Guilty Verdict In National Park Hiking Murder

DENVER (AP) – A federal jury has convicted a man of murder in the death of his wife, who fell off a cliff as they hiked in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Jurors on Monday found 59-year-old Harold Henthorn guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Toni Henthorn. Defense attorneys argued that she accidentally fell while snapping a photo and prosecutors’ evidence was largely circumstantial.

Prosecutors argued during a two-week trial that Henthorn staged his wife’s death to look like an accident because he stood to benefit from her $4.7 million in life insurance policies. They said Henthorn gave inconsistent accounts of the deadly hike and could not explain why he had a park map with an “X” drawn at the spot where she fell.

Toni Henthorn was a  Jackson opthamologist and the sister of noted Tupelo cardiologist Dr. Barry Bertolet