1 00:00:06,673 --> 00:00:09,509 - [Narrator] Lifelong bachelor and classic car collector, 2 00:00:09,509 --> 00:00:12,929 Byron Wright looks like he has finally meant the woman 3 00:00:12,929 --> 00:00:14,097 of his dreams. 4 00:00:14,889 --> 00:00:16,975 (camera shuttering) 5 00:00:16,975 --> 00:00:19,477 A jailhouse informant has a story for two detectives 6 00:00:19,477 --> 00:00:23,314 about a murder that neither has ever heard a whisper about. 7 00:00:23,314 --> 00:00:28,111 - All the little details, it was really an unusual one. 8 00:00:28,111 --> 00:00:31,156 (camera shuttering) 9 00:00:31,865 --> 00:00:32,906 - [Narrator] It is confirmed 10 00:00:32,906 --> 00:00:35,409 that human remains have been found beneath 11 00:00:35,409 --> 00:00:37,787 the concrete floor of garage. 12 00:00:40,957 --> 00:00:42,542 Detective Jim Scharf 13 00:00:42,542 --> 00:00:45,378 of the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department 14 00:00:45,378 --> 00:00:48,256 has just received the news he has been waiting weeks 15 00:00:48,256 --> 00:00:49,215 to hear. 16 00:00:51,885 --> 00:00:55,597 - The unsolved ones we have to stand up. 17 00:00:55,597 --> 00:00:59,559 - And approach these cases in a way outside the box. 18 00:00:59,559 --> 00:01:01,561 - Let the world know that those out there 19 00:01:01,561 --> 00:01:03,396 that did commit a murder there are people 20 00:01:03,396 --> 00:01:04,688 that are coming after you. 21 00:01:04,688 --> 00:01:06,816 - There's just a lot of good people trying to do 22 00:01:06,816 --> 00:01:08,401 the right thing. 23 00:01:08,401 --> 00:01:09,569 - Because it's something 24 00:01:09,569 --> 00:01:10,819 that you have to be passionate about. 25 00:01:10,819 --> 00:01:14,407 - Solve this, bring some peace to the family at least, 26 00:01:14,407 --> 00:01:15,700 just doing my job. 27 00:01:23,124 --> 00:01:25,959 (intense music) 28 00:01:30,256 --> 00:01:33,009 - [Narrator] Michelle Donohue has the unfortunate job 29 00:01:33,009 --> 00:01:36,763 of telling her sister-in-law that her husband, Byron Wright 30 00:01:36,763 --> 00:01:39,682 has decided to run off with another woman. 31 00:01:42,227 --> 00:01:46,231 Sharon Diehl, the sister of Byron Wright has just received 32 00:01:46,231 --> 00:01:50,110 a disturbing phone call from his wife, Michelle Donohue. 33 00:01:51,027 --> 00:01:54,531 Growing up close as children, Sharon and Byron have always 34 00:01:54,531 --> 00:01:57,534 looked out for each other, but since Byron's marriage 35 00:01:57,534 --> 00:01:59,619 to Michelle, they seldom talk 36 00:01:59,619 --> 00:02:02,122 and no longer see each other as often. 37 00:02:03,081 --> 00:02:06,084 Byron always seems to be far too busy to call, 38 00:02:06,084 --> 00:02:08,837 or attend family gatherings like he used to. 39 00:02:11,589 --> 00:02:14,425 (intense music) 40 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:21,683 Sharon has decided to file a missing person's report 41 00:02:21,683 --> 00:02:24,727 with a Snohomish County Sheriff's Department. 42 00:02:24,727 --> 00:02:26,062 It is unlike her brother 43 00:02:26,062 --> 00:02:29,065 to leave everything he's worked so hard for behind. 44 00:02:32,569 --> 00:02:35,572 Arlington is that perfect mixture of rural 45 00:02:35,572 --> 00:02:36,781 and big city. 46 00:02:36,781 --> 00:02:38,449 In the northern part of Snohomish County 47 00:02:38,449 --> 00:02:41,828 in Washington state, the city of Arlington is part 48 00:02:41,828 --> 00:02:44,038 of the Seattle metropolitan area. 49 00:02:44,038 --> 00:02:46,624 - The city lies at the base of the western foothills 50 00:02:46,624 --> 00:02:50,587 of the Cascade Mountains alongside the Stillaguamish River. 51 00:02:50,587 --> 00:02:52,964 It's a place attractive to both city dwellers 52 00:02:52,964 --> 00:02:54,799 and lovers of the outdoors. 53 00:02:54,799 --> 00:02:56,550 One of the biggest employers in that area 54 00:02:56,550 --> 00:02:57,802 of the state is Boeing. 55 00:02:57,802 --> 00:03:00,555 The Boeing site is so big it has its own security team, 56 00:03:00,555 --> 00:03:04,267 fire department, several cafes and coffee shops, 57 00:03:04,267 --> 00:03:06,060 even a daycare center. 58 00:03:06,060 --> 00:03:08,479 - [Narrator] Boeing has over 30,000 workers 59 00:03:08,479 --> 00:03:10,732 at its Everett facility, 60 00:03:10,732 --> 00:03:12,817 one of these workers is Byron Wright, 61 00:03:12,817 --> 00:03:16,196 a longtime employee and a very well liked one. 62 00:03:17,197 --> 00:03:21,784 Byron was born in 1951 and grew up in a broken home. 63 00:03:22,744 --> 00:03:25,622 In the late 1950's his father walked out on the family, 64 00:03:25,622 --> 00:03:27,874 leaving his mother to raise four young children 65 00:03:27,874 --> 00:03:31,211 as a single parent on government assistance. 66 00:03:32,002 --> 00:03:34,964 Growing up poor Byron had a strong work ethic 67 00:03:34,964 --> 00:03:37,383 and after working at Boeing for a number of years, 68 00:03:37,383 --> 00:03:40,345 was able to buy a beautiful piece of rural property 69 00:03:40,345 --> 00:03:43,223 with a large garage and mobile home. 70 00:03:44,974 --> 00:03:47,769 At the same time, he also bought a second empty piece 71 00:03:47,769 --> 00:03:50,230 of property beside the first. 72 00:03:50,939 --> 00:03:53,691 Byron is also a huge fan of restoring 73 00:03:53,691 --> 00:03:55,735 and racing classic cars. 74 00:03:55,735 --> 00:03:57,695 He has worked hard since his his teenage years 75 00:03:57,695 --> 00:04:00,865 to build a considerable collection reportedly 76 00:04:00,865 --> 00:04:03,451 worth almost half a million dollars. 77 00:04:03,451 --> 00:04:06,246 Some of his vehicles include a Rare Corvette Stingray, 78 00:04:06,246 --> 00:04:11,501 a 65 Chevy Malibu, a couple of Chevelles at a race car. 79 00:04:12,460 --> 00:04:15,046 - One of Byron's best friends described him as a homebody 80 00:04:15,046 --> 00:04:18,800 who had no children of his own but doted on his nieces. 81 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:21,427 He would spend every holiday with his siblings, 82 00:04:21,427 --> 00:04:24,931 and their children and he loved to hand out silly gifts. 83 00:04:28,017 --> 00:04:29,142 - [Narrator] Though Byron has always seemed 84 00:04:29,142 --> 00:04:32,105 to prefer spending time working on his classic cars, 85 00:04:32,105 --> 00:04:35,108 or with a small group of friends, he's not opposed 86 00:04:35,108 --> 00:04:38,152 to going out for a drink or two to the local bar 87 00:04:38,152 --> 00:04:40,279 to unwind after a day at work. 88 00:04:41,656 --> 00:04:44,951 21 year old Michelle Donohue is a wild child 89 00:04:44,951 --> 00:04:46,327 who left home at an early age 90 00:04:46,327 --> 00:04:50,206 'cause of conflicts against her strict upbringing. 91 00:04:50,206 --> 00:04:52,834 Popular and known as a social butterfly, 92 00:04:52,834 --> 00:04:55,503 she's already been married, divorced, 93 00:04:55,503 --> 00:04:57,755 and has a young daughter named Heather. 94 00:04:58,964 --> 00:05:02,635 Michelle decides she needs to start getting out more. 95 00:05:02,635 --> 00:05:05,763 She's lonely and bored and soon meets Byron Wright 96 00:05:05,763 --> 00:05:07,307 at her neighborhood tavern. 97 00:05:10,310 --> 00:05:14,897 Though shy and not usually one to socialize, Byron is drawn 98 00:05:14,897 --> 00:05:16,649 to the charismatic Michelle. 99 00:05:19,902 --> 00:05:23,656 Even though Byron is 14 years Michelle's senior, 100 00:05:23,656 --> 00:05:25,700 they quickly fall in love and decide 101 00:05:25,700 --> 00:05:27,118 to share a life together. 102 00:05:27,118 --> 00:05:29,245 Michelle and her daughter Heather soon move 103 00:05:29,245 --> 00:05:33,708 into Byron's house on Wade Road and they're married in 2000. 104 00:05:34,625 --> 00:05:36,002 By all accounts, 105 00:05:36,002 --> 00:05:38,963 Michelle and Byron were very happy together. 106 00:05:38,963 --> 00:05:41,966 Michelle also had an interest in classic cars 107 00:05:41,966 --> 00:05:44,427 and could hold her own in a conversation 108 00:05:44,427 --> 00:05:45,887 when talking about them. 109 00:05:45,887 --> 00:05:48,806 Her daughter, Heather says one of her favorite things 110 00:05:48,806 --> 00:05:51,809 to do together as a family on a nice day 111 00:05:51,809 --> 00:05:54,604 was to jump into Byron's classic convertible, 112 00:05:54,604 --> 00:05:57,857 put the top down and the three of them would cruise down 113 00:05:57,857 --> 00:05:58,858 the highway. 114 00:06:02,653 --> 00:06:04,113 Tension has been steadily rising 115 00:06:04,113 --> 00:06:08,159 the last year or so in the home between Byron and Michelle. 116 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:11,537 While Heather adores her stepfather, Michelle is tired 117 00:06:11,537 --> 00:06:14,916 of being stuck with a homebody and all she really wants 118 00:06:14,916 --> 00:06:17,585 to do is go out with her friends and party. 119 00:06:20,046 --> 00:06:22,214 Heather spends more and more time at her father, 120 00:06:22,214 --> 00:06:24,717 and stepmother's house and decides to go away 121 00:06:24,717 --> 00:06:27,970 with them on a family vacation to Ireland. 122 00:06:27,970 --> 00:06:30,306 - It can be very hard for children 123 00:06:30,306 --> 00:06:34,435 to trust a new stepparent after witnessing a divorce, 124 00:06:34,435 --> 00:06:37,522 especially a contentious one. 125 00:06:37,522 --> 00:06:42,110 Children can also feel guilt towards their biological parent 126 00:06:42,110 --> 00:06:44,904 and feel they're being disloyal if they bond 127 00:06:44,904 --> 00:06:46,863 with the new stepparent. 128 00:06:47,824 --> 00:06:49,117 - [Narrator] To add to the stress, 129 00:06:49,117 --> 00:06:51,911 Byron is becoming increasingly isolated 130 00:06:51,911 --> 00:06:54,205 from his own family and friends. 131 00:06:55,289 --> 00:06:56,624 There are complaints that since he married Michelle 132 00:06:56,624 --> 00:07:00,211 she has stopped him from having a relationship with anybody 133 00:07:00,211 --> 00:07:03,423 that was part of his life from before their marriage. 134 00:07:07,969 --> 00:07:09,971 Byron Wright has gone ahead 135 00:07:09,971 --> 00:07:12,473 and done something nobody could have imagined. 136 00:07:13,474 --> 00:07:17,061 Michelle alleges that tired of the constant arguing at home, 137 00:07:17,061 --> 00:07:19,897 he's decided to run off to Wisconsin 138 00:07:19,897 --> 00:07:22,692 with a wealthy redheaded 20 something 139 00:07:22,692 --> 00:07:24,902 who drives an expensive sports car. 140 00:07:25,695 --> 00:07:28,156 In doing so, he's left everything behind, 141 00:07:28,156 --> 00:07:31,659 including his job, his car collection, his house, 142 00:07:31,659 --> 00:07:35,538 and two properties worst of all, Michelle and Heather. 143 00:07:36,873 --> 00:07:39,709 (intense music) 144 00:07:45,131 --> 00:07:48,342 Michelle has kept it secret for almost a month hoping 145 00:07:48,342 --> 00:07:51,721 that Byron would come back before she has to tell anybody 146 00:07:51,721 --> 00:07:52,972 that he's even left. 147 00:07:53,931 --> 00:07:57,393 Finally, she makes the decision to call his sister, Sharon 148 00:07:57,393 --> 00:07:59,187 and tell her what has happened. 149 00:08:01,147 --> 00:08:03,191 The Byron who ran off with another woman 150 00:08:03,191 --> 00:08:06,611 and left everything behind is not the Byron that his family 151 00:08:06,611 --> 00:08:07,862 and friends know. 152 00:08:08,905 --> 00:08:10,406 He's worked too long and hard 153 00:08:10,406 --> 00:08:13,784 to ever leave his beloved car collection behind no matter 154 00:08:13,784 --> 00:08:16,287 how wealthy his new girlfriend might be. 155 00:08:19,499 --> 00:08:22,710 Sharon makes call after call to other family, 156 00:08:22,710 --> 00:08:24,921 friends and coworkers of Byron. 157 00:08:26,297 --> 00:08:28,841 Except for calling in sick to his job at Boeing 158 00:08:28,841 --> 00:08:32,261 for a couple of days, nobody has seen or heard from him 159 00:08:32,261 --> 00:08:36,015 for over a month now, it's time to make a police report, 160 00:08:36,015 --> 00:08:38,309 but is Byron really even missing? 161 00:08:39,434 --> 00:08:42,855 This is a question that will take almost 10 years to answer. 162 00:08:46,025 --> 00:08:48,694 (intense music) 163 00:08:54,033 --> 00:08:57,995 Lifelong bachelor and classic car collector, Byron Wright 164 00:08:57,995 --> 00:09:00,623 might have finally met the woman of his dreams. 165 00:09:02,500 --> 00:09:04,961 But tension between Byron and Michelle 166 00:09:04,961 --> 00:09:08,589 has been steadily rising in the home over the past year. 167 00:09:11,092 --> 00:09:12,468 Byron Wright has gone ahead 168 00:09:12,468 --> 00:09:15,221 and done something nobody could have imagined. 169 00:09:17,348 --> 00:09:20,393 Michelle's daughter, Heather returns from vacation 170 00:09:20,393 --> 00:09:23,896 with her father to Ireland and immediately goes over 171 00:09:23,896 --> 00:09:26,023 to see her mom and Byron, 172 00:09:26,023 --> 00:09:28,859 she doesn't know yet that Byron has gone for good 173 00:09:28,859 --> 00:09:31,237 and has left everything behind. 174 00:09:33,239 --> 00:09:36,450 She is shocked and can't understand what has happened, 175 00:09:36,450 --> 00:09:39,537 especially when even the closet is still full of Byron's 176 00:09:39,537 --> 00:09:45,042 clothes and his beloved car collection still sits outside. 177 00:09:46,043 --> 00:09:48,421 Heather is still hurt and confused that Byron has left her 178 00:09:48,421 --> 00:09:52,300 and her mother for another woman, even as young as she is, 179 00:09:52,300 --> 00:09:54,844 it doesn't seem like something he would do. 180 00:09:58,431 --> 00:10:01,517 To cheer her up, Michelle decides to surprise Heather 181 00:10:01,517 --> 00:10:04,979 with a small sledding hill in their backyard. 182 00:10:04,979 --> 00:10:06,188 - There wasn't a lot to do 183 00:10:06,188 --> 00:10:08,607 for an only child in this rural location. 184 00:10:08,607 --> 00:10:10,359 Heather always loved the outdoors, 185 00:10:10,359 --> 00:10:14,405 Michelle ordered four loads of fill and 36 yards of dirt, 186 00:10:14,405 --> 00:10:17,074 and as soon as it snowed, Heather had the perfect hill 187 00:10:17,074 --> 00:10:18,075 to slide on. 188 00:10:21,370 --> 00:10:23,247 - [Narrator] Sharon and Byron's other siblings 189 00:10:23,247 --> 00:10:26,958 and friends have spent a month trying to track 'em down. 190 00:10:26,958 --> 00:10:29,587 Nobody seems to know who this wealthy redhead 191 00:10:29,587 --> 00:10:34,383 with the expensive sports car is or why he would take off 192 00:10:34,383 --> 00:10:36,385 to Wisconsin with her and leave everything, 193 00:10:36,385 --> 00:10:38,888 and everyone behind without a word. 194 00:10:40,097 --> 00:10:43,351 Sharon has decided to file a missing person's report 195 00:10:43,351 --> 00:10:45,895 with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department. 196 00:10:49,607 --> 00:10:51,192 - Unfortunately for Sharon 197 00:10:51,192 --> 00:10:53,486 and the rest of his family and friends, 198 00:10:53,486 --> 00:10:55,821 the sheriff's department doesn't think it's necessary 199 00:10:55,821 --> 00:10:59,283 to issue a missing person report or investigate further. 200 00:10:59,283 --> 00:11:01,785 From their point of view, he's an adult male 201 00:11:01,785 --> 00:11:03,162 if it's his decision to run off 202 00:11:03,162 --> 00:11:06,332 with a younger woman leaving behind a job of 23 years 203 00:11:06,332 --> 00:11:10,002 and his prize car collection, that's his decision to make. 204 00:11:11,128 --> 00:11:14,131 - [Narrator] Michelle almost immediately files for divorce 205 00:11:14,131 --> 00:11:16,342 and tells everyone how Byron has run off 206 00:11:16,342 --> 00:11:19,553 with another woman deserting her and Heather. 207 00:11:19,553 --> 00:11:23,015 He threw it in her face that his new love is a younger, 208 00:11:23,015 --> 00:11:27,144 wealthier woman and he no longer needs his job at Boeing, 209 00:11:27,144 --> 00:11:29,814 or anything from his old life with Michelle. 210 00:11:30,981 --> 00:11:34,235 - Michelle moves on quickly and soon meets Joel Donohue, 211 00:11:34,235 --> 00:11:36,362 who is also into cars and partying. 212 00:11:36,362 --> 00:11:39,949 The two hit it off and Joel soon moves into the Byron home 213 00:11:39,949 --> 00:11:41,409 on Wade Road. 214 00:11:41,409 --> 00:11:45,621 In the meantime, Michelle files for divorce by absentia, 215 00:11:45,621 --> 00:11:49,208 it's granted when Byron doesn't show up for proceedings. 216 00:11:49,208 --> 00:11:51,085 That means everything goes to Michelle, 217 00:11:51,085 --> 00:11:53,504 the house, the cars, his pension. 218 00:11:54,755 --> 00:11:57,383 - [Narrator] The newlyweds are having a great time spending 219 00:11:57,383 --> 00:12:00,928 the money Michelle received from her divorce to Byron. 220 00:12:00,928 --> 00:12:06,392 In addition, Michelle also receives a $124,000 payout 221 00:12:07,184 --> 00:12:08,144 from Byron's Boeing pension. 222 00:12:09,770 --> 00:12:12,231 Vacations, gambling, shopping, 223 00:12:12,231 --> 00:12:14,984 and just plain having fun top their list 224 00:12:14,984 --> 00:12:16,986 of what to spend the money on. 225 00:12:16,986 --> 00:12:20,780 Byron driving off into the sunset with his new love interest 226 00:12:20,780 --> 00:12:23,367 and deserting Michelle and her daughter Heather 227 00:12:23,367 --> 00:12:25,578 is nothing but a distant memory. 228 00:12:27,413 --> 00:12:31,708 - In December of 2013, my partner was Joe Dunn 229 00:12:31,708 --> 00:12:36,130 and we were working cold cases and Joe had a good rapport 230 00:12:36,130 --> 00:12:38,381 with a lot of people on the street. 231 00:12:39,341 --> 00:12:41,218 He got to know a lot of people 232 00:12:41,218 --> 00:12:44,929 that were involved in auto thefts and things of that nature. 233 00:12:44,929 --> 00:12:48,934 So this guy gets booked into jail on an auto theft 234 00:12:48,934 --> 00:12:52,938 where he is stripping cars and he tries to contact Joe, 235 00:12:52,938 --> 00:12:56,484 telling him that he needs to talk to him about a murder. 236 00:12:56,484 --> 00:12:59,612 Well, Joe isn't around to get the message, 237 00:12:59,612 --> 00:13:03,491 so I think it took a week and the guy is persistent, 238 00:13:03,491 --> 00:13:05,826 sends another message to Joe saying, 239 00:13:05,826 --> 00:13:07,912 yeah, I really need to talk to you. 240 00:13:07,912 --> 00:13:11,707 Well, Joe figures the guy is just looking for a way 241 00:13:11,707 --> 00:13:14,835 to get out of jail 'cause he just knows the type 242 00:13:14,835 --> 00:13:16,045 of person this guy is. 243 00:13:16,045 --> 00:13:19,548 He's basically a career criminal because he's a drug addict 244 00:13:19,548 --> 00:13:22,426 and he's a thief and he's been in and out, 245 00:13:22,426 --> 00:13:26,806 and in and out of jail and prison for so many years, 246 00:13:26,806 --> 00:13:30,142 he's just never gonna be rehabilitated. 247 00:13:30,142 --> 00:13:32,269 - [Narrator] The inmate's persistence in trying 248 00:13:32,269 --> 00:13:35,564 to contact Donn finally pays off. 249 00:13:35,564 --> 00:13:38,859 He has a story for the two detectives about a murder 250 00:13:38,859 --> 00:13:42,238 that neither has ever heard a whisper about before. 251 00:13:42,238 --> 00:13:45,199 - So he gets us to come over and talk to him. 252 00:13:45,199 --> 00:13:48,660 I'm hoping that we get a tip that solves the case 253 00:13:48,660 --> 00:13:52,331 that I know that we already have is an unsolved murder. 254 00:13:53,332 --> 00:13:56,126 We get over there and we get all the information out 255 00:13:56,126 --> 00:13:59,630 of this guy and none of it sounds like any cold case 256 00:13:59,630 --> 00:14:03,467 that I've ever worked on, and Joe also believes 257 00:14:03,467 --> 00:14:06,636 that this sounds like a legitimate story too. 258 00:14:06,636 --> 00:14:11,851 So we get this story and immediately we realized 259 00:14:12,768 --> 00:14:16,313 that a guy by the name of Byron Wright is probably missing 260 00:14:16,313 --> 00:14:20,651 and could be a victim of a murder by his wife, 261 00:14:20,651 --> 00:14:25,781 and that she killed him and put him in the backyard 262 00:14:25,781 --> 00:14:27,241 of her residence. 263 00:14:32,580 --> 00:14:35,666 - [Narrator] According to the informant, Michelle Donohue 264 00:14:35,666 --> 00:14:39,587 had buried her husband Byron Wright out beside the garage 265 00:14:39,587 --> 00:14:43,465 and covered it with a amount of dirt she had brought in. 266 00:14:47,887 --> 00:14:51,891 - So she recruited three people to move the body, 267 00:14:51,891 --> 00:14:54,476 so that it can never be found. 268 00:14:54,476 --> 00:14:59,398 Three people moved the body underneath a concrete slab 269 00:14:59,398 --> 00:15:02,443 in a garage that Byron Wright had built 270 00:15:02,443 --> 00:15:04,320 because he was a car guy. 271 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:08,949 And as the story went, one of the guys who helped move 272 00:15:08,949 --> 00:15:11,660 the body and put it under the floor 273 00:15:11,660 --> 00:15:15,831 of the garage had told this informant the story, 274 00:15:15,831 --> 00:15:18,792 and now this informant was bringing it to us, 275 00:15:18,792 --> 00:15:22,963 so they could help him get out of jail on the charges 276 00:15:22,963 --> 00:15:24,465 that he was on. 277 00:15:24,465 --> 00:15:25,966 But all the information sounded 278 00:15:25,966 --> 00:15:30,054 to me like it was very plausible and that we really needed 279 00:15:30,054 --> 00:15:32,806 to look into what happened to Byron Wright. 280 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:41,357 This informant, he also told us about what he had been doing 281 00:15:41,357 --> 00:15:45,110 with the husband of the woman that committed the murder 282 00:15:45,110 --> 00:15:49,573 and another guy that lived in the garage on the property, 283 00:15:49,573 --> 00:15:51,951 that they were all stealing cars 284 00:15:51,951 --> 00:15:54,411 and stripping them on the property 285 00:15:54,411 --> 00:15:58,707 and that the husband of the wife was not living in the house 286 00:15:58,707 --> 00:16:02,628 with the wife, but he was living in a camp trailer on 287 00:16:02,628 --> 00:16:05,714 the property with a pregnant girlfriend. 288 00:16:06,674 --> 00:16:07,800 - [Narrator] The informant is uneasy 289 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,260 with all of the stolen auto parts around, 290 00:16:10,260 --> 00:16:14,056 and stripping vehicles on the property when clearly Michelle 291 00:16:14,056 --> 00:16:15,140 is not on board. 292 00:16:17,059 --> 00:16:19,687 - The informant brought up the question, 293 00:16:19,687 --> 00:16:24,984 hey, we're causing too much problem here for Michelle 294 00:16:25,985 --> 00:16:29,363 that she's gonna call the cops on us if we're not careful. 295 00:16:29,363 --> 00:16:32,574 We gotta be worried about what we're doing here 296 00:16:32,574 --> 00:16:33,742 'cause we're gonna get caught, 297 00:16:33,742 --> 00:16:35,577 and if the cops don't catch us, 298 00:16:35,577 --> 00:16:36,912 Michelle's gonna tip 'em off. 299 00:16:36,912 --> 00:16:40,708 And the friend says, oh no, no, we don't have to worry 300 00:16:40,708 --> 00:16:45,921 about Michelle because Michelle killed her previous husband 301 00:16:46,547 --> 00:16:50,884 and recruited Joel, her current husband and me 302 00:16:50,884 --> 00:16:55,889 and Walter Shoe to move the body and we buried it under 303 00:16:55,889 --> 00:16:59,143 the slab of the concrete garage here. 304 00:17:00,310 --> 00:17:02,146 And when the guy looked at the floor, 305 00:17:02,146 --> 00:17:04,648 he could tell that there was a nice finish 306 00:17:04,648 --> 00:17:07,234 to the concrete everywhere in the garage, 307 00:17:07,234 --> 00:17:10,821 except this one corner where it was large enough 308 00:17:10,821 --> 00:17:13,198 to probably bury five bodies in. 309 00:17:13,198 --> 00:17:15,576 There was that much concrete torn up 310 00:17:15,576 --> 00:17:19,997 that was repaved and poorly surfaced. 311 00:17:19,997 --> 00:17:22,708 So everything fit that he believed 312 00:17:22,708 --> 00:17:25,419 that Michelle's first husband was murdered, 313 00:17:25,419 --> 00:17:30,215 and put there and he was telling us that this happened. 314 00:17:30,215 --> 00:17:34,595 My immediate thought was this all sounds plausible 315 00:17:34,595 --> 00:17:36,930 and what we need to do is first of all, 316 00:17:36,930 --> 00:17:40,017 we need to find out who this first husband was, 317 00:17:40,017 --> 00:17:42,644 find out when he was last seen to see 318 00:17:42,644 --> 00:17:46,315 if he's still alive somewhere and if he's not, 319 00:17:46,315 --> 00:17:50,944 then this story is probably true and if it's true, 320 00:17:50,944 --> 00:17:52,946 how can we get it resolved? 321 00:18:00,662 --> 00:18:04,500 So I asked the guy directly, I said, would you be willing 322 00:18:04,500 --> 00:18:08,712 to wear a wire and a recorder and go back in 323 00:18:08,712 --> 00:18:12,758 and talk to Mike that was living in the garage, and get him 324 00:18:12,758 --> 00:18:16,845 to tell you this whole story in as much detail as you can 325 00:18:16,845 --> 00:18:20,933 get out of him while you're on this recording, 326 00:18:20,933 --> 00:18:24,728 so that we can get a search warrant based on that story 327 00:18:24,728 --> 00:18:28,398 and search the garage and find the body and solve the case. 328 00:18:29,316 --> 00:18:31,609 You gotta be careful when you use informants 329 00:18:31,609 --> 00:18:34,571 because you gotta be able to verify everything 330 00:18:34,571 --> 00:18:38,117 that they tell you 'cause they could be telling you lies. 331 00:18:39,660 --> 00:18:40,828 - Using confidential informants 332 00:18:40,828 --> 00:18:43,664 is always risky business when it comes to prosecutions 333 00:18:43,664 --> 00:18:45,582 and police investigations. 334 00:18:45,582 --> 00:18:47,751 On the the one hand, if the information 335 00:18:47,751 --> 00:18:51,004 that they provide is reliable, they can get certain benefits 336 00:18:51,004 --> 00:18:54,800 such as financial compensation, reduce in their sentence, 337 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:57,761 or potentially even transferred to a different facility 338 00:18:57,761 --> 00:18:59,763 if this happened while in custody. 339 00:18:59,763 --> 00:19:02,975 On the flip side, they do always run the risk of being found 340 00:19:02,975 --> 00:19:06,228 out by the criminal organizations that they've worked with, 341 00:19:06,228 --> 00:19:09,314 but in the end they're always looking out for themselves. 342 00:19:10,482 --> 00:19:14,653 - Now all we had to do was arrange with the prosecutor 343 00:19:14,653 --> 00:19:18,699 to get him released from jail to be able to go up there 344 00:19:18,699 --> 00:19:21,034 and try to get this recording done. 345 00:19:21,034 --> 00:19:26,290 So Joe and I initially looked into Byron's missing status, 346 00:19:27,166 --> 00:19:29,501 and we also went back to verify everything 347 00:19:29,501 --> 00:19:32,504 that he told us about the trucks that they were stealing, 348 00:19:32,504 --> 00:19:36,967 and the car parts they were taking and they were being sold 349 00:19:36,967 --> 00:19:38,719 for drugs and all of this stuff. 350 00:19:38,719 --> 00:19:41,930 Well, he told us that two of the trucks that they stole 351 00:19:41,930 --> 00:19:44,933 and stripped, they dumped them behind a barn just down 352 00:19:44,933 --> 00:19:48,561 the hill off of Wade Road from where Michelle lived. 353 00:19:50,898 --> 00:19:55,109 So Joe and I go up there and sure enough, there's the trucks 354 00:19:55,109 --> 00:19:58,446 that he said would be there that were stolen and we ran 'em 355 00:19:58,446 --> 00:20:00,199 and they come back stolen. 356 00:20:00,199 --> 00:20:04,536 So everything that he told us we were able to verify. 357 00:20:09,583 --> 00:20:11,542 (intense music) 358 00:20:11,542 --> 00:20:15,505 So then we ended up being able to find his sister 359 00:20:15,505 --> 00:20:18,842 and his sister said, yeah, I tried to report Byron missing. 360 00:20:18,842 --> 00:20:21,762 We contacted the Boeing company and they said, 361 00:20:21,762 --> 00:20:24,223 yeah, his last day of work was here. 362 00:20:24,223 --> 00:20:27,267 There was some notes that they had gotten saying 363 00:20:27,267 --> 00:20:29,728 that he was gonna be sick for a couple days 364 00:20:29,728 --> 00:20:32,648 and before he had quit showing up altogether. 365 00:20:32,648 --> 00:20:36,026 So there was documentation that we were able to find 366 00:20:36,026 --> 00:20:40,030 that he just flat disappeared right around this day 367 00:20:40,030 --> 00:20:45,244 and I think it was October or November of 2004. 368 00:20:46,619 --> 00:20:49,039 - [Narrator] Detectives now know that Byron Wright 369 00:20:49,039 --> 00:20:52,917 is truly missing, but is it true that his body 370 00:20:52,917 --> 00:20:55,462 is buried under the floor of his own garage? 371 00:20:58,590 --> 00:21:01,468 (intense music) 372 00:21:10,143 --> 00:21:13,021 Michelle Donohue tells friends that her husband, 373 00:21:13,021 --> 00:21:16,233 Byron Wright has left for another woman 374 00:21:16,233 --> 00:21:17,943 and moved to Wisconsin. 375 00:21:19,569 --> 00:21:23,782 Almost a decade later, an informant offers police 376 00:21:23,782 --> 00:21:25,826 some shocking information. 377 00:21:25,826 --> 00:21:30,247 He claims some guys he knows at a local chop shop told him 378 00:21:30,247 --> 00:21:31,915 how they buried a body. 379 00:21:33,375 --> 00:21:37,004 - I asked him, are you willing to be recorded? 380 00:21:37,004 --> 00:21:38,714 And he told us that he was. 381 00:21:40,965 --> 00:21:43,051 - [Narrator] Detectives have come up with a plan 382 00:21:43,051 --> 00:21:45,262 for the informant to get the guys talking 383 00:21:45,262 --> 00:21:48,140 about the body they supposedly buried. 384 00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:50,183 - I heard and knew 385 00:21:50,183 --> 00:21:54,313 that the Major Crimes Unit had been out in Gold Bar 386 00:21:54,313 --> 00:21:56,940 the previous month recovering a body 387 00:21:56,940 --> 00:22:01,236 that was buried in a backyard underneath a pile of wood. 388 00:22:01,236 --> 00:22:04,906 The story on that case was really bizarre, 389 00:22:04,906 --> 00:22:07,617 they believed that his wife had helped him escape 390 00:22:07,617 --> 00:22:11,580 from prison in Missouri and he just flat disappeared, 391 00:22:11,580 --> 00:22:13,915 and this was years ago. 392 00:22:13,915 --> 00:22:16,417 Well, when he got sick and was terminal, 393 00:22:16,417 --> 00:22:20,964 he told his wife when I die, you can't call the coroner 394 00:22:20,964 --> 00:22:23,383 and tell him to come and get my body, 395 00:22:23,383 --> 00:22:27,179 you gotta hide it because if they figure out who I am, 396 00:22:27,179 --> 00:22:29,931 they're gonna know who you are and they're gonna arrest you 397 00:22:29,931 --> 00:22:32,893 for helping me escape from prison 398 00:22:32,893 --> 00:22:35,395 and hide me out all these years. 399 00:22:35,395 --> 00:22:38,857 He died and she had him buried behind the house 400 00:22:38,857 --> 00:22:41,276 and they covered him up with a wood pile. 401 00:22:42,861 --> 00:22:45,280 The FBI got involved somehow. 402 00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:48,657 Somebody told them that this guy might be buried there, 403 00:22:48,657 --> 00:22:50,744 and that he might have been this fugitive 404 00:22:50,744 --> 00:22:52,454 that they had been looking for. 405 00:22:53,330 --> 00:22:55,791 The Major Crimes Unit ended up going out there 406 00:22:55,791 --> 00:22:58,627 and digging under the wood pile and finding a body, 407 00:22:58,627 --> 00:23:01,797 and recovering it, and they were still in the process 408 00:23:01,797 --> 00:23:06,218 of identifying it as that fugitive escapee. 409 00:23:06,218 --> 00:23:11,098 So that's why it hadn't been reported into the news yet, 410 00:23:11,098 --> 00:23:15,394 and they didn't wanna put it in the news until they got DNA 411 00:23:15,394 --> 00:23:19,398 confirmation that it was him. 412 00:23:22,317 --> 00:23:26,363 I knew the story and I thought this was a golden opportunity 413 00:23:26,363 --> 00:23:30,992 to put that information in the Everett Herald newspaper, 414 00:23:30,992 --> 00:23:33,036 so that we could take him outta jail 415 00:23:33,036 --> 00:23:35,914 and have him take this newspaper down there 416 00:23:35,914 --> 00:23:37,290 and show it to Mike and say, 417 00:23:37,290 --> 00:23:41,128 hey Mike they found this body buried up in Gold Bar 418 00:23:41,128 --> 00:23:45,257 just to open up the conversation and get Mike talking about 419 00:23:45,257 --> 00:23:48,844 the body that he helped bury under the concrete floor 420 00:23:48,844 --> 00:23:49,845 in the garage. 421 00:23:50,762 --> 00:23:53,265 So people thought this was a good idea, 422 00:23:53,265 --> 00:23:55,976 and it was really what we needed to open up 423 00:23:55,976 --> 00:23:59,646 the conversation so that we didn't make our informant 424 00:23:59,646 --> 00:24:03,483 look like he was tricking anybody because first of all, 425 00:24:03,483 --> 00:24:07,154 he'd had such criminal history that it wouldn't be likely 426 00:24:07,154 --> 00:24:09,156 that he would even be outta jail. 427 00:24:09,156 --> 00:24:12,032 So they were gonna probably be questioning the fact 428 00:24:12,032 --> 00:24:15,036 that he was even free when he shouldn't be, 429 00:24:15,036 --> 00:24:17,830 and if he's pumping 'em for information 430 00:24:17,830 --> 00:24:20,125 without having a good excuse to do it, 431 00:24:20,125 --> 00:24:23,503 they probably would shut down and not tell him anything. 432 00:24:23,503 --> 00:24:27,048 So I convinced him that this newspaper story 433 00:24:27,048 --> 00:24:31,595 was the ideal lead in to get the guy talking, 434 00:24:31,595 --> 00:24:33,597 so that we could record the story 435 00:24:33,597 --> 00:24:35,682 about what happened to Byron. 436 00:24:35,682 --> 00:24:38,059 And we got the prosecutor on board, 437 00:24:38,059 --> 00:24:40,020 we got the Herald on board, 438 00:24:40,020 --> 00:24:43,064 and they printed the story on the front page 439 00:24:43,064 --> 00:24:44,523 of the Everett Herald on the day 440 00:24:44,523 --> 00:24:48,528 that the prosecutor was willing to let our informant out 441 00:24:48,528 --> 00:24:51,239 to go and try to make this contact. 442 00:24:51,239 --> 00:24:53,992 We had to get the courts to agree to release him, 443 00:24:53,992 --> 00:24:57,369 and we had to have him on an ankle bracelet monitor 444 00:24:57,369 --> 00:25:02,626 before we could get all this set up and we got it all set up 445 00:25:03,335 --> 00:25:04,628 and we got him outta jail. 446 00:25:04,628 --> 00:25:07,881 We got the newspaper article that came out that morning, 447 00:25:07,881 --> 00:25:09,340 and we drove him all the way up 448 00:25:09,340 --> 00:25:11,676 and we dropped him off just down the street 449 00:25:11,676 --> 00:25:13,970 from Michelle Donohue's house. 450 00:25:13,970 --> 00:25:17,599 He walked down to the back, went into the garage 451 00:25:17,599 --> 00:25:22,479 with the newspaper and started a conversation up with Mike. 452 00:25:24,814 --> 00:25:27,442 Our informant shows Mike the newspaper, 453 00:25:27,442 --> 00:25:29,986 and Mike reads it and he says, well, 454 00:25:29,986 --> 00:25:31,613 they're not gonna find this body. 455 00:25:31,613 --> 00:25:36,201 It's buried under six feet of dirt under a concrete floor, 456 00:25:36,201 --> 00:25:39,371 ground penetrating radar isn't even gonna find it 457 00:25:39,371 --> 00:25:40,830 because it's too deep, 458 00:25:40,830 --> 00:25:43,291 so they're never gonna find this body. 459 00:25:45,460 --> 00:25:49,214 - [Narrator] Michelle is deep in debt so deep she's worried 460 00:25:49,214 --> 00:25:52,425 that she'll lose the property to foreclosure 461 00:25:52,425 --> 00:25:53,468 and the secret she has kept 462 00:25:53,468 --> 00:25:56,304 for the last seven years will be found out. 463 00:25:58,013 --> 00:26:01,184 Finally she decides that she needs to tell Joel 464 00:26:01,184 --> 00:26:04,104 what really happened to her previous husband. 465 00:26:04,104 --> 00:26:06,398 - Well that opens up the conversation 466 00:26:06,398 --> 00:26:07,983 to where the informants now saying, 467 00:26:07,983 --> 00:26:10,777 well, how did the body get here? 468 00:26:10,777 --> 00:26:11,778 Who all put it here? 469 00:26:11,778 --> 00:26:15,448 Well, it was me and Joel and Walter. 470 00:26:15,448 --> 00:26:19,369 Michelle told us that she had killed her husband 471 00:26:19,369 --> 00:26:23,582 and buried him in the backyard and she was worried 472 00:26:23,582 --> 00:26:25,208 that she was gonna lose this house 473 00:26:25,208 --> 00:26:29,671 'cause she was in debt so deep that she came to Joel 474 00:26:29,671 --> 00:26:31,840 and said, I killed my first husband 475 00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,343 and buried him back here, and if we don't get him off 476 00:26:35,343 --> 00:26:37,762 of this property and get him out of here 477 00:26:37,762 --> 00:26:39,931 to where he's never gonna be found, 478 00:26:39,931 --> 00:26:41,600 I could end up in prison. 479 00:26:43,435 --> 00:26:46,271 (intense music) 480 00:26:48,940 --> 00:26:51,901 So Joel and Mike, and Walter Shoe got together, 481 00:26:51,901 --> 00:26:54,571 and started talking about it and decided, 482 00:26:54,571 --> 00:26:55,905 well, we don't want to take 483 00:26:55,905 --> 00:26:59,034 the chance on transporting it somewhere else, 484 00:26:59,034 --> 00:27:02,996 why don't we just chop up the concrete and dig a hole 485 00:27:02,996 --> 00:27:06,333 and bury him right here in the middle of the night? 486 00:27:06,333 --> 00:27:08,627 Nobody's caught us stripping cars here, 487 00:27:08,627 --> 00:27:12,005 so they're not gonna catch us moving a body. 488 00:27:12,005 --> 00:27:14,633 So he's telling him all this story on a tape. 489 00:27:14,633 --> 00:27:16,468 He said, when we dug up the body, 490 00:27:16,468 --> 00:27:19,304 it was in three different plastic bags 491 00:27:19,304 --> 00:27:21,640 and it stunk horribly. 492 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:27,145 So we had rented this bobcat and we chopped up the concrete 493 00:27:28,104 --> 00:27:29,731 and we dug a hole with the bobcat. 494 00:27:32,108 --> 00:27:36,404 They went down and they got this great big Tupperware tub, 495 00:27:36,404 --> 00:27:38,448 and put the body in it and then they tried 496 00:27:38,448 --> 00:27:41,576 to pour stuff over to make it decay better 497 00:27:41,576 --> 00:27:45,038 and put a lid on it, and we put it in this hole six feet 498 00:27:45,038 --> 00:27:46,539 deep and we threw the bags 499 00:27:46,539 --> 00:27:50,292 with the other body parts in next to it and we covered it up 500 00:27:50,292 --> 00:27:53,588 and we poured a concrete floor over it again. 501 00:27:54,381 --> 00:27:56,675 - [Narrator] Mike also tells the informant that after 502 00:27:56,675 --> 00:28:00,553 the three of them finally finished reburying Byron's remains 503 00:28:00,553 --> 00:28:03,181 and pouring the concrete over the hole they had dug, 504 00:28:03,181 --> 00:28:05,850 they decided they should also say a few words 505 00:28:05,850 --> 00:28:07,519 as a type of service. 506 00:28:10,897 --> 00:28:13,358 - The informant took a picture of the concrete floor 507 00:28:13,358 --> 00:28:17,487 that was a really poor job of finishing cement, 508 00:28:17,487 --> 00:28:22,117 and he texted us the pictures and we had all the information 509 00:28:22,117 --> 00:28:24,994 that we needed at that point to get a search warrant 510 00:28:24,994 --> 00:28:26,705 to search the garage. 511 00:28:29,499 --> 00:28:32,335 (intense music) 512 00:28:39,509 --> 00:28:41,720 - [Narrator] An informant tells Seattle detectives 513 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,556 that he has information that he heard his partners 514 00:28:44,556 --> 00:28:47,976 at a local chop shop discussing how they disposed 515 00:28:47,976 --> 00:28:49,728 of a body on the property. 516 00:28:52,522 --> 00:28:53,565 Is this related 517 00:28:53,565 --> 00:28:56,359 to Byron Wright's disappearance a decade ago? 518 00:28:59,154 --> 00:29:01,030 The detectives formulate a plan 519 00:29:01,030 --> 00:29:02,991 for the informant to learn more 520 00:29:02,991 --> 00:29:07,537 from his partners using a local newspaper story as cover. 521 00:29:07,537 --> 00:29:12,125 - The Major Crimes Unit had been out in Gold Bar recovering 522 00:29:12,125 --> 00:29:15,670 a body in a backyard underneath a pile of wood. 523 00:29:16,588 --> 00:29:17,964 - [Narrator] The informant is told 524 00:29:17,964 --> 00:29:22,051 that this is a different body and is then told exactly how 525 00:29:22,051 --> 00:29:24,512 and where they buried their body. 526 00:29:25,722 --> 00:29:29,768 - After the informant got the story from Mike, 527 00:29:29,768 --> 00:29:33,146 he was still hanging out with Mike that day. 528 00:29:33,146 --> 00:29:37,400 Michelle was married to Joel, but they weren't getting along 529 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:41,237 and Joel was living with a pregnant girlfriend in the camper 530 00:29:41,237 --> 00:29:42,489 on the property. 531 00:29:43,490 --> 00:29:44,699 - [Narrator] Mike and the informant 532 00:29:44,699 --> 00:29:47,660 who was still wearing his wire head to the casino 533 00:29:47,660 --> 00:29:51,289 to pick up Michelle and give her a ride home from work. 534 00:29:51,289 --> 00:29:54,334 - She worked at the Tulalip Casino 535 00:29:54,334 --> 00:29:56,544 and she needed a ride home that night. 536 00:29:56,544 --> 00:30:01,049 So the informant, it took him a while that day 537 00:30:01,049 --> 00:30:03,259 to be able to get the whole story. 538 00:30:04,552 --> 00:30:08,223 So now they're down at the casino picking up Michelle 539 00:30:08,223 --> 00:30:11,518 and they're driving her home and they talk 540 00:30:11,518 --> 00:30:15,522 about her problems that she's having with her husband. 541 00:30:23,613 --> 00:30:25,490 The informant ends up contacting us, 542 00:30:25,490 --> 00:30:29,828 and I end up meeting the informant back near the casino 543 00:30:29,828 --> 00:30:33,832 and I get the recording from him that night. 544 00:30:34,791 --> 00:30:37,126 I'm listening to the recording on the weekend, 545 00:30:37,126 --> 00:30:40,922 and I hear a discussion that happened with Michelle 546 00:30:40,922 --> 00:30:45,552 where she brings up her problems that she's having with Joel 547 00:30:45,552 --> 00:30:49,848 and she ends up saying she would like to have some way 548 00:30:49,848 --> 00:30:51,182 of getting rid of him. 549 00:30:52,058 --> 00:30:54,602 Heard her say something with the word murder. 550 00:30:57,313 --> 00:30:58,731 - [Narrator] Not only is it likely 551 00:30:58,731 --> 00:31:02,151 that Michelle Donohue's first husband, Byron Wright 552 00:31:02,151 --> 00:31:04,404 is buried under the garage floor, 553 00:31:04,404 --> 00:31:06,990 it sounds like she's hoping that her present husband, 554 00:31:06,990 --> 00:31:10,034 Joel Donohue will soon be joining him. 555 00:31:10,869 --> 00:31:13,746 - Because of all the information 556 00:31:13,746 --> 00:31:15,623 that we had in the recording from Mike 557 00:31:15,623 --> 00:31:19,043 and all the investigation that we had done to show 558 00:31:19,043 --> 00:31:22,380 that Byron went missing in 2004, 559 00:31:22,380 --> 00:31:25,174 and that we verified everything else 560 00:31:25,174 --> 00:31:27,427 that the informant told us was true, 561 00:31:27,427 --> 00:31:30,179 we were able to get a search warrant for the property 562 00:31:30,179 --> 00:31:31,848 to dig up the body. 563 00:31:31,848 --> 00:31:35,768 So we had to contact the County Public Works Department 564 00:31:35,768 --> 00:31:38,605 to get the equipment out there to do this. 565 00:31:38,605 --> 00:31:42,775 We had the state anthropologist there to be able to tell us 566 00:31:42,775 --> 00:31:46,821 that when we dug up some bones that they were human bones. 567 00:31:46,821 --> 00:31:50,491 We had the medical examiner's office there to take custody 568 00:31:50,491 --> 00:31:53,077 of the body once we located it. 569 00:31:54,787 --> 00:31:56,414 - [Narrator] The last thing Michelle thought would happen 570 00:31:56,414 --> 00:31:59,042 that morning is instead of going to work 571 00:31:59,042 --> 00:32:01,252 that she was going to be arrested. 572 00:32:03,671 --> 00:32:07,926 - We planned to go out to the house and serve the warrant. 573 00:32:08,927 --> 00:32:13,765 I was assigned to take Michelle Donohue into custody, 574 00:32:13,765 --> 00:32:17,018 and that we were going to interview her while other people 575 00:32:17,018 --> 00:32:20,897 were assigned to interview Joel and the girlfriend, 576 00:32:20,897 --> 00:32:23,816 and Mike, anybody else that we found. 577 00:32:25,318 --> 00:32:27,320 - [Narrator] The forensic anthropologist 578 00:32:27,320 --> 00:32:30,782 from the King County Medical Examiner's Office confirms 579 00:32:30,782 --> 00:32:33,952 that human remains have been found buried underneath 580 00:32:33,952 --> 00:32:35,161 the concrete slab. 581 00:32:37,038 --> 00:32:40,208 The arms and legs were wrapped in bags in a tarp, 582 00:32:40,208 --> 00:32:43,962 buried in the dirt alongside a large plastic blue bin, 583 00:32:43,962 --> 00:32:47,382 it contained the rest of the body of Byron Wright. 584 00:32:50,009 --> 00:32:51,636 (intense music) 585 00:32:51,636 --> 00:32:55,807 - I feel it's time to confront her, so I confront her 586 00:32:55,807 --> 00:32:59,519 that we know that your husband didn't just disappear, 587 00:32:59,519 --> 00:33:02,981 we know that he's been buried on your property 588 00:33:02,981 --> 00:33:04,774 because we just dug him up, 589 00:33:04,774 --> 00:33:08,027 so we've recovered his body on your property. 590 00:33:08,027 --> 00:33:09,779 And she's like, really? 591 00:33:09,779 --> 00:33:12,657 She tried to play dumb that she had no idea 592 00:33:12,657 --> 00:33:14,993 that there was a body on her property. 593 00:33:15,994 --> 00:33:18,997 Then we kept telling her that we've talked to Joel, 594 00:33:18,997 --> 00:33:21,541 Joel's told us everything you've told him, 595 00:33:21,541 --> 00:33:24,252 so we want to know what happened. 596 00:33:24,252 --> 00:33:26,629 And she's like, well, I didn't kill him. 597 00:33:26,629 --> 00:33:28,756 Well, if you didn't kill him then who did? 598 00:33:28,756 --> 00:33:31,592 And why are you telling other people that you did do it? 599 00:33:31,592 --> 00:33:33,594 So she finally got to the point 600 00:33:33,594 --> 00:33:36,139 that she didn't want to talk to us anymore. 601 00:33:37,807 --> 00:33:39,892 Part of the story that we were getting 602 00:33:39,892 --> 00:33:43,855 from the other people was that Michelle had told them 603 00:33:43,855 --> 00:33:45,940 the reason that they needed to move this body 604 00:33:45,940 --> 00:33:49,569 was because she and Byron got into this big argument 605 00:33:49,569 --> 00:33:52,655 in the kitchen and he came at her, 606 00:33:52,655 --> 00:33:56,409 and she had to defend herself, she stabbed him with a knife 607 00:33:56,409 --> 00:33:57,660 to keep him away from her, 608 00:33:57,660 --> 00:34:00,663 and that's how she ended up maybe accidentally killing him 609 00:34:00,663 --> 00:34:03,291 and that's why they had to get rid of his body. 610 00:34:04,667 --> 00:34:07,045 So we had that information too. 611 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,381 I ended up getting up and leaving the room 612 00:34:10,381 --> 00:34:15,178 to go find out what Joel was telling the other detectives, 613 00:34:15,178 --> 00:34:17,847 and Joel was telling them the whole story 614 00:34:17,847 --> 00:34:20,767 about how Michelle had asked him to move the body, 615 00:34:20,767 --> 00:34:23,811 and how he was killed by this stabbing. 616 00:34:23,811 --> 00:34:28,440 He demonstrated that she was backing away going like this, 617 00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:32,277 and he came into the knife and that's what stabbed him. 618 00:34:32,277 --> 00:34:36,449 And he fell on the floor and she left the house, 619 00:34:36,449 --> 00:34:38,910 and when she came back, he was dead. 620 00:34:43,081 --> 00:34:46,459 The whole crew was there to dig up 621 00:34:46,459 --> 00:34:50,671 the body while we were interviewing Michelle and Joel. 622 00:34:50,671 --> 00:34:54,801 So as soon as we left with the witnesses and the suspect, 623 00:34:54,801 --> 00:34:58,638 the whole team and crew went down to the garage 624 00:34:58,638 --> 00:35:01,390 and the person that had the ground penetrating radar said, 625 00:35:01,390 --> 00:35:04,143 yes, there's definitely something in this area. 626 00:35:04,143 --> 00:35:08,189 And he spray painted it and marked it all on the concrete, 627 00:35:08,189 --> 00:35:11,859 and then used jackhammers, to remove the concrete, 628 00:35:11,859 --> 00:35:14,695 and then to get down to where they found 629 00:35:14,695 --> 00:35:18,783 the great big Tupperware tub and they removed it, 630 00:35:18,783 --> 00:35:23,286 they found some bags that were thrown in around the tub 631 00:35:23,286 --> 00:35:25,039 that had body parts in them, 632 00:35:25,039 --> 00:35:28,084 and the state anthropologist examined 'em all, 633 00:35:28,084 --> 00:35:31,671 opened the tub and found that there was plaster, 634 00:35:31,671 --> 00:35:34,841 or something poured all over the body, 635 00:35:34,841 --> 00:35:37,093 but the head was in there and it was all taken down 636 00:35:37,093 --> 00:35:39,428 to the medical examiner's office that day 637 00:35:40,596 --> 00:35:43,850 and we kept her there at the North Precinct under arrest 638 00:35:43,850 --> 00:35:46,811 until I was able to get the booking paperwork done, 639 00:35:46,811 --> 00:35:48,980 and got her transported to the jail 640 00:35:48,980 --> 00:35:52,108 and booked for her second degree murder that night. 641 00:35:52,733 --> 00:35:54,735 - [Narrator] Michelle Donohue had no idea 642 00:35:54,735 --> 00:35:57,363 that when she left home earlier in the day, 643 00:35:57,363 --> 00:36:00,408 it would be the last time for quite a while. 644 00:36:00,408 --> 00:36:04,786 Fingerprinted, charged and with bail set at $1 million, 645 00:36:05,913 --> 00:36:09,375 Donohue is about to start a whole new unexpected chapter 646 00:36:09,375 --> 00:36:10,168 in her life. 647 00:36:11,710 --> 00:36:14,547 (intense music) 648 00:36:21,429 --> 00:36:23,764 Lifelong bachelor and classic car collector, 649 00:36:23,764 --> 00:36:26,684 Byron Wright thought he had finally met the woman 650 00:36:26,684 --> 00:36:27,810 of his dreams. 651 00:36:27,810 --> 00:36:30,479 He had no idea that she would be the one 652 00:36:30,479 --> 00:36:32,190 to destroy them instead. 653 00:36:33,274 --> 00:36:35,902 - And she ends up saying on the tape, 654 00:36:35,902 --> 00:36:40,281 she would like to have some way of getting rid of him, 655 00:36:40,281 --> 00:36:43,534 heard her say something with the word murder. 656 00:36:43,534 --> 00:36:45,953 - [Narrator] After months of working with an informant, 657 00:36:45,953 --> 00:36:49,790 investigators from the Snohomish County Sheriff's Department 658 00:36:49,790 --> 00:36:53,085 are finally going to learn if their source is correct, 659 00:36:53,085 --> 00:36:57,006 is Byron Wright's body buried under the floor of his garage? 660 00:37:02,303 --> 00:37:06,724 - I went probably the next day to the autopsy 661 00:37:06,724 --> 00:37:08,726 and they removed the body 662 00:37:08,726 --> 00:37:14,065 and even though this was in 2014, 10 years later, 663 00:37:14,940 --> 00:37:17,068 she had wrapped him in plastic and a sheet 664 00:37:17,068 --> 00:37:20,988 to where when they opened him up, you could still see 665 00:37:20,988 --> 00:37:25,701 that there was a slice mark all the way around his throat 666 00:37:26,827 --> 00:37:29,664 and there were numerous stab wounds all over his back. 667 00:37:31,998 --> 00:37:33,417 The medical examiner said 668 00:37:33,417 --> 00:37:36,170 that one of the stab wounds hit him right in the spine, 669 00:37:36,170 --> 00:37:38,797 in the spinal cord which could have paralyzed him 670 00:37:38,797 --> 00:37:41,968 at that point from being able to fight back. 671 00:37:41,968 --> 00:37:45,054 But all of the injuries were either the upper back, 672 00:37:45,054 --> 00:37:49,517 or neck or the throat, and he was only wearing underpants 673 00:37:49,517 --> 00:37:51,686 and he was wrapped in a sheet. 674 00:37:51,686 --> 00:37:53,688 Well, when they searched the house, 675 00:37:53,688 --> 00:37:57,149 we found two pillow cases with the same pattern on 'em. 676 00:38:03,030 --> 00:38:05,199 - [Narrator] After the autopsy is concluded, 677 00:38:05,199 --> 00:38:08,911 detective, Jim Scharf now knows that Michelle's whole story 678 00:38:08,911 --> 00:38:11,372 about accidentally stabbing Byron while trying 679 00:38:11,372 --> 00:38:15,918 to defend herself is nothing but a giant pack of lies. 680 00:38:15,918 --> 00:38:18,838 - Some murderers continue to deny their guilt 681 00:38:18,838 --> 00:38:21,674 because they don't believe there's enough evidence 682 00:38:21,674 --> 00:38:23,968 to prove they are responsible, 683 00:38:23,968 --> 00:38:28,347 or they believe they're smarter than law enforcement. 684 00:38:28,347 --> 00:38:31,309 Others continue to deny their involvement 685 00:38:31,309 --> 00:38:34,603 because they themselves can't face the truth 686 00:38:34,603 --> 00:38:36,314 of their own actions. 687 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:40,901 - [Narrator] Michelle Donohue decides to change her plea 688 00:38:40,901 --> 00:38:43,029 to guilty once she's confronted 689 00:38:43,029 --> 00:38:44,905 with the overwhelming evidence. 690 00:38:44,905 --> 00:38:49,368 She enters her plea on July 11th, 2014. 691 00:38:49,368 --> 00:38:52,538 - In this case, Snohomish County District Court Judge, 692 00:38:52,538 --> 00:38:54,998 George Bowden decided to sentence Donohue 693 00:38:54,998 --> 00:38:57,585 to 16 years instead of the 15 years 694 00:38:57,585 --> 00:38:59,670 that had been agreed to in the plea bargain. 695 00:38:59,670 --> 00:39:02,506 He did this so that he could get the maximum amount 696 00:39:02,506 --> 00:39:04,508 of supervision while out of custody 697 00:39:04,508 --> 00:39:06,802 which was three years in this case. 698 00:39:06,802 --> 00:39:09,096 Most states have their own sentencing guidelines, 699 00:39:09,096 --> 00:39:11,431 so it varies depending on state to state 700 00:39:11,431 --> 00:39:13,142 unless it's a federal crime. 701 00:39:14,352 --> 00:39:16,854 - [Narrator] Judge Bowden goes on to tell the court 702 00:39:16,854 --> 00:39:19,648 at the sentencing that six people have filed 703 00:39:19,648 --> 00:39:21,817 victim impact statements. 704 00:39:21,817 --> 00:39:24,195 They all feel that Donohue should have been charged 705 00:39:24,195 --> 00:39:27,156 with first degree murder, however it has felt 706 00:39:27,156 --> 00:39:30,326 that the state could not have proved premeditation. 707 00:39:30,326 --> 00:39:34,163 The judge explains to the victims that he can only sentence 708 00:39:34,163 --> 00:39:38,334 to the agreed upon guilty plea of second degree murder. 709 00:39:38,334 --> 00:39:41,337 - Victim impact statements were created to give victims, 710 00:39:41,337 --> 00:39:42,922 friends and family an opportunity 711 00:39:42,922 --> 00:39:44,965 to be involved in the proceedings. 712 00:39:44,965 --> 00:39:48,135 They're able to provide insights into who the victim was, 713 00:39:48,135 --> 00:39:51,180 as well as detail, the mental, emotional 714 00:39:51,180 --> 00:39:54,558 and sometimes financial effects that the crime had on them. 715 00:39:54,558 --> 00:39:56,060 Victim impact statements allows them 716 00:39:56,060 --> 00:39:58,229 to say what kind of person the victim was 717 00:39:58,229 --> 00:39:59,814 and what they meant to them. 718 00:40:01,148 --> 00:40:02,440 - [Narrator] Michelle Donohue is allowed 719 00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:06,070 to speak at her sentencing and in tears apologizes 720 00:40:06,070 --> 00:40:09,782 to Byron's family, saying she is so very sorry 721 00:40:09,782 --> 00:40:13,411 for taking his life and that there is nothing she can do 722 00:40:13,411 --> 00:40:14,786 to ease their pain. 723 00:40:14,786 --> 00:40:18,332 - This was a really unusual case, the way that it happened 724 00:40:18,332 --> 00:40:20,209 and the way that it all fell together 725 00:40:20,209 --> 00:40:24,964 and all the little details that we found out about from it. 726 00:40:24,964 --> 00:40:30,428 It was really an unusual one, but it was nice 727 00:40:31,469 --> 00:40:34,056 that we were able to get it put together so quickly 728 00:40:34,056 --> 00:40:37,768 and find his body and that she pled guilty, 729 00:40:37,768 --> 00:40:41,814 and we didn't have to wait for a year for it to go to trial. 730 00:40:43,190 --> 00:40:45,568 - Of course, there are always children 731 00:40:45,568 --> 00:40:48,779 that will emulate their parents' criminality, 732 00:40:48,779 --> 00:40:52,241 whether because they haven't experienced life any other way, 733 00:40:52,241 --> 00:40:55,536 or they're looking for approval, it may also be out of fear 734 00:40:55,536 --> 00:40:58,789 of what would happen to them if they don't. 735 00:40:58,789 --> 00:41:01,208 There are plenty of children who grow up 736 00:41:01,208 --> 00:41:04,003 to resent their parents' behavior. 737 00:41:04,003 --> 00:41:06,255 In some cases, they are the ones 738 00:41:06,255 --> 00:41:09,800 that turn their parents into the authorities. 739 00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:15,931 - It's really sad 740 00:41:15,931 --> 00:41:18,434 because her daughter was right there in the middle 741 00:41:18,434 --> 00:41:22,688 of all of this and she didn't have anything 742 00:41:22,688 --> 00:41:24,482 to look up to her mom. 743 00:41:24,482 --> 00:41:28,068 She realized her mom is this evil person 744 00:41:28,068 --> 00:41:30,279 and it's sad that you have to grow up, 745 00:41:30,279 --> 00:41:33,114 and realize that about your own parent. 746 00:41:33,114 --> 00:41:35,868 She was just a totally good person 747 00:41:35,868 --> 00:41:38,496 that came out of this horrible situation. 748 00:41:38,496 --> 00:41:42,123 When you put somebody that's a cold-blooded killer away, 749 00:41:42,123 --> 00:41:45,377 you just got the satisfaction to know 750 00:41:45,377 --> 00:41:50,508 that they finally got the system to deal with them properly. 751 00:41:51,509 --> 00:41:53,969 - [Narrator] Michelle Donohue was sentenced to 16 years 752 00:41:53,969 --> 00:41:56,096 for the murder of Byron Wright. 753 00:41:56,096 --> 00:41:59,058 She was given credit for pleading guilty, 754 00:41:59,058 --> 00:42:00,726 accepting responsibility, 755 00:42:00,726 --> 00:42:03,437 and not having any prior criminal record. 756 00:42:03,437 --> 00:42:06,982 Upon her release, Donohue will be under three years 757 00:42:06,982 --> 00:42:10,527 required supervision and have to pay restitution. 758 00:42:11,487 --> 00:42:14,448 Joel Donohue and the two accomplices that helped move 759 00:42:14,448 --> 00:42:18,661 and rebury the body of Byron Wright were never charged due 760 00:42:18,661 --> 00:42:21,497 to the statute of limitations expiring. 761 00:42:21,497 --> 00:42:26,210 A few years later, Donohue died in a car accident. 762 00:42:26,210 --> 00:42:29,046 - The main thing is is for the family to know 763 00:42:29,046 --> 00:42:33,467 that they're held accountable and that they have the answers 764 00:42:33,467 --> 00:42:35,553 to what happened. 765 00:42:38,305 --> 00:42:41,141 (intense music) 766 00:42:51,151 --> 00:42:54,905 (intense music continues) 767 00:43:02,955 --> 00:43:03,038 (intense music ends)