The Murder of Deana Wild
For this case, I watched an episode of Forensic Files. It’s season 9 episode 14, titled ‘Financial Downfall.’
A woman befriends the wrong people after separating from her husband.
Background
Deana Jalynn (Hubbard) Wild was born on March 8, 1967, and was originally from Kentucky. She later moved to San Diego when she got married. In the Forensic Files episode, it’s mentioned that Deana’s husband was in the military. They separated in 1987, when Deana was only 20-years-old.
Deana was described as being nice and kind.
Deana Wild
An Accident or Murder?
On April 2, 1987, Deana went to Seal Beach in Big Sur, California, with her friends B.J. and Virginia McGinnis. Deana had moved in with the older couple after her marriage fell apart.
B.J. and Virginia would later say that they were walking back to their car while Deana took one last look at the water. When they turned around, Deana was gone, and had fallen off the cliff. B.J. and Virginia ran over, and saw that Deana had fallen 500 feet down. They ran to the nearest store to notify someone that there had been an accident.
The Photographs
The McGinnis’ would also mention that Deana had been wearing high heels, and had lost her footing. In one of the photos that Virginia took, Deana can be seen wearing high heels, but looks happy and alert.
An autopsy was performed, but only to prove that Deana’s cause of death was an accident. The person that performed the autopsy wasn’t a forensic pathologist, so the autopsy wasn’t performed as thoroughly as it should’ve been. Deana’s cause of death was a basal skull fracture, or a blow to the back of the head.
Deana’s family had many questions about her death, and hired a civil attorney named Steve Kenney. He was immediately alarmed about the photos that B.J. and Virginia had taken at Seal Beach.
In the first photo of Deana, she looked very happy and alert. But, in the following photos Deana looks either intoxicated or stoned. There was also a photo of B.J. standing behind Deana overlooking the water at the edge of the cliff.
After Deana had fallen, instead of rushing to the store like B.J. and Virginia claimed, they took photos of the scenery. Steve Kenney believes they were taking surveillance photos to make sure no one had seen anything. One of the last photos taken was of the roadway behind them.
The photo of Deana and B.J., where she is looking disoriented.
The last photo before Deana died.
The Motive
The police discovered that B.J. and Virginia had taken out a $35,000 life insurance policy on April 1, the day before Deana died. The beneficiary of the policy was James, Virginia’s son, who had been in prison at the time. Virginia listed James as Deana’s fiancé, even though they were married to other people. It’s not clear if they even knew each other.
On April 3, Virginia returned to the life insurance agency, and plopped the insurance policy on the agent’s desk. The agent was shocked that Deana was dead.
While the autopsy wasn’t thoroughly done, a vile of Deana’s blood had been kept and stored for 2 years. The sample was sent for testing, and it revealed that Deana had most likely been drugged. Deana’s blood had traces of Elavil in her system.
Deana didn’t have a prescription for it, but B.J. did. According to a waiter at a restaurant, Deana had ordered a soft drink. The McGinnis’ had taken Deana to lunch about 2 hours before she died. There was no proof that Deana was drugged, but that seems to be the case.
A Con Artist
Deana’s autopsy photos were re-examined. Deana had wounds on the backs of her hands, but not her palms. Her fingernails had also been broken. After examining these photos, the new forensic pathologist believed that Deana had been hit with an object or stomped on to make her fall as she tried to hold herself up.
The police ran a background check on Virginia, and learned that she had taken out several $35,000 life insurance policies on people close to her. She had also been around 2 previous suspicious deaths, the deaths of her daughter and previous husband.
According to the life insurance policy that Deana had signed, it had been witnessed by a woman named Alice, who was the neighbor of the McGinnis’. However, Alice denied she had signed the paperwork, and that her name was spelled wrong.
A handwriting sample from Virginia proved that she had forged her neighbors signature. She and B.J. were eventually arrested and charged with murder.
The Conviction
Virginia claimed she hadn’t been at Seal Beach that day, and hadn’t been in any of the photographs. Experts were able to examine one photo of Deana where the shadow of the photographer could be seen. They used the position of the sun to prove that the photographer was about 5’6,” the same height as Virginia.
B.J. died in prison awaiting his trial, but Virginia went on trial on January 6, 1992.
During Virginia’s trial, which took place at Seal Beach on the cliff, the jurors were asked to examine the cliff. Virginia’s defense tried everything to ruin Deana’s reputation, and claimed her heels were the reason for her death.
In the end, the jurors believed that Deana was pushed to her death. Virginia was convicted of first degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
Virginia McGinnis
FINAL THOUGHTS
I had heard of this case before watching this episode, but hadn’t heard all the details. While I think the case could’ve gone either way, I do think Deana was pushed. I believe she was drugged at lunch, and while she was in a vulnerable state she was pushed by people she thought were her friends.
Sources
https://apnews.com/article/230a9e69461570a2ef2466c466ed2cc4
https://apnews.com/article/230a9e69461570a2ef2466c466ed2cc4
