So he made a deal with us that he would give us an A if I never stopped working on it. 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. I was living in Austin at the time with my girlfriend and we both moved to New York and just gave up everything in our lives to facilitate me doing this. 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. Elizabeth Benton, communications director for the Attorney Generals Office, said the office was not involved in the case. In addition to the Beach family, Hamburg makes several appearances in the series as well although he's never formally interviewed. 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. But the court has no doubt that this decision is not the last word on this issue, nor should it be, Klau wrote in his conclusion. She remained in class until Conway picked her up. In the following years, they appeared in court together numerous times after Beach Hamburg said her ex-husband failed to make alimony and child support payments. DNA found at the scene of the crime also did not match his own. She cites the fact that the teenager had a rocky relationship with her mother, which was only intensified by Ali's struggles with borderline personality disorder. There was no stone they had left unturned.. I started in 2013 really fresh and very amateur to documentary. The story sort of chronicles and parallels my journey in making this. The commission ruled in August 2020 that because the department could not identify any specific prospective law enforcement action, they had to turn the documents over to the filmmakers, court records show. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. 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. Barbara's daughter was a teenager in 2010, and was with Beach when Barbara's body was discovered. Jeffrey, who was an exorbitantly wealthy former CEO of Southern Electric International, and Barbara had an incredibly acrimonious divorce. It's funny cause I feel like those are some of the more authentic moments in the documentary, from the earlier footage. It was then Beach and Ali who discovered Barbara's body. I'm also so close to this, and I've seen it a thousand times over the past eight years that I don't have perspective as to what is objectively good or bad. 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. When her body was found by her sister and daughter it was covered with outdoor furniture cushions. I was so angry. It's really interesting. The personal gruesomeness of the murder and covering her body like he regrets it feels too personal to be a hit man. His second goal was to absolve his family members of the crime, which dovetails with the obvious goal of discovering who actually killed Barbara. On the other hand, Dugas, the attorney for the Madison Police Department, argued the case was very much active. That is as it should be. A spokesperson for the Connecticut State Police Public Information Office said the State Police had not released any evidence regarding the murder of Barbara Hamburg. We got a lot of questions like, how does it end? My whole family wasn't speaking to me.". The day Barbara was found killed, she and Jeffrey were actually due in court to discuss Jeffrey's claim that he could not afford his child support and alimony payments. Copyright 2023 Design by Julia Balfour, LLC, Federal Grant will Help Stamford Police Catch Auto Thieves, Hundreds of Elevator Malfunctions in Stamford and No Clear Fix, With Ambulance Response Times of as Much as 40 Minutes, Legislators Propose a Funding Fix, Researchers Target Housing in Pilot Program to Reduce Gun Violence, Firefighter in Rehab Calls on Department Leaders to Bolster Brotherhood, As More Weapons are Brought to Schools, Parents and Administrators Seek a Safe Path Forward. He said it was also important to preserve the rights of victims and family members, who he said he didnt believe would want information released while police officers were still working on their case. When my mom died I really was kind of orphaned and Savannah became like a home, and I turned to faculty, people I worked with, people in the community as surrogate parents in a way, and so I kept in touch. I was most worried about Conway throughout this whole process and I think she's in a good spot. It was possible new information or new technology could help solve the case down the line, he said, adding investigators fear releasing information in the case file, including details only known to the perpetrator, could harm prosecution efforts. Over the course of the docuseries, which began as a student film when Madison was in college, Madison says that he has a few goals. The following year, Beach was present at another vigil, where she called her . A list of additional records submitted to the court includes surveillance video, recordings of specific voicemails, non-police tape-recorded conversations and copies of items seized from Barbara Hamburgs bedroom safe. Her death in 2010 was the subject of an HBO true crime documentary series produced by her son Madison Hamburg. And if they can keep it closed forever, youll never be able to hold them accountable or give them an incentive not to cover something up.. At the end of the day, it's not really important that Murder on Middle Beach didn't solve the murder of Barbara Hamburg because that isn't what the documentary set out to do. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. The horrific 2010 murder of 48-year-old single mom Barbara Hamburg in front of her Madison, Connecticut, home remains unsolved, but there have been plenty of theories as to who could have. Where homicides involved I think the interest is too great not to err on the side of not disclosing.. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider I wanted to give their stories justice and unfortunately that involves exploring these conflicts. 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. To this day, the case that shocked a wealthy, idyllic seaside town has remained unsolved. According to Schulz, the Madison Police Department took a completely inappropriate approach to deciding which documents to release. HBOs four-part documentary series is the compilation of eight years of work for Madison, who was 19 when his mother was found bludgeoned to death outside their Connecticut home in 2010. 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. Here are the facts: on March 3rd, 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was beaten to death in front of her modest house in Madison, Connecticut. In a genre that so often luridly dehumanizes its victims, specifically women, as a means for salacious storytelling, "Murder on Middle Beach" is less about clinically dismantling family secrets for their evidentiary value, than it is about assessing how those family secrets bond and tie us and what it means when those bonds are severed. Do we need a case to be closed, or at least a prime suspect in view, to feel like a narrative arc was actually achieved before the final end credits? 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. 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. Throughout the mini-series, the main suspect seemed to be Barbara's ex-husband and Madison's father, Jeffrey Hamburg. The Connecticut Supreme Court will decide whether the Madison Police Department must release records compiled in its investigation of the 12-year-old unsolved murder of Barbara Hamburg. Every Theory About Barbara Hamburg's Murder Murder on Middle Beach calls a handful of suspects into question. Hamburg was 41 years old when she was found dead outside her home from what the medical examiners office called blunt and sharp force injuries.. That was mandatory to me, I wanted everybody to see how they come across and have a conversation about it to prepare them for what it's gonna be like when we release this thing. Im not trying to suggest anything was done improperly here, but theres no way to know without seeing what they did. 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. But Madisons is not a traditional true crime documentaryhe didnt want to fetishize or agonize over the gory details of the murder. Have you found anything surprising in the new police files that you received last month? Would you do it? She blacks out and wakes up the next morning upstairs on a bed, naked and cashless. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Ever since then, Madison has been looking to uncover every clue and secret so as to solve her case. Upon hearing this new information, Beach alters her opinion of Ali as the murderer. as well as other partner offers and accept our. The theorists point out that Jeffrey had the most obvious motive while also having an alibi that was almost too perfect. One issue that was resolved in the documentary was the status of Ali Hamburg, Madison's sister and the daughter of Barbara, as a potential suspect in the case. So Im not quite sure why theyre resistant, he said. Its not a normal father-son catch-up scene. The only way we can have oversight or accountability for law enforcement is to know what theyre doing.. So in a sense, it feels like we as viewers are coming full circle, which raises the question: What actually makes for a satisfying end for a true crime series? The medical examiner's office soon concluded that Hamburg died from "blunt and sharp force injuries." Madison Hamburg. "Murder on Middle Beach" adds to the genre as well. Both Ali's father, Jeffrey, and Beach accuse Ali of hating her mother in the documentary, which Ali denies. While her murder and its aftermath are explored on the show, it also paints a vivid portrait of who Beach Hamburg was before her death, and how her family is managing to cope with their loss 10 years later. 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. What it did do, though, was bring light to the case and start a conversation around it. But they're in a really good spot now. She's convinced, however, that she knows who the killer is: Ali, Madison's sister who was still in high school at the time. 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. 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. And sort of realizing that what I wanted as a character in the story and as a person is to know what happened to my mom, but I think what I need, and my sister said so beautifully as the beginning of the last episode, is peace. 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. "Murder on Middle Beach" is currently streaming on HBO Max. But as she admitted, Conway unsuccessfully tried to get revenge and hire a hitman to kill the Hamburgs. And they just thanked me for releasing this story, and it's really gratifying as someone who's gone through something so traumatic to hear that someone else can watch this and feel a little less alone. The brutal crime was committed in 2010 when Madison was 19-years-old. 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. In 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was found bludgeoned in her yard next to the golf course in Madison, Connecticut. His father, Jeffrey Hamburg, quickly became a person of interest. But as soon as I started asking questions I realized it was much bigger than that. I know the case is still open. Her cover photo, quite fittingly, is one of her and Barbara, and the first thing youd see when you go to her profile is the headline GRATEFUL Conway may not have a concrete alibi for her sisters murder, but no one can deny that she loved and still misses her. Hamburg, for his part, said Beach Hamburg was behind on mortgage payments for their property . And, as Jeffrey alleged via a phone call to Madison, is there any evidence that the documents detailing his financial decisions had been fabricated? Moreover, allowing the public to access 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 is to prejudice that outcome.. "Thank God that HBO saw the potential and the rest is history.". I don't know. Then there's Conway Beach, Barbara's sister. Madison Hamburg has been transparent in interviews about wanting to produce "a different take on true crime. And I was just desperately trying to understand how to take the next step with something so personal and not sacrifice anything. 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. I was a drug addict at the time, and really fell into my addiction and hit my rock bottom. Precisely how much time should pass between a case going cold and when the files should be accessible to the public is up for debate, Klau conceded, but he kicked that decision to the legislature, arguing state lawmakers are in the best position to set out in writing a clear timeframe for when and how such records should be made available. She totally got it and they made us an offer. Madison police have not yet filed a brief outlining the grounds of their appeal with the Appellate Court, and attempts to reach the department this past week were unsuccessful. Platt was eventually arrested on various fraud charges related to the Gifting Tables in 2012, and she served 30 months in federal prison, according to the New Haven Register. The department claims the case remains active and releasing the file could hinder a prospective prosecution or even result in witness intimidation. There are no corroborating witnesses for this alibi, according to the doc. By the end of the series, the only suspect who has a truly rock-solid alibi is Ali, anda number of questions about that, in my mind, remained unanswered: Who was the masked man who was allegedly seen lurking outside Barbara's window the day before she was murdered? Alaine Griffin, director of communications in the Office of the Chief States Attorney said that the department had no comment at this time. 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. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Barbara's husband Jeffrey Hamburg was the suspect in the case, though he was never charged with her murder, he was jailed for monetary frauds. 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. We also have to honor the victims and their families. As he revealed in a video update on Dec. 8 through HBO's YouTube channel, he is currently combing through these files for additional information that could eventually help solve the case. Barbara Beach Hamburg, Madison's mother, was killed in 2010 in Madison, Connecticut. 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. Hamburg, for his part, said Beach Hamburg was behind on mortgage payments for their property. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. Niemeyer appealed the decision with the Freedom of Information Commission. 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. 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. In 2019, Madison Hamburg and Niemeyer requested the departments investigative files under the states public records law, but the department refused, claiming the case remains an open and ongoing investigation. Madisons mother, Barbara Beach Hamburg, before her 2010 murder. 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