Aug. 22, 2009
The Letter
A Letter Written By A Suspicious Young Mother Helps Solve Her Own Murder
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Julie and Mark Jensen (CBS)
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Play CBS Video Video The Letter: Mark Jensen Interrogation Initially, investigators thought suicide was a strong possibility in the 1998 death of Julie Jensen. But a letter she left behind gave them other ideas. Watch excerpts as police question her husband, Mark, about Julie's death.
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Video Julie's Letter Julie Jensen's brother Paul Griffin reads his sister's ominous letter, which was handed over to authorities after her death.
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Video A Brother's Musical Tribute Julie Jensen's brother Patrick Griffin produced an album as a tribute to his late sister. Hear him perform "Failing Virtues," from the album "Voices From Beyond," released by Papercup Publishing, BMI.
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Special prosecutor Bob Jambois wasted no time letting Julie "speak," by reading the letter. But Jambois also began the trial with a bombshell: he no longer believed that poison alone killed Julie.
"She was poisoned with ethylene glycol. And it may have killed her, except we now have very good reason, very good evidence that what actually killed her was Mark Jensen sitting on her and shoving her face in a pillow and suffocating her. And that's what I believe happened," Jambois said.
Julie was suffocated? Why, after more than nine years, would Jambois suddenly change his theory of how Julie died? Because of what a man named Aaron Dillard had to say.
"Mark Jensen murdered her," Dillard alleged, claiming that Mark had told him what he had done.
Just months before the trial, Dillard suddenly came forward with a shocking story: he said Mark confessed that he had killed his wife, and that at first he had tried to spike her drink with a small amount of ethylene glycol.
"So he gave her juice to drink, and that was when he told me, at that point, that it was mixed with anti-freeze," Dillard said in court.
But, according to Dillard, the poison didn't work. "He said that he got really nervous, he got scared," Dillard told the court.
Asked by Jambois if Mark had told him why he got nervous, Dillard said, "Well, she was breathing better and he didn't think she was going to die."
"And why did that scare him?" Jambois asked.
"Because the kids wanted to take her to the hospital, and if she wasn't better by the time they got home, that was where they were going to go," Dillard testified.
That's when Dillard says Mark took matters into his own hands. "He sat on her back and actually pushed on her neck into the pillow," Dillard tells Moriarty. "He said that's when she died."
Dillard's story makes sense of something that has troubled investigators all these years: the odd position of Julie's face when her body was found. "I said, 'People don't sleep like that.' I said, 'She was put in this position. Somebody put her like this,'" Jambois remembers.
The prosecution still believes that Mark poisoned his wife's drink.
In a rather startling demonstration, the Kenosha County medical examiner tasted a minute amount of ethylene glycol herself just to show the jury why Julie wouldn't have noticed she was drinking a poison.
Dr. Mainland changed her opinion on what actually killed Julie. "The cause of death is ethylene glycol poisoning with probable terminal asphyxia," she said in court.
But there was a serious problem with Aaron Dillard: he's a jailhouse snitch, with a long record of fraud. But despite the criminal convictions, Jambois says Dillard is telling the truth.
Defense attorney Craig Albee went after Dillard, who was released from jail in exchange for his testimony. "Mr. Dillard, while you were in the Kenosha County jail, you saw Mark Jensen as a way to get out of jail, right?" Albee asked.
"Yeah," Dillard acknowledged.
"And your plan to use Mark Jensen to get out of jail has worked pretty well, right?" Albee asked.
"Yes, it has," Dillard replied.
Dillard had at least four believers: Julie's brothers. "Listening to Aaron Dillard describe the cold, sickening manner in which Mark smothered her, just broke me up…. it was just very hard to listen to," says Paul.
To establish a motive for murder, the prosecution called Kelly Jensen, Mark's former mistress, and now his wife.
"As soon as he had somebody available, as soon as he had somebody on tap to replace her, bang. She was out of the picture," Jambois charged.
But the defense said the affair wasn't a motive for murder - it was the reason for suicide; it's why Julie took the ethylene glycol herself and tried to blame it on Mark.
"In your experience, someone who's concerned about being poisoned, it's very difficult to get them to drink anything?" Albee asked a defense psychiatrist.
"I've treated many paranoid patients - if she thought someone was trying to kill her, and she knew it in advance, why in the devil would she then drink it?" the psychiatrist replied.
Even Julie's own doctor said she was depressed.
Produced by Peter Henderson and Linda Martin
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See all 38 CommentsI find it bizarre that she could honestly feel that she was in danger, that she truly feared for her life, yet did not take any measures to protect herself - if only to ensure that she would be around to be there for her boys. If she was in a rational, sound state of mind she would have listened to the neighbors that tried to help her or she would have confided in her brothers who would have insisted that she not continue to live there.
It was clear that she WANTED to be there, that she wanted people to worry about her without taking any steps to ensure her safety. She made sure that she told people who would testify on her behalf about her "fears". She wrote a letter to seal her husband's fate.
We did not see a discussion as to whether that post-it note was really her husband's note. We did not see handwriting analysis of that note, nor did we hear his explanation of what it was for if it was proven to really be his note. That note side-by-side with the letter were the ultimate pieces of evidence that the jury used to make their decision.
I do not know if the jury were actually qualified to make this decision if this is the main basis of their thought process.
If Julie was truly depressed (as she seemed to be) and knew about the affair, this is a most-effective way for her to punish her husband and ensure that he would suffer tremendously (whether he was convicted or not).
What's more, if she really wanted to be there for her sons like she claimed in the letter ('I would never commit suicide because of my sons'), I am convinced that she would have taken refuge away from someone she feared: if she honestly feared him! And she would have taken her sons. And she would not have ingested food or drink that she herself did not buy and prepare.
I fear the justice system may have incarcerated an innocent man.
WARNING: WOMEN WHO PERCEIVE THEIR HUSBAND MAY POISON THEM EAT OUT EVERY MEAL AND ONLY DRINK FROM A BOTTLE FROM WHICH YOU HAVE BROKEN THE SEAL OR "MOVE OUT" UNTIL YOU DON''T THINK THIS ANYMORE. I HOPE MY SISTER KNOWS I LOVE AND RESPECT HER ENOUGH TO MAKE ME THE FIRST ONE SHE WOULD CALL IF PRESENTED WITH JULIE HENSEN''S TYPE EVIDENCE.
I cant believe they actually interviewed Dan Jensen on this show. He has such a shady background that there is no way you can believe a single word he says.
The part that surprises me the most is how convinced everyone else is - one way or the other - there''s a reason this case was published on 48 hours "mystery"
The part that surprises me the most is how convinced everyone else is - one way or the other - there''s a reason this case was published on 48 hours "mystery"
The part that surprises me the most is how convinced everyone else is - one way or the other - there''s a reason this case was published on 48 hours "mystery"
The part that surprises me the most is how convinced everyone else is - one way or the other - there''s a reason this was published on 48 hours "mystery"
What''s really sad is how in the end, Mark had obviously turned Julie''s sons against her through the years. The note they had read mentioned their "birth mother" Julie. She was their MOTHER, period, and would still be alive had it not been for their cold-hearted father.
To answer your question, you can always google it and you''ll get loads of information.... that''s the thing with anything these days......
But trust me, Jensen is where he belongs, with or without the letter. He was cold and heartless. A complete loser who really got leniency for what he did.When you murder somebody, you don''t go around bragging it to other people.... the jailhouse snitch could not be lying, as his account of the story matched the forensics (wife''s face was smeared to the side). As if he could have made that up. Please, spare me!
I don''t think the entire letter was read during the episode. You can view the unabridged reading of the sons'' letter here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ668aYH5BY
Julie Jensen''s family has a website which includes a source-annotated timeline of the events leading up to her death and highlights some of the events at trial-- could be a helpful resource in learning more about the case: http://www.oursisterjulie.com./Julie/Timeline.html
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O.J. was judged by a jury of his peers.
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