Andreen McDonald: A Millionaire Vanishes | Full Episode

Andre McDonald had a very, very strict regimen, he followed it daily. That's cool, let it be known that a girl would be at the gym at 5:30 in the morning in the office at 8:00 on March 1st. They had no indication that he would be late. she didn't show up for work this was very significant to her employees they called the gym and found out she never showed up to the gym which is like a religion to her after calling Andre repeatedly she will send him a voicemail you know , the anxiety starts to stabilize and as if starting to panic because Andy's disappearance is not possible, the biggest problem for me was the fact that her phone was missing, her purse was still there, her keys were on the counter and your vehicles were still there, if your vehicle is there your bag is there.

Her keys are there if she is missing is there any concern of an abduction? The agents obviously didn't know what to think at this point. They were just beginning the investigation. What we did discover is that Andreen McDonald, a beautiful Jamaican woman, was brought to the United States. by Andre her husband as a major in the Air Force and had top secret security clearance they started an assisted living business where in a short time they became

millionaire

s the image of the American dream she is not boastful or anything she is just that humble person who had

andreen

has a great reputation not only in the assisted living community here in San Antonio and we are on the side of the road this morning and we are handing out food for the less fortunate.

She was very, very generous with her wealth and her time. God bless her. You're kind of a rising star from San Antonio, absolutely a rising star, you were always laughing together, you were always joking, the house didn't seem to be in a terrible mess, no furniture was knocked over or anything was broken. I found that there was blood on the wall in one area which was a bit strange. There was blood and hair on a light switch. We assumed something happened there. It was a crime scene of some kind. I was on social media and I saw that initial poster that came out with his face and then it says missing up Andre is not the person to take off somewhere no one knows where he is Andreen McDonald's supporters renewed their search efforts as the months passed and the days went by and I didn't find anything in my mind that wasn't that bad because if you can't find something that solidifies her death, I mean she's alive, she's somewhere on the afternoon of March 1, 2019 after Andreen McDonald, 29 years old.

She was reported missing by Moren's mother, a Bear County sheriff's deputy arrived at McDonald's home in an upscale gated community in San Antonio within minutes. Sheriff Javar Salazar says his deputy made a disturbing discovery. One of my assistants had seen what they believed to be blood on the wall and possibly hair and in the normally beauti

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y landscaped backyard another worrying clue a pile of random burns right here I saw the pile of burns we found a zipper from her blouse Andre was Andre's blouse mhm Andre Andre's husband Andy McDonald told the officer that when he woke up he took his daughter Elena to school before reporting to Laan Air Force Base, where he served as a cyber warfare analyst .

Once he learned that Andreen was missing, Andre rushed home, but quickly walked out the door again to act on a hunch that Andreen suffering from migraines could have gone to a nearby hospital for treatment. Andre's arrival at the hospital was captured on surveillance cameras lead investigator Frank heels on that tape where he walks in, you can see him asking for McDonald and they tell him there is someone in room three named McDonald He comes back to the house, what does he tell them? He tells them that she is in the hospital, but when the agent called the hospital he discovered that the McDonald who had checked in was not Andreen McDonald.

Andre told officers that he rushed home before seeing. his wife because he had left his cell phone at home and wanted to let Moren know that he had found Andreen, there was some indication that she was there and hurt to some extent, unfortunately the older man's hunch turned out to be wrong when I heard that she was oh god , I was so upset that I was just thinking that she is a place where we can find her and for Andre's mother-in-law, Jackie, who lived in Florida, there was uncertainty. She had already called Andre's phone about a thousand times telling Andreen whatever.

Please, she just called me back. What worried everyone was the fact that Andreen would never disappear. She was known for her sense of responsibility and dedication to her family and her business. How would she describe Andreen? She knows what she wants and she will never stop until she understands, I walked in before he did the right thing. Andre defeated me and she is very excited. Andreen created an assisted living business in San Antonio called Starlight Homes when she was just 22 years old, according to Andre's close friend Andrew Russell, to get started. business Andre, liquidated his 401k Andre financed his dreams and sold the BMW he had.

He was doing so well that they were doing everything that would make any mother proud. Starlight Homes prospered and, under Andre's supervision, the small home business grew into a multi-million dollar business. Dollar Enterprise in just seven years when I started my assistant life. Today I only started with three residents. Starlight Houses. This is the life. We have two locations in the San Antonio area. Mandy, a childhood friend, says Andre's success was born from his humble beginnings when he was growing up in Portland, Jamaica. We didn't have much, so we thought that if we wanted to get anywhere in life it would be in the United States, that's where the dream was.

Andre's dream of coming to the United States came true at age 19 when he met Andre. He was also a native of Jamaica. who at the time was a captain in the US Area Air Force, Andre had returned home to Port Antonio in May 2009 to attend a funeral where he met Andreen, who was 10 years younger, was he there an attraction from the beginning? He was excited when she met him excited about the Air Force captain they both decided to have her come to the United States they got married in July she was happy to know that she had met someone she could have a life with that life would soon include a baby girl Elena Elena was at the center of andrene's world that made her disappearance so puzzling says jackie i don't think andin just got up and walked away and left elena and no one heard from her that night a forensic crimes unit examined those stains in the bathroom and confirmed the initial belief that it was blood as you walked through the house Andre was there yes he was did you see any signs of bruises on his body any signs of any injuries that maybe he had been in a fight nothing that we could determine that investigators expected Andre had some answers, but he said the last time he had seen his wife was the night before and they said what Andre described raised more questions than answers.

He had told them that they had come home from the tax preparer's office and that they had discussed the business and he got on the road, got some gas and just calmed down. We were able to get video evidence of him going to the Shell station. Andre said that when he returned home, he and Andreen went to separate rooms, but okay. For investigators, what Andre didn't mention was the text message exchange that occurred at the gas station. For investigators, text messages found on Andre's phone revealed a marriage in crisis, including accusations of betrayal, accusations of infidelity in these text messages. hard copy, would you mind reading this from his phone?

andreen

responds if you mention aubit again i will divorce you myself auin Hall, a businessman living in Port Antonio, Jamaica, who investigators say was Andre's ex-boyfriend and potentially his current lover in response to The Threat of Divorce from Andre.

Andre's text messages. I don't care if you get divorced. You brought auin into our life. Auin dated Andreen when she was a teenager, investigators say. Andre's close friend Mandy says the two rekindled their romance in 2017 during one of their philanthropic trips. to the island auin it has always been that first love, it was not something that Andrin had overcome emotionally Mandy says that they continued their affair in secret until the summer of 2018, when Andreen got two new tattoos, an initial on her hand and a date tattoo . on his wrist, Andy definitely suspected what he meant by a suspicious mind.

Mandy says Andre got to work solving this tattoo mystery. She went and investigated on her own. It was on social media where Andre discovered an interesting photograph of auin marked with the Exact same tattoo that was also on Andre's hand and those numbers 14376 on his ain's birthday, month and year. She told me that she impulsively got the tattoo. She knew it was something stupid. An enraged Mandy says Andre threatened to divorce unless Andring cut off contact with Auin. She covered up her tattoos and promised to never travel to Jamaica without him. She covered up her tattoos and didn't want to lose half of everything so she worked hard at Andre's 40th birthday party.

Mandy says that from all appearances, the McDonald's seemed to be getting But just 13 days later, on March 1, 2019, was when Andrin disappeared. The once-festive home had been transformed into a crime scene as investigators worked at the McDonald residence until 2 the next morning, when they were unable to locate Andre's cell phone. Investigators checked to see if your credit cards or passport had been used, all the dead ends where we ran out of information in all of these investigations, at this point, all we had was a missing person within hours of the disappearance of his wife. Andre McDonald was a person of interest, he stopped answering questions and went to work as a lawyer. get up at 2: p.m.

The next day, an undercover investigator assigned to stake out McDonald's house noticed that the garage had been damaged and Andre was backing out of the driveway. The investigator followed him to a nearby gun store where additional investigators were called to the scene and observed Andre purchasing a 9mm handgun and ammunition. We assumed he was buying a gun to probably hurt himself when Andre returned to his car. Investigators confronted him. The violent takedown of him may be disturbing to viewers. Investigators moved to arrest the Air Force major and handed him over. to military authorities for a mental evaluation meanwhile investigators returned to the house with a search warrant and searched Andre's car while there some objects caught their attention there was a shovel there was an ax an ax uh there was some kind of center ax commercial there were garbage bags there were gloves and a couple of gas cans and there was more inside the trash can of the house there was a receipt from Lowe's that had been torn up.

Detectives were able to obtain surveillance footage of hardware items that were purchased the next day. andreen disappeared this is Andre McDonald walking into Lowe's going to buy several items you can see him with a basket here you can see there is a shovel in the basket now he comes here there are two gas cans there is a shopping center or an ax here is that ax what is at stake here it seemed to us that now that his wife is missing um he was aiming for the disposal of her body look at that car

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of ill will right yeah and in the corner of the garage investigators would discover what they say was the most damning evidence of all we found a hammer and clothes in the trash the clothes we found seemed to be Andre's clothes the researchers say they found traces of blood in the pocket of these genes what is in the hammer that is of interest the laboratory determined that there was presence of blood in the hammer and the DNA they got from that blood sample was from the entrance.

We conclude that that hammer was probably used as a murder weapon. This is significant, very significant. Within 48 hours of the investigation, detectives believed they had uncovered key evidence implicating Major Andre McDonald in the disappearance of his wife. Investigators located those items stained with Andre's blood inside the family's trash can. This missing person's case had become much more sinister and pointed towards what the evidence pointed towards a murder, but there was one problem: none of the evidence collected proved that a murder had actually occurred. Turning a missing person case into a homicide case is very difficult. On March 3, 2019, the Air Force concluded its evaluation of Andre and released him.

Civil authorities quickly intervened and brought it under control. arrest my daughter, my family, what do you have to say about all this investment, but it wasn't for murder? Major Andre McDonald was arrested for tampering with evidence based on that torn receipt found in the house heIt listed the items he had purchased at the hardware store. Andre's arrest left his mother Jackie in a state of shock and disbelief. I saw Andre get detained and I just collapsed. I know he loved Andrin, why would he hurt her? I didn't hurt Andreen, that's what he was saying, but what added to everyone's sense of shock, confusion, and suspicion was Andre's decision to stop cooperating with the detectives.

Andre's face told us there was no way in hell we were going to break him and force him to tell us. What happened Sheriff Salazar was on local television asking for help, we are asking anyone who has information about his whereabouts to call us at 210 335 shortly after the community of San Antonio along with family and friends came out en masse to search and dream involving a volunteer search party formed by former Air Force Airman Bobby Green Bobby took us to one of the areas where he searched and we dreamed that we are now behind a hospital, we thought he might have taken her here to a wooded area like you pass by here you're looking you'd look at tree branches that had been pushed something that was cut fresh tire tracks how many miles you drove it was hundreds of miles as the search efforts continued Andre McDonald was released from jail where is Andre with his absent wife Andre took over the Starlight administration Home search efforts continued, although investigators say Andre did not participate.

Days would eventually turn into months of dead ends as the search for Andreen progressed. Investigators dug deeper into the couple's relationship and discovered they had business and romantic problems in WhatsApp messages. shared with friends there are discussions about who was really the mastermind behind his successful business in one andreen tells Andre Starlight Holmes is my idea my dream and it wouldn't have happened without my drive back then friends like Andrew Russell worried about the potential of violence and I have a text from Andreen saying someone is going to blow up Andrew told investigators that the couple's war of words turned physical the night before a Christmas party at their home in 2018, where McDonald's had a physical altercation, so when I walked into the kitchen.

Andy and Andrene were wrestling on the floor the next morning, laughing about it. I felt uncomfortable after that. I thought the situation had become toxic a little over 2 months later andrene's blood was spilled in her house and she finally disappeared on the night of July 11, 2019 133 days after Andreen disappeared there was a break in the case around 7:30 this afternoon. Bar County Sheriff's Office patrol deputies were dispatched to this location for a report of some human remains that were found. Skeletal remains were located. In a farmers field just 6 miles from McDonald's house, this man, Clifton Cundi, made the discovery.

Clifton had taken his tractor out to retrieve a cow skull that had been spotted just along the property's tree line. I saw what appeared to be a human. skull versus cow skull that must have been a shock, a shock, yes, officials determined that the human skeletal remains belong to Andreen McDonald, his sister Cindy Johnson. She was in a church praying for Andrin. I could not do anything. I broke it. us like a storm because we were never thinking like that yet. I never saw this coming less than 48 hours later, Andre McDonald would be arrested and charged with the murder of his wife.

See more evidence of the case at 48hrs.com. Andre's family had waited. for justice for 4 years it hurts every night before I go to bed I think about her as assistant county attorney Steven Spear Lauren Scott and Ryan Groomer would prosecute McDonald for the murder of his wife and dream, but the prosecution would face a battle Despite the evidence found at McDonald's house (the hammer and the blood), the prosecution couldn't say for sure how Andreen died because Andreen's body was exposed to the elements in that field for all those days, the The medical examiner's office could not specify what exactly caused Andre's death. death and that step complicates your preparation no, we absolutely say that he caused his death, however, we don't know how, if Andre murdered his wife, what do you think his motive was?

I think it was largely because he felt emasculated, she was such a person. The rising star was in control of these businesses and I think he was jealous that McDonald, who pleaded not guilty, was represented by some of the best defense lawyers for San Antonio. John Conver, Zoe Russell and John Hunter, how would he respond to the idea that what caused all this was his envy of his wife's success. I don't see any evidence that Andre is a major in the Air Force. I mean, he's incredibly successful in his own right. Major Andre McDonald had been under house arrest since April 2021, but days before.

His trial was scheduled to begin on January 17, 2023. McDonald, who had remained silent about the death of his wife, began to tell an extraordinary story that began with his own mother. Jackie says her son told her that Andrene's death was an accident. She looked at me and said: Mom, I am. I'm going to tell you the truth and started crying. McDonald then called Andre's mother and sister Cindy, who put the call on speaker. He gave the family for the first time details of what happened. According to him, according to him, yes, it was a phone call. That surprised his defense team.

Were you surprised that he had done this? Shocking is a good word to describe it. Yes, the entire context of the case changed. His best idea would be to tell a story in court. McDonald could tell the story about him, but no. before the prosecution presented its case at the opening State ladies gentem inside trash B in the garage a hammer that hammer has blood on it is the blood of the victim the defense claimed that Andre's death was an accident this is not a case of murder is a case about the degree and level of responsibility with evidence of accident, a mutual fight, all of which happens in the blink of an eye, the prosecution also called forensic pathologist Dr.

James Fig, who testified that the remains Andring's skeleton patients had serious injuries consistent with being hit with a blunt object. Object, she had a fractured spinal cord, a broken rib and a broken jaw, but the pathologist could not determine what exactly had caused Andrene's death, so the way I have expressed the cause of her death is homicidal violence, including blunt force trauma after 6 days of testimony and 33 Witnesses the prosecution rested the defense only had one witness defense calls Major Andre McDonald McDonald described the night of February 28, 2019 while at the tax preparers office with his wife discovered that Andren had started a new business a year earlier without her knowledge. that means to you basically what it meant to me pretty much that she was robbing me after a heated argument that night McDonald says she left the house to cool off at that gas station McDonald says they continued their argument via text and when came home raised the possibility of divorce and splitting her business in half, she got very angry at the idea of ​​splitting business expenses in the room to confront me, so when she walks into the room, you know, I turn around and she comes right in my face.

So at that moment he spits in her face, so at that moment I grabbed her because she was right in front of me, so I grabbed her head. I think we had like a butt of heads and I think she opened up like a gash somewhere on her. Cara McDonald said Andreen ran to the bathroom and turned on the lights when Andreen saw her bloody face in the mirror. McDonald claims she attacked him. Her testimony may be disturbing to some viewers when she comes, she likes to throw some punches, so I'm trying to duck and avoid getting my head and face hit with the punches.

I remember grabbing her, making her trip and then she likes to fall and that's when I kicked her like twice on the second kick, I think I heard some kind of grass and then also like in the background I could hear like some footsteps, the footsteps of his young daughter Elena McDonald said he left to put Elena to bed and when he returned about 30 minutes later, his wife was dead. I got pretty frantic at that point because you know she's dead on the floor you never thought she needed it in cross-examination the prosecutor Spear asked if McDonald had thought about calling 911.

I never thought about calling anyone to revive a dead person. My purpose at that moment was simply to get her out of there. The house so that my seven-year-old daughter wouldn't see her mother dead on the floor after putting Elena back to bed. McDonald said she dumped Andre's body in this field, stripped her naked, and returned home to burn her clothes, leaving that behind. burnt patch in the backyard, but what about Andre's blood on the yellow hammer in the face? The evidence does not square with McDonald's account of an accident. McDonald had an explanation for that, he testified that when investigators finished searching his house, he returned to the Before Dawn field angry and armed with the Yellow Hammer, a can of gasoline and a plan (my plan was to hit the person who caused all this). circumstance and you felt that it was his fault, truth is, it is absolutely his fault, what did you do with the gasoline?

I poured it on him and then I used the lighter and set it on fire. McDonald said when the flame went out, that's when he attacked his wife's body with the yellow hammer. I hit her in the face, the neck and I just hit her again as I was walking away why that last hit as I walked away Yeah I guess I was still angry walking away after that gruesome ordeal Tony, the defense changed the subject and tried to refocus the jury on their theory of the crime and for the first time. The defense raised why McDonald acted the way he did that night.

Did you always believe you acted in self-defense? Yes, I have always believed that from the beginning. Thanks to the defense, he played videos that showed Andrin carrying her husband on his back and exercising. Would you describe it? Andren is a very strong and powerful woman. Yes, according to McDonald, his wife could lift up to 300 pounds. Yes, ma'am, when he attacked her she was afraid. Yes, she wasn't afraid of being hurt. during that whole situation they want you to forget and ignore all his actions closing arguments the defense council said this is self defense friends this is not self defense it is time to hold this man accountable for what he did and it is time to find out he is guilty of murder Andre McDonald did not intentionally or knowingly murder Andrea McDon he acted in self defense and his duty and obligation is to say not guilty thank you after 6 days of testimony the jury accepted the case the entire jury approximately 11 hours later During their deliberation the jury sent a note to the judge that says we are irretrievably dead.

What do you think of Andre McDonald's self-defense claim? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and court there was all the evidence where he confessed to understand what he did they saw his behavior I don't know what was um the problem for the jurors Brandon Meden I voted for murder and I saw that there were six of us and Rudy Ruiz at no time did any jury think that he was innocent or that It was self-defense the problem was the wording because people really separated the definitions of murder and recklessness, the jury of Six Women and Six Men spent hours arguing whether McDonald had killed intentionally or whether he had killed her recklessly, so murder by manslaughter It carries a life sentence for manslaughter of up to 20 years and I think most of us could agree that Whatever happened, he was reckless, left her on the ground and didn't hand Aid over.

The trick now was to try to convince the other jurors that it was murder, but as the deliberations continued, some of the jurors had been swayed by nine now for involuntary manslaughter. says the biggest factor influencing the vote was Andre McDonald's testimony; There was so little evidence and many people believe that because we don't know anything other than what he has told us, we have to accept what he told us and he In fact, I was able to convince many of the jurors. We had a jury who said, "Well, I kicked someone. I never intended to kill him." Medine Ruiz and a third jury were those who refused to believe in the murder.

Nobody was going to change anyone's mind. The judge then invoked what is called an Allen charge urging the holdout jurors to reconsider the evidence and reach a unanimous decision after another hour of deliberations. A verdict. Mr. McDonald, please support his attorney on the murder charge. not guilty of the crime of murder charged in the indictment and guilty guilty of the crime of involuntary manslaughter Andre McDonald wasfound not guilty of murder but guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter Andre's sister Cindy was in disbelief IM Slaughter after he spoke without remorse no I love nothing at all and uses Hammer, takes off his clothes, throws gasoline on him, They burned her and gave her involuntary manslaughter, that's crazy.

I will fight with this daughter until the day I die. The prosecution had a mixed reaction to the verdict. However, I was disappointed. the jury rejected his self-defense argument and held him accountable for at least something for the defense. Andre McDonald may not have walked free, but this is a victory even though I believe this is a case of self-defense. I respect the outcome and Dre's best friend Mandy Hall, he's there to tell this story, he's there to make up whatever he wants, she's not, she's not, she can't do that because he took it from her.

Cindy now sees that phone call from McDonald before the trial in a whole new light as a calculated ploy to deflect blame. It's four years. It took her 4 years to recognize that he did what he did and then all of a sudden she reaches out to us to let us think. she that she has been responsible, she didn't want to say anything, he is lying, everything is a lie, everything is a lie after the verdict. Sheriff Salazar approached Andrene's father, a retired member of the Jamaican military, with an unusual offering. I presented a gift to Mr.

Anderson, uh. I asked my deputy to remove Andre's handcuffs while he was returned to the cell and I gave those handcuffs to Mr. Anderson. I wanted them to feel some kind of connection to at least sending him to prison. I want to tell you that we really appreciate it thank you very much God bless you goddess for Andre's mother nothing about this tragedy makes sense his daughter and the beautiful life she had created are gone andreen McDonald who came to the United States became a successful businessman and the She found purpose in serving others, sadly the business she created is now closed.

I miss her so much most of the time when I think about her it's like she wants to give up and in those moments marine and Cindy lean on each other we are lucky to have each other to carry us through of this sad journey um when I'm weak my mom is strong when my mom is weak I'm strong we have to be strong for Alena Elena, who is now 12 years old, is the glue that holds this fractured family together, a family that still includes Jackie, Andre's mother, though she is mostly left with the memories and pain of what once was.

I think I heard more from Alena than I heard from everyone. no child should have to go through what she went through Moren and Cindy are now raising Elena it's bittersweet because we have Elena Elena reminds us a lot of Andreen can mom a kiss love you? a young wife and mother found with a strange mix of drugs in her system hey, there's a needle right here that makes you stop breathing if you have too many, were it murder investigators who turned to their diaries for answers? How crucial were those diaries? 48 hours on Saturday at CVS in Paran Plus