A former California Freeway Police captain who allegedly had a hitman kill her husband behaved erratically and slimmed down earlier than her companion’s homicide.
Retired sergeant Brian Wittmer, testifying on the trial of alleged Napa hitman Thomas O’Donnell, mentioned Wednesday in a Kentucky court docket Capt. Julie Harding acted in another way in direction of the tip of their 3.5 years as co-workers.
He mentioned Harding misplaced weight, acted erratically and shared extra about her private life, in response to KCRA.
Wittmer mentioned she instructed him she was courting somebody from Napa and made accusations towards her husband Michael Harding.
Wittmer believed Julie was insincere when she referred to as him, screaming that she had discovered her husband lifeless.
“After I hung up the cellphone, I assumed she needed me to recollect this second in time,” Wittmer mentioned. Then-Assistant Chief Doug Lyons mentioned he received an identical name.
“It was 35 minutes of rambling, and I didn’t even know Julie. So, that was the unusual half. I by no means met her,” Lyons mentioned.
He mentioned the decision satisfied him that she is likely to be a suspect in her husband’s homicide.
Julie dedicated suicide in Tennessee, capturing herself, a day after O’Donnell was arrested by native authorities at Sacramento Worldwide Airport in connection together with her husband’s dying, KCRA 3 reported.
Her dying got here after she was arrested on Dec. 8, 2022 on legal trespassing fees stemming from a collection of complaints filed towards her in October, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned.
In keeping with paperwork shared with The Publish by the Murfreesboro Police Division, Harding was accused of harassing the girl who took custody of her canine after her husband, Michael Harding, was reported lacking in September 2022.
She wrote just a few suicide notes earlier than her dying, which have been proven to the jury.
One blamed her husband. “I lived a great life till a yr in the past. Mike you win. You bought what needed. Me in a coffin,” she wrote.
One other mentioned partially, “Don’t know how you can begin this however with the one factor I can. I really like you all. I cannot put although a trial whatever the end result.”
Her notes ended with a want for her canine.
“I can take no extra. Please love my canine as I do,” she ended.
Investigators mentioned cellphone knowledge is what finally led them to O’Donnell because the pair’s calls had proven up in Julie’s cellphone information.
“There was this quantity that she was calling and speaking to virtually each single day, typically greater than as soon as a day,” Det. B.J. Burton with the Kentucky State Police mentioned.
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