of notice it was getting a little late. it had gotten dark. and i know nobody should be kind of hiking when it s dark. alex had no inkling of the tragedy unfolding at cottonwood creek. it started right after his dad took this picture of his mother, leslie. leslie gracie posed here. you can see it s a stunning setting. but just about an arms length behind me is a cliff. a steep drop off to the granite below. the icy cold waters of cottonwood creek. right after fred snapped the picture, leslie fell and was swept away in the water. unable to find her, fred raced for help. driving more than a mile to the nearest house. somebody just showed up at my house. with no cell service up by the greek, the owner of the house, justin sparks was the first to call 9-1-1. he pulled up, he said. at the waterfall. she s in the river. she fell and they can t find her. he s frantic, of course. he said he thinks his wife is dead.
magnitude of the terrible tragedy that stuck with me. and will stay with me the rest of my life. you get teary eyed when you talk about this woman, you ve never even met. correct. she s not even a member of your family. i do. what is this connection you feel with her? i don t have an explanation. i can t put a finger on it. that certainly, it does truly haunt me. i feel like i let her down. leslie s family chooses to remember her vividly. not as a victim, but as a cherished wife and mother that they lost too soon. we don t want people to forget about how wonderful of a person she was before the accident. and all the great things that she did. all the babies she delivered the life she saved. she was just a great, great person. with the vacation home the mueller once loved, long sold, they are making new memories as
that fred was lying to cover up leslie s murder. two people went on a hike and only one person came back. the prosecution began its case with testimony about fred s behavior that day. they called jennifer sparks, whose house fred drove to looking for help. did you observe him become a motion ill at any time? no. she told the jury fred s lack of emotion concerned her. what conversations did you have with your husband about that? i told him something is not right. be careful. her husband, justin, testified that fred s demeanor seemed staged as the group drove together to look for leslie. it just sounded like somebody was crying that there were no tears. he acted like he was very, very upset. and then, a few seconds later he would act like we were kind of buddies driving down the road in the car. the prosecution had hoped to bring the jury up to cottonwood creek. but in january, the terrain was virtually impossible with snow
october 2013 felt like a grim groundhog day. fred mueller, again in court. his family supporting him from the gallery. did you feel at all like, ok, we know how this works no? we re a little stronger this time around? i did feel that way. we can cut out the extraneous stuff and really focus on the no case. but there were differences from the first trial. to ensure an untainted jury pool, the case had been moved northeast to suburban denver. more than 250 miles away from cottonwood creek. the evidence in this case is that leslie mueller did not fall off a cliff. this time from the prosecution, jurors heard a streamlined version of events. and how, according to the state, fred mueller told a story that defied logic. like most murders, this one is hard explain. does it make sense. it doesn t make sense how and
you can t say what people are supposed to this was bundled up she was, in cold water. we thought about this more than anyone should ever think about what their mother s body died after she died. the defense called its own forensic expert, veteran pathologists warner he testified there were some injuries. bruising on her hand. an apparent small skull fracture that no one else had highlighted. if you look carefully at this, you will see that there is an area here that is not like it should be. after looking at the medical examiners report, and leslie s x-rays, dr. spitz said there was no evidence this was a homicide. what was it in my opinion? accident. that s what i would have put on the death certificate. a veteran emergency room doctor backed up spits his conclusion.