Scott was the center of Ryan and Cheri's world.
[Scott laughs]
Scott had the world at his fingertips at this point.
He was a really good dad.
His personality changed on such a drastic level.
I would have never in a million years thought
that he would have ever done anything like this.
[911 dispatcher speaking]
[man speaking]
Something evil happened in that home.
I just didn't know what it was.
[man speaking]
[theme music playing]
[rhythmic drum beat playing]
NARRATOR: 39-year-old Cheri Hartman is filming her 19-year-old son
Scott's Army graduation.
I just can't imagine the pride that must be leaping out of
Cheri right now being there and --
and videotaping that.
Cheri would dote and tell anyone and everyone
that her son Scott was in the Army.
[shouting indistinctly]
NARRATOR: Cheri is recording the ceremony for Scott's dad,
39-year-old Brian Hartman,
who hasn't made the 600-mile trip from their home in
rural Indiana.
Brian didn't go to the graduation because
Brian never
really left his house unless it was for work.
Brian was a homebody.
It was no disrespect on Scott's part or Cheri's part.
That was just Brian.
[laughs]
NARRATOR: After the event, Scott relaxes with
a friend who has joined Cheri on the trip.
They haven't gotten back home yet,
and, uh, just making a video for Brian.
He sounds so much like his dad.
COUGILL: Scott is beaming with pride, with a smile
on his face of what he's just accomplished.
NARRATOR: Scott grabs the camera and turns it on his mom.
BAUMGARTNER: That is definitely Cheri not liking
to be in front of the camera.
Scott got her good.
[laughs]
That is a genuine smile from Cheri,
but I think underneath of that smile, there was concern,
you know, that Scott is going to be leaving again soon.
NARRATOR: Back home in Indiana,
Scott finally has the chance to mark the occasion
with his dad, seen here in his signature yellow cap.
This must have been a celebration for Brian to bring
out the fireworks, and he was glad Scott was home.
Scott looks healthy.
Yeah, he had the world at his fingertips at this point.
NARRATOR: Scott's military career will take him away
from the only home he's ever known.
But his parents, Brian and Cheri,
have always preferred a simpler life.
Cheri and Brian got married in 1975.
It was pretty quick out of high school.
Money was tight at that time,
and so she recycled her prom dress into her wedding dress.
NARRATOR: A year later, in October 1976,
Cheri gives birth to a son.
Cheri and Brian named their son Brian Scott
after his father.
Then they went on, they called him Scott.
Um, they had a new baby. They were so excited.
COUGILL: Scott was the center of Brian and Cheri's world.
He couldn't do no wrong.
Cheri and Scott's relationship was very tight.
Brian was a disciplinarian.
He set boundaries, and Cheri was more the loving
mother who didn't want to see Scott get in trouble.
NARRATOR: Brian owns his own construction business,
remodeling and building homes.
BAUMGARTNER: Brian taught
Scott about carpentry work.
Brian would take him on all of the job sites.
He was hoping one day, Scott would take over the business.
WOOLUM: Brian and Scott did not always see
eye to eye on everything,
especially when Scott got older.
So I think for Scott, joining the Army was a way for him
to kind of get out from under Brian's control
for a little while.
NARRATOR: Scott is weeks away from his first Army posting
when someone special walks into his life.
ANGEL: I met Scott in the summer of '96,
I was just so impressed right away.
I had always admired people who served our country
in the military, and he was very charismatic.
And from there, we were a couple.
Within two weeks, he was going to be in Fort Lewis,
Washington State.
So we talked a couple of times on the phone, and I would
write him five- and six-page letters,
and he would write them back.
NARRATOR: Six months later, Angel visits Scott
on the base for the first time.
When I got there, and, uh, we got back to the apartment,
Scott brought out the ring
and asked me to marry him,
and I said yes.
NARRATOR: In August 1997,
Scott and Angel marry in rural Indiana.
ANGEL: Scott was wearing his dress uniform for
the military at the wedding, and he looked very handsome.
COUGILL: My brother, Brian, as always,
had on blue jeans, T-shirt, and a yellow hat,
which was his common everyday style.
Attending his son's wedding made him pretty proud.
ANGEL: At the wedding,
I was in the very early days, just about five days
over a month pregnant with my first child.
[woman speaking]
WOOLUM: When Cheri found out she was gonna become a grandma,
I remember getting a call from her,
and she was extremely excited.
While I was pregnant, the nausea
was overwhelming.
I was agoraphobic.
I got worse and worse, being able
to leave the house, especially being sick.
I had avoidant personality disorder, and they
could not try medications because of my pregnancy.
NARRATOR: Her condition becomes so serious
that Scott has to choose between staying in the Army
and being there for his wife.
COUGILL: Scott left the Army
to come home and support Angel
during her pregnancy.
It was difficult for Scott to walk away from the military.
But I also know that he wanted
to be home to support his family.
-[baby crying] -[Angel speaking]
[chuckling]
-[Angel speaking] -[Scott speaking]
[Angel laughing]
NARRATOR: On March 26th, 1998,
Angel gives birth to baby Carolyn.
ANGEL: Scott cut the cord.
[man speaking]
And I remember when they first laid her on my stomach,
I looked into her eyes, Carolyn's eyes, and...
I fell in love.
NARRATOR: But Angel and Scott struggle as new parents.
We were having difficulties,
and I was admitted
to the mental ward.
They called it postpartum depression,
but I was so happy about
my daughter, but I...
I couldn't speak out yet against Scott.
It was the little things he did,
even before she could talk or anything
at a couple months of age.
He believed in smacking her hand hard if --
if she was to reach for something.
And when I wanted to go and do things,
he would not let me.
NARRATOR: Eventually, Scott turns to drugs.
it might have been marijuana.
It's hard to say.
I just get the sense that it was more than just marijuana.
His personality changed on such a drastic level.
NARRATOR: By June 1999,
Angel's mental health has improved.
She and Scott welcome another member to the Hartman clan,
a sibling for their daughter, Carolyn.
-Aw. -What do you think?
Brian Kenneth Hartman was born June 9th, 1999.
COUGILL: So we now have a Brian, a Scott, and a little Brian.
That's how we decipher the three.
[woman speaking]
BAUMGARTNER: He's a proud papa, but at the same time,
I'm sure he was overwhelmed.
NARRATOR: For Scott's parents, Cheri and Brian,
their grandson's arrival is overshadowed
by growing worry about Scott's behavior.
I do know there were some drugs involved, and it caused
some tension at home with his mother and father.
There was concern as far as how the kids,
Carolyn and little Brian, were being raised.
When Brian was born,
you know, we tried to stay together and work things out,
but he started getting more controlling.
"You can't leave the house unless I say so,"
and, "You need to start work now,"
and then he wouldn't want me to be at work away from him.
So I started having a fear of him then.
So I wanted a divorce.
BAUMGARTNER: After Scott and Angel separated,
Scott needed a place to live, and the perfect plan for --
for them is to move in with the parents,
Brian and Cheri.
[Cheri speaking]
ANGEL: I wanted to get away from Scott,
but I offered Scott that
sharing of custody, because I did not want to
take them away from their father's side of the family.
-[Cheri speaking] -[baby laughing]
I know Brian and Cheri both looked forward
to having both the grandkids under the roof.
[Cheri speaking]
NARRATOR: Brian wants to support his son, so he hires him
to work at his construction company.
[Cheri speaking]
[Brian speaking]
[Cheri chuckles]
[Cheri speaking]
I think Brian wanted Scott to follow in his footsteps.
That was his sidekick. That was his partner.
[man speaking indistinctly]
NARRATOR: For Scott, it's a chance at a fresh start.
Scott had cleaned up -- the drug use,
maybe not completely, but he had cleaned up.
CAROLYN: When Brian and I were super little,
grandma and grandpa and dad were very close.
It seemed like a very back and forth,
like, relationship of dad helped with the work
and grandma and grandpa helped with us.
[babbling indistinctly]
It's pretty apparent that that was my seat
of choice was just sitting with dad, and so...
I wish I remembered more of this stuff.
[babbling indistinctly]
When I was younger,
he was a really good dad.
He could be funny,
be quite strict.
[babbling indistinctly]
[Scott speaking]
But everybody else saw him as, you know,
a single dad who was doing his best.
NARRATOR: By January of 2000, with the support of his parents,
Scott focuses on winning full custody of the kids.
WOOLUM: There was a lot of, um, custody battle issues
with Angel wanting custody, Scott wanting custody.
[Cheri speaking]
BRIAN: When we lived in that house,
it was like having three parents in one house.
Our whole childhood was just me,
my sister, grandparents, and my dad.
NARRATOR: Cheri and Brian delight in
watching their grandchildren as they grow.
-[babbling indistinctly] -[Cheri speaking]
NARRATOR: But their home isn't equipped for two toddlers.
BAUMGARTNER: It was very tight at the beginning, and I think
the kids were sleeping in the living room on the couch,
but that wasn't good enough for Brian and Cheri.
They wanted to redo that back room for the kids,
and so that --
that is what they started to do.
[Cheri speaking]
She's managing -- managing the boys,
managing the guys here.
[Cheri laughing]
Cheri is showing
the production, or the lack of production,
in the back room.
And then you can see Brian take a tablet of paper,
and they're like, they're talking all of a sudden, and...
like, we gotta show we're doing something here, you know,
we're talking and we're -- but they're just really just
chilling out.
[Cheri speaking]
COUGILL: She's so excited to get that room done for them babies.
Almost like a -- a mother instead of a grandmother.
[all singing] Happy birthday to you.
This video is Carolyn's second birthday.
And see Cheri right beside her up there.
[singing continues]
-[Cheri speaking] -[Scott speaking]
WOOLUM: She's trying to blow out the candle.
So cute, her little expression on her face.
COUGILL: It's really difficult to
look at a video like this, where there is a happy family.
It's hard to believe that several years later,
there was evil in the house.
NARRATOR: It's Christmas morning 2003.
Cheri Hartman is up
early filming her excited grandchildren,
Carolyn and little Brian.
[Cheri speaking]
When I watch this video, I...
kind of get a little angry, because he doesn't get up.
[Cheri speaking]
I can hear some frustration in Cheri's voice.
[Cheri speaking]
-[Scott speaking] -[Cheri speaking]
She's frustrated, I think, he won't get up
for the kids to open up their gifts.
I can remember my dad being easily stressed, because,
I mean, he had a lot going on.
He was working so much and then having
to find time for me and my sister.
I feel like, during that time,
my dad didn't want to get up for stuff like that.
[Cheri speaking]
During that timeframe, Scott did let Cheri take over
a lot of the duties of -- of being mom.
She really needed Scott to step up and be their father,
the father that he should have been.
NARRATOR: By 2007, after a lengthy court battle,
Scott is awarded full custody of Carolyn and little Brian.
I was terrified,
because, um, he had the most precious things
in the world to me
in his grasp,
and he did use that
in so many ways
to keep me and the children apart.
NARRATOR: As the kids grow older, they begin
to notice some worrying behavior from their dad.
BRIAN: I seen him, uh, a couple times taking drugs.
His whole attitude changed after he would go,
and he'd snort a pill or take one.
He'd seem... like, more relaxed,
but really easily irritated at the same time.
CAROLYN: I'm pretty sure it was pain medicine, like pain pills.
My dad would often tell me that he was in pain --
in his back, his legs, and he did work a pretty intense job.
I think that dad started using pain medicine because he didn't
really have a way to deal with the pain.
He didn't really have health insurance that he used anyways.
NARRATOR: In January 2008,
as Scott's addiction starts to take hold,
the Hartmans receive some frightening news.
WOOLUM: When we found out that Cheri
was diagnosed with her brain cancer,
we were completely shocked.
Scott really seemed to step up.
Um, you know, I think things got better for a little bit.
My dad was the main one taking my grandma to appointments,
especially when my grandpa had to go
do his construction stuff.
COUGILL: We were very proud of Scott
for stepping up and helping his mom.
His mom had done so much for him with
the kids, and we thought basically it was about time,
Cheri got...
some love in return.
WOOLUM: The cancer treatment really affected Cheri.
She was very weak,
and she lost her hair, and she had had brain surgery.
She had a lot of pain.
So she was prescribed several different pain medications.
I know one of those being morphine
and another being, um, Oxycodone.
COUGILL: But she wanted to fight, and she was fighting.
She had two grand babies that were depending on her
and relying on her to get better.
WOOLUM: She would go in several times a week for her radiation.
But that was scary. We were concerned.
And then Scott had taken Cheri
to a doctor's appointment
and had taken a prescription pad and had written
a prescription and was caught doing that.
He was arrested for forging a prescription.
Cheri was extremely concerned about
the path that Scott was on at this point.
NARRATOR: Scott is charged with attempting to
obtain a controlled substance by fraud.
He receives a suspended sentence
and is placed on probation.
WOOLUM: And then, in the summer of 2009,
Cheri had called me, and she was extremely upset.
She was having some issues running out of
her pain medications.
She told me that Scott was saying
that she didn't remember
what she was taking, and that's why she was running out,
which wasn't the case.
Cheri knew what she was taking.
And Brian, finally -- they knew
that Scott was taking the medications.
BAUMGARTNER: It's like Scott had his own
dealer right there in the home.
Dad would switch out
the prescriptions for vitamins that looked similar.
He would have me do the counting,
which I -- at the time, I knew was wrong,
but he was my dad.
So why was I gonna question that?
When he got access to more drugs, he started becoming,
um, a little more aggressive.
He was not the same person at that point.
To see your mother that sick,
and then to be able to just take her
pain medication and watch her suffer and be in pain...
it's shocking.
It came down to Brian having to just physically
lock up the medication,
and when it was time, he would unlock it and give it to her.
Cheri had expressed to me how angry Scott was about that,
because he didn't want to ever admit that he was taking it,
and there was a lot of arguing when that happened.
NARRATOR: In February 2010,
after battling cancer for two years,
Cheri received some welcome news.
When Cheri called me and told me that she was in remission,
she sounded good.
She sounded happy, felt like
she was finally beating the cancer.
I was over the moon.
I thought maybe that would also help change dad,
because he wouldn't have as much access to,
you know, the bad stuff.
[operator speaking]
[Scott speaking]
DALY: On February 12th,
a few minutes after 11, Scott Hartman made a 911 call.
He told the operator that he had just
arrived home and that his mother was in distress.
[operator speaking]
[Scott speaking]
When the paramedics arrived, they took Cheri to the hospital.
They were still working on her, trying
to resuscitate her on the way there.
When they arrived, the emergency room physician
pronounced her deceased.
The coroner was of the opinion that her cause of death
was respiratory failure, and it was attributed
to her cancer condition.
CAROLYN: The morning after, I woke up, Brian was up
and crying, and dad tells me, "Hey,
your grandma is dead." And I just felt numb.
BAUMGARTNER: Scott was calling me, and when he told me...
[sniffles] Just a minute.
I...
I couldn't believe what he was telling me,
because I had just talked to her a week earlier.
I said, "How's your dad doing?"
He told me that his dad took off, and I don't...
I'm -- I'm -- I was so shocked at the moment,
and it's just like...
there were just things that were not -- wasn't adding up.
Scott said that Brian had left
and told Scott, "Here's my checkbook,
plan your mother's funeral," and he would be back.
We knew there -- there's no way.
No way. Brian was not going to leave
at the time his wife passed.
Scott had planned the funeral for Cheri -- at the time,
we found out Cheri was cremated, and we were shocked,
because our family just doesn't do any type of cremation.
Scott and the kids didn't show up to
the funeral, and Brian didn't show up to the funeral.
Everybody kind of wondered what was going on.
[operator speaking]
[girl speaking]
DALY: On February 20th, the day of Cheri's funeral,
at about 2:17 p.m., a neighbor
of Brian and Cheri Hartman
reported that Scott Hartman
was trying to break into their house.
[woman speaking]
[girl speaking]
They suspected he was there trying
to obtain some medicines from their father.
NARRATOR: Scott flees the scene in his vehicle,
but officers quickly track him down.
DALY: Scott was arrested on a road just beyond the house
and transported to
the Randolph County jail, where he was booked in
on a burglary charge.
[woman speaking]
[Scott speaking]
NARRATOR: News of Scott's arrest
reaches the family at Cheri's funeral.
Finding out that he's not there,
and he was so worried about drugs that that was more
important to him,
it -- shock.
It just -- shock. I don't have any other words.
[phone ringing]
BAUMGARTNER: Later that night,
I got a call from Scott from the jail,
and he didn't even ask about his kids or anything.
The first thing he told me or asked me, he says, "Barb,
"he says, I need you to go to the house,
and I need you to get dad's checkbook and bail me out."
I said, "I am not gonna come bail you out."
I said, "When your dad comes home," I said,
"Your dad can do that if he wants to do that."
And he was getting pretty agitated with me,
and he said, "Barb, you don't get it."
He said, "Dad's not coming home."
And all of a sudden, you know, I'm thinking something's wrong.
NARRATOR: As Barbara files a missing persons report
for her brother, Brian,
Randolph County Detective Doug Fritz questions
Scott about his dad's whereabouts.
PULLINS: Scott appeared to be under the influence,
which I believe when he was arrested,
he had admitted that he had taken a lot of pain pills.
[Fritz speaking]
[Scott speaking]
[Fritz speaking]
When Detective Fritz interviewed Scott,
he initially -- he was just trying
to find out if Scott knew the whereabouts
of his father
or the circumstances in which he had left his property.
NARRATOR: The detective also quizzes Scott about something
he told jail officers on the day of his arrest.
[Fritz speaking]
[Scott speaking]
[Fritz speaking]
DALY: When Detective Fritz confronted him with
that inconsistency,
Scott really didn't have a good explanation
for why he had said that.
NARRATOR: Police obtain a search warrant for the Hartman home.
PULLINS: We responded to the location,
and in the bedroom,
we were noticing a lot of blood spatter on the walls.
The mattress had a lot of blood in it.
There appeared to be bloodstains and what they call drag marks
in the hallway from the bedroom out into the garage.
PULLINS: We found that that trail of
blood somewhat stopped in the garage.
So we started focusing a search in the garage area
and came across a --
a black plastic -- like a tool box that would be
in the bed of a pickup truck.
When we opened the black tool box,
we originally saw some tarps that appeared to be wrapped up.
We began moving the tarps.
And...
you could see what appeared to be someone's head.
There was obvious damage to his head that we believed was
a gunshot wound,
but we felt that it was Brian that was in the box.
NARRATOR: Brian's family hear about the police
search and rush to the scene.
COUGILL: When we pulled up to Brian's house,
an officer said that they had found a body.
We knew they had found Brian.
And I remember looking at the house, and I just saw evil.
I knew something evil had happened in that home.
I just didn't know what it was.
NARRATOR: When Scott Hartman is told that
a search has been conducted at his family property,
he decides to come clean.
[Scott speaking]
Scott told us that his family
had formed somewhat of a suicide pact.
He also said that Brian had agreed with
the suicide pact, but Brian wanted to go before
Cheri, because
he would not be able to stand seeing Cheri deceased.
PULLINS: Scott told me that on the morning of
February 12th, he started to medicate his mother.
He was trying to convince the detectives that he was
a reluctant participant in their plan and that
he was almost doing his mom a favor, or it was at her
coercion that he killed his father.
[detective speaking]
-[Scott speaking] -[detective speaking]
[Scott speaking]
To shoot a parent and then have no feelings
whatsoever when you're talking about it in an interview,
the only thing I can say is
addiction has totally taken over his life.
-[detective speaking] -[Scott speaking]
DALY: It's like some sort of a mitigation,
like he's helping his dad out by cleaning things up
and getting rid of things,
and he's being a good son, doing what his dad wanted him to do.
Brian's autopsy showed
that he was shot in the back
of the head with a 12-gauge shotgun,
and that was the cause of death.
And in Scott's house, we located
the 12-gauge shotgun, and in a corner,
um, that had the spent casing still inside the shotgun.
Um, in regards to Cheri's death,
after the coroner had released Cheri's body back to Scott,
he had her cremated.
This prevented us from
doing any autopsy or anything that might
have revealed a different cause of death.
DALY: When I heard that initial story by Scott
that this was a plan that had been concocted,
I didn't believe it -- it did not make sense.
Cheri's physical condition was not nearly
as bad as what Scott had said it was.
In fact, the friends and family of Cheri had
described her as being in remission
and that she was generally a happy person,
not at all suicidal.
NARRATOR: Detectives dig deeper for a motive.
PULLINS: And we found that Scott had wrote himself
a check for the amount of $2,000 from his dad's account.
He still had his dad's wallet and debit card, and he was also
filling prescriptions of his mother's
after she had passed -- all of that in conjunction led
me to my eventual thoughts of
he was killing his parents to feed his addiction habit
in any way that he could.
DALY: Scott Hartman's double murder trial
began on October the 7th, 2013,
in Randolph County, Winchester, Indiana.
NARRATOR: Prosecutor Daly maps out what happened at
the Hartman home on February 12th, 2010.
DALY: What I presented to the jury is that
Scott walked in while his dad was asleep,
put the shotgun up to the back
of his head, and pulled the trigger.
[gunshot blasts]
Now, Scott may have already over medicated his mother,
and it's possible Brian didn't know that.
It's even possible he could have asphyxiated her.
[sirens wailing]
When the paramedics arrived to take Cheri to the hospital,
Brian was probably already dead in the back bedroom.
While Cheri was on her way to the hospital,
Scott was probably cleaning things up,
dragging his dad's body from the bed
out into the garage and up into that box.
We did talk about his drug addiction
as a possible reason for why he had
to kill his parents, because they were standing in the way
of him obtaining his drugs.
NARRATOR: Scott Hartman is found guilty of murdering both of
his parents.
The judge sentences him to a total of 120 years.
I remember the judge, when he sentenced Scott,
told him that he was nothing but a cold-blooded murderer.
Um...
and I believe that's what Scott -- Scott was.
He's a cold-blooded murder.
BAUMGARTNER: I would have never in a million years thought
that he would have ever done anything like this.
He's where he should be, because he's a danger to society.
BRIAN: He just messed up his mind on
the drugs, and it made him a monster.
CAROLYN: When everything happened, Brian and I lost
everything but each other.
We lost our house that we were growing up in.
I lost the mom in my life and grandpa in my life.
I talk about my grandparents a lot.
Uh, this is -- I take grandma with me, um,
wherever I think she would have liked to have gone.
This has some of her ashes in it from...
yeah, so, uh, I keep a part of her with me.
I would give anything to be able to see them again.