Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - KILLER WIVES: Human Speed Bump

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

There's nothing more difficult for a woman in love to find out that her spouse is cheating. That's what happened to Clara Harris, and what followed has been a study in mariticide. Clara Harris said she did not mean to run over her husband with her Mercedes. Evidence shows she did doughnuts.Joining Nancy Grace today: Ashley Willcott - Judge and trial attorney, Anchor on Court TV  Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Beverly Hills  Sheryl McCollum - Forensics Expert & Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder Dr. Kris Sperry - Former Chief Medical Examiner State of Georgia Ray Caputo - Lead News Anchor for Orlando's Morning News, 96.5 WDBO Bobbie Bacha- Private Investigator, Blue Moon Investigations Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How does a mild-mannered orthodontist end up dead in so-called death by Mercedes. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. First of all, let's take a listen to Unraveled.

Soon after landing her job at a clinic in Houston, she meets 32-year-old orthodontist David Harris. Did you start? I did. I've been here about a month. This has been my dream. Being accepted here was amazing. Clara said they were both very, very dedicated to the practice of their profession. So where are you from originally? I'm born and raised here in Texas, in the Austin area. Where'd you come from?

Columbia. Wow. Yes, it was a journey. She found him to be a man who was kind, gentle, loving, hardworking. Anyway, cheers, welcome. Thank you. Good to meet you. All of the qualities that she was looking for.

I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks, man. You too. All right. Everyone loved David Harris. He was from a very good family. He was well-liked in his church and in his community. He did a great job in his business, and he was very kind to everyone.

What's not to love? Kind, loving, mild-mannered, hard worker, educated. So how does a mild-mannered orthodontist beloved in his community and church end up dead like he's a speed bump on the highway? Again, thank you for being with us. With me, an all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again. Voices of Clara and David Harris in a welcome video. With me to analyze it all, judge and trial lawyer, Court TV anchor, Ashley Wilcott at ashleywilcott.com. For now, psychoanalysts, joining me out of Beverly Hills, Dr. Bethany Marshall at drbethanymarshall.com.

Founder and director of the Cold Case Research Institute, forens expert Cheryl McCollum, Dr. Chris Sperry, former chief medical examiner for the entire state of Georgia, lead news anchor for WDBO Ray Caputo, but first to Bobby Basha, private investigator with the Blue Moon Investigations with a very intimate connection to this case. To you, Bobbi Basha, thank you for being with us. We were just hearing a welcome video, including Clara and David Harris. Now, David is an orthodontist. Clara is a dentist, correct? What is a welcome video? What is that? A welcome video? I'm guessing that's just where they're getting together and meeting each other. They had just met at a clinic in Houston. Tell me about how the two of them

end up meeting Bobby Basha. From what I understand, Clara started taking, working at, I think it was called Castle Dental, and learning to, she was going there like apprenticing to become a dentist. And I believe David Harris was working there and that's how they met. I also heard there's another way that they met is that originally, maybe, and maybe he helped her get the job here at the the castle dental is that she was in the beauty contest as miss columbia houston and she won that contest and he was there and that's another way that they met okay hold on let me analyze what bobby bosh a private eye with blue moon investigation just told me to you dr bethany marshall you're the shrink not me but what does strutting in a

swimsuit not judging don't care have to do with your ability to run a dental practice that's a very good question does it never end with men and i've been accused of being a man hater that is so not true i love my husband david and my son, John David, so much. I'm not a man hater, but Dr. Bethany Marshall, what is it like? Oh, there goes something shiny. Let me grab it. I mean, he sees her in a beauty contest and bam, there she is up in his life. Well, it does tell me that there was a very idealized beginning to this relationship. There was a lot of passion, a lot of strong emotions, a very strong sense of sexuality.

He's very attracted to her. She was up on a stage in a swimsuit. So there was a lot of adoration going on at the beginning, like a mutual love fest. And when there is that much adoration at the beginning, i always worry in a marital or a romantic relationship if somebody who's been put on a pedestal is going to be knocked right back down again idealization always leads to devaluation so i don't know if you've ever talked to a couple where all they say is positive things about each other and there's never one negative thing that comes out of their mouth and you think you know there has to be something bad somewhere i mean you know maybe

he has bad breath in the morning or maybe you know you don't like the way he makes the bed or something but if there's only adoration then i become very suspicious that there's a dark side to the relationship that's not being adequately processed or analyzed and that there's going to be a huge conflict on down the road. Guys, we're talking about how a mild-mannered orthodontist, David Harris, ends up as a human speed bump in a parking lot, dead. How did he meet his wife, Clara? No doubt about it, a real beauty and with smarts as well, she goes on to become a dentist. Take a listen to Unraveled. She's a tall woman.

She's strikingly beautiful. I think that had a strong effect on David. Here's to making a great team. To a beautiful woman. And to a great future looking forward. Clara confides in David that she was a beauty queen back in Columbia. So David encourages her to enter a local pageant in Houston. David's support and personal ambition soon convinced Clara that he's the man she's been searching for.

I believe that she must have figured that with a marriage to a man like that, that she could really have a perfect life. A totally different sort of life than the one that she came from after the death of her father. Their courtship was rather quick. They married on Valentine's Day in 1992. In her eyes, she had the perfect marriage and the perfect relationship. And Clara vows she'll always be his perfect wife. She seemed to adore David. And she took a subservient position in most matters to his wishes and desires. To Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, Orlando News, WDBO.

Ray Caputo, what can you tell me about their lifestyle? Where do they live? What happened? He falls in love with her, sees her in a beauty contest. She's also a dentist, he's an orthodontist, match made in heaven. So then what happened? Well, Nancy, I mean, this is a couple

who appeared to have it all. They live in Friendswood, Texas, it's a suburb southeast of Houston. It's upscale, million dollar homes. In fact, CNN Money ranked it one of the best places to live, the 100 places to live. I mean, it was a beautiful place. And they go on and they start a family. David already has a daughter. They actually have a couple of twins just like you. And everything appears to be great. So he already has a daughter, Lindsay, from a previous relationship. The two of them have boy twins. Guys, speaking of Lindsay,

take a listen to Sharon Martin. Clara's sensitive nature soon rekindled the relationship between David and his daughter, Lindsay. Father and daughter had had little contact since his divorce from Lindsay's mother in 1991, but Clara believed it was important for David to spend time with her Claire really got attached to Lindsay very early on David's first child because when Clara and David met Lindsay was something like three years old Clara was the reason that Lindsay was in David's life he had not had a relationship with Lindsay until Clara came into his life and said, you need to have a relationship with your daughter.

And Clara didn't just add Lindsay back into David's life. In September of 1998, Clara gave birth to twin boys, Brian and Bradley. That rocked their world. That was the bow on the package. I mean, they had this great life. Their future looked totally bright. To you, Ashley Wilcott, judge and trial lawyer, Court TV anchor, who deals a lot with juvenile issues, when a stepmom comes in, very often that changes the entire scenario. It absolutely does, the entire family dynamic.

And what's interesting to hear in this case is that the stepdaughter and the stepmother got close. That doesn't always happen. I often see stepparents come into a home dynamic and the children are not forging a good relationship with the step-parent or the step-parent may not be loving and adoring to that child. But this case does not sound like that.

It sounds like they really truly enjoyed each other and were building a great family together. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about how a mild-mannered orthodontist, David Harris, ends up a human speed bump dead. In a case we're calling Death by Mercedes, these two had the perfect marriage as it seemed on the outside. But then things went sideways. Take a listen to our friend Sharon Martin. David Harris and Gail Bridges would spend time at David and Clara's lake house. They would go to hotels.

Certainly a favorite was the Hilton. The very same Hilton that was right next to the country club where the Harris's were married. Before long, the couple wasn't even trying to conceal the affair, except from David's wife Clara and daughter Lindsay. But eventually, word of her husband's associate made its way back to Clara. One of the ladies that was working at David's central office, who took her out to dinner one night and told her that she needed to be aware that she may have a problem in her marriage and that she should address it. That was the first time that Clara really had an inclination that there was something

seriously wrong. Clara told David's 16-year-old daughter, Lindsay. Lindsay who always felt close to Clara immediately took her side. Then on the morning of Wednesday, July 17th, 2002, Clara confronted David about Gail. David admitted to the affair. Ah, did he not even care enough to try to lie his way out of it for Pete's sake? Or was he just busted red handed? Uh, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, joining me out of Beverly Hills at drbethanymarshall.com. You know, I always remember reading the actual paper, the actual paper. Growing up, the first thing I'd read as a little girl and a teen into college was Dear Abby.

And people would always say, I know my friend's husband's having a very should I tell her. Abby always said, ixnay on the ablate. Don't blab. Don't say a word. Stay avid. Let them work it out for all you know. She may already know. Jump in. You're the shrink.

I'm just a lawyer. I agree with you, Nancy. It's not me. It's dear Abby. I'll say, if you know your best friend. Okay. Well, okay. I agree with Abby. If your best friend's husband's having an affair, you don't need to tell your friend because your friend should already know. On some level, when there's trouble in paradise, both people know about it. I think that there was trouble brewing in this marriage.

I mean, if he was having an affair, there would be unexplained absences. There would be, you know, charges on credit cards. Oh, good grief, Bethany. You think I go through David's charges? I tried to read his computer one time. I told you what happened. My eyes started bleeding. It was so boring.

Let me just say my eyes dried up. That's even more boring than bleeding. I'm not going to look through his credit cards. And yes, sometimes he'll say bye in the morning. I don't hear from him until supper time. You know what? That's fine. That's okay with me.

But why would I ramble through his credit cards? I mean, why would i rancid rumble through his uh credit cards i mean why would you suspect but but we also don't know about clara's character we don't know if she had a personality oh here you go i don't know if she's layering imagining all of these mental illnesses on people why would she suspect her husband you know what hold on hold on. Hold on. Bobby Bosch, a private investigator at Blue Moon Investigations. Clara Harris actually hired Blue Moon to follow her husband. So that's really going out of line when you're willing to part with money because you're so suspicious of your husband. What about this woman taking her out to whatever it was, dinner, lunch, coffee, and saying, you have a problem?

That was her. Basically, the woman who took her out, or actually, a lot of people don't know this. They worked in separate clinics. Clara worked about 45 minutes from her house, and David worked right in town. Clara worked out of the Clute, Texas office and David worked out of the Clear Lake office. The Clute was more of like your

poor families, you know, she's probably there to help the poor and David's doing all the high paying clients with the insurance and the Clear Lake office. Well now wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait. She's a a dentist he's an orthodontist right she's a dentist he's an orthodontist he put in the i don't know that insurance covers orthodontia yeah i don't think it does so he would be seeing people that could write a check for braces and she would be seeing people that involved insurance. I mean, insurance, Medicaid, all that. So, okay. They worked in separate offices.

Now, who is this woman, this friend? Yes, this is a woman who worked in the office. And she basically was David's bookkeeper. And I don't have her name, so I'm sorry about that. And I'm not sure if she'd want it revealed. But she basically was the bookkeeper. When they hired the, Clara always called the other woman, the other woman. When they hired Gail Thompson, that was her maiden name. Bridges was her married name. But when they hired Gail Thompson, this woman trained Gail to work because Gail was a new divorcee and she had children. Oh, Lord. Yes. And so they hired her and this woman trained her. But apparently, David took interest in Gail right away. Gail's very petite, totally opposite of Clara. Clara was very strong. She was a powerful woman.

Clara dominated, contrary to what they were saying in that audio earlier, Clara was the dominant force in the marriage. And she's the one who picked the vacations. She's the one who picked what they did. She basically said everything and David would jump. And also Lindsay and her, yes, she might have gotten David close to Lindsay in the beginning, but when Clara got pregnant, she had to go, because remember Clara had to go get pregnant. I think she had to get inseminated. You know, they had to, I'm not sure exactly what they did, but she ended up with twins. That usually happens when you're trying to get pregnant. You might have twins. So she had twin boys. After she had the twins, she basically kind of cut Lindsay out of the relationship with them. It was Clara

and the boys. And from what I'm understanding, she would actually physically cut Lindsay out of pictures and put the boys and really didn't have a place for Lindsay to stay when she visited. So, but Lindsay would visit for, I believe, I think it was a month or two months in the summer, and they would usually vacation together with friends of theirs. And I think it was the Fondren, Roberta and Mike Fondren. Mike Fondren worked for David for Clara Harris in the clinic as the driver and person who took care of her Mercedes from what I understand but anyway Clara basically worked at that other clinic David worked at the Clear Lake Clinic and this woman that worked at the Clear Lake Clinic is the one who apparently got jealous of the new hire, Gail Thompson, and decided she was watching them go to lunch together. It was all fine.

Apparently, there was not a problem. And from what I understand, Gail said she would go to lunch with David. The whole office knew it. Everyone knew it. She said that David said it was an open marriage, that he was divorcing, and everyone knew it. Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. How in the hay do we go?

Dr. Chris Berry, former chief medical examiner, state of Georgia, you and I would go to lunch together when we were, I was prosecuting, and we had so many cases together together and we had a good time. You know, it was kind of a break from the, of course, all we talked about were dead bodies, but that was a good time to me. What is wrong with having lunch with somebody you work with and how the, hey, I mean, do you remember that Dr. Sperry? Yeah, I remember those were some of the happy times in prosecuting when you could go out with a colleague or somebody that understood what you're talking about.

That's hard to find in our line of business, Dr. Sperry. Oh, it is. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about an orthodontist that ends up, a human speed bump, dead. We call it death by Mercedes. But, Dr. Bethany, you know, there are good-intentioned friends that will tell you your spouse is cheating and they think they're doing you a favor. And honestly, I mean, if David was cheating, I would want to know. I definitely would want to know so I could go ahead and kill him and be done with it. I didn't say that. But Dr. Bethany, so you're still sticking to your guns about

don't tell, don't say anything. That's kind of hard to do, right, when you know something's happening? It's a very sticky situation to be in. I just think the unconscious is such a powerful thing. And if your spouse is cheating, you're going to know. Very rarely is a spouse. You mean you're subconscious? Did I actually get to correct Dr. Bethany? That has never happened in life.

Hold that tape. So you're saying, just give it to me. By the way, Dr. Bethany? That has never happened in life. Hold that tape. So you're saying, just give it to me. Bottom line, Dr. Bethany, don't analyze me. Yes, no. When your spouse is cheating, when a man is cheating, the wife tends to know. She may choose to not put her thoughts together about it. She may choose to sweep it under the carpet or tonight to deny that it's happening but when her friend takes her to lunch and says there's trouble in your marriage your husband is cheating all that denial goes right out the

window and that's what causes people to snap sometimes I wanted to say something about the husband saying that they were in an open relationship. I've been in private practice for almost 30 years. Open marriage. My rear end. Exactly. Whenever a man says that. There's always a man in the open marriage.

The wife seemingly doesn't know anything about it. Exactly. Only one person knew that the narrative or held the script. Him and his girlfriend. Exactly. Okay, guys, take a listen to most evil Neil Dudgeon. Listen to this. When she confronts him, he admits to having an affair with his receptionist, Gail.

Clara is devastated. She makes David tell her everything about Gail. She's a great sheep, as I say. She makes David tell her everything about Gail According to David, she is younger, more attractive And caters to his needs Clara takes notes during their conversation Comparing herself to Gail And writing down her own shortcomings Willing to do anything to save their marriage

Clara joins a gym, has her nails and hair done, and goes to a tanning salon. She puts money down at a plastic surgeon's for a tummy tuck and breast augmentation. She even leaves her job to be more available for David's sexual desires. Okay, let me just let that sink in for a moment.

So you leave your job. I can see my peripheral vision, Jackie, laughing into her fist. Yep, she is. Okay, did I get that right? Bobby Bosher, private investigator, Blue Moon Investigations. Clara Harris quits her job to be more sexually available to her husband. They can't work around. I did not hear that she actually quit her job to be more sexually available to her husband? They can't work around? I did not hear that she actually quit her job.

She may have not gone to some days of her job, but she didn't actually quit. When she came to us, it was in the afternoon after she got off of work. She may have taken some days off, but I don't think she quit her job. She was actually still working, but she had taken days off. But Clara actually, you know, what an idiot David was. I mean, who would say, oh, your feet are big, her feet are small. Did he say that? She has big, yes.

About her feet? How can you change her feet? Yeah, he said she has petite she's petite she has tiny feet and you have big feet um she's small framed and we fit well together and you're big framed and we're awkward together um she's got small pretty little teeth and you've got big teeth um how do you change your teeth how do you change your feet She's got big breasts and you have small breasts. She's small. She's tiny and you're heavy.

So I think she was weighing probably like 185 or about the time she had twins. Is that heavy? She had a beautiful body and had twins. Yeah. So, you know, so he was, you know know he was an idiot to admit it but now also she made him do it well wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute uh you know as you will cod uh judge and trial lawyer court tv anchor i've seen many many divorces as part of criminal law that end in a felony usually somebody taking a shot at somebody.

Grounds for divorce, you have big feet. You ever heard that? Oh, my God. I've just been biting my tongue, Nancy, because I just want to breathe. It's all starting to fit together now. Oh, my gosh. Clearly, clearly, clearly there are bigger issues in this marriage because all of these things he's coming up with that he's making up just means that he has no interest in his wife and doesn't want to

be married to her please the other thing I have to say is you know she was described as the dominant force in the marriage that David would jump when it doesn't justify his going out and having an affair he doesn't even want to be with his wife and he's coming up with all these little things about her he doesn't even like you know another his wife, and he's coming up with all these little things about her he doesn't even like. You know, another thing I heard earlier that, like, for instance, she would pick the vacation. That means nothing to me. I pick our vacations, where we're going to go, how we're going to do it.

David works like a maniac. He really has his nose to the grindstone. If I didn't come up with a vacation, plan the whole thing, go rent the RV, we wouldn't have a vacation. It's just that simple. So he couldn't care less where we go he loves being with us he goes willingly but he doesn't stop and make a plan i don't hold that against him because i like what i plan so long story short that means nothing to me about her being, quote, dominant because she would pick vacations and other similar examples. But when she finds out about the affair, take a listen to our Cut 7's Sharon Martin. On July 23rd, Clara walked into the Blue Moon Detective Agency. She wanted us to get close and listen to conversations if we could because she wanted to know what his plans were.

And, of course, if he went to a hotel or anything like that to document any adultery, because even though he confessed, you still have to document the adultery for court. In Texas, everything is split 50-50. Unless you can prove adultery, you can ask for up to 90% of the assets. Blue Moon assigned an agent named Lucas to the case. And a few days later, she checked back with the agency to see how things were going. Lucas finally called them back. He said, your case is going fine.

They're at a hotel, fourth or sixth floor. We'll get a full report tomorrow after noon. Clara knew just which hotel. And she wasn't going to wait until tomorrow afternoon to get a full report. Okay, that's what I don't get. She grabs her husband's bio-child, 16-year-old Lindsay, and takes her to go confront her dad about having an affair. I don't think I would take the children along on that particular joy ride. She also knows, she's no idiot, that in Texas there's a 50-50 split of marital assets unless adultery is proven and the wrong spouse can get up to 90% of the assets.

Wow, well, you know what? To you, Ray Caputo, lead anchor orlando's morning news wdbo ray they get to the hotel what happens then well simply put nancy clara flies into a rage you know she's got lindsey with her first thing she does is she goes up to gal's navigator in the parking lot and she gets the windshield wipers and she bends the blades and i'm not talking about the plastic part we're talking about like the metal part that's really hard to bend i mean it just shows how angry she was you know and then from there she goes from the parking lot and messing with the suv she storms upstairs into the lobby of the hilton

where presumably david and um and gal are hanging out and she's got Lindsay and Toast still. And, you know, things just keep getting worse. Wow. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, a well-loved and respected local orthodontist is victim to, quote, death by Mercedes. Joining me right now, the private investigator who worked on the case, Bobby Basha. And as it happened to be, you guys apparently were there surveilling him. Is that correct?

We were surveilling David. And obviously what was unknown to us, something that no one knew at the time, was Clara was, you know, so worried about not finding David that night that she actually asked the assistant that worked with David that night to follow him unknown to us the assistant that told her about the affair so when you said Clara flew into a rage and got into her car she was already at the hotel when she called us wanting an update on the case she knew the hotel she knew what did you see what did you observe we saw David basically we saw David and meet up with Gail. And her navigator was parked in the back and his car was parked in the back. He basically left his work, went to an ATM machine, got cash, went straight to the hotel. He met up with the other woman, Gail, and her navigator, and they parked in the back.

They went inside the hotel, and they sat in the bar, at the bar. So you saw all of that happening, right? And they sat at the bar, talked for an hour, went back to the car, then eventually checked back into the hotel. And you saw all of that? We got all of that. We got all of that. So there these two are going back up to their hotel room. Take a listen to Clara Harris herself speaking to our friends at ABC. As Clara Harris continues her story, she and Lindsay call David Harris on his cell phone. He had told them he was going to a restaurant, but instead he and his mistress come out of a room at the hotel.

When the elevator opens into the lobby, Lindsay and Clara are there. He was holding her hand up like he used to hold my hand many times when you called me there. I was his princess and his sweetheart in a very special manner. And I just looked at her. She wasn't even surprised to see me I grabbed her by her hair on the right side and I remember David saying oh no no no a fierce struggle erupts David Harris shouts at his wife it's over it's over he and Gail Bridges are escorted outside to her car,

while another hotel employee steers Clara and Lindsay to her Mercedes, saying, don't go where they're going. Wow, so this turns into an outright brawl. So Clara Harris, the wife, goes up the elevator in tow, her husband's teen girl, and they confront the two getting off the elevator. Listen to this. Clara grabbed Lindsay and returned to the Mercedes.

The two women got back in the car. What happened next would be debated for years to come. From witness statements, what I was told was that she had pulled out of her parking spot, had drove around to where Ms. Bridges was parked, struck the navigator and Mr. Harris. He flew approximately 25 to 30 feet, and he crossed two grassy medians, which is about 25 feet apart. All while Lindsay sat in the passenger seat. She crossed over the first one.

She crossed over the second grassy median. And from what witness have told us was that she had ran over him again police were soon summoned to the scene at that point i did not know he was alive or dead i was told that he was injured pretty badly but i did not know if he was alive or dead at that time i didn't know until i was contacted later by my lieutenant from the hospital david harris was dead at 9.48 p.m. She had to go over two medians to run him over, Ray Caputo? Two medians?

Well, that was the distance that David was thrown. So she hits him, and he's tossed about 25, 30 feet, which is a couple of car lengths. And then she gets her car and kind of starts doing a donut. And in that radius she covers that distance it ends up according to witnesses hitting david again now she denies this but that's what several witnesses have said bobby basha is with me private eye at blue moon investigations who was actually hired by clara harris to follow her husband david so what did

you guys observe happen in the parking lot, Bobby Basha? Well, this was one of the first videos actually caught a murder caught on a video. We caught the video of David actually being run over, you know, donuts over him like several times. We counted five. The jurors basically thought it was more they agreed at least three times maybe four i've never seen an autopsy report with actual tire marks on the victim and this one did have that it was very very very obvious he was run over and that's what we caught on our video and by the way he landed in the parking lot of where Clara and David had their wedding reception. Okay.

Same parking lot. Wow. Irony. Guys, I want you to take a listen to a detail of David Harris's injuries. Take a listen to Sharon Martin. Several of his teeth were knocked loose from the lower jaw. The right collarbone was broken six of the right ribs were broken but then as the tire progressed across the left side of the chest the car was supported

by nothing except ribs and so the left ribs essentially from the first rib to the tenth rib were all fractured multiply so the left side of his chest was essentially collapsed. Clara was arrested and charged with murder. But was it murder or a tragic mistake by a desperate woman? That would be up to the jury to decide, and they would have plenty of help. The Blue Moon Detective Agency caught the whole thing on tape. Joining me, Dr. Chris Sperry, former chief medical examiner for the whole state of Georgia. Dr. Sperry, can you analyze his injuries? Predominantly, he's going to have tremendous crushing injuries in the chest and in the abdomen

with a lot of organs torn to pieces, maybe the liver crushed and the heart torn loose. And all of these would correlate with the tire marks on the outside of the body that shows where the vehicle went over his body and then disrupted all the internal organs beneath that. So with multiple areas of tire marks, it's a little more challenging, but you can still see the injuries very readily on the inside and even assess, say, how long he was conscious perhaps uh well how much pain he was sustained before he finally lost enough blood or had a brain injury say that you know that would render him unconscious so this could be put put together pretty well i mean to you uh joining me

cheryl mccall director of cold case research institute when you put it to a jury what happened and they hear about her apparently doing donuts over his body it's easy to throw out the phrase death by mercedes but you also have evidence where he told her he was having an affair because the new woman who he called my princess her words not mine she had small feet and the wife had big feet and she was petite and the wife was tall like an amazon and he says she had big breasts and the wife has small breasts you know you get the right jury for a defense lawyer and you'll end up with not guilty. The rest of the story, Clara Harris convicted. Final epilogue, Clara Harris released from prison after just 15 short years. And as she was released, for the cameras watching, she smiled. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.