'Murder on Middle Beach' Episode 3: Who is Ali Hamburg? Could Barbara's daughter be a suspect in her murder
In HBO's four-part docuseries, 'Murder on Middle Beach', filmmaker Madison Hamburg investigates the truth behind the murder of his mother, Barbara Beach. In March 2010, Barbara Hamburg was found violently murdered near her home in Madison, Connecticut. Investigators speculated her murder appeared to be a crime of passion, but without enough evidence, the case grew cold.
Over the course of eight years, Barbara's son, Madison Hamburg, interviewed his family members and many others, to learn more about his mother and try and figure out her murder. The main suspect was Madison's father, Barbara's ex-husband, Jeffrey Hamburg. However, Jeffrey was cleared because he had a strong alibi. And while viewers may strongly suspect Jeffrey, whom Madison only secretly recorded during phone calls, by the third episode, other suspects emerge. One of them is Barbara's sister, Conway Beach, whose alcoholism drove the sisters apart and led Conway to even trying (and apparently failing) to hire a hitman to kill her sister and the latter's family.
Conway herself, however, believes strongly that Barbara's killer is Madison's younger sister, Ali Hamburg. It was Conway who found Barbara's body after bringing Ali home from school when the latter said her mother was not responding to her texts. Conway recreates the scene as she explains to the camera what they first saw and how Conway came across her body. As they walked to the front door, they noticed that the dog statue placed in front of it was knocked over and broken. Ali notices her mother's purse and keys and when Conway reaches out to take them, Ali tries to stop her, saying it is a crime scene. Moreover, soon after the murder, Ali left the United States and settled in Argentina after traveling across South America.
Conway also says that she did not like the way Ali had treated her. But to first understand Ali's relationship with Barbara, we must first understand Ali, as Madison shows us. We learn that Barbara and Jeffrey would fight a lot before their divorce, leading Barbara to become an alcoholic again. Meanwhile, Jeffrey would be "super controlling", according to Ali, implanting the children with "a lot of fear".
After the divorce, Ali says that Jeffrey was very manipulative and told her negative things about Barbara to drive them apart. When Ali had a nervous breakdown in the seventh grade, Jeffrey tells Madison (and we learn told Ali when she was a child) that Barbara wanted to commit her to a psychiatric institute. Ali had first gone to the nurse because the back of her head and throat would hurt a lot, her thyroid was building, she was lethargic and throwing up, and did not know what was wrong with her. Jeffrey tells Madison that Ali had two things: Grave's disease and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
After the divorce, Ali first chose to stay with her dad, hurting Barbara. Later, when Ali decided to go back to her mother (which Jeffrey attributes to BPD), the latter would supposedly overindulge Ali so that Ali would not go back to her father. This may have been a pattern -- Ali believes that their mother was enabling Madison's drug addiction. Jill Platt believes that Ali "walked all over [Barbara]".
Conway tells Madison that Ali herself was abusing "alcohol, drugs, and boys all the time". By then, Conway was living with Barbara and the kids after her brain surgery. Conway says she would hear Ali screaming at her mother all the time and did not want Conway living with them. She also says that everyone, including her, was scared of Ali. And so, Conway believes that Ali killed her mother, dragged her body to hide it, walked to school, and then began texting Barbara and later Conway, because according to Conway, Ali was "f**ked up on drugs and alcohol".
However, a producer and Madison both doubt Conway's theory and even go back to the area to try it. They reenacted the scene and do not believe that Ali, then a 16-year-old girl, could have done all of that and then gone to school as if everything were normal. And does Ali believe her aunt, Conway had something to do with Barbara's murder? Ali tells Madison that Conway is a "super-loving person, open to loving anyone", but that she is very dependent on people. She thinks Conway was taking advantage of their mom. An anonymous woman agrees with this, saying Conway was using her illness as an excuse not to work and to get Barbara to look after her.
At the end of the episode, Madison tells Ali that he does not hold any grudges against her for choosing to stay with their dad. He also tells her that she is beautiful and smart and is proud to be her brother.
'Murder on Middle Beach' airs on HBO on Sunday nights at 10/9c. The final episode will air on Sunday, December 6.