Escondido, California case: What happened to Michael Krein?

these home videos and some family snapshots are about all Michael crimes three children have left to keep their cherished memories of their devoted dad alive he had a good heart he was very helpful and you would do just about anything for his case despite the divorce Michael's ex-wife Debbie still speaks highly of him as both a father and a husband we spent 15 wonderful years together and split up three years ago but still remain the best friends you still have Debi fondly recalls the many happy years they spent as a family in the San Diego bedroom community of Escondido where 47 year old Michael was a sheetmetal worker we've always were out camping we loved to go out and do family stuff we took trips to San Francisco and her--it's castle and every summer we'd do something fun and even after their divorce Debbie says Michael rarely went a day without seeing or at least talking to his kids the day he went missing was I was actually wondering when he was gonna show up Michael never did and those close to him began to fear for his safety after being unable to reach him for several days and when none of us got a response we kind of knew something was wrong we were really concerned and called the police department where officers initially treated it as a missing-persons case we had a family that was very concerned and this was not out of you know very out of character for him and at the time Michael's family last saw him around 9:30 Saturday morning Michael's girlfriend Jennifer Daponte picked him up in her car at the home of his mother Ginny said they were going to go to Knox very fun and that was the last time I saw him Michael's banking records would later reveal that he and Jennifer instead went to breakfast at a local bar called the sunset lounge investigators would learn they stayed there for several hours before leaving together in the early afternoon before going to Jennifer's home and in the evening there was trouble investigators discover there had been some kind of altercation or some kind of maybe an argument going on between the two investigators would find evidence that it had become very heated there was a door that was broken during the fight at the residence and Jennifer would tell CHP investigators that Michael decided to leave he called a cab to respond up to the property to retrieve him and then take him back to his house our risky she also revealed that the cab did arrive but Michael was not there the cab driver spoke with the girlfriend who said she didn't know where he was and he had walked off the cab driver then actually drove around looking for Michael and couldn't couldn't look in the search grew and a group called California advocates for the missing also got involved we had fires made arranged for 40 volunteers to go out and search for him and made his missing page as the days passed with no sign of Michael hopes of finding him alive were fading what were you thinking maybe he was injured but he was okay somewhere and something his mother Ginny used to say jokingly to Michael was about to turn tragically prophetic I was always teasing him when he wouldn't come home you know someday you're gonna be the one laying on the side of the room early that's exactly how a group of searchers would find Michael crimes body 10 days after he went missing and get this it was less than two miles from his girlfriend's house on a side road he would never have taken to get to his place almost 20 miles away in Escondido where he was found again raises the question was Michael crying the victim of a hidden run or was he killed and then dumped in a ditch his body was found over here yes me I mean it was found to here approximate about maybe 15 feet kind of over the side here how does a mother know but now Ginny is tormented by what she doesn't know I just hope that he wasn't laying there for two weeks if he died quickly that's one thing but if he laid there waiting for us to try to find him four days that's hard Debbie hasn't had it easy either what was that news like it changed her life forever devastated I kind of knew when I hadn't heard from for two weeks Amy because Michaels body was found on a state road and his death possibly involved a car the California Highway Patrol took over the case initially thought to be a likely hit and run until CHP investigators examined the body and the crime scene you could see he had some trauma to his body but we didn't see any typical signs you would see in type of investigation like that with the vehicle parts or tire friction marks or skid marks the medical examiner couldn't say for sure that Michael was killed by a car either declaring the cause of death undetermined and concluding quote given the location where he was found and the injuries incurred it is possible he was struck by a motor vehicle however the possibility that he met with foul play can not be ruled out he definitely didn't look to me like he was hit by a car and she noticed something else he didn't have a sunglasses which seemed really weird to me Mike was known for wearing sunglasses he had super-sensitive eyes and he didn't have a ring on that he has had on for 17 years he didn't have cigarettes which he would always have cigarettes and a lighter mom Ginny made another similar observation there's two things Michael never went anywhere without and that was his backpack and his phone and those two things were never found with him someone did hit him right there where we found him his personal stuff would be with him that information from Ginny and Debbie would lead CHP investigators to develop an alternate and more troubling theory about Michael's death that he was killed somewhere else and was dumped on the side of the road is Jennifer a person of interest in this death yes she is in addition to you know anybody else that could have been involved in this we she's not 100% ruled out neither Jennifer nor anyone else has ever been charged in Michael's death but the news that Michael was with Jennifer the entire day he went missing would come as a terrible shock to his already grieving ex-wife Debbie she says Jennifer was one of her best friends but never told her she'd been dating Michael you didn't find this out until a week after Mike went missing how did you feel devastated betrayed do you feel she stabbed you in your back definitely in fact Debbie says Jennifer denied it when she confronted her over the phone to this day she would never admit to dating him not to me she told the detectives but she would have never mentioned it and Debbie says now she wonders if Jennifer might have had something to do with Michael's death even though police have never charged her and until you tell me otherwise I'm gonna think that but Debbie would find an unlikely ally in her own ex-husband who agreed to talk to crime watch daily with the promise we wouldn't show his face I'm praying that she had very very little to do with that situation at first he defended his ex-wife Jennifer until she pointed the finger at him as a possible suspect telling police she thinks he might have killed Michael because he was jealous she did mention that this is troubling because it is suspicious they're not sure if Michael crine was killed in a hit and run as it initially appeared when his body was found in a roadside ditch and they're exploring the possibility that he was murdered in another location and that his body had been dumped there's a lot of unanswered questions that are still going on there's a lot of finger-pointing among those closest to Michael with his ex-wife suspicious of girlfriend Jennifer DuPont shade and Jennifer deflecting blame toward her ex-husband who's trying to throw it back on Jennifer and her family there was a lot of rumors and speculations that were flying around and those were all looked at and you know ruled out or ruled in as part of the investigation much of the talk was sparked by Jennifer's admission to police that she'd had a violent argument with Michael the night he went missing and the CHP says Jennifer is the last known person to have seen Michael alive it's also rumored that Jennifer brought her black truck in for repairs on the front end did you all look into that yes we did that was ruled out but Jennifer has never been charged and denies having anything to do with Michael's death and she tells police they should instead take a closer look at ex-husband she tried to point the finger at him yes investigators had already wondered themselves whether he might have been jealous over Jennifer's relationship with Michael was Jennifer's ex-husband ever questioned as a possible suspect oh yes he was earned on the condition that we would not show his face he now tells crime watch daily what he told authorities when the investigators said exactly these words to me verbatim what would you say if we told you that she's saying that you might have had something to do with it and I said well not only would she be wrong that would tell me that she's trying to point the attention away from her Jennifer's ex vehemently denies having anything to do with Michael's death wearing a right mind would you ever make that allegation based on what he also denies speculation that he was jealous about his ex-wife dating Michael it didn't bother me because he was actually one of the characters I trusted because his daughter and my daughter were friends and Jennifer's ex redirects suspicion right back at her Jennifer needs come forward with the truth then something we never expected in this shocking bitter blame game Jennifer's ex makes a startling allegation about Jennifer's parents the owners of a family winery where their daughter also has a house her parents know something about this and somebody at that winery where they live on has some information this is the last known place where Michael crime was with his girlfriend Jennifer on the property of her family's winery we're going here to see if she or her family has something to say to sort things out I'm greeted by Jennifer's younger brother we just wanted to do due diligence to give you and your family a chance to respond to some things that people are saying Jennifer's father Gerardo joins his son and gets right to the point if anything was Don committed that is unlawful and the police should have been on us and tell us what we're done wrong you see now police Jennifer's brother scoffs at her ex-husband's accusations against her and her family is is probably willing to say anything to disparage my sister because they're in a custody situation right now over their daughter now Jennifer's mother is listening as I tell the family he suggested her husband may be covering up the crime for his daughter or even had something to do with Michael's death I think it could be greater towards the father that had a lot more to do with this then her because he told me on several occasions I don't like Mike and I've chased him off this property several times he said that you probably killed Michael Klim you wanted him he said that you had said you didn't want him around and that you probably took him out look oh wow this is the most ridiculous thing look at my face and how I am and how there is nothing more important to me in my life and within myself that to have steadfastly stayed the pessimists belief in the law and not abiding by then Jennifer's ex makes another sensational allegation against his former father-in-law you're talking about a very rich man with a lot of power with ties to mafia ins in New Orleans it's not true your cut is it from de l'année but he's a sleaze not like him despite the allegations no one in Jennifer's family has ever been charged and now they're firing back at Jennifer's ex claiming he was in the middle of a bitter custody battle over the kids and may have killed Michael Jennifer's ex-husband had claimed that Jennifer and maybe even her family could have had something to do with the mysterious death of her boyfriend Michael crying that's a huge obligation and I'll save all the time but in this bitter game of he-said she-said Jennifer and her family think her ex himself could have killed Michael a lot of jealousy he would come up here he's screaming and yelling and you know he might have thought he saw a car in the driveway over there thought she was dating it wouldn't be a stretch to think that he that's him up there and found the two of them and you know but CHP investigators say there's no evidence to connect Jennifer's ex-husband to Michael's death we determined that he he had no involvement based on her interview that we had with him the California Highway Patrol doesn't know exactly what happened to Michael crying he could have been killed in a hit-and-run accident but once the corner revealed Michael's cause of death to be undetermined the finger-pointing began and one person of interest is his girlfriend Jennifer she's not 100% ruled out and Jennifer's former hobby along with Michael's mother Jenny and his ex-wife Debbie all still suspected Jennifer might have killed her boyfriend even though cops have never filed charges I haven't heard anything she's had to say not one word she has never called us once to say I'm sorry or anything she just left the situation and has never been seen or heard from since the father of my kids died the family has so many questions of Jennifer we're going to her home where Michael was less reported being alive to see if she has any answers for us but the only one who responds to repeated knocks on her door is a dog but then Jennifer suddenly appears through another door of her home at the family winery hi Jennifer Nerissa night with crime watch daily we just wanted to ask you do you have anything to say to the family of Michael that the kids they say you never even reached back to say you're sorry their father died no she's angry were here but Jennifer would also break her silence about Michael's death people are making allegations saying that you might have killed Michaels and that's ridiculous you had nothing it's all lies what happened that day Jennifer just told us that she'd never had anything to do with Michael's death and she's asked us to leave her property so we are neither Jennifer her family nor anyone else has been charged in connection with Michael's death and now 18 months after Michael was found dead CHP investigators are still trying to learn what happened to him do you have any other leads that you're following any other persons of interest that you're investigating at this time no we've pretty much exhausted everything we've had all the leads and unfortunately we're kind of at our dead end right now but that doesn't mean they believe Michael was killed in a hit-and-run or that their investigation is over we all agree that it's there's something more to it it's just a matter of time but I think it will eventually work its way out and we'll find out exactly what happened and Michael's ex-wife Debbie and his mom Ginny are living for the day they finally learn who killed him it took away a loving father a loving son he had a long life to live yet took away part of my heart every day just doesn't seem fair it's not fair and somebody is still just walking around living every day enjoying and we're just kind of lost and we just need answers

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 935,706

Rating: 4.7155724 out of 5

Keywords: Michael Krein, True Crime Daily, Crime Watch Daily

Id: w0vEA2EeRmA

Length: 17min 29sec (1049 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019