A man charged with pushing his second wife off a cliff to her death has been accused of removing a $30,000 diamond from her ring before rescuers retrieved her body.
Harold Henthorn has been charged with first-degree murder after his wife, Toni, 50, fell to her death shortly after their 12th wedding anniversary.
Harold’s first wife also died in an accident involving a car and a jack, shortly after their 12th wedding anniversary. He says both deaths were accidental.
PEOPLE magazine says federal prosecutor Suneeta Hazra told jurors that Harold, 59, “knew he was going…to murder his wife” so he could “collect $4.5 million in life insurance.”
She said Toni, 50, “fell 128 feet…broke her neck…was…scalped…and bled out so much there was not enough blood for the coroner to test.”
Ranger Paul Larson told the jury he noticed that Toni’s body appeared to have moved from where she had fallen. Her husband says he moved it to flatter terrain so he could ‘tend to her after the fall.’
A deputy coroner said he found it odd that Henthorn quickly volunteered information about the diamond missing from Toni’s ring when interviewed, saying it was worth $30,000 but “the missing stone did not matter at all at this point.”
