George Hansen murder of Al Zullo partner Mary Ann Clibbery

In the previously documented episode, I spoke about Forensic Files' use of a red herring suspect to keep the viewer guessing. Fashion Police (s13e17) saw the senseless murder of Julie Braun by her neighbor Jeremie Overstreet. But it's far less likely that a woman would be murdered by her neighbor, a virtual stranger, than to fall victim to someone she knew, especially a previous partner. So that episode also revealed information about Julie's ex-husband John and his new girlfriend Brenda. Each of these suspects had a potential motive to see harm come to Julie.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Our episode did the same thing with ex-employee Kevin Doyle. After being recently fired from Al Zullo Remodeling, suspicion fell on Kevin when it was learned he disliked Mary Ann Clibbery. But our episode also set us viewers up for a fake-out. In Fashion Police, the episode's interview with John Braun all but guarantees he was not the culprit in his ex-wife's murder. Similarly, our episode brings business partner George Hansen into the interview sequence early in the episode. And though indicated as an initial suspect in Mary Ann's murder, his on-camera appearance and demeanor hint that he too is blameless.

But this is one of the rare episodes where the convicted agrees to appear in the episode. These appearances are typically self-serving – each offender maintaining his innocence and claiming flaws in the justice system. After being convicted of multiple crimes involving bombs, James Genrich was interviewed in the episode Small Town Terror (s11e34). The other case that comes to mind is Bump in the Night (s10e34) which sees Bryan Crews kill his ex-stepfather Bill Lowes in Missouri. Even during the course of the interview, his story has inconsistencies which belie his claims that another person killed Bill.

Around our episode's 1:30 mark, George innocently quips about 69-year-old Mary Ann's retirement plans. By the 7:00 mark, contrary to Mary Ann's brother and other witnesses, George states that he and business partner Mary Ann "got along great!" As the evidence revealed throughout the episode mounts, George unequivocally shares at the 15:30 mark, "I did not kill Mary Ann."

Forensic Files reenactments

I've commented on the quality of the series' reenactments in other episodes. Having seen this episode more than an average number of times (for me), I became quite familiar with its portrayals of George Hansen and Mary Ann Clibbery. It's often the actor playing the perpetrator who stands out, and George Hansen's counterpart delivered an outstanding performance in this episode.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

An initial memorable moment occurs near the episode's 2:00 mark where "George" and another employee discover Mary Ann's body. Later, without yet revealing the perpetrator's identity, the reenactment portrays the bag being thrown off the Rock River bridge. This set up pays off later when the footage reoccurs, but this time our "George Hansen" is the one on the bridge. And when he fails to hit the open water of the river below, his reaction is priceless. Key in on the expressions the actor reveals near the 19:10 mark. Emmy-worthy!

What these reenactments don't reveal is how George Hansen squeezed all his other "alibi" activities into the night of Mary Ann's murder. He provided police with a list of places he'd been, including at a bar with his wife, a driving school with his daughter, and a tanning salon. So, what was the actual sequence of events on the night in question? Did he first kill Mary Ann, partake in these various activities, then return to (poorly) stage the scene and attempt to dispose of the evidence?

Investigating Mary Ann Clibbery's murder

Early in the episode, it was shared that Mary Ann had been attacked on two separate occasions on the night she was murdered. It was further suggested that these beatings took place 15 minutes apart. This was hallmarked by blood spatter found atop a previous bloodshed event where coagulation had already begun. Beyond suggesting the killer had not been hurried to leave the store after the assault, I'm not sure this detail had much evidentiary value.

Investigators use this observation of "layering" to try to reconstruct the crime and sequence its events. Consider the case of Michael Peterson's murder of his wife Kathleen. At the bottom of the murder's pervasive staircase, there'd clearly been a blood spatter event that someone attempted to clean up. At some point after this, it seemed Kathleen Peterson was still alive. Michael then finished her off with additional blows to the head – this caused fresh blood to spray onto the same wall. Why an attempt to continue cleaning was not pursued is hard to guess, but this layered blood refuted multiple fabricated explanations offered by Michael Peterson.

Layered blood stains in another case told of the perpetrator's return to her crime scene. In Dancing with the Devil (s13e06), Andrea Morris killed Patrick McRae in his own home in Des Moines, Iowa. With the amount of blood at the scene of McRae's murder, it'd be difficult not to track it on the bottom of your shoes. But two sets of tracks from Morris' size seven Doc Martins revealed that she'd returned to the crime scene hours after she'd killed McRae. In her murderous frenzy, she neglected to grab her wallet on the way out – though she cut open Patrick's back pocket to take his.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Before detectives concentrated their attention on George Hansen, how seriously did they really consider Kevin Doyle? He seemed to have a genuine motive – a known dislike for Mary Ann Clibbery and he'd recently been fired. But why hadn't they recovered the store's keys from Doyle? Or changed the locks? His alibi of being home "sick" on the night of Mary Ann's murder could not be corroborated by anyone.

If Doyle was trying to stay off police's radar, he failed miserably on the very day after the murder. He "shows up and offers his assistance to the (Clibbery) family," claiming he can keep the business afloat during this tragic time. Did this bonehead think, "Now that the person with whom I had the most contention is dead, I should rightfully get my job back."? I guess if you're oblivious enough to think so illogically, you're also likely to make this bizarre offer on the very day after her death.

Sometimes events having nothing to do with the crime being investigated lead to additional evidence being discovered. A black garbage bag on top of the ice in the Rock River might not have garnered a second glance, but citizens of Loves Park were still on alert. Not long before, a similar bag had been discovered near the same location. But the horrific contents of this bag were nearly impossible to forget – it'd contained the body of a deceased baby. That's why sighting a similar bag in a similar location caused a concerned citizen to notify the police – this is what led to the discovery of the treasure trove of evidence in Mary Ann's murder.

Curiously, it was suggested that the garbage bags used to dispose of the gloves, sweater, hammer, and Mary Ann's purse came from the Al Zullo offices. Did investigators confirm this with any type of forensic conclusion? Did the bags' styles or brands simply match those found on the scene, or were tear patterns matched? Sometimes it's possible to determine if a bag came from a particular roll based on inconsistencies in the manufacturing process. But perhaps this degree of specificity was overkill.

George Hansen versus the bad decisions of George Hansen

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

While eyewitness testimony is often unreliable and occasionally dubious, it still has circumstantial value, especially when combined with solid forensic evidence. In the case of George Hansen's attempts to recover the bag of evidence once it failed to reach the open water of the Rock River, he might have wanted to consider using a less distinct vehicle. An observer realized Hansen's white Mercury SUV making several passes over the Rock River bridge. This might have been the extent of the witness' description, expect for George's vanity license plate "ZULLO 51". When your nefarious activities are better masked with clandestine behaviors, it's best to not be seen driving a distinct vehicle. Consider Diana Haun's abduction and murder of Sherri Dally from Sign Here (s08e04). The rental car Haun used might've been harder for witnesses to recall had it not been teal in color.

George's attempts to recover the bag from the ice were laudable, but they carried a hint of Wile E. Coyote. A large fishing lure and a long span of rope were the makings of a contraption that may've successfully recovered the plastic bag. Multiple sources cite that an average woman's purse weighs at least five pounds. Add at least two more pounds for the hammer and clothing, and we suspect George hoped to snag a seven-pound plastic bag with a large fishing hook. I hope he'd used Hefty bags which might not rip apart once hooked and hoisted.

I performed an experiment from my roof – I used a regular Glad white kitchen bag and loaded it with seven pounds (dumbells). I tied my largest treble hook with a weight to some twine. From about ten feet up, I swung the pendulum of hook-and-weight around until I was able to make good contact with the bag – I suspected at least two of the hooks made purchase in the plastic. But as I slowly hoisted, the sheer weight of the bag's contents caused the precarious attachment to tear loose. Subsequent attempts were equally unsuccessful. Perhaps George hoped to get lucky enough to embed the hook into the sweater within the bag.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Attempts were made to exonerate George Hansen in both the thefts from the Al Zullo company and in Mary Ann's murder. Hansen claimed that both he and Mary Ann had been skimming from the company. Evidence showed that George used company resources to buy himself materials for construction projects, and there was clear evidence that some vendors were not being paid. On the other hand, Mary Ann's finances underwent similar scrutiny, and she was found to be living as expected given her income – no questionable transactions were uncovered.

Once the DNA evidence made it clear George Hansen must have had some involvement in Mary Ann's murder, unsurprisingly his story changed. The version of events he gave at trial (and continued to give in his interview) now said George merely discovered Mary Ann's body, and he panicked. Fearing he'd be charged in her murder, he decided to try to cover it up by gathering the evidence police might use to incriminate him and dispose of it. This has a resounding ring of untruth to it. Unless your hands aren't clean, why would you fear authorities would want to pin an unknown murder on you? We're to believe he told himself, "I'm going to help an unknown assailant get away with killing my business partner, lest they think I'm capable of murder."?

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

I'll close with a few lingering questions:

• How did George Hansen explain obtaining prescription sleeping medication from his sister and residue of this substance being found in Mary Ann's coffee cup?
• Why do other internet sources spell our victim's name "MaryAnn" when there's a clear indication in one of the older Al Zullo commercials that it's "Mary Ann"?

Where is George Hansen now in 2024?

It took a jury less than three hours to find George Hansen guilty of the first-degree murder of Mary Ann Clibbery. In October 2005, he was sentenced to serve 60 years at the Pontiac Correctional Center in Livingston County, Illinois.