According to her own accounts, after Ali chose to live with her father, Jeffrey Hamburg, he became "super controlling" and implanted "a lot of fear" in her. In the series, Madison does some digging and is able to obtain school records that show Barbara did indeed drop Ali off at school on the morning of her death, confirming Ali's alibi and eliminating her as a suspect. There was no stone they had left unturned.. But they're in a really good spot now. A hired killer just wouldn't fit that description. That is as it should be. At a Freedom of Information hearing in February 2020, Madison police Detective Christopher Sudock said he regularly reviewed the case and that the agency had received a phone call about it the week before. Madison Hamburg, right, during a candlelight vigil and memorial service for his mother, Madison resident Barbara Hamburg, a 2010 slaying victim in an unsolved case, at the First Congregational Church in Madison on Feb. 29, 2020. It was looked at routinely and remained a top priority of the department, he said. I know the case is still open. He never forcefully denies killing Barbara in the series. Yeah, I reached out to him before our promotions started because I wanted him to hear a fuller context from me instead of seeing it on television or as a commercial somewhere, but I didn't reach him. However, when law enforcement has effectively exhausted all efforts to arrest and prosecute a suspect, and when the statistical data show that the probability of a prosecution resulting from long-unsolved cases approaches zero, it is difficult to understand how denying public access to criminal investigation files in perpetuity serves the public interest in solving crimes and bringing perpetrators to justice. ', 6,000 checks go out to Yale workers in class-action settlement involving wellness program, Police: Stolen car found riddled with bullets after gunfire in New Haven near Yale, West Haven mayor under fire after city is left without a finance director at start of budget season, Convicted DiMassa codefendant requests acquittal, new trial in West Haven fraud scheme case, The Best Private High Schools near New Haven, Guide to Legal Cannabis Dispensaries in CT, The Best Private Preschools Near New Haven. He also said that he had new evidence on the case that he did not want to share. While Tyler appreciated it, it made Conway furious. There are no corroborating witnesses for this alibi, according to the doc. As her son, I want to know what was and wasnt done. Here are the most notable suspects. As we see in the documentary, some even suggest that Conway was envious of Barbara because of the money, success, and love the latter was able to attain. She suffered for years from alcoholism, addiction and physical and mental health issues as well as a palpable jealousy towards Barbara and Barbara's daughter, Ali. In a statement ahead of the hearing, Hamburgs son, Madison Hamburg, who helped make an HBO documentary series about his mothers death called "Murder on Middle Beach," called for the records release. The old adage about a fresh pair of eyes is particularly apt. Judge Daniel Klau upheld the commissions decision that the files must be turned over in a ruling of his own last month, but last week the police department appealed that decision, too. After the Police Department appealed a commission order to the release the records, a trial court in August 2021 upheld the commissions decision. In setting out to do this, I didn't have an expectation that we would solve my mom's case, but there are many goals I have had throughout this process and they sort of evolve. Jeffrey was eventually arrested for failing to make those payments in 2012, and as of 2018 he was still fighting in the courts to avoid paying. It's revealed in the "Murder on Middle Beach" epilogue that in October 2020, Madison was granted that case file and that he and his team had started reviewing it for additional information about the murder. Before joining the Register, she worked on an independent journalism project about migration in Berlin, Germany. How Did Barbara Hamburg Die? The HBO series Murder on Middle Beach has captivated audiences everywhere as filmmaker Madison Hamburg attempts to uncover the truth about what happened to his mother so many years ago. The following year, Beach was present at another vigil, where she called her . If Barbara dropped Ali off at 7:47 am and the court hearing was at 9:30 am, perhaps the father had enough time to commit the murder. Have you had any other reactions surprise you? When Barbara Hamburg was brutally bludgeoned to death outside her home on Middle Beach Road in Madison, Connecticut in 2010, her sister Conway Beach publicly mourned her loss. Through interviews with and secret recordings of his immediate family and the police, Madison and his crew tell the story of Barbara Beach Hamburg's full life and tragic death. In 2016, he began to film a project reviewing the circumstances around his mothers death, interviewing family members and pursuing information from the Madison Police Department about its investigation. I really didn't want my mom's story or my story to be told by someone else. Then, the public would never have any way of knowing whether [the police] were doing their job appropriately, said Schulz. Then, there is the still-plausible idea that Barbara was killed by someone she had crossed through her participation in "The Gifting Tables," a pyramid scheme wherein potential members would "gift" existing members of the organization money in order to join, then recruit new members for their own eventual pay-outs. Beach also alleges that Ali killed Barbara, claiming that the then-high schooler acted bizarrely at the scene of the murder by declaring it a crime scene before any evidence of a crime was observed. While the Madison Police Department has released some records, including the 911 call that led police to Barbara Hamburgs body, it challenged the commissions decision in court. It was then Beach and Ali who discovered Barbara's body. "When my mom died, I didn't tell anybody," says Hamburg. Yet the strangest thing was when Conway stated that Barbara, a week before she was slain, told her about a dream where she was violently murdered but refused to reveal who was behind it. One of two masterminds to be jailed for their roles in the Gifting Tables, was Hamburg's aunt Jill Platt. Alex Murdaugh Faces Life In Prison For Allegedly Killing His Wife & Son, Heres What Happened To Riley In 'The Last Of Us' Video Game, Twitter Is Losing It Over Succession Ending With Season 4, Everything To Know About 'And Just Like That' Season 2, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. While Madison police initially questioned Hamburg after Beach Hamburg's murder, he was never formally charged with a crime, despite being named as a suspect. The Madison Police Department is appealing a state judges order that it must turn over its investigative files on Hamburgs 2010 murder to a pair of documentary filmmakers, including Hamburgs son, who examined the investigation in the hit HBO miniseries Murder on Middle Beach.. I cant. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Beach Hamburg and Hamburg married in 1989, but divorced in 2002. Unlike other true-crime documentaries, "Murder on Middle Beach" doesn't focus exclusively on Beach Hamburg's death. Barbara was said to be involved in "gifting. That said, in the final episode Ali's alibi is confirmed: her mother dropped her off at school the morning that she was killed. This was actually where the four-part series began, as first-time filmmaker Madison Hamburg set out to investigate the events surrounding the murder of his mother, Barbara Beach Hamburg, who was . A hearing was held in February 2020, where Detective Christopher Sudock testified on behalf of the department that the release could jeopardize a prospective law enforcement action, such as a search or arrest warrant, but could not identify any specific actions investigators had planned. Barbara Alexandra Hamburg, who now goes by Ali, is the youngest member of the Hamburg family. But as soon as I started asking questions I realized it was much bigger than that. Opening the file and turning the pages without acting on the file is not evidence the file is going to be used in a prospective law enforcement action, Harmon said. Schulz said the department had provided two boxes of information about the case, but that they were still missing key documents, including witness statements, notes, computer records and telephone records. And I was just desperately trying to understand how to take the next step with something so personal and not sacrifice anything. The series makes other allegations relating to Beach and her sister's involvement in a pyramid scheme known as the Gifting Tables. [2] "My parents told me that . But after watching the entire series through again on Monday morning, I realized that's obviously the point one that I had lost sight of while tuning in week-to-week for the last month, eager to see how the case concluded. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. So he made a deal with us that he would give us an A if I never stopped working on it. Ali had always maintained her innocence, claiming that she had been dropped off at school by Barbara on the morning of the murder, and that she only returned home later that day with Beach, who picked her up from school after Ali's texts to her mother went unanswered. All rights reserved. Throughout the mini-series, the main suspect seemed to be Barbara's ex-husband and Madison's father, Jeffrey Hamburg. Murder on Middle Beach didn't decisively eliminate any other suspects. Hamburg was only 18 years old when his mother's body was found in 2010 outside of her Connecticut home when her sister, Conway Beach, arrived back at the home with . That means that if you have a victim of a crime in your household tomorrow, they could start [submitting Freedom of Information Requests for] each and every single day in the investigation, said Drumm. Murder on Middle Beach Season 2 Release Date 'Murder on Middle Beach' season 1 premiered on November 15, 2020, on HBO, and concluded with its fourth and final episode - 'Reasonable Doubts' - on December 6, 2020. The Madison Department of Police filed an appeal on September 2. So when she eventually got evicted, she moved to Florida, where she spent her days sleeping on park benches and just awaiting her death. Drumm said in the meeting that, along with the request from Madison Hamburg and Neimeyer, the department had received three other requests from media outlets from the other coast for the full case files. Barbara Beach Hamburg was found dead outside her home in 2010, but her case remains unsolved. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. Beach Hamburg is survived by her children, Madison and Ali, 27, as well as her mother, also named Barbara, and numerous siblings. On March 3, 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was found dead in her Connecticut house. We got a lot of questions like, how does it end? According to the doc, Jeffrey allegedly owed Barbara and their two children hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the two were due to appear in court together on the day Barbara was murdered to sort it out. "Barbie, Barb, it's your sister." The call ends after about five minutes. That is unbelievably gratifying, so I don't know, there's a lot of mixed things swirling around in how I feel right now. "And one of them was, if we don't solve my mom's case, then the documentary becomes a tool for me to get my mom's story out there and provide some momentum." Unfortunately, because of that, when her parents divorced in 2002, she suffered the most. And as the docuseries comes to a close there are a growing number of theories about Barbara Hamburg's death. According to David Schulz, a lawyer representing the plaintiff, the department was only withholding the information on the off chance that new information about the case should come to light, and that there really was not an ongoing investigation. Did she ever try to contact them again? This theory does seem to make a lot of sense, except when you consider how Barbara was murdered. Sign up for notifications from Insider! She was a woman who was known to be head-strong. Moreover, allowing the public access to cold case files after an appropriate period of time is far more likely to improve the odds of an arrest and successful prosecution than it it is to prejudice that outcome.. Murder on Middle Beach centers on the mysterious death of 48-year old Barbara Hamburg. Murder on Middle Beach calls a handful of suspects into question. On March 3, 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was found murdered in the backyard of her Madison, Connecticut, home. 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