Betty Broderick had made an alarming prediction in her book about husband Dan's death, documentary reveals
The Betty Broderick case had made national headlines, gripping the nation with its high profile homicide back in 1989.
The bodies of Dan Broderick, 41, and his new wife Linda Kolkena, 25, were found dead in their upscale Hillcrest neighborhood home in San Diego, California. The couple was found with gunshot wounds on November 5 in 1989 with Dan's former wife Betty Broderick as the primary suspect. The ex-couple had four children together- two daughters who had grown up and moved out at the time of the murders and two young sons aged 10 and 13.
Given that Dan was a prominent and powerful lawyer, the case soon garnered a lot of attention. Oxygen's documentary 'Snapped: Betty Broderick' delves into the case and into the findings from Betty's house that was searched post the murders revealing some key details in her involvement in the double homicide.
The murders of Dan Broderick and Linda Kolkena
The bodies of Dan and Linda had been discovered by Betty's boyfriend. Bradley T Wright had called 911 after walking into the crime scene. Bradley himself had received a call from a friend of Betty's who sounded very upset and basically told him to check up on Dan and Linda. The friend did not give very much more detail. At the crime scene, investigators had found that the couple was likely killed with a .38-caliber revolver weapon. There had been a total of five shots fired with three hitting the couple.
Dan was shot with a single wound to the chest and had likely been alive for 20 mins as chest wounds lead to bleeding out and do not kill immediately while Linda was shot in the chest and head. A headshot almost always kills a person instantly.
Missing Betty Broderick
As the news of the murders started to spread in the community, word also got out that Betty was missing. Bradley had woken up that morning to find Betty gone and had assumed she had gone to the beach for a walk. When he discovered the bodies, Betty was nowhere to be found. The authorities soon suspected Betty of some involvement and obtained a search warrant for her home where they were able to find key details and evidence.
'What's a nice girl to do'
The authorities discovered the empty case box for a .38 caliber weapon with extra rounds of ammunition from her home. The former lead detective on the case, Terry Degelder says in the documentary, "We're searching through stuff and I find this transcript, and the title of the book was 'What's a nice girl to do'." The author of this manifesto was none other than Betty herself. "It was basically an outline of their breakup - before their divorce, the things that he said and what she did and their court experiences. Any argument they had or anything that happened was all Dan's fault," Degelder adds.
"She was an 'innocent' victim and everything bad that happened to her was because of Dan." He also spoke about a very eyebrow-raising last line which read, "the only impact I'm going to have on this man is to kill him."
This resulted in investigators believing that she had followed through on her 'fateful final words'.
A tip leading to the murder weapon
The detectives then received a tip that Betty's car was seen at her daughter's house. The police rushed there to find the car. Betty is not found but she had left behind some of her personal belongings. The investigators found her purse which contained a .38 caliber handgun.
A shocking turn-in
The authorities knew that they had the evidence that they needed to arrest Betty though many questioned why she would kill her source of money. As per the divorce, Dan was paying her $16,000 for child support and alimony every month. The cops obtained a first-degree murder warrant against Betty but had no idea where she was until one day she suddenly walked into the police station with an attorney. The attorney told the officers that Betty would not be talking and that she was not going to cooperate.
Trial and sentencing
Betty underwent two trials as the first trial that took place in October 1990, ended with a hung jury. She had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and pleaded not guilty. She did admit to shooting and killing her former husband and his new wife but was adamant that it was not premeditated. The first trial ended with a hung jury was unable to reach a decision about sentencing.
A friend of Dan's, Sharon Blanchet says, that "we expected that this was going to be a conviction and so when it wasn't, it was really upsetting. It was very very concerning that she could get off."
However, a year later during her second trial, prosecutors charged her with not first-degree murder, but 2 counts of 2nd-degree murder for which she was found guilty and sentenced to 32 years to life which is the maximum sentence.