This episode aired on 8/15/14. Did anyone else see it? I was fascinated by the case and do believe she is guilty of the murder of young Dustin Wehde (not to mention a demented schemer), but I can't make sense of the motive they charged her with. Shooting Dustin on the chance that the notebook would implicate her ex-husband doesn't seem like the best way to frame someone, given how direct she had been up to that point with, for instance, extorting a dentist and accusing her ex of child abuse. Personally, I think she was trying to involve Wehde and he became uncooperative, and she killed him to keep him quiet then staged an elaborate "attack" to cover it up. In other words, the murder of Wehde was a plot gone awry. Anyone else have a theory about the murder motive?

http://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/web-extra-jurors-speak-out-tracey-richter-n179651

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-previews/tracey-richter-case-wife-who-1748571

http://www.omaha.com/news/tracey-richter-s-murder-conviction-upheld-in-shooting-of-neighbor/article_fa858183-b0ee-5c8c-9140-8d9bcbe9a892.html


To top it off, she and her mother have now been accused of harassing and defaming prosecution witnesses. Maybe the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree:

http://www.thonline.com/news/iowa-illinois-wisconsin/article_458513c5-6317-5c51-bd52-9b252ca0d4f3.html

haven't seen that one yet. I've recorded probably upwards of 70 or so Dateline episodes in the past few weeks, but tend to record them in marathons. I realized it was something I needed to stop putting off.

I did, however, record a 20/20 episode the other day about another Omaha, Nebraska case: That of Mike Wamsley and his girlfriend. It was a really sad case, they were both young, good people who made the mistake of taking crystal meth. They were trying to get home when they encountered a blizzard. They repeatedly dialed 911. The girlfriend's calls were incoherent garble (talking about "African-Americans and Mexicans dressed in cult-like clothes who were stealing all the cars, or some jibberish like that). Mike's calls weren't as crazy, but he was still unable to get across his location to the 911 dispatcher (they didn't have the technology to pinpoint their location then, they do now). Sadly, they left their car (which had warm clothes in it) behind, wandered around in a daze for hours on end in the cold and ultimately perished. Sad, sad case. You could really hear the desperation and fear in Mike's voice.

I did, however, record a 20/20 episode the other day about another Omaha, Nebraska case: That of Mike Walmsley and his girlfriend. It was a really sad case, they were both young, good people who made the mistake of taking crystal meth. They were trying to get home when they encountered a blizzard. They repeatedly dialed 911. The girlfriend's calls were incoherent garble (talking about "African-Americans and Mexicans dressed in cult-like clothes who were stealing all the cars, or some jibberish like that). Mike's calls weren't as crazy, but he was still unable to get across his location to the 911 dispatcher (they didn't have the technology to pinpoint their location then, they do now). Sadly, they left their car (which had warm clothes in it) behind, wandered around in a daze for hours on end in the cold and ultimately perished. Sad, sad case. You could really hear the desperation and fear in Mike's voice.

I watched this one the other day too and was telling a friend about it! So sad that they found him dead the next day and her body six days later. :(

I watched this one the other day too and was telling a friend about it! So sad that they found him dead the next day and her body six days later. :(

Indeed.

I thought it was weird when it was speculated that all the people they claimed to have seen that were ignoring them were really a bunch of cattle. The girlfriend also stated that they were "taking the cars apart and putting them in the trees." WTF to that.

haven't seen that one yet. I've recorded probably upwards of 70 or so Dateline episodes in the past few weeks, but tend to record them in marathons. I realized it was something I needed to stop

LOL! I had the same problem and had to, uh, curtail my recording schedules. :) But those true crime marathons are fun on a rainy day.

I remember the case you're referring to. It's very, very sad. The terror they must have been feeling.

Read a bit more about Richter. She was also charged with passport fraud (related to when she changed her identity in Nebraska). What a piece of work. Who knows what else she was planning before they arrested her.

Indeed.

I thought it was weird when it was speculated that all the people they claimed to have seen that were ignoring them were really a bunch of cattle. The girlfriend also stated that they were "taking the cars apart and putting them in the trees." WTF to that.

YES! All of the African Americans and Mexicans that weren't speaking English to them . . . just cattle in the end. :(

I agree that those 911 calls were haunting. :(

Here are some articles for anyone unfamiliar with the case:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/01/22/young-couple-on-meth-die-in-nebraska-snowstorm/

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Primetime/story?id=549455

http://www.nebraska.tv/story/11588892/what-ever-happened-to-janelle-hornickels-family

The 20/20 that was on before that one (the story of Tom and Eileen Lonergan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_and_Eileen_Lonergan) from Louisiana that were scuba diving in Australia's Great Barrier Reef and were left behind, although there was speculation that they staged their disappearance or they wished to die out there) . . . I had seen that one before, but when I watched it again, it made me think again about how beyond frightening that would be to be deserted out there. :(