Murder, Insurance Fraud — What Could Go Wrong?
(“Bed of Deceit,” Forensic Files)
As Forensic Files villains go, Cynthia McDonnell distinguishes herself as the queen of self-sabotage.
In a bid to collect on her husband’s life insurance policy, the freelance writer shot him as he slept in their Michigan house, then blamed the crime on an anonymous robber.
Quick revision. But Cynthia’s storytelling competencies didn’t exactly exceed expectations.
She staged the phony home invasion so poorly that she ended up having to fabricate a new explanation. She said that her husband killed himself — which meant no $300,000 insurance payout for her.
For this week, I checked into where she is today and looked for more information on Daniel McDonnell’s life.
American dream. So let’s get started on the recap of “Bed of Deceit,” the Forensic Files episode about the case, along with additional facts drawn from internet research:
Cynthia Lee Johnston and Daniel Joseph McDonnell married in 1975 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He originally came from Port Chester, New York.
By 1998, they had two children, a house in Bingham Township, Michigan, and what looked like a happy union.
Southwestern feat. Before Daniel moved to Michigan, he worked as a police officer in New Mexico and New York.
Forensic Files didn’t mention it, but the dark-haired blue-eyed Daniel was a local hero in Albuquerque, where he served as vice president of the Irish American Society and helped plan the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
On Christmas morning in 1978, while off-duty, he repeatedly crawled into a burning car in an attempt to reach a passenger trapped inside. After his second try, the gas tank exploded, but he slid into the overturned vehicle a third time. It was too late to save the woman, whose leg was pinned down, but McDonnell’s bravery was honored by numerous community groups, the Albuquerque Journal reported on January 17, 1979.
Little did he know that, two decades later, it would be his turn to become a victim of circumstance.
Diabolical plan. On the morning of December 31, 1998, Cynthia McDonnell took the couple’s daughter, Erin, shopping in Traverse City for several hours.
Their son, Patrick, 18, was at a buddy’s house; his father had dropped him off there the night before.
Cynthia said that when she returned from shopping, she found Dan, 58, in his bed with a bullet wound to the head.
Hole in the story. Judging from her hysterical-spouse routine on the 911 tape, police should have arrested her on the spot for bad acting alone.
But first responders usually start out by giving the survivor’s story the benefit of the doubt. They listened to her tale of shock and woe and missing cash from her husband’s wallet.
Investigators eventually noticed, however, that Cynthia didn’t have an explanation for how the intruder or intruders broke into the house.
Undeterred consumer. Cynthia then had no choice but to change her story, according to Forensic Files. The new version: She went into the bedroom to tell Dan she was going shopping and found him dead with a suicide note.
He had survived cancer but was depressed over the side effects of the treatments, she said. A note he left explained that he wanted Cynthia and the kids to get the insurance money — and instructed her to stage the scene like a murder so his policy would remain valid, she claimed.
So, Cynthia told police, she got rid of his note, then wiped his prints from his service revolver and threw it in a field. Then she went shopping.
Failing forensic tests. But Cynthia, who aspired to publish a murder-mystery novel, botched the plot in a number of ways.
The bullet wound was in the back of the victim’s head — people don’t generally shoot themselves that way. Blood evidence around his arm and pillow also contradicted her narrative.
And, as Forensic Files fans have seen many times, little things murderers inadvertently do or say often scream “guilty” even louder than the forensics (Ed Post and Brian Vaughn).
This speaks volumes. In Cynthia’s case, on the morning of her husband’s death, she went into the bathroom where Erin, 20, was showering and turned up the radio.
A mom who wants to pump up the volume on her child’s music?
It seemed fishy to Erin, too, who ultimately sided against her mother.
Clearly, Cynthia was attempting to mask the sound of the gunfire. A bullet hole in the pillow next to the body suggested another effort to muffle the noise, investigators believed.
The defense’s turn. In April 1999, Cynthia was arraigned on murder charges and held without bail.
At the trial in 2000, defense lawyer Pete Shumar argued for the suicide theory and said that Daniel had shot himself in the back of the head to make his death look like murder and hence eligible for the insurance jackpot.
Shumar also trotted out a couple of expert witnesses, including a psychologist who said that going shopping after a loved one’s death could be a reaction to trauma.
It’s only natural. As for Cynthia’s story shift from murder to suicide, the Record-Eagle reported Shumar’s explanation:
"I believe that all of us have changed our story at one point in time or another. It's human. She did it for her children."
(The Record Eagle article, from February 17, 2000, isn’t available on the paper’s website, but you can read it via a Google Group posting.)
Counter arguments. Leelanau County Prosecutor Clarence Gomery had plenty of ammunition for his side of the case.
In addition to changing the manner of the death, Cynthia couldn’t keep her story straight about what happened to the alleged suicide note, the Record-Eagle reported. She threw it in the garbage or burned it or shredded it and flushed it down the toilet.
There was also the fact that Daniel’s arms had no splatter, suggesting someone else fired the gun.
Retail report. And in the months leading up to the murder, Cynthia’s purchase of big-ticket items like new computers and furniture coincided with thefts of cash from a trust fund her husband was managing for a disabled relative, according to Forensic Files.
The bank had video footage of her multiple withdrawals, which added up to $50,000. She also forged her husband’s name at times.
The prosecution fought the notion that Daniel McDonnell would even consider suicide.
Lots to live for. He had beaten cancer, still worked part-time, was looking forward to a celebration for Erin’s 21st birthday, and was planning to buy a fishing boat.
After a trial that lasted a little more than a week, a jury convicted Cynthia, 45, of first-degree premeditated murder.
As Forensic Files fans will remember, her daughter, Erin, urged the court to give the maximum penalty. She got her wish, when Judge Thomas Power sentenced Cynthia to life without the possibility of parole. Off to prison she went.
Oh, come on. In a 2002 appeal, Cynthia claimed that her husband had been notified of the trust-fund theft — and his failure to take action right away was evidence that he was suicidal.
A three-judge appellate court panel unanimously ruled against the appeal.
Today, Cynthia McDonnell resides in Level II security in the Huron Valley Complex in Ypsilanti. It’s the same state prison Sharon Zachary calls home.
At 5-foot-3 and 240 pounds, Cynthia doesn’t appear to have participated in any hunger strikes. She’s resisted the siren song of any local artisans — she has no tattoos, according to the Michigan Dept. of Corrections.
Dubious career history. Incidentally, although Forensic Files gave her occupation as freelance writer, it’s not clear whether she ever had anything published. Nothing turned up online. (But, to be fair, back in the day, magazines and newspapers didn’t routinely slap stuff on the internet as they do now.)
Cynthia’s children maintain a Facebook page devoted to Daniel McDonnell’s memory including old photos of their happy childhood with their father.
Their kindly uncle, Kevin McDonnell, who appeared on Forensic Files and suggested he himself was ready to join his late brother soon, is alive and has a presence on social media.
(As if we needed more reasons to like the McDonnell family, they all appear to be animal lovers. Daniel’s obituary noted he did volunteer work for an Irish wolfhound rescue group.)
The FB page doesn’t mention Cynthia or identify her in any of the pictures.
In an odd twist, the lawyer who prosecuted her, Clarence Gomery, pleaded guilty in 2015 to a murder-for-hire plot against a fellow lawyer he was warring with over a case.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the episode on Amazon Prime
