Man Accused of Killing Wife Had Map With 'X'

Documents in Harold Henthorn case also reveal inconsistencies in his stories
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 21, 2014 10:33 AM CST
Man Accused of Killing Wife Had Map With 'X'
This undated photograph provided by the Bertolet family shows Harold Henthorn and his wife, Toni.   (AP Photo/Bertolet Family)

Prosecutors say that a 58-year-old Colorado man accused of shoving his wife off a cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park in September 2012 planned her death, fibbed about his employment, and, after marrying her for her money, controlled most aspects of her life, ABC 7 reports. The details:

  • According to now-unsealed affidavits, investigators came across a map in Harold Henthorn's Jeep that showed the trail where the couple hiked, with a big "X" in pink highlighter at the spot where wife Toni plunged off the cliff. When asked about it, Henthorn "appeared at a loss for words," the affidavit says.
  • The timeline of the text message he says he was reading the moment his wife fell doesn't match up to phone records; the police didn't find the binoculars Toni was supposedly looking through when she fell; and he said it took him 45 minutes to hike down to her body, while it took authorities only 10 minutes to hike up from that spot to the cliff's edge, CBS Denver reports.

  • Toni was a successful ophthalmologist with oil and gas investments, ABC 7 notes, while investigators can't find any records of the fundraising business Henthorn supposedly owned. A former employee of Toni's says that Henthorn told her he had worked up "financial profiles" of the three women (including Toni) he had been dating before their marriage and "decided on Toni."
  • Henthorn reportedly has access to $1.5 million, partly due to Toni's life insurance policies, which totaled $4.5 million.
  • In a 2011 incident, Toni was injured by lumber Henthorn dropped off the deck while they were fixing up their Grand Lake cabin. Toni reportedly told her mom, "If I hadn't bent down after I walked outside, the beam would have killed me." Toni's mom said Henthorn asked his wife to come outside.
  • The couple's marriage is described as a "dictatorship," according to ABC 7, with witnesses saying Henthorn had Toni's cellphone calls forwarded to him; Toni's mother told police that whenever she spoke to Toni on the phone, it was on speakerphone with Henthorn sitting right there.
In Indiana, police say a husband killed his wife and himself just hours after their wedding. (More Rocky Mountains stories.)

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