it was her congressman s office calling to say that her husband harry, who was a vice president of the local bank and a civic leader, had just been chosen as corry s man of the year. the caller instructed her not to let onto her husband as it was supposed to be a surprise. she was to meet someone the following day to go over the plans for this celebration. the next day, harry winer got a telephone call at the bank. [ inaudible ].
she just continues to talk. she had to read that if her husband didn t come up with the money, why, they d cut off her hands. she told him in detail that she was being held and these people were dangerous and they were going to kill her if he didn t provide the money. sally told him there was a bag under his car with instructions that he was to follow exactly or she would be killed. the ransom note told harry to fill the bag with all the money from his bank s vault and drive to a deserted bridge ten miles out of town to await further instructions. harry immediately contacted the local police and fbi. they told him to drive to the back of the police station and pick up a law enforcement officer. he got into the car and laid down in the backseat with the 12
a background check revealed some startling information about david kopenheffer. he had been turned down for a $25,000 business loan by harry winer less than a year earlier. kopenheffer was now the prime suspect in the kidnapping and murder of harry winer s wife sally. so the fbi put david kopenheffer under surveillance and watched as he took some trash out to the dumpster behind his store. when the fbi seized it. they found some suspicious items. they found a used roll of crepe paper, the same make and color as the paper found with the ransom notes. the fbi was able to match up
prosecutors believe it was david kopenheffer who had disguised his voice and called sally on thursday night with the bogus story that her husband harry was chosen as man of the year. he set up a time the next day for the two of them to meet to plan the award ceremony. then kopenheffer placed the ransom notes in the various locations outside of town and put one of them in the gym bag underneath harry s car. when sally arrived at what she believed to be the planning meeting, she would have recognized kopenheffer from church. hi, sally, how are you? he somehow talked her into his van where he overpowered and subdued her.
he then forced her to record the message to her husband telling him she had been kidnapped. the forensic evidence shows that kopenheffer killed sally within a few hours after he abducted her. then dumped her body on the farm outside of town. he returned to his store, placed the call to harry at the bank and played sally s tape recording. kopenheffer was sure harry would follow the instructions to the letter. the computer evidence shows that he planned to kill harry at the abandoned church when he dropped off the ransom money. harry was the one he was mad at for having turned him down on the loan application. he wanted revenge on harry as