True Crime with Kimbyr - Single Mother’s Dream Turned Nightmare: The Tragic Murder of Donna Willard: Part 2

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

As True Crime with Kimbyr continues unraveling the tragic case of Donna Willard, new details emerge about the moments leading up to her shocking murder. Who was behind this horrific crime, and what hidden motives lay beneath the surface? Investigators piece together chilling evidence, revealing a disturbing truth that no one saw coming. Was Donna’s bright future stolen by someone she trusted? Join Kimbyrleigha as she digs deeper into the twists and turns of this heartbreaking case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a normal Tuesday night around 9 p.m. Donna and the kids had gone to have dinner at her mom's house, which was just a few blocks away on Wheeler Street, in the very same neighborhood. Soon after they got home, the kids were upstairs getting ready for bed. Donna tucked in the girls. She had just been up there telling them good night. Then she went to Todd's room, told him good night,

and he recalled saying to his mom, good night, mom, I love you. Then he heard her walk downstairs. He was playing Nintendo at the time. Donna was in the kitchen preparing the kids lunches for the next school day while waiting for Tommy to arrive. Todd said there was a knock at the door and his instinct was to run and open it and he shouted, Mom, I'll get it. But Donna replied with no, go back to bed. However, Todd didn't go back to bed. He was curious as to who

was knocking on their door so late. So he hung back at the top of the stairs, getting a full view of everything that transpired in just seconds. His mother opened the door. And standing there, he said, was a man with a gun. He said something to his mother, rushed in, grabbed her by the arm. She was fighting to break free. She turned towards the stairs and she yelled all three of her children's names to warn them to run. Then she turned to her son and she began screaming saying, Todd, help me. The gunman forcefully pressed her face against the wall next to the stairs.

As she tried to get free, he just held her down, but she managed to make it up a few stairs. But at that point, she was quickly. crouched down closer to the foot of the stairs with her head still pressed up against the wall and then boom, boom, there were two quick shots. One after the other to the back of her head. She was executed in front of her son and she just collapsed right there on the stairs. Todd was in total shock. He ran to his mother's side immediately. He didn't know what to do. At first he tried to pick her up, but he realized she was already gone. So he gently laid her on the floor in front of the stairs. Then he bolted upstairs and he grabbed both of his young sisters who could hear everything that had gone on and they came running to see what happened. Young Donna was 10 and Jessica was only seven.

This 12-year-old, brave little seventh-gradeer Todd blocked their view to their mother's body by putting his arms up. He didn't want them to see the horrific wounds that he had just witnessed. He escorted them out of the house as they screamed and crossed. Hyde hysterically, they had to step right over their mother's bloody body. All this while they're trying to hold it together and safely get out of the house. Can you imagine seeing this as such a young child? Todd guided them out of the house hand in hand, then ran across the street to their neighbor's house and told her to call 911. Even though the children escaped harm, their lives were changed forever.

They witnessed something that no one should ever have to see, especially happening to their own mother. Todd told Lieutenant Whitty, he thought the man was a white man, but had black paint on his face. He also thinks he might have had a beard and he was wearing a sweatshirt with a hood over his head. Wow. So while everything is fresh in Todd's memory, they have a sketch artist create a composite. Now try not to laugh. I don't know why these composite sketches always look like this. It was a 90s, so I'll give him that. But sometimes you just end up looking silly, like it's not even a person. I don't know. I don't know if I could.

who this person was even if I knew them. But it was all they had to go on right now, so they quickly got this picture out to all the media networks in case anyone had a clue as to their identity. There was no fingerprints found, no murder weapon located, and no suspects. However, when they were searching the home,

they did find something that stood out. It was in Donna's bedroom. At her bedside table, there was a hammer, an ice pick, and two switchblade knives. This led investigators to see that. to believe that Donna was scared of someone. They were determined to get to the bottom of it. Could she have always wanted to just protect herself

as a single mother? Or was there a reason she was trying to be prepared? An autopsy revealed what others already thought was apparent. Two gunshot wounds to the back of the head from a 9mm handgun. One of the bullets came through her head and out her forehead. They were determined to be shot at point blank range. And there were no other injuries to Donna's body

and no signs of forced sexual contact. with her. The investigators concluded that this was not a random act of violence. It was calculated. And Donna was specifically targeted. So they turned their attention to her ex-boyfriend Doug. Donna's friends and family told investigators that the couple did not have a good relationship to begin with, and Donna finally broke it off. And he didn't take it very well. He'd been out of her life, though, for the last couple years until recently when they'd seen him coming to her salon and even over to her house. Tom confronted him, telling him, stay away from my fiance. He was convinced that Doug had something to do with this. Maybe it was like if I can't have or no one

can kind of killing. So Lieutenant Whitty went to speak with him and he wasn't forthcoming. He said he had nothing to do with Donna's murder, but he refused to take a polygraph and that was a red flag. However, like you've heard before, when they don't have enough evidence to hold someone, even if they're the prime suspect, they do have to let them go. And Tommy was so frustrated. He didn't know why Doug wasn't willing to talk to authorities. His fiance had been murdered. So he went down to Doug's house.

He stood outside, blaring a bullhorn. Tommy felt like Doug had been stalking and harassing Donna, and now she ended up dead. So he was screaming outside of Doug's house for him to fess up. But the investigators had to do their best legally with the information that they had, and Lieutenant Whitty had doubts about Doug's involvement. He understood why everyone was pointing the finger, but when time cards from Doug's work were provided by his employer, his alibi checked out.

He couldn't have been at her doorstep that night, but Tommy found it odd that all of a sudden he popped back into Donna's life. He told investigators that he asked Donna, why she even bothered talking to him when he came by, and Donna insisted it was more business than it was personal, so to speak. And Tommy wanted to know, what do you mean by that? Donna explained her and Doug were in a car accident outside of Wildwood, New Jersey. They were okay, but they did suffer some injuries. Donna was a passenger, and the car was hit from behind by a truck. So Doug retained a personal injury attorney. They believed that they were going to get rich, and eventually they did get a settlement with the insurance company.

But Donna only got $10,000. It wasn't what she expected, but at the same time, it was a lot for someone like her. She used some of that money to take the kids to Florida and visit Disney World. Another portion was used to become the half owner of the hair salon. She purchased a car so she could get around with the kids, and she got a little cosmetic surgery that she had always wanted. It was her money. She could do as she pleased.

Apparently, Doug had come to discuss something in regard to this accident and the attorney that had assisted them. Tommy didn't have the details, but he didn't feel right about it. Why would Doug need to be talking about this three years later. But as the detectives were looking into everyone, another name comes up. Donna's sister, Joan, her husband, James, remember I told you he was a former police officer? Well, former because he had recently been tried in federal court and convicted of corruption. And since he was so close to Donna, considering he's her sister's husband, they wanted to find out

more information about what this case entailed. It turned out James was a former narcotics officer with the Philadelphia Police Department in a unit known as Five Squad. James, as well as three other officers, were convicted of a conspiracy to commit racketeering from 1980 to 1984, which consisted of acts of bribery, thefts by extortion, robbery, possession, and distribution of drugs. The indictment charged that these acts were committed by the defendants while they were working with Five Squad. While they were doing searches, they would steal money and drugs, sometimes in return for not arresting the perpetrators or in exchange for reducing their charges. James was also convicted of giving false statements at a trial involving one of his fellow officers,

as well as filing a false tax return. As far as I could tell from the documents that I had access to, it seemed as though James and the other officers were required to pay sums of money and to forfeit anything obtained from the conspiracy. And since James was now a former officer, I assumed either got fired or resigned after all this. Well, after a thorough look into James, There was no connection between anything he had done in his past and Donna's murder. They still had to be diligent and look through everything so they could cross him off their list. Now it was time to lay Donna to rest. The funeral was beautiful but tough on the family, of course.

It took place at King Funeral Home at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 10th, with the service at Barnabas Church at 11. When they were lowering the casket, the sky was overcast. Right until the moment her children were placing four. flowers on her casket. Then the sky just opened up with light, and Todd looked up and he said, Mommy just got to heaven. How sweet and how sad is that? Donna's mother Marion was beside herself. She had just lost a daughter, but she was fighting for justice. She was working hard to remember anything Donna may have told her, anyone that she knew had been sketchy at all. And the only

The only person she really started mentioning that stood out was Donna's ex-Dug. She was adamant that he hadn't been looked into deep enough. Sure, apparently he had an alibi, but paper time cards, was that really reliable? She wouldn't give up asking them to take a deeper look, but they were about to get a clue much closer to home. Joan had initially taken Donna's three children into her home. She had been doing her best to make things as normal as possible as they were grieving their mother. and she was also grieving her sister. Eventually, the kids went to live with her grandmother, Marion,

and through hours of tears, confusion, sleepless nights with nightmares, one of Donna's daughters, little young Donna, the 10-year-old named after her, came and told her that the same night her mother was killed, the phone rang while she had stepped out briefly to one of the neighbor's houses. When this little 10-year-old girl picked up the phone, a man asked for Donna. She told him that she wasn't home at the moment, and the man asked, well, when will she be back?

And then he hung up as soon as she told him she would be back in 10 minutes. This wasn't too long before Donna had tucked in the children. Someone was definitely trying to make sure their target was in place before making their move. To think that this could be the killer and that they knew she had small children at home is heartless. And poor little Donna, she could hardly sleep because she was so afraid, that would happen to her mom was going to happen to her grandma, that she would be woken up in the middle of the night by blood-curdling screams, and I can't even begin to imagine.

There was something else that Marian remembered. She didn't know how it would connect, but it felt important to note. She said that Donna told her she was taken by surprise when two federal agents showed about her salon on March 1st, four days before she was killed. She told her mom, look, I'm not in any trouble. They're not investigating me. Instead, they want my help and had something to do with that accident that she and Doug were in.

So at this point, there does seem to be some kind of connection with her ex-Dug. Because he, too, wanted to speak with her regarding the same event after three years had passed. It must have been something serious if federal agents showed up at Donna's work unannounced. Marion said that Donna was told a grand jury was going to indict a group of individuals, one or more that she may have information about in relation to the upcoming charges. And she was being subpoenaed to appear as a witness within the next week or so. Wow. So here she is being called to appear before a grand jury, and then four days later, she's killed.

The week before she's supposed to testify? Well, of course, investigators want to confirm this. There were no records of a federal grand jury being called, and when a federal agent was questioned in relation to the summons that was supposedly served on Donna, they refused to confirm or deny that it ever happened. Joan confirmed what their mother had told investigators that Donna told her that she had been served with a subpoena to appear in front of a grand jury. So she told two of her family members. When her sister Joan asked, what was it for? Donna said, I don't know. They told her she would find out when she appeared in court. Well,

Lieutenant Whitty starts digging and gets the name of Doug and Donna's attorney. It's Robert Burke. He's a high-powered personal injury attorney in Philadelphia. He was well known for being able to get you a fast settlement, and Donna was one of his clients. Her mom remembered that Robert had given her a personal check for the supposed insurance settlement, which at the time she thought was kind of weird. Like, why wouldn't it be coming from the insurance company

that they were settling with? It seemed odd at the time, and it was odd. It was odd enough to eventually be investigated by the government, United States Postal Inspector Frank Pasarini was leading an investigation into what he believed to be an insurance fraud scheme, including attorney Robert Burke. Postal inspectors are federal law enforcement agents. They're responsible for investigating any crimes that involve the mail. It could be things like mail theft, mail fraud, financial fraud, identity theft, robberies, burglaries, those type of things. The red flag in regard to this scheme was that Robert Burke was always the personal injury attorney on.

these cases and Dr. Robert Sagan was always a treating physician in all the claims for basically all of Robert Burke's clients so something wasn't adding up while their bank accounts were definitely adding more zeros but the claims didn't seem legit this investigation had been going on for at least a year and a half already oh and it's going to get interesting because agent passorini thought that there was something amiss here so many of these clients having the same doctor who just happens to always say that they've been hurt and then report back to the same attorney sounds a lot like we're dealing with someone trying to pull in alec murdaw and as passerini was digging it turned out it wasn't just that the clients all had the same doctor it also appeared as though

these patients had never even been seen by dr sagon he was basically just forging medical records and bills and then passing them off to his partner in crime attorney robert burke in june of of 1989, Pasarini decided to take a little trip down to Dr. Sagan's medical office. It took me so long to find out where this office used to be. I looked through so many little clues in shows that I watch, I would slow videos down, so I could finally see landmarks, and I found this building right near the cemetery, and the surroundings matched. Here it is, an Ayr Street. Here's where the supposed office was, this brick building right here. On the right side, 1337 East Air Street and Fish Town.

Pennsylvania. It's a three-bedroom, one-bath little townhouse, residential in nature, and didn't appear to be a medical office when Pasarini pulled up. But he walked to the door, he peeked inside a window, and definitely didn't see any medical equipment, beds, no. Actually, there was hardly any furniture inside. Yet this was the address on every claim from Dr. Sagan saying that this is where the patients were seeing him for treatment. It was getting more and more sketchy, especially because this was the address on Donna's claim to. In a letter dated the 3rd of February 1988, Dr. Sagan wrote to Attorney Robert Burke. In regard to Donna's supposed medical treatment, the letter states, quote, Donna Willard has been under my care concerning an event on July 4th, 1987. Her injuries

were stated on my reports. The patient treatment included intensive physical therapy and medication. After treatment from another physician, she engaged me because of pain and discomfort as her symptoms persisted, the convenience of the location, and for personal reasons. She has been discharged as a January 29th, 1988, signed sincerely yours, Robert S. Sagan MD. Well, Agent Pasarini was more than intrigued. He had seen these signs before. He's experienced.

He started to look into each one of the car accidents, and what he found led him to believe that many of them were real accidents, but then there were some that appeared to have been staged. He was able to locate Donna's settlement records, and the entire amount that the insurance company paid to Robert Burke for just her injuries was $18,000. However, Robert only cut Donna a check for $10,000. So he pocketed $8,000, or he most likely split it with Dr. Sagan. This doesn't take into account Donna's ex-boyfriend settlement amount. He was the driver bound to have sustained more damages, including possibly his vehicle, etc.

You can see how this money can easily add up client after client. for hundreds of them over the course of many years. Passerini was building his case, gathering up information about every single client to charge Burke along with 26 other individuals for mail fraud among other charges relating to insurance fraud. The federal grand jury trial was scheduled

for March 14th, 1990, about a week before Donna was killed. The subpoenas went out to each client, and we know that Donna was one of them. She was served on the 1st of March still. Things didn't seem to be adding up. Why would Donna be killed? over a mail fraud investigation. It wasn't making sense.

What attorney who knows the law would risk even worse charges murder to ensure that he didn't get a fine or like five years of probation, but he would lose his law license, so perhaps that would be the driving force? Well, once this theory got out, the media ran with it. The headlines got a lot of attention. Now they read, mother slain in home was to testify.

And now her mother and sister were coming forward insisting that there was a connection here. Joan and Marion were using the media to keep Donna's story alive and put pressure on the authorities. Marion told reporters that she was looking forward to her daughter's wedding in December, not a funeral. The pressure was on. If Donna was killed in order to prevent her from giving testimony at a federal trial, this was even deeper than they thought. And the public was calling for an arrest. They wanted Robert Burke in custody. But as much as the story sounded plausible, there was an issue with this narrative. As Lieutenant Whitty is looking into all this, he realized,

there's no way that Robert Burke killed Donna. Lieutenant Whitty had information that, of course, was not public knowledge. Robert had an ironclad alibi. At the time of Donna's murder, he was under 24-hour surveillance by the feds. The night that Donna was killed, Dr. Sagan and Robert Burke were being recorded. Dr. Sagan was wearing a wire, and the feds were listening in and recording. So they knew exactly where both of these men were. When this information was shared with Donna's family, they didn't care.

They were convinced that Robert had something to do with it. Of course, he may not have carried it out himself, but they believed he was part of the reason she was murdered.