Dateline NBC - As Darkness Fell

Episode Date: August 3, 2021

Mark and Mary Beth Harshbarger had a passion for hunting. They were both excellent shots and rarely missed, until one tragic outing changed everything. Keith Morrison reports in this Dateline classic. Originally aired on NBC on April 22, 2011.

It was getting dark as the hunter pulled the trigger. The shape someone said looked like a bear wasn't. And I heard this god-awful scream. But was this an accident? There's absolutely no allegation of evil intent. Or something else? She says I'm worth more toolt. To outsiders, every marriage is a mystery, like the couple in the story you're about to see. Some saw two people in love, others a marriage in trouble.

But all agreed this husband and wife did have one thing going for them. They both loved hunting. They were also both excellent shots. So good, they rarely missed whatever the target. Here's Keith Morrison. Twilight. The day going fast now. Night eating up the rotted track, the meadow, the wild black wood.

When did she know? Now as she steadied herself in the truck bed, was it hours ago in September sunlight? Did she know already back at the camp in the morning? Or was it later, much later, when they showed her the evidence and darkness swallowed them all? They call it the rock, a great gorgeous island with its fishing fleets and its coves and its mile after mile of primeval woods, a place to fall in love, a place where love can sour and turn, perhaps, to murder. Except, surely not. Not in Newfoundland, Canada, with its small, sweet towns, its hospitable people, its vast and ancient forests, teeming with bear and moose and caribou, remote, quiet, not quite crime-free, but close.

And so the question that arose that awful September night was this. Had crime, vicious crime, been imported to Newfoundland? Or was it no crime at all? You'll have to go to another bucolic place 1,500 miles southwest of Newfoundland in rural eastern Pennsylvania where Mark Harshbarger met the love of his life, Mary Beth. Mark said when he saw her, he said,

oh, I want to marry her. And when she saw Mark, she said, I'm going to marry that man. Mary Beth was floating on air told her friend Madge this is it he's the one. So it was as if they were meant for each other and they were very much in love very much in love. And when Mark talked to his sister Sharon about Mary Beth over the moon he was. He started a conversation with me a couple times and he said, did you ever just look at somebody and know that they were the right person for you?

They were so suited to each other. So suited. Mark was the apple of his father's eye, Lee Harsh Barker, who knew love when he saw it. He thought that she was just what he was looking for. Mark was an expert hunter, learned at his daddy's knee, and what do you know, so was Mary Beth. Not many girls like her. She was very much for the outdoors, too, for hunting and fishing. He was crazy about her. She was very good with a rifle.

She could shoot. So she could. They celebrated their marriage, how else? By shooting. She was very good with a rifle. She could shoot. So she could. They celebrated their marriage, how else? By shooting. The photos show Mary Beth still in her wedding dress, and later they both joined what must surely be one of the most exclusive clubs anywhere. They shot competitively in an exclusive 1,000 yard club, and it's very difficult to shoot at a target

1,000 yards away. No kidding. Anyway, as love grew, so did the young couple's collection of precision rifles. You've got to have a very special sort of gun to do that, right? Yes, you have to have good equipment, and you have to be good with that equipment. Sure. In addition to the skill, what does the equipment provide to help people see targets that far away? Well, they had very good scopes. Of course, shooting was by no means all they did. They had a couple of babies to add to the daughter Mary Beth brought into the marriage. And when Mark first became a father? I remember how happy he was. It was a little girl.

And she was so thrilled, and he was too. He would look at the baby in the bassinet, and he could sit there for hours. Something else about Mark. He was a good provider. His contracting job paid well enough he was able to build a big new home for his growing family, which, by 2006, included a baby boy. He enjoyed having family around too, like older brother

Barry and his wife Linda. For the first time in his life, he was really happy with things. Of course, nothing is perfect. Mark's other older brother, Dean, had issues with Mary Beth. So she hated me. Might have been mutual. Anyway, all things considered, Mark was a happy man, as he told his sister, Susan. If I die tomorrow, I've lived a good life. And then in the summer of 2006, Mark and Mary Beth planned the ideal vacation, ideal for them anyway, a hunting trip

to one of their favorite and frequent destinations, Newfoundland. You know, the night before they left for Newfoundland, he told me, he said, you should see Mary Beth shoot that rifle. He said, you know, these little plastic pill bottles, she can hit one of those at 250 yards with the rifle. And that is pretty fine shooting. It was September 2006. They packed up the truck and camper, took their baby boy and four-year-old daughter with them, and also Mark's brother, Barry. They drove up to Nova Scotia, took the ferry seven hours across the ocean to Newfoundland. Everything was as fine as it could be.

They hired a guide, shot a few caribou. Mark bagged a black bear. People at the hunting lodge noted how affectionate Mark and Mary Beth were, calling out, I love you, every time they separated, even briefly. It was a beautiful country, a beautiful trip. He was more than happy with life. Then, day six, early evening, they set out on one last hunt. Mary Beth's turn, perhaps, to beg a bear.

They dropped off Barry to hunt by himself. It was a rainy, dreary, foggy night. The wind was blowing. It was an excellent time for game to come out and move and feed, you know, with the early darkness. Mark and the guide parked the truck in the clearing, got out and disappeared into the woods. Told Mary Beth they'd scare out a bear if they saw one. And she packed the kids into the cab and climbed into the bed of the pickup, positioned herself.

Peered through her powerful, light-enhancing rifle scope. You still could see objects you still could see, to an extent. Fifteen minutes passed. Almost dark now. Mary Beth saw movement. A bear? She peered through her gun scope, lined up the shot, squeezed the trigger. But it wasn't a bear. Coming up, what did Mary Beth shoot? I was looking and looking and I fired and I heard this god-awful scream. When Dateline continues. Deep in a wild wood in Newfoundland,

last light fading, Mark Harshberger and a guide headed back from their final hunt of the day as they approached the clearing where Mark's wife Mary Beth waited in the pickup truck with the kids. The guide stopped to relieve himself. Alone now, Mark Harshbarger picked his way through the rough undergrowth, through ruts called skitters, sometimes three feet deep,

and over fallen logs and through grass, which at the time was three to five feet high in front of him. About 200 feet away, his wife, Mary Beth Harshbarger, was standing in the back of a pickup truck. Could she see him this far away? That's when the guide heard the shot, stepped out of the woods, saw the body, felt for a pulse, called out to Mary Beth. I said, why did you shoot her?

She said, I shot her there. Did I get her? I said, why did you shoot it? She said, I shot it at the bear. Did I get him? I said, no, you got the bear. That was no bear she killed. It was her husband. It was pandemonium then. Kids wailing, Mary Beth sobbing, trying to go to the body, the guide held her back,

put her in the truck, drove off to find a working phone, picked up Barry on the way. And they come screaming, yelling, and her in the truck, drove off to find a working phone, picked up Barry on the way. And they come screaming, yelling, and Mary Beth was crying, and I didn't know what had happened. And she said, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. There had been an accident. The guide said, we got to go. And they said, Mark was involved in an accident. I said, well, how is he? And they said, he's gone. I said, no, he can't be gone. But Mark was gone, left dead back in the clearing. Once at the lodge, they called the police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP.

Of course, they closed all the roads. They came in and did their investigating. Mary Beth was a mess, appeared to be in shock. Just past 2 a.m., the Mounties recorded her version of events. I was standing in the back of the truck with a loaded weapon, and I saw a black bear come out in the woods. Saw it first with her naked eyes, she said. And I put my scope on him, and I was looking and looking,

and I fired, and I heard this god-awful scream. It was horrible. The bullet hit at mid-chest. He was dead in an instant. And that was my husband. But couldn't you tell in the twilight that it was him? Wondered the Mounties. Were you able to see clearly across the cutover for a considerable distance? I thought I was, for the 50 yards I was looking at for the bear. I saw a clear bear. What you're telling me is that you saw a bear in your scope? And with my naked eye. I saw the movement with my naked eye, but my scope magnifies it,

and I looked, and it was a bear. And then she said, a little late for this conclusion, I think it was too dark to shoot. I shouldn't have taken the shot. Didn't get a clear picture? I thought I had a clear picture, but obviously not. So, now the questions veered into territory all too familiar to cops everywhere. Mary Beth, have you and Mark ever had any marital issues or problems?

We had the perfect life, the perfect marriage, the perfect family. I loved him so much. He was my everything. I couldn't wait for him to come home from work. That's what I live for. We had a great life, and we had so much in common. I don't know how to go without him. Okay, I think we're done with the interview right now.

Investigators left Mary Beth to grieve, and, of course, to call the family with the awful news. Mary Beth's first call was to her friend, Madge. She said, oh, Mark is dead. He was shot. And I asked her who shot him, and she said, I did. And she was crying so hard, it was difficult to make out what she was saying. I said, have you told anyone? No, I'm calling you first. Barry got on the phone too.

Not to his father or his brother or sisters. He called his wife, Linda, asked her to deliver the news. Linda called me and said, Mark is gone. And I said, what do you mean Mark's gone? And she said, Mary Beth shot him. She thought he was a bear and she shot him. And then Sharon had to tell their father, Lee. I'll never forget the look on her face when she came in and right away that was Mark. Mark's gone. Just like that. Yeah, and that was the most devastating thing that ever happened to me in my life. Mark was his baby, his hunting buddy, the son most like him. Back in Newfoundland, the Maudis asked Mary Beth,

would she mind staying another day or so while they sorted things out? And of course she said yes, though neither she nor Barry slept at all that night. I cried all night and threw up all night. It's a tragic experience to ever have to go through. At first light, the Mounties headed back to the clearing to collect Mark's body and document what they saw on video. All very sad. In Newfoundland, as in many places, hunting accidents are, if not exactly common, an unfortunate reality. Chalk up another one.

Then the cops got back to headquarters and all hell broke loose. They're getting bombarded and swung by the phone calls. That is calls from Mark's family, Dean mostly, demanding the police do something. So many calls. They asked Barry to tell them to stop. They handed me a satellite phone. They said our office can hardly perform their duties. There was, of course, a reason for all those calls. And everybody would find out about that soon enough. Coming up... Immediately, we had that instinct that this wasn't an accident. When Dateline continues...

On September 17, 2006, less than 72 hours after Mary Beth Harshbarger said she mistook her husband for a bear, she left Newfoundland for the long, sad drive back to Pennsylvania. Her children and brother-in-law Barry with her. And Mark? His body was shipped back in a casket. I don't know how to go without him. And a few days after that tear-stained statement in the interview with the Mounties, she pulled up in Pennsylvania with some trophies in the truck.

A few caribou carcasses promptly carved up for steaks, and that dead bear, the one Mark shot before she shot him. The bear she had stuffed and mounted, a way to honor her husband, she said, his last kill and all. But Mary Beth's in-laws, already demanding the Mounties open an investigation, now added to their complaints what they saw as appalling bad taste and an uncaring attitude. Mark's sister Susan. If I would have killed someone, I would have been, you'd have had to put me under sedation. I mean, I cannot even

imagine taking a life like that and being able to function. Was she calm? Very calm. That wasn't agitated or over the top at all? Eerily calm. I did not want to believe that she did it on purpose. I gave her every opportunity to tell me that she was sorry, and it never happened. And there was no tears. There was no, no I'm sorry's, no, oh my God, what have I done? Nothing. Of course, methods of grief are as varied and personal as there are grievers. Not really the in-laws' business to judge Mary Beth's method, perhaps. But, as you'll hear, they didn't seem to believe Mary Beth was grieving. And though they were all shocked by Mark's killing, they said they weren't really surprised.

We all knew that something like that could happen. Knew that this could happen? How? Well, for one thing, the Harshbargers knew very well that Mary Beth was a crack shot, that she was equipped in Newfoundland with a sophisticated, light-enhancing rifle scope, so really at about 200 feet. How could she have mistaken her own husband for a bear?

The fact that it was only 60 meters in an open area, I mean, right immediately had the instinct that this wasn't an accident. Just didn't make any sense. No, the Harshbargers suspected the worst sort of foul play, a calculated deliberate killing. By a woman they did not like or trust not one bit. Especially Dean. His eyes were opened a few years earlier, said Dean, when he lived briefly with Mark and Mary Beth. Didn't end well. I fell in bad favor with Mary Beth

because she couldn't control me. It got really intense. She was so dominating in her manners. Dean claimed he saw disturbing things during his short, unhappy stay with the couple mary beth would fly off the handle i saw her slapping mark and so on just violently slapping slapping him till his lips were bleeding i often ask him why he wasn't afraid that she'd follow through on some time and end up shooting him or kill him. Yeah, and he said,

our love for each other is so strong that she'd never do it. And he said if she did, she'd be losing the best thing ever happened to her. Dean said he thought his little brother was crazy to stay with Mary Beth. But Mark loved her and defended her even when, according to the family, she acted up or got riled up. He would take her for a ride in the jeep and come back and everything would be fine. Well, he seemed to be able to control her. Of course, Dean wasn't alone, not for long. Early on, the rest of the family saw the very same signs of trouble.

She never allowed him really to be with any of us alone. She was always there. Yes, controlling. It was like he was brainwashed. As the news of Mark's death came crashing in on them, so did a seven years long backlog of grievances against Mary Beth. As they saw it, there'd been temper tantrums and wild spending sprees, disappearing acts. They said they put up with it because they loved Mark and they wanted to keep the family together. They knew something else, too. They knew Mary Beth had been diagnosed as being bipolar. And when she didn't take her medication, like when she was pregnant.

Everyone was really afraid and uncomfortable to be around her. I told him he needed to think of the safety of himself and those children, that she needed to get the appropriate treatment. And he was always concerned about if she was admitted somewhere, she wouldn't be allowed to hunt. And that's what they live for. And he didn't want her to lose her gun privileges. But eventually, Mary Beth's mood became so severe, said the family, she agreed to let Mark take her to a psychiatric hospital just over a year before the hunting trip. The family says she signed the papers herself, a way to keep her hunting privileges.

But she certainly did not like the place. No, no, she said nobody will ever put me in this place again when she got out of that. And claimed the Harshbarger she blamed Mark for putting her there. But did she ever forgive him for putting her into a psychiatric hospital? I think that's what brought us about, personally. We've all thought that. And so, when they heard about the accident, their minds went to that, and also some practical things. Mark had always been a good provider.

He'd worked hard to pay for that big new house as it was being built, and just five months earlier, he and Mary Beth increased his life insurance by half a million. She says I'm worth more to her dad than I am alive. It was a joke at the time, said Susan, but it was certainly in their minds when Dean and his family made all those phone calls to the RCMP right after the shooting. I wanted to talk to the commander of the Mounted Police, and I did. But the Mounties, said the Harshparkers, didn't seem to share their suspicions. They had made the comments, how could we be questioning this? And I stressed it to the point, and I had one of the sergeants in the RCMP actually says, nobody tells me how to run

our investigations. So it was upsetting, said the Harshbargers, but what could they do? The Mounties apparently ruled out murder or any crime when they sent Mary Beth home with the bear and the caribou and the kids, Barry. The funeral was, to say the least, awkward. Tense. It was almost as if you drew a line down to the middle of the building. Some stayed over here, some stayed on that side. I don't even know where his ashes were scattered. I don't know that.

Well, they may not have been scattered at all, actually. There was an urn right on a shelf in the house Mark built for Mary Beth. And that might have been the end of it, really. Except, of course, for the deep freeze that now split the family. But it wasn't the end of it. Because not long after, said Dean, a strange thing happened. Two of Mark's friends came forward, claimed Mark once made an unsettling prediction. I think she's going to shoot me. He said Mark hesitated and then added

and she won't miss. And yet another funny thing. They were stacking up now. Oh boy, were they ever. This time it was Barry. Suddenly, Barry's 20-year marriage ended. And as for what he did next? Well, what in the world was happening? Coming up, perhaps Mary Beth wasn't fighting with everyone in her husband's family. Did you ever have a moment when you thought, I'm trespassing on my brother's life? When Dateline Continues. In those sad, dark days after Mark Harsperger's death, his family suspicion solidified into a determined accusation.

His wife, Mary Beth, they were convinced had murdered Mark, their son and brother. And they told whoever would listen, she knew she wasn't shooting any bear up in the Newfoundland woods. His family was terribly upset, of course. Then they started blaming her. They wanted a reason, or they wanted a person who would be responsible. Well, she was responsible, and she said she was, and she felt horrible. But they wanted more, I guess, more than just saying,

yes, I did it, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Of all the Harshbargers, only Barry stood by Mary Beth. Barry, who expressed disgust at Brother Dean's accusation that she'd killed Mark out of revenge or maybe to collect insurance money. Dean just hated her, that's all, said Barry. I feel it was a game. He was playing a game. And persuaded everybody else to feel the same that he could, you know.

Meanwhile, Barry did his best to comfort Mary Beth. Crying and crying and days at a time. I mean, nights without sleep. Who did she have? I mean, nobody really helped out. They say they offered to and so on, but nobody was here. Yeah, but you were here. As much as possible. So much so that Barry's wife of 20 years walked out. And then in what seemed to the rest of the family indecent haste, Barry moved in with Mary Beth. He swore to me and broke down crying and put on such a good front.

And he said the only reason he's there is because of those kids. And he swore to me that that was the only thing that was going on. Everybody in town knew there were a couple. I still don't want to believe that. I've lost two brothers. I have lost two brothers, not one. I just can't believe that these people think that they have a right to judge me. Do I judge them? Who they live with or who they sleep with?

Did you ever have a moment when you thought, I'm trespassing on my brother's life? My brother's gone. It's no longer his life. I don't feel that way. I'm trespassing now. I never looked at it that way. No. By this time, family relationships were very sour. Yes, they were. Because what? They knew you

suspected her. Well, they knew that I couldn't accept the fact that things happened the way they did. It was just an accident. I couldn't accept the fact that things happened the way they did. It was just an accident. I couldn't accept that. Which is why, since the Mounties didn't seem too interested, the Harshbargers took their suspicions to a police force closer to home. I called the Pennsylvania State Police, and they in turn took it to the Wyoming County District Attorney's Office, and the detective there, he relayed it to the Mounties in Canada. It was Dean who called

the cops in Pennsylvania, Dean who'd pestered the Mounties right after the shooting, and Dean who learned that up in Newfoundland, investigators went out to the very spot in the brush where Mary Beth shot Mark and conducted a reenactment. The results? Inconclusive. It was possible, at least, that in high grass and low light, Mary Beth could have mistaken Mark for a bear. Though, of course, another conclusion was also possible. By this time, with some help from the Harshbarkers, Pennsylvania media had gotten wind of Mark's death,

and local gossip feasted on what was a juicy story. Accident or not? It would be pretty hard to mistake a human for a bear. feasted on what was a juicy story. Accident or not? It would be pretty hard to mistake a human for a bear. And Mary Beth? She kept her mouth shut, at least in public. Though she did fight hard, eventually successfully, to pry the very substantial insurance money from firms which first refused to pay.

She started competing again in local shooting contests. And when it came to the kids, Mary Beth claimed the Harshparkers never asked to see them, but Lee Harshparker told us she prevented any contact with those grandchildren of his. And you lost two grandchildren. Yes, it's sad. It's a sad situation. Then, finally, on the one-year anniversary of Mark's death, Mary Beth called the local NBC station, WBRE, to talk about a bench she'd put on her property.

What was the purpose for getting this bench here, Mary Beth? And I see candles here also. What is this for? It's a memorial to Mark, my husband, for the children, because Mark was cremated. What do you want them to know about you and Mark? I love my husband very, very, very much. And he loved me. What do you think he would say about all some of this information that's going,

and rumors are flying around out there? What do you think he would say? I wouldn't be really happy at all. What do you see in your future? It's unclear at this time. I live day to day. As unclear as the result of the Mounties' second shooting recreation was, still local cops at the request of the Mounties were trying to put a case together. And by September 2007, the Pennsylvania

cops had dug up enough, mostly material from Mary Beth's past, to lure two Mounties down to the U.S. They were surprised that she did have a troubled past and a lot of things that I didn't know about. There was, for example, an incident back in 1992. Mary Beth was convicted of assault, did a day in jail, a stretch of probation. The Mounties accepted a stack of investigative material from the Pennsylvania investigators. They would take that back, and they determined what would be the proper charge to charge her with.

Still, months went by as Mary Beth awaited her fate. It has taken quite a toll on her to know that his family feels she is totally and completely responsible for Mark's death. And then in 2008, the news. The Mounties were filing charges. She fought the extradition for two long years. But May 2010, almost four years after she shot what wasn't a bear, it was decided. Mary Beth Harshbarker would go on trial in Newfoundland, where a very curious thing would

happen on the way to justice. Coming up, Mary Beth's remarkable memory. She knew the numbers off the top of her head. That seems a little weird, doesn't it? It did raise eyebrows. When Dateline continues. The summer of 2010, cool toward an early autumn in Grand Falls, Newfoundland. Mary Beth Harshbarger was by now 45 years old. She had been in the local jail awaiting trial for almost five months while her live-in boyfriend and brother-in-law, Barry, the only Harshbarger on her side,

supervised the babysitter watching the kids back in Pennsylvania. It's been almost exactly four years since Mary Beth Harshbarker shot and killed her husband Mark. Mary Beth's story had by then ginned up quite a lot of public opinion, one way or the other. The question that drove the debate seemed maddeningly difficult to answer. Was it a simple hunting accident? Or did Mary Beth, a competition-level sharpshooter, put that hole in her husband's chest on purpose? This was a case that raised a lot of questions for people. They'd ask themselves, what if? Canadian press reporter Sue Bailey covered the story and the trial. For people who believe Mary Beth Harshbarger, this was a horrible, tragic accident.

And for people who don't believe her, they would say, well, if this was deliberate, how would you ever prove it? And that's just the thing. For all the public chatter, murder was never on the table. The Mounties did not allege murder. It was not the charge against Mary Beth Harshbarger. Even though, as Mary Beth's Canadian attorney, Carl Inder, complained about the media...

They were reporting on this as if it were a murder charge or a manslaughter charge. When the actual charge was criminal negligence causing death. Big difference. Very big difference. And yet... You know, it was like there was a disconnect in some way between the charge that was being tried in the court and the charge of public opinion. Read the criminal code.

There is absolutely no allegation of evil intent. Yes, really, agreed Crown Attorney Karen O'Reilly. And the criminal negligence charge meant it was a non-intentional shooting. The charge, in its simplest terms, that Mary Beth was criminally irresponsible when she squeezed the trigger in the gathering dark that awful night. A big deal, nonetheless, in Canadian law. Severe penalties for that sort of thing there. A maximum life sentence, in fact.

It was big news, too, when Mary Beth's in-laws, the Harshparkers, made their somber presence known. With a pilgrimage to the lonely stand of Brush, where Mary Beth's bullet found her mark. And when, on September 13, 2010, four years to the week after the incident in the Brush, Mary Beth was led into the courthouse for trial. In fact, the public fascination with the case was sufficiently intense that her attorney advised her to elect to be tried by a judge alone. Oh, it would have been foolish to bring this to a jury. Why do you say that? I was just afraid that a jury might think, well, okay, she's an American, you know, he was not gone. Maybe she didn't intend to kill. So, in front of a judge, but no cameras, no jury,

the hunting guide recalled the fateful moment. I said, why did you shoot at me? She said, I shot at a bear. Did I get him? I said, no, you got an American. The Mounties told about their inconclusive recreations about the twilight, the brush, the tall grass in which Mary Beth claimed she saw a bear.

It was very rugged terrain. There was a lot of tree stumps and fallen trees. Very poor footing, as I recall. And as you entered the scene, the grass was fairly tall. As you went in, it got taller. But the star witness was Mary Beth herself, the audio tape version.

That is, the recorded story she told the Mounties right after shooting her husband. It was low to the ground. It looked to be about this big and black and rounded at the back and the head of a bear. Do you know now what it was that you fired at? Yeah. So it wasn't... I didn't see him in the scope. I didn't see him with my eye.

Okay. I didn't see him at all. But he's dead. And then, some evidence that Mary Beth's in-law is believed to be particularly incriminating. During her recorded chat with the Mounties, Mary Beth was asked if there was life insurance. Yes, on both of us. He has one through work.

I don't know what that's worth. Probably a year's pay, $60,000. We have one through New York Life that's worth $100,000. And then we just got some through State Farm in May, and that's worth $500,000 on him. A big brand new life insurance policy on Mark and listen to what happens when the policeman asked this apparently horrified and heartbroken woman for details. Would you be able to provide me, I don't expect you to do it now, but phone numbers of those? I can give it to you now I think. State Farm is area code 570-836. Do you know New York?

My representative is a good friend. Her number is 570-836. She knew the numbers off the top of her head. That seems a little weird, doesn't it? I'd have to look up the number. It did raise eyebrows. But as for the Harshbarger's allegations that Mary Beth was a dangerous loose cannon that Mark may have feared for his own safety, those allegations did not make it into the trial.

Because the Crown Attorney didn't allege even for a minute that Mary Beth intended to kill her husband. So, for the prosecution, the Harshbarger' accusations were irrelevant, and the case was about criminal carelessness only. When you look at the evidence that the prosecution did introduce, the points that were stressed were that Mary Beth Harshbarger is an experienced hunter,

she herself describes herself as a good shot, and yet that night, she fired on a target that she hadn't identified. And Mary Best defense? The one thing the owner of the hunting lodge said, maybe Mark did look like a bear that night. They were dressed in these navy blue coveralls, two or three day beard, to real dark, real dark complexion. How many bears do you estimate you've seen in the wild? Maybe a couple hundred. Describe how they moved.

They'll just stand on their hind legs and sniff and sniff and probably walk toward you a bit. They will go from one side to the next. He was walking in a rolling motion, downhill, watching his step in diminishing light. He unknowingly exhibited the characteristics of a bear. For the Harshbarger family, the trial was not easy. I wanted and waited four years, so it came with a lot of mixed emotions in that courtroom. And then the judge adjourned the case

for a week to ruminate about his verdict. A criminal negligence conviction would send Mary Beth to prison in Canada for years, possibly even for life. So what would it be? Coming up, the verdict. She was visibly shaking, waiting for the judge to... Trembling. Trembling. She was just shaking. When was just shaking. When Dateline Continues. It would not be accurate to say the Harshbarger family was satisfied with the Canadian case against their in-law, Mary Beth. They believe Mary Beth committed murder when she shot Mark Karsparger,

then claimed she thought he was a bear. Still, criminal negligence causing death, the actual charge against Mary Beth, could bring a long sentence, even life in prison. And on October 1, 2010, four years after the shooting, justice was about to be served. Again, a very nervous Mary Beth was led into the courtroom in Grand Falls, watched by Sue Bailey of the Canadian Press News Agency. She was visibly shaking, waiting for the judge to... Trembling. Trembling. She was just shaking. Carl Linder, Mary Beth's attorney, had the jitters too. I was nervous.

It was a cliffhanger. He kept us all in suspense for the bulk of his decision. In suspense because the judge read from a 35-page decision he'd written. It went on for quite some time. What she shot at was what she hit. And then finally... I think about halfway through page 30 of the 35-page decision, he showed his hand. People cannot always act perfectly.

And even when people act reasonably, accidents, unfortunately, can occur. The charge of criminal negligence against Mrs. Harshberger is dismissed. And that was that. Not guilty of any crime at all, Mary Beth Harshberger was free to go.

She burst into tears and was let out. And you could hear her sobbing as she was taken into the back room. It was a great relief. I was glad for my client. It was a lot of work. And it turned out they don't always turn out, Keith. Mary Beth left the courthouse with her attorney and departed for Pennsylvania the very next day, free to return to the kids and Barry and her lovely big house and her Porsche and her Hummer and what was left of the $600,000-plus insurance settlement and furious relatives.

She knows what she did. In my opinion, she killed Mark intentionally. She's getting away with murder. It was unbelievable that they would let her off with no consequences, no penalty whatsoever. Are you happy, Mary Beth? And Mary Beth might have expected a sunny sort of reception upon her return home to her big farmhouse.

But there was a bit of a shake-up back at the homestead. Barry had run off with the babysitter. They'd moved out, got married. You might wonder what Mary Beth thought about it all. The shooting, the in-laws, the accusations, the trial, Barry. Well, of course we did too. We met with Mary Beth as she went about rebuilding life with the kids after spending all those months in jail awaiting trial.

She told us she avoids contact with the Harshparkers now, and for that matter, just about everybody in the little towns around her where the gossip churns as usual. We made a date for an on-camera interview so she could tell her side of the story, and then as the date approached, she changed her mind. Won't do it, she said. Don't care what anybody thinks about me, especially the Harshbargers, who are left now with only memories. The only thing we have left to remind us of Mark is the family pictures, and of course those two grandchildren, Mark's children. Lee Harshbarger walks the forests he taught his son to love,

and that his son so loved to hunt. He had a favorite saying, well, Dad, that was another fine day afield. That was very, very rewarding. And Mary Beth? Probably the gift she sent her attorney is as heartfelt a comment as we'll get. Well, she sent me a little token of her appreciation,

a bumper sticker that read, it is as bad as it gets, and they are out to get you. And I thought that was pretty fitting. That's all for now. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, thanks for joining us.