Original subtitles

This is a story about a girl who grew up to have it all.

A happy marriage... beautiful kids...

Even a private plane.

But somewhere inside these never-before-seen home videos...

Something just wasn't right.

...there are dark secrets...

Everything was looking bad.

I was preparing for the worst.

This doesn't happen to US.

This happens to other people.

...and a killer

who will shatter their peace forever.

I said, "who'd he kill this time?"

It's January 2007 in Cameron airpark, California

and guests are arriving at the home of the Winkler's

for a special event.

For Don Hatfield,

it's one of his first visits to the exclusive neighborhood

where his daughter Rachel now lives.

All of the houses there have garages built for airplanes.

It's an airpark.

A living, flying place of residence.

Kind of strange.

John Travolta actually had his plane there.

The streets are wider to accommodate the airplane.

All the roads lead to the airport

where they can taxi down the runway and take off.

And then come back, taxi back to their garage,

park it, and, you know. Go have dinner.

Today's happy occasion

is a baby shower for Rachel Winkler

who is expecting her first child

with husband Todd --

a little girl who they plan to name Eva.

Family friend Judy lehman filmed the joyous day.

It was a great event.

It was so much fun.

Rachel looked really happy.

I took a lot of films.

She was really excited.

She was really excited to be pregnant.

Todd is a successful businessman

who works for a top-tier management consulting firm.

He and Rachel married two years ago.

And they're still very much in love.

Rachel can't resist showing their wedding pictures

to all her friends who couldn't make the ceremony.

She was bouncing around the house,

and she was happy about the baby.

She seemed excited about renovations

that they wanted to do.

She seemed excited about,

you know, the direction that her life was going.

Rachel's mom Diana has been busy

making onesies for her new granddaughter.

And after everybody has lunch,

the couple unwrap a mountain of gifts and cards.

Todd can't resist showing affection

for his glowing wife.

You can see there that Todd is rubbing her neck

and being involved and smiling,

and right there, they looked happy.

It looks like Rachel's made good.

But her background was much more humble.

Born in 1975

to fun-loving parents Don and Diana,

she was raised in California.

In one of the earliest known clips of Rachel,

also filmed by Judy lehman,

she is 10 years old.

I've basically known the kids since they were little.

Don and I started off being friends,

so we became sort of a communal family

where we would do things together.

We'd go to church.

The kids would play together.

And that's how we became lifelong friends.

Back then,

Don Hatfield was a struggling artist.

But he makes sure he pays the bills

by juggling several other jobs.

We were penniless

until one of the members of the church

got a promotion within a garage-door-hanging company,

and he got me a truck and a route,

and I began hanging garage doors with a passion.

I was a working stiff

and would come dragging home at night

after hanging three or four doors

to entertain the kids and fall asleep

on the in the living room floor with my my overalls on

and wake up in the next morning and go straight back to work.

No shower, no bed, no nothing.

And it was pretty wild.

Don and Diana don't make much money.

To them, happiness is much more important.

Those were happy days.

I was working hard.

We were having little kids,

and Diana was home caring for them.

The little guy Matthew is their youngest,

the next oldest, David,

is the one showing off his moonwalking skills.

Rachel's dancing, too.

It's one of the things that makes her happiest.

She lived right down the street from me,

so we would walk to school then we would hang out all day

and definitely go to the park, and play Madonna

and dance around the park like we were idiots.

But within a year,

Don and Diana's marriage is crumbling.

We bought a house,

and across the street was this woman.

And to make a long story short,

I violated my marital vows and committed adultery.

And that pretty much was the beginning of the end.

The affair also damages

Don's relationship with Rachel.

I remember telling Rachel, in fact,

that I no longer was unfaithful to her mother,

when the fact was I was lying at that point.

Right then, I was lying to Rachel.

And children --

they have a sense about what is true.

I don't think that sat well with Rachel.

Don and Diana divorce,

and Diana takes all the kids with her

across the U.S.A. To Georgia.

That divorce, the explosion of the nuclear family,

it was a rough road at times.

I mean, there was family punch-outs.

It was like -- it was crazy.

In the summer of 1989,

Don's kids come back to California to visit.

His career has taken off,

so he can afford to show them a good time.

We went to Tahoe.

I had a gallery in Tahoe there that sold a lot of my artwork,

had big shows,

and would always be willing to put me up

if I want to come and visit.

I could stay at a hotel for a week.

I mean, just doing whatever I could to be

a great Disneyland dad.

Rachel, now 14,

squares up against her older brother Caleb.

Later, she picks up the camera,

and her sense of humor shines through.

Don has lined up a vacation

jam-packed with activities for his kids.

At one point,

Don notices his daughter's newly acquired southern accent.

Rachel proves up for any adventure

her dad can throw at her.

While Rachel was one among four boys,

she loved her brothers.

She had a real tomboy aspect to her,

keeping up with them.

Here, she gets a taste of parasailing

and seems to have no problems soaring above the water.

As the trip draws to a close, Don has mixed feelings.

It was actually very sad in a lot of ways.

It was short-lived.

And, you know, they had to go back.

And, I mean, there was really no family life.

It was just a Disneyland-dad experience.

The kids are adjusting to life with single parents.

But Don isn't taking any chances.

It's very difficult to understand or perceive

the impact of traumatic events,

because what doesn't appear now, may appear later.

14-year-old Rachel Hatfield

is adjusting to life with divorced parents

and has discovered a new taste for adventure.

But a few years later,

friends and family will grow concerned

when she suddenly stops eating properly

and is diagnosed with anorexia.

Her hair started falling out, and, you know --

it was bad. It was pretty bad.

I remember going and visiting her

and trying to get her to eat

and checking in on her,

and she would still be measuring her food

and get fearful

that someone would see her measuring our food.

Picture going from 120 to 62 pounds.

She was a walking skeleton.

She terrified the family at that point.

She was shrinking day by day.

I was preparing for the worst.

She would not eat.

Everything was looking bad.

She had written her death note to me

that "no matter what happens,

I want you to know that I always loved you."

I see that as her attempt to reconcile the family.

Rachel is admitted to a clinic.

But her recovery only starts

when she comes to terms with her parents separation.

2:00 in the morning,

I get a phone call from modesto psychiatric clinic.

He says, "I have good news for you.

Rachel's gonna be okay."

I said, "how do you know?"

He says, "well, we had a talk."

"Okay.

Well, what'd you talk about?"

He says, "well, she said,

'with my mother, I can touch the earth.

And with my father, I can touch the stars.'"

from that point on, the weight came on.

She walked right out of it

and became this robust, athletic beauty.

It was so strange.

It was a -- what we call a "firacle" --

a fricking miracle.

Rachel's finally ready

to move on with the rest of her life.

After high school,

she goes to college to study business.

She's really smart.

Probably one of the smartest people

that I've ever ran into --

like naturally smart.

She was taking calculus right away in freshman year,

so that blew me away.

She quickly became

one of the top students in her class

and graduated with honors -- straight a's.

The big accounting firms in San Francisco --

deloitte & touche and some of the other --

80,000 bucks right off the bat.

Start with us. We'd like you to come.

I said, "Rachel, you got it.

She says, no, dad, I want to start my own business.

I want to work for myself

I don't want to work for the --

I go, okay, great. Fine.

Rachel has a new circle of ambitious friends from college.

And in July 2005,

one of them invites her to a dinner party

that will change her life.

Todd Winkler. Good to meet you.

Rachel.

Before working as a management consultant,

Todd flew f-16s in the U.S. Air force

and completed a degree in computer engineering.

But now he's returned to civilian life.

Todd kind of swept in.

And here was a guy, you know, he's good looking,

had a plane, had money, had a house.

And I think that was exciting for her.

Todd's been married twice before.

He got wed young and divorced.

Then six years ago, his whole life was shattered

when his second wife Catherine died in a car accident.

Through it all, Todd had no children.

And now he's ready to start again

with the right person.

She was in her early 30s and wanted to start a family.

And this guy wanted to start a family.

He was interested in starting his own business.

She had that entrepreneurial spirit.

He was adventurous.

She was adventurous as well.

It's a whirlwind romance.

And a few weeks after their meeting,

Todd pops the question.

When he proposed to her, he did it in skywriting.

He took one of his stunt planes

and went up and marry me, Rachel.

You know, stuff like that.

I mean, he liked to do the sensational thing.

They're married that same summer.

She looked great. She looked beautiful.

And she was married to this guy.

I did mention it at the wedding.

I thought, this is so fast.

But, you know, god help them."

I mean, good things are gonna happen.

I'm sure.

A year later,

Rachel becomes pregnant with Todd's child.

Crawling. Come on.

And on April 11th, 2007, baby Eva is born.

It's Todd who decides to make a funny home movie

of their experience as parents,

poking fun at Rachel's big ambitions for her daughter.

Nearly two years later,

Eva is joined by little sister Ariel.

This video, taken by Rachel,

shows Eva and Ariel enjoying a family music festival.

In early 2010, Todd gets a new job

for a prestigious pharmaceutical company.

But it's a two-hour drive away.

So he lives Monday through Thursday

near his office in Alameda.

Rachel takes care of the girls at home.

She also juggles her own job.

She's now the manager at the neighborhood airpark.

Rachel has always kept herself in shape by running.

Todd and the girls try to keep up,

but it's not easy.

Luckily on this day,

Rachel's dad Don is there to lend a hand.

But Rachel has a hidden reason

for keeping herself in shape

that will rock this family's foundations.

Rachel Winkler is rich, beautiful,

and married with two kids.

But something isn't right.

Her and Todd's relationship

wasn't as strong as she was hoping it to be.

I think she just had a lot of stress.

Maybe he's not the right person.

One day, Todd drops by the neighborhood airport,

Rachel's place of work.

He sees that she's become close to a co-worker --

a mechanic and former marine.

Rachel is like a lot of women.

They need attention --

positive attention, not negative attention.

When Todd suspects Rachel has cheated on him,

he turns to father-in-law Don for help.

It's time.

Now he's calling me on the phone.

You know, "Don, you know, my marriage is in trouble.

She's seeing this guy."

At a point there,

he's calling me over and over and over.

I'm trying to save my marriage.

I'm trying to do this, I'm trying to do that.

Todd's attempt to win Rachel back pays off.

She didn't want to upset anybody.

She definitely didn't want to upset her dad.

She was afraid that her family would feel like she didn't try.

And her kids were so young that she didn't --

she just didn't want to disappoint anybody.

Having lived through a divorce herself,

Rachel doesn't want to put her kids through the same pain.

She thought the best thing was reconciliation,

stay there, work it out.

You know, I'm gonna stay with Todd.

I'm gonna pray for him.

I'm gonna do the right thing.

I'm not gonna leave.

I said, "okay, fine."

A few months later,

Rachel and Todd announce to their family

that they're expecting a third child.

She called me and told me that she was pregnant,

and I just said,

you're going to have another one.

I thought you were done after two, you know.

And she's like, "nah, we're going to do one more.

Hopefully it'll be a boy."

Then in march 2011,

Todd decides they all could do with a break.

He takes the family on a Florida vacation.

Rachel's dad Don joins them and films the trip.

I was happy to be there on the trip

and, you know, do the camera, make my little film,

and see how cute and darling the kids were.

Don's also there to help with the girls

when mom and dad want a little alone time.

As far as I knew, they were okay at that point.

I really believe that they took me along,

as I understand now,

to watch the kids so they could go have some fun.

I get to be with the kids, taking pictures.

It all seem pretty good.

And of course, Don also takes videos

of his now very pregnant daughter.

3-year-old Eva and 18-month-old Ariel

love all this daddy time.

The kids are playing with their dad on the hammock

and he's having a beer in Florida in the summertime.

It just seemed like all was well and fine.

That was Todd and Eva.

Eva was getting the shower treatment.

We're getting ready to go out to have something to eat,

have an evening of a little fun and entertainment there.

I would say they were fun loving

and did a lot of things for and with the kids.

Later, the kids snuggle on their mom's lap

and Eva mouths a sweet message to her dad.

It was the words I love you, daddy.

That evening, they enjoy a little daddy-daughter dance

as Rachel watches on.

When their third child is born July 2011,

Rachel's father Don films at the hospital.

He captures his daughter's wish come true --

a newborn boy, who they name Alex.

Well, that was Alex's birth there in kaiser hospital.

And, you know, I brought Eva and Ariel.

And I brought them down there

to see their newborn little brother.

Rachel was strong as an ox.

And, you know, she just took it all --

breathe and push.

Little Ariel is thrilled to have a baby brother.

It seems the Winkler's

have made it through their rough patch.

That's a nice on. We're looking down.

In February 2012,

police are called to the Winkler home

in northern California.

They find Todd Winkler sitting on his front steps.

He's got cuts and bandages all over his hands.

Deputies searched the house.

They find Rachel's body next to Alex's crib.

She's been stabbed multiple times.

I walk out early morning.

The sun is shining.

Hello?

And there's a lady on the other end of the line

screaming into the phone.

"Don, something's happened.

Something horrible has happened."

And I said, well, what's wrong?

I said, "is it the kids?

No!"

Is it Rachel?

Yes!

I said, "well, what happened?

Is she hurt?"

I don't know! Something horrible!

I said, is there a big white truck

parked in front of the house?

Yes.

Is there a yellow tape around the property?

Yes!

Right then, I knew she had been murdered.

Shannon thurman hears the news

from Rachel's brother Matthew.

Matthew called me back and very calmly just said,

you know, um, I don't want this to ruin your life.

And I said, what are you talking about?

Is your sister okay?"

And he said, somebody came into her house

and murdered her today.

And I said, well, what do you mean

somebody just came into the house

and murdered her?

Like, that doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.

It was that moment of, this doesn't happen to US.

This happens to other people.

El dorado county detectives

questioned Rachel's husband Todd.

He tells detectives that the day before Rachel died,

she came home to tell him

that she wanted to file for divorce.

What is this?

I've made up my mind.

And she insisted on taking full custody of the kids.

I'm taking them away.

To where?

Todd tells police

Rachel planned to leave him

and run away with her boyfriend.

They argued.

And then that night,

she went to sleep in the guest room

next to their baby boy.

Todd says he woke up

at about 3:00 A.M. the next morning --

his normal Monday routine

before his two-hour drive to work.

But before leaving,

he says he stopped by to challenge Rachel.

I'm gonna fight you on this, Rachel.

This will not happen.

You will not take my kids away from me.

Really?

Well, it's happening.

And I will do whatever it takes

to get you out of the way.

Todd tells police he punched Rachel in the face

because she threatened him.

My god. I'm sorry, Rachel.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.

He tried to apologize,

but he says Rachel attacked him with a pair of scissors.

He felt like his life was in danger

but he fought her off and escape to the garage.

Get out of here!

Todd: You're crazy! Get out!

Crazy! Get out!

Todd tells police he was going to leave the house

but changed his mind.

So he put on his leather jacket

in case he needed to knock down the bedroom door,

then went back in to get baby Alex.

Todd says he thought the kids were in danger.

In the struggle,

Todd says he fought to get the scissors away from Rachel.

But stabbed her in the throat.

The injuries on Todd's hand seemed to backup his story.

Afterwards, Todd claims

he attempted to resuscitate Rachel

but was unsuccessful.

Todd insists he killed Rachel in self-defense.

Police aren't convinced.

They charge him with first-degree murder

but know they need more evidence.

So investigators searched the family home.

In the garage, they make a bizarre discovery.

An urn filled with ashes.

They're the remains of Todd's previous wife Catherine Winkler

who died in a car crash several years ago.

Rachel had found those out in the garage,

and she said to Todd, I hope I never become ashes.

He said, "well, just don't ever anger me.

I thought, gee, there's an answer.

And she was like, what does that even mean?

And I said, I don't know.

Let's just not find out what it means.

But it definitely made me worried, you know.

The deputy district attorney takes a second look

into the car crash that killed Catherine

six years before Todd met Rachel.

Todd claimed he was thrown clear of his truck

when it fell into a ravine.

Catherine died in the wreckage.

Her death was officially ruled an accident.

The deputy D.A. Calls the officer

who investigated the case.

Got a phone call from

the El Dorado county district attorney's office.

The assistant D.A. Said,

let me ask you a question, though?

Are you familiar with Todd Winkler?

And before I thought, I asked her,

who'd he kill this time?

The D.A.'S office has discovered

that Todd's previous wife Catherine died in an accident

when her car fell into a ravine.

But the officer that investigated the case

thinks there is strong circumstantial evidence

to suggest a different verdict.

My conclusion was it was done by his hands.

It was in this --

probably one of the straightest parts of the road,

but it had one of the biggest drop-offs.

There was a pretty big hole down there.

He told me his wife was in the truck

when it went over the embankment.

And you just jumped out and landed on both feet,

and this is where you are?

He said, yeah.

Something just wasn't right.

It was at that point where the red flags went off

as, really, "what's going on?

We're talking to him.

He was kind of defensive about everything.

I just asked him, you know, what'd you kill her for?

And instead of being in an uproar,

I didn't. I didn't. I didn't,

he was like, I didn't kill her.

Just in a calm, just soothing I didn't kill her.

The boldness of not feeling anything with his wife.

I mean, it was a criminal mind-set.

The vehicle was so badly burnt, any evidence was destroyed.

And there were no witnesses to the crash.

So it is declared an accident.

Todd benefited financially from Catherine's death.

He had an insurance policy for his wife.

On her death, he stood to gain, you know,

anywhere from $1.2 million to $2 million,

somewhere in that range.

This insurance was updated

just weeks before Catherine died.

He couldn't wait the entire time to get the money.

In fact, he tried to sue them to get the money.

Once the report come back and everything was in his favor,

he got his 1 1/2 -- $1.2, $1.5 million,

and he went out to placerville, California,

bought him an airplane, got him a new wife,

he lives on an airport.

Yeah, so, yeah.

Investigators take a second look

at Todd and Rachel's marriage.

To the outside world, they lived a perfect life.

The truth was very different.

Todd was hurting her.

Todd was hurting her physically and emotionally,

and taking her phone away

to where she didn't have any communication.

Several times, I would call her in Cameron park,

and I knew that that's what it happened,

because she doesn't just deliberately

not answer her phone.

Rachel took me aside one day, and says,

you know, dad.

Living with Todd is not easy.

He's very critical of me,

and I wish he'd be sensitive to the fact

to take my side once in a while,

because he's hard to live with.

And he is a liar.

He's a pathological liar."

Rachel was scared of Todd.

And she needed help.

Nearly two years after her death

in September 2014, Todd's trial begins.

He pleads not guilty,

sticking to his story

that he was forced to kill Rachel in self-defense.

But the judge allows the prosecution

to use the death of Todd's previous wife Catherine

as admissible evidence.

Ricky Johnson testifies in court.

When I went to California,

they were very intrigued

on what took place here in white county

to prove that he might have a history of harming.

And he had described his murderous ways.

Selfishly, I was a little angry

that it seemed to be starting to pull the trial

in a different direction and away from Rachel.

But then once the cops started testifying,

it seemed to have helped the trial, I think,

because they got to see how he was

with two different marriages.

The prosecutor tells the jury

what she believes really happened.

Put the scissors down.

I'm warning you!

There was a fight that morning.

But given their difference in size,

Rachel never had a chance.

She did manage to drive him off...

This isn't over!

No!

...and tried to call for help.

But Todd returned.

Rachel!

No.

No. Please, no.

He used one hand to cover Rachel's mouth

and the other...

To drive the scissors into her throat.

For 10 minutes,

Todd stayed there while she bled out.

According to the autopsy,

there were no attempts to resuscitate her.

After changing clothes, Todd had his neighbor call 911

and calmly waited for the police on the front step.

The prosecution argues Todd cut his own hands

to help his claim of self-defense.

He said it was self-defense.

I mean, she's tiny,

you know, what is she? Five-foot tall?

I've known her since she was a toddler.

I have never seen any --

any violent tendencies.

Todd's defense team claims

that he has a history of psychiatric distress

and suffers from a dissociative disorder.

But the jury is not convinced.

They find him guilty of first-degree murder,

and he is sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

The death of Catherine Winkler

is still classified as an accident,

and there's no evidence to prove that Todd killed her.

I wanted justice for my best friend.

All I wanted was for the judge and for the jury

to focus on this one thing.

I wanted Todd to know what it's like

to never get to see your kids again

because she doesn't ever get to see them again.

I think he did it

because he was going to lose control of her,

which doesn't make sense

because if you're so afraid to lose someone

and then you kill them, you've lost them.

Now age 72,

Don Hatfield has full custody of his three grandchildren.

I continue to miss my -- my daughter.

And then I'm raising these three magnificent children.

They were 9 months, 2, and 4 when I got them.

They're 8 years, 10, and 12 now.

I love these children.

They are embedded in my soul.

I drop these kids off at school,

see them race off to their classroom.

And I think of that little girl Rachel.

I was so proud of her.

You know, my only daughter

and she was so alive

and so full of youthful joy, you know.

You know, the grief and the hurt and the loss of Rachel,

if there was any compensation, if there was any comfort,

I believe she is with god, and that god is not far away.

I love you, dad.

Thanks for all your help.

That's a fact. Okay.