Original subtitles

A cryptic phone call leads to an alarming discovery.

As they pulled away each piece of the clothing, they were shocked to find that

there was a person under there.

The suspected killer comes forward, but the case is far from over.

This wasn't a whodunit. It was a question of why she did it and whether

it was justified.

She said she was trying to protect herself.

and her children from this madman.

He was 6 '7 and 230 pounds.

His body was the weapon.

But no one that knows him believes her claims. No one.

And as the investigation unfolds, the evidence suggests nothing is quite what

seems.

He passed away in the morning, and we didn't get a call until 11 o 'clock at

night. What was going on during all of those hours?

If she's lying about that, what else is she lying about?

On August 7, 2012,

Police in Carlsbad, California, receive an unusual call.

The on -duty watch commander for the Carlsbad Police Department received a

on a back line that's not recorded.

That's very rare.

And that has to have somebody who knows the number to that watch commander.

Despite the special circumstances...

What the caller appears to be requesting is a simple welfare check for a

resident named Jason Harper.

The person identified himself as the former district attorney, Paul Fink, who

had now become a prominent defense attorney in San Diego County.

The Carlsbad Police Department responded immediately, and they were there in the

neighborhood within a few minutes.

The lights in the home are off, and no one answers the door.

They noticed that the doors were locked, and there was no sign of forced entry.

The officers did check around the perimeter.

They did find a door that was open, and they entered the home to do the check.

It was very cluttered, but it appeared to be just a normal home with nothing

of the ordinary.

Not find anybody on the first floor. They go.

to the second story and check all the bedrooms, bathrooms, etc.

As they entered that primary bedroom of the home, they were immediately

confronted with many objects, almost to the point of a hoarder.

Numerous items of clothing and bags on the floor.

It was hard to navigate around.

It was just piled up on the floor like it was junk.

And as they pulled away each piece of the clothing, they were shocked to find

that there was a person under there.

He was noticeably deceased.

He did not have a pulse.

We were able to, based on his height, his weight, and what he looked like,

determine it was Mr. Harper. He was laying face down.

There was what appeared to be a bullet hole in Jason Harper's back on the side.

And that blood had been coming out onto his shirt.

Officers secure the crime scene and homicide detectives arrive.

There was no weapons found near the body, but they went in the closet and

did find a loaded shotgun.

But it was clear based on the entry wound that this was not a shotgun blast.

Obviously the fact that it was in a state of disarray and it looked like a

hoarder's den made it particularly difficult for law enforcement to sort

through the entirety of evidence.

As we looked through the bedroom, we found multiple bottles of prescription

drugs. Many of them were empty and in bags.

Most of them were prescribed to Julie Harper.

Based on the name, investigators assume Julie Harper is Jason's wife.

The police officers looked at the family pictures all over the house, and they

were able to see the identity of the family that was living there.

We learned that they had three children.

The officers wondered where the other members of the family were. Where are

children, and where is the wife?

Not knowing what happened or transpired, our biggest concern were the safety of

the children and Julie.

out ways to figure out where they were.

The best way for us to do that is to interview family members and friends

knew Jason to get an understanding of who the person was to help us tell the

story of what occurred.

Jason Harper was born October 30, 1972, and grew up in the greater Los Angeles

area.

Jason was soft -spoken, just an easy person to be around. I called Jason the

gentle giant is what my nickname was for him back then.

You couldn't miss him just because of his stature and his height.

His demeanor was so calm.

He could be very intimidating because he was tall, but just a sweet, sweet,

sweet person.

Jason went to the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA.

He was a proud Bruin.

It's my understanding that he was actually a two -time national champion

volleyball player.

Jason remained single throughout college and for many years after.

But in his late 20s, he met a striking young woman at a party named Julie

Jason Harper was a new teacher living in L .A. when he met Julie. They came from

very different backgrounds and different neighborhoods.

I know she came from money. Her father is a successful businessman.

Julie, I believe, studied at Harvard at some point. I think she also went to the

University of Southern California, USC.

They were immediately smitten with each other, and Jason proposed around six

months after they met.

Julie and Jason got married. They moved to Carlsbad, and they ended up having...

three children together in this neighborhood.

Julie really thrived in being a stay -at -home mom and made her happy.

My fondest memory of Julie is just hanging out and doing wines with the

someone's house in the neighborhood.

Just having the camaraderie of women, really.

And just laughing and cracking jokes and enjoying some vino and doing our thing.

Also, Jason was a really good neighbor.

There was an instance when our family was out of town, and we got a text that

our sprinkler had blown, and Jason, he immediately just took care of that.

No second thoughts about that.

He was a well -liked teacher at Carlsbad High.

He was a high school volleyball coach, and he was a math teacher there as well.

He never yelled. He never put them down. He was just soft -spoken. He was even

killed. Jason was just an easy person to be around.

Julie and Jason seemed like a really nice couple. They had these lovely kids.

They had the supportive families.

It is the American dream. I know that's cliche, but they had what most people

want. They fit right in. They belonged where they were.

Now, the Harper's idyllic home life has been shattered by a horrifying

discovery.

Jason has been found murdered.

And his wife and children appear to be missing.

The police need to figure out what happened, where's Julie, where are the

children, and why is Jason Harper dead?

There are a number of possibilities.

This could have been a burglary. However, there was no sign of forced

the unusual manner in which the body had been buried under all this clothing

didn't seem like your typical burglary.

The first thing I thought was there was some form of domestic violence that

occurred, potentially a kidnapping.

But not having the evidence to know which one it was, we were really focused

trying to find the kids and Julie.

Investigators begin their search by speaking with the attorney who requested

welfare check.

He said that he was representing Ms. Julie Harper.

Mr. Fink was very cryptic as to the details and didn't want to give away too

much information.

He just informed us that she would be turning herself in.

So you're obtaining a well -known defense attorney and negotiating when

you are going to go in to turn yourself in to the police.

It was something that made us definitely on high alert.

This wasn't a whodunit. It was a question of why she did it and whether

it was justified.

Coming up, Julie's attorney goes public. The defense attorney was already

out painting a picture of a woman who was abused.

But in search of the truth, detectives turn to their only witnesses.

You feel sad?

Does anybody ever get hurt?

One time.

The kids hear yelling from the master bedroom.

And then they hear a loud thud.

Hours after the August 2012 welfare check on Jason Harper that led police to

discover him shot to death, his wife Julie is preparing to surrender herself

investigators.

Her lawyer, Mr. Fink, informed the police that Julie and the kids were safe

that they were at her father's house in Scripps Ranch.

The day after the shooting, at approximately 3 o 'clock, she turned

to law enforcement at her father's house in Scripps Ranch.

Julie came out of the home and voluntarily went with them.

Julie didn't make any statements to police. She invoked her rights under

to remain silent.

After that, the police execute a search warrant at her father's house.

They didn't notice anything of importance or evidentiary value.

Neither Julie nor her attorney offer any details to explain the shooting.

Instead, Julie's attorney speaks with the media soon after Julie's arrest.

She wants to be with her children.

The defense attorney was already out painting a picture of a woman who was

abused.

and was the victim of domestic violence.

And he was able to begin controlling the narrative in the news.

Based on the timing and circumstances, detectives aren't ready to accept

version of what happened.

There was a big question in my mind of, why did she not call 911?

Why did she not try to provide life -saving efforts if this was self

When someone says I have been a victim of abuse in any way, shape, or form, we

should believe them. But in this case, we're talking about a murder.

It needs to be proven.

To verify Julie's claims, authorities searched for any record of prior

abuse.

We did find one call for service at the home about a dispute between the two.

That call was made nine months before the shooting on November 4, 2011.

The caller was the Harper's eldest son.

The police arrived and they determined that this was just a verbal

and nothing physical had happened, and so they left.

Despite the lack of a history of violence, investigators know it's still

possible it had been occurring.

In domestic violence cases, it's very common that abuse occurred for a long

period of time before something's ever said.

They turn their attention to the only other potential witnesses, the Harper's

children.

The children are eight years old and six years old. There was also a baby in the

house. And the first step was to have the eight -year -old and the six -year

-old interviewed.

The police took the children to do a forensic interview.

And a forensic interview is basically an opportunity for an experienced

professional to interview the children by asking non -suggestive, non -leading

questions.

The children were asked about any violence between the father, Jason, and

mother, Julie.

How do you feel when they're yelling loud?

I feel sad.

You feel sad?

Yeah.

After establishing a rapport with the children, the forensic investigator asks

them to describe what happened earlier that day.

Julie and Jason were arguing over a computer.

Jason was going to leave the residence and get another computer when Julie told

him that she had hidden it in the bedroom upstairs.

Mom and dad go upstairs, and then the kids hear the yelling from the master

bedroom.

And then all of a sudden, they hear a loud thud.

Both kids ran upstairs to the master bedroom to see what that sound was.

They tried to open the door.

The door appeared to be blocked by something.

Julie answered the door, and she basically said, your father just fell

chair. He's fine. Go downstairs.

Eventually, their mom came out and said that daddy was sleeping and that they

needed to go.

The kids described going to a coffee shop.

The son said that they ended up at their grandfather's house.

Although the children didn't witness the shooting, their story provides

detectives with a timeline of events.

They were watching a specific cartoon that they were able to describe.

We were able to determine what time that cartoon was airing in our region, and

we determined that between 8 and 9 a .m. is when Jason was killed.

The children said that they went to a coffee shop and they ended up finding a

receipt in Julie's car for La Casa Coffee for 9 .41.

If he passed away in the morning and we didn't get a call until...

11 o 'clock at night that night.

What was going on during all of those hours?

We took all of this information as well as the coffee shop receipt and we were

able to go and retrace her day.

The barista said that Julie was acting relatively normal and didn't seem

frazzled or concerned or worried about anything.

It almost seemed psychopathic.

that she was able to go about her day in such a nonchalant manner while planning

her next steps.

The real question I had is what took place during the actual shooting?

What precipitated this shooting?

Was there a conversation, or was this a planned first -degree murder?

And we needed to do some real forensic work to get more information so we could

figure out what to do next and figure out exactly how this happened.

California authorities have arrested Julie Harper for the shooting death of

husband, Jason Harper.

And investigators are skeptical of Julie's claims of self -defense.

When they first processed Julie, I remember looking through all those

photographs, and there isn't a single speck of a bruise or a scratch or any

of mark to indicate that Julie had just recently been in some sort of a physical

confrontation at all.

Detectives hope an autopsy will provide more definitive answers.

There was a .38 caliber bullet that was recovered from Jason's body.

What we wanted to determine was the bullet entrance and its trajectory to

us determine what Jason's movement was at the time of the incident.

Was he going towards her? Was he going away from her?

Generally, you would see evidence of stippling or soot if he was within three

feet, and there was no evidence of that.

Jason was shot in the left ribcage, kind of more towards the back of the

ribcage, and the bullet traveled at an upward trajectory from the left ribcage

and rested right here in the right pectoral, and it ended up piercing his

To me, what that entry wound indicated was that Jason was actually probably

turning his body away from Julie at the moment that she pulled the trigger.

The day after the shooting, investigators still aren't convinced by

version of events, so they turn to the Harpers' closest friends and family.

I wanted to know whether there was anything to corroborate her claim,

witnesses had seen her being abused.

After a thorough investigation, we weren't able to find a single friend or

family member who was able to give any indication of past abuse.

Neighbors say it was Julie's behavior, not Jason's, that concerned them.

There was a lot of speculation because her demeanor, her persona, her

personality has started to change in different ways.

After the second child was born, there was a shift in Julie's warm, attentive

nature as a mother.

According to the neighbors, Julie's decline worsened after the arrival of

Harper's third child.

Police are talking to a lot of people that know Julie Harper personally.

And what many of them said collectively is, I don't know who this person is

anymore. She used to be present, and now we don't see her.

There was concern about her well -being.

There was some suspicion that she was going through postpartum depression, and

that certainly increased the deterioration that she was going

Your house can't be 100 % clean all the time, especially with little kids. But

Julie's house was normally more well -appointed, and it was kind of a

over there.

When they offered Julie support, she explained she'd been suffering from

medical issues.

Julie was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, which is very debilitating

painful. She was prescribed by a legitimate physician, medicine, to

pain. She was seeking doctors that would prescribe her opioids and narcotics to

help remedy that problem.

It appeared that she had been abusing these medications because she was taking

whole lot of pills.

Police were stunned by the amount of prescription drugs that were in that

52 bottles is a lot. And when you look and see when these prescriptions were

written, within a year, there were thousands upon thousands of pills that

taken.

Between September 2011 and August 2012, Julie's drug dependence deepened and

began to take a toll on her marriage.

Some of the themes that we were getting from the friends and family is that it

was clear that this relationship was kind of at the end of its rope.

And my theory is that I think he said, I want to get a divorce. We should get a

divorce.

I think that really upset her.

because she was trying to save the marriage.

When investigators checked court records, they learned the Harpers were

process of getting a divorce.

But Jason wasn't the one who initiated it.

We learned that Julie had filed for divorce from Jason five days prior to

shooting.

She listed that there had been verbal abuse.

We think she wanted to be the first to kind of set the tone about what was

on in the relationship. I do think she wanted to have custody of the kids, and

so that's why she initiated the divorce herself.

She's a clever, savvy person, and she's always thinking about the next step.

Coming up, a second search warrant uncovers a damning piece of evidence.

This appeared to me to be a getaway bag.

And Julie finally braked her silence.

He was coming towards me with his arms raised, and he said, I'm going to kill

you.

Investigators have spent just over a week examining Julie and Jason Harper's

personal lives.

And while evidence of domestic violence is thin, they have found a motive for

murder.

The divorce filing, it really just set the stage for her state of mind on the

morning of the shooting.

She files for divorce and cites abuse.

And she cites I...

Don't feel safe. He's abusing me. I'm afraid.

Those are things she wanted to make sure were on record before she did this.

And when detectives speak with Jason's mother, they discover Julie's escape

didn't end with a divorce.

Jason's mother, Lina, saw Jason the night before, and they conversed about

Jason.

seeing what he believed was fraud on his credit cards.

Julie wrote two $4 ,500 checks against Jason's credit cards and cashed those.

Bank records confirm Julie cashed the checks one week before the shooting.

Julie was able to withdraw the cash by forging Jason's signature.

We were able to get bank video of her going into the bank.

and the signature didn't match Jason's signature.

This was a possible sign that she had been planning the killings.

We believed it was related to her premeditation and deliberation.

We also wondered whether he had confronted her about the divorce,

the money that was stolen on the morning of the shooting.

As a theory of murder takes shape, investigators want more evidence to

conviction.

We felt like we missed something in her dad's home, and we wanted to have an

opportunity to search it again to gather more evidence.

Police did a search warrant on August 16th, about nine days after the

I would say it doesn't detective.

and myself went out to really thoroughly search the residence.

We went to the garage area that has been searched before, and we went into an

attic space.

While I was photographing the attic, I noticed that there was a, right as you

get to the top, there was a blue Jansport backpack.

Went back down the stairs and I was like, hey detectives, make sure that you

look at that backpack up there because it seems out of place.

It appeared that it had been hidden there and it was hidden for a reason.

So the police opened it up.

Inside that backpack was Jason's cell phone, Julie's cell phone, jewelry,

Jason's last will and testament, some passports.

And interestingly enough, a naked photo of Jason.

He was laying on what appeared to be like a hotel bed in the nude.

That in itself is bizarre and disturbing.

I don't know why she would need that.

There was also a .32 caliber pistol, and that belonged to Julie that was

registered in her name.

The caliber is not a match for the weapon that killed Jason, but to

the contents of the backpack are telling.

This appeared to me to be a getaway bag. It's something that a killer would use

in order to flee the jurisdiction.

I think the purpose of having the passports is for her and the oldest two

to get out of the country.

I think the jewelry is pricey, so she needs to sell it.

But the last will and testament kind of stumps me because if you're found

guilty, the money you're going to get is not going to be from his last will and

testament.

The backpack was important. I think it kind of telltale sign was preplanned.

knew. And then she did a really good job of retaining her attorney and making it

difficult for us.

I would say the level of planning that she was able to go through after the

and the steps that she took to cover it up showed me that she wasn't really

abused. And as long as a person thought about their actions and planned to take

the actions before the killing, that constitutes first -degree murder.

We were ready to prove to a jury that this woman intentionally killed her

husband.

In September 2014, two years after Jason Harper was shot to death, his wife

Julie Harper stands trial for premeditated murder.

As expected, Julie claims self -defense.

But her attorney surprises everyone by putting Julie on the stand.

Most defendants choose not to take the witness stand.

But this was not your typical defendant.

She was extremely smart, and she was ready to tell her story.

Julie claimed that Jason was loud, he was verbally abusive, and that she was

scared of him.

She said she was trying to protect herself and her children from this

As evidence, Julie provides video recordings of Jason's behavior.

You bitch!

Carpool bitch.

Figure it out. Can't help it if you're too dumb to do it. Too lazy.

Seems like the BIPCH is the only word that you can use.

That is darn right. That's what you are.

He was 6 '7 and 230 pounds and very athletic and very strong.

His body was a weapon.

It can paint the picture that he could be this kind of guy that can become

unhinged.

Once again, fool, I'm not paid for anything.

I'm paid for the vacation.

I'm fool, I am.

That isn't true.

When we saw these videos in court, I knew that they didn't make Jason look

because he was being angry and he was yelling at Julie.

But just because someone's angry and yelling at their spouse, there's a huge

step from that to physically abusing them.

And Julie swears under oath that Jason didn't stop with verbal abuse.

She claimed that she was repeatedly raped by him every single day.

I said, stop, stop.

What are you doing? Stop.

The defense enters Julie's personal journal as further evidence.

The journal apparently was the evidence that would, according to Julie,

corroborate her testimony that she was being raped by Jason.

In her journal, she would write sex next to the date that this happened, and she

said that the word sex was code for rape.

But aside from Julie's private journal, the defense cannot present any evidence

to corroborate her claims.

It's hard to refute if he's not here. But no one that knows Jason believes her

claims. No one.

Nobody had any indication that she was going to claim this until we went to

trial. There was no physical evidence or videos or audio that would tend to show

that Jason Harper had raped his wife.

Instead... The defense relies on Julie's emotional recounting of the events that

unfolded on August 7, 2012.

What Julie said was they were arguing with one another. He got this crazy look

in his eye.

She said he ran up to her screaming and began taking off her clothes.

She believed she was going to be raped again.

He was coming towards me with his arms raised, and he said, I'm going

to kill you.

That was the first time we had ever heard Julie Harper say anything about

Harper threatening to kill her.

Knowing what I know of Jason and the gentle giant that he was, I don't

he was ever like that.

I grabbed my...

gun from under my pillow.

I turned around.

I told him, stop.

Will you stop?

No. I said, stay back.

Felt my hand jerk and heard the loud noise.

And he was still like coming forward at me.

And then all of a sudden he froze completely.

And then he fell with a thud on the ground.

She claims she could tell within seconds that he was gone.

The biggest surprise during her testimony was what she had done with the

She claimed that she buried it in somebody's yard or something like that

preserve it for evidence, but it's our belief that she disposed of it because

showed her guilt.

To prosecutors, The story is an obvious fabrication.

As good as she was at testifying, I knew that her story was simply contradicted

by the physical forensic evidence from the autopsy.

What she basically said was that he was approaching her and he did not turn

away, and that at the moment that she pulled the trigger, he was standing

directly in front of her. And so the physical evidence directly disputed.

what she said actually happened.

The medical examiner determined there was a single gunshot wound to Jason

Harper's back on the side near his ribcage. The bullet entered from behind

and traveled to the front.

After closing arguments, the jury retires to deliberate.

The jury, after hearing the evidence, determined that we did not prove the

beyond a reasonable doubt as it relates to first -degree murder and elected to

acquit Julie.

The jury was hung 9 -3 for not guilty on second -degree murder, and so the court

declared a mistrial.

I was shocked and disappointed at the outcome, and the prospect of having to

this trial all over again was a daunting one.

A trial date is set for the following year, and Julie is released on bond.

After the first trial, she just wanted to come back in like life is normal.

So she was going to concerts when she was out living in the house that she

murdered her husband in, having a good time.

The kids were, I believe, under the care and custody of Jason's parents.

As we approached that second trial date, Julie informed the judge that she

needed to delay the trial again.

We learned that Julie had intentionally become pregnant

through an artificial insemination.

I absolutely think it was a tactic to try to be found not guilty by either

pregnant during trial and or having a baby right before going to trial.

A year after her first trial for the suspected murder of her husband, Jason

Harper, ended with a hung jury, Julie Harper's second trial begins in

2015 following an unexpected pregnancy delay.

Whether the recent birth of her fourth child will result in sympathy from the

jury remains to be seen.

Once again, Julie took the witness stand and she stuck to her story. It was a

story about being a battered woman who was physically, verbally, and sexually

abused.

Now that they are familiar with her defense strategy, prosecutors have a new

approach.

What we were going to do is we were going to ask her about all the times

she's lied about this case.

Hundreds of questions.

They carefully dissect each piece of evidence, pointing out inconsistencies.

They begin with the videos the defense used to establish Jason's abuse.

You bitch!

It was clear that obviously Jason was frustrated, but what was also clear to

is that Jason wasn't doing anything physically violent.

This was strictly a verbal argument.

And then when you looked at her journal, things just didn't add up. She says

that this man had raped her over and over and over again.

Spousal rape 30 plus times is what she's accusing this man of.

But she also was writing in her journal at the same time that she says she's

being raped, that she wants more sex with him. She was actually frustrated

his sexual prowess and wanted it to last longer.

That doesn't compute with someone who is violating you in one of the worst ways

possible, continuously.

Jason's search history from the morning he was shot also contradicts Julie's

claims.

Julie had said that basically that from around 8 .30 to approximately 9 a .m.,

Jason was trying to rape her, essentially.

And what we found was that he was actually on his own computer looking up

resources to help him with his soon -to -be pending divorce.

He could not have been simultaneously browsing and searching the Internet at 8

.36 in the morning and raping Julie Harper. If she's lying about that, what

is she lying about?

The prosecution argues that Julie's desperation didn't stem from any alleged

abuse, but her own dissatisfaction with her life.

Her relationship was crumbling, mostly because of her own actions.

She just snapped, completely just snapped.

This time, the jury is less sympathetic to Julie's claims.

Julie was ultimately convicted of second -degree murder.

and using a firearm in the commission of that murder.

She's sentenced to 40 years to life, 15 was for the murder, and 25 was for the

gun charge.

I mean, normal people don't run around killing their husbands or spouses and go

have coffee or whatever.

I do believe that Julie got exactly what she deserved.

That's a long time.

That's a long time.

I think...

One of the worst parts about this, other than Jason losing his life, is that

Julie took real stories from real people that sometimes

don't make it out alive.

And she took these stories, she concocted this plan for her own benefit

didn't think about how anybody else would feel about it other than herself.

Julie Harper ruined Jason's life.

She had shot and killed him.

And then she tried to destroy his legacy by dragging his name through the mud.

It was all very shocking and sad.

I think Jason's death could have been easily prevented.

I think something within that combination of whatever medications she

or misusing and whatever was going on in her head caused her to snap.

The biggest tragedy is the children.

It's hard enough.

for a child to lose any parent, much less two.

They respect Jason, and I remember Jason. She killed a great, great man.

Jason was such a good person. He was such a value, such an asset, and his

was immense, and it was felt, and it still felt.