Murder at Morse's pond

For four days, the jury methodically worked its way through each witness, each piece of evidence.

But they kept coming back to this: How did the second glove end up in a storm drain just feet away from the doctor’s minivan?

In the jury room they even constructed their own timeline to try to piece it together. 

Bill, juror: Another assailant to have done this crime it would have been very difficult for him to get to where he had to go to put the weapon and the glove in that storm drain without being seen. 

On the fourth day of deliberations, they called for a vote. 

Stephanie: As we went through stuff and things were cleared up for different individuals they started leaning. The scales started tipping.

They counted the ballots. The jurors had finally, reluctantly reached a unanimous verdict.  

They were 12.

Sarah: It was kind of quiet. I remember taking a deep breath going “oh my god.”

Juror: It made us sick. It was horrible.

Juror: Emotional. Lots of crying.

Stephanie: Many cried.

The prosecution, the defense, the reporters and spectators gathered in a hushed courtroom.

Tom Farmer, reporter, Boston Herald: It’s one of those moments where you know you’re going to witness something that you’ll never forget, one way or the other.

The jurors slowly filed in.

Juror: I was the closest to the children and the defendant. And I said to myself, “I’m going to do what I always do. Just walk in the same way, turn around. But I’ll tell you, my knees were shaking.”

Farmer: The foreman is standing up and he’s looking Dirk right in the eye. And Dirk is looking at him, he knows that this guy has got his life in his hands right now.

Stan: I thought it was important to look at him when we delivered the verdict. In that moment, I thought, “Well, if i’m gonna say it, I might as well look at him.”

Doctor Dirk Greineder was found guilty of bludgeoning and stabbing his wife to death during their morning walk through the park.   

His children buckled. Greineder and his lawyer were crushed.

But the jurors—who had listened to almost six weeks of testimony—had made their decision.

When they stripped away the accomplishments, the Ivy League degrees and the picture of the pleasant house in a quaint New England town, they saw a family ruled by a tyrant.

Stan: Marty Murphy in his closing argument said ‘whoever did this would have to be evil.”

Juror: Yeah, evil.

Juror: And I think he summed it up.

Juror: To imagine what would happen in a family for something to get that point is just unimaginable.

Dr. Greineder's children still stand behind their father. They say they hope he'll be vindicated in the appeal.

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