Ted Gunderson - The MacDonald Case: Satanic Ritual Abuse

Dr. Jeffrey R. MacDonald was convicted of the murder of his wife, Colette, and their two children. The trial took place in the United States District court, Raleigh, North Carolina in August 1979. Dr. MacDonald was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. This conviction was the culmination of a nine-year effort by the Department of Justice and the Criminal Investigation Division (C.I.D.), Department of the Army. The government claimed Dr. MacDonald staged a Manson-type slaughter of his pregnant wife and two children in his home at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on February 17, 1970.
The government case is allegedly supported by a very hypothetical reconstruction of the crime scene. The government claims blood spots, fibers from torn garments, and "fabric impressions" on a sheet disprove the (jumbled) memories of Dr. MacDonald when he recounted to investigators what happened in those early morning hours. The government, admittedly, has never developed any credible motive to account for such brutal slayings; additionally, the government admits to many crime scene errors and losses of evidence, which the defense claims invalidates the government's hypothetical crime scene reconstruction
The defense scenario is quite different from the government scenario. The defense claims that in the early morning hours of February 17, 1970 Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, then a Green Beret captain and physician at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was awakened by the screams of his wife. She was in their bedroom; he had gone to sleep on the couch because his younger daughter had climbed into the double bed in the master bedroom and wet the bed. Dr. MacDonald saw at least three men and a woman standing over him. There was a brief struggle, during which he was beaten and stabbed. His pajama top had been pulled up over his head and had bound his wrists, rendering him somewhat defenseless. He collapsed in the hallway and later awakened to a cold, quiet house. He went to his pregnant wife, then to each of their two daughters, trying to resuscitate them. They had been brutally murdered. In disbelief, he called for police and ambulances, and finally collapsed next to his wife's body.
What happened during the next few hours (and, indeed, days and weeks) of the initial investigation was as criminal, although in a different way, as the violence that occurred that morning. To be brief, the crime scene was never secured, upwards of 30 people walked through the house moving things, contaminating the scene, and changing and destroying evidence. Dr. MacDonald was rushed to the hospital with a collapsed lung and multiple other wounds. His pajama bottoms were negligently discarded, even though they would have been a crucial piece of evidence. Importantly, because the MT dispatcher automatically figured that there must have been some sort of family dispute, investigators went to the task with a mind-set which likely tainted the investigation from the outset. Within hours, the Army C.I.D. had focused on Dr. MacDonald as the chief suspect, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.
A woman matching the description of the female assailant, Helena Stoeckley, who later confessed on several occasions, had been seen in the area near the house shortly after the incident by one of the responding MPs. She was not pursued at that time. The defense was later to learn that there was much additional exculpatory evidence, some negligently destroyed, but some intentionally destroyed, the existence of which was withheld from the defense until discovered through tireless investigation and the release of Freedom of Information Act(F.O.I.A.) documents, aided by some congressional pressure. Importantly, it wasn't until 1983, four years post trial, that the majority of the exculpatory evidence was discovered in F.O.I.A. files.
Back on April 6, 1970, Dr. MacDonald was first told that he was a suspect. An Army tribunal (Article 32 Hearing) was subsequently convened, and after hearing all the evidence over five months, including the testimony of many witnesses who knew the MacDonalds and had observed a normal marriage and family relationship, Dr. MacDonald was found to be innocent of the charges against him. The hearing officer recommended that the woman, Helena Stoeckley, and her group be investigated. The hearing officer specifically cited both forensic evidence and extensive psychiatric evaluations of Dr. MacDonald by both defense and prosecution as important to his findings.
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