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Speaker 5 Every time you've got an unsolved murder, you've got somebody walking around in your community that's killed somebody.

Speaker 7 David was just a very, very nice guy. They were just the normal all-American young couple living next door.

Speaker 7 My husband and I were asleep in bed and just startled by a series of loud thumps on the other side of the wall.

Speaker 6 Just a sound that we'd never heard before.

Speaker 7 I said, I am going to put my ear to the wall and if I hear anything else, I am calling the police. I heard nothing, absolutely nothing.
For the next hour or more, I was just still awake and restless.

Speaker 7 The next thing that happened was I heard a loud pounding on the door

Speaker 7 and it was Melinda.

Speaker 5 When David Harmon got murdered, I was on call that weekend.

Speaker 8 According to police, sometime during Sunday nights here on Sheridan Drive in Arlatha.

Speaker 5 My name is Paul Morrison. In 1982, I was an assistant district attorney here in Johnson County.

Speaker 8 The intruders went into Harmon's house and woke Mrs.

Speaker 4 Harmon.

Speaker 5 That was the first murder scene that I'd ever seen. One of the most brutal murder scenes that I've ever seen in my career.

Speaker 5 Very, very bloody. He was disfigured so badly that the initial officers thought he'd been shot in the face with a shotgun.

Speaker 5 It traumatized a lot of people because what came out publicly was that there was this horrible home invasion.

Speaker 9 These people beat this poor guy to death in bed.

Speaker 5 It was one of those cases where you're going, you know, we don't believe this. There's more to this story than meets the eye.

Speaker 14 This was a place where people felt that they could get away from the city, raise a family, and live a peaceful life. I think when this happened, it hit home.

Speaker 14 The people involved in this murder are members of the Nazarene Church and go to the college there.

Speaker 5 So this will kind of rock their community a lot.

Speaker 4 I'm Bill Wall.

Speaker 14 I'm a detective with the Lathe, Kansas Police Department. There are a lot of murders, but this is intriguing.
It's got a bit of a sex appeal to it.

Speaker 14 We've got religion, we got a lover's triangle, we got money, and we felt that it was a case that could be solved.

Speaker 14 It was 19 years old when we opened it up. When I'm reading through this case file, I think that we got a shot.

Speaker 14 I mean, eventually you gotta go knock on the door. And that was the turning point, obviously, of this case.

Speaker 5 A knock on the door.

Speaker 6 Today, Olathe, Kansas is a major crossroads,

Speaker 6 a fast-growing suburb of Kansas City,

Speaker 6 home to a large conservative Christian community.

Speaker 6 But back in 1982, it was just a dot on the map.

Speaker 18 In 1982, this was a community where you didn't have to lock your doors, basically. I know that's a cliche, but there was not a lot of danger.

Speaker 6 Andy Hoffman was a reporter for Olathe's Daily News.

Speaker 18 The people that lived here were God-fearing.

Speaker 18 They believed in the Bible and when this horrendous murder happened, it changed the landscape of the community.

Speaker 6 There weren't a lot of homicides in Olathe, so the unsolved murder of David Harmon was a nightmare that stayed with them for more than two decades.

Speaker 14 First time I heard about that case was maybe in the

Speaker 14 early 90s.

Speaker 6 Bill Wall was a young patrol officer at the time.

Speaker 14 It was always kind of a case that had never been solved, and it was kind of a legend throughout the department.

Speaker 6 It might have stayed cold, if not for a simple request in 2001 2001 and some new technology.

Speaker 14 The crime lab came down and they had some time and they wanted to use their DNA expertise. You got any old cold cases? And we had one.

Speaker 4 Look at it, billets.

Speaker 6 The Harmon case moved out of the evidence vault and into the hands of detectives Bill Wall and Steve James.

Speaker 5 For us, this is uncharted territory. I mean, we really didn't have a lot of experience in opening up cold cases.

Speaker 6 They went through all all the evidence to learn what happened back in 1982.

Speaker 14 Once we get started into it, it's so intriguing you don't want to put it down.

Speaker 6 There were accounts from police officers, including J.W. Larrick, then 27, one of the first responders.

Speaker 11 It was a very, very brutal crime scene.

Speaker 6 He found David Harmon's body upstairs in the master bedroom.

Speaker 19 It is the most gruesome crime scene that I've seen in 28 28 years of being a police officer.

Speaker 21 He was just

Speaker 21 massacred.

Speaker 6 Harmon had been beaten repeatedly with a blunt object.

Speaker 14 Blood splattered everywhere. It is on pillows, sheets.
It is on a comforter, a carpet,

Speaker 14 the nightstand next to him.

Speaker 6 It's everywhere.

Speaker 14 I mean, I think this is a classic case of an overkill.

Speaker 6 David's wife, Melinda, was the only witness. She told police two men, possibly black, had broken into their duplex.

Speaker 14 She's awakened by these sounds of someone beating her husband. And then all of a sudden, she's pulled out of bed and taken downstairs.

Speaker 14 She hears one intruder say the next, I think you hit him too hard, you may have killed him.

Speaker 6 She said they demanded the keys to the bank where David worked.

Speaker 14 And that's when she's knocked unconscious.

Speaker 6 Melinda says when she came to, she ran next door for help. Her neighbor called the police.
Then Melinda asked her to call friend Mark Mengelsdorf.

Speaker 4 It was a horrific incident.

Speaker 22 A very close friend of mine was murdered. And,

Speaker 22 you know, I was close friends both with he and his wife.

Speaker 5 They kind of took him in. They'd have him over for dinner frequently.
He'd be over there hanging out.

Speaker 6 Their friendship began at Mid-America Nazarene College, where Melinda was a secretary.

Speaker 12 Melinda was quite professional. She was not much older than our students.

Speaker 6 Don Stelting was dean of students at the college and Melinda's boss.

Speaker 12 Part of the responsibility of my office staff was to make a warm front door for the students. She was a friendly person,

Speaker 12 and she worked hard at that.

Speaker 6 One of the students she befriended was Mark Mengelsdorf, the student body president.

Speaker 12 He was an impressive, impressive young man, good student.

Speaker 6 Melinda introduced Mark to her husband, David.

Speaker 22 I mean, David was in many ways like a big brother to me. You know, he took me under his wing.

Speaker 6 They shared a passion for sports, business, and their church.

Speaker 6 As word of David's murder spread, it stunned Olathe's Nazarene community.

Speaker 4 I remember when the phone call came how unreal it was.

Speaker 6 Pam and Don Stelting were among the first to hear the news. I don't think we could even talk.
It was such devastating news.

Speaker 12 It shook us all very deeply because here was someone that we thought was just a perfect example of what church and the college stood for and he was gone, his life snuffed out.

Speaker 6 His friends at the patron state bank were shocked.

Speaker 23 Why?

Speaker 16 Why would this happen?

Speaker 16 Why David?

Speaker 6 Joy Hempe and Hazel Hendricks.

Speaker 16 We didn't have murders in Olitha.

Speaker 16 And then to have it happen to a person that you worked with every day, it was very scary.

Speaker 5 Well, at first everybody bought the story.

Speaker 6 Paul Morrison is now the district attorney, but back in 1982, I'm just a guppy back then, you know. He was still learning the job.

Speaker 5 And I think everybody thought, gosh, it's just a horrible home invasion thing here. And we got to find these guys because they're obviously extremely dangerous.

Speaker 6 Police immediately staked out the bank in case anyone tried breaking in.

Speaker 5 Of course, it never happened.

Speaker 6 Stealing David's keys baffled Joy Hempe.

Speaker 16 If they got inside the bank with the keys, all they would get would be pencils, erasers, and paper clips. You couldn't get in the vault.
It was on a timer.

Speaker 25 So those are actually his, then.

Speaker 6 It didn't take long for investigators to realize the pieces of the puzzle just weren't adding up.

Speaker 5 No forced entry to the house. There was nothing else taken.
Plus, the person that's able to get them access to the bank, they kill immediately.

Speaker 5 I don't think anybody was comfortable saying that first day, you know, we don't believe it, but there are eyebrows beginning to be raised about this story.

Speaker 6 As doubts grew about Melinda Harmon's story, the focus of the investigation shifted.

Speaker 14 I'm sure some of those detectives back then were thinking, hey, this is not right.

Speaker 15 There's something more here.

Speaker 6 Did they believe that Melinda Harmon was involved in her husband's murder?

Speaker 6 And they suspected she had helped.

Speaker 5 Some questions came up, and in particular, a question about this person, Mark Nanglinstar.

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Speaker 6 They were focusing on Mark.

Speaker 24 He was being suspected for such a horrible thing.

Speaker 22 I just knew it wasn't possible.

Speaker 6 Even after all these years, the memories are still very painful for Pam Stelting.

Speaker 4 I thought I could talk about that crime, but...

Speaker 6 Pam and her husband, Don, still can't believe Olathe police suspected Mark Mengelsdorf was involved in the murder of David Harmon.

Speaker 12 It seemed to be an indication of very bad judgment on the part of the police.

Speaker 12 In our minds, there was someone out there who really had done this horrid murder, and why aren't they looking for them instead?

Speaker 6 But police and prosecutors say there were no signs of intruders. Instead, all the evidence seemed to point to those closest to David, his wife Melinda, and his best friend Mark.

Speaker 6 And what's more, investigators believed they knew the motive.

Speaker 18 No one was talking on the record. Everyone in the community was talking about it off the record.

Speaker 6 Andy Hoffman has covered the case for more than two decades. And what were they saying?

Speaker 18 It's the Nazarene divorce.

Speaker 5 I believe she did this because she couldn't get a divorce. In her mind, it was much better to be

Speaker 5 the widow Harmon than the divorcee Harmon.

Speaker 6 District Attorney Paul Morrison believed Melinda Harmon was unhappy in her marriage and caught up in a secret affair with Mark Mengelsdorf.

Speaker 5 It was definitely a romance.

Speaker 6 But because of their strong religious beliefs, Morrison doubts it was sexual.

Speaker 5 The promise of sex, the lure of sex, unfulfilled, it can be stronger than the actual thing.

Speaker 6 The conservative Christian world they lived in had strict rules of behavior.

Speaker 11 He didn't go to the movies, we didn't dance.

Speaker 6 Mark Wood was a student at Mid-America Nazarene College at the time.

Speaker 18 The old joke we used to have back then was that

Speaker 11 you don't smoke and you don't chew and you don't date the girls who do.

Speaker 6 And when you marry, you marry for life.

Speaker 5 Back in 1982 in the Nazarene Church,

Speaker 5 divorce was not the option that it is today.

Speaker 5 It would have not been a good thing. It would have caused a certain amount of shame and scandal.

Speaker 12 To believe that, one would have to

Speaker 12 not know the Nazarene church at that time. To think that someone would plan murder to avoid divorce is ludicrous.

Speaker 6 Mark Megelsdorf and Melinda Harmon always denied they had a romantic relationship, and at first they cooperated with investigators, but that soon stopped and leads dried up.

Speaker 14 There's a lot of people that remember this case that were members of the church, members of our community. They all thought that the suspects had been identified.

Speaker 4 Why aren't we moving forward?

Speaker 6 Investigators had a bloody murder scene, but no footprints or fingerprints and no murder weapon. Not enough evidence to prosecute.

Speaker 5 The question of, is that going to be provable beyond a reasonable doubt,

Speaker 5 probably wasn't quite there.

Speaker 6 With no charges against them, Mengelsdorf and Harmon both left Olathe.

Speaker 6 Melinda Harmon headed back home to Ohio with her parents. Mark Mengelsdorf went off to Harvard Business School and became a successful corporate executive.

Speaker 22 Definitely went on with my life and

Speaker 22 it's not something that I really dwelled on or focused on a lot.

Speaker 6 He and his second wife Christina live in a million-dollar home in Pelham just outside New York City.

Speaker 6 He's the father of four.

Speaker 6 With one more on the way, the Mengelsdorfs sat down with 48 Hours for their only television interview. I think she's going to be wiped out.
When's the first time that you heard about this?

Speaker 6 It was fairly shortly after we started dating, honestly.

Speaker 24 My first reaction was, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. There's no way that he could have done this.

Speaker 24 And he didn't need to give me any of the facts of the case or any assurances that he had to know that,

Speaker 24 no. I mean, it's not in his personality.

Speaker 22 The fact that the police considered me as a suspect in the course of their investigation was hurtful and

Speaker 22 certainly leaves an impression on you.

Speaker 6 Did you kill David Harmon?

Speaker 22 I did not kill David Harmon.

Speaker 6 And Mengelsdorf doesn't believe Melinda Harmon was involved either.

Speaker 22 Melinda was my good friend and I choose to believe that that was not in her character.

Speaker 6 Back in Olathe, the unsolved Harmon murder had been shelved for almost two decades, but never forgotten.

Speaker 18 They didn't have it on the front burner, but they did not forget about it. The community wouldn't let them forget about it.

Speaker 14 When you read it, it's kind of a no-brainer. The suspects are identified.
These people did it, and now we got to prove it.

Speaker 6 As detectives Bill Wall and Steve James began going over the 19-year-old evidence, they found it odd that blood spatter was all across Melinda Harmon's pillowcase.

Speaker 14 If she's laying in bed, her head should be here, right?

Speaker 4 Right. There should be a void.

Speaker 14 There should be a spot.

Speaker 6 Where there's no blood?

Speaker 14 Where there's no blood.

Speaker 6 With so much blood on the pillowcase, Wall and James were surprised how little blood was on Melinda and her nightgown.

Speaker 5 You would think you would see

Speaker 19 at least some blood up in this general area up here.

Speaker 14 toward the top of the nightgown.

Speaker 6 The only blood was at the bottom of the gown.

Speaker 14 She's standing away from the bed and it's cast off to her.

Speaker 6 They also had doubts about Melinda's story of being knocked out by intruders.

Speaker 20 If she truly was knocked unconscious for that period of time, she wouldn't have remembered anything.

Speaker 6 Evidence was mounting, but they still didn't have a case. They needed to re-interview the suspects.

Speaker 6 In December 2001, detectives Wall and James showed up at Melinda's home in Ohio.

Speaker 14 This is our shop. We wanted to catch her cold.

Speaker 6 Are you nervous?

Speaker 14 Yeah, I'm nervous.

Speaker 24 What happens?

Speaker 14 Knock on the door.

Speaker 14 She answers.

Speaker 6 And what happened next would forever change the course of this case. Had she not let you in, where would we be today?

Speaker 5 We would not be sitting here today.

Speaker 6 When Melinda Harmon left Olathe, Kansas in 1982, she never looked back.

Speaker 6 She moved to this Columbus, Ohio suburb. and started over.

Speaker 14 This is an upscale neighborhood, a very nice house. She's living a pretty good life here.

Speaker 6 Known here as Melinda Rash, she's a soccer mom with two children, married to a successful dentist, active in her community and her church.

Speaker 14 Everyone thought that Melinda Rash was a perfect person, a great neighbor, just doing everything right.

Speaker 6 So when detectives Bill Wall and Steve James showed up out of the blue at the Rash home in 2001, they didn't expect her to talk to them.

Speaker 14 Steve and I both thought that she's probably going to say, hey, I left that back on Laeta. You're going to have to talk to my attorneys, something along those lines, but she didn't.

Speaker 6 Instead, she invited them in.

Speaker 5 It's beyond what I expected to happen.

Speaker 6 As they sat in her kitchen, Rash told the detectives about the night her first husband, David Harmon, was murdered.

Speaker 14 She says that she was awakened by these horrifying sounds of someone striking her husband.

Speaker 14 And she sees a shadowy figure.

Speaker 10 and she runs to the bathroom.

Speaker 6 This isn't the same story as two decades ago.

Speaker 14 This is definitely not the same story. What happened to the two black guys that broke in demanding bank keys? What happened to, I think you hit him too hard, you may have killed him?

Speaker 4 None of that.

Speaker 13 She doesn't remember the lies she told.

Speaker 6 For 19 years, detectives had waited for this kind of break.

Speaker 14 I accused her. I said, I know you killed him.
Either you killed him or he did.

Speaker 6 What did she say?

Speaker 14 Well, I assure you, it wasn't me.

Speaker 6 And Melinda didn't stop there. Instead of ending the conversation or calling her lawyer, she kept talking.

Speaker 14 She wanted to please us. She didn't want her neighbors to be talked to about this.

Speaker 14 I don't think she ever shared with anybody about what happened in 1982.

Speaker 6 She just wanted you to go away.

Speaker 14 Absolutely. And she thought she could manipulate us to get us to go away.

Speaker 6 But they didn't go away. In fact, after three hours, Rash agreed to continue talking at the sheriff's department.

Speaker 6 Only now the interrogation would be videotaped.

Speaker 6 Because he'd established a rapport with Rash, Detective Bill Wall conducted the interview.

Speaker 29 We've been talking.

Speaker 17 I'm sorry I should have offered you a drink at the house.

Speaker 29 Sorry.

Speaker 17 I'm usually a very good hostess.

Speaker 6 Investigators had always believed Melinda Harmon Rash and Mark Mengelsdorf conspired to murder David Harmon so they could be together. Now Bill Wall needed details of their romance to prove motive.

Speaker 14 She said they were friends at first, were friends. Well later on, as their relationship blossomed, she said that there became an emotional bond between the two of them.

Speaker 30 You shared innermost, deepest feelings.

Speaker 17 In a way that is inappropriate. Right.

Speaker 30 You should have been sharing with your husband, bro, Right.

Speaker 14 She said that her feelings were inappropriate and that her husband, David, would definitely not approve.

Speaker 6 But according to Rash, Mengelsdorf wanted more.

Speaker 30 Did he ever come out and say, I love you, I want to have sex with you?

Speaker 30 I would say so. He said that? I would say so.

Speaker 14 She told me that she got the impression he wanted her to get a divorce.

Speaker 17 There were innuendos made.

Speaker 4 Okay.

Speaker 30 Innuendos made about what?

Speaker 17 About

Speaker 17 had life been different.

Speaker 20 He didn't like the fact that you were married.

Speaker 25 Right.

Speaker 6 With their romance established, Bill Wall now needed Rash to connect Mark Mengelsdorf to the murder.

Speaker 20 If you did not kill him, you know who did.

Speaker 18 And we've been down that road.

Speaker 30 And now you're trying to leave me to believe.

Speaker 17 Well, I know in my heart.

Speaker 22 You know in your heart what? Yes.

Speaker 4 That Margot?

Speaker 6 In my heart, I know that.

Speaker 6 She told Wall she didn't see Mangelsdorf that night, but sensed his presence.

Speaker 30 Where was the presence coming from?

Speaker 4 The stairs.

Speaker 6 Why is she saying she felt Mangelsdorf's presence rather than I saw him bludgeon my husband?

Speaker 14 I just don't think she wanted to go there yet.

Speaker 14 She knew if she said that, then that would implicate her further.

Speaker 6 So she's holding back.

Speaker 14 Absolutely.

Speaker 6 Rash wanted to know the consequences before giving up any more information. I don't know where I stand.

Speaker 28 Okay. So there is a little more here?

Speaker 4 There is a little more.

Speaker 25 But we just want to get a little deal there before we go forward.

Speaker 17 Yeah, because I don't.

Speaker 30 You need to know what consequences.

Speaker 17 Yeah, I need to know where I stand from.

Speaker 6 Bill Wall called District Attorney Paul Morrison in Olathe.

Speaker 5 I, like everybody else, was shocked that she talked to him.

Speaker 6 And told him Rash wanted to discuss a deal.

Speaker 5 I remember telling Wall that I wasn't going to buy a pig and a poke because we didn't know exactly what she had to offer. That in my opinion, she had already made some serious admissions.

Speaker 5 So let's not make any deals today that we might regret later.

Speaker 6 After almost two decades of frustration, Morrison finally had had a toehold. But it would take two more years of poring over every piece of evidence to make a case.

Speaker 5 You've got no statute of limitations on a murder case, so we have the luxury of making sure that we got our ducks all lined up as straight as we could before we went into battle.

Speaker 6 In 2003, with those ducks lined up, Melinda Harmon Rash was finally arrested and charged with her husband's murder.

Speaker 6 The news stunned Mark Mengelsdorf.

Speaker 22 It did surprise me. It caught me off guard.
I thought that this thing had potentially run its course, and it of course had not.

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Speaker 34 I know in my heart.

Speaker 22 You know know in your heart what?

Speaker 28 That Margot.

Speaker 6 Melinda Rash's news story of the murder was the end for Mark and Christina Mengelsdorf's quiet life in Pelham, New York.

Speaker 24 It was just about exactly 10 o'clock, and the phone rang, and Mark answered it. The person just said, you know, this is Detective Hines from the Pelham Police Department.

Speaker 24 Could you come downstairs, please? No, we knew what they were there for.

Speaker 6 Living with a cloud of suspicion for 23 years, Mark Mengelsdorf knew this day could come. But for Christina, there was no preparing for what happened next.

Speaker 24 The minute Mark opened the front door, I mean, there they were, and the handcuffs were on him like that, and they walk him off within about 30 seconds, and I was busy looking at the detective saying, wait, you know, can I kiss him goodbye?

Speaker 24 What do I do now?

Speaker 6 Mark Mengelsdorf was arrested and escorted back to Kansas to face murder charges for the 1982 slaying of his close friend David Harmon.

Speaker 6 He was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The same charges Rash is facing.

Speaker 6 Just one week after Mengelsdorf's arrest, Melinda Rash goes on trial for the murder of her first husband. By her side, showing support, is her current husband.

Speaker 6 In spite of the dramatic interrogation tapes, prosecutor Paul Morrison knows getting a conviction after 23 years will be tough.

Speaker 21 About 2.33 a.m., David Harmon was beaten to death in his bed.

Speaker 6 He begins by setting out to establish a motive for the crime.

Speaker 15 Her world revolved around the church.

Speaker 5 Divorce was an unthinkable option. You've got that sort of perverted thinking about that not being an option, and it manifests itself in what most of us would consider to be the unthinkable.

Speaker 5 And that is that

Speaker 5 you kill him.

Speaker 6 Morrison sets out to prove a case largely built on circumstantial evidence. Evidence of an alleged love affair

Speaker 6 and lies.

Speaker 6 First, Rash said she was in bed while her husband was being beaten to death, but prosecutors show her pillow covered in blood.

Speaker 6 Then there is her claim she was knocked out for more than an hour.

Speaker 5 That didn't fit at all and in fact she didn't have any real injuries other than a tiny bruise on her cheek.

Speaker 6 Prosecutors begin unraveling Rash's story of what happened that night, weaving a different story.

Speaker 12 There's about 20 cards and letters from

Speaker 15 Melinda Harmon to Mark Mengelsdorf.

Speaker 6 Prosecutors produce a stack of cards and letters found in Mark Mengelsdorf's apartment, suggesting signs of an intimate relationship.

Speaker 15 Leaves were just signed either Melinda or Love Melinda, or I love you, Melinda, that type of thing.

Speaker 6 As the evidence mounts, it is the 2001 police videotape that cements the case against her and Mark Mengelsdorf.

Speaker 11 You had to know that was him.

Speaker 11 In my heart, I know him.

Speaker 6 As prosecutors slowly built their case, Rash's defense team knew they had to confront the allegations of an affair and murder head on.

Speaker 6 To do that, they turned to the person at the center of this case to testify. But it was not their client, Melinda Rash, they called to the stand.
It was Mark Mengelsdorf.

Speaker 19 I plan to tell the jury the truth just exactly as I told the police 23 years ago.

Speaker 6 And for the first time in 23 years, Mark Mengelsdorf and Melinda Rash are together again. This time, the only thing they are sharing is the charge of murder.

Speaker 17 Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Speaker 22 Yes, I do.

Speaker 14 Yes, I see.

Speaker 21 Thank you.

Speaker 6 Mengelsdorf's testimony is crucial for Rash's defense.

Speaker 6 and ultimately his own. The defense wants to show Mengelsdorf is not capable of murder and that he and Rash couldn't have conspired to commit such a crime.

Speaker 22 I felt that it would be an opportunity for me to tell the truth, to potentially assist in uncovering the truth for the jury, giving them full information, full facts.

Speaker 6 Mark Mengelsdorf's defense attorney, Mickey Sherman, says it's a gamble worth taking, even though anything Mangelsdorf says could be used against him. Why were you so willing to have him testify?

Speaker 23 Truth is the truth.

Speaker 23 I felt that

Speaker 23 I'd rather put him on the witness stand now and

Speaker 23 let the jury, let the world know what his recollection was, rather than have this cloud over his head.

Speaker 6 Questioned by Rash's defense attorney Tom Bath, Mengelsdorf answers questions point-blank about accusations of an affair.

Speaker 21 Mr. Mangelsdorf, were you having an affair with Melinda?

Speaker 22 No, I absolutely was not.

Speaker 21 Were you romantically involved with her?

Speaker 22 No.

Speaker 21 Were you physical in any kind of sexual way with her?

Speaker 22 No, I was not physical with her. Melinda Harmon was my friend.

Speaker 20 And how about David Harmon?

Speaker 22 David Harmon was also my friend.

Speaker 21 And did you kill David Harmon?

Speaker 22 I did not kill David Harmon.

Speaker 6 Mengelsdorf looks calm on the stand, even under tough cross-examination from prosecutor Paul Morrison.

Speaker 13 Are you aware of the fact that she said it was

Speaker 21 an emotionally inappropriate, intimate relationship?

Speaker 22 I'm aware that she made that statement.

Speaker 21 Were you aware of the fact that she said that you

Speaker 21 told her I want to have sex with you?

Speaker 22 I read that statement as well.

Speaker 21 Were you aware of the fact that she said she thinks you killed David Harmon?

Speaker 22 I don't know the specific words, but I did view the tape, and so I'm...

Speaker 9 You're aware of that, yes? Yes.

Speaker 6 How did he do on the witness stand?

Speaker 23 You know, I thought he did fantastic. We all thought he did fantastic.

Speaker 6 For defense attorney Mickey Sherman, this was a dress rehearsal. He got to see how his client will do as a witness.

Speaker 6 But true crime writer Andy Hoffman believes Mengelsdorf taking the stand may not have been the best defense for Rash or for himself.

Speaker 18 There was no feelings of sorrow for David.

Speaker 18 You know, no,

Speaker 18 it was all just rehearsed, and I'm in here, and I'm going going to walk my way out of here and I'm not showing any emotion. I think you really saw Mark Mengelsdorf as Mark Mengelsdorf.

Speaker 18 Totally controlled, totally sure of himself,

Speaker 18 but

Speaker 18 something's wrong there.

Speaker 6 Melinda Rash never took the stand or spoke publicly about the murder of her husband. After nearly three weeks of testimony and over 60 witnesses, Rash's trial comes to a close.

Speaker 6 After two days, the jury reaches a verdict.

Speaker 11 The court will read the verdict of the jury.

Speaker 28 On count one,

Speaker 21 we the jury find the defendant guilty of murder. On count two, we the jury find the defendant guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

Speaker 6 Did Mark help or hurt her on the stand? He hurt her.

Speaker 18 If they believed he,

Speaker 18 they wouldn't have convicted her.

Speaker 6 Out on bail, Mark Mengelsdorf was at home with his wife Christina when they learned of Rash's fate.

Speaker 6 When you saw the word guilty, what was your reaction?

Speaker 22 I think surprised and disappointed.

Speaker 6 You thought she was innocent?

Speaker 22 Yes.

Speaker 6 Christina believes the outcome will be different for her husband.

Speaker 24 It wasn't like we looked at this and said, you know, oh my gosh, you know, the same thing is going to happen to Mark.

Speaker 24 I mean, there's still a confidence that it's a very different case and that Mark will ultimately be found innocent.

Speaker 6 As Mengelsdorf now starts to prepare for his own trial, Melinda Rash, facing life in prison, sits in a Kansas County jail awaiting sentencing. But as he will learn, she's not sitting quietly.

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Speaker 6 Here in Olathe, Kansas, Melinda Rash is behind bars, facing life in prison for the murder of her husband, David Harmon.

Speaker 6 Back in Pelham, New York, Mark Mengelsdorf begins to prepare for his trial, confident a jury will find him innocent.

Speaker 22 When they see the evidence as it's presented, we think they'll come to

Speaker 22 the same conclusion that we know is the reality, that I'm innocent.

Speaker 23 I believe in Mark, and I believe that a jury will believe in Mark, both in his innocence and his character.

Speaker 6 Defense Attorney Mickey Sherman is on the offensive. What's What's your best evidence?

Speaker 23 Mark Mangelsdorf getting on the stand and telling the story. And the lack of such a story on the part of the state.

Speaker 6 While Sherman makes his plans for Mangelsdorf's defense, he's unaware Melinda Rash is making plans of her own.

Speaker 18 You begin to think about your children, I think. You begin to think about your future.

Speaker 6 Writer Andy Hoffman.

Speaker 18 And you begin to think, oh my God, I'm convicted and I'm facing life in prison. What can I do?

Speaker 6 With few choices, Rash makes a stunning move and turns to prosecutor Paul Morrison, looking to make a deal.

Speaker 6 In exchange for a lighter sentence, she says she'll finally tell the truth of what happened that night her husband was brutally murdered.

Speaker 6 Melinda Rash admits for the first time she took part in the murder of her husband David Harmon, and she says she did it with Mark Mengelsdorf's help.

Speaker 6 It sounds like a big break for the prosecution, but it could be a a bigger break for the defense.

Speaker 18 I think it's going to be great father for the defense. She told a lie in 1982.
She told half-truths in 2001.

Speaker 18 She was convicted in 2005.

Speaker 18 And now, facing life in prison, she's going to come clean and tell the truth. Well, do you believe her?

Speaker 6 How concerned are you about her testimony?

Speaker 23 Well, I could put on a big act and say it's no big deal because she's lied before, but of course I'm concerned.

Speaker 6 The usually confident Mickey Sherman knows this could be trouble.

Speaker 23 I mean, this is someone who is obviously going to implicate him, and her credibility, her believability, is going to make a great difference in whether or not Mark Mengelsdorf is going to be convicted or acquitted.

Speaker 24 There we go.

Speaker 6 The stakes are high. If convicted, Mengelsdorf, now a father of five, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Speaker 6 In February 2006, appearing in court for a pre-trial hearing, Mark Mengelsdorf shocks everyone with a statement of his own.

Speaker 30 Mr. Manelsdorf does plead guilty and agrees that he did participate in this crime.

Speaker 6 After 24 years of maintaining his innocence, Mark Mengelsdorf now admits he helped kill his close friend, David Harmon.

Speaker 35 I felt that it was time for me to plead guilty and to get this behind us.

Speaker 6 By his side is his wife, Christina.

Speaker 24 I love my husband, and he is the best husband and the best father that he can be, and we're going to be there for him.

Speaker 20 During the summer of 1981, the two kissed for the first time in the family room of the duplex.

Speaker 6 Pleading to second-degree murder,

Speaker 6 Mengelsdorf stands there while prosecutor Paul Morrison reads Melinda Rash's confession.

Speaker 20 The week before the homicide, Mengelsdorf informed Melinda that he had purchased a weapon, specifically specifically a crowbar, with which to murder David Harmon.

Speaker 20 He indicated that the time for the homicide was getting closer.

Speaker 6 And in the confession, Melinda Rash related a chilling scene. At her husband's funeral, Mark Mengelsdorf whispered in Rash's ear, he got rid of the murder weapon.

Speaker 6 Remarkably, for a couple who now admits they committed this brutal murder to have a relationship, it was the last time they were together.

Speaker 13 And she was ready to testify that during this relationship that she had with Mark Mengelsdorf, during their discussions of how they were going to end up together, her and Mark, that for her, it came down to the fact that she chose murder over the social stigma of divorce.

Speaker 23 Bottom line is that she was just one of the factors which we all considered in deciding whether or not Mark should plead guilty. Mark finally made the call himself.
He wanted to get on with his life.

Speaker 23 He saw the possibilities of conviction. He saw the possibilities of acquittal and elected to plead guilty.

Speaker 6 On May 12th, 2006, in two separate hearings, Mark Mengelsdorf and Melinda Rasch are sentenced for the horrific murder of David Harmon.

Speaker 21 I do not suggest that this punishment is equivalent to the crime itself. No punishment could be.

Speaker 6 They are both sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison.

Speaker 17 To the Harmon family, words do not adequately express the things I feel in my heart. Just words are not enough.
I'm horrified beyond words that I was ever connected to this.

Speaker 17 And I knew the minute it happened that it was wrong. For that, I'm very, very, very sorry.

Speaker 22 I have pled guilty to this. I've acknowledged my involvement.
I'm truly, truly sorry for

Speaker 22 David's death and for the loss of the time that you've experienced not being able to spend time with him.

Speaker 4 Mr.

Speaker 21 Harth, good afternoon, Your Honor.

Speaker 6 But for David's father, John, Melinda and Mark's apologies will never be enough.

Speaker 21 Melinda, I hold you more responsible than Mark. You as a wife could have called a halt to the entire plot at any time.

Speaker 21 Mark, you're not only a murderer, you're also a thief.

Speaker 13 You took our one and only child in a vicious, not just normal, a vicious attack and act of violence.

Speaker 28 You conned everybody while you were living a lie for over 20 years.

Speaker 6 It took 24 years, but for this small town of Olathe, Kansas, the memory of a haunting murder can finally be laid to rest. And for David Harmon, a 24-year-old in justice has come to an end.

Speaker 37 Melinda Rash served nine years in prison and was released in 2015.

Speaker 10 Mark Mengelsdorf was released in 2016 after serving 10 years.

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