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in august of 1986 betty wolcifer a 32-year-old housewife and mother was strangled and murdered by
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an assailant who had broken into her home her husband dr glenn wilsopher was also
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strangled and knocked unconscious but survived the attack his younger brother neal lived right
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across the street and was the first to arrive at the scene a few months later neil wulcifer was dead too
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some say because of what he learned about the intruder [Music] [Applause] [Music]
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[Applause] [Music] glenn and betty wilson had been married for nine years it was the romance that
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had begun 20 years earlier the family both on betty site and on glenn's side came from very well
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established influential families within the community very well liked by all of the community
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betty and glenn were childhood sweethearts they went through high school together
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glenn wilsopher went on to dental school later married betty and after graduation
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the couple returned to their hometown of wilkes-barre pennsylvania to set up practice
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the wolsifers bought a home on birch street just a few houses away from glenn's younger brother neal
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the two brothers were unusually close they were almost like twins they very rarely did things apart they
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were really big into sports and and they they just grew up together like that and they lived near each other and
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they were inseparable he and his brother and when glenn and betty gave birth to a
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daughter danielle their life together seemed perfect but tragedy struck on saturday morning august 30th 1986
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just after dawn glenn wilsopher called his younger brother neal telling him that an intruder had broken into his
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home neal ran across the street to glenn's home and when he saw that glenn had been
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assaulted neal phoned police when police arrived glenn wilsopher was downstairs on the floor fading in and
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out of consciousness upstairs had been ransacked furniture was overturned desk drawers emptied
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one of the officers then went upstairs found his daughter who was still sleeping in her bedroom five-year-old
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and then went into the the wallsphere's bedroom and found betty laying on the floor and she was dead at
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that time betty wilsopher's body was on the floor next to the bed there were abrasions around her neck and
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her face showed signs of a severe beating it was obvious that it was a homicide because of the marks around her neck and
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and the uh you can see it was a vicious attack upon this woman my father had told me
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that that betty was murdered and they were the specific words how or what had happened i didn't know
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but that just took me totally by surprise of course and so many things go through your head you
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just you can't even sort them out it appeared that the intruder climbed a ladder to the roof over the back porch
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and entered through a second story window the window screen had been removed and
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placed on the roof glenn wilsopher told police that he was asleep when he heard a loud noise in the
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back of his house around 6am he said he grabbed his gun and saw a masked intruder running down the stairs
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and he followed him [Music] [Music] the intruder surprised him from behind strangled him with a belt and knocked
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him unconscious with a blow to his head [Music] sometime later when glenn regained
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consciousness he phoned his brother now it's me get over here now come on things like that just didn't
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happen in wilkes-barre a very nice woman getting killed in her own home did not make sense to a lot of
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people glenn wilsopher told police that thirteen hundred dollars in cash was missing from his desk in the study and
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some gold and diamond jewelry and a house key were also missing but police noticed something suspicious
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the phone in the kitchen was hanging off the hook police wondered if the victim's brother
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neil had simply forgotten to hang up the phone after calling police or whether it was evidence of crime scene
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staging [Music] the news of betty wolcifer's murder and the assault on her husband glenn stunned
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the small industrial community of wiltsboro pennsylvania dr glenn wilson was a successful dentist
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in town his wife an active volunteer for many local charities neither had any known enemies
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they were very popular couple everybody knew them they were the pretty couple betty was very popular he was kind of
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quiet type but still he was a jock good looking and so for those reasons everybody knew who both of them were
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police acknowledged that there had been a number of recent burglaries in the wolfers neighborhood
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since 1300 dollars in cash and some jewelry was missing from the woolsepher's home robbery was a possible
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motive it appeared that the intruder used a ladder the wulcifer stored on the side
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of their house to gain entrance through an open second story window a partial palm print was discovered on
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the inside of the windowsill which did not match anyone in the family or the police
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the autopsy on betty wilsopher was performed by luzerne county coroner dr george hudoc who found no evidence of
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sexual assault the cause of death was strangulation which would take from three to five
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minutes during that time it was obvious to dr hudak that there had been a fierce life
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and death struggle i believe that she really fought back with fury and that she inflicted
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some injuries on whoever has sailed her blue fibers and a small speck of blood found under betty's fingernails
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confirmed that she had been in close contact with her killer but dr hudoc noticed something unusual
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despite a severe beating there was no blood on betty wilson's nightgown and very little blood on her face that was
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the outstanding thing that imprinted itself on my brain when we saw the body you didn't have to be a trained forensic
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pathologist to recognize it there was something suspicious there all of the injuries to the mouth and the
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neck and no blood on the face and no blood on the clothing it appeared that after killing betty
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wilsopher the killer had washed her face and changed her nightgown police search for her bloody clothing in
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the house the surrounding neighborhood and the nearby susquehanna river without success
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since the body was lying in front of the fan time of death was difficult to gauge
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but dr hudoc estimated that betty wulcifer had been murdered between 2 30 and 4 30 in the morning
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two to four hours before glenn said he heard the intruder and there was another inconsistency
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doctors at mercy hospital noticed injuries on the back of glenn wilsopher's neck even though he said he
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was strangled from behind it doesn't make any sense it just could not happen
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that way the only way you could get that entry to the back of your neck is somebody pulled from the front
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friends told investigators that glenn often wore a gold chain around his neck if he was involved with a fight with his
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wife where his wife would have been saying the bed underneath him and he was on top of her in that position he would
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have sustained those type of injuries from that piece of jewelry that type of force would have damaged
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the spleenus capitus muscles two long muscles which support the head the same injury emergency room doctors diagnosed
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in glenn wulcifer after his wife's murder when investigators dug a little deeper into glenn wilson's dental
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practice they discovered his relationship with his dental assistant was more personal than business the two
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had been carrying on an affair for five years she told investigators that she expected
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glenn to leave his wife for her but she realized that wouldn't happen when she discovered that glenn was
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carrying on another affair with an aerobics instructor in town from motel receipts police learned that
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glenn would sometimes have trysts with both women on the same day before going home to his wife here was a man who not
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only had an affair and cheated on his wife but here was a man who had an affair and cheated on his girlfriend at
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the same time and police wanted to know why glenn's younger brother neal failed to go
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upstairs to check on his brother's wife and child while he waited for the police
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to arrive while on his way to the district attorney's office to answer that very
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question neil made a decision that would change the course of the investigation when homicide investigators learned that
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betty wulcifer's body had been washed and her clothes changed after the murder
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they looked a little closer at the statements glenn and his younger brother neil both gave to police
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on the night of the murder glenn wilsopher said he was out with friends at a local nightclub
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and drove home around 2 30. he said that he went right to bed and slept until dawn when he heard the
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intruder and went downstairs to investigate but the police video taken on the morning of the murder shows that glenn
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wilsopher's car in the driveway was not covered with dew yet his wife's car was
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to help sort out the discrepancy police called in a forensic meteorologist dr joseph sobel who studied the weather
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patterns on the night of the murder dew is moisture it's condensation that actually forms on the object we're
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talking about whether it be a blade of grass or a rooftop or a car top or any object that happens to be outside during
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that time the temperature on the afternoon of the murder was 70 degrees so the dew point
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temperature the point when water in the air becomes cold enough to change from a
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gas to a liquid producing dew would have occurred when the temperature reached 50
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degrees we know the night was clear surface weather observations showed us that we know it was very cool so that the
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temperature was able to drop considerably and we know that there was little or no wind
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the temperature hit 50 degrees at 11 p.m glenn wilsopher said he drove home at 2
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30 in the morning yet there was no do on his car when police arrived at 7 a.m if he had driven home at 2 30 in the
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morning glenn's car would have had the same amount of dew as his wife's car
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the lack of do meant that someone had driven glenn wilsopher's car some time
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after glenn returned home from the nightclub at 2 30 and before police arrived at 7 am evaporating the dew that
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had been present and the same dew points produced due on the wilsapher's roof yet there were no
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foot or handprints in the dew on the roof when police arrived when police looked more closely at the
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ladder they discovered it had been placed up to the roof backwards with the steps facing in the opposite direction
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the partial palm print found on the windowsill could not be identified potentially corroborating glenn's story
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about an intruder police were also investigating what connection if any glenn's younger
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brother neil may have had to the murder he was the first one to arrive at the scene and was the one that called the
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police but when police arrived the phone was off the hook hanging from the wall unit
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police were also suspicious of neil's behavior he admitted that he did not go
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upstairs to check on glenn's wife and five-year-old daughter danielle before
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police arrived neil wolford denied any involvement in the crime but when asked to take a lie
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detector test he refused a lot of people think that neil knew everything that when he came in the house that
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glenn told him what happened and said you have to help me we have to concoct a story
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there's people that even think that neil may have been the one that knock glenn
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on the head then there's the other school that think that neil suspected and he just kept putting two and two
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together and things that glenn may have said to him and just just the very thought was too much for him to
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bear [Music] neil was asked to report to the district attorney's office for an interview
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he went past the time and he was supposed to arrive and gary sworn left the room and he came
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back in and he says uh the wilsonverse dead i was shocked i was shocked so we found out where the accident
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occurred or the incident occurred so he went up and took a look at the scene and it was gruesome he passed the
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courthouse he drove about another five miles and that his car swerved in front of a dump truck
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and he was killed instantly investigators could find no skid marks it appeared that neil wulcifer
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intentionally turned in front of an oncoming truck the coroner ruled the death of suicide
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it made me feel sad the fact that somebody was involved with a crime and because of guilt
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some innocent person had to die and when you have the death of a person there's always so many other people that
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suffer we know that joy can be shared with others but how grief can only be endured alone
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and what neil wulcifer may have known about the murder went with him to his grave
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with dr glenn wilsopher as the prime suspect in his wife's murder police discovered that the all-american image
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he presented to the public was just that an image before her death betty wulcifer told friends that she
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knew all about her husband's affairs with the aerobics instructor and his dental assistant and that she had had
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enough we found out from some of betty's girlfriends that she was very annoyed
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with some of these things that were happening very annoyed with him going out at nights and not coming in until
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all hours of the morning and some of the girlfriends even made comments to her well maybe you should confront him maybe
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he should ask him what's going on to see if there was any evidence of a physical confrontation between glenn and
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his wife fbi analyst doug dietrich analyzed the debris under betty wilsopher's
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fingernails there he found a number of blue cotton denim fibers using micro spectrophotometry dietrich
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analyzed a spectrum of color in the dye of those fibers and concluded that the dye was consistent with the dye used in
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the denim shirt and jeans that glenn wilsopher was seen wearing at the nightclub just hours before his wife's
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murder finally diedrick analyzed several head hairs on the bed spread next to betty
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wolfer's body the hairs had been forcibly removed and were compared to hair samples from glenn wulcifer from
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the laboratory standpoint the hairs that were forcibly removed on the bedding were consistent with the husband i
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looked at other hairs that were recovered from the bedding and from the towels and there were no hairs out of place i
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mean the hairs that i found were consistent with people that lived in that house
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on november 5th 1990 glenn wulcifer was charged with first degree murder he pleaded not guilty
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prosecutors stated that on the afternoon before the murder glenn met his dental assistant for a sexual encounter
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[Applause] a few hours later glenn saw his other mistress at a local nightclub he may
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have been hoping to have sex with her too but her husband was there glenn drove home around 2 30 in the
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morning and betty may have confronted glenn over his sexual liaisons what are you doing do you know what time
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it is the argument turned violent as she fought for her life betty pulled glenn's hair clutched and grabbed his
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shirt and caused the injury to his neck by forcibly pulling on his jewelry after the murder glenn removed
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his wife's bloody nightgown and washed her body in what was probably a psychological attempt to mask his
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guilt over what had occurred prosecutors believe that glenn used his car to dispose of the bloody clothing
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which evaporated the dew when he returned he staged the crime scene by placing the ladder up to the
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back of his house but he made a mistake and propped it up backwards he also removed the window
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screen and ransacked some of the rooms the telephone receiver found off the hook was either a mistake made during
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the staging of the crime scene or neil wulcifer simply forgot to hang up the telephone after calling police
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the jury had to choose between glenn wilsopher's intruder story and the circumstantial case put forward by
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prosecutors and amid the discrepancies in glenn wilsopher's story one fact stood out
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after an alleged life and death struggle with an intruder neither glenn or his brother neil ever went upstairs to check
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on betty wilsopher or five-year-old danielle before the police arrived glenn wilsopher was found guilty of
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third degree murder and was sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison the death of my sister
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it's the hurt on behalf of both families very close friends and friends and people in the community in general
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that this one person is hurt that's devastating that's unbelievable here's a guy who just cared about
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himself the only person that he ever cared about was himself glenn was worried about
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glenn and no one else and i think that was shown by the verdict in this case benjamin franklin once said
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three may keep a secret if two of them are dead that might have been true in this case
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had it not been for the role of science and when i go out to talk to people about forensic meteorology i always talk
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about this case and i go through the whole scenario and the setup and and then i asked people okay so where's
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the weather connection you know where does weather become involved and usually all i get is a set of blank stairs so to
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think about that and to tie it in and then to go get expert corroboration i think was really a very very good piece
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of police and detective work [Music] [Music] [Applause] you