Murder by nature

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Murder by nature

The Murder by The Masked Wolf

October 22, 2022 • Jazmin Hernandez • Season 1 • Episode 22

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Halloween is the only day in a year when people around the world dress up, knock on doors in their neighborhood for candy, and decorate their homes like crime scenes. It's the day that the communities come together to celebrate.

Halloween night in 1984 turned out to be a genuinely nightmarish one for the Erbert family in San Jose, California, as a family was celebrating a holiday filled with fun and spooky events. One family would soon see why opening the door for trick-or-treaters is not always the best idea.

Doreen Rae Hitchens was born in Santa Clara, California, in 1952. She grew up in a very loving family. She had a job as a physical therapist, and that’s how she met her first husband, Michael Dennis, also known as Mike. Michael Dennis worked at the Lockheed factory as a sprayer next door to Doreen’s job. Mike had suffered from hearing loss, which often caused him to stutter. His friend, Jim Patriott told Snapped on Oxygen that Mike was depressed and he didn’t socialize a lot. He didn’t often have girlfriends, so when he met Doreen, he said he had found the one.

After only a few months of dating, the couple got married, and Doreen soon gave birth to a baby boy, Paul Dennis. While Mike relished his role as a father, the stress of being new parents was too much for the young couple to withstand. They divorced in 1977, and Doreen retained primary custody of their son, who visited Mike on weekends. Mike cherished the time with his son, but he remained bitter about the divorce. On the other hand, Doreen quickly bounced back and married local carpet store owner Charles Erbert. The two had a daughter, Deanna Erbert, in 1979, raising her and Paul together. The couple was quickly starting to become a family and moved into a beautiful home within the community.

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In February of 1980, Paul, who was four years old, went into the backyard to play. The Erberts had a fence surrounding the pool, but Paul climbed over the fence and fell into the pool. Doreen, who was watching him from the kitchen window whilst doing housework, became frantic when she could no longer see him. She rushed outside to find him, floating in the pool. After being pulled from the pool, Paul was put on life support for a week, but he died three days after respirators and feeding tubes were removed. Less than a month before his 4th birthday. It was a devastating event for the entire family, but it was especially painful for Mike, who blamed Doreen for Paul’s death. His son's death would be the straw that broke the camels back for Dennis; he was demoted at work and would make claims that Paul’s death was not an accident but in fact, murder. A calculated move to erase him from their lives, and he despaired that Doreen had “gotten away with it.” He even went so far as to file a wrongful death suit against Charles and Doreen, and the case went to trial in March 1982. The jury ruled in the Erberts’ favor, and the couple cut off contact with Mike.

Over the next two years, Mike’s life and mental health continued to deteriorate. According to court documents, he lost his position as a sprayer at Lockheed and had to take a salary reduction to keep his job. More than anything, though, a lingering bitterness continued to eat at him over the breakup of his marriage with the woman he blamed for Paul’s death.

The Erberts, however, had something to celebrate after so many past traumas. In 1984, Doreen announced she was expecting a son following two miscarriages in the preceding years. The baby was due in early November, just after Halloween. Doreen was under 5 feet tall, and as the birth date drew near, her sister teased her that “she was as far out as she was high,” according to court documents. As Mike hears about the news, he can't feel happy for them. His resentment and grief continue to fester into something hateful. He thought of this woman as someone who ruined his live and murdered his son. How can she be living such a beautiful life when he is losing everything? Mike never approached the family, but he did not live far away, “within six blocks of the Erberts, about a six-minute walk” to be precise and this proximity could not have been healthy. Seeing the family move forward in their lives would have angered Dennis and fuelled his warped beliefs that Doreen “had not suffered enough for the drowning.”

On Halloween night, October 31, 1984, Doreen took 4-year-old Deanna out trick-or-treating while Charles handed out candy at home. After Doreen brought Deanna back to the house, Charles went to get more candy and stopped by the liquor store. He would later estimate he was only away from the house for about 15 minutes.

At 9.00 p.m., there was an aggressive knock at the door; this startled Doreen as she didn't think that any tricker-treaters would be knocking so aggressively but relently she went to answer it, and Deanna later testified in Court (aged 8) that she recalled when her mother opened the door, a man in a wolf mask said, “I’m going to kill you.” In his hand was an 18-inch machete and her mum demanding that the man “get out of the house” before telling Deanna to run and hide. “My mommy said, 'Get out of my house,'” Deanna later testified, according to the news service UPI. “My mommy told me to hide behind the couch, so I did.'” When Charles Erbert returned from the store, he noticed his front door was unlocked, this was strange to him because Doreen asked him to lock the door on his way out as it was getting late and she didnt want someone coming in. When he got inside the house, he found a bloody and horrific scene. Doreen lay in the entranceway of their home while their unborn son was in the living room.

This shocked Charles, as he asset the situated he noticed that Doreen’s hand was fully severed and he attempted to stop the bleeding. While helping her with the hand he then show the horrific scene unfold with the wounds to her neck and torso. As Charles attempted to save his wife he saw their son had been removed from her abdomen and hacked to pieces in the living room. There was so much blood on the floor Charles slipped and fell. As he was going through the house trying to find his daughter he finally found Deanna still alive, hiding in the living room. Charles made his way to the telephone and for some reason, he could not get through to 911, so he called the fire department and a neighbor for help. Charles took his daughter into the kitchen, away from the crime scene and continued to try and aid his dying wife. When they arrived on the scene, they discovered Charles hysterically and covered in blood.

“You could see that the hallway was red, and then that there was a stool with a pumpkin on it,” retired San Jose Police Department Detective Bert Caro told “Snapped.” Former San Jose Police Officer Jaime Saldivar remembered the scene “was completely eerie, completely bizarre.” By the Erbert’s front door, they found a wolf mask with exaggerated teeth, bulging eyes, and a stuck-out tongue. They also discovered a trail of blood leading all the way down the block, where it then suddenly stopped. Investigators surmised the killer might have gotten into a car and driven away. They gathered blood samples, which, at that time, could only identify a victim or perpetrator’s blood type. As the officers did know what to do they made their focus on Doreen, when paramedics arrived she still had a pluse and they were determined to save her. When Charles tried to go with his wife to the hospital despite the paramedics’ requests, the police ended up arrested him after noticing he was bloody and had alcohol on his breath. They left him handcuffed in the patrol car for the next hour, enraged and kicking at the car’s windows.

Officers detained Charles for questioning, and another team of investigators spoke to the Erberts’ neighbors. Authorities learned about the couple’s troubled history with Mike and the death of Paul, and they quickly made their way to Mike’s home, less than two miles away from the Erbert house. As the paramedics attempted to rushed to the hospital to save Doreen she unfortnely ended up coding on the way there and was pronounced.

As the case now turned into a murder investigation the police arrived at Mikes home. When they got to the driveway they noticed that his truck was parked out front and blood was on the steering wheel, keys and gear shift knob. As they made their way to the door they noticed that there was lights on in the house, they continued to knock and knock and knock. No answer, then they started to hear the water running in the house. They immediately were suspicious of what could be going on inside and thought he wsas trying to flush or wash away any evidence that they did not have access too. As tireless knocking on the door the police alert dispatch who ended up calling Mike to let him know that the police were at his door with questions. Mike made his way to the door in his robe and finally let the police in.

When authorities informed Mike of his wife’s murder, he seemed uninterested and emotionless. Then Mike invited the police inside to discuss the case. Investigators noticed a bandage on his right hand that was bleeding heavily and soaking the gauze that he had wrapped the wound with. When questioned he claimed was from playing with a knife. Mike told them he had “nothing to hide” and agreed to let them search his home. Investigators found blood throughout the house, on articles of clothing, more than what could come from a simple knife wound. They knew something was not lining up with the he was telling them. As the police continued to search they found a loaded gun behind the headboard of his bed, a pair of bloody jeans on the same bed, and drops of blood throughout the property, including on a set of keys, also found in the bedroom and in front of the washing machine in the garage. Blood was also found in the kitchen and on bandages in a bin in the bathroom.

When being brought to the station Mike initially denied murdering his ex-wife, and despite the evidence they were able to locate at the house and the crime scene, it was not strong enough to hold him and they ended up having to release after 48 hours.

Now back again knowing they have they correct person they did a second sweep of the home. They were able to locate a receipt from a hardware store and a label for a machete with an 18-inch blade. In his garage, they also found two handmade coffins, one for Charles, and another smaller one for Doreen. They located body bags, weights, and a map of San Francisco Bay. The police knew they had their guy and was able to confirm more their suspicions when they were able to match the mask used in the murder as the one that Mike wore on Halloween the year earlier. The police were able to locate a girl that was with Mike at the Halloween party and remembered that he was dressed as the big bad wolf and she had a photo to prove it.

Mike was arrested again on Nov 5th 1984, after a state crime matched Mike’s blood type to that found at the crime scene. Mike was charged with murder with special circumstances making him eligible for the death penalty. Mike went on trial in July 1988, His defence attorney aruged that the killings were a result from a mental illness due to the death of his son and that the murders were not premediated or deliberate. Mike had a history of mental illness, and was treated for sucide tendencies when he was younger. They argued that due to his hearing loss he suffered from a stutter and eating disorder. They stated that when he met Doreen his life changed and he was happy but when they divorced that he struggled with his depression again and losing their son made him spiral when he saw that he was the only person sad at Pauls funeral. Mike told his therapist that he killed Doreen but that he did not know that she was pregnant. That when he had began stabbing her he then realsied that she was pregnant and if he would of known beforehand he wouldnt have hurt her at all. He denied any acts of volenice to the baby. Now in court the proscution team argued that Doreen was visibly pregnant, and neigbors even testified that when they took their children trick or treating not long before the murder that they joked that she was as far out as she was high. Pictures of Doreen a week before her murder were presented in court to show that if you saw her you would know that she was pregnant. This picture is posted to our instagram for you to view. Multiple people testified that they recalled seeing a man in a wolf mask standing across the street and staring at the house between 6:30 and 7 PM.

On 16th August 1988, after a three week trial and two days of deliberations, Dennis was found guilty of first degree murder for Doreen and second degree murder for her son. In September 1999, he was sentenced to die in the gas chamber. Mike told reporters that he was going to be appealing his death sentence because he believes he should have been charged with manslaughter, not first-degree murder. He said he was blinded by grief over the drowning death of his 4-year-old son when he killed his ex-wife. He has said “I want a new trial. If people knew what I’d been through, the verdict would have been different.” Mike Dennis has launched multiple appeals of his sentence. None of which have been successful.

Today, Charles and Deanna Scott say that they have forgiven Mike for their own peace of mind. “I want him to know we survived. And we’re making it. He hasn’t conquered us,”

Like many of California’s death penalty convictions, Mike is currently sitting on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

Outro

That brings us to the end of this episode! As always, thanks for listening to Murder By Nature. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any streaming platform you are currently on, and be sure to come back Saturday for our new episode. Until then, I am your host, Jazmin Hernandez, don’t forget to stay safe! Don’t get murdered or murder people, you lovely humans!

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