This is Jebbra Roberts with 2020. For more than four decades, 2020 has brought you an incredible variety of compelling stories. Well, now we're going to bring you back to some of the most heart-stopping ones from the 2020 True Crime Vault, and we're going to give you updates on what happened to the people involved. Thanks for listening. Coming up, a suburban housewife with the perfect life.

They look so happy.

Just a role of my own mother.

Then, as you can see, there is a female body.

What caused Julie Jensen's death?

There are all kinds of things that didn't fit for a death by natural causes.

Did she commit suicide?

Julie Jensen was suffering from depression and despair.

Or was she murdered?

He started talking about different websites and talking about poisoning his wife.

Secrets of a marriage are revealed.

Julie said, Mark would kill me first before he divorced me.

A husband stands trial while Julie Jensen tells her own story from beyond the grave.

She wanted the world to know the truth. She wanted you to know the truth.

Story of a Death Foretold. I'm John Quineones. We're going to tell you a cryptic tale of infidelity, depression, revenge, and finally, death, all set against the icy chill of a Wisconsin winter. This twisted story comes with a note left behind and haunting questions from family and friends, puzzle pieces that at first just didn't seem to fit together. Could a wife's own words written before her death serve as a window into what really happened the day she died? Or were those words part of a larger fabrication by a disturbed woman? As Jay Shadler first reported in 2008, Julie Jensen died clinging to secrets it would take years to untangle.

Something dark and terrible happened inside this house, and every effort to bring it to light has failed. Until now. This is the home where Mark and Julie Jensen lived. This is where they raised their family and where Julie Jensen died under horrific circumstances. If these walls could talk, they could answer the one question that will haunt this story from beginning to end. Was it murder or madness? Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, seems a strange place for a sad tale. Along Ritzie Lakeshore Drive, in the summer, the big houses ring with the sounds of pool parties, barbecues, and family laughter. It's just the place Mark Jensen, a stockbroker, and his wife, Julie, felt safe bringing up their two boys, David and Douglas.

I said, Gee, they look so happy. They would always be outside, always working on some project.

Margaret and Ted Voight lived right next door and were close friends with the Jensen.

They would build the playground for the kids and just laughing and having fun with it. It was really amazing to watch them. I'm like, whoa.

Julie even cooked the brownies for the neighborhood Book Club. She got a good smile.

She was just the kindest person. I think the number one word we describe her is kind. She was always a gentle soul. Her love for her boys was very apparent. I was always amazed at how much time she devoted to them. She was just a role model mother. I think we all looked up to her as being the perfect mother.

Really? Yeah. Oh, definitely. Or as Julie Jensen's four brothers say, there was never any vanity in her license plate. That was Julie.

My 3Ds, Daddy, Douglas, David. That was what she wanted out of life, a family.

But behind doors and facades, some say Julie was also battling depression, and in her last days, taking two prescription drugs, Paxel, an antidepressant, and Ambien, a sleeping medication. Just days before her death, Ted Voight remembers seeing her in tears on her front porch. She was really distraught?

Oh, yeah. She was really upset.

I mean, she was upset, crying and everything. Still, this was a shock. December 3, 1998, Julie Jensen is found dead by her husband in their bed. Death by accidental drug overdose or suicide were the early bets by the local police. Do you think you would know if she were suicidal?

I would have known. Yeah. Because she was such a joyful, warm person, you could tell. We would have known. Friends would have known, neighbors would have district attorney Bob Jembois was on the scene that night. I walked down the hallway. There was Mark Jensen on the left in the den with a minister and his brother-in-law.

That was the first time you saw Mark Jensen?

I just glanced at him as I was walking by. He took me back to the bedroom, and I spent a fair amount of time in the bedroom looking at Julie Jensen, examining her very closely. I noticed the way her arm was underneath her body. It didn't look right. It didn't look like anybody he would sleep like that. I noticed the way her face was pushed off to one side.

Even that night, in the very first minutes of this investigation, your antenna went up.

All kinds of things didn't fit. There were all kinds of things that didn't fit for a death by natural causes.

But forensics would have to wait. There was a funeral to hold, and suspicions were invited to attend.

When I was in line to view the body, and it was a long line, we were in line for, what, 20 minutes at least.

Ruth Vorwald and these four members of Julie's Book Club will testify to watching Mark Jensen at the wake.

Mark was standing 5 feet from her casket laughing and joking and acting like someone's at a cocktail party as Julie lays there.

Anything else that struck you strange about Mark Jensen's behavior in the days after?

I would probably mourn a stranger more than he mourned Julie's death. Her funeral was on a Monday. The very next Monday was the garbage pickup, and we saw everything basically out in the trash that belonged to her in these large, black, hefty bags, and the things that didn't fit in the bags were just... Just thrown right on top of the bags. It looked awful.

But feelings are not proof. If prosecutor Jambois is counting on the autopsy to show this was a murder, he's in for a disappointment. But the autopsy comes back and shows you what?Showed nothing.Showed nothing.

Showed nothing.

That does not surprise the Jensen's family doctor, Richard Borman, who says from his vantage point, Julie is simply very depressed.

At any time during your meeting with Julie Jensen on December first, 1998, did Julie Jensen express any fear of her husband? No.

And forensic psychologist Dr. Hertzell-spiro goes one step further. The facts point clearly, he says, to a suicide, not a murder. After all, one would expect that if the state of mind is, I think someone's trying to kill me, why wouldn't she say to the neighbor, Indeed, someone just did try to kill me. Why wouldn't she call 911? Good question. But perhaps Julie, in her own way, has the answers.

She came to me and she actually just had this envelope and put it in my pocket. She said, If anything happened, just give it to the police.

A stunning letter and a voice from the grave.

If anything happens to me, he would be my first suspect.

When we return. Less than a week before Julie Jensen died, she walked next door to Ted and Margaret Voight house with a letter in her hand.

And she just came next to me and I had this jacket, and she just took that envelope, just put in my jacket.

And what'd she say to you?

If anything happened, give it to the police. If anything happened to me.

You never opened it?

Never did.

Never touched.

I actually opened the top of this case.

For safekeeping, the Voitz put Julie's his envelope in this cover.

Just left it there.

Two weeks later, Julie is dead, and the Voights deliver her sealed letter to the police. Her words from the grave are simple and shocking. We ask Margaret Voight to read them.

I took this picture, and I'm writing this on Saturday, 11:21:98 at 07:00 AM. This list was in my His husband's business daily planner, not meant for me to see. I don't know what it means, but if anything happens to me, he would be my first suspect.

The note is accompanied by a photo showing a curious shopping list written in Mark Jensen's own hand. Drugs and syringes were on his mind.

I pray I'm wrong and nothing happens, but I'm suspicious of Mark's suspicious behavior and fear for my early demise.

Does it sound like her?

Oh, yes. I don't think you need anything else. Just read this and you know what happened.

Julie's Brothers. That letter, first time you read it. Paul, where were you?

I was in the... Sorry. It was in the Pleasant Prairie Police Department. This was after I had already gone to the police with my suspicions of Mark. And I always have a hard time dealing with the letter because that's Julie. That's her voice. That's the last time she was able to speak. In that letter, there There's frustration, there's suspicion, but there's also hope. And love. And love. And that characterized it. Every correspondence of hers in that letter, that's the strength of that letter is that it's not different from how she ever was. That letter brings me to tears because her handwriting brings back all of Julie to me.

Talk me the significance of seeing that letter.

Well, it's been described as the voice from the grave, and I viewed it as Julie's last will and testament. I felt that this was her testamentary request that if something were to happen to her, She wants people to know I would never commit suicide. My boys are everything to me, and my husband would be my first suspect.

The contents of the letter are kept a close secret it by the police. Mark Jensen returns to work in his regular life, and the police wait to confront him. At this routine meeting recorded on videotape, Detective Paul Ratzberg suddenly springs the letter on Mark.

The Detective leaves Mark alone with the letter. I'm going to go grab a soda and we'll come back.

I'm going to go. For an excruciating four minutes, Mark Jensen's body is frozen. Only his eyes move as he reads and rereads Julie's words. What is he thinking? Assistant DA Angelina Gabrielle has a guess. Marks handed the letter. What do you think is going on in his head?

He was saying, Oh, what did she... What did that do to me? What did she do? And he He's just looking at him.

Mark Jensen seems trapped. But things are not always as they appear. Maybe it's the bone-chilling cold or this white Wisconsin winter. But you can be tricked into seeing things that are not here, judging people before you know their whole story. Take Julie Jensen, for instance. Small town girl, mother of two, She had a secret, and it was killing her. Now, did you know about the affair? Did you know about her affair? You did.

I didn't at first.

You did.

I heard about it.

Perry Tarika, P-E-R-R. Julie Jensen cheated on her husband in 1991 with this man. Perry Tarika worked in the same company as Julie, and though their affair was brief, it would have lasting effects. Yes, I loved her, and I would have helped her in any way if she needed help. The affair came shortly after the birth of the Jensen's first son in 1991, and during a period of depression that brought Julie to therapist Paul De Fazio. At that time, I focused on discussing possibility that she be evaluated for an antidepressant. According to De Fazio, Julie spoke of an unhappy childhood, deep a sadness and an alcoholic mother. The topic of suicide also comes up in his notes. I could not do it because of my baby, eight months. News of the affair reportedly lands hard on Mark Jensen.

I'm not trying to say that he shouldn't have been hurt by that because he should have. I mean, any normal husband or spouse would feel hurt by that.

If the Jensen's thought this weekend affair would eventually fade into the night, they were wrong. Private investigator, David Ellis.

They explained to me that someone was placing pornographic pictures in the neighbor's mailboxes, pictures that were of Julie or believed to be Julie Jensen.

And what did they show?

The two that I can recall were of a woman performing oral sex on a man. The woman in the picture had the same body type as Julie, had approximate same hair length, same color.

X-rated photographs like these begin turning up on the windshield of the Jensen's car, on the shed in their backyard, even inside their house. So it was fairly clear from the start, from Mark's point of view, that the person who was distributing this stuff was Julie's old lover.

Right.

So they hire Investigator Ellis to plan a stakeout with Perry Tarika as the target. But the trap comes up empty, netting only a bizarre twist no one expected. Who did you tell Julie you thought was doing this?

Her husband, Mark.

When we return, why would Mark Jensen plant Lourdes photos?

He just could not let her forget that she made this mistake nine years ago.

And investigators find that Mark had secrets of his own.

Put the Boy Scout away, Francis. And what's the Boy Scout? His penis.

Stay with us. Investigators have been stumped by what caused Julie Jensen's death, but they found some tantalizing clues, evidence of a brief extramarital affair and a trail of disturbing images. Will these lead them any closer to the truth? Once again, Jay Shadler.

Off and on for nearly eight years, pornographic photos continue to show up at the Jensen home and around the neighborhood. Eight years of shame and emotional torture. Who would do such a thing? Private investigator Dave Ellis believes he knows.

In my mind, I was starting to think that it was Mark that was trying to either humiliate her, embarrass her, psychologically abuse her.

He said that to Julie. What was her reaction?

She agreed that Mark was capable, but she really didn't want to believe that Mark would do it.

Alice also notices that the lured pictures like these never show the couple's faces, and the multiple angles in the shots would require a virtual studio of cameras and lights. This isn't Julie at all. If, in fact, Mark Jensen was responsible for putting that pornography out there, what does it tell you about his mind?

Tells me that he's cold, sick, hateful, vengeful person. Jason. He just could not let her forget that she made this mistake nine years ago.

The police come to a similar conclusion, and in this 1999 interrogation of Mark Jensen, they pull no punches.

I remember her just talked about that relationship she had with Perry. Right. I understand. Because our relationship never really quite... She wouldn't have a client. There was nobody else that would have a hold to do that, with the exception of you.

Okay. After more than an hour of interrogation about the photos, Mark Jensen seems on the verge of admitting to planting at least some of them.

I quit away, and then something like that, and I did piss off, and I pulled her off and said, I found these in the shit. What effect you had? I had them on the end of the day, two nights a man that had been a human for weeks. But humiliation with pornography is not an admission of murder.

On that, Mark is clear.

You had to do something to cause her death, Mark.

You're the only person that was there, and you're the only person that could have done anything. I didn't even call her.

No. No. No. No. No. Mark, how did she stop breathing? Be straight with me.

Be honest with me. Meanwhile, the case against Mark Jensen was also deepening on another front. Remember that on the night of Julie's death, district Attorney Bob Jambois had suspicions about Mark. Taking him aside, Jambois deals out a legal sleight of hand, masked as a friendly suggestion.

We had no evidence of physical injury to her. We just didn't really know how she died. And in order to get a search for her, you've got to have evidence that there's been a crime.

Unless the individual consents to the search.

And I said, Mr. Jensen, I'm very sorry for your loss. I gave him a hug. I said, You know, in situations like this, the insurance companies ask a lot of questions, and in order for us to be able to answer those questions. We've got to do a full-fledged death scene investigation. Do you understand that? And he said, Yes. I said, We're probably going to take that computer over there, too. You don't mind that, do you? And there was a hesitation, and he said, No, that's okay. You can take the computer.

At first glance, the Jensen's computer reveals no evidence of a crime or even a motive. But buried deep in the hard drive is a ghostly trail. Using a powerful software program called Shadow 2, the lost Internet history someone keenly interested in poisons begins to reveal itself. Websites and search engine queries for poisoning and drug interactions come up, and for the first time, the words ethylene glycol are seen. The main ingredient in antifreeze. Ethylene glycol. Pretty rough stuff.

It's a horrible way to die. If you look it up on the Internet, which is what somebody was doing in this case, you go through three stages. The first stage, you feel inebriated But then the second stage, you start having difficulty breathing. There's a rapid pulse rate. You start vomiting. And then in the third stage, these oxalic acid crystals actually start developing relatively rapidly. But then they start building up in your kidneys. It's this drug that crystallize you from the inside out, and then the drug is not typically caught at autopsy.

Which could explain why those original autopsy results came up empty. Prompted by the new computer evidence, prosecutor Jambois tells the toxicologist to go back take another look. And this time, they find evidence of ethylene glycol in Julie's stomach, kidneys, and blood. But who put it there? The killer or a deeply depressed woman seeking a way to end her life without bloodshed? Or perhaps this was the signature of an even more devious soul. Defense attorney Craig Albe claims Julie would do anything to keep her husband from getting custody of her children, including framing him with murder.

Julie Jensen was suffering from depression and despair, and that depression and despair caused her to take her own life. And her depression and her despair and her anger and her delusional thinking caused her to point the finger at Mark.

Albie's new theory is based on the fact that both Mark and Julie had access to the home computer, a computer that is not done talking yet. Hidden in the pixels and megabytes is another clue, another shocking revelation. Conversation. Julie wasn't the only one having an affair. Mark was, too, and it wasn't just a brief encounter.

Is the reference to cheeks on my desk a reference to a sexual encounter with you on his desk? That's the one that we joked about. And then you respond, If you continue to be a good boy, maybe you'll get what you wish for.

At the time, Kelly Labonte was a colleague at Mark Jensen's brokerage firm, and their affair was burning up the Internet.

Put the Boy Scout away, Francis. And what's the Boy Scout? His penis.

When you first asked Kelly whether or not she'd ever had sex with Mark, what was her answer?

Well, we had sex one time, just one time. And then suddenly she decides, Well, if you mean by sexual relations, if you're including fellatio and cunalingus, well, then we were having sex two or three times a week.

Amid the spicy exchanges, one email shows up that the prosecution he says, has motive written all over it.

You asked me if I wanted to run off with you somewhere. I'd love to, but there are issues we have to deal with. Do you have it all figured out? And Mark replies, I'm thinking so. That's what he says on October 16th. Then that night, he's looking up ways to kill her on the Internet. He looks at botulism. He looks up all this other stuff on the computer. He's looking for ways to murder his wife.

Despite the growing circumstantial evidence against Mark Jensen, this case still rises or falls on the power of Julie's letter from the grave. Legally, the prosecution's worst nightmare would be for a court to rule that letter inadmissible. Well, nightmares happen. In 2002, Julie's letter is ruled inadmissible because according to US law, the accused must always have the right to confront the accuser. District attorney Jambois is outraged.

He forfeited his right to cross-examine her because he killed her.

Julie's four brothers are devastated. You finally get to the point where you've got all of this evidence. You've got Julie's letter, and the court rules the letter inadmissible. What was that moment like?

That was very, very difficult. Bob Jambois came to me and asked, Do you want to go on? Do you want to go to trial without the letter, or do you want to wait for the letter? I said, I think that That, first of all, this case is very difficult without the letter coming in. Secondly, Julie wrote this with the expectation that this would be heard, and I think it should be heard. It didn't take very long to decide that the letter should be... We should fight to get the letter admitted because that was Julie's voice.

But with that voice silenced, Mark Jensen starts a new life. Kelly Labonte is no longer his secret girlfriend. She's the new Mrs. Mark Jensen, stepmother to Julie's boys. Surprised? Wait till you hear from the surprise witnesses.

When we come back, chilling new details. Evidence against Mark Jensen appears to mount with a stunning accusation.

He started talking about different websites that he had been going to, talking about poisoning his wife.

And another witness comes under attack.

You would agree that you're a liar? Sure.

When we return. Authorities have established a cause of Julie Jensen's death, antifreeze poisoning. The letter written by Julie before her death seems to point to her husband, Mark. But as Jay Shadler reports, sometimes the path to justice is as twisted as it is long.

Four years after Julie Jensen's deathbed letter is found, a judge rules it inadmissible. As a result, her case grinds to a standstill. Time moves on. Bob Jembois steps down as district Attorney. Mark Jensen is no longer having an affair with Kelly Labonte. They're married and in a new house. He starts a successful construction business, and Julie His brothers are left wondering if justice, like Julie, is dead.

It's taken so long to get here, and we're only part of the way there. We haven't gotten to trial yet, and that's our main hope is that we can get to trial.

If Mark Jensen truly is guilty, he seems to have become part of a rather astonishing statistic uncovered by ABC News, one of an estimated 6,000 people a year in the United States who literally get away with murder. How do you deal with that frustration?

A court case like this is like a slow motion battle.

It's really frustrating, very frustrating. And that's the way things stood until a decision by the US Supreme Court shattered the stalemate here in Wisconsin and suddenly opened a small legal window through which Julie Jensen's voice from the grave might yet be heard. In Crawford versus Washington, the high court seems to make room for extraordinary exceptions to the old rule about confronting your accuser. Jamboi, now a special prosecutor, seizes chance and petitions the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a hearing to decide once and for all if Julie's letter can come into evidence. Has there ever been any length of time where you forgot about Julie Jensen in this case?

I've never forgotten about this case. Not ever.

And now you are going to see inside this case like never before. 2020 gained exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the Jensen investigation. As prosecutor and boys, and Assistant DA Angelina Gabrielle prepare their case, review evidence, and interview witnesses, including Ted and Margaret Voight, the Jensen's old neighbors. Listen as the prosecution for the first time hears of a strange incident only hours after Julie's death.

We were standing upstairs in one of our rooms window, looking over the driveway, and Mark was leaving the house. His father was coming in the driveway.

They gave each other a high five.

The night that Julie died. That Julie died. So after the police had been there, Mark and his father gave each other a high five? Yes. That's it. Like after the packer score a shutdown or something? That's it. And you both saw that? Yes.

The moment that the Voites tell the story about high-fiving in the driveway. Tell me what it was.It.

Was shocking. And I believe that that's the effect that it has on people who hear that story. And you? And it shocked me. There's not too much that shocks a prosecutor. We see unspeakable things, but it was shocking to me.

There are more shocks to come. At the hearing to decide if Julie's letter will be admitted, a surprise witness rocks the courtroom.

Your Honor, the State calls Ed Klug to the stand.

Ed Klug had been a coworker of Mark Jensen's at their brokerage firms. Just weeks before Julie's death, the two men had conversation in a hotel bar, a conversation he kept hidden until now.

He started talking about different websites that he had been going to and talking about poisoning his wife. No, I don't think he was drunk. I think he had been drinking. And you'd been drinking.

Both of you had been very loose. You were both loose. Correct. Drinking and talking about wives and girlfriends, Klug and Jensen bonded. But as the night wore on, Klug says Jensen did most of the talking. He starts talking about websites.

Yes, he did. Some of the websites were relating to poisons that you could do, how to kill your wife. Com, per se.

These guys were having that a drunken bull session about how to kill their wives? Right.

Well, from Ed Klug's perspective, it was a drunken bull session. From Mark Jensen's perspective, he was telling Ed Klug what he'd done. He looked up ways to kill your wife on the Internet.

Julie died a month after this conversation you had.

Yes, she did.

Why didn't you come forward?

One of the things I did not want to get involved.

But he gave you the blueprint for the murder?

Yes, he did.

Were you afraid of Mark?

Actually, I was. Mark had nothing to lose if he were to harm me or my family. I was a loose end for him.

Klug's story is backed up by his wife and a coworker to whom he'd recounted the same conversation. When Klug steps down from the stand, Judge Schrader does something unprecedented.

I have to say that I wish to address the subject of the bond, given this what I would consider dramatic development. I've got the evidence in front of me, sworn testimony that if it had been in the original complaint, would have been positively devastating.

The judge instantly increases Jensen's bail from $400,000 $1.2 million. After a brief hug from his eldest son, he is shackled and led from the court. So after so many years of being free, Mark suddenly finds himself in jail in this cell block. In fact, this was his cell. As a white, middle-aged suburban dad, you can imagine that he might have felt a little vulnerable. At moments like that, you can look for friends in all the wrong places.

My first impression of Mark was pretty... I mean, he was a pretty nice guy. He seemed interesting. I met him in the Kenosha County Jail.

Aaron Dillard is a conman with a long record from fraud to forgery. For two days, he was also Mark Jensen's cell block maid. They shared Hours of conversation and possibly a confession. Why do you think that he opened up to you?

I can't be 100% sure, but I think we bonded. He was abused in there. What was happening? He was getting beat up. He was in a bad situation there. People picking on him, things like that, bullying up on him, trying to get money from him.

Grateful for his protection, Dillard says Jensen let his guard down.

It comes to a point where I just said, You know what? All of us do what we did to get here. All of us have some problem in our life. Basically, he just shook his head and said, Yeah, you're right. That's when it started spilling out. Then I said, Well, what did you do? What happened? He started telling me, he said, She wouldn't die fast enough.

According to Dillard, Jensen said he gave Julie a juice cocktail laced with antifreeze. The sweet-tasting poison had her confused and nearly comatose. He left Julie to die and then returned. He came in and she was still alive.

Yeah, after bringing the kids to school and picking up a check for work, he said he came back and she was actually breathing better, that her breathing wasn't so labored, and he got scared. And that's when he said that I rolled her over and sat on her back and pushed her neck and face into the pillow.

For the prosecution, the stunning new information explains why, in addition to poisoning, autopsy results had also suggested suffocation. But is Aaron Dillard's story even believable? Why would a man who's being charged with murder want to talk about that to you?

I don't know. I mean, everybody talks in jail. I mean, if you were ever in jail, people just mouth off about the stupidest things sometimes. Aaron Dillard. Not a good witness in the sense that I would encourage you to buy a car from him or lend him any money. But he's not a medium and he's not a seer. And that's the only way he could have known this information if Mark Jensen hadn't told him about it.

Judge Schrader rules the letter will be admitted into evidence. But defense attorney Craig Alvie says the prosecution is underestimating Mr. Dillard's skill at lying.

Did you write that letter? Yes, I did.

What's more, in exchange for his testimony, Dillard strikes a deal to get out of jail.

You would agree that you're a liar? Sure. Was. You've been convicted eight times? Possibly. It sounds about right. In the United States? I don't know if the number. I thought that was including Lithuania. You thought that included Lithuania? Something funny, Mr. Dillard? I can just say I'm a criminal. I mean, I don't know what this is about.

Having dismantled Till Dillard, Albie begins building his own theory of the case that Julie Jensen was depressed and spiraling towards suicide. Her own doctor helps paint the picture.

And you're seeing tears? Yes. She was highly upset. But the image was burned into my memory. I'd never seen her look like that, and I'd taken care of her for a number of years on a variety of visits. She seemed to be depressed and distraught and almost frantic, actually. Frantic? Mm-hmm.

It just doesn't make any sense. And a forensic psychologist adds fuel to the fire. Someone was really trying to kill her, and she knew it in advance.

Why in the devil would she then drink it?

The only explanation that I can find for that is that this is something she'd done by her own hand. For seven weeks, the testimony continues. Two versions of events, two lawyers with very different styles. Albie, precise, surgical, in his ability to expose a witness's inconsistencies.

And your report says, a moment ago, you said you knew you didn't take a vitrea sample. From my report is what I was referring to, and that's all I could rely upon, what my report says. If All we can rely upon is your report, there is no gastric sample either, right?

That's correct.

Were you told that Mark Jensen was planning on a trip in 1999 with his girlfriend?

On the other side, Bob Jambois, a brilliant improviser who knows all the court is a stage.

Don't you think that that makes it a lot more likely that this was a homicide rather than a suicide?

Style's aside, both men are on a crusade. Monk-like, Albie takes a room near the court and endlessly sharpens his case. Jambois, too, burns the Midnight Oil. Even while doing a little weekend woodworking, he's listening to audio tapes from wire taps on Mark Jensen's jail phone, discovering, to no surprise, that Jensen and his dad are not members of his fan club. I'm going to give myself a coffee cup, maybe.

I'm just going to say, The smartest rat in the sewer. The smartest rat in the sewer. That would be me.

You're proud of that, aren't you?

Yes.

The trial moved toward its close.

She knew that if anybody saw these words, she knew she'd be dead. She did not get help, which she certainly would have done if she truly believed her husband was going to poison her.

The jury now begins three days of deliberations. On the eve of the verdict, a lunar eclipse, a natural wonder, and a prelude to a human mystery. Did she ever tell you why she just didn't divorce him?

Julie said, Mark would kill me first before he divorced me. That's what she told me. It was an answer.

Did you believe her?

I believed her. I did.

But will the jury believe her?

All right, members of the jury, is my understanding that you have a verdict.

Is that correct? We'll be right back. After 29 days of courtroom battle-were you told about that communication from Mark Jensen to Kelly Greenman? Someone was really trying to kill her. 49 witnesses.

Poisons that you could use that would be undetectable.

The Julie Jensen case is coming to a close. After waiting nine years to clear his name, defendant Mark Jensen decides not to take the stand. Please all rise. So now all the truth, doubt, and lies are left with the jury to untangle. Deliberations begin with the closing argument still echoing in the courtroom.

So I thank you. Mr. Jensen thanks you. He did not kill his wife. I ask you to return a verdict if not guilty. Because she wanted the world to know the truth. She wanted you to know the truth. At the time she wrote these words, Julie Jensen had no motive to lie.

Though some had predicted a swift verdict, three days pass without one, and a shadow creeps over the trial.

If he sends them home and one of them doesn't come back, he may be looking at a mistrial after nine years to get to this point, nine years and seven weeks.

But then comes word.

Members of the jury It's my understanding that you have a verdict. Is that correct? The defendant will rise and face the jury.

We, the jury, find the defendant, Mark D.

Jensen, guilty of intentional homicide of the first degree as charged in the information.

Justice for Julie did not come quickly, but it arrived nonetheless.

I feel that we serve justice today, and I am so comfortable with my decision. I can't to tell you. If I had to say something to Julie, I would say that I'm sorry it took 10 years.

A week after his conviction, Mark Jensen was sentenced to prison.

Mr. Jensen, it is the sentence of the court that your custody be committed to the Department of Corrections for confinement in the Wisconsin state prisons without possibility of parole for the remainder of your life.

This was Julie Jensen's garden. She liked to grow white roses. And when all this snow finally melts, some of her old plants still bloom here. But even in this season of sleep, two living things have never to stop growing. Her boys, David and Douglas. What would you want Douglas and David to know about Julie? Maybe they don't know now.

I just want them to get to a point in their lives where they can share away all the garbage and just really feel the beautiful person that Julie was and feel all that motherly love and take all that wonderfulness that was her and just live it and and realize that she never would have chosen to leave them by any measure.

If you could tell the boys something about Julie, that they don't know or that you'd want them to know about their mother?

Well, I would just tell her that they were everything to her and And she's probably out there watching them every second of the day.

This is Deborah Roberts with an update to the story. Julie and Mark's sons were raised by Mark's second wife, Kelly, although she and Mark later divorced. A federal district court later ruled that the admission of Julie's letter had a, quote, substantial and injurious effect on the verdict and violated Mark's constitutional rights. He was granted a new trial, and in 2023, based on other evidence, including Internet searches made on his computer, Mark Jensen was once again convicted of Julie's murder. He was sentenced in prison without parole. You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll tune in on Friday nights at nine o'clock for all new broadcast episodes of 2020 on ABC. Thanks for listening.