On March 3, 2010, Barbara was found brutally murdered in the yard of their Connecticut home. 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 court ruling upholing an order by the state's Freedom of Information Commission that the department release all records except signed witness statements related to the unsolved murder of Barbara Beach Hamburg. And as the docuseries comes to a close there are a growing number of theories about Barbara Hamburg's death. In addition to the Beach family, Hamburg makes several appearances in the series as well although he's never formally interviewed. Jeffrey appears in Murder on Middle Beach where he repeatedly refuses to talk about Barbara's murder and insists that his ex-wife had dark secrets that he can't discuss. 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 . 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. I didn't necessarily fit the mold, but SCAD agreed to a really unique deal with me where they funded 10 weeks of production and we shot all of our master interviews. Madison Hamburg has been transparent in interviews about wanting to produce "a different take on true crime. The first is to further understand his mother as a person because, as he says early in the first episode, children rarely know who their parents actually are. At a Freedom of Information hearing in February 2020, Madison police Detective Christopher Sudock said he regularly reviewed the case and that the agency had received a phone call about it the week before. There are strong public policy reasons for denying the general public unfettered access to investigation files, while the police are actively investigating a crime and continuing to collect new evidence and pursue new leads, Klau wrote in his decision. She remained in class until Conway picked her up. While Beach's husband (and Madison's father) Jeffrey was questioned early on about his ex-wife's murder, there have still been no arrests made in the case. Would you do anything different now that it's aired? The latest true crime series Murder on Middle Beach just hit HBO. 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 . The HBO true crime documentary series Murder on Middle Beach has reached its conclusion, without any grand reveal regarding who killed Barbara Hamburg. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. It's a shocking twist and, just when viewers need things to be put into context, the details become murky. She also suffered numerous stab wounds to her face, chest, and hands. What were the reactions of Ali and Conway like? You can watch the trailer below. Arguably the most popular theory on Reddit suggests that Jeffrey Hamburg hired someone to kill his ex-wife. Ultimately, though, the sisters reconciled, but it was never the same. 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. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. He never forcefully denies killing Barbara in the series. 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. Jeffrey was eventually arrested for failing to make those payments in 2012, and as of 2018 he was still fighting in the courts to avoid paying. 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. HBO's new docuseries "Murder on Middle Beach" is a moving exploration of one woman's life and murder, and how her family dealt with the aftermath of her death. But in 2016 the pendulum sort of swung to this other role I was playing as an investigative documentarian, and I thought it might be my only opportunity to ask these questions on camera and get these authentic reactions. In setting out to do this, I didn't have an expectation that we would solve my mom's case, but there are many goals I have had throughout this process and they sort of evolve. It's a sobering, overwhelming realization. The pace picks up in the fourth episode in such a way through the confirmation of Ali's alibi and the discovery of Jeffrey's financial records that it felt like we were rocketing towards a last-minute reveal that would position "Murder on Middle Beach" as the next "The Jinx," the shocking 2015 HBO docuseries, which shows Robert Durst in the final moments of the series mumbling what sounds like a confession on a still-hot lapel microphone: "What the hell did I do? We have the tip line, BarbaraHamburgTips.com, and I've requested a reward with the state, and the amount of tips, the amount of messages that we've received, and you never know what small detail is going to make a difference in an investigation, that's been really surprising. One suspect was definitively eliminated from consideration. We made a pitch deck and we pitched the networks. It doesn't have a tidy ending, but grief rarely does. It's like crack, I can't stop going through and analyzing and its incredibly rewarding. The last time I talked to my dad was on camera. The case isnt closed. Yet the strangest thing was when Conway stated that Barbara, a week before she was slain, told her about a dream where she was violently murdered but refused to reveal who was behind it. On March 3, 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg, 48, was found murdered in the backyard of her Madison, Connecticut, home. 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. But even if the. Alex Murdaugh Faces Life In Prison For Allegedly Killing His Wife & Son, Heres What Happened To Riley In 'The Last Of Us' Video Game, Twitter Is Losing It Over Succession Ending With Season 4, Everything To Know About 'And Just Like That' Season 2, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. The fight over the records now heads to the Connecticut Appellate Court, while the long-cold investigation into the murder itself remains at a standstill even in the wake of the popular TV series. Attorney David Schulz, a Yale Law professor and member of the schools Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic that has worked with Hamburg and Niemeyer on the records fight, called Klaus decision thorough and thoughtful. He agreed the eventual conclusion of this case could help set new precedent for how the public access old police case files across the state, which is an important tool for holding investigators accountable, he said. 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? Its been twelve and a half years since my mother was killed, he said. That is as it should be. Sign up for notifications from Insider! It is more than a reasonable possibility, pun intended, that the Connecticut Appellate or Supreme Court will review this decision. 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. June 3, 2021 8:00AM. Her body was discovered by Madison's aunt Conway and his sister, Ali. So many people had the opportunity, the motive, the means. She suffered for years from alcoholism, addiction and physical and mental health issues as well as a palpable jealousy towards Barbara and Barbara's daughter, Ali. The department did turn over two full boxes of documents to Hamburg and Niemeyer in October 2020, but the filmmakers alerted investigators in early November that dozens of files were apparently missing from those records. It was a really tough thing to balance with telling a compelling story, but I think it was knowing that the goal was to subvert the genre in a way, to lean in to those more kind of compelling conventions in order to eventually break them. Madison Hamburg is in the unique position of being both the director of HBO's new documentary series, "Murder on Middle Beach," and the son of its subject, Barbara Beach Hamburg. That means that if you have a victim of a crime in your household tomorrow, they could start [submitting Freedom of Information Requests for] each and every single day in the investigation, said Drumm. In a statement ahead of the hearing, Hamburgs son, Madison Hamburg, who helped make an HBO documentary series about his mothers death called "Murder on Middle Beach," called for the records release. The police department initially provided two boxes of materials to the filmmakers late last year which the pair said were incomplete before the department reversed course and appealed the commissions decision in Superior Court. 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. "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." 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. 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. All rights reserved. Beach was also accused of threatening an anonymous member of the Gifting Tables by leaving dead animals in her yard. Did she ever try to contact them again? When Barbara Hamburg was brutally bludgeoned to death outside her home on Middle Beach Road in Madison, Connecticut in 2010, her sister Conway Beach publicly mourned her loss. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Back in 2010, in Madison, Connecticut, a quiet town on the shoreline, on the serene Middle Beach West, a crime occurred that shook the community to its core - Barbara Hamburg's murder. Jeffreyrefuses to discuss the case or his marriage with Madison, except to point to Barbara's alcoholism and, prior to recovery, her pattern of black-out drinking as evidence that Barbara wasn't necessarily to be trusted a line he holds even once Madison finds boxes of documents in the final episodes that could potentially implicate him in unethical (and potentially illegal) business practices that made Barbara feel unsafe. Drumm told commissioners that a number of agencies, including the Madison Police Department, had already released information about the case, and that releasing further evidence could compromise the ongoing investigation. by Johnny Brayson Dec. 4, 2020 HBO The HBO series Murder on Middle Beach has. The dispute over the records goes back to 2019, when Anike Niemeyer, a filmmaker working with Madison Hamburg, requested all the departments investigatory records from the his mothers case. 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. The series depicted how the investigation process caused rifts between the family and the secrets which suggested their involvement in the murder. So we took the 160 hours and made a sample that turned out to be like 14 minutes. Would you do it? How Did Barbara Hamburg Die? Drumm told CT Examiner that the Police Department had gone through all the files relevant to the case. 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. 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. My whole family wasn't speaking to me.". Zach Murdock can be reached at zmurdock@courant.com. Drumm told commissioners he believed plaintiffs were led to ask the Madison Police Department for additional records after obtaining copies of evidence collected by other state agencies who were assisting on the case, such as the Connecticut State Police, who Drumm said processed evidence at their crime lab. ", "It wasn't a story about a murder, it's a story about identity and about my mom and that's a really hard sell," he told the Connecticut Insider. 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. Schulz echoed the judges world, noting that his clients planned to use the information as part of a documentary. Im not trying to suggest anything was done improperly here, but theres no way to know without seeing what they did. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider There was no stone they had left unturned.. We also have to honor the victims and their families. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. 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. Ever since then, Madison has been looking to uncover every clue and secret so as to solve her case. 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. 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