The series depicted how the investigation process caused rifts between the family and the secrets which suggested their involvement in the murder. I started the project in a documentary film class. The first theory the documentary presents is that Barbara Hamburg was killed by her ex-husband, Jeffrey Hamburg. I assume he has, but I'm not sure. When she's not reporting, you can find her hiking Shoreline trails and eating her way through New Haven. Beach also alleges that Ali killed Barbara, Jeffrey Hamburg hired someone to kill his ex-wife. This allegation feelscircumstantial at best. But it's been tough watching this go week to week and having breaks in between where people on the internet can react to my family. HBO's new true-crime docuseries "Murder on Middle Beach" premieres Sunday, November 15. 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. It's revealed in the "Murder on Middle Beach" epilogue that in October 2020, Madison was granted that case file and that he and his team had started reviewing it for additional information about the murder. We made a pitch deck and we pitched the networks. The Madison Police Department is appealing a state judges order that it must turn over its investigative files on Hamburgs 2010 murder to a pair of documentary filmmakers, including Hamburgs son, who examined the investigation in the hit HBO miniseries Murder on Middle Beach.. Murder on Middle Beach is a four-part documentary by director Madison Hamburg about the unsolved 2010 murder of his mother Barbara Hamburg. 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. Theyve done multiple cold case reviews. Precisely how much time should pass between a case going cold and when the files should be accessible to the public is up for debate, Klau conceded, but he kicked that decision to the legislature, arguing state lawmakers are in the best position to set out in writing a clear timeframe for when and how such records should be made available. While Madison police initially questioned Hamburg after Beach Hamburg's murder, he was never formally charged with a crime, despite being named as a suspect. HBO's new docuseries "Murder on Middle Beach," directed by Madison Hamburg, focuses on the death of Hamburg's mother, Barbara. Hamburg, for his part, said Beach Hamburg was behind on mortgage payments for their property . As we see in the documentary, some even suggest that Conway was envious of Barbara because of the money, success, and love the latter was able to attain. "Murder on Middle Beach" premieres Sunday on HBO at 10 p.m. And as the docuseries comes to a close there are a growing number of theories about Barbara Hamburg's death. The series examined the Hamburg familys relationships in the wake of Barbaras death and focused on suspicions both the police and family had about her husband and Madisons father, Jeffrey Hamburg. 7: Caught in a Bad Romance, Brandon Sklenar is the Baddest Dutton of Them All, The 'Outer Banks' S3 Finale Is Intense as Hell. 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. I'm also so close to this, and I've seen it a thousand times over the past eight years that I don't have perspective as to what is objectively good or bad. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. We work on this case weekly, we have a states attorney assigned to us who works on this weekly. In one example, Justice Steven Ecker asked Dugas about the competing interest of uncovering police corruption or incompetence. In August 2020, the Freedom of Information Commission ruled that the Madison Police Department needed to release the requested records, including investigatory records, interrogation recordings, and crime scene recordings, including photos and videos, with the exception of signed witness statements. But Murder on Middle Beach is not a normal documentary. HBOs Murder on Middle Beach, from first-time filmmaker Madison Hamburg, is a four-part documentary series that examines the life and death of his 48-year-old mother, Barbara Beach Hamburg. Although it seems like Conway is living a quiet life, she has mourned her sister publicly over the years, holding vigils and vowing to keep her memory alive. "I can't get into details, but it's been extremely illuminating.". The filmmakers appealed to the states Freedom of Information Commission, which reviews public records disputes. But to date, no one has ever been charged with Barbara's murder. The commission in August 2020 ordered Madison police to release all records responsive to the request except for signed witness statements. It was a. There have been corroborating leads, correcting things, things that we didn't know about. 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 . The case isnt closed. Ali had always maintained her innocence, claiming that she had been dropped off at school by Barbara on the morning of the murder, and that she only returned home later that day with Beach, who picked her up from school after Ali's texts to her mother went unanswered. The people in the States Attorneys office who oversee the cold case reviews agreed with them that there were no new leads to follow. Beach was also accused of threatening an anonymous member of the Gifting Tables by leaving dead animals in her yard. Conways Facebook page includes recent photos with them all, implying that despite her rocky past, she currently has a good and healthy relationship with them. Barbara Beach Hamburg was found dead outside her home in 2010, but her case remains unsolved. I want checks and balances.. In the series, Hamburg asks his family members if they had anything to do with his mother's murder, including his father . 'Ted Lasso' Season 3 Dropped Its First Trailer, 'Outer Banks' Season 4 Is Already In the Works, 'The Last of Us' Ep. She blacks out and wakes up the next morning upstairs on a bed, naked and cashless. Beach denies this, too. Arguably the most popular theory on Reddit suggests that Jeffrey Hamburg hired someone to kill his ex-wife. So we took the 160 hours and made a sample that turned out to be like 14 minutes. 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. But as soon as I started asking questions I realized it was much bigger than that. Im not trying to suggest anything was done improperly here, but theres no way to know without seeing what they did. Niemeyer appealed the decision with the Freedom of Information Commission. The two had gone through a rough divorce and were not on good terms at the time of Barbara's death. What details, if any, does Conway remember about the person she planned to hire to kill Barbara? But Madison's. And what we were selling was a personal approach that wasn't a whodunit but more a story about identity, the duality of humanity, and the layers of what we share with each other, how open we are, and just me kind of coming of age and understanding my mother and in turn understanding my identity. "Barbie, Barb, it's your sister." The call ends after about five minutes. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Weeks of back-and-forth ensued as the show premiered on HBO. Conway Beach is Barbara Beach Hamburgs elder sister and the woman who, unfortunately, discovered her body. Through Madison's eyes and camera lens, we watch as his relationship with his father crumbles, as he has to inform Ali that Conway believed she was capable of killing her own mother, as he has to badger his local police department again and again (before finally escalating to a formal Freedom of Information Act appeal) for a 1,600-page case file with details about their investigation into Barbara's death. Years before she was murdered, Madison Hamburg 's mother Barbara Hamburg gave him a gift that would shape his life forever. as well as other partner offers and accept our. Here are the facts: on March 3rd, 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was beaten to death in front of her modest house in Madison, Connecticut. The story sort of chronicles and parallels my journey in making this. Murder on Middle Beach didn't decisively eliminate any other suspects. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. If you say youre going to keep a file closed forever on the chance that something might develop, that means the public in most cases will never get to look at these files, Schulz said Friday. 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. 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. We certainly dont want to give a heads-up or give away some information that only somebody who was at the scene or perpetrated the crime would know.. And we ended up pitching to Lisa Heller, who was one of our last pitches at HBO and it was just incredibly emotional. On March 3, 2010, Barbara was found brutally murdered in the yard of their Connecticut home. 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. Madison Hamburg, right, during a candlelight vigil and memorial service for his mother, Madison resident Barbara Hamburg, a 2010 slaying victim in an unsolved case, at the First Congregational Church in Madison on Feb. 29, 2020. Since 2016 there have been multiple cold case reviews and none of those reviews have turned up a new avenue of investigation, a new lead to follow or new steps to take, she said. From the jump, the suspect list was long. "Thank God that HBO saw the potential and the rest is history.". She also suffered numerous stab wounds to her face, chest, and hands. "I was so messed up, I didn't know what to do. 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. Barbara's husband Jeffrey Hamburg was the suspect in the case, though he was never charged with her murder, he was jailed for monetary frauds. It's a sobering, overwhelming realization. Emilia Otte covers health and education for the Connecticut Examiner. I don't know. The police could have an incentive to just not become the focus of second-guessing, Ecker said. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. As for where she is now, Conway appears to be residing in Connecticut, where she spends most of her free time with her family, especially her mother, son, and toddler grandson. So Im not quite sure why theyre resistant, he said. 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. She remained in class until Conway picked her up. Charles Bright. So I was at film school when my mom died, in this doc class, and I told my immediate group. The following year, Beach was present at another vigil, where she called her . Madison Hamburg and his late mothers sister, Conway. Madisons mother, Barbara Beach Hamburg, before her 2010 murder. 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. But even if the. Beach Hamburg's sister, Conway, and her great-aunt, Jill Platt, are featured prominently in "Murder on Middle Beach," as is her mother. 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? By the end of the series, the only suspect who has a truly rock-solid alibi is Ali, anda number of questions about that, in my mind, remained unanswered: Who was the masked man who was allegedly seen lurking outside Barbara's window the day before she was murdered? A spokesperson for the Connecticut State Police Public Information Office said the State Police had not released any evidence regarding the murder of Barbara Hamburg. 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. I think the pendulum swung really hard in that direction when we started to really dig in in 2016 and I didn't really hold back with my family members, but once we partnered with HBO, that's when I started realizing that this could have adverse affects on my family. That's a question that I've asked myself a lot. In 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was found bludgeoned in her yard next to the golf course in Madison, Connecticut. Through interviews with and secret recordings of his immediate family and the police, Madison and his crew tell the story of Barbara Beach Hamburg's full life and tragic death. When her body was found by her sister and daughter it was covered with outdoor furniture cushions. It would compromise the case investigation. he said. That's essentially a thousand more opportunities to discover not just what happened to his mother, but to find another slash in the family tree. 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Valicia Harmon, a staff attorney who represented the Freedom of Information Commission before the court, said the statutory provision making certain law enforcement records exempt from release balances two consideration: the right of law enforcement to conduct their investigations in private, and the right of the public to have insight into these long, cold investigations.. Allowing that type of information to come out may be more likely to help them solve the crime [rather] than keeping everything secret. Moreover, allowing the public to access cold case files after an appropriate period of time is far more likely to improve the odds of an arrest and successful prosecution than it is to prejudice that outcome.. It was she who recruited Barbara into the tables, but the latter's ambition eventually caused problems for Platt. What were the reactions of Ali and Conway like? We still don't know who killed Barbara Hamburg, but with the renewed attention paid to the case thanks to Murder on Middle Beach, we could one day find out. But the Freedom of Information Commission has argued that police failed to prove the case was active enough to warrant withholding the file or that the investigation was heading toward an arrest. Instead, we're left with questions. Here, we see how that leads him to investigate his own father, a pyramid scheme The Gifting Tables that his mother was involved in, his sister, and his aunt, Conway Beach. In October of 2019, Anike Neimeyer, the producer of Murder on Middle Beach, submitted a FOI request to the Madison Police Department on behalf of herself and Madison Hamburg requesting records of the case. I wanted to give their stories justice and unfortunately that involves exploring these conflicts. Have you found anything surprising in the new police files that you received last month? Beach claims to have been accused of being jealous of her sister's success, but denies it in the docuseries. Retracing the path of controversial Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe includes many stops in Connecticut. Its been twelve and a half years since my mother was killed, he said. Unlike other true-crime documentaries, "Murder on Middle Beach" doesn't focus exclusively on Beach Hamburg's death. Would you do anything different now that it's aired? I hope at the end of this that they can see the adverse effects of that and that we're all human beings, you know? In the series, she denies killing Barbara while showing little to no remorse for her past crimes. How Did Barbara Hamburg Die? The medical examiner's office soon concluded that Hamburg died from "blunt and sharp force injuries." Madison Hamburg. According to the doc, Platt believed Barbara was inviting too many unqualified people into the scheme, thinking that these peoples' lack of funds would lead the tables to collapse. In a meeting of the towns Board of Police Commissioners on Thursday evening, Police Chief John Drumm said that if the courts ultimately ruled in favor of releasing the records, it could create a precedent that would affect police investigations across the state. It's a shocking twist and, just when viewers need things to be put into context, the details become murky. Someone sent me this beautiful essay about their loss and feeling alone, feeling that like they weren't grieving correctly, and the guilt and all these things that come with grief, with something unresolved. 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. She denies killing Barbara while showing little to no remorse for her past crimes was long the unsolved 2010 of. 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