Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 10 - Without A Prayer - Full Episode | Forensic Files

madeline murray o'hare was america's best-known atheist principally responsible for abolishing prayer in
public schools madeline you either liked her you hated her in 1995 madeline murray o'hare mysteriously
disappeared from her texas home along with her son john murray and granddaughter robin
over 600 000 of their organization's money disappeared along with them what is it not to love about this story
it involves greed it involves gold it involves the most hated woman in america this is a sexy story and we should tell
it it was a local newspaper reporter playing forensic detective who helped solve the case
[Music] [Music] the most hated woman in america mr withers is this a form of harassment
because i will leave i am creating the record now no you're not creating this and you are wasting my time these are
when you're done reading that call me i'll be in the ladies room is it your understanding that you have brought no
doctors in the ladies room when you are done she was an avowed atheist who achieved
fame in 1963 by opposing prayer in public schools she took her case all the way to the
united states supreme court and won she founded the non-profit group the american atheists as well as a magazine
preaching the gospel of strict separation of church and state she also wrote articles for larry
flint's hustler magazine and was the subject of a playboy magazine interview madeleine o'hare was a difficult woman
to work with and was notorious for speaking her mind all right then don't [ __ ] with me
i have never encountered a more bitter more distasteful person than madeleine murray o'hare don't touch him
she was extremely foul-mouthed to the point that even though we were doing an interview about something that she
wanted us to do a story on we had to stop the interview in the middle because she was cursing so
much you have a limited opportunity this morning to ask me questions why don't you get to the question
in august of 1995 77 year seventy-seven-year-old madeline her forty-year-old son john and
thirty-year-old granddaughter robin left austin texas without saying a word to anyone
the staff of the american atheist organization found a note on their office door saying the o'hares had been
called away for an emergency and didn't know when they would return john's mercedes-benz and robin's porsche
were gone too but they left their passports behind as well as madeleine's diabetes medicine
and her three dogs madeline may not have cared very much for people but she sure loved those dogs
we were told couldn't get in touch with them and i got concerned so i started making phone calls and then i called
john's cell phone and that's when madeline answered but madeline wouldn't tell board member
ellen johnson where she was johnson said the calls were short and strained and she worried that madeleine
and her son were under some sort of duress i questioned him about what was going on
and and you know he tried to reassure me that everything was okay and i believed it
just one month later madeleine and john stopped answering their cell phone calls
when ellen johnson took over the american atheist group in madeleine's absence she discovered that since the
o'hares disappeared more than 600 000 was missing from the organization's bank account
suddenly you have three people and a very large amount of money all disappearing at the same time and
this makes it far more interesting john mccormick covered the disappearance for the express news in san antonio
texas among the atheists there was a very peculiar silence but beneath it was a very
profound concern they were very concerned they didn't know what to do they hadn't really attempted to get any
help from law enforcement no one associated with the american atheist reported the three missing and
it wasn't until a year later that bill murray madeleine's estranged son filed a missing person's report with austin
police madeleine and bill had a rocky relationship in 1980 on mother's day bill told maglin that he had embraced
christianity and was no longer an atheist he then went public writing a book and
making a film attacking his mother's beliefs my mother loved confrontations and she
never hesitated to use me as an accomplice in her schemes she wanted to push the school prayer
issue as far as she could so she instructed me to keep a record of prayer and bible reading at school
it was here in my home my mother made me a spy for the cause of atheism madeleine immediately disowned him and
bill never again spoke with his mother his brother john or his daughter robin bill didn't know
if his family's disappearance was foul play or if they had stolen the atheists money and fled
[Music] a year after madeleine murray o'hair disappeared with her son john murray and
granddaughter robin journalist john mccormick learned what the american atheist group already knew
that john murray had withdrawn over six hundred thousand dollars from the atheist bank account just weeks after
the three disappeared mccormick also examined john's cell phone records which indicated he had
been living in san antonio texas after his disappearance many of the 200 calls were suspicious
they've been calling financial institutions they've been calling airlines they've been calling
uh drug stores to get madeline's uh prescriptions uh there were more than 150 calls they called jewelry stores
one of those jewelry stores was on frederickson road in san antonio the owner said that john murray
purchased six hundred thousand dollars worth of gold coins using cash even after madeleine's son bill murray
reported the three missing the austin police showed little interest there was no investigation by the austin
police department it was a total joke the police reaction may have been based on their belief that madeleine and her
family absconded with the atheist money and that it was an internal matter how can somebody that's that famous turn
up missing with all that money and still no one wants to look for so i decided i'd be part of the team
that went looking television news reporter valerie williams discovered that john murray
sold his mercedes-benz for 15 thousand dollars well below the car's value to this man
mark sparrow john the seller identified himself as john murray [Music] low miles yeah it's 20 000 is that about
right but when shown a picture of john murray sparrow said it wasn't the man who sold
him the car he said his name was john murray and that's not the guy that's on my car
would you mind taking a look at these mug shots for me after reviewing mug shot pictures mr
sparrow identified the impersonator as another missing person an ex-convict named danny fry
this was an interesting coincidence danny fry's family told police that danny had been working with another
ex-convict david waters who had once worked for madeleine o'hare and had a falling out
in 1993 madeleine hired david waters as her office manager within a few months she fired him
maintaining he had stolen fifty thousand dollars from the atheists organization waters was charged with theft
he accepted a plea agreement and paid the money back and in so doing avoided jail time
but madeline was furious that authorities allowed waters to go free using the power of the pen madeleine
wrote an article in her magazine exposing waters as a thief and implied waters had homosexual relationships
while serving an earlier prison sentence for assault when water saw the article friends say he vowed revenge
journalist john mccormick called waters and asked him if he had anything to do with madeleine's disappearance
i didn't believe a word he said but uh he spoke as though uh you know it was the truth
mccormick discovered that david waters danny frye and another ex-convict gary carr were all working together in austin
texas around the time the o'hares disappeared in august of 1995. and not long afterwards a headless
handless male torso was discovered in a dallas river they'd spent three years trying to
figure out who it was but they had no fingerprints no dental and they had no missing persons records that match this
disappearance so they were totally stumped mccormick had a hunch that this body was somehow connected to
the o'hare's disappearance [Music] not long after the o'hares disappeared a male torso was found in a dallas river
without a head or hands fingerprints and dental records couldn't be used for identification
forensic anthropologists estimated the man to be between the ages of 35 and 45 he had a stocky build and a lot of chest
hair the description didn't fit madeleine's son john but journalist john mccormick had a
hunch he told police that it might be danny fry the man who had impersonated john murray when selling his car
scientists took dna from danny fry's brother and compared it to the blood dna of the torso
it was a match just as mccormick suspected the dead man in the river was danny fry
the blockbuster was when we could write a story that said that the headless corpse in dallas was danny fry and by
the way he was last seen with david waters in austin and by the way he spent his last month in san antonio at the
same time the oh harrison so that really kicked in the door suddenly local state and federal law enforcement
officials took notice and joined the investigation david water's ex-girlfriend patty
steffen read about danny fry's murder in the newspaper she immediately called the fbi
at first she wanted to tell us small bits and pieces you have to understand this was a woman who was terrified
she gave investigators an important lead three years earlier she said that david
waters had rented a storage unit around the time the o'hares disappeared and that waters had once gone there with
this spray canister laboratory tests on the canister revealed it had once contained bleach
which is sometimes used to remove blood evidence [Music] armed with a search warrant
police found a tiny red stain beneath a piece of aluminum under the wall it was so small
it was almost invisible with blood from madeleine's son bill for comparison a mitochondrial dna test revealed the
stain was a mixture of two people madeleine murray o'hare and her son john murray
next the fbi searched water's apartment we found documents that belonged to the o'hares that were dated after david
waters had been fired from their organization mr waters himself a prior convicted
felon who was not allowed to have guns or ammunition was found to be an illegal possession of
about 118 rounds of handgun ammunition of three different calibers they even found books from the o'hare
library and a bow saw the fbi confronted david waters with the forensic and physical evidence against
him it took quite a while but eventually five and a half years after the o'hares disappeared waters led
investigators to a remote burial site at camp wood texas forensic anthropologist dr david
glassman was there when we hit the first bone it was kind of interesting in this
case because the bone was very large and it was the upper leg bone the upper leg bone is the largest bone
in our skeleton but this one was particularly large after 21 hours of excavation
three adult bodies were uncovered in each case the legs had been cut off possibly to make it easier to transport
the bodies on one of the bodies the hair was very well intact a female skull and the hair
was braided down the back of the of the neck of the individual there were some remnants of clothes that
were found but no clothes that were intact there had been some effort to burn the
remains not to the point of cremation but in order to destroy maybe the clothing or
any other you know dna evidence that might be there as the remains were unearthed
shining in the afternoon sun was the metal plate of an artificial medical records revealed that madeleine
o'hare had undergone hip replacement surgery several years before her disappearance
the serial number of the hip in madeleine's medical file matched the number on the hip and the grave
forensic odontologist compared the o'hare's dental records to the skulls in the grave and confirmed
that these were the remains of madeleine her son john and granddaughter robin for john murray when he was in the grave
and uncovered he did have a plastic bag over his skull and when the plastic bag was removed
there were small fractures that occurred to the skull itself indicating some blunt trauma
had been done to him during the time of his death the cause of death for madeline and
robin couldn't be determined by looking at the bones but since their heads were covered in
plastic it was assumed they were asphyxiated but investigators found something else
an extra head and two extra hands the head showed a single gunshot wound at the base of the skull
forensic scientist used a photo superimposition technique for identification they suspected the skull was that of
danny fry the man whose torso was found in the dallas river scientists took a photograph of danny
fry then photographed the skull at the same angle and size the two photographs were superimposed to
see if the facial features matched the skull for example the distance between the
eyes and the shape of the nose and the distance between the nose to the teeth the distance across the cheeks
and every area that i examined in the video superimposition matched up the motive for the o'hare's murder had
been revenge but why had danny fry been murdered [Music] the forensic evidence found years after
the o'hare's disappearance tied david waters and his two associates danny fry and gary carr to their murders
david water's girlfriend patty stephens told police that waters kidnapped the o'hares because of the unflattering and
inflammatory article madeline had written about him his girlfriend said he fantasized about
torturing her cutting off her toes and so basically i think this whole thing came down to
not just money but really ugly uh personal chemistry between two uh dysfunctional personalities
for david waters it was about revenge he wanted the ultimate revenge on madeleine
o'hare and the money was just a byproduct after kidnapping the o'hares waters forced john murray to withdraw six
hundred thousand dollars from the atheist bank account and then took him to the jewelry store to exchange the six
hundred thousand dollars for gold coins the o'hares were most likely dead by the
time danny frye impersonated john murray to sell his car but why was danny fry killed too
the answer was his drinking we knew that danny fry drank and uh loose lips sink ships and by what
david had told bob fry about his brother and that was you know your brother has a
big mouth could be the thing that caused his death but david waters made several crucial
mistakes [Music] although waters cleaned the room with water and bleach scientists still found a tiny speck of
blood three years later identified by mitochondrial dna as that of john murray and madeleine o'hare
but removing danny fry's head and hands still didn't prevent identification dna and skull photo superimposition were
all scientists needed ironically after stealing the six hundred thousand dollars from the o'hares waters never
got the opportunity to enjoy the money it was stolen from him well his first mistake was putting his
money in a storage locker up in austin and having three bozos from san antonio who were looking for used tvs
open up the locker with a master key and find a suitcase with a half blade in gold
[Music] for his role in this case david waters was sentenced to 80 years in prison
his accomplice gary carr was sentenced to life in prison mr carr fully admitted his role in
involvement with david waters in the abduction robbery and murder of the o'hares
and uh he indicated that he had assisted in dismembering the bodies and putting the body parts and 55-gallon drums in a
storage unit here in austin it was a nice neat ending they found the bodies the bad guy goes to prison
and you know the heroes right off into the sunset for his persistence john mccormick is one of the heroes of
this case and forensic science played an important role too well i mean this was definitely one that
if it wasn't for dna we'd probably still be scratching our heads as to who this person was
a lot of times i kind of forget about the case when the next case comes in and so i really don't have one that
always jumps to mine but i'll remember this one for a long time [Music] [Music] [Music]
you

The founder of American Atheists disappeared in 1995 along with one of her sons and granddaughter, along with $500,000 in gold coins. The police homed in on several suspects, including David R. Waters, who worked for American Atheists.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

Madeline Murray O'Hare and her family vanished in 1995; their disappearance involved money, revenge, and a shocking murder investigation.

Key points

The Disappearance of Madeline O'Hare. In 1995, the infamous atheist Madeline O'Hare vanished with her son and granddaughter, leaving behind a trail of mystery and missing funds.
A Shocking Discovery. A year later, it was revealed that over $600,000 had been withdrawn from the atheist bank account just weeks after their disappearance.
The Investigation Unfolds. As the investigation deepened, connections to ex-convicts and a gruesome discovery in a river emerged.
The Forensic Breakthrough. Forensic evidence ultimately linked David Waters and his associates to the murders of the O'Hares.
Justice Served. David Waters was sentenced to 80 years in prison for his role in the abduction and murder of the O'Hares.

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What is it not to love about this story?

0:35WatchDec 10, 2021

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