The murder of Andreen McDonald [True Crime Documentary]

Andre McDonald and andreen Anderson met in 2009 in Port Antonio Jamaica both had been born and raised in Jamaica Andre after graduating from high school joined his mother in Florida where he attended a community college he later earned a degree in electrical engineering from Florida International University after his graduation Andre underwent officer training as part of the US military eventually andreen who was 10 years his Junior moved to the United States to be with Andre and the two were married shortly after their wedding Andre who had been stationed in Florida was transferred to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio these early years of their marriage were by all accounts very good ones andreen earned a degree from the University of Texas at San ant IO and gave birth to their daughter Elena the couple also launched their own business in home healthcare opening up several living care facilities in 2015 they were able to sponsor Andre's mother hin Marine Smith to join them from Jamaica she lived with the couple and helped take care of Elena she was employed in one of their Care Homes the extended family was at that time very close in 2019 daughter Elena was 6 years old the couple were busy Andre was promoted to major in the United States Air Force in 2016 but he transferred to reserve duty in order to stay based in San Antonio andreen ran the daily operations of their million dooll business and they continued to expand with plans to open more locations on the morning of March 1st 2019 andreen did not show up for work or answer her phone Carol an gonar A good friend of andrein was particularly worried Carol was a competitor of andrein in the Assisted Living industry but she and andreen had nonetheless become very close friends they worked together most mornings concerned Carol along with two of Andre's co-workers went out to the McDonald family home in at North Bexar County finding no one at home Carol decided to take a look around she quickly found signs that something was not right around the back of the house she spotted a collection of ashes on the walkway a small fire had been lit there and the remnants of what appeared to be a zipper was visible why had Andre or andreen been burning their clothing Carol recalled what her good friend had once told her if I ever go missing andreen said it will be because Andre killed me Carol entered the home through through an open back door inside her fears were confirmed on a light switch inside the bathroom she found a blood smear she quickly snapped a photo of it with her phone at this point she contacted a friend a detective who advised her to reach out to Andre's mother and then to the Sheriff's Office hin who went by her middle name Moren met Carol at the house she confirmed that no one had seen or heard from andreen since the previous evening the Young businesswoman's cell phone keys and purse were in the house both of the vehicles that she regularly drove were parked in the driveway her husband Andre was not at home the Bexar County Sheriff's Office received a call from Carol and Moren and met them out at the property for a welfare check walking through the house the sheriff's deputy spotted a few red flags through the master bedroom the carpet had been freshly cleaned he noted the blood on the light switch which Carol had photographed with her phone earlier there was also Blood on the bathroom floor and a small amount visible on an internal doorway the Chevrolet Malibu parked in the garage had a small dent in its rear above the opening to the trunk the deputy also noted with interest that light colored gravel was covering the tires it was odd he thought that the car had obviously been very recently driven on a country road during the visit Andre McDonald arrived home he told the deputy that he had just been to the Baptist Emergency Hospital to check and his wife was being treated there so nothing to worry about however a quick phone call to the hospital revealed that this was not in fact the case confronted with this information Andre admitted that he and his wife had had an argument the night before and that he was now unaware of where she was law enforcement promptly detained Andre who requested an attorney and said nothing more meanwhile the blood found on the light switch and in the bathroom was sent for testing results returned a positive match two andreen McDonald it turns out that Andre had in fact been at the Baptist Emergency Hospital just prior to returning home to find Sheriff deputies at his house Brendan Gordon who was the clerk working the desk at the emergency facility that morning recounted how Andre entered the emergency very quickly the Air Force Major stated that he was looking for his wife Brendan asked only for a last name to check the records when he told Andre that there was in fact an African-American woman with the name McDonald being treated he recounted that Andre stared off at me went to the door and left it was later confirmed of course that the woman treated in hospital was not andreen McDonald Andre was released from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office the following morning March 2nd for the next 12 hours he was unaccounted for his movements were only later pieced together it turns out Andre was running some errands security cameras at a Lowe's hardware store captured Andre filling a cart full of various items ostensibly used for gardening or perhaps camping he had a shovel an Axe and gloves the items also included two 5G gas containers Andre paid for the items in two transactions one on his debit card but the other in cash from the lows Andre was captured stopped at a Shell gas station he drove up to a pump on the far right number 20 just out of view of the cameras there he purchased roughly 9.7 gallons of gas filling the two containers that he had just acquired at the hardware store a deputy tasked with observing the McDonald house after Andre's release arrived to find that the garage door had been torn off its tracks the deputy then watched while Andre left the house following him covertly the major was tracked to nagle's gun shop in the shop he purchased a firearm as well as what was described as a significant amount of ammunition he selected a Smith and Wesson pistol and paid for his purchase but then bizarrely Andre abruptly turned and left the shop he left the gun the ammunition and his ID behind and just walked out deputies watching him from outside took Andre into custody as he exited the gun shop at that stage they had only pieces of a puzzle but there was something very wrong and they were concerned for Andre's Mental Health health during this encounter they noticed cuts and other marks on his hands he offered more than one conflicting explanation for these injuries I love my daughter returning to the house at Solitude Cove the deputies made an unsettling observation in the back of the Porsche Macon registered to andreen was a shovel the item had not been in the vehicle during the first walkthrough of the house during the welfare check based on this the sheriff's team made a case to go back inside and they acquired a search warrant by the time law enforcement entered the home for a second time no one had had eyes on Andre McDonald for a roughly 12-hour period from when he left the station until his trip to the gun shop members of the bcso crime scene investigation team entered the home and found in addition to the shovel numerous items mostly within the the two vehicles that Andre had been driving over the course of the previous 2 Days in the backseat of the Malibu resting on the car floor was a hatchet in the trunk investigators found a roll of black plastic there were two lighters in the console of the vehicle in the Porsche there was a box full of heavyduty plastic garbage bags a full-sized axe a small Hatchet and a pair of work gloves inside a white plastic bag they found a worn law Hammer with plant debris also on the hammer was blood inside a trash can deputies found two torn up receipts for most of these items all purchased at the Lowe's hardware store it appeared as though the recently purchased items had not been put to use but they had been packed into the vehicle as though he was ready to take them somewhere the hammer however was dirty and bloodied testing conf confirmed that the blood on it was a match to andreen McDonald there was not enough evidence in the house to piece together exactly what had happened to Andre but the bcso knew that whatever had occurred the husband was at the center of it a day after she was reported missing Andre was formally arrested and charged with tampering with evidence it led us to believe that uh that that these were were implements that were going to be used to dispose of a body uh quite obviously to us uh which which really tends to drive home the point to us that that we believe that andrine McDonald is no longer living a massive search effort for andrine commenced in the following days local volunteers the military the FBI and local law enforcement began a systematic search in the Bexar County Countryside cell phone data extracted from Andre's personal device was unhelpful if he had as the bcso suspected disposed of his wife's body he had known enough to leave his cell phone at home nonetheless search teams riding horseback ATVs and Hiking rough terrain covered miles of Countryside outside of San Antonio each portion of the grid that was covered was one more area that could be ignored in the days that followed they were making progress albeit very slowly while the search parties were gathering daily Andre McDonald's bail was reduced on account of limited evidence and he was released and placed on house arrest he did not join the search efforts for his wife the prosecution is providing us with Discovery uh on the event on the tampering with evidence uh we told the judge that everything is just going well in that regard with searching ongoing the investigation into Andre McDonald continued investigators spoke with family and friends about the state of their marriage what they found was a potential motive andreen ran most day-to-day operations of the business which had grown to Encompass three assisted living homes with a fourth in the planning stages by that time the company was valued at roughly $1 million but investigators learned that tensions had been growing in the marriage it had not been a healthy relationship for years in 201 16 after 6 months of Air Force training in Alabama Andre returned to Texas to find the mood in the home had shifted andreen had messaged him while he was out of state telling him that when his training concluded not to return to the house when he did he learned that andreen had acquired two new tattoos one was an infinity symbol with the letter a in the middle and the second was a date the significance of these was not lost on Andre the a he knew did not stand for him nor for his wife the a in the symbol stood for Andre's ex-boyfriend Aubin a man Andre described as a local gang leader and drug dealer who they knew in Jamaica the ex-boyfriend had a matching tattoo placed on his chest the date that andreen had tattooed to her wrist was aubin's birthday Andre filed for divorce under the community property laws in Texas in a divorce each spouse would take 50% of everything this is how the proceedings were being settled when in 2017 andreen convinced Andre to stop the divorce the couple did not fully reconcile but hostilities were eased and they continued to co-parent and run the business however in the beginning of 2019 old tensions were flaring back up andreen had returned from a trip to Jamaica where she was continuing her affair with Aubin she and Andre fought over her desire to return to Jamaica presumably to be with him on July 11th 2019 5 months after andrine had been reported missing a local farmer named Clifton clend was walking out on his property on Speck Road he set out to retrieve a cow's head for a yard decoration for a friend he said when he smelled a foul odor when Clifton approached the cow bones he discovered human remains amongst them he kept his distance and called at the Sheriff's Office it was about 7:30 p.m. the Farm property was less than 10 M from the McDonald home this is actually quite literally ground zero for the search for andreen McDonald uh our mounted Patrol was up and down this road uh searching these remains uh that were found uh this time of course it's too early to tell whether they're those of a male or a female the sheriff described the location as a very desolate Road The Remains were found about 20 yard in and behind a fence and a gate search parties had combed near to the field but had been unable to search the farm itself because it was privately owned property The Remains were covered with wood and the bones of the dead cow the pile had been set on fire the bcso made the announcement that so many people had been waiting for they had found andreen McDonald's with the discovery of andrene's body the bcso had the last missing piece of the case they had been building against Andre McDonald he was arrested outside of his home and indicted for first degree murder there were multiple delays to Andre's trial including the co pandemic which pushed the start date to early 20123 during this period of time Andre remained notably silent he had made no statements to the police since the first days of his wife's disappearance so it was a shocking development when 3 days before testimony was set to begin Andre placed a call to his former mother-in-law and confessed to killing his wife he wanted to be honest with them he said he told her family that andreen had attacked him during an argument and that he had been forced to fight back in doing so he caused her to fall and two kicks to her while on the floor to keep her down must have caused her to asfixiate he had not intended to kill her he wanted Moren to hear what he claimed really happened before everyone else heard him testify to it at the trial he would be arguing that he was not guilty by reason of self-defense the trial opened with Moren testifying to the phone call she held with Andre only days earlier she recounted what he had told her occurred leading up to Andre's death they had argued she fell to the ground he had stomped her hearing Elena's footsteps elsewhere in the house Andre had left andreen to put their daughter back to bed what did Andre Say Elena was coming downstairs so he take Elena back upstairs and put her to bed did he explain what was happening or what Andre was doing as he was taking L upstairs she was on the floor wheezing State what happened after he put a l upstairs when he came back don't you was dead Dr James [ __ ] a forensic pathologist with the Bexar County Medical examiner's Office conducted the autopsy he testified that Andre's cause of death was homicidal violence including blunt force trauma when asked whether he could rule out asphixiation as the cause he said no there was simply not enough of her remains left to determine further details how did Andre McDonald pass away in order to answer that I would have to tell the jury that there is uncertainty related to this case because of the fact that we are only looking at bones when asked by the prosecution if the trauma would be consistent with being struck by a claw hammer [ __ ] said yes the doctor testified several injuries were found they included fractures on her spine charring on her finger bones and a fractured jaw that he believed was caused by more than a stomp as Andre had described Andre had taken some extreme steps which had helped to conceal evidence relating to Andre's remains she had been effectively hidden for months that the bones had been set a fire was also not in dispute the hammer located in his home was either a murder weapon or a tool used after the fact Andre's search history on his phone offered insight into his concerns about this evidence his phone data was extracted and his searches read alloud in court at the bottom and can you tell us what the search was on 138 can someone fall and break their neck fingerprints how long do fingerprints last DNA Outdoors how long does blood last or testing how long does DNA last for testing best surfaces for fingerprints fingerprints on Bones how long do bones take to become dry and brittle is Austin humid is Texas humid DNA Decay and humid weather how long uh it's a www.quora.com why does breaking someone's neck kill them when the time came Andre took the stand to testify defense call vanger Andre McDon his defense rested heavily on whether the story he told the jury was believable was Andre McDonald now telling the truth Andre first explained how he discovered his wife's Affair he went on to outline what he thought was a scheme andreen had been plotting to shift all of the business and its assets into her name from his perspective the carome business was a 50/50 Endeavor with his wife Andre had funded the initial stages of the business investment years earlier if they divorced they would split everything 50/50 but this Arrangement according to Andre was not good enough for andreen so there is absolutely no way you can legally like have business and assets with a spouse and then get a divorce and not have half go to one spouse and half go to the other one so in my opinion the only way she was going to get everything to go share with boyfriend they been planning like get me whack when I went to Jamaica and yeah that's what I was thinking the prosecution took these same facts but presented them very differently they argued that Andre viewed both the business and andreen as his property he had provided the seed funding for the business so the business was more his than it was hers he had sponsored his wife's US citizenship and then paid for her University education he felt ownership over her as well Andre's Affair and scheme to take over the business assets and funds enraged him they argued so he wanted to kill her the couple went together to the tax office at an H&R Block to work through the details of the new business plans during this meeting Andre became aware of a new business that andreen set up using both of their assets she called it Elena Property Management this business was also Reg registered in only her name I remember when I did the edits for the business plan and submitted them to andreen to give them to the bank that were under Starlight homes but here on this form it says there's a business go plan going forward under a lay of property management which I knew nothing about and immediately I just knew she was stealing from me they began to argue at the tax office The Exchange continued on the way home her response was she's always alone that's why you know she so set things up when she does it by herself and that's when I said that doesn't make any sense because we both live in the same house how can you be doing stuff alone when are you ever alone we live in the same house we sleep in the same house every night so I'm not sure that doesn't make any sense you're clearly trying to steal from me once at home the argument was growing heated Andre then decided to deescalate the situation by leaving the house he parked at the Shell station for some time while the two continued the disagreement over text after he left the gas station Andre drove to a local park where he sat and listened to music to pass the time he testified that he returned to the house around midnight when he assumed that andreen would have gone to bed but when he walked into the house she was awake waiting for him and extremely angry you know she's right there so I told her like look tomorrow when I leave work I'm going to go back downtown to the divorce lawyer and I'm going to get a divorce this time I'm not pulling it up which basically means I'm not stopping the divorce like I did the first time after Andre stated he wanted a divorce he recalled that she lashed out insulting him it was different from the arguments they had held in the past he said the fight moved from the living room into the bedroom when their altercation led to a cut on her face she came at him at that point she gets extremely angry and that's when she comes you know across the the bathroom from the switch back towards door standing there to attack me when she attacks to you react yeah so when she comes she's like throwing like some punches so I'm trying to like duck down and like keep my head my face from you know getting hit with the blows and then in between scuffle I remember like grabbing like tripping her over one of my legs and then she like Falls and that's when I kick her like twice when she was when she fell so when she got the the second kick I think I heard like some type of wheezing you know coming out of her and then also like in the background I could hear like some footsteps running and at that point I was like oh [ __ ] a land it was just two kicks Andre said which proved fatal Andre then admitted to driving andreen out into the country and leaving her in a field near the bones of a dead cow when you put the body there what did you do so at that time I took the the bags off I was going to leave it there and for some reason I don't remember why but I just had this weird idea to probably should just take the clothes so I took the clothes and threw them in the back and then went back in the car home Andre was not finished with his attempts to cover his tracks in the early morning hours of March second after being released from police custody he drove back out to where he left andream why would she need to like go through all this stuff to try to get it all and then in my opinion at that point I'm thinking that's what the whole thing about going to Jamaica was you know trying to get this dude to like probably off me off so she can get everything so I get really angry so at that point I P like the gas on him and then I lit the fire he used the gas that he had to light a fire but it burned through quickly he noted that he needed to purchase more then he got out his hammer and started swinging so at that point you know I got a hammer and you know the body's like right there so at that point I just got re pissed off and try I started like you know hitting the body with the hammer the garage door was hit with the Porsche when he backed out of the garage and the the early afternoon of March 2nd clearly not thinking rationally he carried on instead of taking the Porsche he drove his Jaguar to the gun shop where he purchased a Smith and Wesson pistol and then left the shop without it at this point honestly man I'm just like really really angry cuz you have any sleep no I didn't sleep at that point I'm tired but I'm more I'm angry I'm tired you know at that point and I'm just like going off fumes at that point cuz like I said I just kept repeating in my head like how the hell does this like [ __ ] you know happen to me and me of all people like why the hell did this have to happen to you in cross-examination Andre was asked about the texts that he sent andreen after 1:00 a.m. that night by that time he had already killed her and left her body in a field Upon returning home from the farm on spec Road he wrote to his wife where are you Elena is in her room and you're not here and I'm thinking about like the situation now like literally in the morning she's supposed to go to work at some point somebody's going to want to know and it's at that point like I'm thinking I'm panicking but at the same time I'm thinking about the whole situation you know the mom is dead I'm probably going to get blamed my seven-year-old daughter doesn't have both parents and it's at that point like I said I start thinking about okay I'll just get her out of the house and then I'll just pretend I don't know where she is he claimed that he did not use the items that he had purchased from the Lowe's hardware store because he suffered a crisis of conscience and changed his mind it was not as the prosecution asserted because he was arrested before he had an opportunity to do so he had already set a fire and used a hammer despite his still palpable anger he stopped short of returning with the axe and the hatchets so you wanted to go and and desecrate the forse with a hammer I don't know if you can desecrate a course with the hammer sir but you can hit it a few times we hard the prosecution argued that his silence and inaction during the 5-month period spent looking for her was also an attempt to cover his crime to this point Andre was uncomfortably forthright with his explanation that doesn't make any sense while would I make any efforts if I already know she's dead like I'm not going to go out in the field and pretend and do some charade or something like pretending going out doing fake searches with people and passing out why would I do any of that that that's a scrw on top of what I already happened you were hopeful that she wouldn't be found perhaps I sort of expected that she would be found I was just surprised it took that long but watching the way I guess the grass grew over time that's when I could see that but when I put her there on March 1st I'm thinking that area did not look anything like that and it certainly did not look like something that would last like several months I'm thinking she's probably going to get fired in a day or two to be honest in their closing arguments the prosecution took aim at some of the more dubious elements of Andre's story considerable Focus had been placed on Andre's size and strength compared to her husband yet it seems that he easily overpowered her and his explanation that two kicks delivered in self-defense was sufficient to unintentionally cause her death defied logic you heard what his side of the story was he's afraid of this Superwoman that's so much bigger and stronger at him yet in the two interactions they have he headbutts her and opens her up and then the second one she's running at him and he does some type of Judo gets her on the ground does two kicks he don't know where and suddenly she's dead it's not reasonable and his story is not reasonable and that's why self-defense doesn't apply because it's a murder case the jury deliberated for 5 hours on the first day making multiple inquiries back to the judge and reviewing Andre's testimony at one point the jurors decided they were deadlocked they told judge Frank Castro that they simply could not reach a decision judge Castro instructed Ed them to reconvene based upon what's called an Allen charge the charge often gives the defense a reason to file for another judge to throw out a guilty verdict should one be handed down after 14 hours a unanimous decision was reached to the count of murder charging the indictment the jury finds the defendant not guilty of the offense of murder as charged in the indictment and guilty guilty of the of manslaughter the jury had opted for a conviction under the Lesser charge of manslaughter this was not the verdict that the prosecution the bcso or andrene's family had hoped for absolutely I'm disappointed in that however if if the family is able to find peace and closure uh then I'm happy I'm I'm happy with that outcome for them at his sentencing judge Castro based his decision upon the lack of remorse and compassion that he saw displayed by Andre McDonald throughout the trial the judge observed no emotion or visible regret on more than one occasion he watched as Andre star down at his phone while testimony was being given even more disturbing was what the judge did notice Andre react to disturbing that the only time you seem to pay attention was when they showed her bones up there we were looking like very um interested in it again and not in in sadness of some sort it just Disturbed me it just didn't didn't make sense with your background and no criminal history with the victim's body with cow bones that it's also sickening to leave it there with cowboyss Again cover your actions but um to to do that with the animal cow bones in addition not to top it off is um Wayne against your mitigating stuff is that you burned her body you beat it with a hammer and desecrated her corpse like after that it just it didn't seem it almost seems like an emotion like emotional like a serial killer or something it doesn't match up with your military career and everything else that you got here it just U so this point I'm going to go ahead and sentence you to the 20 years in the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice 20 years is the maximum sentence that could be handed down Andre also signed a plea deal for the tampering with evidence charge which added an additional 5 years to be served consecutively custody of Elena was granted to her grandmother Morin Smith Elena wrote a letter to her father that was read during his sentencing hearing by a caregiver in it she stated you killed my mother you will pay for what you did forever [Music] back in Jamaica Andre's own father Everton McDonald also found himself in legal trouble Everton is set to stand trial in September 2023 for allegedly hiring a Hitman to kill his wife T Hamilton McDonald in July 2020 he also stands accused of murdering his first wife Marlene back in 2009 that trial should commence in January 2024 if he does not accept a plea deal both Mur took place in Port Antonio only 4 months after his sentencing Andre filed an appeal of his manslaughter conviction a portion of the appeal argues that Andre's foot should not have been categorized by the court as a deadly weapon