All language subtitles for Accident.Suicide.or.Murder.S06E06.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

♪♪

-A husband does
the unthinkable.

-I was told, "Your father
shot your mother."

I still don't know
how to take that.

-There were glaring questions

that we needed to get
answers to.

-Was this death
a fatal agreement?

-In his mind,

he's someone who gave
his life in exchange for hers.

-Or is it cold-blooded murder
disguised as a mercy killing?

-They feared for their lives.

They thought he would come
and hunt them down.

-He was overwhelmed.

He was just gonna take matters
into his own hands.

[ Gunshot ]

-In the end, you can't go around
playing God.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[ Line rings ]

-On March 27, 2017,
there was a call to 911

about a shooting outside
of a memory care center.

The caller calmly reported
what he had done

and was relatively unemotional.

The caller is
62-year-old Stephen Kruspe.

The victim was his wife,
61-year-old Pam Kruspe.

♪♪

-Given the bizarre nature
of the call,

detectives approach
the scene with a mix

of curiosity and dread.

-When that call came out,
my mindset was, you know,

"This is not possible.

Someone's just not calling
to say, 'I just did this.'

This could be a prank."

As I'm driving along,

the dispatchers were
giving us additional details

that made me realize,
"Oh, this is actually real.

This person is still
on the phone."

-At one point,
he's talking to her still,

as if she's still alive.

It was almost like he was
in some kind of disbelief.

-As we approached Parkside,

it's an assisted-living facility

and it is pretty much the only
physical building on that block.

We're expecting
some sort of chaos

because we're responding
to a shooting.

When we approached,
we saw nothing.

The parking lot was empty,

so that even added to
our confusion.

So, we're communicating
on a radio with our dispatchers,

asking, "Hey, have the person
come out to the parking lot

so we can see them."

Officers are looking for him

and then dispatchers were still
trying to get him to come out,

but he was hesitant.

Once he actually listened,
he came out to the parking lot.

When we laid eyes on him,

we didn't see
a typical homicidal maniac.

We just saw an older man
who does not appear

that he can hurt a fly,
just walking out.

He was not agitated,
you know, he looked a bit sad,

but he was quite cooperative
at the time.

Once we put handcuffs on him,
we asked him,

"Okay, where's the gun
and where's your wife?"

And he told us,

"She's in the back
of the building by the patio."

♪♪

Lo and behold, we found her
on the ground in the grass,

just a few feet away
from the actual patio.

We did not see
a bloody murder scene.

All we saw was a lady laying
there on her back

with a very small wound
on her chest.

She was shot.

-It was at close range.

There were not multiple shots

and there was
very little blood for someone

who was shot to death
in the heart.

It looks like it was done
by someone

who really knew what
he was doing

and wanted to end
her life right away.

This was no ordinary
perpetrator,

this was a marksman,

this was someone who knew
where exactly to shoot.

-As we looked at the body,

there's nothing about the body

that suggested
any kind of struggle.

No scratch marks,
no defensive wound.

We did find the gun
with five additional rounds

in the magazine and the gun
was already made safe

and placed on a half wall
at the patio.

-It's clear to police

Stephen Kruspe
isn't trying to hide.

His straightforward
and thoughtful cooperation is

in stark contrast to the crime
before them.

But he is clear this wasn't
a struggle or an accident.

It was a request.

-He said, "I just shot my wife.

She asked me to do it."

We were in disbelief,

and she's not here
to actually speak for herself.

The way I looked at it,
automatically, I'm like,

"This is a homicide,"
and we had the person

who did it in custody.

It may appear that okay, yes, he
was doing something to help her,

but ultimately he is a killer.

You killed your wife
and it is, in fact, a crime.

-The night of the incident,
I was 37.

My sister called and said,

"You need to get down to
Parkside," and I was like, "Why?

What's going on?"
"There's been an incident.

I can't tell you.
Get down there.

You got to go."

"O...kay."

My mom was at Parkside
assisted-living facility

for about two to three months
at this point.

I honestly thought, like,
my mom had injured herself.

She was diagnosed with
frontal temporal lobe dementia

a little more than a year
before this happened.

It's a very aggressive form
of Alzheimer's and at night,

a lot of times,
my mom would get aggressive

and so I figured this may
have been one of those incidents

and they just needed
somebody else down there

to help control the situation.

I get there
and there's cops everywhere.

This is a little more than
just my mom being aggressive.

And I remember walking
up to the scene and there was

a police officer there
and he was like, "Who are you?

Can I help you?"

"Uh, my name is Matthew Kruspe.

My father and mother are here,"

and, uh,
a detective came towards me.

He goes, "Um, I need --
I need to inform you

that your mother's deceased,"
and he was like,

"Um, your father shot
your mother."

♪♪

I didn't -- I-I-I--

I still don't know
how to take that.

My mom was a huge influence
in my life.

She was honestly
the strongest woman that I know.

My initial reaction is like,
"You've got to be kidding me.

Like, what happened?"

My mom and dad met
at a Marine Corps ball in 1974.

-She was working as a civilian
at a Navy contractor

and he was in the Marines
guarding

Arlington National Cemetery.

He was willing to dance

when none of the other guys
were willing to dance

and they danced together.

-One of their favorite things
to do was swing dance

and they could move.

They could --
They could really, really move.

-Pam and Steve
complemented each other.

They were two sides
of each other's heart.

They always were thoughtful

and respectful about
what each other thought and felt

and they didn't operate
unless it was together.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

-They got married in 1976

and they had three children
in four years.

Andrew was the oldest
and then Stephanie

and then Matthew was
the youngest.

He was born in 1980.

-The children were always
respectful, happy, playful,

fun, curious and just
delightful, delightful children.

-My parents were married
for 47 years,

but the first half
of my childhood,

my dad was always gone.

You know,
he was in the military.

He was constantly deployed here
or there,

come home for a few months
and leave.

-Stationed in North Carolina

as part of Special
Warfare Operations,

Steve's mission was to train
America's elite soldiers,

Navy SEALs and Green Berets.

-A lot of the stuff he does,

I don't know
and probably never will know.

But when he was deployed,
my mother was God.

She had to be the head
of the household.

She had to be
the disciplinarian.

But she also was my mom.

So she had this loving, caring,
nurturing side of that.

-In 1994, Stephen retires
from the Marines.

After settling his family
in Florida,

he devotes his time
to the classroom,

training high school students
through ROTC.

But by 2001,

retirement leads him
to an unexpected new passion.

-When he retired from
the military after 23 years,

he became a lighthouse keeper

and Pam would go
and help him there.

-My parents were married
for 47 years

and they just gave me the
best example of what it means

to truly love someone else.

You know, the selflessness,
you know what I mean?

The sacrifices for each other
and you could see that.

And now I have
a police officer telling me

that my father shot my mother.

I was pissed.
I was angry.

I was trying to push back that
cop to go in the back

to find out what was going on.

And my wife is standing
to my -- to my right

and she sees my dad being
escorted in handcuffs.

I didn't see him.

Had I saw him that night,

I would have probably been
in jail myself.

I would have went after
my father.

I was --
I was enraged, you know,

because I was just told
that he killed my mother.

Come to find out,
like we saw later,

that just wasn't clear cut
as it -- as it should be.

-No other family member said

that Pam Kruspe
wanted to commit suicide.

Pam wanting to die
was perhaps a creation

♪♪

-Matthew Kruspe and his two
siblings are looking for answers

after learning their father,
Stephen,

is responsible for
the death of their mother, Pam.

-My sister, she --
she arrived at the facility.

My brother didn't come
till later.

We were just kind of in shock.

We didn't really understand
what was going on.

-Within a couple of hours
of the crime,

Stephen Kruspe is taken to the
Boynton Beach Police Department,

where he's interrogated.

When they asked Stephen Kruspe
if he was hurting,

he said it was his heart
and that really will get you

because here's a person who,
by all accounts,

loved his wife dearly.

Police, meanwhile,
who are sympathetic to him,

are still trying to drill down

whether this was the crime
out of compassion for his wife

or a crime of convenience.

-Stephen told the detective that
Pam started forgetting things

and getting agitated
about four years earlier.

The simplest tasks were
just overwhelming to her.

-She noticed she was having
issues at work with the numbers

and I just thought
that was kind of odd

because numbers were
always her thing.

-She had been diagnosed
with early onset Alzheimer's

at, like, age 59,
which is really, really rare.

-A lot of things,

rapidly, that she loved to do,
she could no longer do anymore.

She could brush her own teeth,
but I had to remind her.

She could eat on her own,
but I had to remind her.

This strongest woman I know...

♪♪

...and in this moment, she's,
you know, reduced to a child.

-There were times when
it became sometimes combative

and even violent.

-Sometimes she was very aware
and she knew what was going on

and then other times,
she completely had no control

and I think that
must have been terrifying.

-Despite moments of clarity,
Pam's violent outbursts

and refusal to come to terms
with her condition

leave her family struggling
to get her the help she needs.

-This is not Pam Kruspe
they all knew,

this was someone
in the body of Pam Kruspe

who mentally was someone
entirely different.

-They got to a point in 2016
where they made a decision,

as a family, to go ahead and put
her in a memory care facility,

but she absolutely hated
being in that facility.

-There were times
she thought she was working

at the assisted living, that
she was there to help people,

because she just
didn't understand she was

one of the patients.

-Stephen walks investigators
through the moments

leading up to shooting his wife.

-It was early evening.

They went and had a coffee

and then he drove her back to
the facility in the parking lot.

-The whole time, she's
pretty much begging him, like,

"If you loved me,
you would do this."

It just was getting more
and more and more desperate.

-Stephen Kruspe, a Marine,
kept a gun in his car.

-He stood really close.

Almost close enough,

he could have kissed her and he
held the gun against her chest.

-According to Stephen,

she seemed to be encouraged
by seeing the gun

and wanted to die.

♪♪

-In an interview room
in Boynton Beach, Florida,

Stephen Kruspe gives
a harrowing account

of how he helped his wife, Pam,
end her life.

-And the gun went off.

[ Gunshot ]

The bullet went
through her heart.

-He explained
that when he looked at her face,

all he saw was relief.

-He put the onus on her

that this was a killing
because the victim wanted it.

He was adamant that it was
an assisted suicide, not murder.

He said he did it
for compassionate reasons.

But even though Stephen said
that Pam wanted to die,

in this situation,
he said that he did it.

He's the one
who pulled the trigger.

-The state of Florida
does not have mercy killing.

If you take someone's life,

regardless of the reason
you give us, it is still murder.

-At the end of the interview,
he's arrested.

He's taken into custody
and charged with murder.

As per normal practice,

law enforcement did
a DNA swab not only of Kruspe,

but also of the gun.

Stephen told law enforcement

that he had thought about doing
this before,

so this showed premeditation
and that's first-degree murder.

According to the state
of Florida,

that makes you not only
eligible for life in prison

but the death penalty.

-Stephen Kruspe made
it clear from the outset

that he was not guilty of murder

and that the reality was
that Pam wanted to die.

She had been asking Steve for a
long time to help her with that.

He was hoping
that she would change her mind,

but he also understood
that by having the gun

that it made it possible
for -- for this to happen.

His only objective and only wish

was to see this charge
reflect the truthfulness

of what occurred.

-As Stephen remains in jail,

insisting it was
a mercy killing,

detectives look
to the three Kruspe children

who struggled to comprehend
their father's claims

as they speak to police.

-Oh, the kids were in shock.

They were kind of in disbelief
that this had happened

and they were disappointed that
their dad hadn't talked to them

or asked for help,
or let them know how bad it was.

-I believe
he murdered my mother.

I do not want to talk to you.

I have nothing
to say to you at all.

-Andrew, Stephen's oldest son
and Stephanie, his daughter,

also thought he was a murderer,
basically, that they had --

He had taken the easy way
and murdered their mom.

They started telling the cops

that he was overwhelmed
by trying to take care of Pam

and he wasn't asking for help

and he could have
asked for help.

They said that he was one
of these people

who had such hubris about being
able to take care of everything

and fix it,

that he was just going to take
matters into his own hands.

-One key detail
Stephen gave police

is firmly rejected
by his children.

-No other family member said

that Pam Kruspe
wanted to commit suicide.

-I knew she was declining,

but she had very lucid moments
with us.

She would never flat out say,
"I want to kill myself.

I want to die."

-Also Pam Kruspe was
very religious.

She converted to Catholicism

and so suicide would be
a real no-no.

-In the Catholic Church,
if you take your own life,

you're, you know,
eternally damned.

-And that's
why her family and others

thought
that the whole wanting to die

was perhaps a creation
in Stephen Kruspe's mind.

-On April 10th,

less than a month after
Pam Kruspe was shot and killed,

her husband, Stephen, appears
in court for his arraignment.

-We announced
that we were seeking

first-degree murder charges.

We also said that we would not
be seeking the death penalty.

As prosecutors,
we're human beings, too,

and we're sympathetic to the
fact that he was a caregiver

and he loved his wife.

But in the end,
you can't go around playing God.

-Stephen pled not guilty
and said

that this was
not premeditated murder.

-Stephen and Pam's
youngest son, Matthew,

finds that as time passes
following Pam's death,

he begins to see more
of his father's side.

-It took me
about a month and a half

after the incident took place.

I had gotten over my anger

and I just started to process,
you know,

what was my mom going through,
what was my dad going through?

Do I agree of what he did?

No, absolutely not.

Of course I didn't agree
with it,

but I understood why.

My dad's a fixer.

If something's wrong, he's gonna
figure out why and fix it.

And the one thing he couldn't do

and would have never been
able to do...

is fix my mother.

I didn't know a lot

of what my dad was going through
at this time.

Um, a little bit of me
feels guilty.

I was there for my mother,

but I was not involved
in a lot of her care

and I could have been
there maybe a little more.

If my mom was
truly aware of what was going on

and I believe she was,

my mom didn't want to live
like this

and I think they both
had a hand in it.

-This change of heart
is welcomed

by Stephen's defense team,

who are gearing up
for an arduous battle.

-As we started defending
the case, it was clear

that the police felt
it was an open and shut case.

As a result of that,

they didn't examine and evaluate
everything that should have been

and there were glaring questions

that we needed to get
answers to.

The big question was,
was there reason

to suspect
that this was possibly a suicide

as opposed to a homicide?

And was there more investigation

♪♪

-Accused of killing his wife,
Pam,

Stephen Kruspe
watches from jail

as his case stalls for months,
then years.

-Because it's a homicide,

these court cases take
a very long time.

And the fact
that COVID happened

delayed the process even longer.

So, he was in jail, in prison,

awaiting trial
for quite a bit of time.

-While both sides wait for
their day in court,

the Kruspe siblings work
on finding common ground,

despite their differences.

-Me and my brother and sister,

for about two or three years
after the incident,

we still had a good standing,
good relationship.

I, at this point,
supported my dad.

They -- They supported
my mom's side.

But we still talked
because we made an agreement.

We said,

"Hey, let's not let
this destroy us

because it really
doesn't involve us.

So, let's let
the courts handle this

and let's not let
this ruin our relationship."

-Three years pass until in 2020,

the family prepares to meet in
court again for a bond hearing.

-In Florida, the court
has discretion to grant bond.

We took a considerable amount
of time to build a defense case,

to say
that he should get a bond,

so that he can be at home and we
can finish preparing the case.

We had witnesses from
all walks of life, military,

people that knew him
in his personal life and family,

Matthew, who had prepared
a bedroom for him

and a place to stay.

-Everything was fine.

A week or two before my dad's
bond hearing,

that was the moment things
and people shifted.

I get a call from my brother.

"What do you know about
this bond hearing?

What about the bond hearing?
Did you know about it?"

"Yes, I did."
"Why didn't you tell any of us?"

"I thought we made an agreement

to let the courts handle
the courts."

He was like, "Yeah, but
this is a little more serious.

Are you thinking about taking
him in?"

And I was like,
"Yeah, if it goes down."

And then we 3-way'd my
sister in and it just got more

and more and more.

You know, they said some things,

"I can't believe you're,
you know,

you would take in a murderer."

-The tensions between the family
come to a head

on the day of the hearing.

-About six months after COVID
shut everything down,

he finally got a bond hearing
in September of 2020

and everybody in the court
were masked.

-All three siblings testify
at the bond hearing,

Matthew for the defense
and Andrew and Stephanie

on the side of the prosecution.

-This was a split family
and this was something

that really weighed
on those who loved Pam Kruspe.

-Stephanie basically told
the judge

that she didn't trust her dad.

There was no way, after
what he had done with the mom,

that she could believe in him.

He had sacrificed their trust.

-My brother and sister,

they called him narcissistic,

they called him controlling,
unstable, irrational.

They feared for their lives.

They thought my dad would come
and hunt them down.

They both painted a view I never
knew they had of my father.

But two, one
that doesn't exist of my father.

-Stephen's oldest son, Andrew,

was on Zoom
for the bond hearing as well

and he was vehement
that he'd just stay in jail.

-When Andrew appeared remotely
at the bond hearing

and said,
"I heard my dad say

that he wanted to put
a round in her chest,"

it's really damning, not only
because it shows premeditation,

but it also shows

that Stephen Kruspe
allegedly had this intention

before things got even worse,

that he was thinking about it
at least a year in advance.

-My dad was hurt for a while
because of my brother and sister

and the things they said
during that bond hearing.

He still loves them.
He still cares for them.

Don't think that he doesn't,

but he's hurt because
the words don't line up with

how we were raised
with what took place.

He feels abandoned by them.

-When the judge announced
her ruling,

she denied bond,

saying the evidence
of premeditated murder

was too strong to release him.

-He was being put on trial
for murder.

What's to say he wouldn't try
to kill himself or others,

especially because he seemingly
had some sort of Messiah complex

where he believed in killing
other people

for their own benefit.

We were there to do justice
for Pam.

This was an unjustified killing,

a homicide that needed to
be punished appropriately

and we were not going to stop.

♪♪

-After a contentious
bond hearing,

Stephen Kruspe is denied bond
and sent back to prison

to await trial
for the murder of his wife, Pam.

-Stephen went back to jail

and our focus turned
on finding the best experts

in crime-scene reconstruction
and DNA analysis,

all with the objective to prove

that this was an assisted
suicide and not a murder.

-The defense enlists
forensics expert Tiffany Roy

to aid their case.

They ask her to go back
over the evidence collected

at the time of the incident.

-The first thing
I do in every case

when I get the case file notes
is to check for human error,

because human people do this
work and they make mistakes.

-As we're going through
this process,

we found out that Pamela's
hands should have been tested

for gunshot residue
and were not.

-Back at the time,

this was such an open
and shut case

that the medical examiner had no
evidence of GSR,

gunshot residue.

This is missing.
This data would be important.

-The presence or absence
of gunshot residue

on someone's hands
might be telling.

-If gunshot-residue testing
had been done,

as it should have been,

it could have shown that
Pam assisted in the suicide.

-Seeing this discrepancy,

the defense strategy is
to turn the State's evidence

against them
in an effort to show

that not enough was done
to rule out suicide

as the cause of Pam's death,
starting with the DNA.

-DNA was important in this case

because they tested
the murder weapon,

which was a gun
that was owned by Mr. Kruspe

and drew conclusions
that Mr. Kruspe's DNA was

on his own firearm.

But the tools that
were being used at the crime lab

can only examine certain parts
and pieces of the profile.

So there were things
that were being missed.

And so,
we needed a higher-powered tool

to examine that information.

-Tiffany helped us do
additional testing on samples

that law enforcement have.

-There were several samples
after they were examined

that showed DNA traits

that were similar to Mrs. Kruspe
on the firearm.

The area where Mrs. Kruspe's DNA
was most present was the grip

and that made it
a very real possibility

that she could have handled
that weapon.

-This was huge,

because her contact with the gun
suggests that, in fact,

she was involved in
the discharging of the weapon.

-But can the presence of her DNA
alone prove assisted suicide?

-We could argue, as prosecutors,
that she did not want to die.

She was trying
to push the gun away.

-We knew the prosecutor
would attempt

to show a pushing away
of the gun.

So, we hired an expert
on firearms,

forensic reconstruction
of shootings

and he reconstructed
the shooting to see

whether or not the wounds
to the shirt

and the DNA on the gun
were consistent with showing

that Pam embraced
and pulled the gun toward her.

This showed
that Steve did not act alone

and that Pam very likely
assisted in her own death.

-This stunning evidence suggests
Pamela may have assisted

in the shooting that night.

Stephen never mentioned
this detail to anyone,

including his
own defense attorney.

-I think the reason
he didn't mention

the specific act
of pulling the gun toward her

at the time was that the
investigators never asked

for the specifics
in terms of how it happened.

He said he shot his wife.
That was uncontested.

However, they never asked
what Pam did

or what role
she may have played.

And so,
by not asking the questions,

the investigation never
got into that part of the case.

I also think that often
under periods of stress,

people sometimes don't remember
everything exactly as it happens

and they oftentimes
will fill in gaps

or missing information
with information

that's most detrimental
to themselves.

And because of her faith
as a strong Catholic,

on some level, he believed
that by not talking about that,

he was protecting her
in a sense.

-The defense informs Stephen's
son Matthew of their findings,

which forces him to reconsider
his mother's final moments.

-There's no other way
that my mom's DNA

could have got on there
unless she was holding that gun.

After the DNA evidence,
what I believe happened is,

yes, my father went to the car
and got the gun.

Yes, my father presented it
to my mother.

At which point, um, my mother...

[ Sighs ]

I still --
I still battle with this.

Like...[sighs]

I believe
my mom took her own life

and my father did give
her the gun.

And when...

when she shot herself, um,

just all the guilt of it
came back to my father.

So, I do believe
my dad had a portion in it.

I don't think he solely pulled
the trigger himself.

I think the ultimate decision

to take my mother's life
was my mother's.

-Faced with the defense's new
evidence of assisted suicide,

the state's attorney
needs to rethink their approach.

-This was a game changer
because we were all set

to pursue murder charges
and when you're a prosecutor,

you have to prove cases
beyond a reasonable doubt.

The fact
that we now had some doubt meant

that the jury certainly would.

♪♪

-What seemed like
a straightforward murder case

against Stephen Kruspe
takes a turn

when forensic evidence gives
the defense room

to argue it was a mercy killing.

-The defense paid a lot of money
for an expert,

who then revealed that Pam's DNA
was found on the grip of the gun

and that's why we decided
to enter into conversations

about lowering the charge.

In Florida,
there's a rarely used statute,

a manslaughter
by assisted suicide.

So, we met the evidence where
it was and told the defense

that we'd be willing
to enter into an agreement

where the defendant would
plead guilty to manslaughter

by assisted suicide

and would leave it up to
the judge to do the sentencing.

-When Stephen learned
of the offer, he was relieved.

He felt that finally,
after six years,

we were getting an offer that
was consistent with the truth

and at that time
he pled guilty to manslaughter

by assisted suicide.

-In August 2023,

Stephen finally gets to go back
to court for sentencing.

-With no priors,

he was eligible for a sentence
of between 10 and 30 years.

Our case was reinforced by the
fact that the family members,

at least almost all of them,
were on our side.

They were the ones who wanted
Stephen Kruspe to go to prison

as long as possible.

They clearly did not like him.

They hated what he did.

They did not forgive him and
they wanted the maximum penalty.

-During sentencing,

my brother and sister
gave victim impact statements.

I-I -- A lot of the stuff
they said to me was just...

...vindictive.

If you viewed my father
that way,

then why would you even be
around him?

Their words and their actions
didn't line up to me

and I didn't understand that.

-What struck me was

when Stephen Kruspe voluntarily
chose to give a statement

at sentencing and I was
a bit surprised at how defiant

and angry he was.

-He finally gets to speak
in court.

He basically says, "Well,
where was everybody helping me?"

-The judge, she was not
unsympathetic to Stephen Kruspe.

She understood
where he was coming from.

If the family wasn't so adamant,

if Stephanie and Andrew
didn't feel the way they did,

then this would have been
probably treated differently.

In the end,
she decided to go for 20 years.

♪♪

-When they came back with 20,

I was just at a loss for words.

It's a life sentence
for my father. He's old.

-In his mind,

he's someone who gave
his life in exchange for hers.

He's not going to be
able to be buried

at Arlington National Cemetery.

His family is
permanently divided.

-My dad is currently 72.

I still go visit him.

I talk to him at least once
a week on the phone.

My dad has not spoken to
anybody, my brother or sister,

since the incident.

I have no plans to ever speak
with my brother or sister again.

♪♪

[ Voice breaking ]
I miss my mom a lot.

Um...

She raised me.
She was my best friend.

No matter what
I was going through,

whenever my mother smiled,
I knew it was okay

or it would be all right.

[ Sighs ]

I just want to see
her smile one more time.