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Jul 16, 2013 · Barbara Keiko Eccleston, 34, had asked the court to reconsider the guilty verdict and 20-year prison sentence issued last year for conspiring with an airman lover to kill her husband, Tech....
Dec 21, 2019 · Cron was sentenced in a military court and given life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In a Japanese court, Barbara was accused of plotting to murder her husband. Prosecutors argued that she had manipulated Cron and pressured him into doing the killing.
- Overview
- A ROCKY MARRIAGE
- WHO WANTED CURTIS ECCLESTON DEAD?
- A STARTLING DISCOVERY
- A BOMBSHELL ADMISSION
- A WEB OF LIES
Produced by Matt Goldfarb
In February 2011, Air Force Technical Sergeant Curtis Eccleston was found brutally stabbed to death in his apartment off base in Okinawa, Japan. Eccleston was responsible for a unit overseeing cargo and air traffic at Kadena Air Force Base. The respected airman had no known enemies and a career on the rise. His death shocked the Japanese island.
Special Agents Lindsay Temes and Heather Bellar from Air Force Office of Special Investigations were among the first to arrive at the gruesome crime scene.
"It was the worst scene I've come across," said OSI Special Agent Heather Bellar.
"We didn't have a suspect. We didn't know if it was a Marine or a member of the Navy or an Air Force member or a Japanese member that had killed Curtis," said OSI Agent Lindsay Temes.
•How to watch NCIS: The Cases They Can't Forget
Who would want Airman Curtis Eccleston dead? To find the killer, investigators would carefully navigate a twisted path of deception, fraud, and even witchcraft.
OSI Special Agent Heather Bellar | U.S. Air Force: I could see him laying in a pool of blood on the floor of his kitchen, and there was just blood spray everywhere. Every surface that was within view had blood spatter all around.
A fellow serviceman who was checking up on Curtis, made the gruesome discovery. An autopsy revealed there were multiple stab wounds to Curtis's throat.
Chris Eccleston | Brother of Curtis Eccleston: I first heard about what had happened, it was Sunday, February 6th. … I woke up to phone calls … And I remember finally answering the phone. It was my dad and he had said that there were airmen at his door … I dropped the phone on the floor and obviously didn't want to believe what I was hearing.
Curtis' brother Chris and their aunt Sharon will never forget that day.
Sharon Loving | Aunt of Curtis Eccleston: That day I think is a day that will forever be a part of vivid memory. I was in church. … My husband came and found me. … And he said, "Curtis is dead."
More than a week after his murder, Curtis Eccleston's body was flown back to Maryland for burial.
Tech. Sgt. Rich Brown: Me and my other friend, we escorted Curtis' body home. … We got there, and we saw Curtis' family and the showing for Curtis.
Sharon Loving: The viewings of the funeral home would end up spanning his birthday, what would have been his 31st birthday.
Chris Eccleston: It was a time where we were able to try at least attempt to be somewhat happy in the idea that it was his birthday and that we were celebrating him and his life along with all of these people.
Tech. Sgt. Rich Brown: I was just blown away that there was people from the West Coast, people from overseas people, people from the east, south, north -- everybody showing up just because Curtis was Curtis.
Back in Okinawa, agents were investigating those claims by Curtis's wife Barbara that he was dealing drugs. That's when NCIS officially got involved in the case.
Just hours into the investigation, agents from NCIS and the Air Force Office of Special Investigation were convinced that Curtis Eccleston's wife Barbara may have been involved in her husband's murder. But she had an alibi that checked out: she was online playing a video game.
OSI Special Agent Heather Bellar: Barbara claimed that she was at a friend's house. She was actually staying at that person's house while they were deployed, and she was online playing World of Warcraft. That, in fact, was true.
Back in Maryland, Curtis Eccleston's family had their own suspicions.
Sharon Loving | Aunt of Curtis Eggleston: There still not been any communication with Barbara. … which led to suspicion that she had somehow been involved.
Travis Tritten: She was such a prolific liar that it was difficult to get any firm grasp of really what she believed or who she was.
Journalist Travis Tritten would learn a lot about Barbara's background.
Six days after Curtis Eccleston's murder, agents named Nicholas Cron their prime suspect.
OSI Special Agent Heather Bellar: Everybody was working hard to make this case a priority just because it was so bizarre and so cruel.
OSI Special Agent Lindsay Temes: When you can start to catch somebody in one lie, you can kind of start to peel away and really start to … drill down as to where the truth lies.
Cron was brought in for questioning. Agent Lindsay Temes took the lead.
OSI Special Agent Lindsay Temes: This was a very unique investigation. I've never since had an interrogation and a homicide investigation like this.
OSI Special Agent Lindsay Temes: I built very good rapport with Nick during the first interviews. … When he told me these stories about Barbara and how she was abused, I was initially very concerned. But as we started to kind of pull back and learn different things about her and about Curtis, it just seemed like she was manipulating Nick, whether he knew it or not.
After more than eight hours of interrogating Nicholas Cron, investigators had a confession.
OSI Special Agent Lindsay Temes: He knew that the game was up. He knew that he was caught.
But Barbara wasn't giving in.
OSI Special Agent Heather Bellar: Her demeanor seemed to say, nothing's going to happen to me, he's the one who did it.
And Barbara had a bizarre explanation for those texts to Cron outlining their murder plot: she had turned to witchcraft.
OSI Special Agent Lindsay Temes: She was done with traditional religion … She was praying, and God wasn't answering her prayers. So, instead, she had turned to become a Wiccan.
- 42 min
Dec 16, 2015 · Christopher Eccleston has been granted a quickie divorce from his wife Mischka in a hearing that lasted just two minutes. The former Doctor Who star was given a decree nisi on the grounds that the ...
- 27 sec
Jan 21, 2010 · Three women were devastated by their husband's ugly secrets. Barbra's husband did drugs, had affairs and went to prison for selling body parts. Months after he died, Julie Metz found out about her ...
Feb 23, 2022 · Admittedly, sometimes people choose to cheat because they’re in a bad relationship and want out. Sometimes they feel stuck because of kids, finances, social mores, or whatever. So they sneak ...
People also ask
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Jan 30, 2012 · The military court said Cron and Barbara Eccleston had been lovers before she married Curtis Eccleston and the two were having an affair in the months before the murder. Cron said she had...
