[dramatic music]
- When she walked into a room, her manner plus her beauty
Just struck people right away.
She had the bluest eyes I've ever seen anyone have.
[dramatic music]
I have nightmares thinking about her last moments.
- I told him, something is wrong here.
Something has happened to her.
- It wasn't just a spur-of-the-moment thing.
They planned well in advance.
- They rented the jackhammer, bought cement.
I thought, there's a grave somewhere,
And it was gonna be pretty much invisible.
- To plan out all these details,
This was cold-blooded, calculating.
- This thing was bigger than life.
It was a greek tragedy.
- As we opened the door, a very strong odor
Of fresh paint came up.
It was obvious that there was something
Much more serious to this story.
Something happened in that house.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- It's a bitterly cold Tuesday morning in mansfield, ohio,
A small midwestern town
Halfway between cleveland and columbus.
After enjoying the long new year's holiday weekend,
Lieutenant david messmore clocks in early
At the police station.
- It was January 2nd of 1990.
I was in charge of major crimes for the mansfield
Police department and the detective bureau.
And that day, it was busy.
And a woman named margie called and said that
The day before, she was to meet with her friend, noreen boyle,
And have coffee, but noreen didn't show up.
Later that day, margie made numerous phone calls
And couldn't contact her.
And that's when she really got worried about her.
And she said, this is something very unusual,
And you need to look into it.
But in the normal course of a missing person case,
People turn up generally in a day or two.
So I thought, well, tomorrow she'll turn up
Or she'll call margie back.
♪ ♪
- The following morning, Wednesday, January 3rd,
Lieutenant messmore checks in with margie and learns
She hasn't heard from noreen, so he decides
To seek out details from noreen's family.
♪ ♪
- We didn't know a lot about noreen,
But we knew about her husband, john boyle.
He was a doctor.
He had a pretty big practice.
Several of the guys that worked for me
Had gone to him as soon as he opened the practice.
He was definitely a person of influence in mansfield.
I decided to go to the boyle house
And check to see if there was anything I could find out.
- When lieutenant messmore arrives at the boyle home,
He's greeted by john's mother.
- I explained to her why I was there,
But she didn't know anything about where noreen was.
So I asked to talk to dr. Boyle.
But dr. Boyle's mother said that dr. Boyle was out of town.
He was working in erie, pennsylvania,
Because he's building up a pretty big practice there.
And she didn't know when he would be home.
- Dr. Boyle's mother welcomes lieutenant messmore
Into the home and introduces him to collier,
John and noreen's son.
- I remember I was 11 years old
And lieutenant messmore came in.
And my grandmother went upstairs.
And I say to him, "my mother would never leave me.
Something's happened to her."
Lieutenant messmore, he didn't just dismiss me.
He was sincere.
- Collier appeared to be old beyond his years,
Very intelligent, very talkative.
Collier started talking to me
About how concerned he was about his mother.
- I told dave something has happened to her.
The night I last saw my mother,
December 30, 1989,
I heard something that scared me.
[dramatic music]
At about 3:15 in the morning, I wake up to the sound
Of what I think is a scream, and then I hear two loud thuds
Separated by about 60 seconds apart.
And in between those thuds, I hear this muttering.
[muttering indistinctly]
But it was my father's voice.
And I realized that something is seriously wrong.
And I start counting these footsteps
As they walk down the hall.
And I can see out of my peripheral vision
Two feet in my doorway.
I'm looking, but I'm not turning my head to look up.
And in that moment, something overwhelmingly
Is screaming inside of me, "don't look up."
♪ ♪
The feet leave the doorway, and I just go back to sleep.
♪ ♪
That morning, I go downstairs,
And my father is sitting on the couch.
I say to my father, "where is my mother?"
He says that my mother came downstairs
In the middle of the night, and they got into an argument.
She threw her purse at him, left out the back door,
And walked down our driveway to the end of the street
And got into a car that was waiting
At the end of the driveway and left.
And he says, "but we're not gonna call the police."
My grandmother says, "you heard what your father said.
We're not gonna alert anyone."
- His interpretation of the sounds was disconcerting.
And if I couldn't talk to noreen herself,
Then I was very concerned.
- Lieutenant messmore is unnerved by collier's story,
But gently urges him to open up about his family life.
- My mother and I were extremely close.
She was, for lack of a better term, my best friend.
She was my world.
My parents, they met at a drive-in diner
Where you drive up and you order.
She was 17 at the time.
He was 19.
They fell in love, and they got married June 1, 1968.
My mother, she was just really smart.
She grew up in a german irish family,
And education was held in very high regard,
Because they wanted her to lead a better life.
My mother graduated from the university of pennsylvania
School of dentistry as a dental hygienist.
And she was then able to put my father through medical school.
♪ ♪
When I was five years old, we moved to mansfield, ohio,
Where my father was going to take this prestigious job
Running a hospital.
Manners and education were everything in my upbringing.
- Collier's very interesting, because he was very articulate.
He was smarter than the average child.
He was loved very much by his mother,
And she enjoyed his intelligence.
♪ ♪
- I'm somebody who has always had
A really good memory, so I'm laying that night out
To lieutenant david messmore.
It feels very welcoming, like he is believing me.
I said, "look, this is not normal.
"something is wrong here.
"something has happened to her.
She didn't just up and leave."
- Collier's grandmother came in,
And it was a little strange the way she wasn't worried
About noreen, because collier was very frightened
About what he saw and what he heard.
That gave me an indication that there might
Truly be something wrong here.
In my opinion, he wasn't making anything up.
The grandmother said, "please don't bother me anymore."
♪ ♪
So I went home and I thought, well, I'll come back
In the evening, and dr. Boyle will be home,
And I can talk to him.
That night, I came back,
And there was a sheet of paper on the door.
The paper said, "nobody in this house
Is allowed to talk to law enforcement, only dr. Boyle."
And it was signed by attorney charles robinson.
♪ ♪
Dr. Boyle was there.
I could see him at the window.
♪ ♪
Charlie robinson opened the door.
He said, "can I help you?"
And I said, "well, I'd like to talk
To the doctor for a minute."
He said, "well, he doesn't have anything to say."
I said, "well, I'm trying to find his wife,
And I'd really like more information."
Charlie robinson said noreen got mad
And left in the middle of the night
After they had an argument.
And the last time dr. Boyle saw her,
She was walking down the driveway,
And a car was coming to pick her up.
Charlie robinson said they had no further statement.
That irritated me that somebody would be
So obstinate about finding a missing person.
♪ ♪
- With dr. Boyle's lawyer refusing to answer
Any more questions, lieutenant messmore's
Next move is to canvass the neighborhood,
Hoping someone saw the car that noreen supposedly
Got into the night of December 30th.
- I talked to the next-door neighbor,
And the neighbor said,
"I was up half the night watching tv,
"and I could see out my front window.
"nobody came up that road.
"there was no headlights.
There was no car."
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
- As the sun rises over mansfield,
Lieutenant messmore still can't corroborate
That noreen left in a car, and he begins
Getting phone calls from her worried friends.
- Other people called me and said that noreen
Would never leave without telling
Somebody where she was going.
And they said, "you need to investigate it more
And find out what happened."
It was good to hear from those people,
Because that confirmed my thoughts and my fears.
♪ ♪
- Noreen was my best friend.
When she walked into a room, her manner plus her beauty
Just struck people right away.
She had the bluest eyes I've ever seen anyone have.
She was such a great mom.
She doted on collier.
She would have never left collier voluntarily.
I was very concerned about noreen.
Her husband was very nice to me.
When we were out to eat or when I was at their home
During holidays, it was a very natural relationship.
But then he'd leave, and she would make comments
Like, "he's off to his girlfriend's house."
For a long time, she forgave certain things, I'd say.
But then she filed for divorce in November,
The month before she went missing.
- At that point, I wanted to get more background
On dr. Boyle and see what type of person he was.
I went and talked to people at the hospital.
I found out dr. Boyle was an interesting character.
- John boyle, who's a very successful physician.
He's tall, he's handsome.
He's got one of those perma-tans.
And people like him.
His colleagues respect him.
- He was liked by a lot of people.
He was a good doctor.
But they described him as
Being out with other girls constantly.
People at the hospital said that he spent
Most of his time away from his family.
It was very common for him to make passes at nurses
And try to make dates with them.
They gave me names of girls that had had affairs with him.
One nurse said that she had had an affair with dr. Boyle,
And he became so obsessive and frightening to her
That she quit her job and moved to florida.
I thought, well, that's very disconcerting.
- Lieutenant messmore begins to consider the possibilities.
Did dr. Boyle get rid of his wife
So he could pursue other women?
Or maybe noreen finally had enough of his cheating
And walked away.
- I needed to get more information about noreen boyle.
But then I got a phone call from collier's principal.
She said collier needed to talk to me again.
It was good to hear from collier,
Because he was very astute.
He knew what he was talking about.
And with dr. Boyle not talking,
It was obvious that there was something
Much more serious to this story.
- I was really scared I would never find out
What happened to my mother.
This was my only chance.
I needed to tell dave more about my father.
♪ ♪
- I don't think you could find a crime
That was more premeditated,
Because he planned this out so meticulously.
- He was such a cocky, narcissistic psychopath
That he thought he could outsmart everyone else.
[dramatic music]
- Swears me to secrecy.
"you do not say anything, or I will hurt you."
- It became more and more clear that something
Very bad must have happened to noreen.
[ominous music]
♪ ♪
- Four days after noreen boyle's disappearance,
Lieutenant messmore receives a surprising phone call.
Noreen's 11-year-old son, collier,
Is waiting at his school to speak with him.
- I don't think that his family knew
That I was going to talk to collier.
They probably would have prevented that.
But the principal at the time was very cooperative,
And she said, "sure, you can talk to him."
♪ ♪
- I needed to talk to dave messmore again,
Because my father had this jekyll and hyde
Sort of way that he would be with people.
He had a very bad temper,
And he could flip at the drop of a hat.
I grew up walking on a lot of eggshells around my father,
And that continued to get worse and worse
As I got older and older.
It was always the threat of the violence.
And that's what really drove my mother and I together,
Because we had each other for safety, security.
My mother is my protector.
♪ ♪
- There's something important that happens
Psychologically when people are in an abusive situation.
It's not uncommon for other members of the family
To bond uniquely, to have a best friendship,
A reliance on each other,
Because you have a common bad guy.
So this level of maturity that collier had
Was because of the traumatic home he was living in.
He took on more of an adult role.
♪ ♪
- Collier then gives lieutenant messmore
A chilling example of his father's behavior
That occurred 10 months before his mother disappeared.
[tense music]
- It was a weekend morning.
I was playing my computer game,
And my father came in, and he said,
"why isn't the sound working on the computer?"
And he grabbed the wire, and he shoved it in my face,
And he said, "did you do this?"
♪ ♪
Pushed me up against the wall, and he started
Throwing books and computer games
And just screaming at the top of his lungs at me.
My father swears me to secrecy.
"you do not say anything, or I will hurt you,
And I'll hurt mommy."
I then understood the level of abuse and anger
That my father had in him,
And it scared the living sh-- out of me.
♪ ♪
A few months later, I go to a party with my father.
♪ ♪
He introduced me to a woman named sherri campbell.
She was much younger than him.
Later on that evening, I look back,
And my father is walking with sherri,
And he has his arm around her.
Later I say to my dad, "who is that woman, sherri?"
He goes, "well, I was consoling her.
She's daddy's patient, and she is terminally ill."
So I didn't think too much of it.
- Then collier reveals to lieutenant messmore
That he ran into sherri again
Six months before his mother disappeared.
- Summer of 1989, I started to notice
This division between my parents.
I would see him sleeping on the couch.
[tense music]
And then father's day, 1989,
I went to the office with my dad.
We stopped at the tanning salon on the way back home.
This woman comes out, and it's sherri.
And she comes out with two radio-controlled cars.
"happy father's day."
♪ ♪
And I look at her hand,
And I notice that she has a ring on.
And I'm thinking to myself, I know that ring,
Because I've never seen a ring like it
Except for on my mother's hand.
It was custom made, no one had it,
And she was very proud of it.
I just say, "oh, my mommy has a ring like that,"
And she just kind of giggles and looks at my father.
I go back and I'm playing with the radio-controlled car,
And then I look up, and my father is
Making out with sherri.
I was like, this is not kosher.
Later he says, "I need you to do me a favor.
Don't tell mommy about sherri."
[ominous music]
The next morning, my father is gone,
And I'm overcome with guilt.
And I decide to tell my mom.
I say, "mommy, I think daddy is having an affair."
And I tell her about sherri, how I met her.
Then I told her about them kissing and the ring
And that my father had told me to lie about it.
Then she went into the house to make a phone call,
And it was a very angry phone call.
A few months later, my mother, she goes to file for divorce.
♪ ♪
Once she filed for divorce,
The escalation with my father was,
"I'm going to destroy your lives."
♪ ♪
As the winter months start to begin,
I started to notice a shift with my mother.
She seemed afraid of my father.
At the end of November, she says something
To me that I'll never forget.
She said, "collier, I want you to know
"that if anything ever happens to me,
Your father had me killed."
♪ ♪
[somber music]
♪ ♪
- Four days after noreen boyle goes missing,
Her young son, collier, tells police
About his mother's chilling warning
Just five weeks earlier.
- She said something to me that I'll never forget.
She said, "collier, I want you to know
"that if anything ever happens to me,
"your father had me killed.
I would never leave you."
I remember reassuring my mother, saying,
You know, "mommy, that's not possible.
"that's not going to happen.
I'll protect you."
- After talking with collier at the school,
It became more and more clear that something very bad
Must have happened to noreen.
And dr. Boyle was the prime suspect here.
But I needed to investigate dr. Boyle further
And find evidence of a crime.
And that way, we could get search warrants.
- As lieutenant messmore begins to fear the worst,
He's eager to dig deeper into dr. Boyle,
But not everyone in local law enforcement
Shares his determination.
[tense music]
- Dr. Boyle, he was a retired naval commander,
And he was talking to a lot of policemen, firemen.
Some of the other detectives working for me
Had been marines.
So there was not a lot of resolve
In the police department or the prosecutor's office
To investigate their doctor.
The thought was that if collier's story is not true,
Which they suspected it wasn't,
That would embarrass the police department.
I said, "well, I believe collier,
"and I need to try to find out what happened to noreen boyle,
And I'm not gonna quit."
♪ ♪
- Knowing that dr. Boyle was in erie, pennsylvania,
The day after noreen disappeared,
Messmore begins by contacting erie police.
- One investigator is assigned to work with me.
[dramatic music]
The detective discovered he bought a house
In November 1989.
Detectives up there interviewed the real estate agent,
And the real estate agent said that the doctor wanted
To be in by January 1, 1990.
- And the realtor
Told them, you know, it's kind of strange.
He wanted to know what kind of soil the house was built on.
♪ ♪
- Dr. Boyle wanted to know
What's under the basement floor.
He said, "well, I'd like to think about
"lowering the floor so my son and I
Could play basketball down there."
I mean, the realtor, she said she'd never heard
Anything like that before.
And collier said his father never
Played basketball with him.
The real estate agent said when dr. Boyle signed
The agreement to buy the house,
The document was co-signed by his wife.
She signed as n. Sherri boyle.
And she described his wife as a young pregnant girl.
♪ ♪
I was shocked.
I thought, that's probably the girl that
Collier saw his dad having an affair with.
Everything starts to come together.
Dr. Boyle bought a house
In November 1989.
He wanted to be in
By January 1, 1990.
It had to be coordination
Between his demanding to be in that house
And his wife missing.
It just is too coincidental.
♪ ♪
- Now lieutenant messmore needs to confirm his suspicion
That the n. Sherri boyle who co-signed the paperwork
Is the same sherri collier saw with his father.
♪ ♪
- I had asked collier about the girl
He had seen with his father.
And as he described her, it was similar
To what the real estate agent said she looked like.
- As lieutenant messmore begins to connect the dots,
He develops a theory about what dr. Boyle was planning.
- I think when he found out that sherri was pregnant,
He wanted to get rid of his wife
And replace her and still maintain
His property and money.
- While lieutenant messmore believes dr. Boyle
Is behind his wife's disappearance,
He still lacks any evidence of an actual crime.
[dramatic music]
- Back in 1990, there was not a whole lot
Of computer work or forensics,
So they subpoenaed his checking account.
♪ ♪
And they found out one of the checks
He had written during that time was to a hardware store.
They went to this hardware store,
And the company remembered him very well.
They said he rented a jackhammer,
And we remember him because we charged him
$10 extra because it was over
The new year's eve holiday weekend,
And he complained about that.
♪ ♪
- Lieutenant messmore notes the strange rental
By dr. Boyle and then uncovers another surprising purchase.
- He rented the jackhammer in mansfield, ohio.
Then he went to a place in erie, pennsylvania,
A supply store called busy beaver.
They actually had purchase orders from dr. Boyle.
One was cement and one was the indoor-outdoor carpeting.
♪ ♪
If he actually poured cement
And put indoor-outdoor carpeting over it,
Anything underneath it was going to be
Pretty much invisible.
So if you gathered all the information
About the jackhammer and the cement
And the indoor-outdoor carpeting,
That absolutely trips you into thinking that
There's a grave somewhere.
♪ ♪
Now, my thoughts were that something happened
In that house dr. Boyle had purchased.
And I need to find out what occurred there.
♪ ♪
- It's halfway through January 1990,
And my mother had been missing for 15, 16 days.
My father seemed to be more and more under duress.
He comes to me and he says, "you know,
"I know it's really hard mommy has left us in this state.
"I think it would be really good for us
"to go on a father and son trip.
I'll just take you to florida, just you and me."
[dramatic music]
It certainly freaked me out,
Because I don't trust my father.
It's like, what is he planning?
And I knew at that moment, my father,
He will probably hurt me,
And I was not coming back from florida.
That's when I call dave, and I say,
"it's getting serious."
- Collier said, "I don't want to go to florida with him.
I'm afraid."
This worried me very badly.
I didn't want him to go anywhere
Or be in the custody of his father for any reason.
And the sooner I could get him out of the house, the better.
[tense music]
[wind whistling]
- Three weeks after noreen boyle goes missing,
Police suspect her husband, john,
Is responsible for her disappearance.
And now they're worried the couple's 11-year-old son,
Collier, is also in danger.
- I made a phone call
To the director of children's services.
He went back with his staff,
And they got a court order
To remove collier from the home.
♪ ♪
- On the morning of January 24, 1990,
I wake up, and there are two people
From child protective services.
They say to me, "we're getting you out of here."
And my grandmother is yelling at me.
"you brought the police here!"
I feel in a lot of ways I'm responsible for this.
I knew at that age, this isn't the easy road,
But this is ultimately the quest for the truth.
♪ ♪
- He was then placed with the discovery school principal,
And she took care of him.
The next morning,
The investigation continued on.
I went to erie, pennsylvania,
And I spent some time talking with the investigators there.
I produced the evidence of the jackhammer
And the cement
And the indoor-outdoor carpeting,
And with what dr. Boyle discussed with the realtor
About lowering the basement floor to his home
In erie, pennsylvania,
We thought that was a good indicator that
There may be something under the basement floor,
And maybe we could find noreen there.
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
The investigators in erie produced a search warrant
So we could enter dr. Boyle's house.
When we came to that house, dr. Boyle was not there.
Side of the garage.
- We open up the garage
And go right down into the basement.
As we open the door, a very strong odor
Of fresh paint came up.
As we got downstairs,
I could see that the floor,
The shelving was built
On the side of the wall in
Kind of an e configuration.
And under that
Was little pieces
Of indoor-outdoor carpeting.
♪ ♪
Investigators from erie,
Pennsylvania, were on
The floor looking all over,
And one said,
"there's a little hint of
Fresh concrete on the wall."
- And they grabbed the rug, and they pulled it back,
And then they saw a place in the floor
That looked like it had been patched up.
- So they started digging.
It came apart real easy.
One investigator said
"six inches down,
There's a green tarp."
- So they continued excavating.
[banging]
And they got the dirt out.
And then investigators
Pulled up the tarp.
♪ ♪
And there was a body.
I looked at the pictures
I had, and I said,
"that's noreen boyle."
♪ ♪
She had no clothes on except for a pair of panties.
[tense music]
There was trauma to the head,
And a plastic bag had been tied around her head,
Tied at the neck.
♪ ♪
It's a defining moment
In this investigation
When you find the body.
And I suspected it was there, and I found her.
I thought, at least collier can have some closure.
He'll feel better knowing his mother
Is not just abandoning him.
- Even the most meticulous killer, like john boyle is,
Will eventually have some blind spots.
And the last thing on his radar is that collier
Is going to out him to the police.
He missed that detail.
It was a blind spot.
He did not think that that was a possibility,
But that is what ended up happening.
Collier knew his dad was a monster.
♪ ♪
- We had the body taken to the allegheny county
Coroner's office in pittsburgh.
The coroner was able to compare the dental records
And said, "absolutely,
"that's as good as a fingerprint.
That absolutely is her."
♪ ♪
They said that there were two or three large contusions
To the back of her head,
Indicating that that killed her.
♪ ♪
At that point, we knew dr. Boyle killed his wife.
This was meticulously contrived
To place her under that concrete
And have control over her for the rest of his life.
♪ ♪
I telephoned my captain and told him
To prepare us an arrest warrant for murder for dr. Boyle.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- After finding noreen boyle's
Body buried in the basement
Of her husband's
Pennsylvania home,
Police are ready to arrest
Dr. John boyle.
♪ ♪
- They went to the house in mansfield, ohio,
And they found him and arrested him.
Dr. Boyle made no statements.
He didn't acknowledge the fact that he was being arrested.
I asked to interview dr. Boyle.
Of course, his attorneys said, "no, absolutely not."
[tense music]
Dr. Boyle was indicted for the homicide of noreen boyle
And abuse of a corpse.
- With dr. Boyle in custody, lieutenant messmore
Must now face the heartbreaking task
Of informing collier that his mother has finally been found.
- Dave comes to see me, and he explains to me,
"they found her body."
[somber music]
It's very difficult.
It's very difficult to articulate.
On one hand, you realize at that moment
That you weren't, like, gaslighting yourself.
You didn't just make this all up.
This wasn't some, you know, bullsh-- story.
The flip side of that
Is that everything that you thought
And you knew in your heart was true,
And that my mother was never coming back.
♪ ♪
My life was turned completely upside down.
♪ ♪
- I have nightmares thinking about
Noreen's last moments
And that violence ensuing.
And then to combine that with how she was found,
There's really just no words to explain it.
♪ ♪
- I go back to school that day,
And everybody is looking at me.
They all loved my mom.
They are all just a wreck.
And the only thing I can think of is my mother saying,
"this is your moment, collier, to be strong for everyone."
I'm 11, and I just helped solve my mother's murder.
♪ ♪
- With dr. Boyle locked away until his trial,
The prosecutors prepare their case.
- We spent months going over what should be
Brought up in the trial.
But we knew we couldn't find a crime that was
More premeditated, because dr. Boyle
Planned this out so meticulously.
- He had himself a girlfriend who was pregnant,
And he wanted to marry her, and his wife wanted a divorce.
- He bought this mansion in erie, pennsylvania.
He had every intention of burying noreen
In the basement of that house.
- He wanted to be in by January 1st.
Dr. Boyle rented a jackhammer,
Bought cement
And the indoor-outdoor carpeting.
♪ ♪
Dr. Boyle waited until the middle of the night,
And then he killed her.
[dramatic music]
- He had dug the floor up
In the basement.
He buried his dead wife,
Noreen, under the floor.
- He poured cement
And put indoor-outdoor
Carpeting over it.
It was gonna be
Pretty much invisible.
- To plan out in advance
All these details,
This guy was cold-blooded,
Calculating.
- He was gonna walk on her
For the rest of his life.
♪ ♪
- In June 1990, six months after the brutal murder
Of noreen boyle, her husband, john, stands trial.
And given the overwhelming public interest,
The judge allows cameras inside the courtroom.
- Sherri, dr. Boyle's girlfriend, was there.
She wasn't married to him, and she had the baby,
But she refused to talk and was represented
By the same attorneys that dr. Boyle was.
- This thing was bigger than life.
It was a greek tragedy.
- The boyle murder trial is so hot,
You'll find a television monitor outside
The jam-packed richland county courtroom.
That many people want to see it.
- I was watching the news every single night.
Then it became much more dramatic.
- In a stunning turn of events,
The defense calls a surprise witness.
- State your full name, please.
- John francis boyle jr.
♪ ♪
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- In June 1990, john boyle is on trial
For the aggravated murder of his wife, noreen,
When the defense suddenly
Throws a curveball, calling
The accused killer to the stand.
♪ ♪
- Did you on or about December 31st
Of 1989 cause the death of noreen boyle?
- No, I did not.
- In the vast majority of
Murder cases, the defendant does not testify.
- I did not kill noreen.
I never harmed her at all.
- Because it opens up every other part of his life.
If he doesn't testify,
Nobody can talk about those things.
It's all hearsay.
But john boyle was such a cocky,
Narcissistic psychopath
That he thought he could outsmart the jury.
[dramatic music]
- During the cross-examination,
The prosecution asks him about
The jackhammer rental,
And dr. Boyle makes a telling mistake.
- He said that he got it to break up
Some ice on his property.
That's a smoking gun.
Nobody uses a jackhammer to clear away ice.
- After john steps down, prosecutors call
Their sole eyewitness to the stand, collier.
It's the first time he's been face to face
With his father in almost six months.
♪ ♪
- I heard a scream.
The immediate thought I had
Was something was wrong with my mother.
Half a minute later, I heard a thud like this.
[thuds]
It was even louder.
And at that time, I was petrified.
I mean, I was just scared.
♪ ♪
I knew that if I didn't take every opportunity that I could
To do what I did,
It didn't matter if I risked my life,
I didn't care. I didn't give a sh--.
Because at the end of the day,
He's not gonna get away with it.
And that, to me, superseded everything.
♪ ♪
And it's like, no, I don't care.
This is what I'm going to do, because this is what's right.
- All right.
Now, did you get up at that time
To investigate what had happened?
- No, I did not.
- And could you tell the jury why you didn't?
- Because I was extremely afraid of my father,
And I always have.
♪ ♪
- Collier was so important to the case.
He was a sensational witness for the prosecution.
♪ ♪
- June 29th, the jury came back with a verdict.
- We, the jury in this case, find the defendant,
John f. Boyle, jr. Guilty of the offense
As charged in the indictment.
♪ ♪
- With a lot of perseverance, the facts came out as to
What he was and what he did.
I have good feelings about that.
And as far as I'm concerned, he's right where he belongs.
And I felt good for collier,
Because collier got away from the abuse.
That's a door that's closed for him.
- The trial ends.
My father is convicted.
He goes to prison.
I then am in limbo,
Because no family wants to take me in.
My aunt carol,
Who is my mother's older sister,
Tells me, "well, we're not gonna take you in,
Because you look like your father."
And my father's side of the family says to me,
"we're not taking you in,
Because you've gotten your father arrested."
I had no adult figure in my life,
No one that I felt was in my corner except for dave.
I ended up asking dave and his wife if they would adopt me,
And they said yes.
- Collier went to the court, and the judge said to collier,
You don't think I'm gonna put you with the guy
That locked up your dad, do you?
And he broke down and cried.
We thought we would get to see him
Maybe on the weekends.
But the judge felt
That wasn't gonna be good for collier.
- I ended up being awarded custody to virtual strangers,
The zieglers.
I knew them because their son, levi,
Went to our school.
They took me in as one of their own.
My adoptive father, george, he never wanted me
To grow up with a victim mentality.
I never, ever have thought the world owes me something
Because of what I went through.
I have been through something that is horrific,
But I had at least a family that took me in,
And I built a really good foundation
That I'm very grateful for.
- Over the years, collier's strength continues to endure,
As does the memory of his mother.
- I want noreen to be remembered
As the wonderful mother that she was,
Not a victim, not as someone that was murdered.
[somber music]
I said to collier, in 11 years,
Your mother loved you for a lifetime.
I believed it when I said it.
Looking at him now and the man that he is,
I believe that is accurate.
- I was just a kid that loved my mother.
I have this very powerful story,
Because I'm both the son of a murderer and his victim.
And for me, the only way to move forward in my life
Was to do something with it.
I became a cinematographer.
I made a film called "a murder in mansfield."
And I followed my heart.
She wired me that way.
♪ ♪
She's proud of me.
♪ ♪