Original subtitles

What was your best recollection of coming home?

Ali and I pulled up.

I see these cushions up against the bushes--

So, you pulled back the same cushion, what happens?

It's your mom.

I'm doing a, um, documentary on Mom.

Your mother was a very complicated person.

She had a life that I had no idea she had.

I think the police

dropped the ball on your mother's murder.

You can't get an answer if you don't have

people looking in the right places.

At the end of the day,

we're not investigators.

Hello, hello, hello.

It could be any of us that you're talking to right now.

Somebody, somewhere, knows something.

- There's Madison, building his puzzle.

With Daddy helping.

- He does it all by himself.

Hello?

- Hey. - Hey.

- Very good, Madison.

- Yeah, I mean, I--

there isn't a definitive answer

to this murder,

so I don't wanna lose you,

because I don't know, you know?

- You don't think they looked other places?

Yay for Madison.

Go show Mommy your puzzle, honey.

- Ball? - Oh, I see.

You want Mommy to get your ball?

You want Mommy to get your ball?

Good boy.

What? You wanna get in there?

You want me to put you in there?

No?

Then what do you want?

You want your ball?

That's a good boy.

Maddy. Madison.

Ours is a rich

and variant land.

We have bounties beyond those

known to the people of any other day.

And as responsible as anyone else

for the care of these bounties

is the woman

in the American home.

- WDRC-FM HD3 Hartford.

- So the topic today, Ray, is gifting tables.

- Ah, Gifting Table. That's right.

And I had a friend involved in it.

In the beginning, I would just hear her on the phone

talking about soup and salad and appetizers

and entrées and dessert.

One time, I said, "Am I ever gonna get an invitation

to this event you're planning?"

She said, "No.

"This is a women's empowerment group.

"It's just for women.

Pretend you never heard that."

- I hope I'm not disturbing you

by any of the questions.

- No.

I mean, I don't wanna be the one

to drop the bombs here, you know?

- I'm ready for bombs.

You good? - Good.

- Cool.

- There we go.

- Okay.

So what were the Gifting Tables?

- We had dinner parties once a week,

and everybody would really get dressed

and put on their best clothes

and makeup and jewelry,

and we just had a great time.

It was just a club.

- Why didn't I know about the Tables?

Why do you think my mother kept that from me?

Oh.

I didn't know that you didn't know anything

about the Tables, quite frankly.

So I don't know.

- Okay.

Let's go back a little bit.

How did you meet my mother?

- Your mom was a little girl when I married Ed,

your mom's uncle.

We met in high school.

It was meant to be.

You know, he's the only man of my life.

Your mom and I were really, really close,

but I really met her more as an adult

when she married your dad and moved to Madison.

- What did you think of my dad?

- I really like your dad. I really liked him a lot.

Come on, Jeff.

It's funny, 'cause I always tell

all the people who married into the family,

"This is one of the most overwhelming families

you'll ever, ever meet."

- Ali! Ali!

- There's nobody crazier than your whole family together.

I tried to see how long I could go

without being in the family photograph,

and your dad said, "Well, you're in the family,"

and I said, "I've never been in the family picture

and no one has ever noticed."

So your dad made me come down and get in the picture.

We were the same age, your father and I,

so I think that we had

a certain connection.

But I knew the good guy.

Didn't know the bad guy.

After the divorce,

that's when her drinking started becoming a problem.

She started plunging downhill.

She said she was drinking

until she passed out every night.

I looked at her and I said, "Where's my Barbie?

"My Barbie is a take-charge girl.

Where'd she go?"

- Yes. Absolutely.

Your grandfather, Sandy, had it.

He was sober for almost 50 years

before he died.

And all three of the girls, and the boys, no.

Isn't that funny? I don't have it.

You either inherit that gene, I guess,

or you don't, you know?

It was a real surprise for me.

I didn't think your mother had it.

But then I didn't think Cathy had it either.

- Your mom was drinking a lot,

and she was arrested for a DUI.

I guess she came out of a blackout,

and she doesn't know if she was driving the vehicle

or if someone else was.

Every night, I would call your mom.

She would answer sometimes. She wouldn't answer sometimes.

One night, she said, "I'm gonna die."

And I said, "What do you mean, you're gonna die?"

She said, "I need some help."

And I said, "I'll see you in the morning."

So I took her to treatment.

And Grammy came and took care of you,

and when your mom came home,

she was a whole new woman.

- How did you meet my mom?

- I met her in an AA meeting.

- What was my mom's early sobriety like?

- Your mother

was the most enthusiastic newcomer

that I've ever known.

She was magnetic, alive, and compelling,

and a joy to be around.

Let's say she and I walked into a room together,

I'd walk in behind her,

the reaction to her, it was always incredibly welcoming.

- Really?

- Where Barbara was, people wanted to be.

- How would you describe her?

- As a light.

A shining light.

She was instrumental in my sobriety.

Very much so.

She was the best and only friend

I really ever had.

- She really loved the program.

She cared about people.

She loved sponsoring new girls.

I think she knew that that was her purpose in life,

you know, to help others.

People don't realize, when you lose one person,

how much it affects

so many other people, you know?

- Do you think we'll ever find out who did it?

- I hope in my lifetime.

You know, I'm 65 years old.

I don't know how much longer I'm gonna live.

But I would really like to know.

You have a lot more time than I do.

You okay, man? - Yeah.

This is just groceries.

Mommy got some milk, some potatoes.

- That's the chicken for dinner.

As she lives her life

as the woman American,

we often seem to charge her with the responsibility

of getting more out of the family purse

than is there.

Her art of working with the family

helps provide us with the daily necessities

and, perhaps,

some of our delightful American privileges of life.

- When she got sober,

was my dad paying any child support?

- No.

So she had nothing to help you two guys with.

Nothing at all.

- So how was she paying for us if she wasn't making money?

- Your mother had an IRA

that she was cashing out,

and that's how she tried to make ends meet.

- Is that why she joined the Tables?

- Yes. She needed the money.

- How did you meet Donna?

- I became really introduced to her

through the Gifting Tables.

At that time, Donna was hosting

all the Gifting Table parties at her house.

- A mark.

- I don't want you to hold back

because I'm the person who's asking,

if that makes sense.

- Mm-hmm.

By the way, I really loved your mother.

- Yeah.

- The whole thing was just so stupid.

I mean, like, I'm the last person

who's a fraud.

All right. - Dude, you look fine.

- All right.

- How long have you known my mom?

- I met her

early on in the Tables.

I think it was 2007.

I invited a woman who invited Jill.

That's how I met Jill and your mother.

And it was a community of women.

And so I thought it was a great thing.

It was a very large part of my life.

We raised money for so many people

to help them.

It was a good thing.

- Check this out.

This is the amount of money

that each woman made.

Wow.

That's crazy.

- They are called gifting clubs.

- Gifting circle.

- Ring leaders are telling members

they can take in an extra 80 grand in cash annually.

- When women were invited to these Tuesday night events,

which were typically in someone's home,

they would be told not to tell your husband,

not to tell anybody about it afterwards.

It was just women getting together,

and it was all cash-based,

and it was all terribly secret.

- The talk was always about

how to get more people into the food chain.

- Should I stop filming now or can I keep going?

- Keep going.

- I have an appointment with Detective Mulhern.

- Name? - Madison Hamburg.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

- Okay. He's on his way out.

- Okay, great. - Thank you.

- No, thank you.

- Hey.

- Good. How are you?

- Good to see you.

- Where do you want me to sit?

- Cool.

- Madison's been in there for two hours

when he was only scheduled to be in there for one hour.

Um...

Hello. How's it going? - Hi. How are you?

- Good. How are you? - Come on in.

- Thanks.

- How you doing on this hot day?

- Good. Are we good to park over here?

- Yeah, you're fine.

- Cool. - Yeah, come on in.

- So when did you become close with my mom?

- When she moved up here permanently.

I got closer with her, actually,

when I went to a couple of the Gifting Table meetings.

- Okay, so what is a gifting table?

If you are going to give a party,

plan that party around a purpose.

- They called it a sisterhood. It was beautiful.

It was like, you walk in, everybody was, like--

greeted you and they were kind and they were supportive.

Plan for refreshments

and entertainment.

- With the Gifting Tables,

you joined with a $5,000 gift to a woman.

That put you in a bottom row position,

which we had called appetizers,

and then you were asked to find one or two people,

preferably two, to follow you,

and then you, as an appetizer, moved up to the next level,

which we called the soup and salad level.

You already have your two people behind you.

Your job is done.

You're just there to support

the people that are behind you

and make them successful.

Now you move up to the next entrée position,

and you needed to have eight people

in the appetizer position.

And then you're in the position

to actually receive the eight gifts.

Five times eight.

$40,000.

Dessert is receiving.

It's when you get your just desserts.

Make sure the party is fun for everyone.

- The night you would get gifted,

everybody was so creative.

One girl put all the hundreds

in a balloon

and then popped it, and all the money flew.

One woman made a necklace out of the money.

- I remember the first time I brought cash home

and I showed it to Ed.

I just threw it on the bed

and the $100 bills were just going all over the place.

He said, "You mean this actually works?"

It was a lot of fun. I mean, it really was.

Think about it.

Just raining $100 bills all the time.

- Now the tables fall.

Everyone's gifted.

She goes off and follows the person that brought her.

There goes her two women behind her.

And then it starts all over again.

So you have to bring people in.

- Right. - Otherwise, it's gonna die.

- You have to understand the timing here.

- Now it's official. We are in a recession.

- Jobless claims hit a 26-year high.

- So this is the early part of 2008.

Everybody needed money.

People were losing their jobs left and right.

They were terrified.

How were they gonna make ends meet?

They came on the Table, they weren't afraid anymore.

I needed money just to pay

for your uncle's health insurance,

and that was the main reason why I was doing it,

because, you know, we had to pay

$2,300 a month just for health insurance,

and that wasn't with medication.

I will have to say, if you give a person hope,

you change their life.

I saw miracles happen.

Conway was a miracle.

- So who invited you?

- Your mother

and my aunt Jill.

I was, like, coming into my own

for the first time in my life

and feeling a lot of support.

It was different from AA.

That's about staying sober.

This is about how to live life and, you know,

be a strong, healthy, happy woman.

- I gotta tell you something.

This is something that most guys don't get.

It's really something that women get.

Women get this, but guys don't get this.

This gifting club and that sorority kind of a thing,

they don't get it.

- Did Chris know about the Tables?

- We did tell him.

He didn't like it at all.

- I'm like, "That is-- what are you doing?

You're gonna get in trouble for that."

She's like, "Absolutely not."

And I assured him.

I said, you know,

"Honest, Chris, it's totally legal."

He said, "I don't know. I don't know.

It's kinda scary."

- Their MO was, "What we're doing is legal,

but we don't want it to become illegal,"

and so that's why they did all these weird things,

like have codewords for stuff.

- We don't recruit.

We invite.

It is not an investment.

Don't ever tell anybody it's an investment.

It's a gift.

- And my mom used to keep,

like, tens of thousands of dollars

in the freezer at home in bags.

I remember that.

They were exercising

what they thought was a tax loophole.

They're essentially mini pyramids, more or less,

with the main difference being you got in, you got out.

You got in, you got out. You got in, you got out.

But in order for them to work, more people had to join.

Right?

- So I'm a new member.

How do you introduce me?

Choose your guests carefully.

- I'll pretend you're my sister.

You know that group of women that I've been involved with?

Well, it'll be a great group of women for you.

Very supportive.

She said, "Well, would I actually make any money?"

I said, "I haven't been in a table

that somebody didn't make something."

- If they seemed excited

and didn't know how to get the money,

suggestions were made.

Like, maybe you could refinance your house

or their boat or whatever they might have.

Is there equity in something?

- And then it made a leap about three or four years ago

to Avon, Farmington, Simsbury, Canton, West Hartford.

That's when I started to say, "Oh, my gosh.

Someone's going to get in trouble here."

- Your mom had a ton of people that followed her,

and she had a ton of AA people that followed her.

- Really?

- That caused, I think, problems elsewhere.

- Within AA probably?

- Yeah, I don't think that it was--

I think it was frowned upon to bring that there.

- Did you know about the Gifting Tables

after the murder?

- I knew about them before the murder.

A number of people I knew were involved.

At least one person felt

that your mom had recruited people

that she knew through the program.

- Your mom's group grew, like, so large.

And then she became the Donna.

- Oh. That makes sense.

- Because she was the one that they would all follow.

Because they would split off,

then she was Donna in that group.

The network was a big thing 'cause they wanted to grow.

You know, 'cause if it doesn't grow,

it's not gonna work, right?

- Did anybody realize how big it was going to get?

- No, I don't think so.

It was so funny because, like, you could drive down the street

on a Monday night and you would be like,

"Oh, look at all the cars at that house.

I bet you there's a women's meeting there."

Like, people knew! - Wow.

- You know, like, that's how it was.

But then it got out of control.

People were inviting everybody.

- It started to get scary when the group got big.

I mean, there would be-- there was one night

where we had, like, $90,000 in this house,

and it's a bad economy.

And I said, "You know, people could start

getting hurt here."

And so there was more of a need

to be very cautious and quiet about these parties

and who was being invited.

And so we didn't just invite anybody to come.

- They tried to target people

who could afford the $5,000,

but if you think about that,

at some point, the game has to--

if you want the game to go on, you have to go to people

that don't necessarily have the means,

and you're gonna end up getting somebody

who really needed that $5,000,

and that meant a lot more to them

than it means to someone who's got it sitting around.

- Well, I then saw an online alert

about something called the Gifting Table,

and that it was a pyramid scheme,

and there were those terms.

Appetizer, soup and salad, entrée, dessert.

And all the pieces fell in together

in just a microsecond,

and I thought, "Oh, boy."

- The money that they are taking out,

the $40,000, they're not paying taxes on,

and so many of these conversations

about this pyramid scheme

taking place through e-mails and over the phone.

- That's wire fraud.

Anyone who was at the dessert level

in Central Connecticut,

they know who they are.

- Someone made a call to the attorney general.

And then that's how it all started.

- What was the announcement on the TV?

- Oh, it was that there was an illegal Ponzi scheme

running on the shoreline

called the Gifting Tables.

I was like, "Oh, my God.

Like, illegal"-- you know what I mean?

Like, I was floored by it.

I'm telling you, I think that it just scared a lot of people.

- Thank you so much for making time for us.

I've been making this documentary

since my mother was murdered ten years ago.

I've been making it for the past six years.

- Yeah, I'm sorry about your mom's death.

- Thank you.

- And I guess it still hasn't really been--

- It's still unsolved. - Solved, yeah.

- As you may know, she was a part of the Gifting Tables.

So what sparked the investigation

back in 2009?

- There were complainants.

There were enough complainants

that it was really having an impact.

We felt strongly that we had to act to protect others,

if only to warn them that the likelihood

of their actually making money here

was very, very remote.

What struck me about the Gifting Table was

the abuse of trust.

Women were enticed to join

with this promise of sisterhood and bonding,

and some of them actually exploited friends,

perhaps unknowingly--

one who asked

her fellow AA members to join,

the urging

that people take a second mortgage,

sell their car,

ask relatives

for early inheritance.

Really striking people where they lived.

It had an emotional element

that was unusual for a pyramid scheme.

- Did you see Jill's note? - Yeah.

- Oh, really?

- This is November 14th, 2009.

We win as one.

I wonder who she is.

"Really, it's not even a misdemeanor.

"Be happy. All is good.

Love you. Really, I do."

Okay.

This is in response

to the attorney general in Madison.

"What happened is the result of a situation

"that was put into motion some months ago

"by an anonymous woman

"who went to the attorney general's office

"stating that she had been scammed,

"lost money, et cetera, et cetera,

"and showed that office many of our sacred guidelines.

Blumenthal's office now feels they must investigate."

- Once that attorney general call went in,

I think everybody was like, "See ya later."

- Really? - Oh, I think a lot--yeah.

Yeah, I think a lot of people were like, "No way."

They were afraid, 'cause then at that point--

- There was an investigation.

- I think people were questioning the legality of it.

Because I don't think people even thought about it before.

What happened was,

one of the women complained about Barb.

- Ah. - That group is the one

that called the attorney general.

- My mom's? - Yeah.

And then everyone was mad at her.

- Your mother told me

that she wished she had never asked

her friends from AA to be a part of it,

because it got out of hand.

And there were some women

who were maybe not healthy enough

to do the tables.

And then they got angry, and then they started to--

you know, it became a real quagmire.

And then the badmouthing against your mom

for "preying" on women

in AA for this.

They really made a stink.

- So my mother was actually one of the women

who was inviting people through Alcoholics Anonymous.

Where is the line crossed

between people who are victims

and people who are, I guess, criminals?

- Well, let me talk in general.

Pyramid schemes,

in the end, they are doomed to collapse.

Someone is bound to walk away,

in effect, defrauded.

The people who knowingly

and deliberately profit from the schemes

are criminal in their intent.

Others who are victims,

in effect, are chewed up by them.

- Okay, everybody's-- come sit, honey.

Or get a more comfortable chair

and bring it over.

- How do I share my screen?

- Yeah, I got it.

Do you see my beautiful face?

- "Log into Facebook

using the following code as your password."

- Holy shit, dude.

This is insane.

Feels really weird logging in as my mom.

I mean, just feel like a mindfuck.

Oh, my God.

There's unread messages from before she died.

So there's no way

the police have seen this, dude, right?

- Correct.

- I wonder what that message is.

"Cathy gave me 20 for..."

I wonder if that had to do with the Tables.

- Yeah.

- Am I, like, tampering with evidence right now?

Did she ever express any safety concerns?

- Yes, she did.

She said that...

she felt she was being watched...

a lot, I wanna say,

those last couple months.

And your mom was in the receiving position

when she was murdered.

So she was a dessert. - Oh, wow, I didn't know that.

- Yep.

- Do you ever wonder, like, who could've done it?

- Yeah.

- So I used to do repairs, all that type of stuff.

Last thing I did was put the mailbox up for her

the day before all this happened.

Somebody had broke it off and took it.

- What is this?

February 14th.

"Jill and I are split.

"She made it formal,

"and I just wanted to keep it friendly,

"and so far, it doesn't appear she does.

"Her other problem...

"her other problem and Shelley and I

"want to continue to travel together,

and Auntie isn't happy with that."

"Jill and I are split."

I went through my mom's Facebook

Who is--or what is that?

- "She made it formal,

"and I just wanted to keep it friendly,

and so far, it doesn't appear she does."

Oh, yeah.

There was this big e-mail that went out

that Barb's group is the group of Madison.

Jill, like, cut her off.

Like, told her--like, sent her on her own, kind of.

- Oh. - Jill didn't tell you that?

- So why did Jill wanna split?

- Your mom and Conway decided

they wanted to invite Tracy, my aunt,

Jill's other sister.

- Mm-hmm.

- She could never invite a woman.

And that's what they were getting mad at.

They felt that they were just inviting anybody on

just to gift.

So Jill's whole holy side was getting mad at Barb's side,

who was actually just trying to get women

and bring 'em in and whatever.

- Yeah.

- And so it turned into a big debacle.

Jill just then split. - Wow.

What was your relationship with Jill like?

- Who invited you to the Tables?

- Tracy and I don't get along. Never have.

I didn't think my sister was appropriate for the Tables.

They had my sister join their table,

and my mother was sort of

just trying to push my sister along.

Yeah, I said, "Mom, who does she know

that would be appropriate?"

She said, "Oh, nobody.

Her friends don't have any money."

And I said, "And so, she's gonna be successful how?

"She doesn't have a job,

"she's depressed,

"and she doesn't have any friends with any money,

so how is she gonna be-- how's she gonna do this?"

You can't invite anybody.

It has to be somebody who has a chance at being successful.

We're not just trying to get money for people.

But as soon as they had their way,

they could do anything.

They did what they wanted to do to get the money.

- Jill was pissed. Sent out a fucking e-mail.

Said, "Fuck it."

And it panicked a lot of the girls who were...

Jill's Tables or Barb's Tables or--

everybody was kind of blended,

and so to split was weird,

and it caused a lot of fear and confusion.

- Did my mom and Jill ever, like,

talk after the split, or--

- No, I don't think they did.

So that e-mail was, I think, in February.

- Oh.

- And Mom was in--

she was murdered in March.

- Right. - Right. So March 3rd?

- Mm-hmm. - Right?

So yeah, there wasn't a lot of time

in between the e-mail and that.

- Where did my mom keep her money?

- In the safe in the house.

- How much money do you think was in the safe?

- I will say anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000.

- Could it have been more?

- Sure.

- Did she ever move the money?

- I do remember your mom digging a hole.

She said she put it in there.

But at some point, she got paranoid that

that money was gonna be taken from her.

- Why was she so paranoid?

Did something happen?

- She...she was with

someone from AA,

and I had heard that they saw, like,

a guy wearing a ski mask walk through the yard,

but they didn't call the police.

- I heard that

you and my mom witnessed a man wearing a ski mask

walk through our yard on 44 Middle Beach?

- Right.

It was the day before she was murdered.

- The day before she was killed?

- Yes.

- That's terrifying.

- We were having a luncheon.

Out of my left field vision,

I saw a gentlemen in a black ski mask

walk from the left of the windows in the front

going towards East Wharf Road.

- Down the driveway or-- - Yes.

- And he was look-- he looked into the house?

- Right. - Oh, my God.

- You know, Madison, I gotta tell you,

you know, when that fight happened

between Jill and Barb,

it really tore us apart.

- Did Aunt Jill and my mom...

- They never made up prior to that.

Never.

- Did you have anything to do with the murder?

No.

- I have to ask everyone. - That's okay.

No. No.

That was--it would've been impossible anyway,

but no.

Mm-mm. No.

Because we were starting a road trip on the third

with your grandmother.

And we decided we were gonna get up really early

to avoid hitting any traffic, and by 4:00,

we were in the car and heading down there.

4:00 in the morning.

So we got to your grandmother

by 10:00 in the morning.

- Did the police interrogate you?

- The police interrogated me as soon as possible.

"And where were you?" "Well, I was in a car.

You can check my Speedpass if you want," you know?

But yeah, I think I was their first major suspect

because of this Gifting Table thing

and there's--being this little rift between us

at that moment in time.

But it was very obvious

that I couldn't possibly be there.

- Okay.

I'm gonna take a break.

- All right.

I can't believe you're asking all these questions.

Oh, Maddy.

Quite the quest here, baby.

Don't know how you do it.

- Maddy!

Madison.

Hi.

Whoo!

- Barbara Hamburg-- - Was found dead on her lawn--

- Dead at the scene.

- Hi.

- No. Why would I be up there?

- I didn't understand.

Give me a hug.

- Yeah.

When everything happened,

I was, like, afraid of losing her.

I would practice visualizing her face.

And I'd call her cell phone

just so I could hear her voice.

Snowflakes. - Snowflakes!

Look at those big blue eyes.

- Just desperate attempts of not losing someone.

- What a beautiful boy.

What a beautiful boy.

- Anyone I could turn to as, like, someone to lean on

or someone to, like, help me through,

the person I'm turning to could've orchestrated

or done this.

Could've ruined my life.

Sometimes, you just feel kind of alone.

- Bye-bye.

Mwah.

I got a kiss.

- It was about 8:30 in the morning.

I was still in my pajamas and bathrobe.

- It was in May,

and I was sleeping in bed.

My husband was on a business trip.

- My nephew looks out the window

and he sees all these federal agents

coming to the house with their flak jackets.

And they went, "Is Jill Platt in the house?"

- He was banging at the door,

and I see all these men out there

in uniforms or something.

I thought, "Oh, my God,

there must be a fire or something."

And I went downstairs and I opened the door

and I said, "May I help you?"

He said, "Are you Donna Bello?" and I said, "Yes."

And then a group of men came in

with guns and--

and bulletproof vests on

and they put handcuffs on me.

I was in shock.

- I said, "Don't you have any real crime to fight?"

"This is a real cri"-- I mean, I could just see

I, like, stabbed him in his eyeball

when I said that.

"This is a real crime."

- So I thought, "This is so messed up."

You know? "This is crazy.

"Like, what is going on?

This is a women's gifting group."

- Bunch of women having dinner parties,

giving each other money.

I can think of worse things.

- Do you think if my mom was alive,

she would've been taken to trial?

- If your mother was alive today,

I don't know that any of us would've been taken to trial.

The thing is, when your mother was murdered,

they confiscated her computer,

and when they confiscated her computer,

they saw this business about the Tables.

So then they turned all of this information over

to the IRS.

- Do you believe that the murder was a catalyst

for the investigation?

- Yeah. Yeah.

- Had you heard about my mother's murder

before starting the investigation?

- So--no.

Back in around March 2010,

there was a detailed article

published by the "New Haven Register"

about the women's gifting tables

that were operating on the shoreline of Connecticut,

and that article referenced this murder.

- Do you think if my mother was alive,

she would've been a part of the investigation?

- I can't say.

- She broke the law, I think-- I think,

by being a part of these gifting tables

and possibly victimized women, maybe even unknowingly.

If the women thought what they were doing was right,

does that change what they were doing?

- Well, the evidence ultimately dictated,

you know, charges being filed

based on their statements,

their e-mails,

you know, everything that we'd gathered

in the investigation.

- Two Guilford women convicted of running

a Gifting Table pyramid scheme

were sentenced today.

Jill Platt will spend 4 1/2 years in prison.

Donna Bello will spend six years behind bars.

- I couldn't figure out

how many years that was,

because I couldn't even get to that point

where I was thinking years.

I just...

And then I'm blank. Then I went blank.

And I lost a lot of memory after that.

- In tears, Bello and Platt both apologized

in court today.

The two were found guilty in February of wire fraud,

filing false tax returns,

and conspiring to defraud the IRS.

- Well, I've lost my family, my own family,

because I'm such a shame to them.

That's because they're ignorant.

They're all ignorant.

- What's up? - Hey, man.

- Hi, Kim. - Hi.

How are you? - How's it going?

How's it going? - Good. How's it going for you?

- Good. - Yeah?

Yes?

What? What? What? - Oh.

- How have you been?

- Well, I got married.

That was, what, two years ago?

Mom's out of jail.

Mom went to jail, and now she's out of jail.

Right now, everything's good. Everybody's healthy.

- Banksy, my spoiled cat.

- You got out in November?

- I came back in November.

- Okay. - I got out last May.

May 15th.

- So it's been over a year?

- Just.

Mm. - Wow.

- It's just a big adjustment, you know?

My husband died two months before the trial.

The last year of his life, he was not well

and not taking his medication for his heart.

- Whoo!

- I do believe that your uncle died

because he was so stressed out.

- Hello, beautiful. - How are you?

- We were married 43 years.

So now, all of a sudden,

I am on my own,

have to figure it out, but you know what?

I no longer-- I no longer worry about it.

It's like, que será, será.

What will be will be.

What do you think, Banks?

What do you think?

- What's really impactful here are the human stories

of greed,

loss, remorse,

and destruction of personal lives

and friendships and relationships.

- So...

I'm trying to wrestle with the idea

of whether or not my mother was a criminal, I guess.

I don't know that she knowingly...

she knew that the Tables had

the outcome that they would have,

but, you know, she made money off of--

- I wish I could help you...

- Sure. - Answer that question.

You know, I would also say,

just on a very personal level, to you,

there are...

gradations of culpability when people break the law,

so it's complicated.

Life is complicated.

I learned as a prosecutor,

both as a U.S. attorney and as state attorney general,

condemnation is easy,

but breaking the law involves

different degrees of moral responsibility.

- Lucy, Lucy.

Hey, everybody. - Hey, how's it going, Don?

Nice to meet you. - Finally.

Yeah, it's good to meet you finally, yes.

Yeah, what time was the call to 911?

- Between 11:30 and 12:00, maybe even 12:30.

- A rough estimate right now would be,

we're looking at about a two-hour window.

We don't know if they were there waiting

or she was expecting someone to come over.

- So here's the house. - Mm-hmm.

- It's covered with trees.

There's a long driveway

with a neighbor here and a neighbor here.

There's a golf course right here.

- So this is the drive right here, right?

- The--yeah, this second one.

- 34, here? Okay.

- You can't see it at all from the street.

- No.

- I don't even--

- You had to know that the house was there.

- Yeah.

- That would be a high-risk point of entry.

- Oh, there-- that's the house right there?

- Yeah. - Okay.

Wow.

- It is wide open from this angle.

- It is.

The focus should be, you know,

was there a third dimension to this?

Was there something else going on

in your mom's life

that nobody knows or she kept a secret?

Was there something that we're missing?

- Who was that?

- Yeah.

What is this document?

- It's an excerpt of testimony to the grand jury.

- So this is something that's sealed

that we couldn't get before?

- Yeah.

I have no idea how Conway has this.

Because all testimonies in the grand jury

are supposed to be sealed.

- "There were some intimidating measures

"taken in the past few months.

"Members of the gifting tables have come to the meetings

"and presented themselves in intimidating ways.

"Conway Beach has come to meetings several times

"and shared in a meeting that there shouldn't be

"gossip, criticism, and judgment,

"and discussion about things

that people don't know anything about."

"Within the last week and a half,

was Ms. Beach near your residence?"

"Yes, sir."

"Explain to the members

of the Grand Jury what happened there."

"As you sit here today,

are you afraid of Conway Beach?"

"Yes, sir."

"Why is that?"

Wow.

- As you're doing this documentary,

I worry about you the most,

because you're finding out so many things

that I tried to protect you from.

And I just worry.

I hope you can process all of this...

And still love me.

As I will always love you.

- Watch out for the-- - Happy Thanksgiving.

Hazards are behind you.

- Some people can get to a point,

I don't care who it is,

where they can snap.

- Did you snap?

- I snapped.

- Flowers? You gonna get the flowers?

Okay.

Get the flowers.

Aww.

Oh.

Pretty flowers.

Oh.

Pretty flowers.

I'm so sorry.

Why are you sorry?

I haven't been back here in six years.

How has it effected our family?

I definitely do feel like there's a rift

because of the murder.

When your world is ripped apart it can do things to you.

If the person is still alive who did this to mom,

would you wanna say anything?

No. Do you wanna say anything to them?

I'm coming for you.