Women Behind Bars - Season 1, Episode 4 - Peggy and Susan - Full Episode | Forensic Files

on this episode of women behind bars one woman was found guilty of fatally attacking her two and a half year old
daughter i grabbed her by the neck and i choked her and i hit her repeatedly i put her
in bed and i hit her she had bruises on her face she had a cut lip bruises on her
collarbone neck chest her abdomen her legs then susan d'aquilla tells her story she
was convicted of murder for pushing her disabled husband into a river all of a sudden it was like
splash everything seemed like it went in slow motion tony went underwater and came up and
said help me please help me two women two brutal crimes these are the stories of peggy hilt
and susan d aquila [Music] on the morning of saturday july 2nd 2005 peggy hilt called 9-1-1 when her
two-and-a-half-year-old adopted daughter nina stopped breathing in her arms but paramedics arrived to find the child was
no longer alive cause of death blunt force trauma to the abdomen [Music] she had bruises around her collarbone
her small intestine had ruptured this all indicated a severe beating did nina's injuries result from an
accident on the stairs as peggy claimed or was she in fact a victim of her mother's uncontrollable rage
peggy hilt was born in 1972 in ogdensburg new york i had five brothers and sisters it was a
relatively normal family um my father suffered with alcoholism my father could get
verbally abusive at times when he was drinking but it really wasn't a traumatic childhood
but peggy struggled throughout her adolescence by the age of 12 peggy became a secret drinker i was
teased at school our family was on the poor side you know we didn't have the latest
clothes i was just not part of the in-crowd i suffered from depression in high school at one time i tried to
commit suicide and the school brought in a counselor to talk to me but i refused
hilt's lifeline was caring for children i loved children i spent all of my time babysitting there were a couple families
that i had full-time jobs with and always imagined myself getting married and having a lot of children
peggy then went to college where she met her husband chris and the couple married in 1994. a year
later the hilts moved to fairfax virginia and tried to have a baby we went through
four years of painful heartbreaking fertility tests and treatments after six years of unsuccessful attempts
29 year old peggy and 31 year old chris hilt adopted a baby girl named natalya from
an orphanage in the ukraine natalia was a dream come true she uh fulfilled me mommyhood was better than i
ever imagined it was gonna be the hilts effortlessly bonded with their new daughter
three years later they decided to adopt again because the adoption process had changed
in the ukraine the couple applied to russia on january 27 2004 peggy and chris adopted 16 month
old nina from an orphanage in siberia the russian system has well over six seven hundred thousand
children that are in orphanage care that they cannot care for they're all deprived they're all lacking in
appropriate care taking food and nutrition is poor medical care is poor but soon after they brought nina
home peggy claims she realized right away that something was wrong it's to be expected that any child
coming out of an institutional setting especially deprived eastern bloc countries is going to have special needs
we get home with nina some of her emotional difficulties started to come about right away
when i tried to hold her love her she was very defiant unlike their first child peggy says she
struggled to bond with nina the 32 year old mother soon became overwhelmed by her daughter's alleged
emotional and behavioral problems peggy claims she did her best to make it work but never sought help from doctors
she would cry and push away i assumed it was something i was doing wrong or not doing right reactive
detachment disorder is a condition that sometimes impacts children who have been institutionalized
they often will have trouble with attaching to others meaning they prefer to be left alone
and isolated and they're difficult to soothe and comfort nina had sort of a shadowy quality to
her where she was there but she wasn't nearly as outgoing or as rambunctious as natalya
and nina always hung back and was quiet however nina did show another side to some
she was always attached to me she always wanted me to hold her and pick her up carry her around i always wanted to give
hugs she was a sweet little girl as the primary caretaker peggy continued to be frustrated with
her inability to bond with nina and turn to her husband for help however chris did not have the same negative
experience with their adopted daughter he saw the difficulties that she gave me that we had together
but she did not give him the same difficulties i thought she hated me i didn't know what to do
i thought whatever it was time and love would fix it peggy probably thought she could
develop a love for this child too over time and bond but that never occurred she never was
able to bond with this child peggy claims nina became more difficult to deal with
as a result her own problems began to spiral out of control i had started drinking more nina's
problems were becoming more evident she would have rages she left huge bruised bite marks on natalya number of times
peggy says her husband thought a change of scenery would help in august 2004 the hilts moved to wake
forest north carolina but the plan backfired we made a very bad choice to move to north carolina it only deepened my
depression cut us off further from our friends and family i was severely depressed and
i couldn't figure out why i couldn't make this child love me i was becoming more bitter towards her
too because my days were spent was fix clean up and undo what she had destroyed or done
peggy's resentment toward nina built and their relationship worsened peggy seemed somehow dismissive of nina
she didn't have the kind of loving relationship that she seemed to have with natalya it was sort of like
she considered natalia to be special and nina just to be there in a twist of fate peggy learned she was pregnant in
january 2005. but three months later she suffered a miscarriage i did not seek counseling which i really
should have it just reinforced everything i think bad i felt about myself um i was not good that i was not worthy
that i was broken you know um here i've you know i've already got this child that i can't even
love me and everything went downhill from there once again peggy admits she turned to drinking to
console her pain i remember there was a couple days where i actually had drank a case of beer
myself in a day i think chris wanted the perfect family so bad that he saw what he wanted to see i had my
drinking he knew i was drinking but he had no idea i was drinking as much as i was
the situation reached a crisis on july 1 2005. while her husband was at work peggy was
at home with her daughters preparing for a trip to visit relatives nina was having a
very difficult day and i was drinking and trying to get everything ready we had been taking toys up and down
stairs peggy says nina tumbled while playing on the stairs she had bruises on her face where she
had fallen it was just a very rough day for her so i thought maybe she was not feeling well
and just being worse than usual a couple hours later hilt says nina attacked her sister
natalia peggy became enraged both girls are saying that the table and something happened and nina grabbed a
fork and went after natalia and i just saw red and i grabbed nina and i took her upstairs
she was kicking and screaming and i just i lost it it happened so fast it was just um like
a tornado like a rage you know just when women behind bars continues peggy calls 9-1-1 begging for help
[Music] in january 2004 peggy and chris hilt adopted a 16 month old girl named nina
from an orphanage in russia but peggy failed to bond with her new daughter the young mother claims that her
difficult relationship with nina caused her to drink more heavily in july of 2005
nina allegedly bit her older sister natalia an incident which peggy says made her lose control
she flew into a rage she brought her up to nina's bedroom she grabbed the child around the throat
she lifted her up off the floor she shook the child i grabbed her by the neck and i choked
her and i hit her repeatedly i put her in bed and i hit her peggy says she left the bruised two and
a half year old lying on the bed walked out of the room and shut the door behind her
nina stayed alone in her room for three hours i felt horrible i couldn't believe
that i had just lost it like that the rest of the day i spent sobering up finished getting ready for
the trip taking care of natalia um and chris called and said he was on his way home i
went up and got nina at 5 30 p.m when her husband chris returned peggy lied about the cause of nina's
injuries she had covered up a lot of her body so christopher couldn't see he saw the
bruises on her face and i told him that she had fallen on the stairs but he couldn't see the bruises on her back
they continued to prepare for their trip to virginia and nina was going to her father complaining of a
stomachache and she was starting to have a fever during the four-hour drive to manassas
virginia to visit relatives nina began to show signs of physical distress a little while into the trip she had
vomited i did not realize or could believe that i hurt her that bad still the young mother
was intent on hiding nina's injuries from her husband when i changed her clothes the first time
i made sure that i took her outside of the van and changed her clothes so chris couldn't
see the marks on her back peggy hilt went to great lengths not only in route to virginia but once she
arrived in manassas to hide the bruising and injuries that she inflicted on nina
throughout the night nina's condition worsened she seemed like she was a little kid with a fever you know just
kind of lethargic and out of it i didn't connect hitting her and her being sick the next morning nina
couldn't keep anything down obviously her body was not mending it was starting to break down
by 9 a.m everyone left the house but peggy who stayed behind to be with nina she
still hadn't had anything to eat and i was worried i was sitting in the rocking chair with
her in the living room and she was drinking her sippy cup and she just kind of stopped
and kind of went limp that's when i got scared i um could tell she wasn't breathing so
i ran back inside and laid her on the floor and called i was 911 cpr on her and she had thrown
up oh my god ma'am oh my god okay ma'am i'm trying to tell you what to do the ambulance arrived 10 minutes after
peggy called 9-1-1 but when nina hilt's body arrived at the local hospital authorities summoned the police
and when we got there they took us into a room and told me told us that she had died
she had bruises on her face she had a cut lip she had bruises on her collarbone neck her
abdomen her legs when questioned by the police peggy stuck to her original story
she talked about what had happened at their home on friday afternoon in wake forest and
that nina had been carrying toys up the stairs and that she had fallen backwards they let
us see nina's body [Music] christopher just looked down at his daughter and looked at
peggy and he couldn't believe what he saw and peggy just looked at me and made eye
contact with me on sunday july 3 an autopsy performed on nina hilt revealed that the cause of death was
blunt force trauma to the abdomen the autopsy clarified the fact that it was definitely a homicide the police called
peggy in for more questioning i don't remember much of anything except the police did call us the next day and
wanted us to come to the station and answer questions 24 hours after her daughter died peggy
recalls having a sudden realization that she had caused nina's death i woke up and i sat up in bed and
said oh my god i did this i did i hurt her bad the next morning peggy finally told her
husband the truth i told him what had happened he just started crying and crying
both he was supportive and distant he was hurt in shock confused after consulting
with her lawyer peggy confessed to the police she started right away with i hurt nina i was pretty sure that
i had caused nino's death and i needed to be held accountable on wednesday july 6 2005 detective
kathleen olshlagel interviewed peggy hilt for three hours was anybody else in the
home on friday around 2 30 when this was happening one thing in the interview that sort of
stood out was when she speaks about the bonding with nina and how they just could never bond and
how she felt that this child preferred anybody else in the world to her we never bonded the motive was
ultimately the lack of bonding and resentment and anger towards her child authorities charged peggy with
second-degree murder and incarcerated her in the county jail peggy hilt appeared in circuit court and
pled guilty to second-degree murder in the sentencing phase the defense argued that peggy was a troubled woman
who should have sought help for her problems her attorney had mentioned that she had
been grappling with alcoholism and apparently just not been in full control of her emotions at the time
prosecutor paul ebert argued for a stiff sentence for peggy's role in nina's lethal beating initially
paulie bert had asked for a harsh sentence and saying that there was no excuse for
what she had done when women behind bars continues the russians wanted to see me severely
punished nina held's death marked the 14th death of a child adopted from russia in the u.s and later in this episode of
women behind bars a woman is accused of killing her husband for his pension money
by pushing him into a river tony went underwater and came up and said help me please help
me on my mother's grave that never happened on march 1 2006 peggy hilt pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the
fatal beating of her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter nina who was adopted from russia meanwhile
after nina's tragic death russian authorities called for a hold on adoptions to the united states
there was a lot of uproar just from people in russia being upset about the impression that
children were being brought to the u.s adopted by families here and then being abused
and killed one group that was particularly upset were those parents in the u.s that
wanted to adopt children from russia and because of the distrust between authorities there a lot
of these adoptions were put on hold as the trial began an outraged public cried out for a severe sentence for 34
year old peggy hilt and so you had a lot of frustrated parents here that were waiting to bring their children
home from russia and they were upset they wanted to see a harsh sentence in this case
she was very quiet we didn't see many emotions when she did say i'm sorry it was
barely audible at that time judge hamlin handed down a sentence of 35 years with 10 suspended and peggy would serve
25 years [Music] three months later hilt's attorney presented a motion to further reduce
peggy's prison term he argued that the international media attention may have had an impact on
hilt's original sentence the judge granted the motion and shortened peggy's prison term from 25
years to 19 years the public was divided on the outcome i know that people in other countries
politicians the russians wanted to see me severely punished the fact that peggy hill will serve minimum 19 years
in prison is something that i think people felt that justice was served in that sentence
personally i don't think that's a fair sentence i think she should get more time for what she did to nina
some of those people who are angry with me you know may have found themselves in
the same situation i never in a million years would have dreamed myself in that type of a
situation and here i sit peggy hilt violated the most sacred trust a child has in a parent and that is to
keep them safe and provide a loving environment 19 years is not enough for peggy hilt the people
that hate me um i can't even feel compassion for them because i used to be just like them anybody that could or
would hurt a child i should be locked away i couldn't fathom it now i can see things gonna
happen that you don't mean addiction is a bad thing since her incarceration peggy has achieved sobriety and has
found comfort through spirituality i am in some religious classes i strongly believe that god
used this tragedy to save me [Music] because i'm supposed to help other people the death of nina has left a permanent
impact on the hilt family peggy and chris hilt have divorced chris retains custody of their other daughter
natalia who was adopted from the ukraine this is not only a tragedy for the child
definitely for the child and for the family that's left behind mr hilt raising the other child
so he lost two people in his life and that has got to be extremely devastating according to peggy chris and their
daughter natalia have suspended their visitations for now chris visited me early on in jail
then they moved away from the area and uh when natalia is strong enough and ready and
ready to come to see me he'll bring her peggy hopes that her case will raise awareness for parents who are seeking to
adopt internationally i would like to see many things changed in the adoption world because those
children do need to get out of those orphanages but they need to be adopted into
prepared therapeutic families peggy hilt is responsible for the death of her child
i think she's accepted that responsibility and admitted that but there are a lot of what-ifs here what if
the hilt family had received pre-adoptive education would have changed their decision to adopt
what if they had been prepared for the challenges of raising a child that may have been impacted
by institutionalization you know we'll never know and it may have made a difference in the life of a child
i did something horrible that i wish i could undo when i can't but i hope i'll be able to help somebody
behind me because that's the only thing i can do for nina at this point [Music] is to hopefully help somebody behind us
peggy will be 50 years old when she's released from prison i did not mean to hurt nina i
certainly did not mean for her to die [Music] but i need to be punished other people
need to see me punished to let them know that it's not okay never okay to hit a child um
if you need help get it no matter what you have to do when women behind bars continues
i mean trying to kill my daughter there was witness testimony that susan said we're
going to murder them get the hell out of here for more information about women behind bars
go to www.wetv.com on may 31 1986 police pulled the body of 56 year old tony de aquila from the des
plaines river an apparent accidental drowning his shoes shirt even his glasses were relatively
folded up nice and neatly on the top of the wall here but questions began to surface about the
victim's troubled marriage to his wife susan an openly gay woman who was 25 years his
junior tony was a vulnerable type person and she was just sort of someone who would take advantage of him
susan d'aquillo was was a con woman who orchestrated this entire set of circumstances to get his money
was this a tragic accident or did susan d aquila commit a deliberate act of [Music]
murder susan d aquila grew up the second youngest in a family with seven children
on chicago's south side she was just eight years old when her father died in 1963.
i went from being a child to i felt like i was an adult trying to help out my mom susie and i were
very very close susie was always trying to do things for people and she'd go to the dinner table and
grab food off the table and i'll be right back she's supposed to be eating dinner and she goes and
we found her on 19th in washington feeding the homeless underneath the sidewalks
she was just a given person loving giving caring as she got older susan knew that
she was different i knew she was gay yeah she always had girlfriends um same-sex girlfriends kept it a secret
until i was about 15 one day my mom caught me with a woman and she took me to every counselor
psychiatrist she finally said i give up if this is what you are then fine one brief relationship with a boy at age 15
left susan pregnant with a daughter victoria my mom was gay and my grandmother didn't
want me to live in that environment so my grandparents raised me susan let her mom take care of the baby
and moved out on her own to make a life for herself i did odd jobs you know working in cars
bartending for one of the bars in the neighborhood susan was in her mid-20s when she met tony de aquila
a longtime groundskeeper for the forest preserve in a suburb of chicago he was 50 years old
and then he became my best friend in the whole world tony was a man of shortened statue with
big and heart he was a type of fellow that would go out of his way for anybody tony de aquila suffered physical
challenges that set him apart from others tony had scoliosis he had arthritic hands he had clubbed feet
he wore special shoes they almost looked like stilted boots but they definitely had
compensating heels and soles on them so that he could walk and yet he worked every day for the cook
county forest preserve and was a very good worker and a very hard worker he introduced me to susan and he just
sort of looked up at her with like this sick puppy love type of look i don't think that he
ever had a girlfriend until he met susan after a five-year friendship thirty-year-old susan and
fifty-six-year-old tony surprised everyone by getting married in november 1985. but tony's co-workers and friends
suspected that something was not quite right about the new marriage i was sort of uncomfortable with her
because i knew that tony was a vulnerable type person and she looked like she was just sort of
someone who would take advantage of him we all knew that this woman was because of her age and because of
his afflictions we knew that there was something wrong right from the start questions were
raised in terms of the relationship in general or what her motivation was originally to
marry tony he didn't make a lot of money but he worked his entire life and he had his pension recently
increased susan denies the marriage was for money in fact she says she and tony married to keep a
secret he hid from everyone tony was gay too secretly yay you know and he goes we can make this work out
i need to really get married then they'll leave me alone so myself why not tony's friends adamantly denied
that he was gay i never got an indication that the tony was gay as a matter of fact i think he craved
affection from women and that was why he ended up with susan because she was probably
one of the few women that paid attention to him the newlyweds purchased a home in cicero
a chicago suburb which soon became a boarding house for susan's down and out friends
if you needed help my mom would give you her last dollar susan and the the cohorts that was
surrounding her literally were in fact living at that home they didn't have no jobs
they were just using both my mom and tony it was a free ride to them tony confided in co-workers about the
difficulties he was having at home and that he was being mistreated by his new wife and her friends
he used to come and tell us about how he was beat up or you know you have scars on him and we said why did you
call the police he'd say but i love her i love the kid i love him i can't do anything to hurt
susan denies any abuse and claims that tony injured himself in fights that broke out when they were
partying tony got into a few bar brawls and he ended up talking to this real big guy
one day and this guy's gonna beat the hell out of him and it was me and tony fighting this big guy
by april 1986 tony moved out of the house and took up residence at the hotel eleanor although he
continued to visit susan at their home he just didn't like the people he didn't get along with this one man
james johnson senior that's they just started clashing sixty-year-old james johns rented a room in the attic and
susan remembers would sometimes pick fights with tony james john's i didn't like him i think
he was in love with my mom and my mom didn't want nothing to do with him she like tried to help him i
think and he just got a little obsessed with [Music] her on a thursday night at the end of may
tony came to the house where everyone was hanging out they were drinking during a good portion
of the day and that they were trying to get tony drunk susan and jimmy johns and the
three other individuals indicating we're going to take you tony for swimming lessons
and get you over this fear of water that you have susan remembers it was tony's idea to go
out to the river well tony said let's go out to the falls because it was beautiful outside
the group piled into one car and headed out to hoffman dam on the des plaines river along with
susan and tony were james johns and three of susan's friends they drove to riverside and were looking
for a place to bring tony into the water they parked their car along fairbanks road the party of six
walked two blocks to the riverbank according to one member of the group susan and james johns helped tony take
off his pants and shoes but susan claimed she was against the idea all along james johnson told me they went into the
water and i said hey you know this is you know not good tony get out of the water
i had a bad feeling susan says she witnessed james johns whispering to two members of the group
who suddenly walked back to the car they realized what was really going down and they decided they should leave it
was wrong and they were going to go there was witness testimony that susan said we're going to murder him
get the hell out of here when women behind bars continues tony went underwater and came up and
said help me please help me and they sat there the two of them sat there and watched them drown
on the night of may 29 1986 susan d aquila and her husband tony drove with four friends to the des
plaines river police believed it was a well-orchestrated ploy by susan and accomplices
to get physically handicapped tony near deep water where they could push him in and drown
him tony had a fear of water he couldn't swim tony had scoliosis people who knew tony said
in addition to the deformed shape of his spine due to the scoliosis his gnarled hands made it impossible for
him to be a strong swimmer i think he could have been coaxed to go near the water
if that was what susan wanted him to do he would do just about anything for her susan recounts that tony took a brief
dip in a shallow portion of the river then got out and sat next to her on a stone embankment
so they could look at the waterfall together and he goes wow doesn't that look beautiful i turned and
looked and then all of a sudden i heard splash you know everything like seemed like you
went in slow motion susan claims her recollection is cloudy from alcohol and marijuana she used that
night it took me even a second to realize that tony's not sitting there no more next to me
she saw that he was in trouble she doesn't know how to swim but she started to take off her shoes
then i think somebody pulled her away and the next thing she looked down she couldn't see him
anymore whether the current pulled him away or he was under water she didn't know
police paint a different picture of that night they believe it had all gone according to plan
susan's plan police say that susan's border james johns was smitten with susan and
agreed to help her kill her husband that's what they're really trying to do is to lure him down to that location
you know give him a good shove and off he floats and not being able to save himself but susan strongly denies
involvement in tony's drowning she maintained she never saw who pushed tony into the water
but she believes it was james johns who acted without any prompting from her james johns is laughing like some kind
of a lunatic the first thing i thought was for get help and i remember screaming for somebody to
call the cops and banging on this lady's door in the chaos of the moment the group
split up susan and her friend david hurd took off in one direction david's telling me we got to get out of
here gym's going crazy you know like jim's going to kill me next meanwhile james drove away in the
car with susan's two other friends i said david we got to go to the police what about tony
david said he was going to take care of everything just trust me david hurd took susan to a local bar and
made a phone call susan says she assumed he was calling but when james and the others met them
at the bar susan realized that david had called them she says by this time her fear of james johns kept her quiet
i was never afraid beginning of james chan's but after that i was terrified the five
housemates stayed at the bar and drank until closing time no one ever called the police
[Music] about 1 45 in the afternoon we were called to the scene of this particular area by the des plaines river
authorities found tony de aquila floating face down in the water just above the hoffman dam he was only
dressed in white dvds briefs and a t-shirt the medical examiner determined that tony de aquila had been dead for two
days police located susan and informed her of her husband's death her reaction when she was first told
that her husband was dead was i have a mirror certificate i'm next of ken and then jimmy john's somebody walks up
and says did you find tony near some water i was like well how do they know that
susan told police she was nowhere near the des plaines river when tony drowned but days later the investigation turned
up indisputable evidence that susan's car was indeed at the river that night there was a parking ticket written for a
vehicle a little bit further down from where the crime scene is actually that's pretty
damning evidence in terms of at least placing them on the scene susan claims she didn't tell police the
truth because james johns had threatened her daughter he goes you do what i say or i will kill
victoria he goes you want vicky dead i mean he tried to kill my daughter you know that's
my world to confirm their suspicions police needed someone from susan's circle of friends to crack
we surmise that jimmy john's might be the weakest link we asked him to come down to the police
department and he was outside pacing in front of the police department very very nervous
james confessed to police that he and susan together pushed tony into the river james johns was arrested on the spot
officers then rounded up susan d aquila and her friends who were at the river that night
the accomplices immediately pointed the finger at susan and james they were trying to save
themselves a number of them were in trouble with the police were they upstanding
individuals certainly not but the the facts are the facts susan the aquila was culpable she was
the mastermind she did this for no other reason than the money at susan's trial prosecutors called
several people who testified that susan talked about killing tony for his money i remember the pension was worth about
19 000 and the sad thing was that was worth it to susan de aquila that was enough money
to justify doing this in susan's eyes money didn't mean anything friends were more important than money
the state's key witness was david hurd previously in trouble with the law who claimed he saw everything he told
the jury how susan and james forced tony into the river tony went underwater and came up and
said help me please help me and they sat there the two of them sat there and watched them drown
david heard indicated right after this incident happened she indicated thank god it's over now i'm a rich [ __ ]
on my mother's grave that never happened one eyewitness against her had written her letters saying that he knew she
didn't do it and the judge did not allow those letters in i had letters written from david he goes
god knows you're innocent and i will stick by you in the truth but according to the judge susan's
attorney had presented the letters too late to be used in her defense i mean if you're on a jury and you hear
somebody testify that the defendant is guilty and then somebody brings up letters that this person has
written saying i know you didn't do it what are you going to think as a juror it's not likely you're going to give his
testimony much credibility so i think it would have made a big difference the jury found her guilty of first
degree murder and it was our position that these facts were brutal and heinous and warranted an extended sense
the judge agreed with some very harsh words for susan d aquila he sentenced her to 60 years in prison i
think there was a lot of preconceptions and bias against susan because of her lifestyle
susan believes that the court might have been prejudiced against her because she was gay nobody was looking
at that in terms of any motivation or anything like that it was like okay well that was no big deal four months later
james johns pled guilty because he was 60 years old the judge sentenced him to only 20 years
all justice was done and they i think they should have given both an electric chair she did not have
a fair trial so many things were arrayed against susan in terms of witnesses lying
and in terms of not providing any kind of defense by her attorney certain murders rise to the level
of people just have their breath taken away and people stop and pause and think how could
someone do that and that was this case susan was incarcerated at lincoln correctional
center and has served 20 years she utilized her time in prison to research her case and write appeals
petitions all have been denied but her current attorney is hoping that david's letters
among other issues will be instrumental in obtaining clemency since she's been in there she's
helped so many other women it's time for her to come home susan's family maintains that she is
wrongly convicted i can't see her hurting even an animal you know how could she hurt a human
being i can't i'll go to my grave believing she's innocent she's missed out on her grandkids she's
missed everything i'm not gonna quit i'll get the evidence and we got the letters we
you know we'll get we'll get the truth god knows the truth you

Brief Summary

Peggy Hilt and Susan D'Aquila share tragic stories of violence against loved ones leading to murder convictions.

Key points

The Tragic Story of Peggy Hilt. Peggy Hilt's struggle with her adopted daughter Nina culminates in a tragic event.
A Mother's Rage. In a moment of anger, Peggy loses control over her daughter Nina, leading to tragedy.
Confession and Consequences. After realizing her actions, Peggy confesses to the police about Nina's death.
The Drowning Incident. On May 29, 1986, Tony drowned in the Des Plaines River under suspicious circumstances.
Trial and Conviction. Susan was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Claims of Innocence. Susan's family maintains her innocence, believing she is wrongly convicted.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I did this. I did. I hurt her bad.

Peggy's realization of her role in her daughter's death.

15:42WatchJan 12, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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