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00:00she was a grieving widow who found a third chance at love they met on a dating site she had recently
00:10lost a husband and he was coming out of a divorce they dated a few times and really very quickly got
00:18married those on the outside looking in saw nothing but happiness Glenn was the happiest
00:24he's been in a long time but their new chance at love would end in flames when a suspicious fire
00:34claimed his life the fact that he was a fireman and a good fireman that they just didn't feel
00:42that this could have been any kind of an accident and when detectives take a closer look at this
00:49suburban housewife they find a history of infidelity and a web of deception she grew up very poor she
00:57didn't really have anything and because of that she wanted money she needed vulnerable men she was
01:03trying to play the role of a grieving wife but there was not a tremendous amount of emotion it may have
01:10been that she just didn't really care at all and that she was just simply using him people started
01:16wondering what the heck was going on with this woman and why were all of her husbands dying
01:21it's one o'clock on a cold November morning and most people in the suburbs of Denver Colorado
01:51are fast asleep but the residents of Columbine Court have been awakened by a
01:58raging house fire when people saw smoke they ran to their phones to dial 9-1-1
02:05a call came in to the dispatch center that there was a fire and that there may
02:11be somebody trapped inside heavy smoke was coming out of the garage doors and
02:18pevy smoke was coming out of the windows as well
02:25the majority of the fire was found in the family room and they did search the
02:32rest of the home to see if there were any occupants
02:38as the firefighters are going through the house extinguishing the blaze they go
02:43into the bedroom and something shocks them
02:48on the dressing table they see a badge for a firefighter it was Glenn Harrelson it
02:54was one of their own
02:57a fire in a co-workers house is terrible but what they're about to find is much
03:05worse when the firefighters make their way deeper into the house they notice a
03:10hole in the floor a smoldering gaping hole and they look down inside
03:15at first they didn't see anything in the hole until they were able to bring in
03:23lighting to the home and they were able to see something in the bottom of the
03:28crawl space that something ended up being a human body they immediately notified
03:40Denver police who confirmed that the body belongs to 45 year old Glenn Harrelson
03:47Glenn was a dispatcher for the Denver fire department the first day I was assigned to
04:03station 26 I signed out there as assistant chief and he was a fireman first
04:09grade he was a kind of a ball-headed guy strong very athletic
04:16Glenn was more than just a public servant however he was also a devoted
04:23father previously Glenn had been married to a woman named Andy and they had a son
04:29and a daughter she'd come in the station and you know I never met her or
04:35anything I just just seen her coming to the station a few times and for a long
04:40time they were very happy together until they weren't and then they divorced
04:44although his first marriage ended in divorce Glenn still believed the right
04:51woman was out there and in the spring of 1987 he finally found her he was
04:57looking for somebody new so he advertised in a telecommunications lonely hearts
05:02club page the woman that answered was Sharon Nelson
05:1043 year old Sharon Nelson was a widow who'd been married twice before Sharon was one of
05:21two daughters born to a seventh-day Adventist couple in North Carolina a strict strict family with a real
05:29firm moral compass on what's right and wrong she had been originally married to a
05:36pastor of a church in LaHunta Colorado and at some point had children by that
05:42relationship Sharon and her first husband moved to Colorado in the 1970s and wound up
05:49in the small mountain town of Trinidad but after 13 years together their
05:55relationship fell apart and they divorced in 1976 he took the children and moved to Denver while Sharon
06:05remarried but her second husband tragically died in 1983 just four years before she and Glenn met
06:14like Glenn Sharon was looking for someone to help her start over Sharon worked in the eyeglass business
06:21and she was working for an optometrist in the Denver area at the time that she and Glenn got involved
06:27after talking together on the phone a few times they decided to meet Sharon was sweet and kind-hearted
06:37exactly the sort of woman Glenn wanted
06:39she was not strikingly beautiful not terribly unattractive mid-40s she was just you would think she was
06:50anybody's next door neighbor she's recently lost her husband and Glenn has coming out of a divorce
06:57and so they're both probably feeling vulnerable and lonely they both have kids from previous marriages
07:03the other thing is that they're both transplants to Colorado they're not from that area she's from
07:08North Carolina he's from Ohio and so naturally they would have a lot in common the two began dating in
07:15March of 1987 and it took little more than a year for them to tie the knot they had only dated a short
07:23time but in May of 1988 Glenn asked her to marry him and she immediately said yes unfortunately their new
07:33life together would only last six months
07:40now a fire has destroyed their home and it appears to have also taken Glenn's life
07:47one thing shocked everybody more than anything as they examine that body
07:51it wasn't the fire that killed him Glenn had been shot in the face twice once in the mouth and once
08:01up the nose this was no accident it was a murder coming up as the homicide investigation gets underway
08:11detectives uncover the truth about Glenn's new wife she coveted things that weren't hers and wanted them and
08:18was really willing to do whatever it took to make those things hers people knew that there was an
08:25affair happening between the doctor and his assistant she felt like she was sort of invincible that was
08:32probably a very convenient way for her to sort of have her cake and eat it too
08:49police in Thornton Colorado are investigating the murder of 45 year old Glenn Harrelson found shot to death in the
08:57burned remains of his home it was right off the bat that they felt that this was suspicious the fact
09:04that he was a fireman and a good fireman that they just didn't feel that this could have been any kind
09:11of an accident and that it was an arson and a homicide they brought in their cause and origin
09:18investigators and began sifting through the debris to try and establish what the cause of the fire was
09:25arson investigators arson investigators find that an accelerant was used to start the fire
09:32most likely as an attempt to cover up the true cause of death
09:37but why would anyone want to kill a man like Glenn Harrelson
09:44they considered robbery as a motive for the crime but when they did that canvas of the house
09:50they saw valuables left behind guns a coin collection other money things that somebody if they were there
09:59to kill for money would have taken with them people used to commit um arson for a number of reasons and
10:05one of the top reasons would be for revenge the other reasons are for insurance fraud and then finally
10:10it would be to conceal a crime they want to throw off the cops they want to get rid of evidence so it
10:15makes sense to just set a fire and get rid of everything detectives speak to glenn's co-workers
10:23to find out whether he had any enemies they should know about approximately three or four hours later
10:30after glenn harrelson's body had been discovered i was asked to come in to provide assistance with
10:37conducting neighborhood canvases interviewing witnesses uh that sort of thing
10:42one of the things we discovered fairly early on was that glenn harrelson was just an incredibly nice
10:50guy he was well respected among his co-workers we really couldn't find anybody who thought glenn harrelson
10:58was a bad individual he had no enemies at all there wasn't anybody in there that didn't like glenn because
11:06he'd done so much for everybody everybody in that station you know uh was helped by this man we knew
11:14from having talked with the firemen that glenn had recently been married the relationship as was told of
11:22us was that glenn was happy in his marriage and that he was the happiest he's been in a long time
11:28standard procedure would be to break the bad news to glenn's wife but she's difficult to get in touch
11:38with the firemen tell police that glenn and sharon split their time between the denver suburbs at a
11:45small mountain town 200 miles away sharon lived in trinidad where her kids were going to school and that
11:54uh glenn would generally go down there on his days off spend time with her and then travel back and
12:01work his shift uh for the denver fire department you know it is a little unusual for newlyweds not to
12:08live in the same house and to live hours away but given his job as a fireman he might need to
12:13feel like he needs to be mentally calm that the stress of being around kids was too much for him
12:17she had gotten this house from her second husband and given the fact that she had these two kids that
12:25wanted to stay in the same school system it would make sense to have two different residences at the
12:32time in 1988 she didn't have a phone in her home so we couldn't just call her and tell her
12:40we knew that we had to get down there to talk with her to see if she could fill us in with any
12:47additional information of you know what might have happened what may have caused this
12:57in the meantime detectives pay a visit to glenn's ex-wife andrea who still lives nearby
13:04it's always important to talk to the ex-wife because she probably knows the husband a lot better
13:11than even the current wife of just five months she was actually a very nice person they had children
13:18together and they maintained a a fairly cordial relationship even though they were divorced
13:25one thing andy told the police was that glenn had mentioned to her on a number of occasions that someone
13:33may have been in the house he told her about finding a couple of pop cans that there were also was a
13:39door that was left unlocked investigators discover that glenn submitted a police report a few weeks
13:46prior to his death when they follow up on the lead however there turns out to be an innocent explanation
13:54glenn's teenage son chuck told investigators that it was he that'd been there a few times
14:00you know he wasn't supposed to be but he was a teenager and he just
14:04went to the house when his dad wasn't home returned to drill maybe hung out with some friends
14:09but he wasn't the guy that they were looking for we figured it was probably just his kids that
14:15were going into the house while he was down in trinidad
14:23detectives eliminate glenn's son as a suspect that afternoon they start the long drive to trinidad
14:30hoping sharon will be able to shed more light on her husband's murder what they find there is more
14:37disturbing than anything they could have imagined
14:54it's been less than 12 hours since glenn harrelson was found murdered
14:58and detectives have just arrived in the mountain town of trinidad colorado looking for his wife sharon
15:04given her four-hour distance from the scene of the crime sharon is not a suspect but that's about to
15:11change the home we were told was way up in the mountains and not easily accessible so we we knew
15:18that we had to go down there and contact the local sheriff's office to take us to her home it was not
15:25something that was even on a map based on what investigators have heard so far sharon seems to
15:33be a middle-aged church-going wife and mother but as the sheriff's deputy drives them to sharon's house
15:41he tells them the real story about her past
15:54sharon nelson's maiden name was sharon douglas and she was raised by a seventh-day adventist minister
16:04very strict religion was so important to that family that when her family learned that she was
16:12marrying a preacher mike fuller they were elated i mean this was that seventh-day adventist family's dream
16:24mike and sharon had two children two little girls and life looked pretty good
16:28within just a few years however sharon realized she wanted more sharon seemed to look around and
16:38feel like this is not the life that i want i'm bored here mike is always counseling people and doing
16:46church activities and i'm not having any fun so she started having affairs for sharon growing up in
16:54this seventh-day adventist household it was very strict dad being very strict on her so she probably
17:00saw men as being restrictive and she felt that she wanted to be sort of free and the way that she
17:05saw being free for her was to have promiscuous sex mike was devastated and this humiliation for a minister
17:15is huge so he requested that the church relocate him to a new place
17:20and they sent sharon the two kids packing for rocky ford colorado
17:30once they make it to rocky ford sharon and her husband mike tried their best to fit in and that
17:37means new friends
17:42and their best friends at that time were perry and marie nelson
17:46perry nelson was an elder in the church and an optometrist with a successful practice he immediately
17:54caught sharon's eye my dad was in practice with two other families um there was a doctor a dentist and
18:02my dad the optometrist all those families were also seventh-day adventist and we did most of our socializing
18:08in practice with them he had his own plane he had a nice house he had lots of money his own business
18:17and that was all appealing to her sharon grew up very poor she didn't really have anything and because
18:23of that she really felt that she needed financial security my first impression of sharon was more from
18:31people who had already met her and they just didn't think she came across as a pastor's wife
18:37there were people who thought sharon was you know very flirty and inappropriate
18:47sharon began working for her new friend perry as an administrative assistant in 1976
18:55she'd already decided he was her next affair
19:01perry had money and he liked to spend it on sharon so they would sneak off to hotels he'd buy her
19:10jewelry other kinds of expensive gifts i mean he really was excited to be with this younger woman
19:17and she was something else rocky ford is a small town and people talk and it wasn't long after those
19:26two got together that tongues were wagging people knew that there was an affair happening between the
19:31doctor and his assistant this time mike didn't forgive her as soon as he found out about the affair he
19:41filed for divorce this affair was like wildfire and it torched both families
19:47sharon's sharon's husband left with his two children and then right away after that perry and marie got
19:54divorced my mom and dad never really got along they weren't affectionate with each other and they just
20:03didn't seem to like each other and i got a call once that my dad and sharon had left together
20:13well of course we didn't appreciate that our dad left our mom for sharon and i wasn't around her
20:22very many times i went to visit them once when they were living in rocky ford and she seemed nice
20:29the following year in 1977 perry asked sharon to marry him and built her a house
20:36my dad and sharon had two children one was born in 78 and one was born in 1980 on the outside looking in
20:46saw nothing but happiness a beautiful home two beautiful children a lifestyle that
20:53sharon had always wanted and a husband who was crazy about her
20:57but everything changed in july of 1983 when perry drove to denver for an optometry convention
21:11he was supposed to only have been gone for a couple or three days when he did not arrive back home his
21:17wife sharon nelson filed a missing persons report i got a call from my older sister
21:24and she told me that dad's car had been found in a creek but that his body was missing
21:36perry's vehicle was found in clear creek which is a river that's west of the denver metro area
21:43and it had been badly damaged i believe it was surmised at the time that he had been driving
21:50on highway 6 west of denver and had driven off the road and uh had crashed into the river an insurance
21:59investigation concluded that perry's sudden and tragic death was an accident but his loved ones
22:06weren't convinced at some point we became aware that sharon was trying to get my dad declared legally dead
22:13um before they found a body and i know my grandparents went out to see her and they thought it was really
22:22strange because she was getting rid of his clothes and trying to sell his practice there was always
22:30something in the back of our minds that she might have had something to do with it
22:43for detectives on their way to speak with sharon about the death of husband number three
22:48glenn harrelson the similarities are disturbing it did set off alarm bells to have two husbands die
22:56within just a few years when you are fairly early on an investigation it's really important that you
23:04keep an open mind but you know when you hear that the guy's current wife who doesn't even live with him
23:10has a previous husband who died mysteriously that is something you pay pretty close attention to
23:16could sharon have gotten away with the murder and if so is she trying again
23:37less than 24 hours after glenn harrelson is found murdered the facts about the death of sharon's second
23:44husband perry had the meek housewife at the top of the suspect list and as homicide investigators make
23:53their way to sharon's house they continue to learn strange new details about the grieving widow
23:59more than a year after the discovery of his car a kayaker finds the remains of dr nelson in clear creek
24:16once they got the body the coroner was able to determine that there had been a head injury
24:22and contusions that something had happened to him but they couldn't rule out
24:27a car accident or something like that so it wasn't a homicide
24:34the ruling of accidental death meant that sharon was the beneficiary of a life insurance policy she'd
24:40taken out shortly before perry disappeared sharon nelson received approximately uh 250 000
24:49in life insurance proceeds from perry nelson's death
24:52we had asked sharon if she had any insurance on my dad and she said that she just had a small policy
25:02that paid the house off and i was suspicious enough at the time that i hired an attorney in colorado to
25:12kind of keep track of things and just see what was happening i heard that she was spending money like
25:21there was no limit she had jewelry that it almost looked fake because there was so much of it
25:29my attorneys told me that she had spent 150 000 on a horse ranch
25:34a person like sharon would see perry just as a mark as sort of an atm a cash machine because she is
25:41looking at him in a very utilitarian way
25:47worse yet the rumor around town was that sharon had been cheating on perry the entire time they were
25:53married sharon was like a character out of some bad romance novel a lot of people thought at the time
26:00she dressed like a southern belle when she would go out she was seeing man after man
26:07we were told that sharon nelson while she was married to dr nelson became involved with a gentleman
26:16by the name of gary adams gary adams was dr nelson and sharon's handyman he worked on the property
26:25whenever they needed something done which was a lot of work because it was a new place and he was
26:31always there what dr nelson didn't know was the handyman was pretty handy with his wife too
26:40they began an affair shortly after he started helping around the house
26:48gary adams was described as um you know kind of a mountain man
26:52it seemed like within five minutes of sharon getting the money from the insurance settlement
26:59that gary adams was driving a brand new red truck and people wondered about that like how could he afford
27:04that
27:15and as investigators take in this new information from the local sheriff's deputy they can't help but wonder
27:22could sharon really be responsible for the deaths of both husbands
27:29when detective trainer and i knocked on the door we were met by sharon
27:37and she was very cool collected we told her why we were there and she said i know why you're here
27:45glenn's been killed
27:49she pretty much told us that she'd already been contacted by glenn's mother it's been less than 24
27:59hours since glenn died and sharon's calm demeanor stands out to detectives as they question her about
28:06her marriage there were a number of questions we asked her that i think kind of raised the hair on
28:12the back of our necks you have to understand that we didn't even know when glenn died and how long he
28:20had been dead when we asked her where she was when glenn died she told us she was at a friend's house
28:26who lived down the mountain a little ways i just found that to be very very odd and very telling that
28:35she knew way more about glenn's death that she was letting on to us
28:39i would say it was around 10 30 or so when we got there we were there for a while but we couldn't
28:46do a full interview with her at that time we asked her we could talk the next morning
28:56when detective trainer and i got back in the car after having spoke to her for about 45 minutes to an
29:02hour we both looked at each other and said she's lying she knows more when detectives meet with sharon
29:14the next morning she seems like a completely different person she was crying or it appeared
29:22as though she was crying she was getting teary-eyed not really weeping or anything of that sort but
29:29definitely a little more emotional glenn just kind of reached out and just touched her hand just kind
29:39of reassured her sharon i think you've got more to say please tell us we'll help you as much we can
29:47and she just lost it she just started weeping sobbing and just i can't stand it anymore i can't take this
29:55and she just broke down she said you know what she said these walls have ears and she said i will tell you
30:07everything but i'm not going to tell you here
30:30sharon nelson has agreed to tell detectives what she knows about the deaths of her two husbands
30:36but she seems afraid of something or someone
30:42sharon harrelson said that she wanted to talk to us but that she would not talk to us in her home
30:50i told her that we would take her anywhere she wanted to go
30:54one of her conditions was that she be allowed to pick up her two young children we made a couple phone
31:01calls and loaded sharon and the two kids in the back of our squad car
31:07i said where do you want to go and she said how about we go to the pizza hut
31:11and we'll get the kids something to eat
31:21when she's convinced that she and her children are safe sharon drops a bombshell
31:27sharon harrelson started out by telling us first about gary adams and how he had plotted to murder
31:36dr nelson sharon had fallen in love with gary and at the time she was having problems with perry
31:45gary had a way to solve that um just to get rid of perry
31:49at some point they came up with the idea to kill perry nelson for the insurance money
31:56sharon claims that she didn't know how gary planned to do it until after the deed was done
32:02as it turns out perry nelson's car crash was no accident
32:16dr nelson said he'd give gary a ride because gary said he needed to go to denver
32:20and as they were driving gary said well i need to use the bathroom um dr nelson said fine i'll pull over
32:26here a few minutes later before getting back in he told perry that he had lost his wallet and asked
32:36perry to come over and help him look for it at that moment gary picked up a huge rock
32:47and bashed dr nelson in the head
32:49shutted him back into the volkswagen and pushed the volkswagen into the water
33:06sharon said that they had plans to get married and were actually going to move out of the house in
33:13weston colorado and move up to the front range up in the denver area and that the night before they
33:21were supposed to leave gary left in the middle of the night she stayed up here for a while met some
33:26folks eventually met glenn harrelson according to sharon even though gary had left her months before
33:35he was jealous when he found out she'd married glenn and he decided he wasn't willing to let her go
33:41approximately two months after they got married she saw gary adams and he asked her how the marriage
33:48was and she told him that it wasn't as good as she would have hoped and she said that gary made a
33:55comment to her about you know if if they needed to do something again there were financial problems
34:03in the marriage and i think sharon felt that you know she just looks at things in a very utilitarian
34:10way how do i solve the problem and gary brought her an answer glenn had you know some life insurance
34:17plus he owned a home in the thornton area and so i i think the the potential of her uh becoming much
34:25better financially through glenn's death was was fairly high according to sharon this time gary's plan
34:32was even more violent gary said you know there's two ways to hide murders there's fire and water we've
34:40already done water once let's try fire this time although sharon admits that she knew what gary was
34:49going to do she insists that she didn't take part in the murder and now that the deed is done
34:56she's afraid of what gary might do to her so now sharon's saying she's afraid of gary she said that
35:03he's done things to her before that he's pulled a gun on her we asked her if she had any evidence
35:08that this had actually taken place and she said yes that she asked for glenn's wedding ring and she said
35:17that when gary arrived back after murdering glenn he gave her glenn's wedding ring sharon claims this
35:27all happened in the span of six hours gary killed glenn around 10 p.m on the 18th and returned with the
35:33ring at 4 a.m this entire conversation is just surreal because you know it's not like it's happening
35:41in a police interview i mean it's in a it's in a pizza hut when she had gotten done talking of glenn
35:49harrelson's death detective trainer called the thornton police department and advised commander willard that
35:57we had just obtained a confession from her for both glenn harrelson's murder and also for dr nelson's
36:06we were advised to go and get a room at that motel and hold sharon harrelson there until they arrived
36:20detectives knew they had to plan their next steps carefully at the very least she confessed to
36:26conspiracy to commit murder but was sharon more involved in glenn's death than she led on
36:32the one they begin by obtaining search warrants for her and gary's homes while myself and detective
36:41elder were doing the search warrant we found that wedding ring that she had described in a jewelry box
36:47in her bedroom not only did gary provide that but he provided a bloody t-shirt from glenn
36:56which we found in a dumpster you know several miles from her home
36:59i think it was proof for a trophy i mean it's it's certainly morbid but i think that sharon probably
37:09approached this more from a business point of view than than an emotional point of view
37:16i think that sharon harrelson wanted to make sure that gary adams did exactly as they had planned
37:24on november 20th 1988 the two co-conspirators are arrested both gary adams and sharon nelson were
37:36charged with two counts of first degree murder as well as conspiracy and solicitation to commit first
37:42degree murder the adams county da's office was going for a death penalty for both participants there was a
37:51lot on the line for this case a lot for the families and a lot for the people that had worked the case
37:56two murders and two killers and sharon did not want to die
38:13to many people living in the small town of trinidad colorado sharon nelson
38:18seemed like a widow whose life had been marked by the tragic loss of two husbands
38:24but a murder investigation has revealed that she not only knew who killed them she helped plan the
38:30murders
38:34sharon harrelson was not a loving house mom whatsoever she was a conniving woman that was out for sharon
38:41harrelson she did a lot of blaming of gary but just by virtue of her statements
38:47she basically admitted to soliciting gary to commit these two murders she talked about one
38:54of the murders being for love and the second one being for money but clearly she had plenty to gain
39:00financially from both homicides i don't know what kind of person can do that apparently she
39:06didn't much care about anything and just wanted money
39:14sharon's partial confession and the evidence found in gary's house gives the state all they need to
39:20prosecute the pair all that's left is to present their case in front of a jury
39:27a grand jury was convened in jefferson county and made the decision that they were going to proceed with
39:33the death penalty and soon thereafter both defendants pled guilty to both homicides
39:41as a way of avoiding the death penalty as part of her agreement sharon finally comes clean about her
39:49role in gary's murder it wasn't just a plan that she had listened to it was a plan that she made
39:57she gave her lover keys to the house a gas can the address everything he needed to get in there and
40:06get the job done which she knew he could do because he'd done it before gary and sharon concocted this
40:13plan that when glenn harrelson came down to visit on his days off sharon would give gary a key to glenn's
40:22house and that he would leave and go hide in the house
40:33sharon harrelson said that when gary had gotten back that there was a struggle that he had used a pipe
40:41initially to hit glenn over the head but it didn't knock him out
40:47while gary adams was scuffling with glenn harrelson he pulled his 22
40:54from his back and that's when he shot glenn in the face twice
41:04then he took the gas from the gas can that sharon had provided poured it over the body and lit the fire
41:11right after he set the fire gary made a beeline for sharon
41:23he arrived at her house gave her the ring told her that he made it look just like a burglary
41:29and both of them sat down and thought we did it again
41:32gary adams finally had sharon all to himself and that wasn't all for murdering two husbands she paid
41:47him fifty thousand dollars we were able to verify that gary was paid the fifty thousand dollars he had
41:55the new truck we were able to show that through bank accounts that we were able to get records from
42:00both received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole
42:09sharon nelson was a wolf in sheep's clothing a calculating black widow who carried out the
42:15deaths of two husbands and would have likely done it again if given the chance what people are terrified
42:23of with male serial killers is on the whole male serial killers will kill strangers female serial
42:29killers kill people they know and in this case sharon killed her husband's the people closest to her
42:36sharon never really loved anybody but herself when she looked in the mirror she saw something
42:42magnificent and beautiful and she wanted more and more that was her i try very hard not to hold vengeance
42:52in my heart and i question myself sometimes about whether or not i've actually forgiven her
42:59but i know i've let it go i have let it go that we've all done things that are bad
43:06and god is the judge and he will decide
43:19so
43:25so
43:29so
43:40so
43:42so
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