GUILTY KS - David Harmon, 25, bludgeoned to death, Olathe, 28 Feb 1982

This is a trial that's been going on near where I live. Today, they found Melinda Raisch guilty of killing her husband 23 years ago. Her former lover, Mark S. Mangelsdorf (he claims he wasn't her lover, but just a good friend) is also charged, and his trial is supposed to start in the fall. I've been following this trial, but tonight while making dinner, I saw one of our local TV reporters interviewing Mickey Sherman. It appears that Mangelsdorf has hired Mickey as counsel. Mikey said something along the line..."Yeah, yeah, just because she was found guilty, doesn't mean my client had anything to do with the murder."

Mangelsdorf has since moved away, but his children still attend the same schools as my kids did. A friend told me that classmates of his children are being extremely cruel to them (which is so sad). I think Mangelsdorf went off to Harvard, and she married a dentist, and just went on with their lives...until now.

Mickey has met his match with Paul Morrison (our DA). Morrison managed to get three murder convictions against a man who killed three women, even though the bodies have never been found. I attended high school with Morrison, and can tell you, he isn't going to roll over for Sherman.

http://www.kctv5.com/Global/story.asp?S=3289390&nav=1PuZZMC6

Why has it taken 23 years to convict her?

mollymalone said:

Why has it taken 23 years to convict her?

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They didn't have enough evidence back then, but recently, a couple of detectives paid her a visit, and she actually talked with them. At that time, she changed her story, and hinted that she knew more and wanted to know what the DA would do for her. The DA did nothing, but charged her.

I think it's what she said when the detectives paid her a visit that sank her boat. She changed her story and they had it on tape (and played it for the jury, I believe) I was surprised she even spoke with them without the benefit of counsel.

But what REALLY caught my attention was Mickey Sherman. We just don't get "big gun" attorneys representing clients around here. I may even have to make a trip out to the courthouse to watch the trial.

More about the relationship between Raisch and Mangelsdorf, and Mangelsdorf’s possible involvement in the murder, could come to light next month. District Court Judge Thomas Bornholdt ruled Tuesday that Mangelsdorf’s preliminary hearing will proceed Oct. 24 as scheduled.

Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison said in court Tuesday that he planned to call Raisch to testify at that hearing.

Mangelsdorf, a businessman who now lives in suburban New York, appeared in court Tuesday and asked the judge to delay the preliminary hearing. One of his three attorneys, Mickey Sherman, argued that the defense needed more time to prepare for what Raisch might say.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12758033.htm

This is wild-this man has a successful life, a family, everything-except he committed a murder 24 years ago and has finally been brought to justice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/nyregion/15kansas.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

For two decades, the police in Olathe, Kan., were convinced that a male student at the local Bible college had conspired with the secretary to the dean of students to kill her husband.

John Sleezer/The Kansas City Star, via Associated Press

Mark Mangelsdorf left a Kansas courthouse on Monday with his wife, Kristina, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
The evidence proved elusive, though, and the student, Mark Mangelsdorf, the president of the student body at the time, went on to get an M.B.A. from Harvard and assume top posts at several major corporations.

The secretary, Melinda Harmon, moved to Ohio, married a dentist, had two children and became active in her church and her children's school.

But after years of denials, Mr. Mangelsdorf, 45, of Pelham, N.Y., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a Kansas court on Monday in the bludgeoning of David Harmon. He faces a sentence of 10 to 20 years, though prosecutors said he could be eligible for parole in about 5 years.

The former Mrs. Harmon, now Mrs. Raisch, told the police at the time of the killing in 1982 that her husband had been beaten to death by two black men who broke into their home. But when the police dusted off the case file in 2001 and visited Mrs. Raisch in Ohio, they got the break they needed.

May 5, 2005 -- Melinda Raisch of Columbus, Ohio, hardly fits anyone's stereotype of a murderer.

Bill Wall, a police detective from the small town of Olathe, Kan., described Raisch, a mother of two, as a soccer mom living in luxury. "She's just your perfect neighbor next door," he said.

But this week, Raisch was convicted in the coldest murder case in Olathe. Twenty-three years ago, her first husband, David Harmon, was bludgeoned to death in his bed.

Raisch claimed two intruders had attacked Harmon looking for the keys to the bank where he worked. She claimed the intruders also hit her, and when she regained consciousness an hour later, she fled to her neighbors to report the crime.

Police soon found holes in the story and began to suspect she might know more. But they were unable to make any progress, and with few additional leads, the case went cold.

"This case was sort of an open wound to this community of Olathe," said Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison.

"It was a very, very brutal homicide, it was a senseless murder of a young man that had a lot going for him. Very religious, responsible good guy


news link

And I'm betting that after all these years she'd quit looking over her shoulder. She was home free...or so she thought. Now she has to give up "the good life" and rough it. I just hate she got by with it for so long.

Interesting story and thanks for the link!

cathieq said:

And I'm betting that after all these years she'd quit looking over her shoulder. She was home free...or so she thought. Now she has to give up "the good life" and rough it. I just hate she got by with it for so long.

Interesting story and thanks for the link!

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Hi Cathieq,
You are right when you say that she thought that she was home free.
She murdered him in a very brutal way instead of divorcing.

This is from page #2 of the link;



Inconsistencies







Then, on Feb. 28, 1982, police got a frantic call. Melinda said she and her husband had been sleeping when two black men burst into the room, and began bludgeoning her husband right there next to her in bed.





She said she gave the intruders the bank keys, and then they knocked her unconscious. She said she woke up an hour later, stumbled to her next-door neighbors and had them call the police.





When police arrived, several things struck them as peculiar. Melinda did not seem too concerned about her husband, they said, and she asked her neighbors to call Mangelsdorf, not her parents or her pastor. When Mangelsdorf arrived, just a few minutes later, his hair was wet — even though it was the middle of the night.





The small, religious community was shaken by the news. It was a brutal crime — David Harmon, then 25 years old, was beaten so savagely that his brain matter was splattered on the walls.





Police hunted for clues — and time and again they found themselves turning to Melinda Harmon and Mangelsdorf as the only two people with any possible link or motive. But they could never find any physical evidence to support their suspicions.



Followed by a cloud of suspicion, both eventually left town.

The mills of the gods grind slowly, but.....

This was on TV not too long ago - Dateline or one of those shows. Pretty weird - she was having an emotional affair with Mangalesdorf (no sex or divorce because of religion), but after hubby is murdered they both went their separate ways, never hooked up. She remairred, seemed to live a good life. He remairred, had several children & his wife was pregnant when they went to trial (felt bad for her, seemed like a good woman), also seemed to live a good life.

Very good show, very interesting how LE was able to get the truth. I believe it was Mangalesdorf who did the actual slaying - but she was there & it was planned by both.

I saw that show... I think it was 20/20. I seem to recall that when the trial started, Mangalesdorf changed his plea to guilty to avoid the trial.

At least these people didn't get away with it... justice prevailed in the end.

Marie said:

This was on TV not too long ago - Dateline or one of those shows. Pretty weird - she was having an emotional affair with Mangalesdorf (no sex or divorce because of religion), but after hubby is murdered they both went their separate ways, never hooked up. She remairred, seemed to live a good life. He remairred, had several children & his wife was pregnant when they went to trial (felt bad for her, seemed like a good woman), also seemed to live a good life.

Very good show, very interesting how LE was able to get the truth. I believe it was Mangalesdorf who did the actual slaying - but she was there & it was planned by both.

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Parole Board has freed the murderess after serving nine years.

http://fox4kc.com/2015/04/29/johnso...on-after-serving-9-years-for-husbands-murder/

http://www.kctv5.com/story/28927316...-love-triangle-slaying-to-walk-free-wednesday

The murderess has been paroled after serving only nine years.

http://fox4kc.com/2015/04/29/johnso...on-after-serving-9-years-for-husbands-murder/

http://www.kctv5.com/story/28927316...-love-triangle-slaying-to-walk-free-wednesday

Co-conspirator: Mark Mangelsdorf

http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_s...parole-despite-johnson-county-da-support.html

Good grief. What a slimy case/outcome. imo

Sickening! People would be a lot more satisfied with our justice system if murders, rapists, and sex offenders stayed in prison for life.