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The Letter

August 22, 2009 8:00 PM

In Full: A letter written by a suspicious young mother helps solve her own murder. Erin Moriarty reports

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by samplebuu November 14, 2009 6:25 PM EST
This case was hard to decide because it could have been a yes he did it or a no she did it. The truth is with the LORD. Payment for this incident is on the hands of the person who made it happen. Notice if the husband committed this event he will live with this all his day until he tells the truth or if the wife did it then she will receive her eternal life in the lake of fire with all who God rejects. The true payment for this is with GOD.
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by Virgil-1 November 14, 2009 2:00 PM EST
Let the evidence show,or who do you believe?This one was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
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by rn1lori October 22, 2009 7:41 PM EDT
It seems unbelievable that Ed Kluge, Mark's co-worker, never reports, but instead is ordered to testify, regarding a drunken conversation about Mark researching/plotting to poison his wife. Erin Dillard, a jailhouse regular, is released from jail in exchange for his testimony. There is no doubt that Julie was depressed, suicidal and frantic, perhaps desperate, enough to feign near death. It boogles the mind that Julie would not share her fears with anyone. Without knowing all the facts of this case, it certainly appears there is some reasonable doubt.
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by engrossedtv October 2, 2009 2:45 PM EDT
i am actually torn between the two sides. Sadly in her state could she have tried to pin this on him? The letter itself does seem to me to be a letter written by someone that is distressed and potentially be suicidal. If her purpose was to frame him for this could it be that she wrote both the letter and the post it note? WHY would he do research for poisons at his HOME computer, when he clearly has an office to do such research that would be unsupervised or traced... Additionally the handwriting on both the LETTER and the STICKY note seem a bit similar. Did anyone ever compare the two by a handwriting expert? The evidence is not strong enough to convict him, although I do not believe that he is completely innocent. If she were strong enough to file for divorce from him before, why not do it when she felt her life was in jeopardy? With the evidence that he was having an affair she would have walked with everything she wanted anyway. Depression causes the mental state the inability to rationalize the obvious. I feel for her, her family, her kids especially and everyone that is involved and affected. God bless each of them.
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by shakar-2 September 19, 2009 8:57 PM EDT
as i listened and watched i honestly believed he did it. but he did not get away with it justice prevailed.
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by tulip0808 September 19, 2009 7:44 PM EDT
I watched this and was a little surprised that he was convicted. I thought there was enough reasonable doubt on this one. I then did a little research on my own and found out that Julie was computer illerterate and there were over 2000 searches for poison or poison related sites. These searches were done late at night or early in the morning when Mark was home. Even more damning was that these searches would be in the middle of other work realted activity of Marks or emails to Kelly. It was clearly Mark doing these VERY extensive poison searches. These searches went on for several months. He was also tormenting her with pornographic images and had been for many years. He was leading her to believe she was being stalked by the guy she had an affair with so many years ago. He tried to make her think this guy was breaking in to the house leaving these photos. It turns out the photos all came from Marks computer. He's a very sick man. So glad he was convicted.
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by carolo43 September 18, 2009 8:43 PM EDT
I can understand parents not wanting to believe your son can be a killer but to continue to deny evidence that's right in front of you is sticking your head in the sand. His father called Julie mentally ill. Since when is depression classified as mentally ill? It's pretty clear he found someone else he wanted in his life and wanted her gone.
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by rsmik September 16, 2009 7:04 PM EDT
londonbridges4sale: are you Norm Crosby?
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by shell79ie September 16, 2009 8:18 AM EDT
I would like for them to compare the writing from the diary planner to her writing in the letter!!!!! Something really strange about the whole and i hope him and his family get enough money together and get a really good criminal lawyer. God bless both families
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by shell79ie September 16, 2009 8:13 AM EDT
I is quite possible that he committed this murder. Why she stayed in the house with someone who she thought was going to kill her is really crazy. Both the teacher and the neighbours told her to seek help and she said no. Here lies the theory that she did frame him for the murder by planting the seed in everyone's mind. She couldn't confide in her family because she knew they would react and probably make her move out of her home etc.... It really is a mystery and i hope for the two boy's sake that he did murder her and justice came through if he didn't murder her and he was framed, it is an awful tragedy and the justice system let him and his boys down. Shame. Also why did Kelly look for a divorce????? She is not worth her salt!!!!!
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by firstoffense September 16, 2009 2:03 AM EDT
There was not enough evidence to convict him! His wife was severely depressed. Severely depressed people have really strange behaviors (One of my friends committed suicide and he left a letter about how he "got them back". I think she found out he had an affair, committed suicide and set him up because she fell off the deep end. She was too busy convincing the police in the letter that she was not suicidal. She would have left with her children if her life was in danger.
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by kgaz September 14, 2009 6:55 AM EDT
The entire thing rests on that list he wrote. Was it ever indicated this was not in his handwriting? Had he taken the stand, he could have explained to the jury either what this list referred to or that it was forged or something. In the absence of this explanation, this list was entirely damning to him and validates her letter. In my opinion, her depression was severe enough to disallow her to have the strength to leave this man even after finding it. But depression does not generally allow a person sophisticated plots which involve complicated thinking processes. His parents remind me of Scott Peterson's--probably excused his bad behavior all his life and helped groom a person who feels entitled to take another's life without remorse (the worst part being the mother of his children who now refer to her as "birth mother"--how totally sad is THAT?).
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by cozychalet September 9, 2009 2:44 PM EDT
How sad for Mark Jensen's parents and family that after this hideous tragedy all they can do is purport a suicide theory to desperately try and shift the blame away from their son, and onto Julie. And if the Jensen's are right, and Julie did set Mark up to take the fall, then I say way to go Julie! Have his cheating ass rot in prison! Or his murdering ass, either one! The guy's a creep.
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by esaun211 September 7, 2009 6:35 AM EDT
Man o man, I've got to be sure to never ever move to this DA's district. Life without parole for such a porous case. To me it really seems somebody was trying to frame their hubby and miscalculated. First of all if she felt like he was going to kill her seems she would have ran to the authorities and then you confide in a lady you don't know and neighbors. Seems to me she was looney and paranoid. She so frantic and scared yet and still she dranking drinks either he prepared or she left unattended. In most poison cases the element of surprise is the key, but in this one she documenting and speculating yet still drinks the poison; hmm. Might sound cruel but if that is the case then she needed to die with her dumb a**. Very scary to see the dingy white examiner change her cause of death to fit and no eyebrows raise or red flags are thrown. American justice at its finest like always.
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by 123admin123 September 6, 2009 5:53 AM EDT
I think she set him up. If she was truly afraid of him, why didn't she leave? She could have done the searches on his computer, had him write down a list for her or maybe it wasn't even his writing. The fact she told so many people and wrote the letter looks like a set-up. If she was truly afraid, she would have put distance in between herself and her husband. There is so much reasonable doubt, I cannot see how they convicted him. I bet she found out he was cheating and she was the one who got revengeful so decided to set him up.
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by londonbridges4sale September 3, 2009 2:03 PM EDT
First, it is a travisty what occurred. Saying that, I am not convinced and don't see how a jury could be persuaded to come back full throttle with a conviction, let alone one with no opportunity for parole (oh, pardon me that was the municipality's judge who confirmed the sentencing. Don't states and the municipalities within get so much money from the Feds for these type of cases being CLOSED?) I'm actually shocked CBS selected this story as it is all too full of holes.

Point: There were some obvious victims here on BOTH sides and I can see how someone with a weakened mentality could be taken advantage of by someone who could manipulate that weakness. Plaintively speaking, I think the wife had motives (the cheating that both did) and "The Letter" was her back up plan in case things went awry. She was envious, sociologically weakened and mentally unstable. She did not have the guts to leave the first time (for whatever reasons) and I think she felt suckered and victimized that she now knew her husband was cheating and apparently ready to bail.

Come on, the woman had how many brothers?! I'm sure somewhere in their past they have had to make a stand for their ONLY sister as siblings. You just don't grow up with that many brothers and have a close, well bonded relationship with at least one of them and not at least HINT something of great tumultuousness was bothering you!

You don't run to a near stranger and place total confidence in your neighbors, you turn to family who'd cut off their right arm to protect you! That is unless you are deranged, manipulative or just plotting some bullcrap. You would then choose to manipulate others even if innocently doing so. If she were mentally unstable she may not have been able to balance fact from reality. Somewhere in her heart she may have truly believed this scenario and searched for supportive evidence.

The letter holds a lot of self deprecating evidence that shows a great deal of manipulation on her part. Now had the letter suggested straight up poisons such as the auto coolant, that might prove to be more than circumstantial. How does one know she had not dictated the list to him while later claiming to have found it in his belongings? Granted these shows formulate theories for the convenience of huge empathy audiences and the production staff think prosecutors have done all of the right work for all of the right reasons. Still, come on! Cannot ignorance create insidiousness?

Let's say he was trying to kill her and she just wanted to have him found out due to her shortsightedness in perceiving her children would be motherless being raised by HIS lover (that'd cause any scorned woman afraid of her husband to run)! Ya think she'd use the escape clause of a truly BONDED relationship she felt had more power than her hubby she no longer wanted. Oh right, he threatened to kill her entire family including her 4 or 5 bro's. Yeah right, forgot about that part. Like I said London Bride is 4 Sale!

Something is fishy about this whole entire tale! You sure those jurors weren't paid (actually that's a pretty attrocious statement as it's really not the jury's fault folks in charge are incompetent to either find real evidence to substantiate their case or true innocence is not fought for against corrupt and immoral injustice)? Cause I'm betting the fat bastard who testified and that lying worm who had an already smug relationship with the DA's office were!

This is classic manipulation beyond the grave and a DA's office accustomed to opening and closing jail house doors and prison cells all for who THEY choose. I just can't believe this man's lawyers didn't fight harder for him.

I wish I could write on this more but you cannot move back the hands of time and usually cases like this get undertowed because those who are innocent are plotted to be guilty so ALL evidence is manufactured to present to that belief system. Case in point - the coroner LATER changed her final determination of cause of death when??? AFTER Mr. Jail House Rat uncovered his VERSION of the EASY, "Hey man, you look like a righteous convict; I can let a load off my chest because no one will EEEEEVER believe you! You got a minute to tape my confession? Oh never mind, I'm soooooo elated to confide in a liar I'll just tell you straight from the horses mouth".

Tsk, tsk. Did you see how the coroner smirked with the authoritative power of "I can manipulate, by the authority vested in me, any scenario I desire". Oh, I forgot the "LOL" part that turned her little smirk up on the ends. I feel for the woman and the families involved, but think that no contriveance to put a man away without him getting a chance to fight by FAIR rules and a just system. I think that energy of the letter permitted an air of manipulation by any means necessary.

No one wins and I personally wish had he been put away for the murder of his wife, it were beyond a reasonable doubt!
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by roverluv3 September 3, 2009 3:31 AM EDT
All I have to say is Congratulations to the prosecution and to the Jury. They were able to bring justice and put a murderer away for life. If he didn't love his wife he should have done what many men do and that is get a divorce. And also shame on his parents! what a great example of parenthood they are. Sad that they taught their son not to be held accountable for his actions. Sorry MOM & DAD....Your son did it. And Thank God he won't murder another wife.
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by fullarmour1 August 26, 2009 11:35 PM EDT
wow....opinions...how does anyone know he wrote that list? no emotion? You determine a person's guilt because of showing no emotion? Maybe he is guilty....the fact is, you are supposed to determine, as a jury, guilt based on EVIDENCE. Not YOUR OWN EMOTION. God help anyone who is innocent being tried by 12 humans...God help them
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by true_or_not August 25, 2009 1:30 AM EDT
Seems they were doomed for tragity sooner or later. The most convincing part was the photo of the list he got off the internet. Other wise we would never have known the truth.
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by icjunior97 August 24, 2009 1:43 PM EDT
Wow what a evil man. No emotion. He was the only person to gain by the her death.

I hope the kids, who are the real victims, are going to be okay
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