00:00:00
[WHOOSHING] [BRIGHT MUSIC] [GRIM MUSIC] [HORNS HONKING] MARGARET E. KELLY:
It was a weeknight
00:00:16
in the beginning
of December, just a couple weeks out from Christmas. [LINE RINGING]
00:00:26
- Milford police
received a 911 call from a distraught 17-year-old
in Milford, Connecticut.
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[SIREN WAILS] Who would do
something like this? Why would they do something
like this with such violence?
00:00:43
[TENSE MUSIC] REPORTER: This video,
provided by a neighbor, shows a threatening man.
00:00:50
He's seen walking past
a home holding an ax. [MAN SHOUTING] [DOGS BARKING] [SIREN WAILS]
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NARRATOR: Emergency services
speed to the caller's home. What they find is
truly disturbing.
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MARGARET E. KELLY: When
the police arrived, it was apparent from the
injuries to the victim's body
00:01:29
that she was not alive. [GRIM MUSIC] NARRATOR: Lying on the kitchen
floor is the caller's mother,
00:01:37
40-year-old Julie Minogue. - It's an extremely
violent attack. ETHAN FRY: Police discovered
Julie's three-year-old boy
00:01:48
in the room next
to where she was found in what they described
as a trance-like state.
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MARGARET E. KELLY: The
17-year-old, who called 911, when he heard Milford
Police Department,
00:02:02
he was not sure if it was
the man pretending to be the Milford Police
Department and
00:02:07
was extremely
fearful at that time, so he jumped out the window. [RESONANT MUSIC]
00:02:14
- I can't imagine what he was
going through at that point. [RADIO CHATTER] I think one
of the big questions
00:02:22
was, why did this happen? Who would do
something like this? And why would they do something
like this with such violence?
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NARRATOR: Police searched
Julie's home for clues. MARGARET E. KELLY:
When the police
00:02:36
arrive at a scene like this,
they have many, many questions. How did the person
enter the home?
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Was anything taken? Any indications
of a forceful entry? [RESONANT MUSIC] NARRATOR: Detectives
believe the intruder
00:02:54
forced his way into the house
and attacked Julie with an ax. [CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS]
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[CAMERA BEEPS] MARGARET E. KELLY: They
were able to observe an ax in the kitchen that appeared to
contain a blood-like substance
00:03:11
and hair. There were chop wounds
to her head and abrasions on other parts
of her body as well.
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After doing this
for over 38 years, I think one of the questions
we always have is
00:03:32
how one person could do
this to another person. [SIREN WAILS] [GENTLE MUSIC] GERALD MINOGUE: My name
is Gerald Minogue,
00:04:00
and my daughter is
Julie Minogue, who was murdered on December 6, 2022. When I heard, I was--
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I was just blown away.
I was devastated. I was really devastated. I couldn't even see her.
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Her body was damaged so bad. No one could see her. It was just such
a terrible, terrible event
00:04:29
that they just didn't
wanna let the family know how their loved one went
out of the-- you know,
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went out of this world. How could something
like this happen to somebody in, you know, the
pristine state of Connecticut?
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Death by an ax
is something that is something long, long gone. It's not something that you
would expect to be, you know,
00:04:56
hearing about, let
alone experiencing it in your own family. [TRAIN CLUNKING] [RESONANT MUSIC]
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TRICIA O'REILLY: My name
is Tricia O'Reilly. I was Julie
Minogue's very close best friend, like sisters.
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I saw it on the news, saw
her whole condo complex. Did not believe it. Did not-- did not believe it.
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I thought-- I was like, oh,
it's somebody else in there. It's not-- not my Jules.
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Then they showed her door,
and I saw toys outside. I fell to the floor,
screaming--
00:06:04
screaming, no, no. GERALD MINOGUE:
What happened here? How could something like
this happen to a loved one?
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[RESONANT MUSIC] MARGARET E. KELLY: Time was
very much of the essence here, because we had
an individual who
00:06:29
was murdered
in a horrific way, and we had someone in the area who
had not been accounted for.
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NARRATOR: Forensics
officers combed Julie's home for evidence that could
lead them to the killer
00:06:46
and sent the murder
weapon to the lab to test for DNA
and fingerprints. [RESONANT MUSIC]
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- Everybody had good things
to say about Julie and the kind of person she was. They all say she was
just a great mother.
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She was a welcoming person. She was a warm person,
friendly to everyone. So that is another factor
that makes it tragic.
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NARRATOR: The youngest
of three, Julie Minogue was born and raised in New York.
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GERALD MINOGUE:
She has an older brother and an older sister. As a child, she was extremely
sweet, extremely considerate.
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She loved animals. This is Julie at high
school graduation. Right here, she was 17.
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She had grown up from, you
know, a cute and pretty child to a very, very
beautiful young woman.
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This makes me feel very proud
because it was a milestone. She was graduating
from high school.
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She just gave me the sense of a
young woman that was, you know, ready to take on the world.
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[SOMBER MUSIC] TRICIA O'REILLY:
Julie and I met at the obstetrical
or gynecologist office
00:08:19
that we worked at. She just had a heart of gold. Her smile could light up
a room, and her laugh--
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it was just vivacious
and contagious. If you met her, you
wouldn't forget her. [GRIM MUSIC]
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NARRATOR: Officers go door to
door searching for witnesses. Did anyone see
or hear anything?
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ETHAN FRY: One thing
police immediately do is look around and sort
of canvas the neighborhood
00:09:08
to see if anybody
has doorbell cameras or surveillance cameras. MARGARET E. KELLY: It
was important for them
00:09:16
to determine
whether or not there were either witnesses that
saw someone in the area or
00:09:22
surveillance cameras
that may have detected someone in that area. It's an extremely personal
and violent type of crime.
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ETHAN FRY: Police wanted
to find the suspect as soon as possible. NARRATOR: Given
the brutality of the attack,
00:09:41
investigators wonder if Julie
was killed by someone close to her. [RESONANT MUSIC]
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GERALD MINOGUE: Julie was
married with one child at 20 years of age,
and immediately, you
00:10:03
could see her calling
was to be a mother. NARRATOR: Julie had two
sons with her husband
00:10:10
before they divorced
and a third son with a former partner. GERALD MINOGUE:
She was a nurturer,
00:10:18
especially of her children. She was a terrific mother. She enjoyed the feeling
that there was, you know,
00:10:26
somebody that relied
on her for their care. TRICIA O'REILLY: She did
absolutely anything and
00:10:33
everything for her three sons. Her boys were
the light of her life. GERALD MINOGUE: This was
on Thanksgiving, which was--
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I believe it was that
year, November 28. This is her son
in the Coast Guard. He had flown in to be
there for Thanksgiving.
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This is her middle
son, the 17-year-old. Obviously, that's the baby,
and that's my daughter.
00:11:01
This one is important
because it's the last picture of her whole family together.
00:11:09
And a few days later,
she was murdered. [SOMBER MUSIC] NARRATOR: Julie's
autopsy report
00:11:22
is released to the police. It confirms she was
killed with the ax. MARGARET E. KELLY: Based
on the autopsy report,
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Ms. Minogue was killed by
numerous, numerous sharp force injuries, more
than 11 to her head
00:11:44
as well as other
parts of her body-- blunt force objects as well. - I am haunted
by exactly how she
00:12:00
felt during those last
few moments of her life. The fear, the pain,
the hurt that came her way--
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I just can't get
it out of my mind what she had to go through. No human being, no
living being should
00:12:27
ever, ever have to leave
this earth, you know, in that fashion. [BIRDSONG] [RESONANT MUSIC]
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- Milford's a small city
on the Connecticut coastline. Connecticut's known
for wealth, but
00:12:49
Milford's more of, you know,
a middle-class community. There's not a lot
of ostentatious wealth there.
00:12:55
So it's your basic sort of
shoreline city in Connecticut. There's a little harbor,
a beach, parks, schools.
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MARGARET E. KELLY: The nature
of a homicide occurring on a weeknight
in the city of Milford
00:13:12
is not a common occurrence. ETHAN FRY:
The killing made a lot of news just because of
the facts and the sort
00:13:19
of horrific
circumstances involved. MARGARET E. KELLY:
We have an individual who just bludgeoned a woman
to death and was on the loose.
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ETHAN FRY: When people
heard that a mother of three had been killed
inside her own home,
00:13:39
there was an outcry
in the community. There was an outpouring
of grief, really. [UNSETTLING MUSIC]
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GERALD MINOGUE: There's
a tremendous outpouring of support that we received. There was a big vigil
that took place.
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ETHAN FRY: A lot of people
organized fundraisers in her memory as well. The loss was felt
throughout the community.
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[RESONANT MUSIC] NARRATOR: With her
killer at large, detectives delve
into Julie's personal life.
00:14:20
Could the answer lie there? ETHAN FRY: Police say that when
there's a crime scene that's
00:14:29
very gruesome, that's often an
indication that the perpetrator was somebody who knew
the victim to sort of inflict
00:14:35
that level of violence. NARRATOR: After her divorce,
Julie started dating. - She, like a lot
of people, she got onto one
00:14:46
of these dating sites. NARRATOR: Her most
recent relationship was with former
Marine Ewen Dewitt.
00:14:55
- Mr. Dewitt was
a college graduate, one of eight children,
and a United States Marine Corps veteran.
00:15:08
GERALD MINOGUE:
They started out, you know, very,
very slow, just, you know, chatting
back and forth
00:15:13
and then getting together
on some daytime activities. - She met Ewen for the first
time at a dog park.
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She was walking her dog, Lexi. She was a cute little
golden retriever. GERALD MINOGUE: She was a very
strong woman because she
00:15:33
was raising
children on her own, and she was working full time. And she wanted
somebody, you know,
00:15:39
who she saw as strong
as her that, you know, could carry the load
and help her, you know,
00:15:45
get through the challenges
of being a single parent. TRICIA O'REILLY:
They hit it off.
00:15:53
They started dating. GERALD MINOGUE: And because she
had children already, he got to know her children.
00:16:00
TRICIA O'REILLY: He
had played sports. He was nice to them,
and they got along. GERALD MINOGUE: When
I first met him,
00:16:11
my first impressions
were pretty positive. Very slowly
but surely they were-- they were building
a relationship that would,
00:16:19
you know, mushroom into much
more as time went on. TRICIA O'REILLY:
He and I had a--
00:16:27
a good, you know,
kind of relationship as me being Julie's
best friend. She seemed happy.
00:16:40
She seemed happy. And as long as she was
happy, of course, all of us were happy.
00:16:45
- You know, I felt good
because she finally found somebody,
which I thought was,
00:16:50
you know, gonna be a solid
partner for the future. The other thing I
was informed about
00:16:59
is that he was
a recovered alcoholic. And I was, you know,
alcoholic or not, if he was a recovered
alcoholic,
00:17:09
I felt that that takes more
strength than weakness. - And then when she
became pregnant,
00:17:16
that was when he asked
her to marry her. He gave her a beautiful ring. - Julie enjoyed being
a mother, so she was excited.
00:17:27
And he showed
excitement as well. NARRATOR: Julie moved in with
Dewitt, and in September 2019,
00:17:34
she gave birth to a boy. [GRIM MUSIC] Three years later,
the devoted mom was dead.
00:17:46
With the family and community
demanding answers, police get a major break. MARGARET E. KELLY: When
the police went door to door
00:17:54
canvassing the neighbors
to find footage, they were able
to find two neighbors who voluntarily provided their
door surveillance footage.
00:18:06
Their Ring doorbell
systems actually captured an individual
walking by at around
00:18:13
the same time
in close proximity to the time of the murder. What they discovered
was pretty shocking.
00:18:23
ETHAN FRY: The footage
showed a person walking through
the frame holding an ax and walking in the direction
of Julie's condo.
00:18:33
NARRATOR: This is almost
certainly the person responsible for slaying Julie. But who is he?
00:18:42
Using state-of-the-art
software, forensic video analyst Nick
Barreiro can pick out details
00:18:48
not obvious to the naked eye. NICK BARREIRO: I've seen
a lot of videos in my career.
00:18:56
I've analyzed thousands
of hours of video footage. [GRIM MUSIC] And it's very rare
to see somebody just
00:19:04
walking down the street
holding an ax in the middle of the night. This is shocking video.
00:19:13
Because this video was
recorded with a Ring camera, we can trust that the timestamp
in the bottom-right corner
00:19:20
is accurate. Ring videos are
synced with the cloud, and the timestamp can be
trusted because of that.
00:19:30
An accurate timestamp is
important in any investigation because it helps
the investigators
00:19:34
establish a timeline. And now we know
the exact moment that the suspect passed
by here on his way
00:19:42
to the victim's house. NARRATOR: This video
was recorded at 8:56 PM, just minutes before
Julie's son called 911.
00:19:51
- Anytime we have
video of a suspect, initially, the instinct is to-- let's get the best view
of this person as we can.
00:20:00
Let's enhance their face. Let's see if we can
get any facial details to help identify this person.
00:20:07
So that's what we'll
do in this case. So currently, I'm
searching frame by frame for the best
possible starting point,
00:20:17
the best possible image
of this suspect's face. Now that we've
selected this frame,
00:20:26
I'm gonna make
some adjustments. So what I've done here is I've
adjusted the brightness and
00:20:35
contrast, and I've
done some sharpening to try and extract
as much detail as we can from this
suspect's appearance.
00:20:44
Although we can't
see his face clearly, we can see that he
has some facial hair,
00:20:48
a goatee or a full beard. We can see his hat is
blue with some sort of a white logo on the front.
00:20:57
We can see that he's
wearing a darker blue or black sweater
or jacket over the top
00:21:06
of a lighter blue shirt. These types of details can
lead to the suspect's arrest
00:21:13
and ultimate prosecution. [RESONANT MUSIC] NARRATOR: As police search
for the man with the ax,
00:21:27
they learn more about how
Dewitt and Julie's relationship changed after
their son was born.
00:21:34
- That time I visited
the hospital-- it was the first time that
I saw some areas of concern
00:21:42
on my part on Ewen. He was kind of annoyed, I
would say, that, you know, all of a sudden, there's
this new individual
00:21:54
and this individual is
getting all the attention. For some reason, he relapsed
and started to drink again.
00:22:04
NARRATOR: And when
he was drunk, Dewitt's mood would change. GERALD MINOGUE: On this
particular Saturday,
00:22:11
he was supposedly
taking care of the baby, but when she came home,
he was drunk, very drunk.
00:22:19
That turned into an argument. TRICIA O'REILLY: She
was holding the baby. She was walking
down the stairs.
00:22:30
Not only did he push her-- she got up. - And he picked up a playpen
and threw it at her,
00:22:39
OK, with the baby in her arms. TRICIA O'REILLY: And she
covered the baby, of course.
00:22:46
And it hit her in the head. GERALD MINOGUE: This could have
been a really big disaster.
00:22:53
My daughter had to go
to the emergency room and had to have five
staples put into her head.
00:22:59
NARRATOR: Julie called
the police, who arrested Dewitt for domestic violence. - She just needed to be
constantly reminded by me,
00:23:12
by her parents,
by her other friends that you did nothing wrong. You did nothing wrong.
00:23:25
NARRATOR: A protection order
was issued against Dewitt. TRICIA O'REILLY: She moved out.
00:23:31
She ended the engagement. She ended all
the entire relationship. And she started
to pursue custody,
00:23:44
full custody of the baby. [GRIM MUSIC] NARRATOR: Detectives
have the door cam footage
00:23:56
of their prime suspect. Julie's traumatized teenage
son confirms that it's his mom's ex-partner
and father to his
00:24:06
three-and-a-half-year-old
brother, 42-year-old Ewen Dewitt. MARGARET E. KELLY:
He definitely
00:24:15
recognized Mr. Dewitt, and he
knew who it was that had done this to his mother. He'd been home sick
from school that day,
00:24:28
was upstairs asleep when he
heard noises and yelling. When he came down the stairs
into the kitchen, when
00:24:40
he saw the condition
that his mother was in, he fled back up the stairs,
barricaded himself in his room,
00:24:47
and called 911. - Obviously, it's
a horrific circumstance, but if the 17-year-old
had tried
00:24:58
to confront the suspect
in some way, things could have gotten worse. GERALD MINOGUE: I never saw
anything like that coming.
00:25:08
I mean, I never did, OK? And, you know, should I have? I don't know, but I
never saw it coming.
00:25:16
[RESONANT MUSIC] NARRATOR: Police launch
a manhunt for Ewen Dewitt. MARGARET E. KELLY: At this
point in the investigation,
00:25:29
no one really had any idea
why Mr. Dewitt would murder the mother of his child. NARRATOR: Despite Julie
securing a protection order,
00:25:40
Dewitt had been given
visitation rights to their son. - At the time,
all visitation was
00:25:47
to be supervised, so he wasn't
supposed to be near her at all. - She wasn't
thrilled about that,
00:25:52
but she realized that these
are things that a father should have if he wants. NARRATOR: As time went
on, Dewitt's behavior
00:26:01
became increasingly menacing. - The event that really
turned this into, you know, from
ugly to uglier is
00:26:13
when he thought that
there was this prearranged meeting that they had that,
you know, she didn't agree to.
00:26:19
She had other plans,
and she never agreed to it. - Things escalated--
the texting.
00:26:27
Not just a one-sentence
text message. Long, lengthy paragraphs
with probably every word
00:26:39
was a curse word. - They're vulgar. They're harassing. You know, he calls her names.
00:26:47
He accuses her of, you
know, leading him on, things like that. So just rantings, I guess,
would be a fair description.
00:26:58
- Hundreds a day,
hundreds, just evil. The threats against
her, direct to her, was like a long Santa Claus
list of just never-ending--
00:27:15
like, you know, like, the list
just goes on and on and on. It was one text
after another, and
00:27:23
it was just repetitiveness of
just evil, sheer evil madness. NARRATOR: Julie was petrified.
00:27:35
She turned to the Milford
police for help. GERALD MINOGUE: She
explained to the police
00:27:40
that she has an order of
protection against Ewen Dewitt, and she's scared of him.
00:27:49
- Disgusting, evil
texts that she showed the Milford Police Department. She was terrified,
absolutely terrified,
00:28:00
because he would say he
was going to make sure that no one sees you again. GERALD MINOGUE: The policeman
looked at the text and said,
00:28:11
well, there's enough
here, you know, that he violated
the order of protection, and I'm gonna, you
know, request an arrest
00:28:17
warrant so that we
go and arrest him and get him out of your life. NARRATOR: The arrest
didn't happen.
00:28:24
Increasingly fearful, Julie
tried something else to protect herself and her children.
00:28:31
- In November
of 2022, Ms. Minogue also made an application
to civil court for a civil restraining
order to preclude Mr. Dewitt
00:28:43
from having further contact. [RESONANT MUSIC] GERALD MINOGUE:
She went into court
00:28:50
just to strengthen everything
that she had received. MARGARET E. KELLY:
What I can tell
00:28:57
you is that Mr. Dewitt did not
want the order put into place. GERALD MINOGUE: So on December
1, 2022, Julie went to court.
00:29:10
PROSECUTOR: Did there come
a time, ma'am, that you had to go to the police recently?
00:29:16
JULIE MINOGUE: Yes, yes. I was getting harassing
text messages. PROSECUTOR: And this is
the number of text messages
00:29:24
that you got from Mr. Dewitt? JULIE MINOGUE: Yes PROSECUTOR: OK. JULIE MINOGUE: The police
counted them as to 220.
00:29:30
PROSECUTOR: OK. JULIE MINOGUE: It
was over two days. PROSECUTOR: Are you fearful of
being in Mr. Dewitt's presence?
00:29:38
JULIE MINOGUE: Yes. - They asked Julie--
she was on the stand-- if she feared for her life.
00:29:48
She looked right at me. She had tears in her eyes. Her voice was shaking. And she said, yes,
I fear for my life.
00:29:59
- Hearing Julie's
voice in that hearing, you really hear her sort
of desperation for something
00:30:07
to happen. [SOLEMN MUSIC] PROSECUTOR: Are you
fearful for the safety of you and your children?
00:30:17
JULIE MINOGUE: Yes. PROSECUTOR: Is that
fear heightened because of his alcohol problems?
00:30:22
JULIE MINOGUE: Absolutely. GERALD MINOGUE: Lo
and behold, the judge said the restraining
order was granted,
00:30:32
and I think that
she felt very safe. She felt that she had
done everything possible.
00:30:42
She thought that,
in a matter of time, he was gonna be behind
bars, and he was gonna be no problem to her.
00:30:48
TRICIA O'REILLY:
The entire time, I just kept praying
to God to keep her safe, keep the kids safe.
00:30:58
NARRATOR: Five days later,
Julie Minogue was dead. Dewitt is the prime suspect.
00:31:08
[GRIM MUSIC] The doorbell footage reveals
another potential factor behind the murder.
00:31:19
NICK BARREIRO:
As he walks by here, there is a bit
of-- not a stumble, but he crosses one
leg over the other.
00:31:30
That either looks
like hesitation, like he's not sure
where he's going, and he changes direction
at the last second
00:31:37
as he's taking a step. Or potentially, he
knows where he's going, but it's certainly
possible that he
00:31:43
is just losing his
balance at that point because he's intoxicated. And if that's the case, it
could go to his state of mind
00:31:51
when he was
committing this act. This video seems
to indicate that he had been drinking heavily that night.
00:31:59
Based on the information that
this suspect was a recovering alcoholic that was slipping
and struggling to stay sober
00:32:10
and then just
recently found out that his ex-girlfriend
had obtained a restraining
00:32:14
order against him,
certainly seems like motive for what we see in this video. [GRIM MUSIC]
00:32:26
NARRATOR: Despite
the manhunt, police appear no closer to finding
Dewitt until, out of the blue,
00:32:34
they get a call. ETHAN FRY: While
looking for Dewitt, police got a tip from
an unexpected source.
00:32:43
Dewitt's own mother
called them and told them that he
had just called her and confessed
to having killed Julie.
00:32:52
MARGARET E. KELLY:
Dewitt's mother said that my son just called. He said he killed
his girlfriend.
00:32:59
She indicated that he
was wandering around, and she did not
know where he was. ETHAN FRY: It's hard to know
exactly why Dewitt's mother
00:33:11
called police, but in some
way, maybe she wanted to see him be held accountable.
00:33:18
NARRATOR: Dewitt's mother gives
detectives his cell number. - Almost immediately after
that, police called Mr. Dewitt.
00:33:29
He answered his phone but would
not engage in any conversation. [SIREN WAILS] The police were able
to ping Mr. Dewitt's phone
00:33:39
and find the general area
of where the phone was located. They went over
to that location,
00:33:45
which is in a neighboring town
close to the border of Milford. [SIREN WAILS] There was a bar
at that location.
00:33:53
The police provided a picture
to some patrons of Mr. Dewitt. They indicated he had
just left there and gone
00:34:01
into the back parking lot. - Dewitt was found pretty
soon after in a trailer. MARGARET E. KELLY:
When the police
00:34:15
arrested Mr. Dewitt inside that
trailer, he did not resist. [SIREN WAILS] [RADIO CHATTER]
00:34:23
- Anytime there's a homicide
and there's a suspect at large, I think there is
a sense of relief
00:34:28
in the community when the
suspect is taken into custody. [SOLEMN MUSIC] [SIREN WAILS]
00:34:35
- I was glad that he was
locked up at that point, and I just wanted to make sure
I did everything in my power
00:34:41
that he stayed that way. NARRATOR: Held in custody,
detectives question Dewitt.
00:34:51
- I'm sure police wanted to
learn why he would do something like this and with such
violence to the mother
00:34:58
of his three-year-old son. [GRIM MUSIC] MARGARET E. KELLY:
What would have caused Mr. Dewitt
to commit this crime,
00:35:06
and to commit it
in such a brutal manner? ETHAN FRY: According
to police, he said that he had just,
quote, "had enough"
00:35:16
and sort of snapped. - He, at some point, made
comments, well, I did it. So in that sense,
he did confess.
00:35:31
ETHAN FRY: That
night, the suspect had taken a Lyft
rideshare from his home in Roxbury, Connecticut.
00:35:41
He had an ax with
him in the vehicle. And then it dropped him off
outside of Julie's condo,
00:35:51
and he stormed into the condo
and killed her with the ax while her three-year-old
son and 17-year-old
00:36:01
son were in the home. NARRATOR: Despite
Dewitt's confession, he offers no real
clue to his motive.
00:36:09
- I'm not sure we'll ever learn
why all this really happened. - How could somebody hate
somebody that much that
00:36:18
they say they cannot live. I can't understand it. [SOLEMN MUSIC] NARRATOR: More than two
years after the murder,
00:36:36
to avoid facing a jury,
Dewitt takes a plea deal. ETHAN FRY: I think the family
accepted the plea deal in a way
00:36:44
to avoid a trial and having
all of this evidence have to come out again. - Trial is truly
emotional, something
00:36:52
I think we all wanted to be-- wanted to avoid,
especially from the fact that the eyewitness,
my grandson,
00:36:58
would have to testify. MARGARET E. KELLY: It would
have been almost impossible not to have him testify.
00:37:06
It's absolutely
horrific to have to put a child on the stand,
and especially a child
00:37:13
who witnessed his mother
get brutally murdered. [RESONANT MUSIC] NARRATOR: There
was another witness
00:37:25
on the night of Julie's
murder that proved crucial to Dewitt's conviction. MARGARET E. KELLY:
The doorbell footage
00:37:32
was important because it
corroborated other evidence that we had from
her son, who was
00:37:39
present for some of the
circumstances that night. ETHAN FRY: Something I talked
to both prosecutors and defense
00:37:48
attorneys a lot is how
much camera footage has changed how courts work. [CAMERA WHIRS]
00:37:55
Surveillance
footage from cameras we see all over the place makes
what happened clearer in ways
00:38:00
that weren't so clear before. NARRATOR: During
the sentencing hearing, Julie's family gave
impact statements
00:38:08
on the effect of her death. GERALD MINOGUE: Finally,
after almost three years, my daughter's life was
brought to light again.
00:38:18
She was part
of the discussion again where, up until that point, everything
was about the defendant,
00:38:23
so it's really
an emotional thing. And we had a chance
to speak and explain and say what-- say what we
felt about the whole thing.
00:38:31
And that was very emotional. Calling this painful is
a gross understatement. Julie's sons were even
denied the ability
00:38:39
to see their mother's
remains during her viewing due to the brutality
committed by the defendant
00:38:45
when he murdered her. I will always carry the weight
of the horrible thought of the pain, horror, and fear
my daughter experienced
00:38:53
those last few
moments of her life, attacked viciously by an ax
by an evil monster.
00:39:00
- In a lot of homicides,
the defense will try to put
a psychiatric report together about a defendant
who has mental health issues.
00:39:12
In this case, we learned
that the suspect allegedly had PTSD and alcohol
abuse problems
00:39:18
after serving in the military. So I think part
of the defense effort was to try to put that
together in a report
00:39:26
to try to help mitigate
the behavior he was accused of. MARGARET E. KELLY:
Mr. Dewitt's attorney
00:39:33
mentioned in his
sentencing comments that Mr. Dewitt had
acted impulsively. There is no indication,
based on the record
00:39:44
of this case and the evidence,
that this was an impulsive act. Mr. Dewitt took
a Uber or a Lyft ride
00:39:57
from quite some distance away,
concealing an ax in his pants, to go to Ms. Minogue's home.
00:40:05
There's no indication that
this was an impulsive act. NARRATOR: When prosecuting
attorney, Margaret E. Kelly,
00:40:12
challenges the defense's case,
Dewitt shows his true colors. MARGARET E. KELLY: There is no
indication whatsoever that this
00:40:21
was an impulsive act. This was a cold, calculated,
well thought out. EWEN DEWITT: That's [BLEEP]
00:40:27
MAN: Hey. WOMAN: Watch your mouth. OFFICER: Sit down.
Sit down. EWEN DEWITT: [BLEEP]
00:40:34
JUDGE: Mr. Dewitt,
if outbursts like that continue, I'm left
with no other choice
00:40:39
but to remove you from the
courtroom and the sentence-- EWEN DEWITT: That
would be great.
00:40:44
NARRATOR: Ewen Dewitt is
sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder
of Julie Minogue.
00:40:51
- I don't think any
sentence can make a murder victim's family happy. I think that the Minogue family
was very gracious and patient
00:41:04
during the entire process. And I certainly recognize
that they wanted more years,
00:41:12
but I think, all in all, they-- they understood why
the court made that offer. GERALD MINOGUE: 40 years
for a person's life
00:41:23
doesn't sound like a lot,
OK, be honest with you. But when I put the pieces
together that he's 45 years old
00:41:32
now and that he'd be
getting out of jail, you know, in his 80s, OK,
you know, he's probably
00:41:39
gonna die in jail. [SOLEMN MUSIC] - I think that this murder just
highlights the horrible effects
00:41:47
of domestic violence. ETHAN FRY: Julie's family
and a lot of her friends and domestic violence advocates
would say this absolutely
00:41:58
could have been
avoided, and there were a lot of warning signs. NARRATOR: Julie's
murder highlights
00:42:05
issues around domestic abuse
and failures by the authorities to protect her. TRICIA O'REILLY: Julie did
everything in her power.
00:42:14
She dotted her i's, crossed
her t's, did everything that you were
supposed to do or we
00:42:20
have been told as women with
domestic situations to do. - Every domestic violence
homicide obviously is tragic.
00:42:31
I think what caused
such an outcry after this one was
the fact that Julie had complained to police
a month before the killing.
00:42:44
I mean, we have
Julie's own words. She wrote in that
affidavit asking for the restraining order.
00:42:51
I mean, she literally wrote,
"He's going to kill me." Those were the last
words of her statement,
00:42:56
which are profound
in light of what happened. TRICIA O'REILLY:
They always told her that they would
take care of this
00:43:05
and that she would be OK. They always assured her that
they were going to arrest him.
00:43:11
She was always told this. Didn't happen. - Obviously,
Julie's family will never be the same after this.
00:43:24
One positive thing
that happened was the community
outcry was so profound that lawmakers
in Connecticut passed changes
00:43:34
to laws to give
better protections and warnings to victims
of domestic violence.
00:43:40
That included
a GPS alert system to give victims in high-risk
domestic violence cases
00:43:48
more of a warning that
the perpetrators are nearby. [SOMBER MUSIC] GERALD MINOGUE: My daughter's
death, as terrible as it is,
00:44:10
will save people's lives now. Unfortunately, she couldn't
take advantage of that.
00:44:18
But now other women can
take advantage of it because of, you know, what
happened to my daughter.
00:44:27
TRICIA O'REILLY: I still
reach for the phone to call her every day-- good times, bad times,
good things, bad things.
00:44:41
I know she's with
me, with all of us. She should be here. I just can't believe
that that-- that it
00:44:52
has happened-- that it
happened and how it happened. NARRATOR: Julie's youngest
child is now in the care
00:45:02
of his half brother. - The children are,
for the most part, doing very well, OK,
I would have to say.
00:45:14
But there's no doubt that
there's a lot of pain, and there's a big
hole that's left.
00:45:19
- It's a shock you
never get out of. I still am in shock. - And you know, every
birthday that comes up,
00:45:28
you have, you know,
somebody that's not there every Christmas,
every Thanksgiving,
00:45:35
every special event. She's not there. And that hurts, OK? - They lost the best,
best person in their life.
00:45:51
And it's just-- the saddest
thing in the world is that you hear it all
the time, she should be here.
00:46:01
But it's the truth. [THEME MUSIC] [RADIANT MUSIC] [BRIGHT MUSIC]