Through Madison's eyes and camera lens, we watch as his relationship with his father crumbles, as he has to inform Ali that Conway believed she was capable of killing her own mother, as he has to badger his local police department again and again (before finally escalating to a formal Freedom of Information Act appeal) for a 1,600-page case file with details about their investigation into Barbara's death. The show follows director Madison Hamburg as he investigates his mother's murder, and talks to his family members about how they were affected. Who called Barbara to tell her that her court time had been changed from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. the day of her murder (ostensibly making time for the crime to be committed)? While waiting for the person to arrive, she grabs a drink at the lobby bar. Many ancient pipes in CT aren't up to the task of draining storm water, yet officials just seem to shrug. And I was just desperately trying to understand how to take the next step with something so personal and not sacrifice anything. This allegation feelscircumstantial at best. Im not trying to suggest anything was done improperly here, but theres no way to know without seeing what they did. Barbara Beach Hamburg, Madison's 48-year-old mother, had been bludgeoned and stabbed to death, her body hidden under a pile of lawn-furniture cushions outside their Connecticut home. The latest true crime series Murder on Middle Beach just hit HBO. HBO's 'Murder on Middle Beach,' from first-time filmmaker Madison Hamburg, is a four-part documentary series that examines the life and death of his 48-year-old mother, Barbara Beach Hamburg. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Prior to her death, she'd been engaged in a legal battle over child support with her ex Jeffrey Hamburg, who's also the father of Madison and his younger sister Ali. Moreover, allowing the public to access cold case files after an appropriate period of time is far more likely to improve the odds of an arrest and successful prosecution than it is to prejudice that outcome.. Who do you think did it? While her murder and its aftermath are explored on the show, it also paints a vivid portrait of who Beach Hamburg was before her death, and how her family is managing to cope with their loss 10 years later. Not looking into my mom's story would be the biggest regret of my life, so I don't know that I would do anything differently. But Madisons is not a traditional true crime documentaryhe didnt want to fetishize or agonize over the gory details of the murder. That means that if you have a victim of a crime in your household tomorrow, they could start [submitting Freedom of Information Requests for] each and every single day in the investigation, said Drumm. That all falls out of your test, doesnt it?. Just doing that over and over. The Madison Department of Police filed an appeal on September 2. The first is to further understand his mother as a person because, as he says early in the first episode, children rarely know who their parents actually are. Beach had also moved in with Barbara prior to the murder while she was recovering from brain surgery, and the documentary alleges that Barbara wanted her to move out. A spokesperson for the Connecticut State Police Public Information Office said the State Police had not released any evidence regarding the murder of Barbara Hamburg. During the last four minutes of of HBO's docuseries "Murder on Middle Beach," a black screen pops up with a single, heartwrenching sentence: My family still lives without answers about my mother's death. Here are the facts: on March 3rd, 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was beaten to death in front of her modest house in Madison, Connecticut. I started in 2013 really fresh and very amateur to documentary. In a genre that so often luridly dehumanizes its victims, specifically women, as a means for salacious storytelling, "Murder on Middle Beach" is less about clinically dismantling family secrets for their evidentiary value, than it is about assessing how those family secrets bond and tie us and what it means when those bonds are severed. And they just thanked me for releasing this story, and it's really gratifying as someone who's gone through something so traumatic to hear that someone else can watch this and feel a little less alone. Over the course of the docuseries, which began as a student film when Madison was in college, Madison says that he has a few goals. You can watch the trailer below. Have you had any other reactions surprise you? Beach Hamburg had been expected in court, along with Hamburg, on the morning of her death, but never made it to her 9:30 a.m. appearance. Murder on Middle Beach is a four-part documentary by director Madison Hamburg about the unsolved 2010 murder of his mother Barbara Hamburg. Its been twelve and a half years since my mother was killed, he said. At the end of the day, it's not really important that Murder on Middle Beach didn't solve the murder of Barbara Hamburg because that isn't what the documentary set out to do. The commission ruled in August 2020 that because the department could not identify any specific prospective law enforcement action, they had to turn the documents over to the filmmakers, court records show. As manager of this memorial you can add or update the memorial using the Edit button below. As he revealed in a video update on Dec. 8 through HBO's YouTube channel, he is currently combing through these files for additional information that could eventually help solve the case. It was then Beach and Ali who discovered Barbara's body. However, Jeffrey did have a very solid alibi of being in court at the time of Barbara's murder, which seems to make it physically impossible for him to have committed the crime personally. And more importantly, should tuition go toward supporting bars around the XL Center? The series examined the Hamburg familys relationships in the wake of Barbaras death and focused on suspicions both the police and family had about her husband and Madisons father, Jeffrey Hamburg. November 30, 2020. ", "My ulterior plan was to get all my money out of my 401(k) plan and get revenge against my baby sister, your mother, your father, and both of you, even Ali," she told Madison. "My parents told me that . In the series, Madison does some digging and is able to obtain school records that show Barbara did indeed drop Ali off at school on the morning of her death, confirming Ali's alibi and eliminating her as a suspect. But it's been tough watching this go week to week and having breaks in between where people on the internet can react to my family. It's revealed in the "Murder on Middle Beach" epilogue that in October 2020, Madison was granted that case file and that he and his team had started reviewing it for additional information about the murder. He said it was also important to preserve the rights of victims and family members, who he said he didnt believe would want information released while police officers were still working on their case. The HBO true crime documentary series Murder on Middle Beach has reached its conclusion, without any grand reveal regarding who killed Barbara Hamburg. As for where she is now, Conway appears to be residing in Connecticut, where she spends most of her free time with her family, especially her mother, son, and toddler grandson. HBOs four-part documentary series is the compilation of eight years of work for Madison, who was 19 when his mother was found bludgeoned to death outside their Connecticut home in 2010. That's essentially a thousand more opportunities to discover not just what happened to his mother, but to find another slash in the family tree. Barbara's sister, Conway Beach, makes a number of accusations in the series accusing Ali of murdering her mother, believing she did so before going to school on that day. We may earn a commission from these links. One issue that was resolved in the documentary was the status of Ali Hamburg, Madison's sister and the daughter of Barbara, as a potential suspect in the case. It would not be in the interest of our own investigation to release it any further, said Drumm. They successfully appealed to the Connecticuts Freedom of Information Commission, which ruled last year the police department had to turn over its files free of charge to the pair. However, later in the documentary, director Madison Hamburg Barbara's son and Ali's brother obtains school records that corroborate Ali's alibi of being at school at the time of the murder. We made a pitch deck and we pitched the networks. How did you balance your craft and the desire to tell a captivating story from a film perspective with the personal elementworking with your own family members and telling your own painful story? A hearing was held in February 2020, where Detective Christopher Sudock testified on behalf of the department that the release could jeopardize a prospective law enforcement action, such as a search or arrest warrant, but could not identify any specific actions investigators had planned. In October of 2019, Anike Neimeyer, the producer of Murder on Middle Beach, submitted a FOI request to the Madison Police Department on behalf of herself and Madison Hamburg requesting records of the case. While Beach's husband (and Madison's father) Jeffrey was questioned early on about his ex-wife's murder, there have still been no arrests made in the case. Additionally, releasing records that reveal who provided police with information about the crime could prompt witness intimidation, Dugas said. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. If you say youre going to keep a file closed forever on the chance that something might develop, that means the public in most cases will never get to look at these files, Schulz said Friday. Those screenings were the most difficult family screenings. So I pressed everyone pretty hard, and I ended up with 160 hours of footage. Madison's's father, Jeffrey Hamburg, was presented as a main person of interest throughout the series. The medical examiner's office soon concluded that Hamburg died from "blunt and sharp force injuries." Madison Hamburg. That is unbelievably gratifying, so I don't know, there's a lot of mixed things swirling around in how I feel right now. There have been corroborating leads, correcting things, things that we didn't know about. In a statement ahead of the hearing, Hamburgs son, Madison Hamburg, who helped make an HBO documentary series about his mothers death called "Murder on Middle Beach," called for the records release. Then, the public would never have any way of knowing whether [the police] were doing their job appropriately, said Schulz. If I didn't ask these questions, the questions would go unasked, but I've tried my hardest to do this what I consider the right way. That's a question that I've asked myself a lot. One of two masterminds to be jailed for their roles in the Gifting Tables, was Hamburg's aunt Jill Platt. Attorney David Schulz, a Yale Law professor and member of the schools Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic that has worked with Hamburg and Niemeyer on the records fight, called Klaus decision thorough and thoughtful. He agreed the eventual conclusion of this case could help set new precedent for how the public access old police case files across the state, which is an important tool for holding investigators accountable, he said. Schulz echoed the judges world, noting that his clients planned to use the information as part of a documentary. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Beach also alleges that Ali killed Barbara, Jeffrey Hamburg hired someone to kill his ex-wife. There's been a lot of mistakes and a lot of successes throughout this whole journey, but I don't think I would do anything differently at this point. HBO's new true-crime docuseries "Murder on Middle Beach" premieres Sunday, November 15. I'm in awe of my sister. ", initially questioned Hamburg after Beach Hamburg's murder, said her ex-husband failed to make alimony and child support payments, behind on mortgage payments for their property, primary custody of Madison and Ali, while their father received visitation rights, 'I'll Be Gone In The Dark' director believes we're drawn to true crime stories because 'you can close the book, you can turn off the TV, when in real life, you don't have that power', The 7 best true crime podcasts you can listen to right now, Watch the haunting new trailer for 'I'll Be Gone in the Dark', HBO's latest true-crime docuseries, The best true crime shows you can watch on Hulu right now. She cites the fact that the teenager had a rocky relationship with her mother, which was only intensified by Ali's struggles with borderline personality disorder. I don't know. 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