It is difficult to understand how denying public access to criminal files in perpetuity serves the public interest in solving crimes and bringing perpetrators to justice, wrote Judge Daniel Klau in his decision. But first here are the facts: According to the doc, Barbara Hamburg was a 48-year-old single mother who was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in the front yard of her Madison, CT home on the morning of March 3, 2010. While their outing is filmed from a hotel window across the street from the bar, Madison prods his father on details about his marriage to Madisons late mother. Hamburg, for his part, said Beach Hamburg was behind on mortgage payments for their property. Here are the facts: on March 3rd, 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was beaten to death in front of her modest house in Madison, Connecticut. Drumm also said that he hoped the Chief States Attorneys Office and that Attorney General William Tongs Office would file amicus briefs on their behalf. So I was at film school when my mom died, in this doc class, and I told my immediate group. I left him a voicemail. Madison Hamburg has been transparent in interviews about wanting to produce "a different take on true crime. As the series progresses, Madison gains new insight into his mother's life before her murder, including her troubled relationship with his father and Beach Hamburg's ex-husband, Jeffrey Hamburg. There was sort of shame attached to that, telling someone that with the connotations around murder and true crime. If I didn't ask these questions, the questions would go unasked, but I've tried my hardest to do this what I consider the right way. 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. The two had gone through a rough divorce and were not on good terms at the time of Barbara's death. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. According to the HBO docuseries, Beach Hamburg's body was covered with outdoor furniture cushions when it was found. In past cases in which the exemption was upheld, police showed the commission they were interviewing witnesses, in the final stages of an investigation or working on it weekly, according to Harmon. Have you found anything surprising in the new police files that you received last month? But Madisons is not a traditional true crime documentaryhe didnt want to fetishize or agonize over the gory details of the murder. That said, in the final episode Ali's alibi is confirmed: her mother dropped her off at school the morning that she was killed. Do you know if your dad has watched or is watching? Klau reviewed the case and found in August that the police department cannot use the mere theoretical possibility of a future law enforcement action to keep the investigative files secret but conceded there is little precedent for how investigators or the FOIC should determine what constitutes such a future action. From the jump, the suspect list was long. Conway remembers taking a bag of money to a Florida hotel to meet someone who presented themselves as a hitman. I don't know. We still don't know who killed Barbara Hamburg, but with the renewed attention paid to the case thanks to Murder on Middle Beach, we could one day find out. 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 found stabbed and bludgeoned to death outside her home in an affluent Connecticut suburb in 2010. The following contains spoilers from the ending of HBO's "Murder of Middle Beach.". Hamburg, for his part, said Beach Hamburg was behind on mortgage payments for their property . 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 . There's been a lot of mistakes and a lot of successes throughout this whole journey, but I don't think I would do anything differently at this point. "We miss her dearly, and it is a great loss to not have her with us," she said at a 2011 vigil, the New Haven Register reported at the time. I assume he has, but I'm not sure. However, later in the documentary, director Madison Hamburg Barbara's son and Ali's brother obtains school records that corroborate Ali's alibi of being at school at the time of the murder. "Murder on Middle Beach" premieres Sunday on HBO at 10 p.m. Dowling said the Board of Police Commissioners and the Board of Selectmen were working on setting up a joint meeting, and that the lawsuit would be a topic of discussion for the meeting. That's essentially a thousand more opportunities to discover not just what happened to his mother, but to find another slash in the family tree. The court has attempted to resolve a long unsettled question about the degree of certainty concerning a prospective law enforcement action that is required to withhold records. CT DOT faces criticism following overnight tree-cutting, Haar: Payouts at fading CT trash agency offer lessons in a crisis, State nursing homes could face fine due to too many empty beds, CT legislators revive debate over firefighters' cancer benefits. The police could have an incentive to just not become the focus of second-guessing, Ecker said. Barbara Beach Hamburg, Madison's 48-year-old mother, had been bludgeoned and stabbed to death, her body hidden under a pile of lawn-furniture cushions outside their Connecticut home. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Although it seems like Conway is living a quiet life, she has mourned her sister publicly over the years, holding vigils and vowing to keep her memory alive. What details, if any, does Conway remember about the person she planned to hire to kill Barbara? Years before she was murdered, Madison Hamburg 's mother Barbara Hamburg gave him a gift that would shape his life forever. The people in the States Attorneys office who oversee the cold case reviews agreed with them that there were no new leads to follow. 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. On the other hand, Dugas, the attorney for the Madison Police Department, argued the case was very much active. In 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was found bludgeoned in her yard next to the golf course in Madison, Connecticut. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Madison Hamburg and his late mothers sister, Conway. It should be noted that this was at the height of the recession, and participants many of whom Barbara recruited from her Alcoholics Anonymous meetings were discouraged from telling their husbands or partners about their participation in the Tables. Directed by Barbara's son, Madison Hamburg, the docuseries is a chronicle of Madison's return to his home as he is determined to understand . The theorists point out that Jeffrey had the most obvious motive while also having an alibi that was almost too perfect. In HBOs Murder on Middle Beach, we watch as a nervous Madison Hamburg tapes a hidden microphone to his shirt and zips up his jacket before heading out to meet his Dad for a beer. "Thank God that HBO saw the potential and the rest is history.". 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. Beach had also moved in with Barbara prior to the murder while she was recovering from brain surgery, and the documentary alleges that Barbara wanted her to move out. Where homicides involved I think the interest is too great not to err on the side of not disclosing.. The four-part HBO Max series, now available on Sky Crime and NOW TV in the UK, follows director Madison Hamburg as he investigates the unsolved murder of his own mother, Barbara Beach Hamburg, on . "I can't get into details, but it's been extremely illuminating.". There's already inherent bias from my point of view. 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. In October of 2019, Anike Neimeyer, the producer of Murder on Middle Beach, submitted a FOI request to the Madison Police Department on behalf of herself and Madison Hamburg requesting records of the case. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Who Is John Dutton's Grandfather in '1923'? His father, Jeffrey Hamburg, quickly became a person of interest. 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. Its not a normal father-son catch-up scene. But to date, no one has ever been charged with Barbara's murder. The case raises questions about exactly when a cold case is considered cold enough to release the investigative files publicly and likely is destined for much further debate by both the judiciary and general assembly, Klau reasoned. 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 was at a point in grief where I was trying to hold on to the memory of my mom and my greatest fear was losing my memory of the sound of her voice or how she smelled or how she looked, and I thought that taking advantage of the class to ask my family members about her could sort of memorialize her. Like I really didn't want to create caricatures of my family members. One of two masterminds to be jailed for their roles in the Gifting Tables, was Hamburg's aunt Jill Platt. Here's everything you need to know about Beach Hamburg's death and "Murder on Middle Beach.". Platt also cut off her relationship with Barbara, and drew hard lines on what areas were Barbara's Gifting Tables "territory" for recruitment and which were Platt's. It would not be in the interest of our own investigation to release it any further, said Drumm. I really didn't want my mom's story or my story to be told by someone else. Yeah, I can't get into details but I will say that after spending eight years just putting together fragments of memories about my mom or about the case or about a specific time period, the transparency and the accuracy of these facts that have been kept from me for so long has been extremely relieving. 'Ted Lasso' Season 3 Dropped Its First Trailer, 'Outer Banks' Season 4 Is Already In the Works, 'The Last of Us' Ep. The brutal crime was committed in 2010 when Madison was 19-years-old. But Madison's. Its been twelve and a half years since my mother was killed, he said. Seeking a way out of making those payments or seeing the inside of a jail cell could allegedly have been a motive for Jeffrey to kill Barbara. We now know they have that information, which led them to ask additional questions of us of information that we had not shared with the general public, Drumm told commissioners, adding that the department needed to retain the information to complete its investigation. I started in 2013 really fresh and very amateur to documentary. It's terrifying, and I think that something that was really important for me was naming and identifying the adverse effects of doing something like this in the documentary itself, because I just think that's one of the unique aspects of the point of view. The department denied the request, citing a portion of the state Freedom of Information Act exempting certain law enforcement records from release if the disclosure of such records would not be in the public interest because it would result in the disclosure of information to be used in a prospective law enforcement action if prejudicial to such action.. So he made a deal with us that he would give us an A if I never stopped working on it. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Harmon, however, said police did not say whether the new information led to new activity. This may be a long journey, and that may cost a lot of money I would appreciate it if the Attorney Generals Office would take it up, because its in the interest of law enforcement state-wide, not just the Town of Madison, Drumm told commissioners. "Murder on Middle Beach" is currently streaming on HBO Max. Dugas acknowledged the court was dealing with competing interests, one of which was the publics right to know. On the morning of March 3, 2010, Beach Hamburgwas found dead in the front yard of her home by her sister, Conway Beach, and Ali. Additionally, releasing records that reveal who provided police with information about the crime could prompt witness intimidation, Dugas said. Stay up to date with what you want to know. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. Upon hearing this new information, Beach alters her opinion of Ali as the murderer. Its an amazing thing as someone who's created something, because the conversations extend week to week and to see the effects that it has and the momentum that it causes is really beautiful. During the last four minutes of of HBO's docuseries "Murder on Middle Beach," a black screen pops up with a single, heartwrenching sentence: My family still lives without answers about my mother's death. And I was just desperately trying to understand how to take the next step with something so personal and not sacrifice anything. Through interviews with and secret recordings of his immediate family and the police, Madison and his crew tell the story of Barbara Beach Hamburgs full life and tragic death. Im not trying to suggest anything was done improperly here, but theres no way to know without seeing what they did. It was then Beach and Ali who discovered Barbara's body. The episodes also addressed skepticism about the police departments initial investigations and even included surreptitious recordings of Madison Hamburgs discussions with detectives at the department. He also said that he had new evidence on the case that he did not want to share. 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. 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