William Dennis

Weight loss medications are everywhere right now.

Everyone's talking about them, everyone's on them.

But let's be real.

Have you seen the price tag?

It's hard to believe they're actually accessible.

That's where HERS comes in.

HERS is transforming women's healthcare by providing access to affordable weight loss treatment plans.

They connect you with a medical provider who will work with you to determine the best treatment option for you.

So, if you've been struggling to find a solution to your weight loss journey, it's time to find the best option that works for you through HERS.

Start your free online visit today at forhers.com/slash snapped.

That's F-O-R-H-E-R-S dot com slash snapped for your personalized weight loss treatment options.

For HERS.com slash snapped.

Weight loss by HERS is not available everywhere.

Compounded products are not approved or reviewed for safety, effectiveness, or quality by the FDA.

Prescription required.

See website for full details, important safety information, and restrictions.

Actual price depends on product and plan

Hey, it's Stephanie Gomolko with oxygen.com.

When I'm running a marathon, I have enough to worry about.

My hydration, to my time, to how my knee is feeling.

The last thing I need to worry about is blisters.

Thanks to Bombas, that hasn't been an issue.

Don't let bad socks and blisters stop you in your tracks either.

Bombas make slides, socks, and seamless essentials to keep up with however you pace your days.

Bombas offers sweat-wicking blister fighting and impact cushioning socks.

You can also order Bombas abroad.

That's right, along with the U.S., they now ship internationally to over 200 countries.

Head over to bombas.com and use code SNAPT for 20% off your first purchase.

That's bombbas.com, code Snapped at checkout.

They were a happy family, and she was a vibrant young mother.

When she smiled and laughed, you couldn't help not loving her.

She was the epitome of a good mother.

But tragedy would come calling calling one terrifying Halloween night.

He was screaming and yelling to help my wife help my wife.

It was so gruesome in nature.

Who does this?

To solve the crime, detectives must follow a trail of unnerving clues.

To unveil a killer and a motive unlike anything police have ever witnessed.

We saw a man across the street wearing this wolf mask.

I think all of us were stunned.

I didn't see any of this coming.

This came out of a horror movie.

San Jose, California.

Halloween night, 1984.

In the close-knit neighborhood of Barriessa, costumed children roam the streets, while grinning jack-o'-lanterns glow on porch steps.

Halloween was just, you know, a happy night for kids.

They get all dressed up and go tree-re-treating.

Beautiful time, you know.

But on this Halloween, the festivities take a disturbing turn when the local 911 dispatch receives a frantic call.

It was around 9.30.

There was a call of a possible stabbing at this location.

The caller identifies himself as Charles Erbert.

Charles is hysterical, and he says that his wife Doreen is lying on the floor in a deep pool of blood and she's eight months pregnant.

First responders arrive on the scene moments later.

There had to be an inch of blood all over the place.

One of Doreen's arms was cut in an angle and the forearm completely cut off.

Numerous cuts in the abdomen and over 25 shots to the head.

They saw Doreen's husband, Charles, covered with blood.

He was speaking historically and almost nonsensically.

I could hear Charles screaming and yelling that help my wife, help my wife.

I don't know what's going on.

He was beside himself, absolutely beside himself, screaming and yelling, my wife, my wife, my wife.

Doreen Ray Hitchens was born on November 29th, 1952 in Santa Clara, California to a loving family.

She had a good childhood.

I know she did.

She had a sister and a brother also that were all so loving.

Oh, she was an angel.

When she smiled and laughed, you couldn't help not loving her.

She was always giving.

Doreen's kind and generous nature led her towards a career caring for others.

She like worked at a hospital.

She was a physical therapist.

She likes to volunteer at schools.

She loved kids.

Before meeting Charles, Doreen fell in love with a man named William Michael Dennis, who went by Michael.

Mike was hard of hearing.

He was deaf.

That must have been tough with a hearing aid.

And, you know, in those days, it was a big thing in your pocket and a wire.

He didn't interact a lot.

There wasn't a lot of conversation.

He didn't bother anybody.

He was just a pretty mellow person.

Michael, a factory worker, had been set up with Doreen through friends.

The couple hit it off quickly.

He said, I feel great.

I found the one.

She is the one for me.

I felt like this is going to be something that was going to have a good chance of working out.

It was a short relationship.

They only knew each other seven or eight months before they got married.

And in April 1976, Doreen and Michael welcomed a baby boy, Paul Dennis, into the world.

Mike really was a doting dad.

Paul was the apple of his eye, his son that he loved so completely.

Unfortunately, The strain of being new parents was too much for the young couple to bear, and they divorced a year later.

Michael moved out, while Doreen retained primary custody of Paul, who visited his dad on weekends.

But Michael cherished every moment he spent with his boy.

The custody arrangements allowed Mike to visit Paul but not have him under his own custody.

He did talk about wishing that he could spend more time with his son.

Not long after her divorce from Michael, Doreen met 28-year-old Charles Herbert, who owned a carpet shop.

A flat tire brought them together.

Her car broke down and just happened to pull over.

And we exchanged numbers and

it took off from there.

Even Charles and little Paul hit it off.

Paul was a great, great son, your typical child.

He's getting things, and I loved him.

The following year, Doreen and Charles tied the knot.

The couple had a baby girl of their own, Deanna Erbert, in November 1979.

When Deanna was born, it was a blessing.

She loved Deanna.

But tragedy struck on February 17th, 1980.

Four-year-old Paul was at his mother's house when he fell into the family pool.

The pool had a fence up that was protected.

I believe the dog dug a hole under the fence.

And it was enough for him to get through.

When baby Paul was pulled from the swimming pool, he was put on life support.

For a week, He was taken off life support and died three days later.

Just sorrow for a long, long time.

It's hard to explain the feeling, especially a child.

There's no words for that.

Paul's death was a devastating blow to the entire family.

But his biological father, Mike, was inconsolable.

The bond and love that he had for his son, that just tore him apart.

That was his whole life.

And losing his son,

he lost part of himself.

Although it was difficult, Mike, Doreen, and Charles all tried to move on.

But Mike, still consumed by his grief, soon drifted out of their lives altogether.

Then, four years later, Charles and Doreen learned they had a new baby boy on the way.

It was pure joy.

Everything was going fine, and we were really expecting, you know, in a month or so.

The baby was due in early November, 1984.

However, a horrific crime rocks the family on Halloween night when Charles finds Doreen bleeding profusely after a savage attack in their home.

It seemed like a nightmare.

Coming up, paramedics work frantically to save Doreen's life.

It was so gruesome in nature.

You know, who does this?

And investigators find a disturbing clue left behind by the attacker.

The right side is a mask.

It's a wolf's mask.

And it's just laying there.

Halloween night, 1984.

Families in the suburbs of San Jose, California are wrapping up a long night of trick-or-treating

when police and paramedics respond to a reported stabbing at the home of Doreen and Charles Erbert.

The person who called it in, Charles, he was saying that he was trying to put his wife back together.

When paramedics arrived at her home, she still had a pulse.

While paramedics rushed Doreen to the hospital, officers detain her husband, Charles, for questioning.

He was frantic.

He was speaking historically and almost nonsensically.

They were trying to get him in the police car because he would be the first natural suspect seeing us his all covered in blood.

He was kicking the door of the police car.

And that's when they said, get him out of here and get him downtown.

As Charles is driven away, officers make sure no one else is in the house.

This is a standard operating procedure to go and clear the house to make sure that we're not getting set up for an ambush, make sure nobody was hiding under beds, and so on.

Officers find a four-year-old girl hiding in the living room.

The little girl is Charles and Doreen's daughter, Deanna.

She was behind a couch.

Police must handle this very delicately.

You have a four-year-old child who most definitely has been traumatized.

She would have to see a specialist, a psychiatrist, someone that she can talk to before they get a chance to find out what she may have witnessed.

With the house now cleared, officers set up a perimeter.

Detectives arrive and try to make sense of the crime scene.

The front door is wide open, and, you know, it had Halloween caricatures on it.

And since the door was open, you could see inside.

You could see that the hallway was red, and then that there was a stool with a pumpkin on it.

It was this lit jack-o'-lantern sitting on a bar stool with this grin on its face, and it was the only light in the house with this candle in it, and it was completely, completely eerie, completely bizarre it's obvious to investigators that whoever attacked doene must have done it right inside the front door suggesting she opened it to her assailant

upon close inspection of the area detectives realized the weapon used must have been a large heavy object possibly a machete

When you hit somebody with a machete or a knife and you raise your arm back to strike again, you actually send a spray of blood backwards.

There was blood splattered everywhere, on the ceiling, on the walls, on the furniture.

They found nicks on the ceiling, so someone lifting his arm up like that would actually hit the ceiling before it came down.

On the floor by the front door, detectives find another haunting clue.

Over in the right corner of the entranceway is a wolf mask.

It's a mask.

And I asked, what is this?

They said, yeah, no, we found it there.

A mask of a caricature wolf with big teeth, big eyes, tongue hanging out.

Had the mask been left by Doreen's attacker?

Officers tag the mask as evidence.

Less than an hour hour later, they receive devastating news from the hospital.

The captain comes over to me and says that the victim at the hospital is dead, has been declared dead.

So we got a homicide there.

We got a homicide in the house.

Based off the viciousness of the attack, detectives conclude the crime must have been personal.

You have to have a tremendous amount of rage.

The type of people that we were looking at right away on any homicide is somebody that's close to the family, somebody close to the victim.

At that point, I was kind of convinced that we had the right guy in custody in the department, which was Doreen's husband, because he was covered in blood.

At the San Jose Police Department, 33-year-old Charles Erbert is held on suspicion of murder.

It was unbelievable how they thought I could do it.

I'm a culprit.

Deb removed all my clothes and gave me this paper thing to wear.

And then a policeman came in and said, your wife has died.

And I asked the guy to hug me and he said I can't.

And I was allowed to work my hands in the blood.

It was sad.

That my dad had to be locked up while she passed away.

Charles denies being the killer, claiming he only found Doreen's body after returning home from the store.

Halloween night, Doreen took Tiana, took her treating, and then we was giving out candy.

And when she came back, it was getting

late,

and there was no one coming to the door.

So I went down to the store.

He went to a store to get something to drink and more candy and then stopped by a friend's house and then was going to make his way home.

Charles says he arrived back home just after 9 p.m.

The front door was unlocked and Doreen was lying in the entryway, covered in blood.

I tried pushing things back in

and she was still breathing harsh.

He was trying to put his wife back together.

Charles claims there was no sign of Doreen's attacker when he returned home.

When asked by detectives if he knows of anyone who might want to hurt his wife, Charles says he can't think of anyone.

Still, the mask collected inside the Erbert home suggests that whoever killed Doreen may have been concealing a familiar face.

They spent much of that night interrogating Charles.

They decided to hold him longer.

Back at the scene, investigators move on to the exterior of the house, where they find something else the killer seems to have left behind.

They found a trail of blood leaving their Ebert's house.

It went all the way down the street, but then it suddenly stopped.

Almost as if maybe someone went into a car and drove off.

Police weren't sure what they were dealing with.

Police wonder, could the trail have come from the victim's blood dripping off the killer?

Or was it the killer's own blood from an injury sustained during the attack?

In those days, we had to rely on blood typing, blood classification.

Investigators collect samples of the blood with the hope they'll be able to compare the blood type to a suspect.

Next, police turned to the neighbors to see if anyone saw something suspicious that evening or could offer insight into who could have committed this crime.

I was going to canvass the area to see if anyone had seen anything.

I talked to several people in the block.

Some were further into the cul-de-sac, so they didn't see anything.

But one witness says he did notice something odd around 6:30 or 7 p.m.

He had seen somebody wearing a wolf mask.

He noticed that there was a person standing across the street from the home, simply staring at the home.

He was wearing a wolf mask.

It's Halloween.

That's not out of the realm of reasoning.

But he did notice that the person was just standing there staring.

What seems strange to this neighbor is that the person wearing the wolf mask didn't appear to be someone who was just enjoying the holiday with everyone else in the neighborhood.

He seemed isolated.

He stood there.

He stared, not necessarily part of a party.

That puts a man wearing a wolf mask and the wolf mask that I saw at the entryway together.

Coming up, an unexpected tip leads police to the door of a new suspect.

We knew somebody was there.

Somebody's trying to flush or wash away evidence.

And later, detectives make an ominous discovery.

They find in the garage two handmade coffins.

Affordable and easy access to therapy is something everyone should have.

It can help you find the silver linings even during tough times.

Telehealth is one-way accessibility is more convenient than ever, thanks to Rula.

Rula isn't just affordable.

They stick with you throughout your journey to make sure you're getting the best therapy and that you're making progress.

With Rula, every provider is carefully vetted and chosen for their expertise, making the first step towards better mental health easy.

Rula starts by asking you some questions about what is important to you and then provides a list of licensed providers who match your preferences.

You can have an appointment as soon as the next day.

Thousands have already trusted Rula to support them on their journey toward improved mental health and overall well-being.

Head over to rula.com slash snapped to get started today.

After you sign up, they ask where you heard about them.

Please support our show and tell them our show sent you.

Go to rula.com slash snapped and take the first step towards better mental health today.

You deserve quality care from someone who cares.

Everyone wants to be stronger, not just physically, but in every part of life.

But between confusing workout advice, complicated equipment, and trying to figure out nutrition, where does anyone even start?

Well, to get stronger mentally and physically, go to Anytime Fitness.

You'll get a personalized training, nutrition, and recovery plan, all customized to your body, your strength level, and your goals.

You'll get expert coaching to optimize your results anytime, anywhere, in the gym, and on the Anytime Fitness app.

And you'll get anytime access to 5,500 gyms worldwide, all with the right equipment to level up your strength gains and your life.

So get started at anytimefitness.com.

That's anytimefitness.com.

It's Halloween night, and San Jose police are desperately searching for a suspect in the brutal murder of 31-year-old Doreen Erbert.

Investigators believe the killer was wearing a wolf mask when he attacked Doreen.

They found a mask of a caricature wolf with big teeth, big eyes, eyes, tongue hanging out.

She must have answered the door, and there was a man in a wolf's mask who basically started slashing at her.

I didn't know if there was an argument or not.

I just know that he unloaded on her.

I mean,

it was a crime that seemed to just come out of a movie.

So far, police have one person of interest in custody, Doreen's husband, Charles Erbert.

While investigators continue to question Charles at the police station, another team of detectives interviews the couple's neighbors, hoping to uncover a clue that could shed light on the masked killer's identity or a possible motive.

Police were anxious to find the killer.

Was it someone who knew the Ewerts?

Or was it some just

psychopath out there who had chosen Halloween to commit one of the most horrific murders ever seen, not just in San Jose, but in the country?

The neighbors can't think of any enemies of Doreen or Charles Erbert.

But a few do mention that Doreen's relationship with her ex-husband, Michael Dennis, had recently turned south.

They said she was married before with a guy by the name of Michael Dennis.

I had two addresses for this guy.

And I told the captain, I'm going to go to this address to see if I can find this guy.

Police head to Michael's residence, which is less than two miles away from the Herberts.

When they arrive, it's still Halloween night, just a few hours after the crime was initially reported.

I remember there's a truck on the driveway.

And I just, with a flashlight, I look in and we see blood on the steering wheel and on the key and on the gear shift knob.

Investigators approach the front door cautiously and knock.

No one answers.

But in walking around to the side of the house, police find evidence that someone is home.

We look up and the light is on and you could hear water running.

So we knew somebody was there and then we all looked at each other and the first thing I thought was everybody thought somebody's trying to flush or wash away evidence.

Water shut off, another knock at the door, then the door opens and it's William Dennis.

He's wearing a robe with his hands in his pocket.

And he says, yes, sir, can I help you?

I says, well, we are here investigating the murder of your ex-wife, Toreen.

And he goes, oh, something like, oh, really?

Really?

I go, yeah, that struck me as weird.

Because normally people are aghast at homicides.

Oh, my God, you're kidding.

Michael invites the detectives inside to discuss the case.

He has a second surprising response when the investigators ask him if he'd be willing to let them search his home.

I said, would you mind signing a consent to search for him so we can look at the house?

And he said, yeah, no problem because I've got nothing to hide.

And then, as he goes to sign it, he cannot sign it with his right hand because he's wrapped in white bandages.

There's blood on his bandages.

We all noticed it at that point.

I asked the guy, what happened to your hand?

And he goes, that he was twirling a knife up in the air and that instead of grabbing it on the way down by the handle he grabbed it by the blade and he cut himself

michael eventually signs the warrant with his left hand and officers do a light search of the house

i did notice that it looked like there was some clothes that were bloody up in the bedroom The investigators also find blood drops on the kitchen floor and on the grass outside the house.

In the bathroom, they find bloody gauze.

To detectives, the amount of blood on the scene is too much to have come from a hand simply cut by a slipped knife.

I see all this gauze, all this blood, and I say, you're under arrest for murder.

So I handcuffed him.

After arresting Michael Dennis, police finally feel confident that they can release Doreen's husband, Charles Erbert.

Upon arrival at police administration building with suspect Michael Dennis, I talked to my partner who told me that he didn't believe that Charles had committed this crime.

With Charles cleared of any role in Doreen's murder, detectives set about trying to learn why her ex-husband, Michael Dennis, may have committed the crime.

But Michael insists he's innocent and claims to have an alibi for the time period when the crime occurred.

He tells them he's been home since 4 p.m., said he had dinner with his mother, and he was passing out candy till 8.30.

While Michael gives police a timeline, an alibi as to where he says he was, Police don't absolve him of being suspicious because they say no matter that timeline that he expressed to police, he still would have had enough time to get to the Herbert home, do his murderous dirty work, and get out of there before Charles arrived.

Despite their suspicions, police don't have any hard evidence connecting Michael to the crime,

which means they can't hold him in custody for long.

He goes to jail.

You know, California, you can only hold for 48 hours.

Eager to find a clue that directly ties Michael to the crime, police do another, more thorough search of his home.

Inside Michael Dennis' home, in a closet, police find two important pieces of evidence.

One is a receipt from a hardware store and a label for a machete with an 18-inch blade.

Detectives also search Michael's garage for the first time

and make a chilling discovery.

They find in the garage

two handmade coffins.

One casket was taller than the other, and one would have actually fit Doreen.

What is this about?

Why would they be in his garage?

It's an ominous discovery.

Next to the coffins, police find more troubling evidence.

They find two body bags, and they find weights, and they find a map of the San Francisco Bay.

As disconcerting as the discovery may seem, none of it physically ties Michael Dennis to Doreen's murder.

And 48 hours after his arrest, police are forced to release the suspected killer from custody.

Essentially, there was insufficient evidence to hold him longer.

So they were forced to release him to let him go.

Coming up, police desperately search for new clues as many fear the true killer may escape justice.

This guy is out, he's a flight risk, and the rest of the family is scared to death.

And the key to solving the crime may hinge on the memory of its sole survivor.

Remember her yelling, get out of here, get out of here.

And I have no idea how a little four or five-year-old girl could live through something like that.

As police investigate the gruesome murder of Doreen Erbert and her unborn child on Halloween night, The community of San Jose is left reeling over the horrific attack.

The next day is when the brutality of the crime was revealed.

I remember there was even a news conference by then San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara, who called it the Halloween horror.

48 hours after he was arrested, Doreen's ex-husband, 34-year-old Michael Dennis, is released from police custody.

Despite the lack of concrete evidence connecting him to the crime, authorities still consider Dennis their prime suspect.

When Michael Dennis walked out of the Santa Clara County Jail, I remember vividly he had sort of a wild-eyed look.

He pushed through the waiting crowd of cameramen and reporters, basically saying, I didn't do it, I didn't do it.

In a final attempt to prove their case, police turn to Doreen's four-year-old daughter, Deanna, on the chance she can identify the man who attacked her mother.

So far, Deanna has been too traumatized to speak on the events of that evening.

She just had to be calmed down a lot because of what she saw.

I mean, I would be, even now, I would be traumatized to see one of my...

parent, anyone, get

slaughtered like that.

Working with a child psychiatrist, Deanna is able to describe with important detail her memories from the night her mother was killed.

I don't remember trick-or-treating that night.

I do remember sitting down with my mom and we were watching TV.

And I remember my dad saying he was going to go to the store.

She was...

Together with her mom when she heard a loud bang on the door.

That didn't sound like a regular knock.

It was a little more aggressive.

The

mother got up to go answer the door.

And as soon as she opened the door, the massacre started.

That's when she yelled for Deanna to run.

I don't remember hearing the screams.

I just remember her yelling at him, get out, get out.

And my mom told me to go hide.

I hid right behind the couch.

And after that, it kind of was a little blurry.

Deanna doesn't recall getting a good look at the killer after his mask came off.

But he seemed to know who she was.

He was going through the house looking for her and calling her name.

And if he would have found her,

he would have killed her.

No two ways about it.

And he didn't find her, and he left.

I really wasn't sure if he was really gone or...

You know, so I just stayed behind that couch.

And I have no idea how a little four or five-year-old girl could live through something like that.

God kept me safe.

He definitely kept me safe.

While Deanna's recollection is vivid, it's still not enough to prove Michael Dennis is the killer.

And investigators fear they are running out of time.

This guy is out.

He's a flight risk.

And the rest of the family is scared to death.

and that they might be next.

Investigators do realize they need more evidence to bolster their case, so they decide to look into Michael Dennis's private life.

William Michael Dennis was trying to cope with some personal stresses in his life.

Police learned that all of Michael's problems seemed to stem from the loss of his and Doreen's son four years earlier.

Police found out the circumstances Doreen found her son in the family pool.

He had drowned.

It was an accident, but her ex-husband never forgave her for that.

He was unattended.

Whoever Doreen was, she wasn't with Paul, obviously.

Mike just said how angry he was.

Investigators discover that Michael had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Doreen and Charles.

He thinks it was their negligence that the son died.

He thought his son was murdered.

He believes in his heart that there was intention on her part.

He thought in his mind about what Doreen's intentions were.

Was she just trying to get rid of Paul?

I think he kind of settled on that idea that she really didn't care about him anymore.

She'd moved on to a new marriage,

new kids, etc.

And Paul was something of a burden to her.

We thought immediately it was money,

and

then we discussed it, and it was trying to put a hurt on us,

trying to make us feel more guilty about what happened.

After two years of legal battles, a judge rules in favor of Doreen and Charles, declaring Paul's death an accident.

I think losing the wrongful death suit, what he told me is basically that my son's life has zero value.

It has zero value.

And at that point, he was just like,

okay,

what am I going to do?

Following the lawsuit, Doreen and Charles had no more contact with Mike.

Since it didn't go his direction, I thought it was all over.

We'd never see or hear from him again.

Then, two years later, Doreen is savagely murdered.

Police strongly believe Michael is the killer, but so far, they don't have enough evidence to prove it.

That is, until the state crime lab finally identifies the blood collected from the crime scene.

He's got the same blood type as a murderer.

This was before there was DNA testing, but they do find that his blood was commingled with Doreen's blood.

On November 5th, police arrest Michael Dennis on murder charges for the second time.

As police and prosecutors continue to build their case, the discovery of an address book in Michael's home leads to more evidence connecting him to the crime.

I'm looking at this black book and it has names of girls.

So I go around calling and I talk to this girl and she goes, matter of fact, last year, we went to this party we were dressed he was dressed as a big bat wolf crossing my fingers i said did anybody take pictures by any chance like she goes oh yeah

the guy took tons of pictures

coming up William Michael Dennis goes to trial and the grim purpose of his handmade coffins is finally revealed.

Anger does indeed metastasize over time.

It doesn't go away, especially when it's something as tragic as this.

On July 19th, 1988, four years after his arrest, Michael Dennis goes to trial for the first-degree murder of his ex-wife Doreen Erbert and the second-degree murder of her unborn child.

The prosecution lays before the jury a case of means, motive, and opportunity for Michael Dennis.

A man so traumatized over losing his son, a man enraged that he could not be properly compensated or get justice in a wrongful death suit.

He was not succeeding in his life, and he could not get over the fact that his wife, in his mind, caused him to lose his son.

Prosecutors theorize Michael had stewed over his loss for four years while his ex-wife moved on with her life.

Anger does indeed metastasize over time.

It doesn't go away, especially when it's something as tragic as this.

Prosecutors believe Michael Dennis came up with a diabolical plan for revenge.

Citing the evidence found in his garage, they lay forth the theory that Michael Dennis planned to kidnap and kill Doreen, her new husband Charles, and their young daughter Deanna by drowning them in the San Francisco Bay.

The evidence that's found in the garage, the body bags, the coffins, the weight, the map of San Francisco Bay, was clearly indications that William Michael Dennis had been thinking all along about killing the Herberts the same way his son Paul died of drowning.

His plan was to dump him in the bay by San Mateo Bridge.

He built the coffins and he's gonna take us out and then carry us back to his cellar and put us in coffins.

It's ridiculous.

He's crazy.

But prosecutors believe Michael never followed through with his plan because something had pushed him over the brink.

And on Halloween night, 1984, he decided to seek his revenge another way.

Now, why did he decide to abandon that idea and instead put on a wolf's mask and get a machete?

Could it be that he realized Halloween was coming around and he saw that wolf's mask and somehow wildly concocted this

idea of revenge.

Prosecutors suggest that perhaps it was the sight of children trick-or-treating in his neighborhood that caused Michael to go over the edge nearly four years after his son's death.

I think trick-or-treaters came to his house.

He saw his son running up to trick-or-treat, and everything came to a boil.

And he started thinking about it.

And he says, the hell with it.

I'm going to do it now.

And he did.

Losing his son,

he lost part of himself and he just snapped.

When it comes to presenting their case, Michael's defense attorney doesn't deny that his client committed the crime.

Instead, he argues that Michael was mentally unhinged and shouldn't be held accountable.

The experts who did psychological evaluation on Michael Dennis testified that they felt he had become completely unglued over the loss of his son.

This is an example of an anger that had become so intense and a sense of grief so intense that I think it's sort of wedged there in his mind that this is that his scenario of what Doreen was doing or not doing is what caused Paul's death and there was a there was a part of that was intentional.

I understand that his belief that she murdered his child and therefore he had an obligation to make that right.

And that's hard.

I think that's deeply how he feels.

Michael's attorney also claims that Michael had no idea Doreen was pregnant.

He was so filled with rage when that door opened that

I don't think he remembers the actual

event as it happens.

I think he was just so blinded by

his anger.

William Michael Dennis had initially pleaded not guilty to the murder of Doreen Erbert and her unborn child.

During the course of the trial, he changed his plea and said he did commit the murders by reason of insanity, although a psychiatrist never categorized him as being insane.

On August 16th, 1988, William Michael Dennis pleads pleads guilty to first and second degree murder in the death of Doreen Erbert and her unborn child.

He is sentenced to death.

He never really

expressed remorse.

He never really said, I'm sorry for killing her.

I'm happy with the verdict.

He took my mom, he took my brother.

Tried to tear the family apart, but it didn't work.

While justice has been served for doreen and her unborn child what happened that halloween night in 1984 continues to haunt this san jose neighborhood

every

halloween i think about it i mean every time i see a pregnant woman i think about it it's just horrendous you know it it's it's something that

Really shook San Jose.

There was a time after the matter that I was on a path to drinking myself or killing myself.

Subconsciously, I didn't want to be there no more.

But I had to be there for Deanna.

My dad dealt with it a little bit more harder than I did.

He's had a few rough patches here and there.

It wasn't an easy childhood.

I was in and out of schools a lot because I think I had to do a lot with William Michael Dennis.

I think because he wanted to kind of keep me sheltered, kind of hidden, just in case.

He's always been there for me no matter what.

It happened.

It got accepted and we got to move on.

The anger, the hate,

the revenge

has pretty much subsided.

But yes, I forgive him for my sake.

I'll never forget what he did, but I forgave him for what he did because I don't want to hold that anger for the rest of my life.

My mom would want me to move on with my life.

My mom would want me to be happy.

More than 30 years after his sentencing, William Michael Dennis still sits on death row.

He is currently housed at San Quentin State Prison.

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

How hard is it to kill a planet?

Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere.

When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our top.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.