True Crime with Rachel Shannon
The Murder that Uncovered a MASSIVE Family Secret: Kristine Fitzhugh
Wed, 09 Apr 2025
On a chilling tale that blends tragedy with intrigue, the murder of Kristine Fitzhugh unveils a deep and shocking family secret. What began as a tragic crime soon turned into a web of hidden truths, unraveling long-buried lies, betrayals, and a dark history that no one could have predicted. Join us as we dive into the gripping details of the case, the twists and turns of the investigation, and the unexpected revelations that forever changed the Fitzhugh family. This is a story of mystery, heartbreak, and the explosive secrets that can lie just beneath the surface.
Chapter 1: What case are we discussing today?
So without any further delay, let's just get into the case today. Today we are going to be discussing the case of Christine Fitzhugh. Christine Fitzhugh married her husband Kenneth Fitzhugh in 1966. Together they had two children, Justin and John, and they lived for 18 years in a nice home in Palo Alto, California.
Chapter 2: What was Christine Fitzhugh's life like?
Christine worked part-time as a music teacher at the Palo Alto School District and she volunteered for various community organizations. Kenneth war als Real-Estate-Konsultant selbstständig, wo er sein Geschäft aus seinem Zuhause verbracht hat. Außerdem arbeitete er als Part-Time Parallel. Diejenigen, die die Familie kannten, sagten, dass sie diese bildungsvolle Leben hatten.
Sie fuhren schöne Autos, hatten eine sehr gut behaubte Wohnung in einem schönen Nachbarschaft. Und Kenneth wurde in der Nachbarschaft bekannt für sein Geschäft mit Real-Estate. kristin hat sich sichergestellt, sich in Form zu halten, indem sie sich herausgearbeitet hat und diejenigen um sie herum sagten, dass sie immer großartig aussah, auch wenn sie sich herausgearbeitet hatte.
ihr Haar, Make-up und Kleid waren immer auf Punkt. Christine wurde als abhängige Frau genannt und Kenneth wurde als charmant, freundlich und charismatisch genannt. Die Nachbarn fragen oft Kenneth für Hilfe mit dem Programmieren ihrer Computer und er würde immer alles tun, was er konnte, um ihnen zu helfen.
Die Familie ging oft auf Ausgaben, wie Campingtrips, und Kenneth war immer derjenige, den die Familie zählen konnte, um den Tent zu platzieren, den inflatablen Boot zu füllen und ihre ATVs zu prägen. Life for the family seemed almost picture perfect. The morning of May 5th, 2000 started as any day would. Christine got up for work at around 6 a.m.
She read the newspaper and drank some coffee like she always did. Christine and Kenneth went for their morning jog at around 7 a.m., returning back home by 7.45 a.m. They changed, took showers and went on with their days. Christine left the house at around 10 a.m. in her silver BMW to teach her music class at the elementary school, which started at 10.20 a.m. Then Kenneth left the house at 11 a.m.
He drove to a vacated lot and walked around the lot for about an hour. He was trying to determine if the lot was suitable for a construction project that a client wanted to complete on that lot. He didn't see or talk to anybody while at that lot.
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Chapter 3: What happened on the morning of May 5th, 2000?
Christine taught at the school and during her lunch break, she stopped at Pete's Coffee Shop in Palo Alto sometime before noon, where she got two muffins and a coffee. However, that same afternoon, just after 12 p.m., a FedEx employee tried to deliver a package to the Fitzhugh House, Aber niemand hat die Tür geöffnet.
Dann, kurz nach 1 Uhr, hat die Schule Kenneth angerufen, um ihn zu notifizieren, dass Kristen nicht für eine Klasse aufgehört hat, die sie am gleichen Tag um 12.50 Uhr unterrichtet hatte. Kenneth hatte später in der Nacht ein Abenteuer um 1.30 Uhr, um zwei Freunde zu besuchen und ein paar Arbeiten in Palo Alto zu machen. Er war also mit den beiden Freunden, als er den Anruf bekommen hat.
Zuerst hat er zu seiner Freundin geantwortet, dass sie Christine's neue Telefonnummer probiert hat, und das hat sie getan, aber die Freundin konnte noch nicht Christine anrufen. Kenneth hat also versucht, Christine's Telefon selbst zu anrufen, und sie hat es nicht geantwortet. Er hat also auch das Homephone probiert, aber sie hat keine Antwort auf seine Anrufe bekommen.
So he and the two friends immediately dropped what they were doing and they went to the house to go check in on Christine. Right away when they got to the house, they noticed that Christine's car was still parked in the driveway and the front door was left open. So Kenneth went inside the house alone while the two friends waited in the car.
They watched as Kenneth went upstairs in the home yelling out Christine's name. Then he went on the first floor to look for her. And while he was on the first floor, Kenneth noticed that the door to the basement was open. So he looked down the stairs and into the basement.
Immediately after, he ran out to the car where the two women were waiting and he told them that he needed help because Christine was injured. Both women went inside the home, but only one of them went into the basement to look at what happened.
The friend described that Christine was laying at the base of the stairs, with her head on the landing and her legs extending up the stairs, with her head lying right next to a large brass ship bell. Unter ihrem Körper standen mehrere Stücke Kleidung in einem Kleidungsschrank sowie Schulpapiere unter ihrem Körper und dann standen noch einige Sachen in ihren Händen.
Dann fanden sie, dass ihr Schuh an vielen Stufen oben war. So, right away, the other woman called 911 to report that their friend had been injured in the home. While 911 was on the way, Kenneth and the friend moved Christine's body so that she was lying flat on the ground in the basement. And the friend began CPR and her and Kenneth switched off with CPR until help arrived, which was at 1.40 p.m.
Als die EMTs kamen, versuchten sie Christine zu zerstören, aber leider war sie bereits tot auf der Szene. Als die EMTs Kenneth beantworteten, erzählte er ihnen in erster Linie, dass sie schlief, fiel und ihre Hände zerstörte, während sie ein paar Drehverschlüsse auf den Stühlen nahm. Danach wurden Kenneth und seine beiden Freunde in die Polizistation genommen, um weiter zu beantworten.
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Chapter 4: How did Kenneth react when Christine was found?
He couldn't tell the officer what kind of project his client was going to build on that land. He couldn't describe the building layout. He couldn't even describe the layout of the vacant lot and where things were supposed to go.
Those are all obviously things that you'd need to know about the building that the client wants to build if you're determining if they're going to be able to use that land. And like I said, he didn't see or talk to anybody while he was there, so he couldn't really have anybody confirm and he couldn't totally explain what he was doing on that lot for that entire hour to begin with.
Then police officers asked Kenneth if they could have his permission to search the home to see if anything had been stolen. Of course, they first wanted to see if she had been murdered and if this was a robbery that had gone wrong. Kenneth agreed and he filled out the entire form that was needed for consent to search the house, but he then would not sign it.
Kenneth sagte, dass er nach dem Füllen der Form seine Meinung verändert hat. Also hat der Officer den Raum verlassen und ihm ein wenig Zeit gegeben, um darüber nachzudenken. Und als er zurückkehrte, hat Kenneth seine Meinung wieder verändert und gesagt, dass die Polizei die Heimat suchen könnte, so lange Kenneth mit ihnen sein könnte. Police agreed and Kenneth signed the form.
As officers and Kenneth were arriving back at the home, another officer notified this original officer that they had found a pair of bloody running shoes and a bloody paper towel inside of Kenneth's car. So, this officer asked Kenneth if he could show him where his running shoes were supposed to be located and he did.
Kenneth brachte den Anwalt in den Klosterschrank, wo die Runterschuhe normalerweise gehalten werden, aber stattdessen zeigte er dem Anwalt, dass es einen leeren Raum in einer Reihe von Schuhen gab, die auf dem Klosterschrank eingeladen wurden. Kenneth sagte, dass die Schuhe in diesem leeren Raum sein sollten und er wusste nicht, warum die Schuhe nicht da waren.
Also hat der Anwalt ihm gesagt, dass die Schuhe tatsächlich in seinem Auto gefunden wurden und ihm ein Bild von ihnen gezeigt. He could not explain why they were in the car or why they had blood on them. He also could not explain the bloody paper towel. Police also noted that there was no sign of forced entry into the home and they found no evidence that anything from the home had been stolen.
So, this did not appear to be a robbery or anything like that. It didn't appear that anybody had broken into the home either. So either she let the person in willingly because she knew them or it was someone who was already in the home. After that, Kenneth left the house because he was picking up his son from the airport.
His son at the time was in college, so he was flying back as soon as he heard about Several hours later, the officer had Kenneth come back into the station for another interview. In this interview, Kenneth did come up with an explanation for why Christine's blood may have been on his running shoes.
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Chapter 5: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
She said that anytime he visited the lot, he would talk to her. She said that if he visited that lot and didn't talk to her, it would have been very strange. So she did say that on the day of May 5th, when he said that he visited that empty lot... Sie hat ihn dort nicht gesehen, und sie hat auch nicht mit ihm gesprochen.
Dann, wie wir von vorhin erinnern, als Kenneth von seiner Freundin den Anruf bekommen hat, dass sie Christine nicht aufhören konnte, hat Kenneth gesagt, dass er auch versucht hat, sie anrufen zu lassen. Aber Telefonnummern aus dem Homephone und Christines Telefon zeigten, dass er an jeder Zeit nicht versucht hat, Christine anrufen zu lassen.
Natürlich, mit all diesem, fühlte die Polizei, dass sie genug Beweise hatte, um zu sagen, that Kenneth was the one responsible for the murder of his wife. By the evening of May 19, 2000, 56-year-old Kenneth Fitzhugh was arrested and charged with the second-degree murder of his wife, 53-year-old Christine. The trial for murder started in late July of 2001.
When it comes to murder, especially of your significant other, you have to ask why. You have to ponder what could cause someone to murder their loving wife of over 30 years. Well, the prosecution in this case pointed out a few different reasons for why Kenneth may have wanted his wife dead.
Like I said earlier, the family was known to have a lifestyle that anybody on the outside could be envious of. They lived in a two million dollar home, they had good jobs, they drove nice cars and all of that. But investigators found out that in the months before Christine's death, Kenneth found himself in some serious financial trouble.
It turned out that they had almost no money in liquid assets despite their flashy lifestyle. They had less than $20,000 in liquid assets despite the fact that the family spent that much almost monthly.
Es kam heraus, dass Kenneth nur vier Tage bevor Christines Tod eine Lohnanzeige gezeichnet hat, die bestätigte, dass sein monatliches Einkommen 16.500 Dollar war, obwohl sein Taxi-Statement das Jahr vorher zeigte, dass er rund 30.000 Dollar das ganze Jahr gemacht hat. In that loan he put up the home as collateral.
They also found multiple checks that previous year that had bounced and he fell behind on tax payments. Now, Kenneth explained that he would be making $16,500 had he worked full time and charged his normal hourly rate, but he didn't work full time that year because he had other obligations.
Although I don't know why he was able to lie about that, because clearly he wasn't actually making that much, even if he was supposed to make that much. But nonetheless...
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Chapter 6: What were the results of Christine's autopsy?
Sie mussten ihn in eine Ambulanz anrufen und danach stoppten sie den Kontakt. Aber im Dezember 1999 sendete Robert der Familie eine Postkarte, die sagte, dass er geflogen war, gab ihnen sein neues Telefonnummer und sagte ihnen die gute Nachricht, dass er jetzt sauber war.
Also, nachdem er die Postkarte bekommen hat, fünf Monate bevor Christine ermordet wurde, hat sie Robert kontaktiert und ihm gesagt, dass er, nachdem Justin die Schule beendet hatte, planned to reveal to Justin who his true biological father was. That would have been on May 20, 2000. So, only two weeks before she allegedly planned on telling Justin, Christine was murdered.
Natürlich hat die Verteidigung versucht, zu sagen, dass Robert es so gemacht hat, dass Christine nicht eigentlich geplant war, Justin zu erzählen. Aber er hat gesagt, dass sie durch Justins gesamte Leben immer darüber gesprochen hat. Christine hat immer gesagt, dass sie wollte Justin erzählen, sobald er alt genug war, um zu verstehen.
Natürlich gab es einen DNA-Test und es kam heraus, dass Robert wirklich Justins biologischer Vater war. Nun, es ist nicht hundertprozentig klar, ob oder nicht Kenneth über Justins echte Paternität vor diesem Zeitpunkt wusste. Manche sagen, dass er es wusste, aber es ist spekuliert, dass sie Kenneth in den Tagen, bevor sie ermordet wurde, erzählt hat.
Es ergibt Sinn, dass sie es Kenneth anbieten würde, bevor sie Justin und alle anderen dieses große Geheimnis erzählen würde. It even turned out that during one of the police interviews early on in the investigation, Kenneth referred to Justin as her son rather than our son. Police caught that and asked him, is he not your son? And he corrected himself and saying, no, he is our son.
But during the trial, Kenneth claimed that he did not know about Robert being Justin's father until he had already been arrested. He said that the whole time he thought Robert was actually gay and he said that he even thought that Robert was interested in him.
So that is why he was always cool with him being around the family and being close with his wife and sons because he didn't think that there was ever a threat. But either way, I think it's absolutely possible that he found out and attacked and murdered Christine to prevent her from telling Justin about the paternity.
Maybe he wanted to protect his reputation or maybe he didn't want his relationship with Justin to change. Who really knows?
But I do think that it's probably true that for the entirety of their friendship, Kenneth probably did think that Robert might have been gay because why else would he be cool with, you know, her going to visit him by herself and her spending so much time with him if he thought that there was a possibility that anything was going on.
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Chapter 7: What did the investigation reveal about Kenneth?
Near the end of the trial, during their closing statements, the defense said, quote, Either intentionally or through negligence or incompetence, the Palo Alto police let their conclusions lead them to the facts, rather than the facts lead them to the conclusions. Which we have seen in a lot of cases, where they already think that something happened, and they'll just...
Sie sehen die Beweise und denken, oh, das ist definitiv Beweise, dass, du weißt, was wir bereits gedacht haben, wahr ist. Versus alle Beweise zu sammeln und jeden Weg runter zu gehen. Aber am Ende der Trial, die Jury von sechs Männern und sechs Frauen ging auf für ihre Deliberationen. They deliberated for three days before they came back with their verdict.
They found Kenneth Fitzhugh guilty of the second-degree murder of his wife, Christine Fitzhugh. The jury believed that he acted without premeditation. They believed that the motive was because he was not the biological father of Justin. Because of that, he was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Es wurde gesagt, dass Kenneth im Laufe des Triales absolut keine Emotionen und keine Enttäuschung gezeigt hat. Es sah so aus, als würde er keine Furcht in dem, was passiert war, anerkennen wollen, aber er fühlte sich auch nicht so schlecht darüber.
Aber nach dem Begründung, nach dem Spenden von etwas weniger als zwölf Jahren in Dail, wurde Kenneth im Februar 2012 mit einer unerlässlichen Terminal-Erkrankung verabschiedet. Doch ich habe in einer Suche gesehen, dass es war, weil er Parkinson-Bedrohung hatte. Das war ein sehr kontroversialer Entschluss. Viele Leute wollten, dass er im Gefängnis sterben würde.
Sie dachten nicht, dass er die Zufriedenheit des Todes in einem Krankenhaus oder zuhause verdient hätte, wenn er das Leben seiner Frau von über 30 Jahren beendet hätte. Sie bekam keinen kompetenten Tod. Sie bekam einen furchtbaren, brutalen, furchtbaren Schmerz, der sie ermutigt hat, zu sterben. Aber egal, er wurde ausgelöst und er lebte in Palo Alto für acht Monate, bevor er am 27.
Oktober 2012 sterbte, bei 69 Jahren alt. Das ist alles, was ich für heute habe. Es ist definitiv eine verrückte Sache und ich weiß, dass viele Leute ihre Meinung darüber haben werden und Christine's Affair und all das. Offensichtlich sollte das Affair nie geschehen haben. Offensichtlich sollten Justin und Kenneth viel früher wissen, weil sie es wissen sollten.
Sie wissen, dass Robert der echte biologische Vater von Justin ist, obwohl Kenneth ihn als seinen eigenen Sohn die ganze Zeit geboren hat. Obviously Christine made mistakes in her life, but obviously she didn't deserve to be murdered over it. I absolutely can put myself in Kenneth's shoes and feel compassion for him after finding out. I'm sure it was devastating.
I can't even imagine what that must have felt like. Even just finding out that your partner had an affair... Let alone that the child you've been raising your entire life is not your biological son. But there are so many other things that could have happened besides Kenneth murdering Christine and spending the rest of his own life in jail.
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