The Triple Murder At Ft. Bragg

Navywife · Guru

The Triple Murder At Ft. Bragg

annarocket · Guru

This looks VERY interesting and I'd like to take a long look at this before I say what I think. At first glance,I wouldn't have suspected the husband as he was in the field at the time,but you never know,do you? I'll be back,this is too interesting to ignore. evileye

Navywife · Guru

It is a very interesting, but heartbreaking case. There is also a book about this entitled Innocent Victims by Scott Whinsat.

As far as the hubby goes, he has a rock solid, unbreakable alibi. Defnitely read the book.

annarocket · Guru

I had to read that whole second link 3 times because I was just sitting here going,HOLY CRAP.

That's the craziest thing I ever heard. Just crazy.I want to read that book,for sure. I simply can't imagine how in the world this all happened. evileye

RockerChick · Veteran Member

I saw the movie on this case on Lifetime not too long ago. The hottie from Sex and the City (Aiden) was in it. I just read the article and find it so devastating. It is bad enough about the poor woman, but those little ones. Whole thing makes me sick!!! Jeffry McD sure has his following even though I seldom read anything about him anymore. Guess the media appeal expired now that he is an old man.

annarocket · Guru

Actually,McDonald filed a motion for a new trial on the 30th anniversary of the murders in 2009,which was denied. He is married to another woman now and was just denied parole,and will next be eligible in 15 years.

His first born daughter,Kimberley,would be the same age as me,had she lived. evileye

RockerChick · Veteran Member

How could he ever expect to get another chance? I thought appeals would have been all exhausted by now. You would think after all this time, he would accept his fate and stop wasting money on lawyers. That money is probably his wife's and she has him convinced they are going to share a life together. He murdered a child. That is all anyone needs to know about him. Guess I am naive to think that matters to some. I truly believe some people become so intimate with their lies that they become real to them.

annarocket · Guru

I don't know either but there's something inherently wrong with a man who can lose two children to a murder and not be so affected by it that all he can do is scream about HIS innocence.

What about THEIR innocence? They had that ripped away from them before they had a chance to even be little girls,much less,young women. evileye

Navywife · Guru

An update on this case:
Hennis just had a motion to dismiss for double jepoardy DENIED. With all of the back and forth between the prosecution and defense, who knows when the actual trial will begin.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/6713260/

An update on the family:
Little baby Jana Eastburn (the only survivor of the brutal and savage attack that claimed the lives of her mother and older sisters), is all grown up.She is now 26 years old, and works with animals. She and her father moved to England after the murders (the move had been planned well before the murders. Capt Eastburn was being stationed there.) Capt Eastburn remarried in 1991.

annarocket · Guru

Sucks to be him but you generally don't wind up where you are by accident..

Nice for the young lady who survived this. evileye

Navywife · Guru

MSGT TIM HENNIS WAS CONVICTED OF PREMEDITATED MURDER!!!!

He was convicted of killing Air Force wife Kathryn Eastburn, and 2 of her 3 young children. The murders took place in 1985 i at Ft Bragg, NC. The Jury is still in deliberations for his sentence. His DNA was discovered in the house in which Kathryn and her children lived, and were murdered, as well as in a semen sample collected from her body. However, back in 1985, they didn't have the technology to do DNA tests like they do today. Kathryn had obvious signs of rape on her body.

The only member of the Hennis family to survive this brutal attack was baby Jana, who is now all grown up. Capt Gary Eastburn, husband to Kathryn and father of their 3 children was in Alabama for military training at the time of the murders. I wish it hadn't taken 25 years for this family to receive the justice it has so long deserved.

Msgt Hennis still to this day claims he's innocent..

Capt Gary Eastburn has since remarried, and he and his 2nd wife raised Jana in England, where he was stationed after the murders. Jana is now a veternarian.

annarocket · Guru

Whoa!!! No way.....

He's still saying he's innocent? Well,I'm sure the'll be an appeal,not that I think it will help. evileye

Navywife · Guru

I'm not sure how military law works, but if is able to appeal, then I have no doubt he will.

annarocket · Guru

I might be wrong,but I believe he gets to appeal because premeditated murder is a capital offense.

Let's see what the jury comes back with on sentencing. evileye

Navywife · Guru

http://fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/04/15/991361

He was sentenced to death.

Bonny1 · Pre-Newbie

Been following this with interest... stunning conclusion... stunning...

well done US Army.

annarocket · Guru

Welcome Bonny. I'm annarocket,and I moderate this board.I hope you'll enjoy being a member.

Do you know if he gets an automatic appeal since he got death? I want to say yes but since this was a military thing,not sure. evileye

Navywife · Guru

That I do not know Anna. I think the main arguement the defense tried to make was that while his semen was found in Kathryn's body, it was due to an affair they were allegedly having, not rape (despite evidence of rape being found on her body.) However, no evidence of any affair was ever submitted during any of the trials. They also tried to say that the DNA evidence was contaminated over the years, and that the chain of custody had been broken. However, they offered no evidence for either of these charges either.

However, I have long believed that others were also involved in this crime. Evidence was found to suggest this. There's no way Hennis could have attacked the mother and 2 of her 3 children at the same time. Kathryn was attacked first. If he had been the only perpetraitor, those two little girls would have run for their lives to get help while their mother was being attacked. Yet none of them made it out of the house.

Hennis was having financial and marital problems, and just a couple of days prior to the murders had bought the family dog (the family was scheduled to move to England for the husband's new duty station, and Kathryn thought a trip that long would be too hard on the dog, so she was looking for a new home for it.) So he knew that the husband was out of town for training at that time and would be for a while. I think he came back with 1 maybe 2 other people to rob her, and it escelated out of control.

Navywife · Guru

The one question that remains at the forefront of this case and will probably never be answered is why the children were murdered, and murdered so viciously. They were so very young at the time of this that they couldn't have given detectives much if any useful information. But for some reason, they were attacked as horribly as their mother was, and investigators haven't been able to determine why. And that's the one detail that caused enough reasonable doubt for Hennis in his 2nd trial, because he also had a young daughter. And people just couldn't believe that a father would do something like this to other children.

annarocket · Guru

How could they say it was due to the presence of semen because they were romantically involved but then not bring it up in court that they were having an affair?

WTF?

Also,noone in their right mind is gonna believe noone could get out of that house if there was only one perp.That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

As far as the children,I think it was like,the Jeffery MacDonald syndrome.Whoever did this wanted the whole family gone,no matter that the kids were way too young to testify in any coherent manner. In any case,it is a tragedy and very sad. evileye

Navywife · Guru

But that's just it Anna, they didn't get rid of the whole family. The baby survived. Hennis would have known about the baby, since he had visited the family earlier in the week to buy the family dog. But the baby was the only one in the house who wasn't attacked. However, she was left alone in her crib for a few days, and was severely dehydrated when she was discovered. So that leaves the investigators with why weren't all 3 children killed? And why were the two older children killed in such a vicious manner? Why weren't they killed in the quickest way possible?

Like I said earlier, while I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hennis definitely was involved in this, I don't believe he acted alone. Unfortunately, no other specific persons (just an unidentified person) has been linked to this horrible crime, and Hennis keeps claiming his innocence. I doubt we'll ever know exactly what happened that night.

annarocket · Guru

The murder of a child is beyond vile and pathetic. If he truely is guilty,and it seems he is,a special place awaits his arrival in hell.

Unfortunately we all know now that fathers [and mothers] are capable of killing their children. evileye