- I'm Craig Melvin, and this is
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
It was getting dark as
the hunter pulled the trigger.
The shape someone said
looked like a bear wasn't.
But was this an accident?
- There's absolutely
no allegation of evil intent.
- Or something else?
- He says, "I'm worth more
to her dead than I am alive."
**
- Hello, and welcome to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
Mark and Mary Beth Harshbarger
shared a passion for hunting
and both were
excellent marksmen.
So good, they rarely
missed a target.
Then, a shot rang out
that left Mark dead
and Mary Beth under fire.
An investigation revealed
ugly secrets in their marriage
but did they add up
to murder?
Here's Keith Morrison
with "As Darkness Fell."
- Twilight.
The day going fast now.
Night eating up
the rotted track.
The meadow.
The wild black wood.
When did she know?
Now, as she steadied herself
in the truck bed?
Was it hours ago
in September sunlight?
Did she know already,
back at the camp
in the morning?
Or was it later?
Much later, when they
showed her the evidence
and darkness
swallowed them all?
They call it the Rock.
This great gorgeous island
with its fishing fleets
and its coves and its mile
after mile of primeval woods.
A place to fall in love.
A place where love can sour.
And turn, perhaps,
to murder.
Except, surely not.
Not here in
Newfoundland, Canada.
With its small, sweet towns,
its hospitable people,
its vast
and ancient forests
teeming with bear
and moose and caribou.
Remote. Quiet.
Not quite crime-free,
but close.
And so, the question
that arose
that awful September night
was this.
Had crime, vicious crime,
been imported to Newfoundland,
or was it
no crime at all?
[rooster crowing]
You'll have to come here
if you hope to find the answer.
Another bucolic place
1,500 miles southwest
of Newfoundland
in rural Eastern Pennsylvania
where Mark Harshbarger met
the love of his life, Mary Beth.
- Mark said
when he saw her,
he said, "Oh,
I want to marry her."
And when she saw Mark,
she said,
"I'm going to marry
that man."
- Mary Beth
was floating on air.
Told her friend Madge
this was it.
He's the one.
- So, it was as if they were
meant for each other.
And they were
very much in love.
Very much in love.
- And when Mark talked
to his sister Sharon
about Mary Beth,
over the moon, he was.
- He started a conversation
with me a couple times
and he said, "Did you ever
just look at somebody
"and know that they were
the right person for you?
- They were so suited
to each other.
So suited.
- Mark was the apple
of his father's eye,
Lee Harshbarger,
who knew love when he saw it.
- He thought, uh,
that she was just-
just what he was lookin' for.
- Mark was an expert hunter.
Learned at his daddy's knee.
And what do you know,
so was Mary Beth.
Not many girls like her.
- She was very much
for the outdoors, too.
For hunting and fishing.
- He was crazy about her.
- She was very good
with a rifle.
She could shoot.
- So she could.
Here's how Mark and Mary Beth
celebrated their marriage.
And later, they both joined
what must surely be
one of the most
exclusive clubs anywhere.
- They shot competitively in
an exclusive 1,000-yard club
and it's very
difficult to shoot
at a target
1,000 yards away.
- No kidding.
Anyway, as love grew,
so did the young couple's
collection
of precision rifles.
You gotta have a
very special sort of gun
to do that, right?
- Yes, you have to
have good equipment
and you have to be good
with that equipment.
- Sure.
In addition to the skill,
what does the equipment provide
to help people see targets
that far away?
- Well, they had
very good scopes.
- Of course, shooting
was by no means all they did.
They had a couple of babies
to add to the daughter
Mary Beth brought
into the marriage.
And when Mark
first became a father?
- I remember
how happy he was.
It was a little girl.
And she was so thrilled
and he was too.
He would look at the baby
in the basinet
and he could sit there
for hours.
- Something else about Mark.
He was a good provider.
His contracting job
paid well enough
he was able to build
a big new home
for his growing family.
Which, by 2006,
included a baby boy.
He enjoyed
having family around, too.
Like older brother Barry
and his wife, Linda.
- For the first time
in his life,
he was really, uh,
happy with things.
- Of course,
nothing is perfect.
Mark's other
older brother Dean
had issues
with Mary Beth.
- So, she hated me.
- Might've been mutual.
Anyway, all things considered,
Mark was a happy man,
as he told his sister Susan.
- "If I die tomorrow,
I've lived a good life."
- And then,
in the summer of 2006,
Mark and Mary Beth
planned the ideal vacation.
Ideal for them, anyway.
A hunting trip
to one of their favorite
and frequent destinations--
Newfoundland.
- You know, the night before
they left for Newfoundland,
he told me--
uh, he said,
"You should see Mary Beth
shoot that rifle."
He said, "You know these
little plastic pill bottles?
"She can hit one of those
at 250 yards with the rifle."
And that is pretty
fine shooting.
- It was September 2006.
They packed up the truck
and camper,
took their baby boy and
4-year-old daughter with them,
and also Mark's brother,
Barry.
They drove up
to Nova Scotia.
Took the ferry 7 hours
across the ocean
to Newfoundland.
- Everything was as fine
as it could be.
- They hired a guide.
Shot a few caribou.
Mark bagged a black bear.
People at the hunting lodge
noted how affectionate
Mark and Mary Beth were,
calling out "I love you"
every time they separated,
even briefly.
- It's a beautiful country.
A beautiful trip.
Uh, he was more than happy
with life.
- Then, day six,
early evening.
They sat out
on one last hunt.
Mary Beth's turn,
perhaps, to bag a bear.
They dropped off Barry
to hunt by himself.
- It was a rainy, dreary,
foggy night.
The wind was blowin'.
It was an excellent time
for game to come out
and move and feed, you know,
with the early darkness.
- Mark and the guide parked
the truck in a clearing.
Got out and disappeared
into the woods.
Told Mary Beth they'd scare out
a bear if they saw one.
And she?
Packed the kids into the cab
and climbed into the bed
of the pickup.
Positioned herself.
[gun loading]
Peered through her powerful,
light-enhancing
rifle scope.
- You still could see objects.
You still could see,
to an extent.
- 15 minutes passed.
Almost dark now.
Mary Beth saw movement.
A bear?
She peered through
her gun scope.
Lined up the shot.
Squeezed the trigger.
But it wasn't a bear.
- Coming up.
What did Mary Beth shoot?
**
- Deep in a wild wood
in Newfoundland,
last light fading,
Mark Harshbarger
and a guide
headed back from their
final hunt of the day.
As they approached
the clearing
where Mark's wife Mary Beth
waited in the pickup truck
with the kids,
the guide stopped
to relieve himself.
Alone now, Mark Harshbarger
picked his way
through the rough
undergrowth.
Through ruts called
"skitters."
Sometimes 3 feet deep.
And over fallen logs.
And through grass,
which at the time
was 3 to 5 feet high
in front of him.
About 200 feet
in that direction,
his wife
Mary Beth Harshbarger
was standing in the back
of a pickup truck.
Could she see him
this far away?
That's when the guide
heard the shot.
Stepped out of the woods.
Saw the body.
Felt for a pulse.
Called out to Mary Beth.
That was no bear
she killed.
It was her husband.
It was pandemonium then.
Kids wailing.
Mary Beth sobbing,
trying to go to the body.
The guide held her back.
Put her in the truck.
Drove off to find
a working phone.
Picked up Barry
on the way.
- And they come screamin',
yellin'...
and Mary Beth was cryin'
and I didn't know
what had happened.
And she said,
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."
There had been an accident.
The guide said,
"We gotta go."
And he said, "Mark was
involved in an accident."
And I said,
"Well, how is he?"
And he said, "He's gone."
And I said,
"No, he can't be gone."
- But Mark was gone.
Left dead
back in the clearing.
Once at the lodge,
they called the police.
The Royal Canadian
Mounted Police. The RCMP.
- Of course,
they closed all the roads
and they came in
and did their investigating.
- Mary Beth was a mess.
Appeared to be in shock.
Just past 2 A.M.,
the Mounties recorded
her version of events.
Saw it first
with her naked eye, she said.
The bullet hit at mid-chest.
He was dead in an instant.
But couldn't you tell
in the twilight that it was him,
wondered the Mounties.
And then, she said, a little
late for this conclusion--
So, now the question veered
into territory
all too familiar
to cops everywhere.
Investigators left
Mary Beth to grieve.
And of course, to call the
family with the awful news.
Mary Beth's first call
was to her friend Madge.
- And she said,
"Oh, Mark is dead!
"He was shot."
And I-I asked,
"Who shot him?"
And she said, "I did."
And she was crying
so hard,
it was difficult to
make out what she was saying.
I said,
"Have you told anyone?"
"No, you're--
I'm calling you first."
- Barry got on the phone too.
Not to his father
or his brother or sisters.
He called his wife, Linda.
Asked her to deliver
the news.
- Linda called me
and said, "Mark is gone."
And I said, "What do you mean,
Mark's gone?"
And she said,
"Mary Beth shot him.
She thought he was a bear
and she shot him."
- And then, Sharon had to tell
their father, Lee.
- I'll never forget
the look on her face
when she came in
and right away it was,
"Mark. Mark's gone."
- Just like that.
- Yeah.
And that was
the most devastating thing
that ever happened to me
in my life.
- Mark was his baby.
His hunting buddy.
The son most like him.
Back in Newfoundland,
the Mounties asked Mary Beth
would she mind staying
another day or so
while they
sorted things out?
And of course, she said yes.
Though neither she nor Barry
slept at all that night.
- I cried all night
and threw up all night.
And--
It's a tragic experience
to ever have to go through.
- At first light,
the Mounties headed back
to the clearing
to collect Mark's body
and document
what they saw on video.
All very sad.
In Newfoundland,
as in many places,
hunting accidents are,
if not exactly common,
an unfortunate reality.
Chalk up another one.
Then, the cops got back
to headquarters
and all hell broke loose.
- Said they're gettin'
bombarded and so on
by the phone calls.
- That is,
calls from Mark's family.
Dean, mostly.
Demanding the police
do something.
So many calls, they asked
Barry to tell them to stop.
- They handed me
a satellite phone.
They said, "Our office can
hardly perform their duties."
- There was, of course,
a reason for all those calls.
And everybody would find out
about that soon enough.
- Coming up.
- The fact that it was only
60 meters in an open area,
immediately we had
that instinct
that this wasn't
an accident.
**
- On September 17, 2006,
less than 72 hours
after Mary Beth Harshbarger
said she mistook her husband
for a bear,
she left Newfoundland
for the long, sad drive
back to Pennsylvania.
Her children and
brother-in-law Barry with her.
And Mark?
His body was shipped back
in a casket.
- I don't know how to go
without him.
- And a few days after
that tear-stained statement
in the interview
with the Mounties,
she pulled up in Pennsylvania
with some trophies in the truck.
A few caribou carcasses
promptly carved up for steaks.
And that dead bear.
The one Mark shot
before she shot him.
The bear she had stuffed
and mounted.
A way to honor her husband,
she said.
His last kill and all.
But Mary Beth's in-laws
already demanding
the Mounties an investigation,
now added to their complaints
what they saw
as appalling bad taste
and an uncaring attitude.
Mark's sister Susan.
- If I would've killed someone,
I would've been--
You'd have had to put me
under sedation.
I mean, I-I cannot even imagine
taking a life like that
and being able to function.
- Was she calm? Was she--
- Very calm.
- Wasn't agitated
or over-the-top at all?
- Eerily calm.
I did not want to believe
that she did it on purpose.
I gave her every opportunity
to tell me that she was sorry.
And it never happened.
And there was no tears.
There was no...
no "I'm sorrys."
No "Oh, my God.
What have I done?" Nothing.
- Of course, methods of grief
are as varied and personal
as there are grievers.
Not really
the in-law's business
to judge Mary Beth's
method, perhaps.
But as you'll see,
they didn't seem to believe
Mary Beth was grieving.
And though they were all
shocked by Mark's killing,
they said, they weren't
really surprised.
- We all knew that something
like that could happen.
- Knew that this
could happen? How?
Well, for one thing,
the Harshbargers knew very well
that Mary Beth
was a crack shot.
That she was equipped
in Newfoundland
with a sophisticated
light-enhancing rifle scope.
So, really,
at about 200 feet,
how could she have mistaken
her own husband for a bear?
- The fact that it was only
60 meters in an open area.
I mean, right immediately
had that instinct
that this wasn't
an accident.
Just didn't make any sense.
- No, the Harshbargers
suspected
the worst sort
of foul play.
A calculated, deliberate
killing by a woman
they did not like or trust.
Not one bit.
Especially Dean.
His eyes were opened
a few years earlier, said Dean,
when he lived briefly
with Mark and Mary Beth.
Didn't end well.
- I fell in bad favor
with Mary Beth
because she couldn't
control me.
It got really intense.
Uh, she was so dominating
in her-her manners.
- Dean claimed he saw
disturbing things
during his short,
unhappy stay with the couple.
- Mary Beth
would fly off the handle.
I saw her slappin' Mark
and so on.
Just violently.
- Slappin' him?
- Slappin' him 'til his lips
were bleedin'.
And asked him
why he wasn't afraid
that she'd follow through,
uh, sometime and--
end up shootin' him
or killin' him.
- 'Cause she'd threaten him?
- Yeah. And, uh, he said,
uh, "Our love for each other
is so strong
"that she'd never do it."
And he said, "If she did,
she'd be losin'
"the best thing
ever happened to her."
- Dean said he thought his
little brother was crazy
to stay with Mary Beth.
But Mark loved her
and defended her even when,
according to the family,
she acted up or got riled up.
- They would take her
for a ride in the Jeep
and come back
and everything would be fine.
- Well, he seemed
to be able to control her.
- Of course,
Dean wasn't alone.
Not for long.
Early on,
the rest of the family
saw the very same signs
of trouble.
- She never allowed him, really,
to be with any of us alone.
- She was always there?
- Yes.
- She was very controlling.
- It was like
he was brainwashed.
- As the news of Mark's death
came crashing in on them,
so did a 7-years-long
backlog of grievances
against Mary Beth.
As they saw it,
there'd been temper tantrums
and wild spending sprees.
Disappearing acts.
They said they put up with it
because they loved Mark
and they wanted to keep
the family together.
They knew something
else, too.
They knew Mary Beth had been
diagnosed as being bipolar.
And when she didn't
take her medication,
like when she was pregnant--
- Everyone was really afraid
and uncomfortable
to be around her.
- I told him he needed
to think of the safety
of himself
and those children.
That he-- she needed to get
the proper treatment
and, uh,
he was always concerned
about if she was
admitted somewhere
she wouldn't be
allowed to hunt
and that's what they
live for.
And he didn't want her
to lose her gun privileges.
- But eventually,
Mary Beth's mood
became so severe,
said the family,
she agreed to let Mark take her
to a psychiatric hospital
just over a year
before the hunting trip.
The family says she signed
the papers herself.
A way to keep her
hunting privileges.
But she certainly did not
like the place.
- Oh, no.
She said, "Nobody will ever
put me in this place again,"
when she got out of that.
- And, claimed
the Harshbargers,
she blamed Mark
for putting her there.
But she did ever forgive him
for putting her into
a psychiatric facility?
- I think that's what
brought this about, personally.
Uh--
- We've all thought that.
- And so, when they heard
about the "accident,"
their minds went to that.
And also,
some practical things.
Mark had always been
a good provider.
He'd worked hard to pay
for the big new house
as it was being built.
And just 5 months earlier,
he and Mary Beth
increased his life insurance
by half a million.
- He says, "I'm worth more
to her dead than I am alive."
- It was a joke at
the time, said Susan,
but it was certainly
in their minds
when Dean and his family
made all those phone calls
to the RCMP right
after the shooting.
- I wanted to talk to the
Commander of the Mounted Police,
and-and I did.
- But the Mounties,
said the Harshbargers,
didn't seem to share
their suspicions.
- They had made
the comments--
how could we be
questioning this?
- And I stressed it
to the point,
and I had, uh, one of
the, uh, sergeants
in the RCMP
actually says,
"Nobody tells me how
to run our investigations."
- So it was upsetting,
said the Harshbargers,
but what could they do?
The Mounties apparently
ruled out murder or any crime
when they sent Mary Beth home
with the bear
and the caribou
and the kids and Barry.
The funeral was,
to say the least, awkward.
Tense.
- It was almost as if
you drew a line
down through the middle
of the building.
Uh, some stayed over here.
Some stayed on that side.
- I don't even know where
his ashes were scattered.
I don't know that.
- Well, they may not have been
scattered at all, actually.
Here's the urn
on the shelf
in the house Mark built
for Mary Beth.
And that might've been
the end of it, really.
Except, of course,
for the deep freeze
that now split
the family.
But it wasn't
the end of it,
because not long after,
said Dean,
a strange thing happened.
Two of Mark's friends
came forward,
claimed Mark once made
an unsettling prediction.
- "I think she's
gonna shoot me."
He said Mark hesitated
and then added,
"And she won't miss."
- And yet another
funny thing.
They were stacking up now.
Oh boy, were they ever.
This time,
it was Barry.
Suddenly, Barry's
20-year-marriage ended.
And as for what
he did next?
Well, what in the world
was happening?
- Perhaps Mary Beth wasn't
fighting with everyone
in her husband's family.
- Did you ever have a
moment when you thought,
I'm trespassing
on my brother's life?
- When "Dateline: Secrets
Uncovered" continues.
**
Welcome back to "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Craig Melvin.
A family hunting trip
turned deadly
when Mary Beth Harshbarger
shot her husband Mark
in the chest.
Authorities ruled
the shooting an accident,
but the tragedy divided
Mark's family.
Now that rift was
about to deepen
as a secret
romance bloomed.
Here's Keith Morrison
with "As Darkness Fell."
- In those sad, dark days
after Mark Harshbarger's death,
his family's suspicions
solidified
into a determined
accusation.
His wife Mary Beth,
they were convinced,
had murdered Mark,
their son and brother,
and they told whoever
would listen
she knew she wasn't
shooting any bear
up in the Newfoundland woods.
- His family was terribly
upset, of course.
Then they started
blaming her.
They wanted a reason.
They wanted a-a person
who would be responsible.
Well, she was responsible,
and she said she was,
and she felt horrible,
but they wanted more,
I guess.
I-- You know, more than just
saying "Yes, I did it,
"and I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry."
- Of all the Harshbargers,
only Barry stood
by Mary Beth.
Barry, who expressed disgust
at brother Dean's accusation
that she killed Mark
out of revenge
or maybe to collect
insurance money.
Dean just hated her,
that's all, said Barry.
- I feel it was a game.
He was playin' a game,
and persuaded everybody else
to feel the same
that he could, you know?
- Meanwhile, Barry did his best
to comfort Mary Beth.
- Cryin' and, uh, cryin'.
And-and days at a time.
I mean, nights
without sleep.
Who did she have?
I mean, nobody
really helped out.
Uh, they say they
offered to and so on,
but nobody was here.
- Yeah, but you were here.
- As much as possible.
- So much so that Barry's wife
of 20 years walked out.
And then, in what seemed
to the rest of the family
indecent haste,
Barry moved in
with Mary Beth.
- He swore to me
and broke down crying
and put on such
a good front.
And he said
the only reason he's there
is because of
those kids,
and he swore to me that
that was the only thing
that was goin' on.
- Everybody in town
knew they were a couple.
- I still don't wanna
believe that.
I've lost two brothers.
I have lost two brothers,
not one.
- Instantly.
- I-I just can't believe
that these people think
that they have a right
to judge me.
Do I judge them?
Um, who they live with
or who they sleep with?
- Did you ever have a moment
when you thought,
I-I'm trespassing on my
brother's life?
- My brother's gone.
It's no longer his life.
I-I don't feel that way.
Uh, trespassing?
No, I never looked at it
that way. No.
- By this time,
family relationships
were very sour.
- Yes, they were.
- Because what?
They knew you
suspected her.
- Well, they knew that--
that I couldn't accept
the fact that...
- Yeah.
- ...things happened
the way they did,
that it was just
an accident.
I couldn't accept that.
- Which is why,
since the Mounties didn't
seem too interested,
the Harshbargers
took their suspicions
to a police force
closer to home.
- I called the Pennsylvania
State Police,
and they, in turn,
took it to the Wyoming County
District Attorney's Office
and the detective there.
He relayed it to
the Mounties in Canada.
- It was Dean who called
the cops in Pennsylvania,
Dean who pestered the Mounties
right after the shooting,
and Dean who learned
that, up in Newfoundland,
investigators went out to
the very spot in the brush
where Mary Beth shot Mark
and conducted a reenactment.
The results?
Inconclusive.
It was possible, at least, that
in high grass and low light
Mary Beth could've
mistaken Mark for a bear,
though, of course, another
conclusion was also possible.
By this time, with some
help from the Harshbargers,
Pennsylvania media had
gotten wind of Mark's death
and local gossip feasted
on what was a juicy story.
Accident or not?
- It would be pretty hard to
mistake a human for a bear.
- And Mary Beth?
She kept her mouth shut,
at least in public.
Though she did fight hard,
eventually successfully,
to pry the very substantial
insurance money
from firms which first
refused to pay.
She started competing again
in local shooting contests.
And when it came to the kids,
Mary Beth claimed
the Harshbargers never
asked to see them.
But Lee Harshbarger told us
she prevented any contact
with those
grandchildren of his.
And you lost
two grandchildren.
- Yes. It's sad.
It's a sad situation.
- Then, finally,
on the one-year anniversary
of Mark's death,
Mary Beth called
the local
NBC station, WBRE,
to talk about a bench
she put on her property.
- What was the purpose
for getting this bench here,
Mary Beth?
And I see candles here also.
- Yeah.
- What-What is this for?
- It's um-- It's a memorial
to Mark, um, my husband, uh,
for the children,
because Mark was cremated.
- What do you want them
to know about you and Mark?
- That I loved my husband
very, very, very much,
and he loved me.
- What do you think he would
say about all--
some of this-this
information that's going--
and rumors are flying around
out there.
What do you think
he would say?
- He wouldn't be
really happy. At all.
- What do you see
in your future?
- Uh, it's unclear
at this time.
I live day to day.
- As unclear
as the results
of the Mountie's second
shooting recreation was.
Still, local cops,
at the request of the Mounties,
were trying to put
a case together.
And by September 2007,
the Pennsylvania cops
had dug up enough--
mostly material
from Mary Beth's past--
to lure two Mounties
down to the U.S.
- They were surprised that
she did have a troubled past
and a lot of things that
I didn't know about.
- There was, for example,
an incident back in 1992.
Mary Beth was
convicted of assault--
Did a day in jail,
a stretch of probation.
The Mounties accepted a stack
of investigative material
from the Pennsylvania
investigators.
- They would take that back
and they determined
what would be the proper charge
to charge her with.
- Still, months went by as
Mary Beth awaited her fate.
- It has taken quite
a toll on her
to know that his family is--
feels she is
totally and completely
responsible for Mark's death.
- And then,
in 2008, the news.
The Mounties were
filing charges.
She fought the extradition
for two long years.
But May 2010,
almost four years after
she shot what wasn't a bear,
it was decided.
Mary Beth Harshbarger
would go on trial
in Newfoundland,
where a very curious thing
would happen
on the way to justice.
- Mary Beth's
remarkable memory.
- She knew the numbers
off the top of her head.
- That seems a little weird,
doesn't it?
- It did raise eyebrows.
- When "Dateline: Secrets
Uncovered" continues.
**
- The summer of 2010
cooled toward an early autumn
here in Grand Falls,
Newfoundland.
Mary Beth Harshbarger
was by now 45 years old.
She'd been in the local jail
awaiting trial
for almost five months
while her live-in boyfriend
and brother-in-law Barry,
the only Harshbarger
on her side,
supervised the babysitter
watching the kids
back in Pennsylvania.
- It's been almost
exactly four years
since Mary Beth Hashbarger
shot and killed
her husband, Mark.
- Mary Beth's story had,
by then,
ginned up quite a lot
of public opinion,
one way or the other.
The question that
drove the debate
seemed maddeningly
difficult to answer.
Was it a simple
hunting accident?
Or did Mary Beth,
a competition-level
sharp shooter,
put that hole in her husband's
chest on purpose?
- This was a case that raised
a lot of questions for people.
Um, they'd ask
themselves, "What if?"
- Sue Bailey covered the
story and the trial
for the Canadian Press.
- For people who believed
Mary Beth Harshbarger,
this was a horrible,
tragic accident,
and for people who
don't believe her, um,
they would say, well,
if this was deliberate,
how would you ever prove it?
- And that's just the thing.
For all the public chatter,
murder was never
on the table.
The Mounties did not
allege murder.
It was not the charge against
Mary Beth Harshbarger,
even though, as Mary Beth's
Canadian attorney Karl Inder
complained
about the media...
- They were reporting
on this
as if it were
a-a murder charge
or a manslaughter charge.
- When the actual charge
was criminal negligence
causing death.
Big difference.
Very big difference, and yet...
You know, it was like there was
a disconnect in some way
between the charge that was
being tried in the court
and the--
- And the reporting.
- Charge of public opinion.
- Read the criminal code.
There is absolutely no
allegation, uh,
of evil intent.
- Yes, really,
agreed Crown Attorney
Karen O'Rielly.
- And the criminal
negligence charge
meant it was
a non-intentional shooting.
- The charge,
in its simplest terms?
That Mary Beth was
criminally irresponsible
when she squeezed the trigger
in the gathering dark
that awful night,
a big deal nonetheless
in Canadian law.
There are severe penalties
for that sort of thing here.
A maximum life sentence,
in fact.
It was big news, too,
when Mary Beth's in-laws,
the Harshbargers made their
somber presence known
with a pilgrimage to
the lonely stand of brush
where Mary Beth's bullet
found her mark,
and when,
on September 13, 2010,
four years to the week
after the incident in the brush,
Mary Beth was led into
the courthouse for trial.
In fact, the public
fascination with the case
was sufficiently intense
that her attorney advised her
to elect to be tried
by a judge alone.
- Oh, it would've been foolish
to bring this to a jury.
- Why do you say that?
- I was just afraid that,
um, a jury might think,
well, okay, she's an American,
you know, usin' a gun.
Maybe she did
intend to kill.
- So, in front of a judge,
but no cameras, no jury.
The hunting guide recalled
the fateful moment.
The Mounties told about their
inconclusive recreations,
about the twilight,
the brush,
the tall grass in which
Mary Beth claims she saw a bear.
But the star witness
was Mary Beth herself.
The audiotape version--
That is, the recorded story
she told the Mounties
right after shooting
her husband.
And then, some evidence
that Mary Beth's in-laws
believed to be particularly
incriminating.
During her recorded chat
with the Mounties,
Mary Beth was asked
if there was life insurance.
A big, brand-new life
insurance policy on Mark.
And listen to what happens
when the policeman asks
this apparently horrified and
heartbroken woman for details.
- She knew the numbers
off the, you know,
top of her head.
- That seems a little weird,
doesn't it?
- I'd have to look up
the number, but--
- Yeah.
- It did raise eyebrows.
- But as for the
Harshbarger's allegations
that Mary Beth was
a dangerous, loose cannon,
that Mark may have feared
for his own safety,
those allegations did not
make it into the trial
because the Crown Attorney
didn't allege even for a minute
that Mary Beth intended
to kill her husband.
So for the prosecution,
the Harshbargers' accusations
were irrelevant
and the case was about
criminal carelessness only.
- When you look at
the evidence
that the prosecution
did introduce,
the points that,
uh, were stressed
were that Mary Beth Harshbarger
is an experienced hunter.
She herself describes
herself as a good shot.
And yet, that night,
she fired on a target
that she hadn't identified.
- And Mary Beth's defense?
For one thing, the owner
of the hunting lodge said,
maybe Mark did look
like a bear that night.
- He was walking in
a rolling motion downhill,
watching his step
in diminishing light.
He, unknowingly,
exhibited the characteristics
of a bear.
- For the Harshbarger family,
the trial was not easy.
- I wanted and waited
four years,
so it came with a lot of mixed
emotions in that courtroom.
- And then, the judge adjourned
the case for a week
to ruminate
about his verdict.
A criminal
negligence conviction
would send Mary Beth to prison
here in Canada for years,
possibly even for life.
So what would it be?
- The verdict.
- She was visibly shaking
waiting for the judge to--
- Trembling?
- Trembling.
She was just shaking.
- When "Dateline: Secrets
Uncovered" continues.
- It would not be
accurate to say
the Harshbarger family
was satisfied
with the Canadian case against
their in-law, Mary Beth.
They believe Mary Beth
committed murder
when she shot
Mark Harshbarger,
then claimed she thought
he was a bear.
Still, criminal negligence
causing death,
the actual charge
against Mary Beth,
could bring a long sentence,
even life in prison,
and on October 1, 2010,
four years after the shooting,
justice was about
to be served.
Again, a very nervous
Mary Beth was led
into the courtroom
in Grand Falls,
watched by Sue Bailey,
then with the Canandian Press
News Agency.
- She was visibly shaking,
waiting for the judge to--
- Trembling?
- Trembling.
She was just shaking.
- Karl Inder, Mary Beth's
attorney, had the jitters, too.
- I was nervous.
It was a cliffhanger.
He kept us all
in suspense for the--
uh, the bulk
of his decision.
- In suspense,
because the judge read
from a 35-page decision
he'd written.
It went on for
quite some time.
But then, finally...
- I think about halfway
through page 30
of the 35-page decision,
he showed his hand.
And that was that.
Not guilty of
any crime at all.
Mary Beth Harshbarger
was free to go.
- She burst into tears
and was led out,
and you could
hear her sobbing
as she was taken
into the back room.
- It was a great relief.
I was glad for my client.
It was a lot of work
and it turned out.
They don't always
turn out, Keith.
- Mary Beth left the courthouse
with her attorney
and departed for Pennsylvania
the very next day,
free to return
to the kids and Barry
and her lovely, big house
and her Porsche
and her Hummer
and what was left
of the $600,000-plus
insurance settlement,
and furious relatives.
- She knows what she did
and, in my opinion,
she killed Mark
intentionally.
She's getting
away with murder.
- It was unbelievable that
they would let her off
with no consequences, uh,
no penalty whatsoever.
- Are you happy now,
Mary Beth?
- And Mary Beth
might've expected
a sunny sort of reception
upon her return home
to her big farmhouse,
but there was a bit of a shakeup
back at the homestead.
Barry had run off
with the babysitter.
They'd moved out,
gotten married.
You might wonder what Mary Beth
thought about it all--
The shooting, the in-laws,
the accusations,
the trial, Barry.
Well, of course,
we did too.
We met with Mary Beth
as she went about rebuilding
life with the kids
after spending all those months
in jail awaiting trial.
She told us she avoids contact
with the Harshbargers now,
and for that matter,
just about everybody
in the little towns
around her
where the gossip
churns as usual.
We made a date for
an on-camera interview
so she could tell her
side of the story,
and then, as the date
approached,
she changed her mind.
"Won't do it," she said.
"Don't care what anybody
thinks about me."
Especially the Harshbargers,
who are left now
with only memories.
- The only thing we have
left to remind us of Mark
is the family pictures
and, of course,
those two grandchildren.
Mark's children.
- Lee Harshbarger
walked the forest
he taught his son to love
and that his
son so loved to hunt.
- He had a favorite saying.
"Well, Dad, that was another
fine day afield."
That was very,
very rewarding.
- And Mary Beth?
Probably the gift
she sent her attorney
is as heartfelt a comment
as we'll get.
- Well, she sent me
a little, uh,
token of her appreciation,
a bumper sticker that read,
"It is as bad as it gets,
and they are out to get you."
And I thought that
was pretty fitting.
- And that's all for
this edition
of "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Craig Melvin.
Thank you for watching.