Federal agents conducted electronic and photographic surveillance on a Highlands Ranch man as they investigated him in connection with the 2012 death of his second wife, court documents filed Wednesday show.
Harold Henthorn, 58, was on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of his second wife, Toni Henthorn, 50. Authorities in Douglas County say Harold Henthorn is also being investigated in the death of his first wife, who was crushed by a car and killed in 1995.
Federal officials disclosed the surveillance, which was first reported by CBS4, in a discovery conference memorandum and order reviewed by The Denver Post on Thursday.
Henthorn pleaded not guilty to the charge where a judge ruled that he will be held without bond.
Prosecutors and the judge presiding over the hearing noted the similarities in the deaths of Henthorn’s wives, both of which occurred in remote wilderness areas and were not witnessed.
Toni Henthorn, an esteemed ophthalmologist, was killed Sept. 29, 2012 when she fell 140 feet off a cliff in Rocky Mountain National Park. totalling $4.5 million.
Harold Henthorn’s first wife, 37-year-old Sandra Henthorn, was killed after a car slipped off a jack while she and Harold Henthorn were changing a flat tire near Sedalia on Colorado 67. She was covered by a roughly $500,000 insurance policy.
“We don’t think this is his first murder,” Suneeta Hazra, an assistant U.S. attorney, said at Wednesday’s hearing.
Hazra discussed Harold Henthorn’s finances at length during the hearing, when it surfaced that the accused killer has approximately $1.5 million in ready cash though there is no record of him being employed since the 1990’s.
Harold Henthorn was arrested Nov. 6 by the FBI and National Park Service in Highlands Ranch after he dropped his daughter off at school.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
