In the Dateline episode “The House on Badger Lane”, Keith Morrison investigates the August 2012 murder of Jason Harper in his home in Carlsbad, California. He was shot dead by his wife Julie Harper. Morrison interviews Julie’s friends and neighbors who said Julie changed after having her third child, son Joshua, in 2011. “Julie just didn’t seem the same,” said one friend. Julie admitted to shooting and killing her husband in their home while their three children (ages 8, 6, and 12 months) watched TV in another room. She claimed she shot him in self-defense, claiming her husband would kill or rape her.
In 2016 Julie Harper was sentenced to 40 years to life for her husband’s murder. At her sentencing, she reminded the judge that her husband was an athlete who was 6’7” tall and weighed 240 pounds. “I was terrified,” she said in court. Her attorney asked the judge for a new trial saying the murder was a crime of passion. The request was denied.
The Harper children are now 14, 12 and 7. At the sentencing, statements from the older two children were read. The letter from then 10-year-old daughter Jackie said the girl refuses to refer to Julie as her mother. Jason’s mother, Lina Harper, has custody of the children. At the sentencing, Lina said the children sometimes have nightmares of Julie abducting them and are sometimes “alarmed by strong noises.” Dateline airs Fridays at 10 pm on NBC.
