Terrifying & True | Castlerock Double Murder (1991): Staged as a Suicide Pact

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They find the car in a locked garage, the hose
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feeding exhaust into the window, and two bodies posed like
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a final embrace. Castle Rock calls it a suicide pact
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and moves on. But the story doesn't end in nineteen
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ninety one because nearly twenty years later, a respected dentist
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walks into a church meeting and confesses.
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What you are about to tet you is burved to
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be based on witness accounts, testimonies and public record. This
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is terrifying and treat.
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Tonight. We have a case from Northern Ireland where a
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quiet seaside village woke to a scene that looked like
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heartbreak and was filed away as tragedy. In the early
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morning hours of May nineteenth, nineteen ninety one, behind a
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holiday cottage in castle Rock, a garage door is opened
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and a car is found sitting in the dim light
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inside or two bodies Leslie Howell, a young mother, and
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Trevor Buchanan, a police constable. A length of hose runs
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from the exhaust pipe toward a cracked window, feeding the
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cabin with fumes. Two investigators it appears to be a
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suicide pact. A grim private decision made by two people
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whose lives had been shaken by betrayal. For nearly two decades,
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that garage in Castle Rock keeps its secret until in
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two thousand and nine, Colin Howells steps forward and makes
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a confession that tears the case wide open. Suddenly, what
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looked like a tragic double death becomes something far more deliberate,
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a stage tableau built to mislead investigators and bury the
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truth in plain sight. We're telling that story tonight. A
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damp dawn broke over the seaside village of Castle Rock
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in northern Ireland on May nineteenth, nineteen ninety one. The
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salty breeze carried an acrid smell that morning, the telltale
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odor of exhaust fumes seeping from a non descript garage
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behind a quiet holiday cottage. Inside that small outbuilding, a
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passerby made a horrific discovery. In a parked car, the
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bodies of two people were locked in a final embrace
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with death. Thirty one year old Leslie Howell lay sprawled
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in the back seat, her fingers still clutching photographs of
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her young children. In the front seat, slumped thirty two
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year old Trevor Buchanan, a police constable A length of
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rubber hose snaked from the car's exhaust pipe into a
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slightly open window, making the scene look at first glance
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painfully straightforward. It looked like a mutual death pact, a
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tragic double suicide. The position of the bodies and that
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hose feeding poisonous gas in the car told a story
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of despair. Leslie and Trevor were both married, but not
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to each other. Rumors had quietly circulated about an affair
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between Leslie's husband and Trevor's wife, and now here were
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the apparent consequences. To the first officers on the scene,
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the tableau suggested two betrayed spouses who had lost all
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hope and made a fatal decision together. By all appearances,
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this was a sorrowful but straightforward case. Two innocent people
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driven by heartbreak had met in secret to end their pain.
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In the immediate aftermath, investigators treated the scene as a
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double suicide because the staging fit a car in a
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locked exhaust fumes and two bodies positioned to suggest a pact.
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That early conclusion matters because it shaped what was and
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wasn't questioned at the time. Years later, when the case
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was revisited after new information surfaced. Detectives re examined the
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same details through a different lens. Not why would they
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do this? But who benefits if everyone believes that they did.
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The community mourned the loss. Leslie Howell was known as
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a devoted mother of four, and Trevor Buchanan, a steadfast
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policeman and father. Their funerals were packed with grieving family,
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friends and fellow church members offering condolences and prayers. Everyone
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believed they understood what had happened in that fume filled
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car by the coast. But as the village grieved what
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they thought was a shared tragedy, a far more sinister
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truth lay hidden beneath that neat narrative. What the community
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believed was a suicide pact would later be revealed as
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something carefully orchestrated, an elaborate lie that held for almost
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two decades. On the surface, Colin Howell and Hazel Buchanan
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later Hazel Stuart, looked like two people with everything to lose.
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Colin was a local dentist and lay preacher. Hazel was
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married to a police constable and active in church life.
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In public, both families projected stability, faith, and respectability, the
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kind of image that made a community assume nothing truly
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dark could be happening behind their smiles, but closed doors
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helped to project a seemingly wholesome world. In reality, temptation
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was taking hold. Colin and Hazel's paths crossed frequently at
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services on Sunday, at prayer meetings, even during their children's
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weekday swimming lessons. A flirtation sparked and then flared into
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a full blown secret romance. They stole kisses in dark
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parking lots after Bible study, and exchanged longing glances across
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crowded church halls. Every illicit rendezvous was cloaked in lies
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told to their unsuspecting spouses. To the outside world. Colin
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remained the attentive husband to Leslie and Hazel the devoted
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wife to Trevor, but in stolen moments, they only had
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eyes for each other. It didn't take long for cracks
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to appear in the facade. Leslie Howell began to sense
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that something was wrong in her marriage. Colin's late nights
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at the clinic or sudden urgency to assist parishioners seemed
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increasingly suspicious. One day, Leslie discovered a trace of the affair,
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a misplaced note, a whisper in the congregation, or perhaps
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just Colin's guilt manifesting in cold distance. Whatever the trigger,
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the revelation hit her hard. Leslie confronted her husband, and
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although Colin brushed off or minimized the infidelity, she was
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left devastated. The once VIVATIONI his young mother fell into despair.
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Friends later recalled how Leslie, normally outgoing, grew quiet and withdrawn.
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In those months, she began self medicating her heartbreak with
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wine and prescription pills. Photographs from that period show her
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smile had faded. The hurt was plain in her eyes,
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even if she tried to keep up appearances. Trevor too
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may have sensed that his wife, Hazel, was growing distant,
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though he never openly voiced suspicions. As a police officer,
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Trevor knew how to notice details, but Hazel was careful.
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If he asked about her occasional absences or the late
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night phone calls she dismissed as wrong numbers, Hazel soothed
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him with practiced reassurances. Inside, however, her nerves afraid the
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dual life she led, loving wife and mother by day
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adulterous lover by night weighed heavily. Each Sunday, Hazel taught
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Bible stories about honesty and fidelity to the children at church,
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then spent weekday afternoons sneaking away to Colin's arms. Guilt
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and fear of exposure loomed over them both. By early
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nineteen ninety one, the situation was precarious. Leslie's depression had deepened,
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and talk of the Howl Buchanan affair quietly swirled among
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a few church gossips. Colin felt cornered his wife's misery
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threatened to spill their secret into the open. Hazel, likewise,
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feared losing everything if the truth came out, the respect
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of her community, even the custody of her children. Divorce
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was anathema in their devout circle and would mean public disgrace.
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Colin began to contemplate a darker way out. In his mind,
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an unthinkable idea took shape. If Leslie and Trevor were
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gone permanently, all of his problems would be solved, the
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affair could continue unfettered, and their religious reputations could remain intact.
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All he needed was for his lover to agree to
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an audacious and deadly plan. According to later accounts, Colin
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Howell's proposition to Hazel was as cold blooded as it
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was audacious. They would kill Leslie and Trevor and make
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it look like a joint suicide. At first, Hazel balked
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the thought of murdering her husband, of murdering anyone sent
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her reeling. But Colin was methodical and persuasive. He painted
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a picture of a life where they could finally be together,
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free from lies and guilt. Divorce, he argued, would ruin
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them in their tight knit community, but if their spouses
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died tragically, they could eventually comfort each other openly without scandal.
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When Hazel hesitated, Colin pressed harder. He hinted at dire
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consequences if she betrayed him or refused to go along.
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Isolated by their secret, and under Colin's tightening grip, Hazel
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finally quiesced. In that moment, their illicit love story warped
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into a deadly conspiracy. From here on, try to keep
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two lanes in mind. What can be proven, what was said,
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what was found, what was admitted, and what's being interpreted.
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Why someone did it, what someone felt, what someone must
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have intended. Prosecutors can argue, motive confessions can describe intent,
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and here we stay honest about the difference. They spent
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weeks refining the plan in whispered discussions and clandestine notes.
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Colin decided they would strike on a night when both
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households were quiet and unsuspecting. He obtained a supply of sedatives,
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intending to dose Leslie and Trevor to ensure they'd be
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subdued or asleep when the time came. So committed was
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he to this plan that Colin even conducted a disturbing
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experiment under the guise of dental work. He sedated Hazel
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in his clinic chair to test the potency of the drugs.
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Hazel awoke, groggy and violated. Colin had allegedly assaulted her
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while she was unconscious, but she said nothing. Whatever the intent,
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the message to Hazel was clear he had total control
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and the plan had to proceed. For the murders, Colin
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chose a method meant to be quiet and hard to
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detect in the moment, one that relied on exhaust fumes
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and a sealed space rather than a weapon that would
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leave a loud, obvious signature. The goal, according to later accounts,
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was to keep the victims incapacitated and avoid any struggle,
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then arrange the scene so it read as a tragic
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decision rather than a crime. Colin selected the location for
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that final tableau with terr. He chose the garage at
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an empty property owned by Leslie's late father, a secluded
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spot where a car could be left running without drawing attention.
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After murdering his wife at the howl Home, Colin would
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drive Leslie's body, and later Trevor's, to this garage in
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Castle Rock. There, he and Hazel would position the two
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victims in a single vehicle. Trevor would be in the
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driver's seat and Leslie in the back. Colin even planned
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to tuck those family photographs into Leslie's lifeless hands a
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point bant touch to reinforce the illusion of a grief
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stricken mother taking her own life. They would insert the
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hose from the exhaust into the car window and let
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the engine run, ensuring the scene looked convincingly like a
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double suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. Every detail was anticipated.
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Hazel and Colin rehearsed their alibis. They would each pretend
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to discover their spouse missing in the early morning hours
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feigning confusion and concern. If anyone asked, they would express
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shock that Leslie and Trevor might have met up. They
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agreed on how to act grief stricken but not suspicious.
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Hazel would dutifully play the distraught widow, Colin the heartbroken widower,
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and so with chilling calmness, the lovers said their murderous
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plot into motion, waiting for the right night to execute it.
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The night of the plan arrived, moonless and still. Hazel
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later described an eerie sense of detachment as she went
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through her evening routine, tucking her children into bed as
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if it were any ordinary night. Trevor dozed off on
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the living room sofa, unaware that it would be his
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last sleep. Miles away in the whole house, Leslie had
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turned in for the night after checking on her own
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young children. She had no idea her husband was slipping
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lethal ingredients into the cup of hot cocoa, which he
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insisted on making her to help her relax. By one
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a m both target victims were unconscious or in a
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heavy star stupor, and Colin Howell was ready to act.
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Colin stood over his sleeping wife in the darkened bedroom,
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his face lit only by a sliver of street light
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through the window. Leslie lay on her side, breathing deeply
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from the sedatives in her system. In one hand, Colin
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carried the end of a length of hose fitted with
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the rubber nipple from a baby's bottle. Outside. His car
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was already running in the driveway, a long coil of
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hose snaking from the exhaust. Through a window into the bedroom,
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Colin gently pressed the improvised gas mask over Leslie's mouth
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and nose. For a few moments, nothing changed. She continued
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to breathe slowly, a oblivious Then her body gave a
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jolt as the first toxic fumes hid her lungs. She
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coughed and stirred, but Colin held the mask firmly in place.
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Leslie's eyes fluttered open in confusion. Half conscious and sensing
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mortal danger, she tried to pull away, feebly, kicking at
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the bedcovers. A faint whimper escaped her. In her final moments,
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she gasped out the name of her eldest child, a
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plea or a prayer, but there was no saving her.
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Colin's hand did not relent. After a minute or two
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of struggle, Leslie Howel fell, still overcome by the exhaust
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fumes flooding her bloodstream, remained there a moment, watching the
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life drain from his wife's body. The quiet ticking of
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the clock resumed its dominance in the room. He finally
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removed the hose and shut off the car engine. Outside.
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A sickly chemical odor hung in the air as he
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worked quickly. Now knowing he had limited time before dawn.
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He wrapped Leslie's lifeless body in a blanket and hoisted
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her over his shoulder. Colin carried Leslie out to his car.
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The night was silent except for his labored breaths and
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the chirp of distant crickets. He placed her body in
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the trunk and carefully shut it. With Leslie secured, Colin
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slipped into the driver's seat and drove into the darkness
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toward Hazel's house. He had to move swiftly and silently.
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Street lights cast intermittent pools of pale gold on the
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empty road as he covered the few miles to the
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Buchanan home. Hazel was waiting, her heart pounding in her chest.
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She had left a back door unlocked and a window
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slightly ajar for Colin's entry. Her two children were fast
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asleep upstairs, innocent to the horror about to unfold under
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their roof. Colin killed his headlights and rolled to a
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quiet stop in Hazel's driveway. He retrieved the same hose
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apparatus from his trunk, now reeking of exhaust fumes, and
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crept toward the house. Hazel met him just inside the
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back door, her face ghost pale and drawn. Without a word,
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she led him into the living room, where Trevor lay
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slumped on the couch, a half empty glass of beer
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on the side table next to him. Trevor Buchanan was oblivious,
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snoring lightly still in his day clothes. Colin had left
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his car idling outside. Now he guided the hose in
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through the open window behind the couch. In one swift motion,
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he slipped the rubber mask over Trevor's nose and mouth,
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and signaled Hazel to shut the door. For a moment.
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She turned away, unable to watch, but the effect was
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not as quick as with Leslie. The first gush of
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fumes jolted Trevor awake in confusion and terror. His eyes
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snapped wide at the sight of a figure looming over
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him with a hose Trevor's survival instincts kicked in and
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he thrashed, violently, knocking the mask aside. A desperate struggle
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exploded in the darkness. Trevor was strong, a trained RUC officer,
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and for an instant he had the upper hand, grappling
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Colin's wrist and forcing the mask away. Hazel stifled a
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scream as the two men wrestled in her living room,
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knocking over furniture. Colin, fueled by adrenaline and panic, managed
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to drive a knee hard into Trevor's stomach and wrench free.
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He lunged again, this time managing to clamp the mask
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back over Trevor's face with all his weight behind it. Hazel, shaking,
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moved in to help pin down Trevor's flailing arms. It
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took endless seconds of grim effort, but at last Trevor's
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fight began to ebb. His thrashing limbs slowed, then went limp.
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The only sounds now were Hazel's ragged breaths and the
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low chug of the car outside, pumping in poison. In
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the aftermath of the fight, the living room was in shambles,
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an overturned chair, a shattered glass and Trevor Buchanan's body
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sprawled at an unnatural angle on the couch. Hazel stood
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in the corner, pressed against the wall with wide vacant eyes.
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She had just assisted in killing her husband, and the
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shot was sinking in. Colin, ever cold minded, sprang into
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action once more. He removed the hose and closed up
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the window, erasing the most obvious evidence of their method.
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Then he gestured for Hazel to grab Trevor's feet. Together,
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they heaved his corpse off the sofa and through the
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back door into the cool night outside. The dawn was
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still an hour away. They lifted Trevor into the car,
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propping his lifeless form from behind the wheel. Leslie's blanketed
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corpse lay in the back seat just as planned. Hazel
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caught a glimpse of Leslie's pale hand slipping out from
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under the covering and quickly looked away, swallowing down a
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rising feeling of nausea. Colin worked fast and efficiently. He
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00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:04.319
arranged Trevor as if he were the driver, and gently
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00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:08.839
opened Leslie's limp hand to curl her fingers around the
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cherished photographs of her children. With Hazel's help, he inserted
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the hose one final time through the window and restarted
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the engine. They stood back as the car's interior once
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again filled with lethal fumes, enveloping the two bodies in
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an atmosphere of death. Bathed in the dim glow of
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a single bare bulb, Colin and Hazel surveyed the scene
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they had created. Leslie Howel and Trevor Buchanan sat motionless
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inside the vehicle, pallid and inert, looking for all the
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world like a pair of broken souls who had chosen
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to die together. The smell of exhaust and death was thick.
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Hazel was shaking uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face. Colin
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placed a hand on her shoulder. Stern and steady. It
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00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:18.559
was time to leave. He shut off the engine for
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the last time and carefully removed the hose, leaving it
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00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:29.440
coiled conspicuously from the tailpipe into the car. As planned,
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the stage was finally set just before four a m.
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With the eastern sky beginning to brighten, Colin Howell and
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Hazel buchanans slipped away from the garage. They pulled the
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door closed on the fume saturated tomb and parted ways
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into what was left of the night, Colin driving back
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00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:59.480
to his house where his children slept motherless, and Hazel
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00:27:59.599 --> 00:28:03.920
returned to her own home to await mourning with her
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fatherless children. By the time the sun rose over Castle
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Rock on May nineteenth, nineteen ninety one, the murderous pair
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00:28:14.359 --> 00:28:17.720
had done everything in their power to ensure that the
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00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:23.480
awaited discovery looked like nothing more than a tragic suicide
314
00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:31.160
pact between two devastated spouses. By the next morning, Colin
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00:28:31.240 --> 00:28:36.079
and Hazel's deadly plan appeared to have achieved exactly what
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they intended. The scene in the garage spoke for itself,
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00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:46.720
and investigators found nothing obviously amiss. When police delivered the
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grim news, Colin and Hazel played their roles shocked spouses,
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00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:57.160
reluctant confessors to an affair, and grieving survivors of what
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00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:02.599
seemed like a scandal driven tragedy. With that context in place,
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00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:08.240
authorities quickly concluded that Leslie Howell and Trevor Buchanan had
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taken their own lives in anguish. There was no homicide investigation,
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and the case was closed as a double suicide. The community,
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though stunned by the revelation of an affair, accepted the
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sorrowful narrative. At the funeral services held for Trevor and
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Leslie on the same day, Hazel wept as a bereaved wife,
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and Colin stood trembling as the grieving husband. Friends and
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church members consoled them both, never imagining the story itself
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00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:50.880
was false. In public, Hazel and Colin expressed remorse over
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the affair and sorrow over their spouses suicides, reinforcing what
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00:29:58.119 --> 00:30:03.920
everyone around them had swallowed whole. In the months that followed,
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00:30:04.519 --> 00:30:09.440
life moved on, as it tends to do. Hazel Buchanan
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00:30:09.519 --> 00:30:13.440
did her best to fade into the background. She continued
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00:30:13.480 --> 00:30:17.559
to live in the same community, raising her two children
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00:30:17.720 --> 00:30:22.000
who had lost their father. She returned to church and
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00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:27.279
carried herself as a woman chastened by tragedy, devoting herself
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00:30:27.319 --> 00:30:32.240
to family and faith, while speaking only in perfunctory terms
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00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:39.039
about Trevor's death. Colin Howell also outwardly resumed a normal
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00:30:39.119 --> 00:30:42.559
life after a period of mourning. He went back to
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00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:47.440
practicing dentistry and caring for the four children Leslie had
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left behind. He collected a substantial life insurance payout from
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00:30:52.720 --> 00:30:57.799
Leslie's death, remarried within a few years, and gradually saw
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00:30:57.880 --> 00:31:04.240
his reputation recover. It appeared that both conspirators had gotten
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00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:09.000
away with their crime, and for almost two decades no
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one seriously questioned the garage suicide scene. Colin Howell and
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Hazel Buchanan were free, but they were living under the
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00:31:21.400 --> 00:31:25.680
shadow of a secret only the two of them shared.
348
00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:37.119
For many years, Colin Howell managed to bury his guilt
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00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:42.400
under a veneer of normalcy, but deep down, his conscience
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00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:47.240
never quite went silent. The secret that he and Hazel
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00:31:47.359 --> 00:31:53.759
shared festered like a hidden rot. Colin's once unwavering confidence
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00:31:54.359 --> 00:31:59.400
began to crack. In private, he battled nightmares and bouts
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of depression. He might have carried that burden to his
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grave had fate not intervened with a series of crushing blows.
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00:32:10.880 --> 00:32:15.759
In two thousand and seven, unspeakable tragedy struck Colin's life again.
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00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:21.880
His eldest son, Matthew, died in a freak accident while abroad.
357
00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:27.680
The loss of his child devastated Colin. He searched for
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00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:31.559
meaning in the senseless death and began to feel the
359
00:32:31.599 --> 00:32:38.480
weight of divine judgment. Not long after, he became entangled
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00:32:38.519 --> 00:32:42.920
in a fraudulent get rich Quick investment scheme. By two
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00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:46.240
thousand eight, Colin had been swindled out of hundreds of
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00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:51.480
thousands of dollars, leaving him on the brink of financial ruin.
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He was crushed and desperate, convinced that these calamities were
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00:32:57.359 --> 00:33:01.960
no coincidence. To Colin's mind, it seemed as if God
365
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:08.240
himself was punishing him for the blood on his hands.
366
00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:12.839
Nearly eighteen years had passed since the murders when Colin
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00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:18.240
reached his breaking point. The dam of guilt finally burst.
368
00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:23.079
On a cold day in January of two thousand and nine,
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00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:26.759
Colin Howell walked into a meeting of church elders in
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00:33:26.839 --> 00:33:34.480
Coleraine and confessed everything. Voice trembling yet relieved, he recounted
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00:33:34.519 --> 00:33:38.319
how he and Hazel had plotted and carried out the
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00:33:38.440 --> 00:33:43.240
killings all those years ago. He said that God had
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00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:46.960
told him it was time to come clean. The church
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00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:52.400
elders sat in stunned silence as Colin, tears in his eyes,
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00:33:52.960 --> 00:33:58.440
described in detail the staged car suicide, the hose and
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00:33:58.559 --> 00:34:05.759
exhaust dreadful step. After a moment, one of the elders
377
00:34:05.799 --> 00:34:11.119
simply said, you must go to the police. Later that
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00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:15.960
same day, Colin entered the police station in Coleraine. In
379
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:20.880
a calm, matter of fact manner, he told detectives the
380
00:34:21.039 --> 00:34:26.440
unthinkable truth. The supposed double suicide of nineteen ninety one
381
00:34:27.239 --> 00:34:32.519
was in fact a double murder. Investigators, who had long
382
00:34:32.639 --> 00:34:38.119
since closed the case listened in astonishment as this respected
383
00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:43.760
dentist turned penitent killer laid out the real story. He
384
00:34:43.760 --> 00:34:50.719
held back nothing. Colin Howell's voluntary confession was exhaustive and chilling.
385
00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:55.960
He implicated himself fully, and he did not protect his
386
00:34:56.119 --> 00:35:00.719
former lover. He made it clear that Hazel Buchanan now
387
00:35:00.840 --> 00:35:06.840
Hazel Stuart, had been his willing accomplice. The police wasted
388
00:35:06.920 --> 00:35:12.199
little time. Almost two decades after Leslie and Trevor's deaths,
389
00:35:12.719 --> 00:35:18.480
officers arrived at Hazel's door to arrest her for murder. Hazel,
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00:35:18.519 --> 00:35:21.880
who had since remarried and was living a quiet life,
391
00:35:22.519 --> 00:35:27.000
was incredulous. At first. She had believed the past was
392
00:35:27.079 --> 00:35:31.920
buried forever, but now, in two thousand nine, her darkest
393
00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:36.559
secret was out in the open. Colin's confession meant she
394
00:35:36.599 --> 00:35:40.800
would finally have to answer for her role in the crime.
395
00:35:41.639 --> 00:35:46.280
Hazel Stuart was brought into the interrogation room, trembling, but
396
00:35:46.440 --> 00:35:51.880
determined to save herself. She immediately denied being a murderer.
397
00:35:52.599 --> 00:35:58.599
Confronted with Colin's detailed confession implicating her, Hazel's initial response
398
00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:03.360
was to shake her head and insist, quote, he made
399
00:36:03.440 --> 00:36:08.639
me do it. I never wanted anyone to die. Thus
400
00:36:08.679 --> 00:36:13.000
began a series of tense police interviews in which Hazel
401
00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:18.159
spun a very different narrative of the nineteen ninety one events,
402
00:36:18.719 --> 00:36:22.880
one where she was not a cold blooded killer, but
403
00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:29.119
a woman under extreme duress. Hazel's version of events centered
404
00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:34.239
on coercion and fear that she was being controlled, threatened,
405
00:36:34.679 --> 00:36:39.920
and trapped. The prosecution's position was that her actions crossed
406
00:36:39.920 --> 00:36:45.639
the line from fear to participation. We'll flag those as
407
00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:49.880
competing narratives and focus on what the record can corroborate.
408
00:36:50.599 --> 00:36:56.199
Then let you feel the weight of the claims. Over
409
00:36:56.360 --> 00:37:01.079
hours of questioning, Hazel gradually opened up about her version
410
00:37:01.199 --> 00:37:05.719
of the truth. In a recorded interview, her voice wavered
411
00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:11.519
as she described Colin's domineering influence over her life. Quote
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00:37:11.920 --> 00:37:17.119
he was very controlling, Hazel told detectives, I was scared
413
00:37:17.559 --> 00:37:21.800
if I said something against him, he'd kill me. Her
414
00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:26.199
words came in a desperate rush. She insisted that everything
415
00:37:26.320 --> 00:37:29.400
she did the night of the murders was driven by
416
00:37:29.400 --> 00:37:34.519
fear and the belief that she had no choice. Hazel
417
00:37:34.639 --> 00:37:39.280
painted herself as another one of Colin's victims. She recounted
418
00:37:39.320 --> 00:37:43.800
how he had once secretly drugged her during a supposed
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00:37:43.960 --> 00:37:48.079
dental procedure, an episode she offered as proof of how
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00:37:48.199 --> 00:37:53.480
far he would go to control her. She told investigators
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00:37:53.480 --> 00:37:56.719
that he threatened her and that she only helped dispose
422
00:37:56.760 --> 00:38:01.320
of evidence, including the length of hose, because she feared
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00:38:01.440 --> 00:38:04.880
for her own life as well as for her children.
424
00:38:06.159 --> 00:38:10.960
Throughout multiple interview sessions, Hazel clung to that story of coercion.
425
00:38:11.719 --> 00:38:15.719
When detectives pressed her with the obvious question why not
426
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:19.519
run or call for help, she repeated that she had
427
00:38:19.559 --> 00:38:25.000
been too frightened and too trapped to dare. She maintained
428
00:38:25.039 --> 00:38:29.519
that Colin Howell was the mastermind and monster, and that
429
00:38:29.559 --> 00:38:34.199
she had never been a willing participant. By the end
430
00:38:34.199 --> 00:38:39.199
of the interrogation phase, Hazel's defense was crystal clear. She
431
00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:42.760
would claim she acted under duress out of fear for
432
00:38:42.840 --> 00:38:48.360
her own safety. Detectives listened, but the question now belonged
433
00:38:48.639 --> 00:38:54.000
to the courts. Was Hazel's stewart? A terrified pawn or
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00:38:54.679 --> 00:39:05.519
an equal partner in a heinous crime. The wheels of
435
00:39:05.800 --> 00:39:10.840
justice began to turn swiftly after the arrests. Colin Howell,
436
00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:15.880
having confessed, pleaded guilty to the murders. In late twenty ten.
437
00:39:15.960 --> 00:39:19.519
He accepted his fate and was sentenced to life in prison,
438
00:39:20.199 --> 00:39:24.119
a punishment that carried a minimum term of twenty one
439
00:39:24.239 --> 00:39:30.199
years before any possibility of release. His days of living
440
00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:35.679
a lie were over, but for Hazel, who maintained her innocence.
441
00:39:36.360 --> 00:39:42.400
A public trial awaited. In February of twenty eleven, nearly
442
00:39:42.559 --> 00:39:47.280
twenty years after the deaths of Trevor Buchanan and Leslie Howell,
443
00:39:47.800 --> 00:39:52.119
Hazel Stewart stood in the dock at Coleraine Crown Court.
444
00:39:52.920 --> 00:39:57.199
She faced charges of double murder, and the prosecution painted
445
00:39:57.239 --> 00:40:00.320
her as an equal partner in what they could called
446
00:40:00.360 --> 00:40:07.079
a gruesome extermination of two innocent people. Reporters and crowds
447
00:40:07.159 --> 00:40:10.280
packed the courtroom, eager to see the woman who had
448
00:40:10.360 --> 00:40:14.599
hidden in plain sight for so long. During the trial,
449
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:18.960
Colin Howell himself took the stand as the star witness
450
00:40:19.039 --> 00:40:24.559
against his former lover. In painstaking detail, he recounted their
451
00:40:24.599 --> 00:40:29.519
affair and the murderous pact that followed. He spared no
452
00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:34.559
sordid detail, even divulging how Hazel had become pregnant with
453
00:40:34.639 --> 00:40:38.880
his child during the affair and had gotten a secret abortion.
454
00:40:39.880 --> 00:40:45.880
A dark blood packed between them. Jurors watched Hazel intently
455
00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:50.519
as Colin described her role in the killings. Hazel sat
456
00:40:50.679 --> 00:40:55.480
stonefaced through much of his damning testimony, but at times
457
00:40:55.599 --> 00:40:59.599
dabbed her eyes with a tissue. When the gruesome particulars
458
00:40:59.719 --> 00:41:04.280
filled the air, it was a surreal reunion of the conspirators,
459
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.920
one unflinchingly telling the truth of their crimes, the other
460
00:41:10.480 --> 00:41:16.840
desperately maintaining her facade. Hazel's defense team pressed her narrative
461
00:41:16.880 --> 00:41:20.440
of coercion. They argued that she had been under Colin's
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00:41:20.480 --> 00:41:25.599
thrall and too frightened to resist his deadly scheme. Hazel
463
00:41:25.679 --> 00:41:30.440
did not testify in her own defense, perhaps fearing cross examination,
464
00:41:31.239 --> 00:41:35.519
but her taped police interviews were played for the court.
465
00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:40.840
The jurors heard her wavering voice describing how terrified she
466
00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:44.519
was of Colin. They listened to her claims of being
467
00:41:44.800 --> 00:41:49.320
helpless and upon forced to assist in covering up a
468
00:41:49.400 --> 00:41:53.920
crime she had never wanted. It was Hazel's one chance
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to convince the jury that she did not act of
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her own free will. After weeks of testimony, the case
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went to the jury. Deliberations did not take long. On
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March second, twenty eleven, the verdict was announced. Hazel Stewart
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was found guilty on two counts of murder. She closed
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her eyes as the foreman spoke the words, and a
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faint cry came from the gallery where her family sat.
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The judge, in sentencing her to life in prison with
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a minimum term of eighteen years, addressed Hazel sternly. He
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acknowledged Colin Howell's manipulative influence, but ultimately condemned Hazel for
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her choices. The judge noted that there had been several
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opportunities over the years when Hazel could have prevented the
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00:42:50.199 --> 00:42:55.559
violence or come forward with the truth, yet she never did.
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Fear was no excuse for participation in s such a
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heinous act, he intoned. Hazel was led out of the
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courtroom in handcuffs, her face drained of color as the
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weight of two decades of deceit finally crashed down upon her.
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The revelations of the trial sent shockwaves through Northern Ireland
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and beyond. No one felt the impact more than the
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00:43:25.960 --> 00:43:29.880
families of Leslie and Trevor, who had lived for years
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00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:34.159
believing a lie. They had mourned under the assumption that
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their loved ones died by their own hands. Now they
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00:43:38.760 --> 00:43:43.320
learned it was cold blooded murder all along, a truth
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00:43:43.400 --> 00:43:48.920
that was both horrifying and oddly vindicating, proving that neither
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00:43:49.039 --> 00:43:54.280
Leslie nor Trevor had chosen to abandon their families after all.
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00:43:55.280 --> 00:43:58.880
The tale of the suicide pact that wasn't of a
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00:43:58.920 --> 00:44:02.199
devout dentist in a church going mother who conspired to
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00:44:02.320 --> 00:44:06.679
murder became one of the most infamous crime stories in
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00:44:06.760 --> 00:44:11.480
the country's history. It was almost too fantastical to believe,
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00:44:12.119 --> 00:44:16.440
a real life saga of betrayal, faith, lust and murder
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00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:22.000
that played out behind closed doors for years before exploding
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00:44:22.719 --> 00:44:27.800
into the light. Today, Colin Howell sits in prison, a
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00:44:27.960 --> 00:44:32.679
convicted double murderer who found religion, only to have it
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00:44:32.800 --> 00:44:38.320
compel him to confess. Hazel Stewart, now identified by a
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00:44:38.360 --> 00:44:42.679
prison inmate number instead of as a Sunday school teacher,
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00:44:43.440 --> 00:44:47.519
resides in a separate prison facility, serving out her own
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00:44:48.199 --> 00:44:53.119
long sentence. Both will be well into old age before
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00:44:53.159 --> 00:44:57.679
they have any hope of walking free. They pay the
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00:44:57.760 --> 00:45:01.239
price each day for the lives they took and the
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00:45:01.360 --> 00:45:07.360
lies they told. In retrospect, the deaths of Leslie Howell
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00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:12.360
and Trevor Buchanan stand as a chilling reminder that evil
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00:45:12.599 --> 00:45:17.800
can hide in plain sight. For eighteen years, the facade
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00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:22.639
of a tragic suicide pact masked a calculated double murder.
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00:45:23.400 --> 00:45:28.760
The Confessions, trial and Convictions finally stripped away that mask
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00:45:29.239 --> 00:45:34.800
and ensured that justice, though delayed, was served. And as
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00:45:34.880 --> 00:45:41.719
the final echoes of this story fade, one truth remains. Secrets.
515
00:45:42.079 --> 00:45:49.280
This dark do not stay buried forever. Terrifying and True
516
00:45:49.360 --> 00:45:53.440
is narrated by Enrique Kuto, Its executive produced by Robfields
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00:45:53.519 --> 00:45:57.159
and bobble Topia dot com, and produced by Dan Wilder,
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with original theme music by Ray Mattis. You have a
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story you think we should cover on Terrifying and True,
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send us an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com,
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thank you for listening. We'll see you all right here
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next time on Terrifying and True