- FEMALE NARRATOR: When a loving mother
is brutally murdered, accusations fly.
- There were many different scenarios going around.
- Could the murder have something to do
with her love life?
- NARRATOR: As the investigation heats up,
police wonder if they're dealing with a greedy killer
or a sinister setup.
- He recognized they had black shoes on
like a lot of the policemen wore.
- I think that they were afraid of her,
afraid of the information that she had.
- NARRATOR: At the center of this building media storm
is a blonde bombshell no camera could resist.
- Everyone thought she was a knockout.
- ERIK: The press portrayed her as this beautiful,
perhaps conniving femme fatale.
- NARRATOR: When the gavel finally falls,
it doesn't mark the end of this high-profile case.
- MARTIN: They hatched a plan for her escape.
The clock is ticking, everybody's getting older.
And the truth is out there.
- ♪
♪♪
- NARRATOR: May 28, 1981.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It's the dead of night at 2:15 a.m. when
11-year-old Sean Schultz is abruptly awoken from his sleep.
- KEVIN: Sean feels a wired rope placed around his neck,
and he sees an adult figure,
who then places around Sean's mouth and face
a heavy, strong, glove.
Sean screams.
- SHANNON: Sean's terrified scream awakens his
seven-year-old brother, Shannon, who's also sleeping
in the room in a separate bed.
At that point, the person standing over Sean
leaves the room, and Sean gets a brief glimpse of the intruder.
- KATHERINE: He heard his mother say, "No! Don't do that!"
And then heard what sounded like a firecracker in the room.
- NARRATOR: Sean removes the rope from around his neck
and races into the hallway with his younger brother
and again catches a glimpse of the late-night intruder.
- SHANNON: He sees the person at the foot of the stairs
heading towards the back door.
He immediately runs to his mother's bedroom.
- NARRATOR: As they reach their mother, 30-year-old
Christine Schultz's door, a frightening scene awaits them.
- She had a clothesline tied around her left hand,
uh, a bandana was tied over her face.
She wasn't moving.
- NARRATOR: Sean and his brother barricade their mother's room,
and then call her boyfriend, Milwaukee police officer
Stewart Honeck, who just left the home hours earlier.
- Stew called the Milwaukee police department,
and he immediately rushed over.
- [siren wails]
- NARRATOR: Within minutes, Stewart and responding officers
arrive at the scene.
They're soon joined by another colleague,
Christine's ex-husband, Detective Fred Schultz.
- When they called it in, somebody called her ex-husband,
and he ends up going to the scene.
- When Fred learns about this shooting, he goes to the house.
He wants to make sure his sons are alright.
- NARRATOR: Responding officers quickly make their way
up to Christine's room.
- She was face down on the bed dressed in a T-shirt
and underwear, but there was no sign of life.
- She had a bullet hole in her back that was fired
so close that she had burns around the wound.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Downstairs, young Sean Schultz tells police
what he remembers about the assailant's appearance.
- BILL: He thought it was a man.
He described the appearance of the subject:
shoulders were supposedly broad, and he was wearing a mask.
- NARRATOR: But it's another detail that Sean remembers
that has the potential to rock this investigation
before it even begins.
- He recognized the shoes, which were low-cut black shoes,
similar to what police officers wore.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Responding officers immediately look to the two men
at the scene:
Christine's ex-husband, Detective Fred Schultz,
and her current boyfriend, Officer Stewart Honeck.
- Police are wondering what is going on here.
Could the murder have something to do
with Christine's love life?
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Christine Jean Pennings
was born on November 15, 1950, in Menominee, Michigan.
- Christine was a very sweet,
wonderful, kind person.
She did grow up with a big family,
so it was very important for her to be involved
with all the family activities.
- NARRATOR: At 18, Christine
married 19-year-old Elfred "Fred" Schultz.
Shortly after, two became four with the birth of their sons,
Sean and Shannon.
- Fred joined the Milwaukee Police Department,
and he actually built the home that they lived in.
Christine was a stay-at-home mom.
Christine's sons were very important to her.
They were very polite children.
- NARRATOR: While Christine kept the home fires burning,
Fred worked his way up the ladder of the Milwaukee
Police Department, eventually reaching the rank of detective.
When he wasn't working,
Fred was known to be the life of the party.
- JOANNE: His nickname was Disco.
He was a clubber, he liked to dance,
that kind of thing.
- NARRATOR: But all that partying took its toll
on the couple's 12-year marriage.
- We did find out that he was having
affairs on the side,
and it just--after a while,
you just don't want to deal with that anymore.
- They divorced in November 1980.
In December, Fred met
Laurie Bembenek at a bar.
- JOANNE: He was, at that time, a very good-looking guy.
She was beautiful-- stunningly beautiful.
So there was an attraction.
- Fred was about ten years older than Laurie.
She completely fell head over heels for him
and couldn't resist him.
- JOANNE: It was very whirlwind.
She was swept off her feet.
- That ended up becoming a quick engagement.
- NARRATOR: Within two months of the divorce, Fred was
starting a fresh chapter with his new bride, while
his ex-wife, Christine, also found her own love interest.
- KATHERINE: Christine, in the meantime, was getting
involved with an associate of Fred's,
who had been a former good friend--Stew Honeck.
- ERIK: Stewart Honeck was a Milwaukee police officer.
She started dating him, looking for a fresh start.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As Christine and Fred settled into
their respective relationships,
they worked together to care for their two sons.
- They wanted to get through an amicable divorce.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: But in the early morning hours of May 28, 1981,
the discovery of Christine Schultz's dead body
has rocked her loved ones.
- MARY: I can't even imagine
the trauma for those young boys.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As detectives arrive, they quickly have
officers separate Christine's ex-husband,
Detective Fred Schultz,
and her boyfriend, Officer Stewart Honeck.
- Big question surrounding Elfred Schultz
and Stewart Honeck is:
could they possibly have had anything
to do with this murder?
- NARRATOR: While Fred and Stewart wait outside,
detectives focus on the crime scene.
- KATHERINE: When you look at the way Christine was left,
she had a clothesline tied around her left hand,
a blue bandana was tied over her face.
I mean, she had panties on, she had her T-shirt on.
There wasn't any evidence that she had been sexually assaulted.
- ERIK: Then you had the bullet wound.
Christine Schultz had been shot in the back
with a .38 caliber revolver.
The bullet went through her heart and killed her.
That was the cause of death.
- BILL: She, uh, suffered that wound.
Uh, it turned out to be deadly very quickly.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
a trio of potential suspects rises to the surface.
- He thought Stewart had crossed the line and betrayed him.
- KEVIN: Here's Stewart, his alibi, if you will,
was almost nonexistent.
It was extremely flimsy.
- KATHERINE: They had seen a jogger in the neighborhood
several times,
sometimes standing in front of Christine's house.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives investigating
the cold-blooded murder of 30-year-old Christine Schultz
have reason to believe this was a targeted attack.
- KEVIN: The intruder brought along the necessary tools--
the rope, the glove that could be used to subdue, scare,
intimidate the two boys,
and bind and gag Christine Schultz.
- NARRATOR: Police search Christine's room for clues
to the killer's identity.
- The police went through the room
dusting it for fingerprints.
They found nothing.
Then they found one potential clue.
- KATHERINE: Officers collected some hairs.
There were hair from the bandana
and a hair strand off of the leg of Christine.
It looked like a strand from a wig--reddish hair.
- NARRATOR: As CSI continue collecting evidence,
investigators turn back to the crime's
surviving eyewitnesses--
Christine's 11-year-old son, Sean Schultz,
and his 7-year-old brother, Shannon.
- He recognized they had black shoes on,
like a lot of the policeman wore.
- KEVIN: Sean had to describe to authorities what he had
witnessed that night.
He told them he saw an assailant he thought to be
an adult male wearing a green jacket.
- KATHERINE: Sean also noticed that the man who was leaving
had reddish hair in a ponytail.
And the ponytail was about six inches long.
- Christine's younger son describes the person
wearing a green jogging suit and carrying a gun.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: The description from Christine's sons
leaves detectives wondering
could the assailant be one of their own.
- SHANNON: At the time, Christine was dating
a Milwaukee police officer, Stewart Honeck,
but she'd also been married to another detective,
Fred Schultz, for over ten years.
So, she was someone officers knew and liked.
Her death was a shock.
- NARRATOR: Investigators immediately move to question
the two men, starting with Christine's boyfriend,
Officer Stewart Honeck.
- Stewart tells investigators that he and Christine
had spent the afternoon together, working in her garden
and having dinner.
He says the last time he saw Christine was at 10 o'clock,
but the last time the two spoke on the phone was at 11:20.
- ERIK: Stewart said he had fallen asleep.
The next thing he remembered was waking up at 2:20 a.m.
when Sean called him.
He knew something was wrong,
and he rushed over two blocks to Christine's house.
- NARRATOR: Stewart insists he and Christine had a good
relationship, and he envisioned a future with her.
- He claims that they were talking about wedding plans.
- SHANNON: Detectives ask Stewart if he knew of anyone
who would want to hurt Christine,
and he told investigators no.
- KEVIN: Well, here's Stewart Honeck.
He's romantically involved with the victim.
His alibi, if you will, was almost nonexistent.
It was extremely flimsy.
- NARRATOR: As investigators move to speak with
Christine's ex-husband, Detective Fred Schultz,
his partner pulls them aside.
- ERIK: Michael Durfee had been Fred Schultz's partner
that night.
And he tells detectives that earlier that evening,
Schultz had been making negative comments
about his divorce from Christine.
- Fred was tasked with paying her alimony, child support,
and also the mortgage on the house,
which made him furious, because he had built the house.
About half of his police salary went into supporting her
and supporting the house that he himself could not live in.
Plus, he didn't have very much to do with the children,
because Christine had full custody.
- As far as motives go,
Elfred Schultz had one of finances.
And Stewart Honeck, Elfred Schultz's good friend
on the Milwaukee Police Department,
is dating Christine Schultz,
and that didn't sit well with Elfred Schultz.
He became upset, he became angry, he was very jealous.
- ERIK: So here's the interesting thing.
Fred Schultz, they find out,
also had a key to Christine's property.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: While the information creates
an interesting lead, there is one problem.
- KEVIN: Elfred Schultz had an alibi at the time.
He was on duty along with fellow Milwaukee police officer,
Michael Durfee.
Durfee also said
that the two were investigating elsewhere.
- NARRATOR: Detectives ask Fred to come to the station
for an interview, and they plan to follow up
with Stewart afterwards.
Meanwhile, officers fan out in search
of other potential witnesses.
- KATHERINE: While the investigation is going on,
other police officers canvass the neighborhood to ask
neighbors if they've seen anything.
And a number of them mentioned that they had seen a jogger
in the neighborhood several times,
sometimes standing in front of Christine's house.
- Multiple neighbors had seen someone running
in a green tracksuit.
So police ask around, and apparently, there is
a man in the neighborhood who fits the description.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: When detectives track down and interview the man
later that morning, he doesn't deny owning an outfit like
the one Christine's children said was worn by the killer.
- KATHERINE: Christine's neighbor said that, the night
of the murder, someone had taken a revolver from his house
and a green jogging suit.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Was the killer trying to frame
Christine's neighbor?
Detectives immediately start looking for evidence
to back up his concerning claim.
- BILL: We couldn't find any record of him having
bought a gun.
We found out that he was lying about having a revolver.
We believe that he had a soft spot for her
and was an admirer of her, and I suppose he wanted to get
next to her with his story of the gun being stolen.
- NARRATOR: With the neighbor's story deemed as a desperate plea
for attention, detectives find themselves at a dead end.
- BILL: It was a made-up story.
It just made the investigation more difficult.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
an unexpected discovery exposes a calculated cover-up.
- BILL: When they start doing a background on where he was
during the course of the night, it started getting holes in it.
- It was clear that he was lying about some things.
- The story was falling apart.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Detectives investigating the murder
of mother of two, Christine Schultz,
are once again exploring the possibility that one of
the two men in her life may be responsible for her death--
police officer Stewart Honeck or Detective Fred Schultz.
- KATHERINE: We have the man that she's involved with,
and she has an ex-husband who's pretty angry about
the fact that she has the house he built.
- NARRATOR: With suspicion surrounding both men,
detectives take a closer look at each of them.
- KATHERINE: The detectives followed up on Stew.
There wasn't any evidence that Stew Honeck had a motive,
that he was angry, or had any reason to kill Christine.
- NARRATOR: With Stewart Honeck seemingly cleared from
the suspect list, detectives shift their focus
back to Fred Schultz.
- Fred Schultz's story is that he was investigating a burglary
the night of the murder.
- BILL: When they start doing a background on where he was
during the course of the night, it started getting holes in it.
The story was falling apart.
- KATHERINE: It was clear that he was lying about some things.
It turned out that two other patrol officers had actually
investigated that burglary.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Investigators confront Fred
with their findings.
- He said, "Well, actually, I was at such and such tavern."
Which is out of his district.
He wasn't supposed to be there.
- They were in a bar drinking, and they didn't want to tell
the truth initially because they were afraid that it would
come out that they may have been drinking while on duty.
- So they sit down and ask Detective Schultz straight out,
"Did you kill your ex-wife?"
He says, "No."
- He maintains his innocence so strongly
that he agrees to take a polygraph test.
- ♪
- They typically use the polygraph, especially back
in 1981,
to scare people into thinking they'll get caught.
He took a test... and he did pass.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: But just before Fred is released,
he makes an unexpected admission to detectives.
- ERIK: It turns out Fred Schultz had two guns.
One was his service revolver.
The other was his off-duty revolver--
a .38 caliber--and the only other person that had access
to that was his wife, Laurie Bembenek.
- Police now suspected Laurie Bembenek
may have had a role in this killing.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Like Fred Schultz, Lawrencia "Laurie" Bembenek
was also from Milwaukee.
- Laurie and I met the first time in grade school.
We always were together, almost always together.
We were just best friends.
- Laurie grew into a beautiful young woman.
She was tall, had a beautiful smile, great style.
Everyone thought she was a knockout.
- NARRATOR: In 1980, Laurie felt a calling to public service.
- Laurie Bembenek's father was a police officer,
so from a very young age,
Laurie wanted to become a police officer.
- Other than adoring her father and following in his footsteps,
I think she also wanted to make a difference in society
with her life and help people.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: But in August of 1980, shortly after
she graduated from the police academy,
Laurie's dream came to an unexpected end.
- There was an incident with marijuana at a concert
at the Milwaukee Arena.
Uh, she was with other people and someone was busted
and prosecuted for marijuana.
She had to file a report as an off-duty police officer.
And from what I know, what she told me,
is that she was let go and fired for filing a false report.
I guess in my mind, she tried to not incriminate
certain friends, and, ah, wanted to be a friend in return,
but kind of backfired, I guess.
- NARRATOR: For Laurie, it was a devastating turn of events.
- KATHERINE: She was stunned.
It was based on filing a false report.
She thought it was a minor infraction.
- MARY: After Laurie was fired, she took a security guard
position at Marquette University, and she
taught, uh, physical fitness on the side.
- Laurie had also taken a three, four-week job
as a waitress at the Playboy Club
in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin,
where this nickname, Bambi, got associated with her.
- NARRATOR: While Laurie struggled to stay afloat,
she suspected her termination
could be punishment for something else.
- Before the concert, she was discovering that all the women
and minorities were being discharged from the academy
for, you know, stupid things, real small incidences,
and that Milwaukee Police Department was keeping
the Title 9 money they were entitled to recruit
these people and run them through the academy.
She was going to cooperate in a lawsuit against
the Milwaukee Police Department.
She suspects that that's why she was turned in for
the marijuana at the concert.
- I think she stood up for things and spoke up in ways
that maybe offended some people.
But from what I know of Laurie,
it was for trying to do the right thing.
- All of this was happening around the time Laurie
met Fred Schultz and their whirlwind romance began.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: The complicated past of Fred Schultz's
22-year-old wife is no secret to investigators.
- She became a natural suspect
that the authorities were interested in talking to.
- KATHERINE: When Laurie was asked to account for
her movements that evening, she and Fred were moving to
a smaller apartment that was more affordable.
So, she and her mother spent till around 11:30 packing
and then she went to bed.
- She just, uh, denied any knowledge.
She had no knowledge of what occurred.
- JOANNE: Laurie had no animosity towards Christine.
It was very amicable.
Fred had some animosity because of the financial issues.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: For the next two weeks, the case languishes.
- Just a few short weeks after the murder of Christine Schultz,
Laurie Bembenek and Elfred Schultz
move into a different apartment building.
- NARRATOR: But it's a development at their old complex
that soon sparks investigators' interest.
- KATHERINE: On June 10, 1981,
a woman called a plumber because her toilet was stopped up.
- When the plumber gets there, he checks the drain lines,
and makes a strange discovery.
- The plumber found a wig clogging the works.
- NARRATOR: The woman has no knowledge of where
this wig came from, but she says maybe her former neighbors do.
- MARTIN: The apartment that Laurie and Fred were living in
shared the plumbing with the apartment next door.
- ♪
- KATHERINE: The police officers came
since the neighbor said there was some question of a wig
being used in the murder of Christine, worn by the killer.
- BILL: The plumber fished the wig out.
By that time, there was police at the apartment,
so the wig was grabbed as potential evidence.
As it turned out, it was evidence.
- ♪
- ERIK: It was a reddish-brown wig,
and that was important for two reasons.
Her sons had described the intruder as having hair
of that same color, and police found one strand
of synthetic hair of that color on Christine's leg.
- Although the wig was suspicious, they still
couldn't prove who flushed it down the toilet.
It's very circumstantial evidence.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As they continue to dig into Fred and Laurie's
background, investigators learn the couple lived with a roommate
named Judy Zess at their former apartment.
- KEVIN: Judy Zess was a dear friend of Laurie Bembenek.
They had actually met while the two were at
the Milwaukee Police Academy.
- NARRATOR: Detectives set up a meeting with Judy
and her mother a few weeks after the murder.
- SHANNON: Judy lived with Laurie and Fred for a while,
and she claimed that Laurie owned some of the same items
that were found at the crime scene.
- KATHERINE: She had seen a blue bandana,
and she had seen a clothesline that was like the kind of rope
that was used to bind Christine's hands.
- NARRATOR: Investigators ask her about one more detail.
- She claimed that she had seen a green jogging suit
that Laurie owned.
- NARRATOR: But it's what Judy's mother says next
that raises the final red flag for detectives.
- KATHERINE: The mother of Judy Zess said that she had
overheard Laurie say, "Christine should be blown away."
- BILL: Bembenek was disturbed that a certain amount
of her husband's money was going to her for the support
of the children, and that irritated her to no end.
- NARRATOR: While money appears to be
a strong motive for the murder,
detectives are still lacking hard evidence to prove it.
- KATHERINE: On June 18, Fred Schultz brought
his off-duty weapon to be tested at the crime lab.
It was in his possession, I believe, for three weeks
before he actually turned it in.
- SHANNON: This was actually the second time
someone was supposed to have examined the weapon.
Hours after Christine's death, Fred Schultz's supervisor
asks his partner, Michael Durfee,
to examine his off-duty revolver.
- BILL: He made an assumption that the gun hadn't been fired,
because of dust around the barrel.
It should've been confiscated right then and there.
There's nothing else to eliminate it.
But for some reason, that wasn't done.
- Ballistics find that that bullet in Christine Schultz
matched Elfred Schultz's off-duty revolver.
- ♪
- Laurie Bembenek was arrested at her job
as security at Marquette University.
Her locker was searched.
- BILL: Detectives spotted the hairbrush and snatched it,
and said, "You mind if we check this out?"
And she said, "No, go ahead."
- KATHERINE: The hair analyst made what we call
a gross comparison, looking simply at the appearance,
said that the appearance of the strands of the hair
from that hairbrush matched with hair that had been found
in the blue bandana that had been used
on the night Christine was murdered.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
A shocking turn of events leads to the trial of the century.
- The TV stations sensationalized
the whole thing.
- The media blew it way out of proportion,
and that's where the Playboy Bunny Killer
headlines came in.
- It just made no sense. It was horrific.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On June 24, 1981,
28 days since the murder of Christine Schultz,
authorities have just arrested Detective Fred Schultz's
young wife, Laurie Bembenek, for the crime.
- People speculated that Fred Schultz was somehow
involved with the crime, but he was never charged.
- NARRATOR: Details of 22-year-old Laurie Bembenek's
arrest quickly make front page news.
- The TV stations sensationalized
the whole thing.
- The media blew it way out of proportion,
and that's where the Playboy Bunny Killer
headlines came in.
- ERIK: The press portrayed Laurie Bembenek as this
beautiful, perhaps conniving femme fatale,
who had it out for Fred's ex-wife.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Laurie's official trial begins in March of 1982.
- KATHERINE: The prosecutor thought Laurie wanted
Christine out of the picture in part because
that way, her husband wouldn't have to pay all the support.
- The state contended that Laurie got the spare key
to Christine's house, put on the jogging suit and wig,
jogged to the house, committed the crime.
- [gunshot blasts]
- ♪
- MARTIN: And jogged back home without anyone seeing her.
- ♪
- Prosecutors say she went back home, changed clothes,
put the gun where she found it, and was home when Fred
called to tell her about the murder.
- BILL: Things start falling together.
She was the one that had access to the murder weapon.
The wig, strands of it, matched strands on the victim's body.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: It would seem prosecutors have
a mountain of evidence, but Laurie's defense team
reminds jurors it's just circumstantial.
- KEVIN: Detective Michael Durfee initially said
that Elfred Schultz's off-duty revolver was cold
and dusty, giving the insinuation
that it probably wasn't fired.
- NARRATOR: Laurie's defense also reminds jurors
that Michael initially lied about Fred's alibi.
- The defense used this information
to plant the seed of doubt in the minds of the jurors.
- NARRATOR: The next line of defense is the testimony of
Christine Schultz's 11-year-old son, Sean.
- He was rather, uh, vivid, you might say, in his description
that he thought it was a man.
- He said the man was wearing a green jacket
and had shoes similar to that of a police officer.
He never changed his story, not even at trial.
- NARRATOR: The defense team also calls into question
the wig found in Laurie's old apartment.
- ERIK: This is 1981.
There is no DNA testing in criminal procedure at that time.
Laurie's attorney tried to hammer home the fact that
there wasn't that kind of exact science,
and someone else might have put that wig down the toilet.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On March 5, 1982, the one person that could
sway the outcome of this trial takes the stand--
23-year-old Laurie Bembenek.
- MARTIN: When she got up and did her testimony,
she denied everything.
- NARRATOR: For those present,
Laurie's testimony leaves some expecting more.
- News accounts of her on the stand portrayed her as
"cold and aloof" and that clearly hurt her case.
- Laurie was only 23.
She was terrified.
Many people may have misinterpreted her demeanor.
- NARRATOR: At the conclusion of the two-week trial,
a jury retires to deliberate Laurie Bembenek's fate.
- The jury deliberated for four days and they did
return a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder,
and Laurie was given a life sentence.
- KEVIN: She sat without movement, without emotion.
I didn't see any tears.
I saw nothing.
She was pretty stoic.
- She tried her very best to tell the truth.
She thought she didn't have anything to lose
if she told the truth, and it all flipped on her.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: Coming up:
just as the case seems shut, Laurie has other ideas.
- They hatched a plan for her escape.
A quote/unquote, "window of opportunity."
- This slogan rose up: "Run, Bambi, run."
- JOANNE: It was just unbelievable!
I kept thinking, "This isn't real, this can't be real."
- [siren wails]
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On March 9, 1982, 23-year-old Laurie Bembenek
was sentenced to life in prison for the murder
of her husband's ex-wife, Christine Schultz.
- ERIK: After Laurie was convicted,
Fred Schultz divorced her, moved to Florida, and he would
later tell people that he was convinced she was guilty.
- Christine's boys were raised by family.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: For the next eight years, the former police officer
is housed at the Taycheedah Correctional Facility
in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.
- Laurie filed several appeals, all of them were turned down.
- Laurie Bembenek always maintained her innocence
and has asserted that she was set up, that she was framed,
because she was no friend of
the authorities at the Milwaukee Police Department.
- Laurie had lost all three of her appeals
and was getting very frustrated.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: On July 15, 1990, after 8 years behind bars,
a new development occurs in Laurie's case.
- MALE REPORTER: Bembenek spent eight years in prison
and then escaped!
- It was on the news, and it was just unbelievable!
I just kept thinking, "This isn't real, this can't be real."
- NARRATOR: Police have reason to believe Laurie isn't alone.
- KATHERINE: This is another very odd thing when,
somebody's convicted of murder, and they're kind of infamous,
and with someone like Laurie Bembenek, who was beautiful,
she had plenty of admirers, but she saw the brother
of one of the women who was also serving in the same place,
and she thought he was cute, his name was Dominic Guglietti.
She flirted with him, he flirted back
when he came to see his sister.
They spent time together and got engaged.
- NARRATOR: Unable to find Dominic, authorities piece
together how they believe he helped her escape.
- KATHERINE: In the laundry room, she saw a window that
she thought she could get through.
So, she formed a plan with Dominic to help her escape,
and he had prepared the getaway car and supplies.
- A quote/unquote "window of opportunity."
She slipped through the window, crawled over the fence.
She had a little jacket or something with her,
threw it over the barbed wire.
- JOANNE: She did cut her leg on the razor wire,
but she was able to get through and ran to a waiting car.
And he was there, and they--
they were out of town in a matter of minutes.
- ♪
- JACKIE: She tried an appeal.
She tried to do it the right way,
and it was sort of discarded.
It was like, "I have to save my life.
Nothing's working that's supposed to work."
- KATHERINE: When Laurie escaped,
the residents of Wisconsin said if they saw her,
they would not turn her in, because they agreed, you know,
she did not get a fair trial,
and they were rooting for her.
- SHANNON: One reason public sentiment shifted
in Laurie's favor is because her friend, Judy Zess,
recanted her statements.
Judy's testimony was important, because she testified that
she had seen the same bandana and jogging suit
that Christine Schultz's killer used in Laurie's home
prior to the murder.
- NARRATOR: For the next three months,
the former Milwaukee police officer
and her lover remain on the lam.
- "America's Most Wanted" was a TV show
that would talk about cases of fugitives.
- MARTIN: She was working in Thunder Bay, Ontario,
and someone from America was there who had seen the show
and recognized her.
- [siren wails]
- NARRATOR: Following her arrest,
Laurie Bembenek applies for political asylum in Canada.
- She claimed there was no chance
she was ever going to get a fair trial.
- NARRATOR: On April 22, 1991, Laurie is extradited
back to the US under the condition that
the Milwaukee courts reexamine her case.
- JOANNE: When they did get her back,
she was in solitary for a year, but then through that year,
these attorneys worked on her case.
- NARRATOR: Laurie's team exposes seven irregularities
in the original investigation.
- The ruling judge found no evidence
of a conspiracy by prosecutors, but he had significant problems
with the handling of the off-duty gun
and the bullets,
so prosecutors decided to cut a deal.
- KATHERINE: Laurie was offered a deal that if she
pleaded no contest to second-degree murder,
they would give her credit for time already served,
and then she would be on supervised parole
where she can go free.
- ♪
- JACKIE: In '97, Laurie had been released.
And I think to have a more peaceful life,
moved to Vancouver.
It was a new start for her.
- In about 2004, I finally got the courage to ask her
to marry me after everything she'd been through,
and we got married in 2005.
We were only married for two years
and had an amicable divorce.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: As time passes, Laurie's team, headed up by
defense attorney Mary Woehrer and P.I. Ira Robbins,
uncover new evidence that casts further doubt
over Laurie's earlier conviction.
- KEVIN: Mary Woehrer calls for a complete thorough
investigation of the evidence from the case.
And now DNA gets involved, so the thought is, "Hmm,
"we're gonna reexamine all of this.
"It was circumstantial to begin with.
"Maybe, maybe this will change the whole atmosphere
surrounding this murder conviction."
- ♪
- MARTIN: DNA evidence, presence of male semen,
that her defense team knew nothing about.
Didn't come out until now, clearly the fix was in.
They--they wanted Laurie convicted,
and that's what they got.
- ERIK: The DNA evidence uncovered the fact
that Christine Schultz had had sex with someone
before her death,
and Laurie's legal team found previously unrevealed evidence
that showed the state crime lab had initially investigated it
as a sexual assault case.
- SHANNON: They found blood underneath Christine's
fingernails, which would suggest that there was some type of
physical struggle with the attacker.
- KATHERINE: We didn't have DNA back then,
but they did have blood analysis,
and pretty sophisticated blood analysis.
But they did not do that.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: The purported murder weapon--
Fred Schultz's off-duty .38 revolver--
is also put through a battery of forensic and ballistic tests.
- [gunshot]
- MARTIN: Laurie's team had forensic experts
test the gun and the bullet,
and they found that there was no match from the off-duty gun
to the bullet removed from Christine's Schultz's body.
- We end up with this chain of inconsistencies
that calls into question the most damning evidence.
- NARRATOR: While Laurie and her supporters are hopeful
the new findings might clear her name,
the emotional damage of the last 21 years
takes its toll on Laurie.
- KATHERINE: She wanted the Supreme Court to look
at the new evidence so that she could withdraw
the no contest plea to be entirely exonerated,
but they declined to look at it.
- ♪
- NARRATOR: In 2010, Laurie Bembenek dies from
kidney and liver failure, still fighting to clear her name.
- Mary Woehrer, from what I know,
is still working on things.
I believe she has evidence now again that can clear her.
- Hopefully someday, justice will be done,
and her name will be cleared, but the clock is ticking.
Everybody's getting older.
- NARRATOR: After 39 years, Laurie Bembenek's arrest
and conviction are still highly controversial.
- We came up with enough physical evidence
that we could arrest her.
Everything eventually caught up with her.
- JOANNE: Am absolutely certain,
deep down in my heart, my soul,
and every bone in my body, that she is innocent.
- ♪