Canadian True Crime - The Harshbarger Family

Episode Date: October 1, 2020

In 2006, a family left the US for a hunting trip in Newfoundland. Not all of them would come back. Look out for early, ad-free release on CTC premium feeds: available on Amazon Music (included with Prime), Apple Podcasts, Patreon and Supercast. Full list of resources, information sources, credits and music credits:See the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi there, and welcome to the next season of Canadian True Crime. I hope you're as well as can be expected in these crazy times, and I wanted to thank you for your patience as I took some time to catch my breath over the summer. The podcast is now back to the regular schedule, with new episodes coming on the first and the 15th of each month. And with that, it's on with the show. This podcast contains coarse language and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Please be advised that this episode also includes details about the hunting of large animals as a sport, although no graphic details are given. It was September 2006, and the Harshberger family were traveling from where they lived in Pennsylvania in the U.S. to the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was their third hunting trip to Newfoundland.

Parents, Mark, and Mary Beth were avid hunters. In fact, they loved it so much that folks photos from their wedding day showed them posing with rifles, and they even went hunting on their honeymoon. Mark and Mary Beth's farmhouse was filled with hunting trophies, like bearskins, deerheads, and caribou antlers from the various hunting trips they'd taken. By day, Mark was an environmental project's assessor, and Mary Beth was a stay-at-home mum, but they lived for their next hunting trip. The fact that they had two young children didn't hamper their plans.

Hunting was a family tradition. While Mark had hunted in Newfoundland before, he was excited this time to bring along his wife and two kids, a four-year-old daughter and a seven-month-old son. 42-year-old Mark also asked his older brother Barry to come along. Mark's favorite spot to hunt from was Moosehead Lodge in the Buckens area. of Newfoundland, and they held current licences for hunting moose, caribou and bear in that area. In the first few days, Mark had shot a caribou as well as a small bear.

His wife, 41-year-old Mary Beth, was intensely competitive, and just as good of a marksman as her husband. She was waiting for her own bear to shoot, and it was now 24 hours before they would have to return home. On September 14th, 2006, the Harschbaga family left the lodge in the mid to late afternoon with their guide, a man called Lambert Green. Bringing a hunting guide is a good idea because they know the local area and can make sure that the hunter's safe, the local environment is protected and the rules are followed. One of those rules is that hunting is only permitted in Newfoundland for 30 minutes after sunset, because once it starts getting dark,

visibility issues arise which can make the hunt less safe. Several Canadian provinces require an orange safety vest to be worn while hunting, but Newfoundland and Labrador is not among them. Neither the guide nor the hashbargers were wearing one. The guide Lambert drove his pickup, with Mary Beth and the two kids in the cab, and Mark and his brother Barry in the back of the truck keeping an eye out for game. As they drove up the road, Barry saw a bare tree stand, basically a wooden loft built in a tree that allows hunters better views and more protection.

So they dropped Barry off and arranged to come back and get him later. The truck continued down the various gravel roads, with the harsh buggers continuing to look out for moose and bear. After not finding any as they drove, the guide Lambert stopped the truck so he and Mark could get out and do a quick check on foot for signs of animals nearby. Mary Beth stayed in the truck to watch the kids. The two men returned without finding anything, so they all drove on to another area parking on a logging road. It was now late in the day and they would soon be running out of legal light for hunting. Again, Lambert and Mark left the truck to hunt, and Marybeth and the kids stayed behind.

Both men were aware that Marybeth was a skilled and experienced hunter, and even though she was watching the kids, she had her rifle and would shoot if by chance she saw a moose or a bear while the men were gone. In fact, earlier in the week, they'd discussed the possibility that the two men going out to hunt might inadvertently end up flushing animals out of the hunting area. It was understood that a moose or a bear might come out of the woods, so Mary Beth was primed and ready for any animal that she saw. In the bush, Lambert and Mark proceeded to walk through a clearing

along an old logging trail with uneven water ruts, old and new-grown vegetation, and falling rocks and trees. It was tricky to walk on, and they really had to watch their step because of the uneven ground. Marybeth was watching them as they moved towards a bunch of spruce pine trees up an incline, and once they got to the trees, they were no longer visible from where she was at the truck. After a while, the man had been gone for around 30 minutes and the sun had set. The hunting rule stated that they could only hunt for 30 minutes after sunset,

so their opportunity for squeezing the last drops of legal light would be gone soon, and they still had to pick up Mark's brother Barry. Lambert and Mark decided to cut their losses. They had one last chance to hunt on this trip, so they planned to go back to the truck, drive to get Barry, and hunt from the truck as it drove. As they started walking back from the pickup, Lambert stopped to relieve himself. Mark walked ahead, looking down to make sure he kept his footing in the rough terrain

as he entered tall, overgrown grass around four to five feet in height. Back at the pickup truck, Mary Beth saw something emerge from the forest. It was weaving in zigzag movements, bobbing its head up and down. She continued to watch it carefully, looking through the scope of her gun to confirm her suspicions that it was a black bear. When the object was around 200 feet or 60 metres from the truck, it appeared to head back into the woods away from the pickup. Having decided it was a black bear, Mary Beth took the shot.

Suddenly, Lambert, the hunting guide, heard a shot and a scream and the sound of air rushing out of something. He didn't know what it came from but figured a moose or bear had been shot. He ran out from the woods and his head. into the tall grass where he saw Mark Harshbarger lying face down on the ground. His navy blue overalls were stained with blood. Lambert took the gun off Mark's shoulder, turned him over and checked for a pulse, but it was too late. The single gunshot had killed Mark instantly.

Lambert looked up and saw Mary Beth standing by the truck. He called out to her and asked if she'd shot her rifle. She replied, I shot at a bear. Did I get him? Lambert responded, no, you got Mark. Mary Beth had shot her own husband. I'm Christy, an Australian who's called Canada home for more than a decade, and this is my passion project.

Join me to hear about some of the most thought-provoking and often heartbreaking true crime cases in Canada. Using court documents and news archives, I take you through each story from beginning to end with a look at the way the media covered the crime and the impact it had on the community. This is Canadian true crime. Lambert Green, the hunting guide,

ran back to the pickup where Mary Beth was standing. She asked if Mark was okay. Lambert had to give her the devastating news that her husband was dead. Mary Beth went into hysterics, screaming and crying. Oh God, I should. Shot my husband. I shot my love.

As you'll remember, the couple's two young children were in the back of the truck's cab. The seven-month-old baby was too young to know what was happening, but their four-year-old daughter saw her mum's distress and jumped out of the truck, also now hysterical. Mary Beth did her best to comfort her daughter. They had no cell phone, so they had to find a landline, and Barry was still waiting down the road to be. picked up. Mary Beth and Lambert decided their best course of action was to put the kids back in the truck, pick up Barry and drive back to the lodge where they would call the RCMP. Mark's body would be

left where it was. When they reached Barry, Lambert gave him the terrible news. His brother was dead and Mary Beth said she had fired the shot. Barry became very upset. When they got to the lodge, they discovered that there was no working phone, so they had to drive to a nearby town to call the RCMP and report Mark's death. The group returned to the lodge just before 8.30pm, and they waited for the officers to arrive. As they waited, Mary Beth talked to various people working at the lodge. The owner, Reg White, observed her to be hysterical and was talking about taking her own life. Quote, If I didn't have my children, I'd be with him now.

I don't want to live without him. She also told her account of the story to the Lodgers Cook, who noted at that point that she seemed to be fairly calm, almost in a trance. According to the cook, Mary Beth couldn't believe that she had shot her own husband. In recounting her movements, she said she used the scope of her rifle, which magnifies vision from a distance to look at the object, but she insisted she didn't see the navy blue of her husband's overalls, but the black of a bear.

Quote, I shot my beloved, I fucking shot my husband, my whole world. No matter who Mary Beth spoke to, her account was consistent. She shot her husband because she thought he was a bear. And she said the same thing to the RCMP major crime unit, when they arrived hours later.

By this time, it was late at night and too dark to investigate the scene of the shooting, so Mark's body was covered and left at the scene overnight. In the meantime, Mary Beth gave a recorded statement of her version of events. Quote, I was with the children in the truck, and I got out and I stood up in case a moose came out or a bear, and I stood in the back of the truck because the children were being quiet. And I was looking around for probably 15 minutes, and I saw a bear in the woods on the edge like in front of me. The truck was parked this way, and I was looking off this way, and I saw a bear come out and walk around along the edge and go back in,

and I raised my rifle, and I was trying to get a good scope on him. It was black, you know, and a big black thing, and I fired a shot. She said that what she heard next was a god-awful scream. She told the RCMP that the sun was positioned behind the trees where Mark and Lambert had gone, which made it lighter where Mary Beth was and darker in the area up by the trees. She was asked what time the shooting happened. At first, she said she was waiting at the truck for Lambert and her husband Mark to return, estimating the time at between 7.30 and 8pm.

It wasn't completely dark yet, but the time. there wasn't full daylight either. Mary Beth continued to answer a series of questions put to her by the RCMP about how she came to identify the object as being a bear and not a human. She reiterated that first she saw with her naked eye what she thought was a bear. It was weaving in those zigzag movements, and she said she continued to watch it carefully for about two to three minutes, looking through the scope of her gun to make sure.

She said that she held onto the gun, put her head up to look again, and then back down, peering again through the scope. When asked why she thought it was a bear, she explained that to her it appeared low to the ground, black, rounded at the back and had the head of a bear. She recounted to the police that when the bear was around 200 feet or 60 metres from the truck, it appeared to head back into the woods away from the pickup.

And this is when Mary Beth took the shot. She maintained she didn't see Mark at all. She was asked again whether she actually knew it was a bear when she first saw it, or if she perhaps only thought it was. She said that when she first saw it, she didn't know for sure whether it was a bear, but the more that she looked at it, she was convinced that it was. The officer asked Mary Beth what she thought had happened.

Where did things go wrong? She said that she shouldn't have taken the shot because it was too dark. Quote, I thought I had a clear view, but obviously not. When Mary Beth was asked more about the lighting conditions, she said that it wasn't dark, but it was dusky. She was asked if there was sufficient light to see things clearly in the bush, and she replied, no. She later provided a better estimate of the time the shooting occurred. She said it was around 25 minutes after the sun had set. So five minutes before the end of legal light on the last

hunt of their trip to Newfoundland. Throughout her statement to police, Mary Beth had been speaking steadily and calmly and other than some minor clarifications, her story was fairly consistent. The police asked if she and Mark had any marital troubles. She said no. She loved Mark so much. She told the officers that just before he walked into the woods, he kissed her. Quote, we have the perfect life, the perfect family, the perfect everything. We had a great life.

We had so much in common. Mark Hashbagger was born in 1963 in Lewiston, Pennsylvania, to a family that were well known for their ties to the Great Outdoors. His father, Leonard, known as Lee, was a former conservation officer and retired regional supervisor with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Mark was the youngest of five children, with two brothers, Barry and Dean, who both worked for the Game Commission too, as well as two sisters, Sharon and Susan. Mark loved sports and being physically active.

In high school, he was on a championship wrestling team, and after graduation, he enlisted in the US Air Force starting service as a military police officer. After eight or so years, he got out of the force and started working as an environmental projects officer. He began a serious long-term relationship with a woman who had two sons. Their father had been killed in a car accident, so Mark stepped up to help his partner raise her boys. Six years later, after Mark's own mother passed away, he started spending a lot of time with his father, Lee, fishing, camping and hunting. Lee would later tell the court about the type of person his youngest son was. Quote, if ever I needed help with anything, I would give him a call and he was always there.

He would drop what he was doing and come and help me. Mark was already an avid fisher, but he and Lee started going to hunter education classes together, which kicked off Mark's obsession with all things hunting. In 1997, when Mark was 34, his father came back from a trip to Newfoundland with a bull moose he'd shot. Lee described the landscape there as gorgeous, with a plentiful supply of sizable moose and black bears. Mark was seriously impressed and planned to visit Newfoundland himself. He took his first trip there the following year, 1998. He was hooked.

A few years later, Mark was working at a school clearing asbestos. That was where he met Mary Beth Kintner, who was helping her dad with scrap metal. The pair, both in their mid-thirties, started chatting and soon discovered a mutual love of the outdoors. The next day they snuck away on their lunch break to go fishing. This was the start of a whirlwind romance which would soon see Mark leave his partner of 12 years and her kids to be with Mary Beth. While his family were shocked, Mark was over the moon that he was able to find someone who shared his love of hunting. See, Mary Beth had learned all about the sport from her own father from an early age, including what various large animals look like, their size, shape and colour, as well as

how they moved. She was also an experienced marksman. According to Outdoor Canada magazine, she was so accurate that she could consistently put rounds into a set target from around a thousand metres or just over half a mile away. Even more shocking to Mark's family was the news that he and Mary Beth had decided to get married just a few months after they met. His family didn't really know Mary Beth at all, but they could see Mark was clearly besotted with her. Mark's brother Dean would say it was clear that Mark had found the woman of his dreams, a woman who was all about hunting and fishing. The wedding day came and the couple incorporated their love of hunting into their wedding celebration, with Mary Beth getting outside in her wedding gown and a rifle

to shoot at clay pigeons. She was thrilled to join an established hunting family who were into the same things that she was. According to Outdoor Canada magazine's investigative piece called Another Fine Day Afield by Charles Wilkins, while the marriage between Mark and Mary Beth seemed to go well at first, it disintegrated after a year or so into a minefield of chaos and uncertainty. After the honeymoon period wore off, Mark's family saw that Mary Beth was prone to frequent mood swings and bad temper tantrums. As Mark's brother Dean would say to Outdoor Canada magazine, quote, Mary Beth would fly off the handle, go ranting around threatening everyone, and Mark would calmly take her out in one of the farm jeeps, and they'd get back a little while later and

she'd be as quiet as a lamb. I don't know what it was, but he had some leverage with her. He seemed to know something about her past, some secret, and he could control her with it. Mark's sister Sharon told CBC's The Fifth Estate that Mary Beth was quite the actress, one who would manipulate the situation by turning her emotions on and off like a force. it. See, Mary Beth Harshbarger was a woman who had quite a history. She was born in 1965, in Miss Sharpen, Pennsylvania, one of three children to parents who owned a farm and ran a grocery store. There isn't much information about her childhood, but what we do know is that friends described her as very competitive, and that sometimes made her difficult to deal with.

According to her friend Bill Ives, she had a black transam and she would often drive it through the town smoking the tyres and racing other cars on a Saturday night. Mary Beth was known to be someone who speaks her mind, the opposite of warm and fuzzy. And she had a reputation for her temper and erratic behaviour long before she met Mark Harshbagger. According to the Fifth Estate, she had a long list of ex-boyfriends that she was not on good terms with. One upset her so much that she reportedly drove her car into his house, and she fired a gun at another. Luckily, he was unharmed. On yet another occasion, Mary Beth fired up at a woman who had the nerve to talk to her boyfriend. She entered the woman's home at night with a gun and thwarted.

threatened her. Mary Beth would be convicted of simple assault for this. A few years before she met Mark, Mary Beth's parents were heading to Florida for the winter. Given her history of volatile behaviour, they asked her friend Bill to keep an eye on her while they were gone. Bill noticed over time that her mood swings were becoming more frequent and were coming on even more quickly than usual. Her mood was now changing at the drop of a hat. Bill felt there was something wrong and called Mary Beth's father with his concerns. Her dad flew back from Florida and arranged for her to get medical attention immediately. She was diagnosed with bipolar effective disorder, a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs or mania and lows or depression.

She was prescribed medication as treatment. When she later got together with Mark, she didn't tell him that she had received this diagnosis or that she had been prescribed medication. But when she became pregnant with the couple's first child, things started to reveal themselves. She went off her medication and Mark's family witnessed a descent into even more erratic behavior.

Mark's older brother Dean, described her as being violent and out of control. He told Outdoor Canada magazine that one time Mary Beth slapped her husband so hard that his lips were swollen and bloody and his only defence was just holding his hands out to keep her away. Dean said, I don't know why he took it from her. He didn't have to. He was a big guy, about six foot two. Mark desperately needed help dealing with her, because she She was stubborn and refused to get help for herself. So he asked his brother Dean to stay in help.

Dean knew there was something serious happening because Mark rarely ever talked about his problems with Mary Beth. Everyone knew that Mary Beth had a strong, intimidating personality. And Dean would say that she proclaimed herself to be the alpha dog, the one in charge. Whatever the case, Dean assumed that the reason Mark didn't, talk about his issues with Mary Beth much was because he was too proud to admit the marriage he jumped into so quickly was a disaster. Mark wanted Mary Beth to voluntarily check in to a mental health facility. She fought hard against it as she didn't want to go. But under Pennsylvania law,

if she was involuntarily committed, she would be prohibited by law from possessing a firearm. And even worse, meant their extensive collection of around 100 firearms would be in jeopardy. It was this that was the deciding factor for Mary Beth. She reluctantly checked herself in. Bill, the family friend, told the fifth estate that as Mary Beth was about to return from the hospital, he checked with Mark that all the firearms had been stashed away safely. Mark said yes, but told Bill he was welcome him to come and double check. Bill looked under her side of the mattress and found a 12-gauge shotgun there, fully loaded, and under another piece of furniture was another fully loaded gun. After this, Mark's sister Sharon advised him that for the safety of the family, he needed to make

sure that Mary Beth got the help she needed on an ongoing basis. And most importantly, she said, Mary Beth should not be hunting again. Mark took offence to that since hunting was a big part of their life together. Mark and Mary Beth had their second child and continued to build their lives in Ms Sharpen, Pennsylvania. They made some wise investment decisions. They owned two farms located on top of a rock quarry, as well as several homes, including an investment property and a new log home they were building. The couple also earned an income on their land by leasing out parts of it to companies drilling for natural gas. But while the harsh-bargers earned a decent living, Mary Beth was a spender. Mark's brother Dean would say that she had a need to have more and better

things than everyone else, whether it was boats, cars, furniture or guns. Mark had been on three hunting trips to Newfoundland, and they were planning a fourth, this time as a family. Mark was looking forward to showing his kids the beauty of Newfoundland and taking them for a ride on the Marine Atlantic Sea Ferry that runs between Sydney, Nova Scotia and Porta Basque, Newfoundland. And he'd given Marybeth a rifle the previous Christmas, a weatherby Mark 5 deluxe, with a leopard VX7 scope. Whatever that means. And they'd give them. both wanted to try it out. It was that rifle that would end up causing his death. According to Outdoor Canada magazine, Mark's father Lee had concerns about his son's planned trip.

Mark and Mary Beth had just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars building that big new log house and it was still in the finishing stages. Lee carefully raised his concerns telling them that with licenses, guides, travel, accommodation and everything else, the Newfoundland trip was likely going to cost around $10,000. So why don't they just stay home and hunt for free? According to Lee, Mark listened and realised his father made sense, so started thinking about not going. But Mary Beth wasn't having it. She called up the owner of Moosehead Lodge in Newfoundland, a man called Reg White, and bargained with him to drop his price, saying that the family would sleep in their own camper and even cook their own meals. The trip was back on. Mark really wanted

his older brother Barry to come with them. According to Barry, Mark hounded him to come, and finally he said yes. The plan was that the five people would drive to Newfoundland in the family camper, a journey that would take around 30 hours or three days. The night before they left, Mark stopped over at his father Lee's house to pick up a trailer. They wanted to haul their deep freezer to Canada so they could bring back the meat they anticipated they'd hunt from the trip. Just before he left, Mark told his father that Mary Beth could shoot a tiny plastic bottle just an inch wide from 250 metres away.

Boy, she's good, he said. Mark was proud of his own shooting skills, but equally as proud of his wives. Only days before they left, Mark had joked to a co-worker that Mary Beth might one day shoot him. The co-worker told the Fifth Estate that he thought it might have been in jest, so he asked Mark to explain what he meant. Mark stared him in the eyes and said, Yeah, I believe one day she'll shoot me. He added, but at least it will be quick. Back in the interview room,

Mary Beth Harshberger was still giving her statement to the RCMP. She had appeared calm and level-headed throughout, only losing control of her emotions at the very end. An RCMP officer familiar with the case would tell Outdoor Canada magazine that at that point, it wasn't overly surprising that the RCMP officers were sympathetic towards Mary Beth. Quote, I mean, what woman would intentionally shoot her own husband in front of her children?

But there were a couple of strange things that stood out to the RCMP. After Mary Beth shot Mark, she didn't ever go to his body, even though she was only standing 60 metres away from him when she fired that shot. As you'll recall, their guide Lambert confirmed that Mark was dead and then walking, walked over to Mary Beth at the truck, and then they left to drive back and pick up Barry and then find the nearest phone to call the RCMP, so Mary Beth never actually went to her husband to check him herself. The RCMP asked her about this, and she explained that the children were screaming from the truck, and she had a blister that stopped her from walking the 60

meters. Another thing was a question about the route taken by Mark and the guide Lambert after they left the truck to hunt. Surely if Marybeth knew their route in and presumably they'd take the same route back, why would she shoot something she saw on that route? But getting a straight answer was difficult. At one point, she seemed to indicate she knew the general route that the men took, but at another point she stated she was preoccupied with her kids at the time, so she couldn't be sure of their route into the wooded area. Police also asked her about life insurance policies. Mary Beth told them that just months beforehand, she and Mark were trying to get their assets in order and decided to increase their life insurance coverage. She casually blamed the insurance agent for talking them into it,

but went on to tell the police that on the new policy, Mark's coverage had gone up from 150,000 to 500,000. Marybeth added that she too was covered for 300,000. She also told police that there were additional life insurance policies for Mark, one worth $100,000 and another through his employer that she believed was worth around $60,000. The police had some investigating to do, but it would need to wait until the morning. As daylight broke, the RCMP were able to attend the scene of Mark Harshbarger's death.

They found two sets of footprints, one leading to the spot where Mark was shot, and the others belonging to Lambert the guide. None of the officers noticed any bare tracks or signs of animal activity in the emergency. immediate area, but court documents noted they failed to conduct a full and proper search. Also, a lot of the grass in the area was trampled down on the path because of the traffic in and out of the site where Mark's body fell. Mark Harshberger's body was removed by a search and rescue vehicle and transported for autopsy. The cause of his death was a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. The bullet entered Mark's sternum on an angle, ripped through his heart

and spine and exited between his shoulder blades. The RCMP had to determine whether Mark's death was accidental or intentional. And if it was intentional, then that made it a criminal act. So within days, they set up a reenactment of the incident at the scene. It was the same time that Mark was shot and under similar lighting conditions. Guide Lambert Green and the owner of Moosehead Lodge, Reg White, participated in this reenactment as experienced local hunters. Lambert's pickup truck was parked in the same location as it was when the shooting occurred. Although he wasn't wearing a watch during the reenactment, he assessed the lighting and was of the view that the shooting had occurred around 7.55 p.m.

The target they used in place of Mark Harshbarger was an RCMP officer who was in the same position as Mark before he was shot, and dressed similarly to how Mark was dressed, with a dark blue sweater and blue denim overalls. But Reg White, the owner of Moosehead Lodge, wasn't sure about the target. He thought it resembled an animal more than a human. He would say, with the grass, so high it didn't look like a man to me. In any event, the RCMP confirmed Mary Beth's account of things. The area near the tree where Mark was standing when he was shot was darker than the area

that Mary Beth was shooting from. The RCMP determined that it would have been too dark for Mary Beth to know it was Mark that she was shooting at. They said it was looking like the shooting was an accident. Mark's family were not happy with this. They wanted Marybeth to be charged with something, but the RCMP didn't have the evidence for a charge of manslaughter, let alone murder. Even though the investigation wasn't yet closed,

Marybeth Harshbugger was allowed to leave Canada and return home to Miss Sharpen, Pennsylvania. While Mark's family were disappointed that the RCMP hadn't been able to dig anything up, up, his sister Sharon told outdoor Canada that she didn't blame them. Quote, Not at all. I mean, this woman can feign sincerity when she has to. I'm sure she was very persuasive with them, and they knew nothing about her past. As well as the fact that Marybeth didn't go to Mark's body, and of course the life insurance policy fiasco, the Hauschbaga family had several additional concerns of their own. Some things just didn't. didn't make sense. Like after the RCMP were first called, they would have expected Mary Beth

to call Mark's family in Pennsylvania to let them know that he had been shot dead. But instead, she called Bill, the family friend who was also a contractor working at their new log house. In fact, Mary Beth didn't tell Mark's family at all. At 1 a.m., it was Mark's brother Barry who called their sister Sharon in Pennsylvania to give her the tragic news. And she said he was very short. He simply said, Mark's gone. Sharon asked him,

Gone where? Barry said he'd been killed. There'd been an accident. Mary Beth had shot him while hunting. Sharon immediately offered to fly up to Newfoundland to help out her sister-in-law and perhaps drive back in the camper with Barry, so Mary Beth and the kids could fly straight home. She assumed that Mary Beth would be stressed and grieving and could use the help.

But Mary Beth was the opposite. She seemed calm and almost detached from the situation and insisted on driving the camper back with the kids herself, even though it would take three days to get home. Sharon hung up, puzzled. Later that night she went over to their father Lee's house. It was clear that she was going to have to be the one to tell him that his youngest son was dead. Lee would say, it felt like somebody stuck something right through my heart.

It really hurt. But as he thought about it more, some things didn't make sense to him either. Sharon told him that Mary Beth said she had mistaken Mark for a bear. Lee, an experienced hunter, thought to himself, A bear doesn't walk upright. While they are able to stand and walk on their hind legs, they generally only do it briefly when trying to get a better look at something. They usually prefer to stand or walk on all four legs.

And remember, Mary Beth said she'd been looking at the bear for two to three minutes before she took the shot. Lee wondered, how could anyone mistake a man in an upright position for a black bear? And the strange behaviour didn't stop there. Barry, Mark's brother, was also grieving. The day after the shooting, he had called his wife Linda back in Pennsylvania, telling her that he wanted nothing more than to get on a plane and come home. But for some reason, in the hours after that call, Barry changed his mind.

He decided to take the three-day drive home with Mary Beth and the kids. According to Outdoor Canada magazine, when the group got home, Barry made a strange comment to a group of relatives who had gathered. He said he felt that when Mark left for Newfoundland, his brother knew he probably wouldn't be coming back alive. And quote, If he was okay with that, we should all be okay with it. And Barry wasn't the only one acting strange.

When Mark's father Lee heard that Mary Beth and the kids had arrived back home in their camper, he went straight over to the house with his partner Carol. Mary Beth greeted her father-in-law civilly but coldly, without even mentioning what had happened, and went about her business. She seemed very busy. Carol asked what she could do to help, thinking she could help with the kids or with funeral arrangements.

Mary Beth told her to mind the kids because the animals they'd brought back were still in the long-haul freezer and needed to be butchered. Without saying another word, she left the kids with Carol and went off with Barry to process the meat from the hunt, a priority that Carol thought was strange. The next day, Mary Beth shocked the family again by going to Mark's workplace to clear out his office. And Barry's strange behaviour continued too. After telling his wife that he couldn't wait to get home, he changed his mind on that as well. Once he got home, he told her that things had changed and he wanted to separate,

and he asked her to give a message to the rest of the Harshberger family. They were not allowed to contact Mary Beth directly. They had to go through him instead. At the time, Linda, was obviously upset, but she hoped that maybe it was just the obvious stress of having just lost his brother, and Barry would come good. But then, he did something that shocked them all. He started spending most of his free time over at Mary Beth's house. Linda asked him what was going on. Were he and Mary Beth now a couple? Barry denied it, saying he was just helping out with

the chores and with the kids. But Linda told the fifth estate that she believed in her heart that something had happened between Barry and Mary Beth on that drive back from Newfoundland. The family were beside themselves at this new development and they even wondered if her relationship had started before the Newfoundland trip. Suspitions were growing. When they asked Barry about it,

he refused to discuss the issue just as he had with his wife. The only thing he would say was that he was helping Mary Beth to take care of the kids. Another strange occurrence happened when Mark's body arrived from Newfoundland by air. Before his family even knew it had arrived, Mary Beth had sent it straight to be cremated. His family were devastated that they weren't able to view his remains and say goodbye. There were even issues with the death certificate. it seemed that Marybeth didn't want Mark's family to see it. She was evasive every time they asked for it.

When they finally received their own copy from the chief medical officer, they saw that the death was marked homicide. To Mark's father Lee, that represented murder. He also noticed that the shooting was described as an incident, not an accident. He acknowledged that maybe it was all just standard terminology, used when someone kills someone else, but he questioned Mary Beth's motives and trying to hide Mark's death certificate

from his own family. With Mark's remains back in Pennsylvania, the family held a memorial service. His obituary read, Mark passed away doing what he loved best, being outdoors. The harshbargers noticed that even at her own husband's memorial service, Mary Beth remained calm and appeared detached.

She was not observed to show any emotion and barely spoke to any of her husband's family, except of course Barry. In the time after the funeral, she instructed her two children not to speak to their grandfather Lee under any circumstances. Naturally, he was devastated. He enjoyed a great relationship with his grandkids, and not only had he lost. his son Mark, but he'd lost the kids as well. And it was becoming clear that he'd also lost Barry.

Mark's other brother, Dean, saw Barry at the county fair with his arm around Mary Beth and one of the kids on his shoulders. To Dean, it looked like they were a happy couple. He told the Fifth Estate that they were also spotted hugging and kissing at the local bar. Despite their refusal to talk about it, it was clear that the two were very much an item. An awkward moment for the family happened when Dean and his girlfriend were dining out with his father Lee and his partner Carol. Also dining in the same restaurant was Mary Beth, the kids and Barry. Lee missed his grandkids so he found a moment to wave over at them.

The kids waved back, albeit tentatively. But as the group left the restaurant, they marched past Lee's table, acting like they weren't there. So, given the issues around the increased life insurance before the shooting and Mary Beth's behaviour after the shooting, not to mention Barry's, the family had enough to question. But when it came to the scene of the shooting, there were questions there too. According to Mark's brother Dean, Mary Beth had been hunting obsessive. since she was 12 years old, and she knew the rules of hunting safely inside and out. You have to positively identify your target. You have to be 100% sure.

Their father Lee agreed. Remember, he was a former conservation officer and retired game warden. He told outdoor Canada that he saw a lot of infractions with hunting over the years and had come to the conclusion that if Marybeth could see her target well enough to accurately shoot at it, she should have been able to see well enough to know that it wasn't a bear. Mark's family continued to keep in touch with the RCMP, urging them to continue looking into it. There was a feeling growing on Mark's side of the family. Could Mary Beth have planned this? The RCMP consulted Les Ball, a veteran hunter and conservation officer from Newfoundland.

He was part of the search and rescue team that first secured Mark's body and the scene. He would tell outdoor Canada that he questioned Mary Beth's perception of seeing a dark mass blobbing up and down, zigzagging from side to side. Like Mark's father Lee, Les Ball said that Mary Beth's description suggests that she believed a bear would or could walk out of the woods on its hind legs. Quote, if she knew anything about bears, she'd have known that it's only in the circus that they stand up and walk around. To see a creature walking around upright should have been all the evidence she needed that it wasn't a bear, not that it was. But Mary Beth had

friends and relatives on her side too, especially when it came to. Especially when it came to her appearance of being detached. The fifth estate spoke to Amy Robinson, a friend of Mary Beth, who offered an alternate view. Amy said she interpreted her friend's withdrawal and detachment as a defense mechanism at an awful time. She went on to say that grief does funny things to people and everyone is different in the way they deal with a situation. She suggested that Mary Beth had to continue to be strong for the sake of her kids, and she had no opportunity to break down and show her emotions. Amy acknowledged that it did seem cold and calculating, but insisted that that was not who Mary Beth was. A cousin of Mary Beth said that Mark's side of the

family didn't understand what her true feelings were. He disclosed to the fifth estate that she was seeing two therapists at the time to deal with her feelings about the fact that it was she who pulled the trigger and was responsible for her husband's death. But because she refused to speak to Mark's family about any of it, her silence was interpreted as guilt. In any event, the RCMP decided to investigate a bit more. Two officers travelled to Pennsylvania, not to interview Mary Beth more, but to take down the family statements in person. except Barry, of course. By this time, Barry was completely estranged from the rest of his family

because of his allegiance to Mary Beth. After hearing from everyone, the RCMP determined that the increases in life insurance was a possible motive, and there were some interesting coincidences and behaviours. But this information was only circumstantial. According to the official RCMP reports, By the end of that year 2006, the officers who originally investigated the shooting had accepted Mary Beth's explanation as being plausible. But the investigation was not closed yet.

The rift in the Harshberger family continued to get deeper. Barry was now living at Mary Beth's full time and told his wife that he wanted a divorce. The Harshbarger said that they took his actions as cutting his. himself off from the family. So not only did they lose one brother and son, but they lost two. Barry later put it all down to a vendetta against the fact that he got together with Mary Beth. He told the fifth the state, I have a life to live as I choose to live it. People can't tell me how to lead my life. By now, Mark's entire family, except Barry, were adamant that Mark had been murdered. They urged the police to keep investigating.

What about another reenactment? The RCMP decided to revisit this, but it had to be in the exact same lighting conditions as the actual event. The second reenactment was conducted on September the 13th, 2007, the day before the first anniversary of the shooting. Many of the same people came back for this reenactment, including Lambert Green the hunting guide and Reg White, the owner of the Moosehead Lodge. This time they filmed the reenactment, trying to capture the light conditions on camera as much as they could.

Sadly, they weren't able to make any conclusions that were different from the first reenactment. They still didn't have enough evidence to charge Mary Beth, but they still didn't close off the investigation. Months later, almost 18 months after Mark's death, Mary Beth still hadn't received his life insurance money worth $550,000. See, two insurance companies were withholding it based on a Pennsylvania law that states a person cannot benefit from an intentional wrongdoing. And even though Marybeth hadn't been charged with a crime, the insurance companies had used the circumstances of the shooting.

as a reason to refuse to pay out the benefits. They cited the Slayers Act, which defines a slayer as any person who participates in the willful and unlawful killing of another person. And under that act, a slayer is not to acquire property as a result of slaying. The insurance companies told Mary Beth that they would await completion of the investigation before processing her claim. So, Mary Beth decided to sue both insurance companies alleging breach of contract and bad faith insurance practices. In a written statement, Mary Beth's lawyer told CBC that there was no proof that the shooting wasn't an accident.

And in any case, the insurance companies have to pay either way, because even if a judge rules that Mary Beth shouldn't get the money, it should still go into a trust fund for Mark's children. Just weeks later, the RCMP were finally ready to lay charges on Mary Beth. They decided against higher charges like manslaughter or even murder because there wasn't enough evidence and they didn't believe the chances of getting a conviction on those charges were high. So they charged her with two lesser charges, criminal negligence causing death and careless use of a firearm.

Unlike the other offences, a criminal negligence charge doesn't require proof of malice or an intention to commit the offence. It's more about the person's actual conduct than their intent. In this case, the charges hinged on the fact that it was too dark for Mary Beth to fire a gun safely, which put her at fault of criminal negligence causing death. A US district court judge would need to review the case and rule on whether she should be extradited to Canada to face the charges. In the meantime, both of the life insurance companies were ordered to pay up. In March of 2009, two and a half years after Mark Harsberg's death, Mary Beth was ordered to be extradited to Canada.

She was asked to turn herself in to the US authorities by March 13th. She fought it, first asking for 60 extra days. She got seven. Then she appealed again, presenting evidence that questioned whether her case met the threshold for criminal negligence. Her appeal was denied and she was ordered to surrender by April 27th. There were more shenanigans which pushed out her extradition by another year, an extension to May of 2010. Finally, she surrendered and was extradited back to Newfoundland. By this time, the charge of careless use of firearm was dropped, leaving only the criminal negligence causing death charge to be fought in court.

The next month, Mary Beth Harshberger pleaded not guilty. The media interest in this case was fairly high. Mark's father Lee was speaking out to media outlets, saying that not only did, he lose his son Mark, but he was devastated that he hadn't spent time with Barry or his grandkids since they came back from that trip. Quote, it's been unbelievably difficult. It's ripped our whole family apart. Mark's other brother, Dean, claimed that before Mary Beth was arrested,

she regularly drove by his house and intimidated Dean's girlfriend. The Ottawa citizen reported that Mary Beth denied killing mark for insurance money, and she dismissed the concerns of her in-laws about her relationship with Barry as lies and small-town talk. Behind the scenes, Barry, of course, continued to live in Mary Beth's house, looking after her children. But it would later emerge that while Mary Beth awaited trial, Barry started a relationship with another woman. More on that later. The trial was scheduled to begin at the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador in September 2010, almost exactly four years after Mark's death. In the lead-up to the trial, Mark's father Lee told

reporters that the shooting was a negligent act and he hoped justice would be served. Quote, it isn't an accident to mistake someone for something else and kill him. Lee told reporters that he plan to attend court every day with his partner Carol, as well as at least two of Mark's siblings and other relatives. The trial was judge only, and if Mary Beth, now 45 years old, was convicted, she was facing a minimum of four years in prison. The prosecution argued that Mary Beth knew Mark was still in the woods at the time she shot, and that he likely would have emerged at some point wearing dark clothes. It was suggested that she was at the end of her hunting trip and hadn't shot anything yet, so was over-anxious or overly keen to shoot before the trip was over.

The implication was that she wasn't as sure that what she saw was a bear as she should have been. The Crown argued that Mary Beth ignored the huge risk she created when she fired after the sun had set. The court was shown video evidence of Mark Harshberger's body as police found it, face up with a single bullet hole visible in the abdomen area of his dark blue overalls. According to CTV news, Mary Beth clasped a hand over her eyes and sobbed. She didn't look back up again as the rest of the four-minute video played. As you'll remember, Mary Beth had arranged for Mike. Mark's body to be cremated before any of his family had a chance to view it,

and Mark's brother Dean said outside court that the video hurt to watch. Quote, It was just like somebody had stabbed straight through you. At the same time, it was something we needed to see, all of us in the family. To see him lying on the ground was really rough, but it's something we needed to do. The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Mark Harshbarger testified that he died of one gunshot wound to the abdomen, but new information came out at the trial.

The doctor testified that the angle of the bullet's entry indicated that Mark was at least partially hunched over when he was struck by the bullet. Now Mark was 6'2 and weighed over 200 pounds and was described as being someone who normally walks straight and tall. This testimony seemed to point at the fact that Mary Beth may have been justified in thinking Mark was a bear, since he was hunched over at the time he was shot. As you'll recall, Mary Beth identified her target by looking through the scope of her rifle.

Lambert Green, the guide who went with them on the trip, testified that he preferred using binoculars, to positively identify a target because they're more high-powered than his rifle scope. He testified that he always took time to clarify that this particular animal was the type and the sex that his hunting license permitted. He said that once he identified it through the binoculars, he would wait for the animal to position itself to allow for a clear shot. One of the RCMP officers who supervised the first reenactment testified that he believed the lighting conditions were not good enough to fire.

The officer said that even though the skies were clear, he couldn't pick out a definite shape through the rifle scope except for a black mass. Quote, I don't know why anyone would fire given the lighting conditions. He agreed that RCMP officers originally contained. considered Mark's death to be an accident, but said that the family were insisting the importance of making absolutely sure it was. He was asked if he felt pressured to do something, and he replied, I felt that a man had died and that should be pursued. As for the timing of the shooting, several witnesses testified that it would have been too dark by 8pm for any hunter

to have shot with confidence or known what they were shooting at. The court was shown video footage of the lighting conditions taken during the second reenactment, a year after the shooting. Unfortunately, there was concern about how accurately the footage showed the actual lighting conditions. There were issues with the positioning of the video camera, technical issues relating to the recording of times, and the video resolution was poor quality. Various witnesses at the scene or during the recreations were asked to, how the footage compared to the actual scene. Opinions ranged from slightly darker to much darker.

No one at the scene was able to adequately state the exact time of the shooting, although a time frame of 7.30 to 8pm was given. At least one of the police officers testified that at one of the reenactments, he was able to identify the object walking out from the trees as a person before 7.55 p.m. Now, as you'll remember, legally hunters had to stop hunting 30 minutes after the sun had set. The judge would note that the crown didn't call any witnesses to identify the exact time of sunset in the area of the shooting on the day Mark died,

so that piece of the puzzle would remain a mystery. As you'll remember, Mark was shot as he ran along an uneven logging path, hunched over zigzagging because of that. uneven terrain through the long grass. The court heard testimony that the height of the grass surrounding the area where Mark was shot as he emerged from the trees appeared shorter in height than it actually was. This meant that objects in that area also appeared shorter in height than they actually were. And as you know, Mark was six foot two, but he was also hunched over. An expert in hunter education and safety testified.

Christopher Baldwin told the court that not only are hunters taught to be sure of their target before taking the shot, but they also have to take care to ensure that the shot results in the humane death of the animal. He also said that hunters should not use their scope on their gun to identify targets, as Mary Beth had said she did. because when pointing the scope, they're also pointing the gun itself, which presents a safety issue. When asked about the 30-minute window after sunset before legal hunting ends in Newfoundland, Baldwin said that regardless of that, hunters are taught to only shoot where conditions permit a proper method of identification for both the target and the surrounding area.

And in his view, Mary Beth's report of seeing only see, only a dark object zigzagging while moving in taller grass was not enough of an appropriate identification to warrant taking a shot. And when it came to hunting bears, he said hunters must go further than just a shape. They must look for exact features such as the shape of the body and the head. Under cross-examination, though, he acknowledged that even when every precaution is taken prior to taking a shot, accidents can and do occur. Mary Beth Harshberger did not take the stand in her defence, but Lambert Green, the guide, as well as the owner of the Moosehead Lodge, Reg White, told the court that when they looked

through Mary Beth's rifle scope during the first reenactment, what they saw looked more like an animal than a human. Lambert said it was too dark to tell what he was looking at. During cross-examination, he told the court that several protocols weren't adhered to during Mark and Mary Beth's hunting trip, for example, the wearing of orange safety vests. Even though there's no legal requirement for hunters to wear these in Newfoundland, it's still sound safety policy. Lambert testified that he's altered his procedure and now insists on orange vests being worn. He also admitted that he had left Mary Beths. Beth unattended in the pickup truck with her kids, something guides are not supposed to do.

Guides are also restricted to escorting two non-resident hunters, but Lambert had three, Mark, Mary Beth and Barry. Lambert also said in his testimony that he saw no signs of a bear on the day of the shooting, signs like overturned logs, beer tracks or their scat or excrement. But under cross-examination, he acknowledged that it was reasonable that Mary Beth may have believed a bear was in the area. In closing arguments, the Crown stated that Mary Beth had a responsibility to determine that she was shooting at a bear. Quote, the duty here is that there has to be no doubt before you pull the trigger. The Crown has empathy for Mrs. Harshbarger, but that doesn't change the standard of care we're going to hold her to.

The Crown stated that a hunter must properly identify a target before taking a shot, and regardless of what Mary Beth thought she saw, the fact that she shot her husband and not a bear was proof that she did not properly identify her target, and therefore she was criminally negligent. The defence argued that if anyone was negligent, it was Mark himself, firstly by wearing dark coloured clothing on the trip when a responsible hunter would likely wear the orange vest, legal requirement or not.

And secondly, the plan was to flush an animal out and Mark knew that Marybeth had a gun and would shoot if a moose or bear emerged, yet for some reason he didn't call out to her as he emerged from the trees. What happened was not Mary Beth's fault, according to the defence. It was just a horrible accident. It was a judge-only trial and Justice Richard LeBlanc came back at a later date with his decision. He first referenced the defences claim that Mark himself was negligent, saying he didn't agree.

The justice argued that in cases of criminal negligence, contributory negligence by a victim is not a defence, unless the injury was caused by that victim and no one else. and Mark did not shoot himself. On this point, the judge stated that the issues of Mark's dark clothing and the zigzag manner in which he exited the trees were factors that contributed to Mary Beth's state of mind, and it was this that would determine whether the elements of a criminal negligence charge

were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Having got this out of the way, the judge concluded that Mark was shocked, during legal light. It was less than the full daylight conditions, but still within the 30 minutes after sunset in which hunting is legal. Justice LeBlanc wasn't satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time Mary Beth fired at Mark, it was too dark for her to be able to distinguish between a human or an animal. He said that the zigzag movements Mark made as he traversed the uneven logging road, as well as the height of the grass and his appearance hunched over, all contributed to Mary Beth making a reasonable decision that it was a bear that she was looking at.

The judge also referenced the fact that two men went into the bushes, and Mary Beth would have expected two men to also come out of the bushes, not just one. Justice LeBlanc referenced the prosecution's assertion that a hunter must be absolutely accurate in identifying the target. He said that to him, properly identifying a target, wasn't a conclusion but a process, and means taking all steps in the circumstances to identify the target, which he considered Marybeth had done. He told the court that the law still makes allowances for accidental actions in certain circumstances. The judge stated that Mary Beth's actions in firing the gun did not display a reckless disregard

for the lives or safety of others, including her husband. He added that her actions were not heedless, ungoverned, undisciplined or unrestrained, and nor was it heedless of the consequences, which it would need to be to be considered reckless. He said there was no evidence to support that Mary Beth intentionally shot at or killed her husband at the time in question. For those reasons, Justice LeBlanc found Mary Beth Harshbarger not guilty of criminal negligence causing death. Mary Beth had been sobbing as the judge read his decision. As they left the court, the media asked for comment. Mary Beth refused to say anything, and all that her defense lawyer would say was, Mary Beth wants to go home to her children right now.

As the Canadian press put it, with a triumphant whoop and a blast of music, Mary Beth Harshberger and her defense lawyer peeled out of a court parking lot Friday after she was cleared of criminal negligence in her husband's shooting death. Mark's family, though, were bitterly disappointed. They still maintained that the shooting was deliberate.

Mark's father, 77-year-old Lee Harshberger, told the media that he hoped the Crown would appeal the ruling and maybe find another judge who better understands hunting safety and the outdoors. Quote, this kind of decision says that it's okay to shoot at a black mass. If you don't positively identify it and if anyone goes out there on an ATV with their dark coat and they go down one of those trails and somebody shoots them, that's saying it's okay. Just weeks later, the Crown announced that it would not appeal the verdict. It said there weren't sufficient grounds to challenge the acquittal.

The judge had to make an actual error in applying the law, and the prosecution team had reviewed the file and concluded that the judge was correct in the way he arrived at his decision. This upset Mark's family again. Lee said to the media that he didn't think the whole thing was fair, reiterating the cardinal rule of hunting which is confirming a target before shooting. Quote, you shouldn't be able to shoot and kill somebody and just walk away and say, I thought it was an animal.

There should be consequences. It was wrongful death. Definitely it was wrongful death. Lee believed that the trial put too much stress on his son's dark clothing and not enough on basic hunter safety. But he acknowledged that. that no appeal means it's time for his fractured family to try and move on. Quote, I guess that's about as far as we can go. We tried.

True to her word, Mary Beth returned straight home. As you'll remember, Barry had stayed on at her house to look after the kids, but in that time, he had started a relationship with another woman who he would go on to marry. Not much is known about what happened in the months after Mary Beth tried. triumphantly returned home. But about a year after her acquittal, Barry obtained a temporary protection from abuse order against Mary Beth, claiming that he was in fear for his life. He alleged that she had threatened him by pointing a loaded rifle at him. He called state

police to report her at the time, telling them that she, quote, showed up at our residents driving back and forth, stopping, yelling, screaming, radical behaviour, threatening our family, scaring our household. Barry appeared in court to demand that Mary Beth return 130 guns she still had, which he claimed were his, and also to keep the temporary protection order in place. But it wasn't just to protect his new wife and her family. Barry also specified he wanted the protection order to include his father. father Lee, as well as his siblings and their families. This suggested that the Harshbaga family

once split over Barry's allegiance to Mary Beth may have reconciled. When the matter was heard in court, the judge found that Barry's claims were inaccurate exaggerations and insufficient to keep the protective order in place. Nothing further has been reported on the case. The overwhelming majority of hunting accidents involve falling from tree stands, like the lofts and the tree that Barry was hunting from at the time Mark was shot. But statistics about accidental hunting deaths by firearm are either hard to come by, dated or not from Canada. And after that, statistics that separate the number of hunters who accidentally shoot another party from hunters who accidentally shoot themselves were even more challenging to find. What we do know is that out of all firearm

fatalities in the United States, hunting fatalities due to firearms account for around 12 to 15 percent. And when it comes to accidental shootings of another person, while it's uncommon, It's not rare. Most hunter safety education programs recommend wearing that high visibility orange vest when hunting. A 2012 report from the Canada Safety Council cites research from North Carolina, a state in the US which legally requires hunters to wear orange vests and orange hats. The legislation is called the Hunter Orange Law, and it relies on studies that show that the fluoro

orange clothing increases visibility of the wearer because that color doesn't occur naturally in the wild. And research suggests that after the law was passed in North Carolina, less hunters were being mistaken for animals and being killed accidentally. In Canada, hunters are required by law to wear orange in Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Quebec. In the other provinces and territories, including Newfoundland and Labrador, wearing orange is not a legal requirement, although in some provinces it's highly recommended. These hunting accidents are still happening. In Nova Scotia in 2018, a 60-year-old man and his 41-year-old son were hunting when they became separated. The son shot at what he thought was a deer

and accidentally shot his father. Police and emergency health services responded to the scene, but tragically the man died from his injuries. Outside of Canada, just last year, a nine-year-old boy in Orangeburg, South Carolina, was accidentally killed by his father while rabbit hunting. And in January of this year, also in South Carolina, a 30-year-old father and his nine-year-old daughter were both killed when they were hunting with two friends and were mistaken for deer. There's no information on whether any of these victims were wearing orange vests. Today, there are two memorials for Mark Harshberger. One was arranged by his family, a carved stone memorial deep in the woods overlooking the

Susquehanna River, which he was known to adore. Carved into the stone is his trademark phrase, which he was known to say at the end of a satisfying day of hunting. Another fine day afield. And the other memorial, a stone bench, was erected by Mary Beth, 20 kilometres away. No further information is publicly available about where she is today. Thanks for listening and special thanks to Gemma Harris for research. searching this case, and also to Outdoor Canada magazine. Ten years ago, they published an award-winning, long-form investigative piece on the case

by Charles Wilkins, called Another Fine Day Afield. Outdoor Canada were really gracious in sending me a copy of the article, and they've now put it online for you guys to read. There's lots of pictures there too. You can find a link to it in the show notes, or on the page for this episode at Canadian Intruecrime.ca. Other main sources for this episode include the written court decision, as well as the reporting and journalism of the CBC's 5th The State episode called Inside the Harshbagger Family Case.

If you're interested in more discussion about today's intriguing episode, join me and special guest Jordan from Nighttime for this month's Chats with Christy Aftershow. It's available on the exclusive feeds for supporters on Patreon. and Supercast. Visit Canadian Truecrime.cair slash support to learn more. Today's podcast recommendation is a show called True. Yep, just True. You might recognize the voice. It's the host of the podcast formerly known as Beyond Bazaar True Crime. The show has been rebranded so it's not just boxed into the crime genre. And the show is now releasing weekly episodes. Here's a trailer.

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organizations related to helping victims and survivors of injustice. To learn more about today's case and for full credits and resources, check the show notes or see the page for this episode at Canadian Truecrime.ca.ca. Thanks to the host of True for voicing the disclaimer and also to We Talk of Dreams who compose the theme song. I'll be back soon with another Canadian true crime story. See you then.