Mugshots: Richard Sharpe - A Murder at Harvard | Forensic Files

[Applause] next on Mugshots the bizarre and haunting tale of the two sides of Dr
Richard Sharp Dr Sharp suffered and suffers from a personality disorder Richard Sharp is not crazy Richard Sharp
maybe have some strange qualities but there's no way that he's crazy Karen and Shannon were living with a mad man and
they didn't know what he would do next we were told that he was armed with a rifle a Harvard train millionaire Doctor
Who shattered the image of the American dream behind that white picket fence it was literally a nightmare that was going
on I sincerely believe that my husband is capable of physical harm shanon described it as living with a terrorist
I heard the gun go off I heard the noise [Music] [Music] my name is Karen sharp I reside at 19 Hall Street Wenham
Essex County Massachusetts Richard Sharp and I were married on sep September 1st
[Music] 1973 we have two minor children Michael R sharp H7 and Alexandra e sharp
[Music] H4 wenam Massachusetts a rural New England Paradise considered Horse Country by its
residents members of the old money Delite Dr Richard Sharp was a Harvard train millionaire with a wife two young
children and an older child Shannon he was a multi-millionaire he had successful businesses he had a
successful medical practice so they were living this American Dream everything that you would ever
want you know cars homes whatever they wanted Karen just lived and died for her kids especially
the the two little ones um basically she would do anything and she became sort of
the surate mother of the neighborhood and neighbors would say you know all the little kids thought the sun rose and set
around Karen they came from nothing if you look at the sharps I mean they're the kind of couple that I I guess
everybody would aspire to be the wiom house was described as Karen and Richard's
Dreamhouse barbecues white picket fences and Financial Freedom while to an outsider the sharps had it all there
were Whispers of big problems hints of abuse and a failing relationship on July 14th 2000 the
sharps Dark Secrets turned deadly I you have an emergency shooting at 19 Wall Street at 11:45 p.m. wam police police
received a frantic call from Jamie Hatfield claiming his sister Karen sharp had been shot let's get somebody over
here now there's somebody the shooter is still on the premises and there's somebody here that might be dying in my
arms little after 12:00 the phone rang and I'm I've I'm always fearful of a phone
call late at night I've always been like that we need an ambulance for my sister
now where is the person that has the gun we don't know we're in the house we're an El up in the house I'm holding my
sister who's been shot we need emergency people here and we need police officers
the best you have a state police whatever you need to do get up here now it was my brother Jamie on the phone
and he said to me Karen's been shot Richie shot her and he's gone he's not here I said how is she
is your sister still breathing where was she shot she I don't know where she shot
I'm holding her I'm trying to talk to you I'm trying to hide from bullets I don't know where she's shot he says I
think she was only shot in her arm I don't know how bad it is shooter is a Richard Sharp Dr Richard Sharp is a
shooter what kind of car is he driving I don't know what he's driving last I heard he's driving maybe a Toyota
4Runner possibly we need the ambulance for my sister now they're on their way I got to L my
S please all right the police are here thank you very much it's okay he said do you know where
they took her is Beverly Hospital Beverly Hospital we tried calling the hospital
and they said we can't release any information to you I said could she call us tell her to call
us Shannon called about a half hour later and said that she was gone Karen sharp was declared dead at
12:40 a.m. at Beverly Hospital cause of death a single gunshot to the chest yet the question remained where would
Richard Sharp go next we knew he was still out there and didn't know where he was
going terrified for their own lives Karen's family gathered in fear that they would be Richard Sharp's next
targets I had to wake up my girls tell them and we have to tell par and I remember
thinking we can't even let them sleep because we don't know where he is we have to tell them at 2:00 in the
morning we have to wake them up and tell them looking for a white man on a leather jacket with a killer on the
loose wenam police reached out for help the massachusett state police responded within hours a multi-state Manhunt was
underway Richard Sharp the Harvard made millionaire doctor living the American dream was now a
fugitive what drove him to shoot his wife would he strike again next on Mugshots looking for a white man a Le
jacket small CLE we know for now all right can we have a b Cruiser up my way just before midnight MTS running
to the front door of a house on Hall Street in wenom their lights dimmed because of a report of a man with a
rifle he just arrived at the door and the shooting took place just inside the they found Karen sharp of that
address age 44 suffering from gunshot wounds with Richard Sharp now a fugitive a multi-state Manhunt was underway she
was allegedly shot by her estranged husband news of the killing had the furthest corners of New England as
evening said on the day after the murder in the small town of Melvin Village New
Hampshire police chief Andy shagui was on duty that evening I got a call from dispatch saying that uh there's
possibility that this Richard Sharp was in town at the Pine View Lodge and that uh he was wanted for murdering his wife
down in massachus at that point the New Hampshire State Police W unit was activated to respond to the scene we
started to evacuating the rooms nearby where Mr Sharp's room was at that particular time I was concerned in
regards to Mr Sharp's mental state uh and I was advised at that whether or not he would be suicidal uh worrying that he
would take his own life or Force us to uh take his life the report was that he was armed with a shotgun and a
pistol once we decided to go into action what we did is we took out this particular window here at which point a
hand deployed chemical agent was was deployed here we had a negotiator situated back by the body bunker on a
blow horn calling for Mr Sharp to come to the door with his arms raised he was brought out here onto the cement pad
which point he was brought down onto his knees and then prone and which officers
at that point searched him and secured him in the end Dr Richard Sharp made little effort to hide parking his car
outside a motel registering under his own name with Dr Richard Sharp a Harvard graduate a respected doctor and a
multi-millionaire now in custody the police had their man went quietly yet instead of being
the end of this story it was just the [Applause] beginning Richard Sharp grew up on the
outskirts of New Haven Connecticut in a bluecollar town called Shelton Shelton's one of those sort of small
towns in Connecticut an old industrial city sort of on its way out by the time they live there and not exactly a
pleasant or exciting place to be at all and it's sort of the kind of place where
you would either leave and never go back or stay forever his parents were poor and uh
Richie just wanted to get ahead because like I say whenever he studied or did something he gave it 110% of his uh his
time but all of Richard's hard work went unnoticed by his abusive father who constantly reminded Richard he would
never amount to anything his father was very abusive with him verbally here at the house um
it was an unhappy childhood for him we uh his father would yell like hours at a time every day when he come home you
know call him a little bastard you miserable little son of a [ __ ] and everything and uh just he he would never
stop his there was uh it was terrible sharp recalls the extremes he went to to avoid the vicious abuse from his father
I felt like my sister was not a target of especially my father's um abuse uh I would sometimes lock
myself in in the bathroom when my father's was ranting and raving and he wouldn't break the door down cuz then he
have to fix it and I remember um one of my sister some of my sister's clothes being in a cloth hamper and I
actually put them on and I sat in the corner of the bathroom and actually felt more relaxed and safer dressed like that
when Richard was still only in his teens what began as a defense mechanism appeared to be developing into a fetish
I remember um going into a store and buying my own outfit I always had long hair even when
I was a kid so I just comb my hair a little differently and put the outf it on and
uh actually went out in public cuz I was so um convincing while on one hand Richard's
childhood was filled with abuse and confusion about his sexuality on the other he possessed both a powerful
intellect and a driving desire to succeed his mind was always somewhere else he would concentrate on something
and give it all his um attention he was always thinking ahead of you know things
to do you know later on in life and stuff and I don't know he just much much smarter than you know most of the
average people that he hung around with you [Music] know in 1972 as Richard was entering his junior
year a new girl arrived at Shelton High School her name was Karen Hatfield we were walking down the hall and both of
my friends were commenting about how attractive this new girl was and she was walking in front of us she was wearing
jeans jeans had a patch on them that was hands sewn on I bent over and read it as said built
not stuffed I found out later she had removed it from a mattress and sted it on I was 13 or 14 at the time and fairly
impressionable and I saw a goodlooking kid driving a nice car and he was always friendly to me and uh I never had any
problems initially with him at all well they were both you know really nice and shy and you know he was sort of nerdy
into science and stuff and she was just real sweet girl you know they were very much in love and I I thought that you
know a lot of people thought that they made the perfect couple John Hatfield Karen's father had
a different opinion of Richard and the budding romance didn't like him from the very beginning primarily because because
of his attitude and maybe you could write that off as being a a generational problem but the fact is that he wanted
carrying to do things that were wrong even though Richard excelled in school he had developed a bad boy image
doing drugs cutting classes and encouraging Karen to do the same then in their senior year Richard
and Karen were jolted by surprising news we realized Karen was pregnant Karen could only hide her pregnancy for
so long by graduation the couple's secret was out in the open soon after the birth of Shannon
sharp unbeknownst to anyone trouble between the unwet couple began throughout the first years of our
relationship our household was riddled with tension she came to me one day and asked if she could go visit an King they
had had some sort of of runin some sort of dispute and she told him evidently that she was leaving but didn't give him
her whereabouts didn't give him any information Karen was on the run from Richard what had caused her to flee was
it just the pressures of being a High School parent or something worse according to family Richard always
got his way and would not be denied especially when it came to Karen I freaked out I mean I I
um didn't know if I ever see her again didn't if I ever see Shannon Richard Sharp hunts for Karen
and his daughter Shannon and later Sharp's bizarre life spirals out of control when mugshots continues
he wanted Karen for himself period didn't want to share her with anybody Richard Sharp's girlfriend Karen had run
away to her aunt's house in Pennsylvania taking their infant daughter Shannon with her sharp still only in his teens
was desperate to get them back I remember specifically I was walking home it was during the summertime of 73 and
he literally came out of the bushes by my home and said to me you know where's Karen I said I don't know where Karen is
but Richard would not give up he and his friends came in the house one of them saw this address on a bulletin board
that we had in our kitchen and took it and then they they went and they got her retrieving Karen and Shannon sent a
chilling message Karen could run but she could not hide when they came back we had quite a discussion had his parents
there trying to reason with them and there there was no reason with them and he and Karen and Shannon left at that
time and uh we didn't see them till after they were married in September of that year
Richard 18 and Karen 17 were secretly married soon Richard moved his family away from Shelton to pursue dreams of
education and a better life for the next few years while Richard excelled in college his controlling and abusive
behav Behavior began to overwhelm his relationship with Karen in 1976 my husband's temper
escalated to such a degree that he held me captive in our home for over 48 hours
during this time frame he also began physically abusing me on one occasion the abuse was so severe that I pleaded
with him to allow me to seek medical care promising to inform the hospital that I fell down a flight of
stairs he accompanied me to the hospital and while I was being treated he whispered in my ear I want you to
die despite the abuse Karen stuck by her husband even working two jobs at times in order to help Richard through college
he would beat on Karen beat on his daughter um do all sorts of stuff and he always got away with
it over the next 10 years Richard received a degree in engineering and then went on to attend medical school at
the University of Connecticut Richard found himself on the fast track to making something of his
life a dream he had possessed since his childhood in Shelton after years of hard work and
dedication Richard was accepted into the prestigious Residency program at Harvard
Medical School they grew up in this really blue collar town and then all of a sudden you know
he's he's going to be a doctor so it was everything they wanted when I heard Richie got into
Harvard uh we're all proud of him we knew he you know we knew he would do well Richie's one of the most successful
people uh from Shelton here you know he's he's made it to the top as far as I was
concerned Richard graduated from Harvard in 1990 and began teaching class classes
and working at Mass General one of Boston's Finest hospitals with their dream of Richard
being a doctor now a reality the sharps decided to buy a second home in an upscale neighborhood of Gloucester on
the coast of Massachusetts when they moved to glester she even remarked to her new neighbor
you know oh I finally have my white picket fence you but what was going on behind that fence was not very
pretty my husband has been verbally and physically abusive toward me throughout our marriage often our daughter Shannon
would awake during the night to my husband's fits of anger up until this point Richard and
Karen had successfully kept the dark side of their life together a secret from everyone then one night Richard
surprised Karen at home Richard claims he came home and found Karen with another man and flew into this jealous
rage um assaulted her stabbed her in the head with a fork he was committed to a locked psychiatric facility at Cambridge
City hospital where they determined that he had a personality disorder he was able to with help of his wife through
reconciliation to to sign himself out of there and they reconciled again even after being forcibly
committed to a psychiatric hospital sharp was able to convince Karen to withdraw the accusations that that had
put him away despite being diagnosed with depression and personality disorders sharp walked out of the hospital only
days later armed with anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications when his prescriptions ran
out he made a dangerous decision I decided not to see anyone and basically uh continued on medication by treating
myself with anti-depressants that was fairly cheap what I do is I ask doctors at the medical center
just ask their nurses if I could get some samples so I would get as much as many samples as I could and treat myself
with either Prozac paxer zolof and the the drug would depend on what I could get for
free in spite of a growing dependency on prescription medication Richard opened a
dermat ological practice in Gloucester which quickly flourished making him a wealthy respected member of the
community it was around this time that Karen became pregnant with their second child Michael Sharp was born on
September 22nd 1992 3 years later Ali Sharp was born with three kids a wife and a picket
fence it seemed as if Richard had finally made it but he wanted more Richard shot was such a successful
businessman that just one of the things he was involved with he had a company called L hair in the late '90s Richard
founded a laser hair removal business called lace hair he basically um started a chain and he would set them up in
strip malls it didn't have to be anything big because these lasers were portable they would take them into a
truck and deliver them to the site on any given day there were technicians Shannon was was one of them she was
trained in this removal and Karen basically was the administrator Richard really had very little to do with this
business he he initiated it he set it up but he had really very little to do with
the everyday activities it's basically you know sort of not a very glamorous thing but it made a lot of money in that
business alone he was grossing a roughly $100,000 a month by 1997 the sharps had a million
dollar in savings despite Richard's financial success his behavior began to take on
one bizarre twist after another the first was cosmetic surgery for himself I had my upper eyelids done Bluff for a
plastic cuz I had loose skin I had um some neck lipos suction love handle lipos suction there was a bump of my
nose cuz I had broken it when I was a kid they fixed that changed the counter a little
bit my husband also exhibits transvestite Tendencies he has permanently removed all of his body hair through laser
surgery Richie was a perfectionist and he probably thought that he could make himself look
better um that's why that's why I would think he did it and maybe to experiment too you know on himself further my
husband is crossdresser and often wears female clothing both Shannon and Karen would find that he was stealing their
underwear and and their bras and and wearing them on occasions I would um wear women's clothes and her
underwear um and when Karen and I would um would sort of use that as a way of playing together
at times it relaxed me at times I thought it was fun and at times I thought it was
erotic throughout our marriage he would often ingest my birth control pills contending that they are a calming Force
to him he also ingests female hormone pills which have caused him to develop breasts by January of 2000 the sharps
had amassed a Fortune of over $5 million it was at this point that the family decided to build a m massve home
in nearby winham it would be the home where they would retire and grow old the home of their
dreams more money success and Madness next on mug [Music] shots with the sharps living in
Gloucester work was underway on their dream home in winham it was at this point that Richard Sharp made a single
decision that would trigger his downfall somewhere around the middle of February
we trans I transferred $2.9 million in stocks and securities from my name to Karen's name
to protect himself from liability Richard decided to shelter all of his and lair's liquid assets in a bank
account under Karen's name only days later Richard came home from work feeling under the weather Karen
suggested that I go upstairs and should make me a snack and get me another cup of
tea so I went upstairs and went to the master bedroom she turned the TV on and I remember dozing off and I woke up went
downstairs and looked around and no one was no one was anywhere I started freaking out just as she had done 25
years before Karen summoned up enough courage to flee Richard in late February 2000 I I fled
our home located in Gloucester Massachusetts with our children due to my husband's ongoing verbal abuse and my
genuine fear for my physical safety I was scared I was confused was she mad at me cuz all the other times
she didn't it early in the marriage it was all around a fight I felt like I was climbing on of my skin so I took some
Xanax I just kept on taking them until I I didn't feel bad anymore Richard received a call from Karen the
next day that would shatter his world she said that she wanted a divorce she wouldn't
tell me where she was she said Mikey and Ally were with her and when she was ready she would allow me to see them
Richard had lost the one thing he treasured most dearly control I was worried for Karen from the first time
that she called and said that she had left him I was at work and you know I said that I hope you can be happy
and then immediately after hanging up the phone with her I called my house and talked to um my oldest
daughter and said if you see Richard Sharp you are to call [Music] 911 enraged and realizing Karen was
serious Richard again tried to gain control by filing for divorce before Karen had a chance to do so
herself around that time while waiting in line at a local Dunkin Donuts I overheard several workmen talking about
their boss who was porking the rich [ __ ] in went him the boss the men were talking about was a contractor working
on the Venom home Karen not only leaving but also having an affair was too much for Sharp to take adding injury to
insult Richard fell down a flight of stairs while carrying a 100lb laser and broke his pelvis and tailbone the injury
opened the door to an onslaught of prescription medications narcotics which he would soon come to depend on I was
put on Celexa an antidepressant and clopin and I was also put on Ultram which is a barbit like pain
reliever and a muscle relaxer from my wrenched back and I think that was it for that admission Richard was a mess
Karen then moved into the winam home which was still under construction she hoped that this move
would be one step closer to being free of Richard free of 27 years of abuse she sted this whole new life and throwing
barbecues and having sleepovers and just really from everyone you talk to just things were turning around for her
finally as Karen was getting on with her life Richard attempted to do the same by
starting a new relationship with a woman in gloss but without the money he had transferred
to Karen Lay's hair was in Jeopardy becoming hooked on his dangerous cocktail of medications unable to walk
due to his accident and drinking to numb his pain Richard had a front row seat to
the destruction of everything he had worked [Applause] for on July 14th Richard Sharp engaged
in business activities the same way he had done all the other business days of his life he met with people in his
business he did some complex banking uh transactions earlier that day Karen uh her brother Jamie and some
friends of Karen had gone out on a harbor cruise out in Gloucester everyone I talked to said she looked so relaxed
and happy and feeling sort of free and not scared and all that kind of stuff and they went out had this wonderful
evening with a 70s cover band as Karen was enjoying her Newfound freedom on Gloucester Harbor Richard tortured by
his own demons ready to go out for dinner at The hbet Point Restaurant with his new
girlfriend part of his preparation was taking his medication I was on Celexa and amatrene I was also taking a
muscle relaxing xlex I was also taking an anti-anxiety medication I was also taking Ultram and a second
narcotic pain to leave Percocet at dinner Richard and his new girlfriend Paula had a number of drinks
mixing the alcohol with his medication he descended into a dangerous state of delirium on their way home Richard and
Paula stopped at the home of Paula's acquaintance Alden tar Richard would later claim that it
was there inside the home of Alden tar that he went over the edge had this desire to get my family back
this desire to go home this compulsion to go home as Paula went upstairs sharp found
himself alone in Alden T's living room and sharp saw the gun saw the ammunition and took the gun off the wall a 300
weatherbe high-powered rifle just as Karen was returning from her harbor cruise Sharp decid Ed to act
on his drug induced compulsion and go home home to 19 Hall Street in winham his house where his wife and his kids
were he parked his car over 300 ft away from the front door of that house at the
foot of the driveway near Hall Street he took the weapon and he walked up that dirt driveway uh quietly until he got to
the front door and as the testimony went he meekly opened the door looked looked
inside and saw Karen sharp there Karen said I'll call the police and he up a piece of paper he then reached behind
him raised the weapon I heard the gun go off I heard the noise we need the ambulance for my
assist now they're on their way he shot her and then just turned around and and left and the baby s of ran and and tried
to you know hide the uh Mikey the youngest son behind the couch and and then Karen's brother
started to run after Richard and then said you know what Karen's dying went back and held
her I think the saddest part of all that is then young Mikey came out and stood over Karen you know just started balling
and you know why did my dad have to shoot my mom why did he do that what kind of car is he driving 24 hours later
Richard Sharp was in custody for the murder of his wife what was his mental state when he pulled the
trigger could he be held responsible for his selfish induced narcotic delirium we
pretty much agreed uh with the prosecution that Dr Shop's actions on the day leading up to the killing of his
wife uh was pretty much the same as it had been for the past 20 or 30 years only I take on it was that he was crazy
were with her the sharp trial next on Mugshots I I think Dr shop has been insane for most of his life I think his
Insanity began when he was brutalized so incredibly by his father for many years as a youngster the man
who shot her say Shar amid a media storm centered on Sharp's crossdressing Harvard Education and million-dollar
bank accounts the trial of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts versus Richard Sharp got underway a person is
not criminally responsible for his or her conduct if he or she suffers from a mental disease or defect this wasn't
going to be a who done it this was not going to be an identification case um so and it wasn't going to be a a forensic
case a DNA case uh fingerprints that type of thing the whole focus of the trial from the beginning was going to be
what was Richard's sharp State of Mind when he pulled that trigger well it was obvious uh to me uh from the moment that
I met Dr shop you had that Insanity was going to be our defense before you an individual who I
suggest is about as crazy about as insane as anyone that you ever going to meet Sharp's attorney Joseph Bolero
believed Richard himself would be their best defense uh so we put him on the witness
stand uh in the hope that uh with intensive cross examination his Insanity would show
through well in my judgment it did over days of testimony sharp appeared to be in a cloud of confusion a
cloud he had been in since the night of the murder and did you hear a loud sound did
you see something I heard the gun go off I heard the noise what did you do after you heard
the gun go off I think the um noise sort of woke me up a little bit I just heard the noise and
I left Dr Sharp was in a dissociative psychotic State he felt compelled by a thought to quote go home he wasn't even
sure what that meant the defense would call Dr Keith ablo a forensic psychiatrist to provide his diagn nois
of sharp Dr Sharp suffers from something called intermittent explosive disorder which is an impulse control disorder uh
he also suffers from uh major depression he also suffers with three uh personality disorders the most intense
of those is borderline personality disorder but Dr Sharp also displays narcissistic and obsessive compulsive
personality disorders from 17 years of age until her death this woman was his nurse he was a
mentally ill man that she met at 17 no one had diagnosed it he was a victim of terrible catastrophic childhood abuse
that had ruined his ability to control himself to counter the defense the prosecution called psychiatrist Dr
Gilbert Bogan who had monitored sharp after the murder when we were face to face he would close his eyes squint take
on a pained expression in his face as if he was in pain this was something I did
not see at a distance when I saw him on the phone or when I saw him watching TV he was quite relaxed and had no
indication of distress or pain of any kind when Dr Sharp was on the witness stand he was constantly pulling at his
skin pulling at his face closing his eyes appearing to be pain and then at other times during the trial he'd be
sitting at Council table next to his lawyer and engaging in conversations talking collaborating with
his lawyer and so the jurors were able to see that he could turn this behavior on and he could turn it off at will
there was no evidence of delusions or hallucinations for its Final witness the prosecution called psychiatrist Malcolm
Rogers the fact that he was able to remove the rifle from all the T's home without Paula hiltz having seen it uh
indicates to me that he did that in the deceptive way the fact that he parked at
the end of the driveway rather than pulling right up to the house and that he fired that weapon and then fled those
activities indicate to me that he had the capacity to appreciate wrongfulness the jury's decision would
come down to an analysis of Sharp's mental state was he insane unable to control himself or had he premeditated
the entire crime this is in many ways in terms of his psychiatric status and all
the other things that happened here even the back injury being badly placed in terms of his having been left so
recently by his wife a Kind of Perfect Storm if you will of things uh that would impair this man's capacity to
control his behavior in any meaningful way well maybe this was really the perfect crime that he was trying to
commit that he knew people were going to look at him and so why not plan this thing so that it would look as though he
were crazy had Richard Sharp attempted to carry out the perfect crime or had he himself been caught in The Perfect
Storm Mr Foreman what say you to indictment 2000-1 1598 which charges murder the jury decides next on
Mugshots Mr Foreman what say you to indictment 2000-1 1598 which charges murder is the
defendant Richard J shop guilty or not guilty guilty guilty of what guilty of murder
first with Richard Sharp's conviction Karen's family who had feared for their lives felt an overwhelming sense of
relief possession of a rifle without a license is a defendant Richard J sh the mandatory life sentencer is one I don't
have discretion but I do feel uh that this punishment is the just punishment uh for what you have done for murdering
your wife I love car I'm sorry I love care Richard Sharp was sentenced to life in prison without
parole much of the attention that had previously been placed upon Sharp's crossdressing and eccentric Behavior now
turned to questions of what if how and why it's not the fact that he's a cross-dressing millionaire he murdered
my sister he is a murderer he is an abuser crossdressing really had nothing to do
with it as far as I was concerned I guess if there's a way to uh commit suicide or something I think that he
would he's not he's not meant for uh to be in there like that you know he made it big and as far as Prestige wise and
Harvard wise and wenom and horse country and all that stuff the American dream and um you know he just wanted more and
more and more the moral of the story on this case is the moral of the story in these thousands of domestic violence
cases the victim has to have the courage to get away and in this case it cost the
victim her life it just it just tore us apart we just we just felt like somehow we had
failed somewhere I know that's how I felt I sincerely believe that my husband is capable of physical harm it had not
been until after Karen's death that the affidavit she had filed with her divorce
attorney had been released to her family in fact I finally found the strength to leave home when
circumstances suggested that he was unstable enough to commit homicide based upon his erratic volatile
Behavior the thing that was so powerful about Karen's affidavit was that it was like she was speaking from the
grave she expressed in in written form how fearful she was that he might kill her signed under the pains and penalties
of perjury this 9th day of June 2000 Karen sharp when we saw her she was always so
happy we always had happy times together but what were her times like when she wasn't with
us that hurts re I loveen Dr Shar com surprise drar [Music] [Music] sh [Music]

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Brief Summary

Dr. Richard Sharp's abusive behavior leads to the murder of his wife, Karen, and his subsequent trial for the crime.

Key points

The American Dream Shattered. The Sharps appeared to live the perfect life, but dark secrets lurked beneath.
Emergency Call. A frantic call reveals a shooting at the Sharp residence, escalating the tension.
Richard Sharp's Arrest. After a multi-state manhunt, Richard Sharp is apprehended, but the story is far from over.
A Troubled Childhood. Richard's abusive upbringing shaped his troubled psyche and future actions.
Bizarre Behavior. Richard's success was overshadowed by increasingly strange and concerning behavior.
Karen's Escape. Karen fled her home due to ongoing verbal abuse and fear for her safety.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I heard the gun go off.

Witnessing the shooting incident.

0:41WatchJul 28, 2014

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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