frank had
00:37:52
killed
00:37:52
martha but in the eyes of the law
00:37:56
she was there that makes her guilty
00:37:59
reporter barbara ormsby was there when
00:38:02
frank metzger took the stand claiming he
00:38:04
not diane was the one that murdered his
00:38:07
ex-wife
00:38:08
he seemed remorseful in the beginning he
00:38:10
just told the story of
00:38:12
what had happened how he went in and
00:38:14
didn't intend
00:38:15
to kill martha he just wanted to
00:38:19
take the boys and get out of there but
00:38:22
the prosecution presented testimony to
00:38:24
the contrary
00:38:25
one of frank's own sons said the night
00:38:27
of the murder he woke up
00:38:29
and saw an unidentified couple on the
00:38:31
stairs
00:38:32
neighbor colleen plyler recounts the
00:38:34
metzger son's testimony
00:38:36
he woke up and he heard
00:38:40
shouting from the room and all the
00:38:42
commotion and even
00:38:43
he heard someone hollering kill her kill
00:38:46
her
00:38:46
and diane was in the house and was
00:38:49
helping him
00:38:50
hold her down that's what the little boy
00:38:52
said
00:38:52
[Music]
00:38:54
defense lawyer art donato says the young
00:38:56
boy's testimony was unreliable
00:38:58
because he could not say for sure if it
00:39:00
was diane who was in the house
00:39:02
as a general proposition when anyone in
00:39:05
particular a young child
00:39:07
is awoken from a sound sleep their
00:39:10
initial perceptions are not reliable
00:39:13
beyond a reasonable doubt
00:39:15
diane took the stand and maintained she
00:39:17
never went into the house during the
00:39:18
killing
00:39:19
and had no knowledge frank would kill
00:39:21
marty
00:39:22
yes i willingly tried to help him you
00:39:25
know and cover up and ran with him but i
00:39:28
had no idea anybody was going to be dead
00:39:29
that night
00:39:31
but the jury didn't buy diane's side of
00:39:33
the story and found her guilty of
00:39:35
first-degree murder as a co-conspirator
00:39:38
and of kidnapping and burglary she was
00:39:40
sentenced to life without parole
00:39:43
disbelief i just
00:39:46
i just i think i was numb i think i was
00:39:49
numb for weeks
00:39:51
no one seemed to think there was any
00:39:52
chance that she could be found guilty
00:39:54
of the same crime as frank they were
00:39:56
assuming it would be some sort of
00:39:57
accessory after
00:39:58
you know after the fact and it'll be
00:39:59
some sort of you know minor
00:40:01
sentence or something
00:40:04
six years later in october of 1982 the
00:40:07
state supreme court overturned diane's
00:40:09
conviction
00:40:10
after a procedural error which
00:40:11
potentially weakened her defense
00:40:13
[Music]
00:40:15
this time while awaiting her retrial
00:40:17
diane got out on bail her parents posted
00:40:20
attorney art donato three years out of
00:40:22
law school at the time
00:40:24
defended diane in her second trial in
00:40:26
june of 1983.
00:40:28
there was clearly enough evidence to
00:40:29
show that she was helping him after the
00:40:31
fact
00:40:32
but that doesn't make one guilty of a
00:40:34
murder
00:40:35
as an accessory there was no new
00:40:38
evidence in the retrial that proved
00:40:40
diane was involved in the killing
00:40:42
but prosecutor ed weiss argued that
00:40:44
diane had a reason to kill marty
00:40:46
the motive was financial
00:40:47
[Music]
00:40:49
diane resented the fact that martha was
00:40:52
draining frank's finances
00:40:54
i had no doubt that she was the actual
00:40:57
killer i had no doubt that she was the
00:40:59
one who planned
00:41:00
this was a premeditated crime
00:41:10
twice this woman has been convicted
00:41:13
by a jury two separate juries of
00:41:16
first degree murder the juries in each
00:41:19
case
00:41:20
had no question in their minds about her
00:41:23
guilt
00:41:24
she was sent back to a pennsylvania
00:41:26
prison with the same sentence
00:41:27
of life without parole she took a life
00:41:31
and that's what she got in return her
00:41:33
life an eye for an eye
00:41:35
[Music]
00:41:39
diane metzger has lived most of her life
00:41:41
in prison she's now 59
00:41:43
and has spent 32 years behind bars
00:41:46
when i got there and i realized you know
00:41:48
i might be there for a long time
00:41:50
i just didn't want to waste my time so
00:41:52
since i had never gotten to college i
00:41:53
found you know i started seeking ways to
00:41:55
do that
00:41:56
she's received four college degrees
00:41:59
including a master's degree in the
00:42:00
humanities
00:42:01
she's also a published writer and poet
00:42:04
she was the the prisoner of the year
00:42:07
so stated by the pennsylvania prison
00:42:10
society
00:42:11
for the past 12 years diane has been at
00:42:13
the baylor women's correctional
00:42:14
institution in delaware to be closer to
00:42:17
her brother and her ailing parents
00:42:19
she still keeps in touch with frank
00:42:21
metzger who was in a pennsylvania state
00:42:23
prison
00:42:24
frank and marty's four boys were adopted
00:42:26
by a couple in pennsylvania
00:42:30
diane now keeps busy working as a clerk
00:42:33
in the prison's treatment services
00:42:34
department
00:42:36
she is extremely good with the teenagers
00:42:39
or say the young ladies who come in
00:42:41
with her type of offenses the warden at
00:42:44
the prison says diane has been a good
00:42:46
worker and a model inmate
00:42:48
which has earned her a private cell in
00:42:49
the lifer's honor pod
00:42:51
as you can see we don't have a whole lot
00:42:52
of space here hang up our
00:42:56
outgoing clothes here it's kind of my
00:42:58
food and drink
00:42:59
utensils chair and my tv
00:43:03
during the 32 years she's been in prison
00:43:05
diane has applied eight times to the
00:43:07
pennsylvania board of pardons to have
00:43:09
her life sentence reduced to time served
00:43:12
ernie priet the former state attorney
00:43:14
general championed her fight for freedom
00:43:16
in her 2004 application
00:43:19
it's almost four inches thick i don't
00:43:21
think anybody ever submit an application
00:43:23
like this
00:43:24
to the board of pardons the board
00:43:27
approved diane twice for a reduced
00:43:29
sentence
00:43:29
but both times the governor of
00:43:31
pennsylvania denied it she continues to
00:43:33
fight for her release
00:43:35
a life sentence is a death sentence in
00:43:36
pennsylvania lifers don't get out except
00:43:39
when they get
00:43:40
taken out by the undertaker without
00:43:43
clemency
00:43:44
diane will die in prison she has this to
00:43:48
say to the metzger boy she and frank
00:43:50
abandoned when they were on the run
00:43:53
you didn't deserve this and i wish i had
00:43:55
been a better person
00:43:56
to try to do something for you to keep
00:43:58
this from happening i made terrible
00:44:00
decisions i didn't take them into
00:44:02
consideration
00:44:03
but boys i am sorry and i only wish i
00:44:06
had done better by you
00:44:08
[Music]
