Kristen Durgen

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Speaker 2 Their comfortable lifestyle and loving children weren't always enough to keep their 18-year romance afloat. They were trying to put their marriage back together.

Speaker 6 He was my best friend. He still talks on the phone five times a day.

Speaker 2 Until a mysterious disappearance changes everything.

Speaker 8 He's so reliable that he wouldn't just disappear.

Speaker 2 Is this a case of a person who doesn't want to be found?

Speaker 10 I did not know he was married for the first two and a half years.

Speaker 11 It was that moment where you knew that first big piece of the puzzle had just been set out in front of you.

Speaker 3 They're beginning to realize that maybe he's leading a double life.

Speaker 2 Or has greed corrupted someone into doing the unthinkable? He was begging for his money, saying he didn't do anything, he didn't do anything.

Speaker 2 Get out of it.

Speaker 11 He said he did it for the money.

Speaker 12 It was a trap.

Speaker 10 What about you? You condoned this? You assisted and you helped.

Speaker 13 It was absolutely amazing to me what someone would do for money.

Speaker 2 July 11th, 2008.

Speaker 2 Salida, Colorado.

Speaker 2 It's about 3 p.m. on a quiet summer afternoon when officers at the Salida Police Department receive a worried call from 40-year-old mother Kristen Durgan.

Speaker 13 On the night of July 10th, her estranged husband, Jim Durgan, had rented a hotel room in Canyon City to stay.

Speaker 13 On the morning of July 11th, he was supposed to drive out to Salida to go to pick up his children, but he never arrived.

Speaker 2 Kristen says as night fell with no sign of Jim, she and her children grew increasingly worried.

Speaker 16 Kristen called me and said, have you seen Jimmy? I said, no. They said, he's gone and we can't find him.
She didn't sound pretty frantic.

Speaker 7 My dad called me and told me he was missing. I actually got his phone number and tried calling him several times.

Speaker 5 Jim's sister called me and said, Jim is missing. She said he didn't show to pick up the kids.
That's unusual. I was puzzled, but worried.

Speaker 7 Jim was reliable.

Speaker 2 After three days pass with no sign of Jim, detectives open a formal investigation.

Speaker 11 My partner called and said that he received a missing person's report, and that from the initial indication, it seemed like this person was legitimately missing.

Speaker 2 James Durgan, known as Jim to Friends, was born on December 19th, 1970 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Speaker 16 Jim was a good kid. He enjoyed going hunting with me.
I had a little boat and he enjoyed fishing and we've had a lot of fun experiences.

Speaker 14 He was fun-loving,

Speaker 7 great to be around, never saw him angry. He was always very helpful.

Speaker 2 In 1988, Jim graduated high school and went to college. But after a few months, he realized that four more years of school wasn't for him.

Speaker 16 I said, you are going to get a job. And so I introduced him to a guy there in Northern Telecom.
And

Speaker 16 I said, now it's up to you.

Speaker 13 James would travel anywhere they were installing new telecommunications equipment, wiring, things like that.

Speaker 7 He would do a lot of traveling. He'd travel like all over the western side of the U.S.

Speaker 2 Then in 1990, after returning home to Phoenix for the weekend, Jim was set up on a blind date with 22-year-old Kristen Tragedy.

Speaker 15 She was just so put together and dressed really nicely and she was real soft-spoken and she could really connect to people and she was just a real sweet girl.

Speaker 13 Kristen was the daughter of a multi-millionaire. Her father was an inventor.
My understanding is that Kristen grew up in the lap of luxury.

Speaker 9 She could have whatever she wanted.

Speaker 2 So when Kristen met Jim, she knew she would eventually have him too.

Speaker 7 July of 1992. They got married in Las Vegas and at a little chapel and just a bunch of family and friends.
They were cute together, you know. They always seemed to be happy.

Speaker 18 This time, Jim and Kristen, I'd like you you both to join your right hands, like in a handshake.

Speaker 18 To signify that you're coming together as equals.

Speaker 2 When the honeymoon phase was over, Kristen and Jim found a way to keep their romance alive despite the demands of Jim's job.

Speaker 13 Kristen was able to travel with Jim on his work trips, and they were able to keep a fun-loving kind of party spirit in their marriage.

Speaker 2 Then in 1995, Kristen and Jim had a son, followed quickly by a daughter.

Speaker 3 When they started having children, she was content to stay at home and be a stay-at-home mom.

Speaker 2 When Jim was home, he made his time count.

Speaker 7 He was really a devoted father.

Speaker 14 I'm sure he missed him when he was traveling, but he did speak highly of them.

Speaker 2 In 1998, Jim decided to move the family to the picturesque town of Salida, Colorado.

Speaker 16 He was making very good money, so he was going to do everything he could to make life for her and the kids very good.

Speaker 2 As the years went by, Jim's work schedule took its toll on the marriage.

Speaker 7 I guess it seemed to put a lot of strain on Kristen. It was pretty hard, I guess, for her being alone all the time and my brother out traveling on the road.

Speaker 2 But it wasn't just Jim's traveling that caused a strain on the marriage.

Speaker 16 They were having problems. She didn't work, so there was a lot to keep up the house payment, the car payment, and all the other, you know, all the other bills.

Speaker 2 Even though Jim worked hard to provide money for his family's needs, Kristen would often spend it only on herself.

Speaker 16 He says I would leave money to pay the bills and the bills were not being paid. And so I would come home and have to make up money to pay the bills and I just don't have it.

Speaker 2 In the spring of 2008, after years of fighting over money and his time spent away, Jim moved to Wyoming and the couple finalized the terms of their divorce.

Speaker 16 Well, he agreed that he was going to give her the house

Speaker 16 and he was going to give her

Speaker 16 like $1,200 a month.

Speaker 16 He was going to pay off the cars and he was going to give her half of his retirement.

Speaker 2 Kristen also maintained primary custody of their 14 and 10-year-old children.

Speaker 11 I believe it was going fairly amicable. Jim would travel back from his business trips to see the children.
It seemed as if Jim was involved in the children's lives as much as he could be.

Speaker 2 To prepare for her new life as a single mother, Kristen took a job at a local restaurant.

Speaker 15 I had hired her to work as a server, and we became friends after that. Kristen was always smiling and happy, and she did a great job.

Speaker 2 Although Jim and Kristen had established their new lives apart, the spark between them hadn't died.

Speaker 3 Not long after he filed for divorce, they rekindled their relationship they thought they could probably patch up their marriage he told me the week before he was reporting missing he loved her and he was doing everything he could to keep it together

Speaker 2 but on july 14th 2008 kristen and jim's reconciliation is put in danger when jim is classified as a missing person.

Speaker 15 After I was given the assignment to look into Jim's disappearance, the first thing that I did was drive to the hotel Jim had checked into.

Speaker 2 There is no sign of Jim's car in the parking lot. But according to the clerk from the front desk, Jim didn't sound like a man planning to disappear.

Speaker 15 The clerk that helped me out actually told me that Jim had inquired about the swimming pool because he was bringing his children back.

Speaker 15 They gave me a key to the room. I checked the room.

Speaker 3 And that's when they find out that

Speaker 3 something's not right.

Speaker 15 The room itself was absolutely undisturbed. It appeared that he walked in, set his stuff down, and turned around and walked out.
Nothing was sat on, nothing was moved, everything was in place.

Speaker 3 It's like he's just vanished.

Speaker 2 Coming up, twisted love triangles cast a shadow on the investigation.

Speaker 3 She couldn't stay away from him.

Speaker 11 She was in a new relationship two decades younger than her.

Speaker 12 Both members of that marriage were in extramarital affairs.

Speaker 6 I expected him to stay, but it seems that it had been going on longer than that.

Speaker 2 July 14th, 2008. Investigators in Salida, Colorado have just discovered the deserted hotel room of 37-year-old missing father, Jim Durgan.

Speaker 3 He checked in, but he didn't stay in the room. He hadn't slept in the bed.

Speaker 13 This man, as far as we could tell, had vanished off the face of the planet.

Speaker 15 We took Jim's driver's license photo that we obtained from the state and a stock photograph of what his car should have looked like and started passing out missing persons flyers.

Speaker 2 Next, detectives pay a visit to the person who reported Jim missing three days earlier, his recently estranged wife, 40-year-old Kristen Durgan.

Speaker 11 She reiterated that he was supposed to pick up the children and take them back with him for the weekend.

Speaker 6 Like I told the other officers, if he was more than 15 minutes late anywhere, he would always call. That was kind of his thing.

Speaker 11 Kristen initially said that she had taken a couple of trips towards towards Canyon in an effort to look for Jim.

Speaker 11 She started to suggest that maybe he had been fishing and she was checking along the Arkansas River where he may have gone fishing.

Speaker 15 According to Kristen Durgen, Jim was an avid fisherman and an outdoorsman. So it wouldn't have been unusual for him to be out fishing, out shooting.

Speaker 2 Though they can't rule out the possibility that Jim has had an accident, detectives need need to know if something in his personal life could be responsible for his disappearance.

Speaker 3 She mentions to police that Jim has filed for a divorce, but they were working on reconciling, and she mentions to them that they had this intimate weekend over Mother's Day.

Speaker 6 He was my best friend. He still talked on the phone five times a day.

Speaker 6 And we were still very close.

Speaker 2 According to Kristen, though the two were on the path to reconciliation there was something holding them back

Speaker 6 they found out that he had a girlfriend

Speaker 11 she had found a letter sometime prior to that it was signed tara she seemed upset about it jim appeared to have moved on um he had found someone and he was working towards getting the divorce in order so that he could move forward i don't know i expected him to date but it seems that it had been going on longer than that.

Speaker 2 Though she's hurt by Jim's infidelity, Kristen admits to detectives that he isn't the only one who has stepped outside of the marriage.

Speaker 11 Kristen had told us that she was in a new relationship. Younger male, almost two decades younger than her, named Andy Tanner.

Speaker 13 They met when they both worked at a pizza restaurant in Salida.

Speaker 4 He was a delivery driver and she was a waitress.

Speaker 2 According to Kristen, when she and Jim were intimate on Mother's Day, Jim said that if she would break off her relationship with Andy, he would break things off with Tara.

Speaker 16 He just felt, well, you know, I still love you and I would like to get, you know, maybe hopefully someday this might get back together.

Speaker 2 But the reconciliation was short-lived.

Speaker 3 Kristen said that lasted for one day, and then she was back together with Andy. She couldn't stay away from him.

Speaker 2 Kristen says after that, she and Jim agreed divorce might be their best option.

Speaker 15 Her and Jim were in the process of getting a divorce, but the divorce was very amicable, and

Speaker 15 there was no real child custody issues with the divorce.

Speaker 2 Still, detectives need to know what Kristen was doing on the night of June 10th, the last night Jim was seen alive by the hotel clerk.

Speaker 20 I worked at night. I think I got out at 10.45 to 11 or somewhere.

Speaker 6 Oh, I came home from work and I fell asleep.

Speaker 2 After speaking to Kristen, detectives know who they need to question next.

Speaker 2 Jim's alleged mistress, Tara.

Speaker 11 We wanted to find out where she was. I mean, if she had an alibi, if it was a solid alibi, what involvement, if she had any, in the situation would have been.

Speaker 2 But before they track her down, detectives bring in Kristen's boyfriend, Andy Tanner, for questioning.

Speaker 11 I engaged him in a conversation about what he knew about Jim Durgan's disappearance. I asked him if he had any problem with Jim Durgan or if Jim Durgan had any problem with anybody else.

Speaker 20 You know, I really don't know.

Speaker 20 You know,

Speaker 20 he's a real stand-up guy.

Speaker 11 He as well said that Jim was well-liked and that he and Jim,

Speaker 11 despite the situation, had never had any sort of a cross-encounter.

Speaker 20 I mean, he talked to me only twice. So, I mean, he's non-confrontational.
Means there would be no reason for somebody to hurt him.

Speaker 2 Like Kristen, Andy also has an alibi for the night of June 10th.

Speaker 11 When we talked to Mr. Tanner, he explained that his shift would have ended around the same time he as well went home.

Speaker 2 After speaking to Kristen and Andy, detectives request timesheets from their employers.

Speaker 11 When we check out Andy Tanner and Kristen Durgan's alibis as far as the night that we believe Jim went missing, everything seems to be in order that Andy Tanner was at work and Kristen Durgan had been at work.

Speaker 2 With Kristen and Andy's alibis confirmed, detectives decide to take a drive down Highway 50, which parallels the Arkansas River, in an attempt to locate Jim Durgan.

Speaker 15 He was an avid fisherman. We didn't know if he stopped and decided to do a little fishing and ended up falling into the river.

Speaker 11 We paid particular attention to those areas where someone might go fishing.

Speaker 2 It's not long before detectives find something.

Speaker 11 Pulled into the Lone Pine Recreation site,

Speaker 10 we did locate Jim Durgan's car.

Speaker 15 When we approached Jim Durgan's car, we noticed that there was a citation underneath the windshield wiper.

Speaker 11 The ticket was written for July 11th, which was also the same day that Christian Durgan had reported Jim Durgan missing.

Speaker 2 Otherwise, the car appears to be untouched.

Speaker 15 We checked the area, which is a very remote area inside of a very boxed canyon, so there wasn't a lot of area that he could have gone.

Speaker 11 When we saw Jim Durgan's car parked in the recreation site, it was that moment where you knew that

Speaker 11 that first big piece of the puzzle had just been set out in front of you. I think we knew at that point there was something wrong.

Speaker 2 Coming up. Investigators uncover a damning eyewitness account.

Speaker 21 He went to the bathroom immediately and started scrubbing his hands, hands, scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing. That's when I asked him, like, you got to tell me what's going on with you.

Speaker 21 And he says, well, I'm the one they're looking for. And immediately this red flag went off.

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Speaker 2 After finding missing person James Durgan's car off a remote riverside pull-off, detectives in Salida, Colorado have growing concerns for the beloved father's safety.

Speaker 11 We were pretty concerned at that moment in time we were not going to find Jim Durgen alive.

Speaker 2 While police still don't know what happened to Jim, they believe his alleged mistress, Tara, could help them.

Speaker 11 The DA at the time really wanted us

Speaker 11 to check out Tara for additional information.

Speaker 2 However, on July 18th, one week after Jim's disappearance, detectives are taken aback when Tara walks into the Canyon City Police Department, demanding answers of her own.

Speaker 11 She too was concerned that Jim had not contacted her.

Speaker 10 I'm still holding on to these doctors.

Speaker 3 Tara tells police that Jim left her home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on the morning of July 10th, and he flew to Colorado Springs. and called her when he landed.

Speaker 11 We learned speaking with Tara that Jim had already actually actually purchased his airline ticket back to the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and was to return July 13th and he never showed up.

Speaker 2 When detectives ask how much Tara knew about Jim's life in Salida, she admits he hadn't always been honest.

Speaker 15 During our conversations and interviews with Tara, we discovered that she initially met Jim in 2001 on an online dating site.

Speaker 7 We hit it off really well.

Speaker 23 I mean, just really good friends right away.

Speaker 3 They started dating more seriously.

Speaker 10 The one and only period where he did lie to me. I did not know he was married for the first two and a half years.

Speaker 10 After that,

Speaker 10 we

Speaker 3 broke out.

Speaker 2 Over the next few years, Tara says that she had tried to move on. But in early 2007, Jim called her up while on a work trip.

Speaker 23 January, he got pneumonia. I went down because I lived close by and helped him recover.

Speaker 3 She helped nurse him back to health. They rekindled their relationship, but she made it very clear that she wanted him to get a divorce.

Speaker 3 So in March of 2008, he started talking to Kristen about getting a divorce. He was ready to give up on his marriage and start a a new relationship with Tara.

Speaker 2 Though according to Tara, she'd grown frustrated with Jim's lingering connection to his ex-wife.

Speaker 23 I think it's ridiculous.

Speaker 23 You guys are getting a divorce now.

Speaker 23 She needs to learn the boundaries. You're not her best friend.
You're not her confidant.

Speaker 2 Did Jim's reluctance to call it quits with Kristen lead Tara to do the unthinkable?

Speaker 2 To find out, detectives asked for her whereabouts on the night Jim disappeared.

Speaker 13 Tara was in Wyoming through the whole period.

Speaker 12 She was fairly quickly ruled out as a suspect.

Speaker 2 Then, five days later, detectives get a call that confirms their worst fears.

Speaker 15 Two kayakers were kayaking down the Arkansas River just east of the Lone Pine Recreational Area when they discovered a body floating down the river.

Speaker 15 Jim Durgan was the only person that was logical. Jim's dental records were obtained.

Speaker 15 I took those x-rays to the odontologist and he compared Jim Durgan's x-rays to the body that was discovered and he made an absolute identification that that was the body of James Durgan.

Speaker 16 When the Sheriff's Department told me that they had found him in the river and that it just couldn't sink in,

Speaker 16 I just had to go in and throw up and cry and I couldn't fathom what was going on.

Speaker 7 I just, like, how could this happen? It was really devastating.

Speaker 2 The question on everyone's mind is, how had this healthy father of two died?

Speaker 3 Everyone's natural instinct is to assume drowning.

Speaker 15 Initially, x-rays were taken of the body and it was discovered that there was metallic projectiles in the skull of the body.

Speaker 11 The autopsy showed that Jim Durgan had been shot in the head three times.

Speaker 10 It was clear that he had been murdered.

Speaker 2 Investigators reach out to Jim's wife, Kristen.

Speaker 11 I told her that we had found Jim's car. She began to cry, And then I went on to tell her that we had also found Jim as well and that Jim was not alive.
She began to cry again.

Speaker 2 Next, detectives break the news to Jim's girlfriend, Tara.

Speaker 3 I felt sorry for Tara because she lost a person that she described was her soulmate.

Speaker 2 When detectives ask Tara who might have wanted Jim dead, she doesn't hesitate.

Speaker 3 The first thing that she said to them was, you should look at Kristen's boyfriend, Andy Tanner.

Speaker 2 According to Tara, Andy's statement that his relationship with Jim was amicable couldn't be further from the truth.

Speaker 3 Tara knew that Andy and Jim had this sort of a volatile relationship where they definitely didn't respect each other and didn't get along.

Speaker 2 Could the tension between Jim and Andy have reached a breaking point?

Speaker 2 To find out, detectives speak with employees who were working with Andy on the evening of July 10th.

Speaker 13 One of those employees said that Andrew left for a period of time on the night of July 10th for between half an hour and an hour.

Speaker 13 He claimed that he was helping a friend with a car stereo and then giving a friend a ride and asked this woman to cover for him.

Speaker 2 But who was Andy supposedly helping?

Speaker 2 Looking through Andy's phone records for the days before and after Jim's disappearance, one number appears again and again.

Speaker 15 Through phone record analysis, we came up with a gentleman by the name of Brian Folsom.

Speaker 11 There was a lot of communication between Andy and Brian the night Jim went missing, as well as the following day when Jim was reported missing.

Speaker 2 When detectives pull Brian's record, they realize he's no stranger to crime.

Speaker 11 At the time of the murder, he was actually on parole with the state of Colorado for a strong-armed robbery.

Speaker 2 Confident there is more to the story, on August 27th, 2008, detectives obtain a search warrant for Brian's home.

Speaker 2 When they arrive, they find Brian and his girlfriend and bring them to the station for formal interviews.

Speaker 11 Marlena Wiesman was questioned, Brian Folsom's girlfriend, about the July 10th night if Brian was around.

Speaker 21 Well, that night, Brian told me that he had to go help somebody with his car stereo. And immediately this red flag went off, you know, the BS flag.
He was gone for about four hours, I'd say.

Speaker 21 It was a long time. And right when he got back, Brian, he came up the stairs and went to the bathroom immediately and started scrubbing his hands, scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing.

Speaker 11 At this point in the investigation, we felt we were on the right path.

Speaker 2 Fueled by Marlena's statements, detectives are ready to put the screws to Brian.

Speaker 2 But they won't have to work too hard.

Speaker 9 Beyond,

Speaker 10 this has been eating me up every fing day.

Speaker 2 Coming up, detectives discover a brutal crime driven by greed.

Speaker 13 It was absolutely amazing to me what someone would do for money.

Speaker 2 But just how deep does this conspiracy go?

Speaker 10 What about you? You condoned this. You assisted and you helped.

Speaker 2 On August 27th, 2008, 48 days since Jim Durgan's murder, detectives are seated with convicted felon Brian Folsom, who's desperate to get something off his chest.

Speaker 24 I don't know. I hope not.

Speaker 15 I and another detective went in and spoke with Mr. Folsom,

Speaker 15 and he

Speaker 15 basically

Speaker 15 confessed to his part of Jim Durgan's death.

Speaker 20 It's a real bad situation, man, but I didn't see this guy get killed, and I didn't give up, you know.

Speaker 2 According to Brian, it all began when he struck up a friendship with 22-year-old Andy Tanner at the fast food restaurant they both worked at in Salida, Colorado.

Speaker 2 Brian says when Andy learned that he had done time in prison for strong armed robbery, he asked for his help.

Speaker 11 He says that this guy's been a very bad problem for a very long time. He says that this guy's done a lot of things to f his life up.
And he says that he was going to kill him.

Speaker 15 He told us initially that

Speaker 15 he was hired by Andy Tanner to kidnap Jim Durgan from the Lone Pine Recreational Area.

Speaker 2 Although Brian says he had doubts about the plan, greed got the better of him.

Speaker 11 He said he was going to get paid $2,000 from Andy.

Speaker 11 When we asked him if he knew Jim Durgan, he said he never met him. He said he just did it for the money.

Speaker 2 Brian says that on July 10th, 2008, Andy told him to wait for Jim at the Lone Pine Recreational Area.

Speaker 15 When Jim Durgan showed up, he attacked Jim.

Speaker 15 He had a large knife with him. He handcuffed Jim, threw him in the back of the vehicle.

Speaker 11 They were like three to six miles, drive him up this fing dirt road, took him up to the top with her, tied him to a tree with rope, and

Speaker 11 those handcuffs.

Speaker 2 And he was begging for his life, saying you didn't do anything, you didn't do anything.

Speaker 3 Then he told him, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just leaving you here.
Don't panic.

Speaker 3 And then he leaves and returns to Salida.

Speaker 11 Ryan says he drives back to the burger joint where Andy was working currently. He told Andy that he's got him tied to the tree.

Speaker 3 He took a piece of white receipt paper and drew a map for Andy showing him where he had taken Jim and tied him to a tree.

Speaker 3 So Andy looked at the map, studied it, and then watted it up and ate it.

Speaker 13 At that point, Brian Folson exits the story. All he did was the kidnapping.
He did not

Speaker 10 shoot Jim Bergen.

Speaker 11 I think Andy might have left and gone back and done it, but I don't know. I don't know.
That's what I think happened.

Speaker 8 He had to know that this man that he had kidnapped from the side of the road was not going to survive the night.

Speaker 13 It was absolutely amazing to me what someone would do for money.

Speaker 2 Following Brian's confession, detectives charge him with Jim Durgan's kidnapping and murder.

Speaker 2 As police shift their focus to Andy Tanner, they subpoena financial records.

Speaker 15 Once we looked into where Andy got the money to pray Brian Folsom, we found out that Andy had received a small inheritance from his father's death.

Speaker 2 While they're looking into Andy, they also pull his girlfriend Kristen Durgan's financial records.

Speaker 15 It became very obvious that Kristen Durgan had a huge gambling problem.

Speaker 12 She She lost a lot of money.

Speaker 13 Anywhere from $200,000 to tens of thousands of dollars at any given time.

Speaker 7 My brother was giving her money to pay the bills and she was spending it on the gambling.

Speaker 16 It was just an addiction. She went to rehab twice, but it didn't...

Speaker 16 It didn't take...

Speaker 11 Kristen had been gambling for a very long time, probably from near the beginning of their marriage.

Speaker 2 When detectives examine the couple's provisional divorce agreement, it's clear that Jim wasn't willing to put up with Kristen's spending any longer.

Speaker 15 During the analysis of the divorce agreement, Kristen was required by the divorce agreement to pay certain debts off. Once she paid those debts off, she was only going to walk away with under $20,000.

Speaker 2 But those aren't the only financial implications of their divorce.

Speaker 13 If Jim survived long enough for the divorce to be finalized, he would have changed the beneficiaries of his life insurance from Kristen to his children.

Speaker 15 If Jim was to die before the divorce was finalized, she would receive the house, his full pension, his full 401k,

Speaker 15 and a $250,000 life insurance policy.

Speaker 3 When they add it all up, they realize that she stands to inherit nearly a half a million dollars.

Speaker 13 Jim was worth a lot of money, Dad.

Speaker 5 She was so greedy.

Speaker 13 She wanted it all.

Speaker 8 And she needed it all.

Speaker 2 On August 28th, 2008, Kristen makes a surprising move and shows up at the station accompanied by her father.

Speaker 11 We conducted another interview with her after she had stated she had additional information about the case.

Speaker 2 Kristen tells police that she finally knows what happened to Jim.

Speaker 15 She told that detective that Andy had confessed to her that he actually was responsible for Jim Durkin's death. He had told her that he had shot Jim.

Speaker 10 When he said he just got to reconcile, I think Andy really hurts, didn't want that to happen

Speaker 10 because Andy was in love with you.

Speaker 11 Kristen played the victim in that she didn't know what he was gonna do and that she

Speaker 11 didn't have any active role in it.

Speaker 2 But Kristen's cry falls on deaf ears.

Speaker 10 Do not be a true voice.

Speaker 10 Do not.

Speaker 15 I confronted her with the fact that we were aware of what happened.

Speaker 15 And I started giving her facts that Brian Folsom had told us the night before.

Speaker 10 He was worth about $100,000 to you alive

Speaker 10 and $400,000 to you dead.

Speaker 17 I didn't see it that way.

Speaker 2 Out in the hallway, Detective Lopez pulls Kristen's father aside and lays out their case.

Speaker 11 I let Kristen's father in on the facts that we had obtained. I think he clearly saw that there was no way this didn't happen without Kristen's involvement.

Speaker 2 Back in the interrogation room, Kristen is feeling the heat.

Speaker 15 You have this opportunity to explain it to us.

Speaker 10 Why did this happen?

Speaker 10 Whose idea it was?

Speaker 11 Help yourself out.

Speaker 10 Can I help my dad? I'd see why not

Speaker 11 When Kristen's father comes into the room, he doesn't come to his daughter's rescue He was angry and he confronted Kristen and asked if the things that he was being told were true

Speaker 11 What about you

Speaker 10 You condoned this

Speaker 10 You assisted and you helped

Speaker 10 is this is this right?

Speaker 11 Kristen didn't really seem particularly surprised by it. She cried, but mostly she just sat there, sort of in disbelief that this had all just come crashing in around her.

Speaker 17 That was Andy's idea.

Speaker 10 Okay, tell me what was said.

Speaker 9 He said that life would be easier if Jim were out of the way.

Speaker 10 And you said?

Speaker 10 Yeah, it would be.

Speaker 2 Coming up, details of Jim's final hours emerge.

Speaker 15 He was hoarse from screaming. He had actually chewed through the duct tape and was trying to scream for help.

Speaker 2 On August 28th, 2008, under pressure from her father and police, 40-year-old Kristen Durgan finally admits that she and her boyfriend Andy Tanner were were involved in the kidnapping and shooting death of her husband, 37-year-old Jim Durgan.

Speaker 9 He said that life would be easier if Jim were out of the way.

Speaker 10 You said.

Speaker 17 I didn't say, please go kill my husband.

Speaker 9 I said, you're right, life would be easier.

Speaker 2 According to Kristen, she and Andy had been planning Jim's death for multiple days.

Speaker 3 She told them that her and Andy began plotting how they would go about killing Jim and that it was sort of a team effort.

Speaker 2 Kristen says that on July 10th, she and Andy agreed to go through with their plan.

Speaker 10 You made several phone calls. The last one where he truly spoke to you, when did you tell them?

Speaker 9 That

Speaker 2 my car broke down.

Speaker 10 Where did you say your car broke down?

Speaker 10 It was the one in recreation there.

Speaker 1 Kristen never left Slida.

Speaker 1 Kristen's kids never left Slida.

Speaker 8 It was a trap.

Speaker 2 Kristen says that after she made the call around 8 p.m., she finished working her shift, drove home, and went to sleep. Around 6 the next morning, Andy finally came home.

Speaker 10 He just he got into bed and you just said it's time.

Speaker 11 What did that mean to you?

Speaker 10 They killed

Speaker 15 According to her, Andy tells her later that he goes up, finds Jim tied to the tree. He was hoarse from screaming.
He had actually chewed through the duct tape and was trying to scream for help.

Speaker 17 And that's funny, Andy said, you know, I'm going to kill you.

Speaker 10 And is there anything you want to say, dear kid?

Speaker 10 Kids are Chris.

Speaker 10 And

Speaker 10 he told my kids that he wanted them to grow up and go to school and have jobs and good things.

Speaker 10 And he told me

Speaker 10 that he was sorry.

Speaker 10 But he never said, well, he just said, I'm sorry.

Speaker 15 And at that point, Andy Tanner, according to Kristen, shot Jim in the head.

Speaker 11 Andy tells Kristen that he covered him in plastic so he didn't spill any blood in the car. And he put him in the vehicle and he drives down to the river.

Speaker 2 Kristen's father appears horrified.

Speaker 15 Her father realized that she was actually responsible for Jim's death, that she was part of it. Her father became very upset at that point.

Speaker 10 Arrested.

Speaker 10 Keep asking her.

Speaker 2 On August 28th, 2008, Kristen Durgan is charged with conspiracy, kidnapping, and the murder of her husband.

Speaker 15 I was just shocked. The weeks leading up to that, I think I was still in denial that she could possibly commit a murder.

Speaker 2 Hours later, detectives place Andy Tanner under arrest.

Speaker 11 At the time we arrested Andy, Andy really didn't react either way. I don't think he said a word.

Speaker 2 Though Andy immediately requests a lawyer and never speaks with police, Kristen and Brian are more cooperative.

Speaker 15 Brian Folsom and Kristen Durgan struck a deal with the district attorney's office. Both of them were charged with second-degree murder.

Speaker 15 and second-degree kidnapping in exchange for them testifying against Andy Tanner.

Speaker 11 Brian pled to 48 years for the Department of Corrections with, I believe, a five-year parole step. Kristen pled to 54 years and five years parole.

Speaker 2 In August of 2009, Andy Tanner's trial begins and Kristen takes the stand. She admits that money was the main motivation for the crime.

Speaker 15 Kristen and Andy committed the murder for Jim's life insurance policy. That is some kind of greedy that you would kill a human being for money.

Speaker 3 She wants to have plenty of money to keep gambling, and this is her meal ticket.

Speaker 3 It's all about greed. It's all about money.
It's all about her and not anyone else.

Speaker 2 On September 3rd, 2009, the jury finds Andy Tanner guilty

Speaker 2 and sentences him to life in prison.

Speaker 7 I was happy. I was glad justice was served.

Speaker 2 Still, no amount of justice can bring back Jim Durgan.

Speaker 16 I had told her how evil she was to take away a friend, a husband, and a son.

Speaker 16 He was a good friend, and he was a good friend to me.

Speaker 2 In the end, Kristen Durgan discovered that, like all sins, greed can corrupt a person until nothing can satisfy them.

Speaker 15 Her parents were extremely wealthy. She would have stood to have inherited millions of dollars upon their death.

Speaker 15 But her greed overtook her, and she would rather kill the man who fathered her children to get some money now.

Speaker 1 Brian Folsom will be released in 2052. He will be 73 years old.
old. Kristen will be released in 2059.
She will be 91 years old.

Speaker 2 For more information on Snapped, go to oxygen.com.

Speaker 14 It's all a light-hearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid.

Speaker 2 We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart, and I'm Ash Kelly.

Speaker 4 And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched.

Speaker 19 Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group.

Speaker 4 With a touch of humor. Shout out to her.

Speaker 19 Shout out to all my therapists out there. There's been like eight of them.

Speaker 4 A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing.

Speaker 2 That motherfucker is not real.

Speaker 4 And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Way Back Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid.

Speaker 14 Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.