Beach denies this, too. Her body was discovered by her sister, Conway Beach, who visited the home with Hamburg's teenage daughter Ali Hamburg after picking her up from school. I can't get into details, but it's been extremely illuminating. 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. accessed ), memorial page for Barbara Beach Hamburg (29 Apr 1961-3 Mar 2010), Find a Grave Memorial ID . My sister and my aunt are the closest thing I have to my mom, like they're the closest in DNA, and what they sound like. In addition to the Beach family, Hamburg makes several appearances in the series as well although he's never formally interviewed. 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 . 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The department claims the case remains active and releasing the file could hinder a prospective prosecution or even result in witness intimidation. I think that when my mom died and I went to rehab and I decided to face a life without her, I made a decision that day that I was gonna live with as little regret as possible. Have you found anything surprising in the new police files that you received last month? In the doc, she admitted to having tried to hire a hitman to kill Barbara years prior over a custody battle involving her son, but the two were later able to make 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. The series depicted how the investigation process caused rifts between the family and the secrets which suggested their involvement in the murder. It's something that I've been dealing with throughout this process since partnering with HBO last year, but the idea that this was going to be in the public eye and that these vulnerabilities that my family has trusted me with were going to be exposed didn't enter the equation until the stage was realized. 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. 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. Especially my sister, she's the person closest to me, who can empathize the most. Filmmakers could learn a lot from how Madison Hamburg focuses on the emotional ripple effects of crime, and the very human toll that loss takes on a family and community. 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. 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. The case isnt closed. She remained in class until Conway picked her up. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. She totally got it and they made us an offer. I was a drug addict at the time, and really fell into my addiction and hit my rock bottom. HBO's new docuseries "Murder on Middle Beach," directed by Madison Hamburg, focuses on the death of Hamburg's mother, Barbara. Stay up to date with what you want to know. Throughout the mini-series, the main suspect seemed to be Barbara's ex-husband and Madison's father, Jeffrey Hamburg. 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. 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. Emmys. Throughout these four episodes, Madison Hamburg, and us, learned the truth about the life Barbara Hamburg really lived - that she was a recovering alcoholic who, at the . None of that is the selling point of a true crime series. The old adage about a fresh pair of eyes is particularly apt. Years before she was murdered, Madison Hamburg 's mother Barbara Hamburg gave him a gift that would shape his life forever. We filmed a lot and the story just kept going and going, and my professor realized we weren't gonna finish this project. It doesn't have a tidy ending, but grief rarely does. 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. Once this financially-strapped individual realized she couldn't get her money back, the individual or perhaps the individual's angered husband, as Beach claims to have seen a masked man prowling through Barbara's yard the day before the murder opted to take out their frustrations on Barbara in a violent manner. In October 2020, they passed over 1,600 documents about the case which he is now poring over - and hopes it will give him a definitive answer about who killed his mother. From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. Even asking these questions, it's just surfacing stuff that we were gonna have to work through and if we didnt work through it, this could end unresolved and cause more destruction than there was when we started. The Madison Police Department is appealing a court ruling upholing an order by the states Freedom of Information Commission that the department release all records except signed witness statements related to the unsolved murder of Barbara Beach Hamburg. But as she admitted, Conway unsuccessfully tried to get revenge and hire a hitman to kill the Hamburgs. This allegation feelscircumstantial at best. Its not a normal father-son catch-up scene. Beach Hamburg's sister, Conway, and her great-aunt, Jill Platt, are featured prominently in "Murder on Middle Beach," as is her mother. Beach theorizes that Barbara was killed by Ali while on her way out of the house, rather than after returning home from dropping Ali off at school as the investigation suggests. [1] Contents 1 Production 2 Episodes 3 Reception 4 References Production [ edit] The documentary series began as a student film while Hamburg was in college. Who called Barbara to tell her that her court time had been changed from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. the day of her murder (ostensibly making time for the crime to be committed)? To allow police to say that because an investigation is active without any insurmountable obstacle to prosecution, the public must defer to their judgment, Ecker said, and does not take public concerns into account. 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. 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. As her son, I want to know what was and wasnt done. 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. I know what I've set out to do and tried like hell to fulfill that, to challenge the conventions of true crime and the way that we tell the story, and just to hear people think it's goodjust to think that people were watching and telling other people about it and it was a part of the conversation outside of the people in my immediate circle was just, I don't know, maybe it's silly, but it's something that is really gratifying. In 2012, according to the New Haven Register, Conway called Barbara loving, kind, giving, thoughtful, caring, a wonderful mother, a wonderful sister.. 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. I left him a voicemail. The police were called, the crime scene was evaluated, and even some DNA was collected. So we took the 160 hours and made a sample that turned out to be like 14 minutes. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Who Is John Dutton's Grandfather in '1923'? It's unknown just how many people Barbara had under her at the Gifting Tables, but she was accused of recruiting members from her AA group. Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. Upon hearing this new information, Beach alters her opinion of Ali as the murderer. Back in 1996, when Conway was out of control with her substance abuse, Barbara took her to court to get custody of her son, Tyler. I have to do my best to preserve what I have in that investigation so that I can charge the person or persons with the murder, said Drumm. On March 3, 2010, Barbara was found brutally murdered in the yard of their Connecticut home. That said, in the final episode Ali's alibi is confirmed: her mother dropped her off at school the morning that she was killed. 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. In late December, Niemeyer filed another complaint with the FOIC over the missing records, and the department responded by appealing the commissions original order to release any of the documents in the first place. But after watching the entire series through again on Monday morning, I realized that's obviously the point one that I had lost sight of while tuning in week-to-week for the last month, eager to see how the case concluded. 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. 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. What details, if any, does Conway remember about the person she planned to hire to kill Barbara? But one thing that surprised meI remember the first message I got after the release of episode one. Jeffrey, who was an exorbitantly wealthy former CEO of Southern Electric International, and Barbara had an incredibly acrimonious divorce. She also suffered numerous stab wounds to her face, chest, and hands. The show follows director Madison Hamburg as he investigates his mother's murder, and talks to his family members about how they were affected. Then, there is the still-plausible idea that Barbara was killed by someone she had crossed through her participation in "The Gifting Tables," a pyramid scheme wherein potential members would "gift" existing members of the organization money in order to join, then recruit new members for their own eventual pay-outs. ', 6,000 checks go out to Yale workers in class-action settlement involving wellness program, Police: Stolen car found riddled with bullets after gunfire in New Haven near Yale, West Haven mayor under fire after city is left without a finance director at start of budget season, Convicted DiMassa codefendant requests acquittal, new trial in West Haven fraud scheme case, The Best Private High Schools near New Haven, Guide to Legal Cannabis Dispensaries in CT, The Best Private Preschools Near New Haven. It's really interesting. More than a decade after Barbara Hamburg was murdered outside her Madison home, the fight over whether the public should have access to the investigation into her death is continuing to escalate a fight that could have broad implications for access to cold case files across Connecticut. Updated: 10:25 AM EDT October 19, 2022 MADISON, Conn. There are new developments in a Connecticut cold case that was the subject of the HBO documentary "Murder on Middle Beach." One of the. He never forcefully denies killing Barbara in the series. 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. How Did Barbara Hamburg Die? 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.. HBO. Theyve done multiple cold case reviews. 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