- FEMALE NARRATOR: When a body is found in a burning vehicle,
a cloud of suspicion rises from the flames.
- JEFF: They took it to the middle of the field
and set it ablaze with the victim
in the front passenger seat of the truck at that time.
- RICHARD: She said, "They found him."
I said, "Well, is he okay?" She said, "No, ugh, he's dead."
- NARRATOR: Investigators would uncover a complex web
of jealousy and greed.
- GREGORY: The case was a very large conspiracy.
It was difficult to investigate.
- The case kind of stalled for a while.
- NARRATOR: Until years later, a deathbed confession
opens the floodgates.
- JEFF: He confessed to his cellmate regarding a murder
that he potentially set up and was involved with.
- GREGORY: He felt like he'd been double-crossed on this,
and he was very angry.
He thought he was in love with her.
- NARRATOR: The search for the truth reveals
a twisted plot of betrayal and shocking alliances.
- TAYLOR: She was a very different person
than what police were led to believe.
- GREGORY: She had several extramarital affairs.
- It seems like an incredibly cold and calculated crime.
They're really just doing it for the promise of some money
down the line.
- He totally got blindsided, which led to his death.
- *
- NARRATOR: Stanton, Missouri is nestled
in the rolling farmland between the Lake of the Ozarks
and St. Louis.
- GARY: Stanton is a small community.
It's along Interstate 44, which travels
through Franklin County and into St. Louis.
- ROBERT: Franklin County is a largely rural county.
It's mostly, you know, farmland and woods
and fields and things like that.
- NARRATOR: Just after 9 PM on October 22nd, 1992,
a motorist traveling along the north service road
in Stanton sees something ablaze in the distance
and decides to take a closer look.
- GARY: This gentleman walked up into the woods,
went through a small patch of woods,
and it went out into a field.
- GREGORY: When he got a little closer,
he determined it was a vehicle fire.
So, he had to go back to a telephone, is my understanding,
and, uh, call the fire department.
- NARRATOR: Firefighters arrive within minutes.
As they douse the flames, they make a gruesome discovery.
- GREGORY: They determined there was a body, uh,
in the vehicle.
- GARY: You couldn't obviously make out the victim
because the body was very, very badly burned.
- GREGORY: There were some skeletal remains
and dental remains.
Everything else was consumed in the fire.
- NARRATOR: The firefighters contact the Franklin County
Sheriff's Department.
- GARY: I, uh, received a call at 9:40 at night on the 22nd.
So, I contacted all my detectives,
got everybody together, and, uh, went out to the scene.
You're wondering why is that truck there.
Where did it come from? Obviously, who is the victim?
Uh, you know, you just kind of start from the inside
and work your way out.
- NARRATOR: Finding evidence of what did happen won't be easy.
- GARY: The truck was totally destroyed.
There was nothing left on the outside, just basically a frame.
- GREGORY: Well, the fire destroyed a lot of evidence.
There was no identification on, on, uh, the body.
- NARRATOR: Although there's no driver's license,
detectives do find several items that may help ID
the body found in the front passenger seat.
- GREGORY: There was a gold chain, a ring and a watch
that they could plainly see.
- GARY: And they found a belt buckle with, uh,
I believe it was from Duck's Unlimited,
which is a hunting group.
- NARRATOR: As they examine further,
they spot another potential clue to the person's identity.
- GREGORY: They saw a rod in one of the legs of the body.
They determined it was a metal rod that was put in,
put in the right leg because of an injury.
- NARRATOR: Detectives make their way around
the vehicle, where they find the first indication
of something amiss.
- GREGORY: It appeared that with the license plates
being removed, whoever was responsible of it was trying
to delay a law enforcement's efforts to identify the body
and identify who the victim was and where the victim lived.
- NARRATOR: It's unclear if whoever took the plates
was trying to cover up an accident or something worse.
Whoever it was, they forgot
about the vehicle identification number etched into the frame.
- GREGORY: The vehicle identification number came
to Karen and Danny Coleman at an address in St. Louis
which was about a 45-minute drive
from where the vehicle and the body were recovered.
- NARRATOR: Investigators immediately head
to the couple's home to determine
if one of the family members is missing.
- This was probably about 2:30 in the morning,
to try to find out if they knew where their vehicle was
or what had happened to it.
- NARRATOR: Detectives arrive to find Karen Coleman
and her 18-year-old son, Joby, at home.
- GREGORY: They did not know where, uh, Danny was.
- GARY: They were concerned.
Usually, he'll call and let them know
that he's going to be late coming home,
which he didn't that evening.
- NARRATOR: Investigators tell them about the burned truck
and ask if they recognize
the charred personal items found at the scene.
- The jewelry, the belt buckle, the watch, the ring,
the gold necklace, the family did identify those
as belonging to Danny Coleman.
There were a lot of tears at that point.
- NARRATOR: Detectives then share that the recovered body
had a pin in one leg.
- GARY: Joby had told me that his father had been
in this motorcycle accident, and that he had a pin
in his right leg.
That really helped us get going in the right direction,
and, you know, they want answers.
They want it solved.
- *
- NARRATOR: St. Louis native Danny Coleman
was known for his big heart and kind disposition.
- RICHARD: Danny was a very caring individual.
He was a hunters' safety instructor for, um,
children to teach them how to handle guns.
- GARY: Danny was really a straight guy.
Very well liked, kind of easygoing, and, um, you know,
just pretty much an all- around nice guy.
- NARRATOR: The Army vet was proud of his service,
even though in 1971, it was cut short after only a few months.
- GARY: He was in the military and was stationed in Germany.
And, uh, he was involved in a motorcycle accident.
- GREGORY: That resulted in his discharge from the Army.
And he came back to St. Louis.
- NARRATOR: Back in the States,
Danny underwent surgery that resulted in a metal pin
being placed in his right leg.
- RICHARD: He kind of walked with a limp,
because in his surgery that was done,
there was a rod in his leg.
- NARRATOR: As fate would have it,
it was during his recovery at the military hospital
in Fort Leonard, Missouri, that Danny met
the love of his life, when a friend visited him
with her cousin Karen.
- GREGORY: Karen was from South St. Louis. Danny,
likewise, was from South St. Louis.
And she was introduced to Danny
while he was still in the hospital.
- NARRATOR: Karen and Danny bonded over their love
of the outdoors, as both were avid hunters and anglers.
- Danny made Karen laugh.
And they just loved being around each other.
- NARRATOR: The blue- collar sweethearts fell in love
and in 1973, they tied the knot.
A year later, their family grew.
- GREGORY: They had a son named Joby.
They weren't wealthy by any means, they were comfortable.
Danny was bringing in, um, a fair income.
And, um, they were raising their child.
- RICHARD: Danny was a mechanical engineer
at a company called Multiplex who, uh, manufactured the,
uh, soda machines for, like, McDonald's.
- TAYLOR: Karen worked a lot of local entry-level jobs,
and eventually, she landed at a printing company
as a secretary.
- NARRATOR: Danny strived to be a good husband
and father so his family wanted for nothing.
In the late 1980s, Danny began branching out
with the support of his friend Richard.
- RICHARD: Danny had a side business that he started,
where he would go in and treat ceramic flooring
in different businesses to make them nonslip.
- GREGORY: The flooring business was becoming
very successful.
- NARRATOR: By 1992, the 38-year-old family man
and business owner seemed to have it all.
But when police found human remains
in Danny's burned truck, his family fears the worst.
- GARY: We began questioning Karen about, you know,
maybe Danny had, having any enemies.
If she had any enemies, what, uh, he may be doing out there.
If there was any association between him
and the Stanton area.
Uh, just a lot of different questions.
You know, kind of starting from scratch
and working our way out.
- NARRATOR: Detectives try to catch a glimpse
of the family dynamic.
- GARY: Generally, the family obviously is,
is one of the things you look at, uh, initially.
- NARRATOR: Karen assures investigators
that she and her husband of 19 years were happily married.
- GARY: Karen told us they, you know,
were a loving couple, that they got along real well.
You know, just kind of seemed like your average couple.
- NARRATOR: To detectives, Danny's relationship
with his 18-year-old son, Joby, also seems solid.
- GARY: As far as our suspect list,
there was really no flags that jumped up immediately
or initially that, uh, led any suspicion
to anybody in the family.
- GREGORY: There was really no enemies or anything
regarding Danny. There was nothing that would
indicate anybody else
didn't like him or had an ax to grind.
- NARRATOR: On October 23rd, 1992,
the St. Louis medical examiner confirms
what everyone feared.
- The autopsy was performed by, uh, Dr. Mary Case.
And, uh, she used the dental records, uh,
to confirm that it was Danny.
- NARRATOR: The M.E. also makes a startling discovery
based on damage to the victim's crushed skull.
- GREGORY: There was tremendous damage
to the body caused not only by the fire,
but by the blunt force trauma.
The autopsy did determine that it was a homicide.
- GARY: She couldn't determine exactly what type
of instrument it was, but said it would be similar
to something like a baseball bat.
- He had been beaten to death.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: the hunt for Danny's killer
unearths an unlikely person of interest.
- There was a phone call that Danny received at work that day.
It was very cryptic.
- NARRATOR: And investigators dig deeper
into the motives of those closest to Danny.
- RICHARD: They were wondering
if I had a relationship with Karen.
- NARRATOR: Authorities in Stanton, Missouri
have identified 38-year-old Danny Coleman
as the murder victim they found in his burned truck
on the night of October 22nd, 1992.
- We didn't know if it was possible
that he was killed there, if he was brought from somewhere.
Because the area that he was at, there was no houses
around there. It was pretty remote.
- NARRATOR: The next morning, investigators search
the crime scene again, hoping to uncover more evidence
in the light of day.
- GARY: We had found, uh, some matches
and then they also found a, uh, a matchbook case
that had a, uh, cellophane cover, uh, nearby.
And we had assumed that that was, you know,
more than likely used to set the fire.
- NARRATOR: Detectives immediately send
the new evidence to the crime lab for processing.
- GREGORY: That entire area was gone over with a fine-tooth comb
The loose matches, the matchbox
and the cellophane wrapper around the matchbox
were dusted for fingerprints.
- GARY: There was a fingerprint that was developed
off of that cellophane wrapper.
We put that into, um, it's a statewide database
to try to find a match for it.
- GREGORY: We had that latent fingerprint,
but we had nobody to match it to.
So, that evidence was stored and locked away
for future reference.
- NARRATOR: Since the crime scene evidence
does not immediately ID a suspect,
investigators expand their questioning,
hoping for a new lead.
- GREGORY: They started interviewing everybody
they could possibly identify, friends, co-workers.
- GARY: Everybody at work seemed to really like Danny
because of his personality, and I think Danny,
from what we understood, was a hard worker.
- NARRATOR: However, one of Danny's coworkers
recalls Danny leaving unexpectedly early
on the day before his body was found.
- GREGORY: There was a phone call that Danny received at work
that day. It was very cryptic.
Nobody really overheard the conversation other than,
he may have mentioned the name Rich.
- GARY: We didn't know at that point who Rich was.
And we started contacting other people
and found out that his name was Rich Zaleuke,
who was a friend of his.
- NARRATOR: Investigators subpoena records
to learn more about the communication between
the two men.
- GARY: When we checked the phone records, we found that,
uh, Danny had spoken to Rich quite a few times.
- NARRATOR: What strikes detectives as suspicious
is that someone from the Coleman house
had called Rich at 1:30 AM and again at 3:30 AM
the night Danny was murdered.
- RICHARD: The police asked if I would come in and, uh,
that I was a person of interest,
'cause of the phone records
showing that I talked to him quite a bit.
- GARY: Rich was cooperative with us, uh, when we first
talked to him, and gave us a lot of information.
Ah, but as the investigation went on,
we started asking some more accusatory-type questions.
- RICHARD: I told 'em that I was not involved.
Uh, he was a very close friend of mine,
and I was basically in shock at what had happened.
- NARRATOR: Investigators press Rich
about the late-night phone calls from the Coleman house.
- One of the things that, uh, you, you consider
as a possibility is infidelity.
Nothing really jumped out at us initially that, uh, put us in
that direction, but those are all things that you consider.
You know, you have to look into when you start an investigation.
- RICHARD: I guess they were wondering
if I had a relationship with Karen.
I reassured them that I was happily married
and had no interest in Karen whatsoever.
- NARRATOR: Rich admits he had spoken to Karen
that night, but he claims that she was calling
in search of Danny.
- He just wasn't answering his phone.
And I said, "No, I know. I talked to him earlier that day,
and he said he didn't have any jobs."
We worked on flooring together.
I said, "Well, you need to call the police
'cause I know Danny didn't go out at night."
- NARRATOR: Rich says around 3:30 AM,
Karen called him again after detectives delivered
the heartbreaking news.
- RICHARD: Karen said, "They found him."
I said, "Well, is he okay?"
She said, "No, uh, he's dead.
"And he, they found him in his truck,
and the truck was on fire, and Danny was inside of it."
Which just put me into a shock.
I couldn't believe it, you know?
- NARRATOR: As investigators continue talking to Rich,
their suspicions change.
- GREGORY: Rich and Danny seemed to be close friends.
They spent a lot of time together.
He was distraught about how Danny passed away
and wanted to cooperate with the case any way he could.
- NARRATOR: When detectives ask Rich
for his whereabouts on the night of the murder,
Rich claims that he was at home with his family.
- GARY: Rich Zaleuke's alibi had checked out.
So that's when he was pretty much eliminated as a suspect,
that he was just a good friend of Danny's.
- RICHARD: I think once the, uh, Major Case Squad
got to know me and, uh, knew
that I was a sincere person, that helped me
not become a person of interest.
- NARRATOR: Searching for a new angle,
investigators ask Rich if Danny could have been
involved in anything illegal.
- RICHARD: Danny was very responsible.
And, uh, a very honest person. He never drank.
He never smoked, uh, around me.
- NARRATOR: Detectives also ask Rich for any insight
into Danny's relationship with his wife Karen.
- RICHARD: I was surprised at her demeanor compared
to Danny's.
She's just a much rougher person than he was.
But Danny never talked negative about Karen at all.
That's something he kept to himself.
But he did tell me a couple months before he died
that they were having a few problems.
You know, I guess they were having issues.
He was kind of a private individual
about those type of things.
- NARRATOR: After their interview with Rich,
investigators reach out to other friends and family
of Danny and Karen Coleman to inquire
about their possible marital issues.
- GARY: As we got into it, other things
started to emerge, that she may be having an affair.
- NARRATOR: And what's more,
they learned through a close friend that Karen
was allegedly hiding an active addiction.
- ROBERT: They then learned that she was a user of
cocaine and methamphetamines.
She apparently had been involved in meth dealing
for a number of years.
- TAYLOR: She allegedly was a very different person
than what police were led to believe.
- RICHARD: I didn't know that she had a double life
and was into drugs and having an affair.
If Danny knew any of that, he would have divorced her
in a heartbeat.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: from behind prison walls
a deathbed confession.
- JEFF: He confessed to his cellmate regarding a murder
that he potentially set up and was involved with.
- NARRATOR: And more of Karen's double life is exposed.
- RICHARD: She was having affair with her best friend's husband.
- GREGORY: We felt like she knew a lot more information
than what she was telling us.
- NARRATOR: October 24th, 1992.
It's been 48 hours since Danny Coleman was found
beaten and burned in his own vehicle.
Speaking with friends of Danny and his wife, Karen,
investigators have learned Karen was leading
a double life that was destroying their marriage.
- GREGORY: It was determined that Karen was dealing
methamphetamine and that Danny had voiced his disdain
about that drug dealing and, um, was very upset
at what she was doing.
Karen was unhappy in the marriage
and had several extramarital affairs on Danny.
There were several names that popped up in the case
and they were contacted as much as we could
contact them, and they were all interviewed.
- NARRATOR: Yet authorities cannot directly link Karen
nor any of the men she had affairs with to the murder.
- GREGORY: Investigators had done all their interviews,
but a solid suspect was not identified.
The case remained open, uh, from 1992, uh, to about 1998.
- NARRATOR: Investigators run down every lead
but years pass and nothing ever materializes.
- GARY: The case kind of stalled for a while.
Each time you speak with somebody you get
a little bit more information, and your investigation
fans out, until you just exhaust all the leads.
- NARRATOR: Finally, in 1999, the FBI field office
in St. Louis receives a surprising call
from officials at the Missouri State Penitentiary.
- GREGORY: There was a phone call that started, uh,
in the Missouri State Prison System.
They said that there was a conversation in prison
about a murder.
The body was found in a, a rural field, uh,
somewhere in Missouri.
- NARRATOR: Prison officials relay the inmate claims
that back in 1996, his former cellmate,
convicted armed robber Larry Nolan,
had made a stunning deathbed confession.
- GREGORY: Larry Nolan had hepatitis and he died
from that in prison.
But he did make some declarations
prior to him passing away.
- JEFF: He confessed to his cellmate regarding a murder
that he potentially set up and was involved with.
It was the murder of Danny Coleman.
- GREGORY: That particular FBI agent
started making phone calls to the St. Louis area
and he found that there was in fact
a Major Case Investigation in Franklin County, Missouri,
an unsolved homicide where a body was found in a field
in a rural area.
- GARY: He contacted us and said he had some information
from an inmate in the penitentiary, uh,
here in Missouri, that had some information about the homicide.
So, the next step was, was contacting him.
- NARRATOR: Agents and detectives immediately make
their way to the prison to question the inmate,
who explains the strange connection
between the deceased Larry Nolan and Danny Coleman.
- ROBERT: Karen Coleman and Michelle Nolan,
Larry's wife, were friends, and Karen apparently went
with Michelle to visit Larry in prison.
- NARRATOR: Eventually, in December of 1989,
Karen began visiting on her own.
- GREGORY: Well apparently, Larry had some
very strong feelings for Karen and was in love with Karen.
- RICHARD: She was having an affair
with her best friend's husband.
Kind of tells you the value Karen had for her best friend.
- NARRATOR: The inmate says that once Karen
seduced Larry during visits, she asked him for a favor.
- GREGORY: They were going to try to do a hit on Danny,
kill Danny, for the insurance proceeds.
- Danny had $50,000 worth of life insurance on him.
- She made promises to him, "Not only would I pay you
"$15,000, but we'll get married
if you get rid of my husband."
- GREGORY: Karen visited Larry numerous times
while he was in, uh, Jefferson City
and the murder plot was hatched that way.
- NARRATOR: According to the inmate,
Larry knew exactly who could help--
his longtime friend, James Kornhardt.
Kornhardt worked locally in the Stanton area
as a firefighter, but Larry knew, for the right price,
he would agree to facilitate the murder.
- GREGORY: Larry and Karen had set this up.
Karen had given him detailed information
about the insurance policy and about Danny Coleman
and that Larry had passed that information
on to James Kornhardt about Danny's day to day activities.
- NARRATOR: The original cause of Danny's death
was ruled blunt force trauma, but the inmate reveals
that Larry had orchestrated a shooting.
- ROBERT: Larry was able to arrange the manufacture
of a silencer that would fit a gun that James Kornhardt had.
Larry put Karen in touch with James
and then had a silencer manufactured for James' pistol.
- NARRATOR: The inmate claims that after Danny
was killed, Karen continued to visit until 1996.
Then out of nowhere, she dropped Larry like a bad habit.
- GREGORY: Larry Nolan was very irate
that he did not get, uh, any insurance proceeds after this.
Karen had, uh, quit visiting him after the, the murder.
He felt like he'd been double-crossed on this,
and he was very angry--
not only at not getting the money,
but he thought he was in love with Karen.
- He had two reasons to confess: he never got paid,
she never married him.
- NARRATOR: It's an unbelievable tale,
but is it true?
Investigators first look into Larry Nolan's prison records.
- GREGORY: Sure enough, Jim Kornhardt was on
Larry Nolan's visiting list.
Karen Coleman was on Larry Nolan's visiting list.
So, the information that was being provided
was independently corroborated.
- NARRATOR: As far as the possibility
of Danny being shot, investigators ask
the medical examiner to re-evaluate
her original findings.
- GARY: We had received information that he'd been shot
and then she went back to check to see if that was possible.
- NARRATOR: The severe damage had initially disguised it,
but the M.E. does find new evidence to suggest a shooting.
- GREGORY: A lead snowstorm is a term that coroners use
for debris or metallic substances that show up
in an x-ray of- of tissue or bone.
Typically lead from a bullet or shrapnel from a bullet
that embeds itself in, in skulls.
And in this particular case, Dr. Case did say
that there was a snowstorm in some of the bone fragments
from Danny's head.
- NARRATOR: With the inmate's story becoming more plausible,
on July 12th, 1999,
investigators decide to interview
the suspected hitman, James Kornhardt.
- GARY: He denied everything.
Said he didn't know Karen Coleman.
Uh, and, and pretty much blew us off,
that we didn't know what we were talking about.
- GREGORY: Jim Kornhardt would not submit
to an interview, which is his, his right not to do.
- NARRATOR: Investigators next confront Danny's widow
with their new evidence, but meet a similar front.
- Karen Coleman denied any involvement in this.
We felt like she knew a lot more information
than what she was telling us.
- NARRATOR: Karen admits she'd gotten into hard drugs
and that had led to her infidelity.
- ROBERT: Karen didn't talk too much about her,
about her feelings, about her relationship with Danny.
She did basically blame it on the drugs.
- NARRATOR: Still, she swears she had nothing to do
with Danny's death, and the interview ends
without a confession.
Investigators know Karen never paid Larry Nolan
for the crime, but think perhaps there's a paper trail
connecting her to James Kornhardt.
- JEFF: I'm aware of- of her obtaining, uh,
receiving, like, $50,000, uh, for, you know,
the death benefit. I guess it was on a life policy.
- GREGORY: We were able to track several payments,
at least several of them in $5,000 installments,
to Jim Kornhardt after the murder.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: a simple phone call
puts the killers within reach.
- GREGORY: They had made some very incriminating
recorded statements about some of the evidence
that was used in the case.
- NARRATOR: As the investigation heats up,
a witness comes forward with jaw-dropping information.
- JEFF: He admitted to us he was the one
that actually shot him.
- NARRATOR: Seven years after the murder
of Danny Coleman, an inmate informant reveals
that convict Larry Nolan admitted to arranging
the homicide at the behest of Danny's wife,
Karen Coleman.
- GREGORY: The case was a very large conspiracy.
It was difficult to investigate.
It was even more difficult to prosecute.
Larry Nolan, who is deceased, made some deathbed
declarations before his death.
So, you have to go back and verify that information
and you have to be able to gather enough evidence
to present it to a jury.
- NARRATOR: Investigators know Karen Coleman
received $50,000 in insurance proceeds
after her husband's death and that she made
several payments to alleged hitman James Kornhardt.
But prosecutors still aren't convinced
there's enough evidence to convict Karen or James.
- GREGORY: If one person on that jury has any reasonable doubt
about Karen Coleman's involvement and about
uh, James Kornhardt's involvement in the murder,
they very easily could have walked away from this.
- NARRATOR: And once again, the case stalls.
- RICHARD: I know that even it was a cold case,
they were still continuing to work on it.
And, uh, I felt good that it would
one day it would get resolved.
- NARRATOR: In 2008, investigators decided
to contact the US Attorney's Office in St. Louis,
who agrees to prosecute at the federal level.
- GARY: We were missing the manpower
to follow through with it.
We got them interested in the case.
They were able to help us out and decided to take it over.
At that particular point, that was right before
the charges were issued.
- The investigation had been quiet,
out of the public eye for years.
And all of a sudden, there was an indictment
for James Kornhardt and Karen Coleman.
- GREGORY: It put us to the test, to make sure
all the "I's" were dotted and "T's" were crossed.
- NARRATOR: On December 12th, 2008,
federal authorities prepare to arrest 49-year-old
James Kornhardt on conspiracy to commit murder
for hire.
- JEFF: We subsequently responded to Kornhardt's
place of employment, which was a firehouse
in the St. Louis area here, because he was currently
employed as a fireman.
Went to the firehouse, and we placed him under arrest.
He was in denial on, on just about everything.
And, um, we subsequently took him from there
and he would have been processed then down at the,
um, the FBI office.
- GARY: When he was processed, obviously,
he was fingerprinted.
- NARRATOR: Examiners compare his prints
to the fingerprint found on the cellophane wrapper
at the crime scene, which has been sitting
in an evidence locker for 16 years.
- GREGORY: They scientifically analyzed those prints
to the latent prints on the cellophane
around the matchbook cover, and those prints matched.
- NARRATOR: With Danny's alleged killer in custody,
investigators set their sights on Danny's widow,
54-year-old Karen Coleman.
- GREGORY: We went out early in the morning to locate her.
She wasn't home at the time.
We subsequently arrested her away from the house.
- RICHARD: They told me that there,
there'd been some arrests made.
And one of the arrests was Karen Coleman.
And I was thrilled to hear that information.
- NARRATOR: While James and Karen await trial,
the United States Attorney's office works in tandem
with law enforcement to strengthen their case.
They start by reviewing James' prison calls,
listening for anything incriminating.
- JEFF: Jim Kornhardt was detained
at the St. Louis County Justice Center, uh,
in Clayton, Missouri, where, of course, as all inmates do,
they have access to a phone.
- GREGORY: He had called and had a conversation
with a friend of his, Steve Mueller,
and had made some very incriminating
recorded statements about some of the evidence
that was used in the case.
- ROBERT: James calls Steven from jail and says,
"Can you get rid of this gun and silencer
"and some ammo that's in my house?"
- GARY: He made the phone call and asked him to go find--
it was actually a silencer made out of a lawnmower muffler.
And, um, he asked him to dispose of that.
- NARRATOR: After reviewing the calls,
investigators immediately track down Steve Mueller.
- ROBERT: They go to talk to him,
and he initially denies everything
and then eventually cracks.
- JEFF: Steve knew the story. We didn't tell him the story.
He told us the story, which was consistent
with what we had already known.
It was almost like a relief to him.
He wanted to get off his shoulders.
That's when he became more forthcoming, and,
and really explaining it out.
- NARRATOR: Steve admits he did get rid of the items
per James' request.
- ROBERT: Steven goes to Jim's house,
takes these things, and throws them off
the Jefferson Barracks Bridge in, uh, South St. Louis County.
- NARRATOR: Steve's statement clarifies
what happened to the silencer,
but it also adds to the growing list of conspirators.
- JEFF: So, James Kornhardt was initially the one
that Larry Nolan reached out to do the hit, so to speak.
Once Kornhardt agreed to do it, he had Mueller,
Steven Mueller, go with him.
That's when he explained that he was there
with Kornhardt.
- NARRATOR: In Steve's interview with police,
he says on the night of October 22nd, 1992,
he met James and another individual
who went by the name "Dozer".
- ROBERT: Steve didn't know if Dozer was a friend of Jim's
or a friend of Larry's or just some, you know,
random person who showed up.
- NARRATOR: Steve tells investigators
that he, James, and Dozer lured Danny Coleman
to a vacant house, claiming to have information
about Karen's infidelity.
Steve says as soon as Danny arrived,
the three attacked.
- JEFF: They beat him.
Still, I don't know what the instrument was they used.
But I know they finished it with,
I believe it was three shots...
...in which Steven Mueller
admitted to us he was the one that actually shot him.
- NARRATOR: Afterwards, Steve says the three men
disposed of Danny's body.
- JEFF: They walked him out to the victim's own truck,
put him in the truck.
And then one drove the truck, one drove the car
that they had came in.
- NARRATOR: They drove on Highway 44
and eventually exited in Stanton.
- JEFF: There was a cut, you know, through a field
that opened up.
And that is where they took it to the middle of the field
and set it ablaze with Danny Coleman
in the front passenger seat of the of the truck at that time.
- GARY: The next step was getting the case organized
and presenting it in court.
- NARRATOR: Coming up: before trial gets underway,
Karen changes her tune.
- GREGORY: She decided to help herself out
and wanted to provide more information
about who was involved. - RICHARD: She could go ahead
and wouldn't have to live a double life anymore.
- *
- NARRATOR: June 2010.
After a nearly 20-year investigation,
Danny Coleman's alleged killers now face prosecution
and authorities believe the ringleader of the plot
was Danny's wife, Karen.
- RICHARD: I don't understand how a person
that you been married to for a long time
and had a child with would want to have him killed.
- NARRATOR: Though Karen's co-conspirator, Larry Nolan,
died before charges were filed, prosecutors charge
alleged hitmen James Kornhardt
and Steve Mueller with conspiracy to commit
murder for hire and first- degree murder.
A third alleged hitman, identified only as "Dozer",
remains at large.
As prosecutors prep for trial,
they receive shocking news from Karen's attorney.
- GREGORY: She knew that she was going to be charged
with a conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
She decided to help herself out
and wanted to provide more information
about who was involved, why they were involved
and how it happened.
- NARRATOR: Karen sits down with authorities
and finally comes clean.
According to Karen, she wanted out of her marriage
to Danny and used Larry's feelings for her
to open the door.
- RICHARD: Karen thought she could go ahead
and wouldn't have to live a double life anymore,
that she's better off without him.
- TAYLOR: She basically blamed it on the drugs.
She said, "Now that I'm sober, I have a whole new
perspective on things."
- NARRATOR: Karen admits she knew
about Danny's life insurance policy
and had planned to use the money not only to start anew,
but to pay the others.
She confirms that Larry Nolan was promised
$2,000, James Kornhardt $17,000,
and Steve Mueller $1,200 to carry out the plot.
- ROBERT: It seems like an incredibly cold
and calculated crime for Jim and Steven and Dozer
because they didn't really have anything against Danny.
They're really just doing it for the promise of some money
down the, down the line.
- NARRATOR: Karen says that after Larry recruited
James, James recruited two people of his own.
- ROBERT: James enlists his friends, Steven Mueller,
and this mystery guy who's only ever been named
as Dozer, to actually do the killing.
Dozer's identity has never been made public,
perhaps because Steve didn't know it.
But Dozer is still a mystery.
- NARRATOR: Karen ultimately pleads guilty
to conspiracy and murder for hire charges
and makes a deal, hoping for a lighter sentence.
- GREGORY: She agreed to testify,
and she just didn't want to do it in front of her son, Joby.
And, uh, Joby ultimately agreed.
He wanted to see justice done,
and he agreed not to sit in the trial
during his mother's testimony
about how she killed his father.
- NARRATOR: In June 2010, the joint trial
for James Kornhardt and Steve Mueller gets underway.
- GREGORY: Karen's testimony was helpful.
The latent fingerprint on the matches
and the recorded phone calls
and the other information that came out of the prison
that was ultimately corroborated, all led
to a very successful prosecution.
- NARRATOR: On June 14th, 2010, the jury finds
James Kornhardt and Steve Mueller guilty,
and both men are sentenced to life in prison.
- GARY: The sentence was, uh, was satisfactory.
I mean we, uh, you know, there's a lot of hard work.
And considering the nature of the crime, uh, you know,
we, we, we felt that it was justified.
- GREGORY: It did provide some closure for everybody involved.
Joby was extremely thankful that they could finally
get some closure on the case.
- NARRATOR: As for Karen Coleman,
she receives 20 years in federal prison as a result
of her cooperation.
- RICHARD: I was very disappointed in that.
I thought she should have got life too.
She was a murderer too.
Even though she might not have been involved
at the time of his death, she's the one that instilled
in people that he should be killed.
- NARRATOR: Authorities continue to search
for the mystery man known only as Dozer.
- GREGORY: If anybody else out there has any knowledge
of this whatsoever, the case is still open.
Reach out, get some closure, and tell law enforcement
what you know.
- NARRATOR: And while the sting of heartbreak lessens
over time, Danny's memory will forever live on.
- RICHARD: He was a, an asset to this world.
He was just a great guy.
And he, uh, he totally got blindsided by his wife,
which led to his death.