[This story previously aired on April 24, 2021.]
On May 28, 2014, police were called to a remote piece of property in Dillsboro, Indiana – the home of Dani and Ray Green. The sheriff’s office had received a call from Ray’s 84-year-old mother, Betty.
BETTY GREEN [call to sheriff’s office]: I need to … get some information on my son.
BETTY GREEN: My daughter-in-law called this morning and said he was killed yesterday by a German Shepherd dog, the dog jumped up and grabbed his throat.
Ray and Dani Green with their German Shepherd, Jazzy.
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Dani had called other family and friends too, saying it was Jazzy – the couple’s own pet – who had attacked Ray. Police drove out to check, but when they arrived, neither Ray nor Jazzy could be seen, and they say Dani seemed to be just going about her day.
Aaron Negangard: She’s interested in feeding her horses and just engaged in conversation … like nothing else is going on.
Prosecutor Aaron Negangard says Dani then gave an entirely different story, saying Ray, who sometimes worked as a truck driver, was out on the road.
Aaron Negangard: The problem with that, there was a big truck in the property. … The officers were suspicious that something was up. So, the officers pinged his phone. And his phone came back to that piece of property.
And there was a padlocked toolbox sitting on the property. Dani refused to let anyone open it. So, authorities set off to get a search warrant.
Tracey Abbott: My grandmother had called me at work and told me that Danielle had said that the dog killed him.
Tracey Abbott is Ray’s daughter with his first wife, Maggie.
Tracey Abbott: Animals like him … How can a dog kill him?
Tracey remembers her father’s special way with all kinds of animals growing up on their 200-acre San Antonio ranch.
Tracey Abbott: My dad was a real cowboy.
It didn’t make sense to friends and family that Ray Green could have been killed by the family dog — they knew him as a Texas cowboy who had a way with animals.
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Ray began his career riding bulls and bareback broncos. He served two tours in Vietnam. But it was the simple country life where he felt most at home.
Tracey Abbott: He always wore his cowboy hat and boots — never went anywhere without them.
Ray was a renowned horse breeder and trainer.
Peter Van Sant: Had he developed a successful business?
Tracey Abbott: Yes, he did. We had, like, 70-something horses.
Friends like Dave Warr remember Ray as a real straight shooter.
Dave Warr: When you shook his hand, you knew you were shaking a man’s hand. … He was very powerful. Very strong.
Bob Stevens, another friend of Ray’s, remembers a time when Ray captured a 12-foot alligator with his own two hands.
Bob Stevens: We contacted Animal Control. … They set up traps and this gator was so big it would break the traps. Ray trapped it himself and put it in the barn.
Tracey says her parents, Ray and Maggie, had a loving relationship.
Tracey Abbott: They were best friends. They’d known each other since my mom was 6 and he was 11. … We were … a close-knit family.
But that all ended in May 2002 when Maggie was killed in a bridge collapse in Oklahoma. She was on her way home from a barrel race with her horses.
MAUREEN MAHER | CBS NEWS REPORT: a barge slammed into a bridge along interstate 40, plunging nearly a dozen vehicles 75 feet into the water … Among the dead, horse trainer Maggie Green.
Ray and Maggie Green.
Tracey Abbott
Ray, who had called Maggie his rose, was left devastated.
Tracey Abbott: He kept saying, “I miss my rose. I miss my rose.” … His light went out.
A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the victims. As a result, the Green family received a large sum of money.
Tracey Abbott: There was a pretty big settlement that he had gotten. … A little over a million dollars.
Peter Van Sant: When did Danielle come into your father’s life?
Tracey Abbott: Abruptly … She came in the picture maybe two months after my mother died.
Danielle, who went by Dani, was a longtime client of Ray’s. A skilled horsewoman herself, Dani hired Ray back in 1996 to train her horses. Soon after Maggie’s death, Tracey says, a newly divorced Dani started hanging around the ranch every day.
Bob Stevens: Ray didn’t chase her. She came into Ray’s life and, you know, said the things that Ray wanted to hear. … So that blossomed into a relationship.
Dani, 22 years younger than Ray, seemed to provide the companionship he needed after losing his wife, and helped him move on.
Tracey Abbott: They took a vacation and came back married. … I was happy that he was happy.
But Tracey was not happy with Dani.
Tracey Abbott: She would come out … wearing my mother’s cowboy hats and her nice cowboy boots and some of my mom’s jewelry.
Dani Green was an accomplished horsewoman and dreamed of competing in the Olympics in dressage.
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After Dani solidified her place in Ray’s life, she set her sights on her equestrian dreams.
Bob Stevens: Her goal in life was to get into the Olympics in dressage. … So … she did some research. And ground zero for dressage in the Olympics was … in Palm Beach County.
The newlyweds decided to move to Florida using the million-dollar settlement from Maggie’s death.
Bob Stevens: This was the property owned by Ray and Danielle Green. They owned this five-acre lot and the five-acre lot to the east of us.
The house was near the stables where Dani could train.
Bob Stevens: The U.S. trials for the Olympics were held in Deer Run. … And she wanted to be a part of that.
Peter Van Sant: And was she talented?
Bob Stevens: She very talented. … Ray built her a workout room in the house that she’d get up at 5:00. … She’d spend all day just doing horse trainings. She would be on the horses from sunup to sundown.
And when she wasn’t in the saddle, they discovered a fun and unusual hobby.
After Dani and Ray got married and moved to Florida, they got interested in Cowboy Action Shooting — part target competition, part costume fun, and they would travel to events, like the one run by Dawn Owen.
Dawn Owen: We have competitors from every walks of life. We have attorneys, we have surgeons, we have electricians. … The people are what makes it.
In Florida, Ray and Dani Green got involved with local Cowboy Action Shooting clubs. The sport calls for participants to dress in clothing of the Old West and engage in competitive speed shooting under aliases – Ray was known as “Doc R. Green” and Dani went by “Dani Oakley.”
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“Dani Oakley” and “Doc R. Green” were both beloved here.
Dawn Owen: They were a huge part of the family. … An amazing cowboy, great part of our family.
Karen Auclair: These big matches are like a reunion. It’s fun to see everybody again and catch up.
Friends Karen and Gerry Auclair say Dani was a natural and she quickly became the top shooter at the club.
Peter Van Sant: She really could handle a gun.
Karen Auclair: Oh, yeah. … And at the time, I was the top shooter of the club and she just soared right by me (laughs).
Gerry Auclair: She wanted to win.
Life in Florida seemed like a winning proposition for both Dani and Ray. But that was about to change.
A ROUGH RIDE
Bob Stevens: This is like a little piece of heaven. It’s quiet, surrounded by woods.
Bob Stevens says Dani and Ray’s neighborhood near West Palm Beach had become a perfect refuge when they arrived in 2004.
Bob Stevens: All these houses were designed so you couldn’t see a neighbor’s house. … It has 22 miles of horse trails that don’t intersect with any roads.
But the dream died in 2008, when the economy collapsed.
Bob Stevens: It was just devastating for Ray. … The horsing market fell apart, dressage fell apart. … They were using the second mortgage to pay the first mortgage and it was just a disaster.
For a while, Dani and Ray struggled to keep up their lifestyle — still attending their Cowboy Action Shooting matches — but now trying to make a bit of money on the side off the livestock they kept at the ranch.
Karen Auclair: The chickens would lay eggs and she would bring eggs for everybody. People would buy the eggs.
Dani and Ray caught a break when they were hired by their own neighborhood to become landscapers.
Dani and Ray Green’s story began more than a dozen years prior in San Antonio, Texas, where Ray, a renowned horse breeder and trainer, met Dani, his client, and started a romantic relationship. The couple eloped and moved to Palm Beach, Florida.
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Dave Warr: Had the contract … to take care of the right of ways, mow the grass, take care of the ditches.
Peter Van Sant: Did you get any sense that Dani felt like that was a real step down in their lives, that he’s now cutting grass?
Karen Auclair: I don’t think so. I don’t think she was like that. She was not materialistic; she was not status driven.
Ray’s daughter Tracey disagrees.
Tracey Abbott: I believe that the only reason why she wanted to marry my father was for his money.
Tracey didn’t know her father had lost all his money. After he’d moved to Florida, Tracey mysteriously couldn’t reach him.
Tracey Abbott, Ray Green’s daughter, says in addition to blocking her calls to her father, “Dani blocked my emails and letters.”
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Tracey Abbott: He would ask me, “how come you never call me? I miss you.”
Turns out Ray and Dani shared a single cellphone and Dani blocked Tracey’s number.
Tracey Abbott: I got this message saying this phone is no longer … taking calls from this number. … She had blocked my emails and letters. … sent him a certified Christmas card with pictures of his grandbabies, and it came back denied.
Peter Van Sant: Why would she do that? That seems cruel.
Tracey Abbott: Very cruel. It really broke my heart not to have my father in my life anymore. But that was her way of keeping all the money to herself.
The money. Now all gone. The million-dollar settlement Ray received after Tracey’s mother was killed in that bridge collapse.
Tracey Abbott: To lose my mother the way I did, and then now being separated from my father — it was very heartbreaking.
Heartbreak spilled over to Dani’s side of the family as well. While she’d achieved some success on the local horse show scene, her Olympic dreams remained elusive. Then in 2012, Dani received devastating news from her Indiana family home.
Dave Warr: Both of her parents were terminally ill.
Peter Van Sant: They both had cancer at the same time.
Bob Stevens: Yes.
Karen Auclair: I think she felt that that was her place to go up and take care of them. And besides, there was no place for them down here anymore.
So, Dani and Ray sold their Florida property at a big loss. With the landscaping contract their only source of income, Ray stayed behind, mowing grass, and living with a friend. Dave Warr remembers the day Dani headed north.
Dave Warr: Ray had asked a couple of his friends to come over and help them load some of the big items out of their house into a moving van. … He had misplaced the box that had his personal items in it.
Dave says Ray asked Dani if she’d seen the box.
Dave Warr: … And she went off on him… berating him … belittling him in front of everybody. … I made the comment to my friend. … this comment haunts me to this day, … it wouldn’t surprise me if she doesn’t kill him one day.
Dave says Ray’s paychecks got sent directly to Dani back home in Indiana.
Dave Warr: I seen him literally live off of cold cereal. He would make a meal out of bread and water if he had to because he had no money to live.
There was one bright spot during this troubled time. Tracey was able to reestablish a relationship with her father, who at last got his own cellphone.
Tracey Abbott: We finally got to talk almost every day. … We were able to finally have a relationship again.
Bob Stevens gave Ray a special gift: an airplane ticket and the chance to reconnect with his family in Texas.
Bob Stevens: I gave him … the trip on his birthday and he flew out there and he had a great time with his daughter and granddaughters.
Tracey Abbott: I felt like I could not let him go, I just would hug him forever. And happy tears, happy tears because I was so glad to see him.
In 2013, both of Dani’s parents passed away and Ray’s landscaping contract expired. Dani was poised to come into an inheritance.
Bob Stevens: The parents owned 300 acres up in a mountain. … There was three children. They were each going to get 100 acres. It had a farmhouse on it that needed to be renovated.
Dani planned on running her parent’s property in Indiana as a horse farm. The couple lived in a trailer on the land.
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So, Ray moved to Indiana and joined Dani, living in a trailer on the large property.
Tracey Abbott: She was in control … any time she’s around my father, so moving back to be with her, I felt I was never going to hear from him again.
Dani planned on running the property as a horse farm. Ray found work as well.
Dave Warr: Ray decided to get his trucker’s license so they would have a form of steady income.
By the end of 2013, Ray and Dani were together again, but they were about to break apart — at least on paper.
Bob Stevens: He qualified for social security with his first wife who died in the bridge accident.
Ray would be able to collect social security as Maggie’s widower, but he’d have to divorce Dani to do it.
Bob Stevens: So, they got divorced for more income.
Peter Van Sant: Not that he didn’t want to be with his wife anymore, but to get social security money.
Bob Stevens: Yes.
In the spring of 2014, Ray and Dani had started a new chapter together in Indiana. But it all ended with that shocking message to family and friends.
Karen Auclair: Dani said that her dog killed Ray.
DANI’S CHANGING STORY
In May 2014, Ray Green’s mother Betty made that call to an Indiana sheriff’s department near Dillsboro, saying she’d heard the strangest story from Dani.
BETTY GREEN [call to sheriff’s office]: …said the dog killed my son yesterday. A German Shepherd dog … Why would she call me with such a story? If it didn’t happen?
When police arrived neither Ray nor Jazzy could be found. That set off some red flags.
State detectives were called in after local police concluded that there was something not quite right with this remote Indiana property. What started out as a missing person wellness check would soon become something far worse.
As an all-out search got underway, detectives say Dani cooperated fully … except for that one thing.
Det. Tom Baxter | Indiana State Police: She said you can search anywhere you want except for that box.
That box — being the toolbox: large, made of metal, sitting several yards away from the entrance to Ray and Dani’s trailer.
Tracey Abbott: One of those big toolboxes that you put in the back of the truck.
Det. Tom Baxter: She said it was Ray’s box and she couldn’t give consent for anyone to look at it.
Det. Pete Tressler | Indiana State Police: It had a padlock on it. But it wasn’t completely closed on one end and there were flies. … And then there was an odor of decay
After obtaining a search warrant to open Ray Green”s padlocked toolbox, investigators opened the box to find Ray’s body inside.
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Within hours, Baxter and Tressler obtained a search warrant for the box. When it was opened, Ray Green was found dead inside it. Detectives returned to Dani, telling her they were done with their search.
Peter Van Sant: And when you told her “we found him,” how did she react?
Det. Pete Tressler: She really had no reaction. She was like, “OK”.
That’s when detectives say Dani’s story of what happened to Ray changed yet again, now saying she’d been forced to shoot Ray dead two days before in self-defense.
Det. Tom Baxter: She began to explain that there were instances of abuse … that this had began in Florida, wound up here.
Det. Pete Tressler: She kind of quickly glossed over the actual shooting of Ray and went right to why she had to do it.
The detectives recorded an interview with Dani on the property. She told them Ray had been physically abusive for years and tried to force sex on her several times in the days leading up to the shooting:
DANI GREEN: He walked around naked, slept naked, walked around naked all the time. … He’s pulling me to him. … He’s like “let’s go lay down.” He’s … trying to force himself on me. …I don’t want this, but I don’t know what to do.
She claimed Ray retaliated each time she refused him.
DANI GREEN: He’d come up behind me and put his arm around my neck … And he was squeezing me incredibly hard. I couldn’t breathe.
Dani told the detectives she slept on the living room couch — alone. That led to another confrontation.
DANI GREEN: He came in and he laid right on top of me. He had … his forearm pressed against my neck pushing on me, and I was, like, “what are you doing?” … I’m kind of gasping for air … and he’s, like, “I just wanted to hug you.” … You don’t hug people with your arm in their throat like that.
Dani said it all led up to a fatal clash early on Monday, May 26 — Memorial Day. Three days later, she went on tape with investigators, offering a unique demonstration in a calm, matter-of-fact way.
DET. TOM BAXTER: I’m just going to kind of play the role of Ray.
Peter Van Sant So you’ve offered to place your body in various positions as she takes us through what happened.
Det. Tom Baxter: Yes.
Dani says it was around 6 a.m. She’d just used the bathroom off the master bedroom and was headed back to the couch.
DANI GREEN : So, I’m tiptoeing. I’m being really quiet. And Ray gets up from the bed and he says, “I’m going to kill you. You need to die.”
Dani Green reenacted her version of what happened leading up to Ray’s death in a recording for investigators. She claimed Ray threatened to kill her, saying “I’m going to kill you. You need to die,” and that the shots were fired in self-defense. Detective Tom Baxter played the role of Ray while Dani directed him through the reenactment.
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Dani says Ray kept a loaded .38 on the nightstand. She says he started to reach for the gun.
DANI GREEN: I grabbed the gun and I took his shoulder like this. And I grabbed him like this and tried to get him off balance. … Threw him on the bed like this. Well, he fell more on his right side, actually, totally on his right side.
DANI GREEN: His legs were up. … and as I fell on him like this, my hand — I don’t know if you can see. My hand was like this [motioning with her hand as if it were the gun].
At that moment, Dani shot Ray five times. He took five bullets to the torso.
DANI GREEN: And I don’t remember pulling the trigger. I don’t remember pointing. I don’t remember hearing gunshots.
Dani says the struggle continued.
DANI GREEN: He started sliding down the bed. And his legs were here on this side of the bed facing the wall.
DET. TOM BAXTER: Sitting?
DANI GREEN: Yes. … And then I got really scared because he said, “I’m going to kill you.” He’s whispering.
That’s when Dani says she ran to the back bedroom of the trailer and grabbed five more bullets.
DANI GREEN: And I loaded the gun and I said, what do I do? … I’m scared to death. I’m in fear for my life.
She returned to Ray, who she says somehow was still sitting upright at the foot of the bed.
DANI GREEN: He started to kind of crouch over and lean towards me. So, I put my hand out. And he started to get up a little bit. But I don’t remember pulling the trigger or hearing the gun, but I remember him going down.
Dani says Ray collapsed on the bedroom floor — dead. Five bullets in the head.
Ray Green had been shot in the head five times with the same kind of ammo used in Cowboy Action Shooting competitions.
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Delmar Weldon: She reenacted every step of that morning in the location where it occurred to the detectives.
Delmar Weldon is Dani’s attorney.
Delmar Weldon: That is incredibly compelling evidence that she was telling the truth. … The volcano that exploded on those early morning hours. … That’s what led to Raymond attacking Danielle. And that’s what forced Danielle to use lethal force to protect herself.
WHAT TRIGGERED DANI?
As a Cowboy Action Shooter, Dani Green learned to quickly shoot five rounds, reload, and shoot five more — a skill she put to use on that remote mountaintop in Indiana on May 26, 2014.
Detectives confirmed her father’s death to Tracey, telling her Ray’s body had been found in that toolbox.
Tracey Abbott: [Crying] My heart was in pieces. And I just prayed that he didn’t suffer.
On June 3, 2014., Dani Green was arrested and charged with Ray Green’s murder.
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Eight days after the shooting, after the medical examiner ruled Ray Green’s death a homicide, Dani was arrested and charged with his murder. An autopsy found that all 10 bullets — the lower velocity kind used in Cowboy Action Shooter competitions — were still in his body.
Gerry Auclair: It was a shock. It blew me away ’cause they were two good people in my mind.
Word of Ray’s death quickly spread in the Cowboy Action Shooter family, including Dave Warr.
Dave Warr: Ray was more than just a shooter. I mean, he was a personal friend of mine. … And it was … pretty devastating.
Karen Auclair: What state of mind she was in that led her to do that. Who knows?
Delmar Weldon, Dani’s defense attorney, believes he knows.
Delmar Weldon: Danielle was attacked … she was in danger. She had to act to save her own life.
Weldon says it’s clear from just looking at that tape Dani co-operated with investigators, recreating what happened that morning, proving she had nothing to hide.
Delmar Weldon: Her description of what happened … really never changed. It was very, very, very consistent … compelling evidence that she was telling the truth.
And what about Dani’s changing stories of where Ray was?
Delmar Weldon: Saying the dog killed him, saying he’s at work when … clearly, he’s not, having him in a box feet away from their home … These actions were so ridiculous, they were not evidence of trying to hide the crime. They’re evidence of trauma.
But investigators disagreed. They combed through Dani’s emails, texts and skype conversations and concluded she may have had another man in her sights: a well-heeled Cowboy Action Shooter that she and Ray knew quite well.
George Mann: My name is George Mann and my alias in Cowboy Action Shooting is “Angus McNasty.”
George Mann had known the Greens for years. But when Dani moved to Indiana in 2012 to help take care of her sick parents, she started a secret internet relationship with George, who was married at the time.
George Mann: And one day out of the blue, I get an email. … We ended up calling and we just kind of clicked off.
Investigators learned that George and Dani communicated nearly every day… sometimes multiple times a day.
Aaron Negangard: It wasn’t X-rated explicit. It was sexually suggestive.
Peter Van Sant [reading email between George and Dani]: “Curled up by a fire under a blanket with nothing on underneath the blanket sipping on hot chocolate. Can you top that?” And you replied, “Nothing can top that. Wish I were there.”
George Mann: Well, you have to understand. … Attractive women, I tend to be a little bit more flirtatious than I should be.
Even though George had never travelled to Indiana to visit Dani, the investigative team wondered if the two had fallen in love online, and whether that relationship played any role in Dani’s decision to shoot her ex-husband.
Peter Van Sant: Do you think a part of you was in love with Dani?
George Mann: No. I mean, Dani is a nice person. In love with Dani? No, I don’t think so.
Det. Tom Baxter: And I recall asking him specifically about his feelings for her. And he admitted in his own words that he loved her.
Peter Van Sant: That he loved Danielle?
Det. Tom Baxter: Yes.
George says Dani dreamed of leaving Ray and raising and selling horses in Ocala, Florida.
Peter Van Sant: In early 2014, Dani and Ray divorced. Did you know that was coming?
George Mann: I knew that was coming, yes. … She saw that as a way to get away from Ray eventually. … She wanted a new life without Ray.
Aaron Negangard: So, the motive is she needed to get rid of Ray because he was standing in the way of her dream. … She believed George Mann was the person who would help her fulfill her dreams.
George Mann: I say he made that up. … I’m just gonna say it, it’s a complete lie.
Dani Green’s disturbing web history provides a clue in the murder of her ex-husband
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When investigators searched Dani’s computer, they believe they found evidence that she was using Google to research how she would kill Ray.
Aaron Negangard: “What happens when you shoot a guy in the head with a .38?” Which was pretty damning considering she shot a guy in the head with a .38.
George Mann: She’s on a remote property. You’re a mile from the nearest person. … No one’s going to hear you scream. … So, we were talking about self-defense. … She was doing research on things that we had discussed.
As Dani Green’s trial for murder was about to begin, her defense team finds a witness who could be a game changer — someone they believe will back up her claim that Ray had physically abused her.
Peter Van Sant: Did you ever witness anything out of the ordinary when you delivered mail?
“Carol”: You mean other than her wearing a sling … occasionally limping at times, black eyes? Yes.
SELF-DEFENSE OR MURDER?
Peter Van Sant: We’re speaking now with a woman we’re going to call “Carol.”
Peter Van Sant: Tell me about when you learned that Ray Green had died and had been shot by Dani.
“Carol”: He got what he deserved.
“Carol” whose face and name “48 Hours” has agreed to conceal, claims she is certain Ray physically abused Dani in Florida.
Peter Van Sant: How did you know Ray and Dani?
“Carol”: I delivered their mail.
Carol and Dani became friendly over the years.
“Carol”: She was a gentle person that loved her animals.
Carol says Dani never told her that Ray was abusing her. But Carol saw the injuries on Dani’s face.
“Carol”: I saw three to four different times when she had the black eyes.
Peter Van Sant: And did you see bruises in other places?
“Carol”: You couldn’t see the bruises ’cause she was so covered up.
Carol found it unusual that despite Florida’s high heat and humidity, Dani covered every inch of her body with clothing.
Carol: She would try to tell me that she had fallen or that one of the horses had done it.
Peter Van Sant: What were you thinking?
Carol: That she was being abused, physically.
And the Ray Green “Carol” got to know was not the gentle cowboy described by others.
Carol: I asked him … to sign something. He told me no. He said, “go see Dani.” And he called me a bitch. So, from that point on, I avoided him.
George Mann, Dani’s online friend, says she once told him that Ray had attacked her.
George Mann: They had an argument in Florida … and he grabbed her and threw her against the wall. … I think she truly feared Ray.
But other friends who were close to the couple say they never witnessed any signs of abuse.
Dave Warr: I never seen any personality trait that would show me that Ray was an abusive husband at all. … No black eyes or bruises or anything.
Bob Stevens, who is working on a book about the case, says he knows why.
Bob Stevens: She was very, very worried about sun damage and cancer. … I know for a fact that she’d wear long-sleeve shirts to protect her from the sun.
In August 2015, Dani’s murder trial began at the Ohio County, Indiana, courthouse. No cameras were allowed in the courtroom.
Aaron Negangard: So, we have some of the key pieces of evidence. You have the revolver … a .38, which was the weapon that was used.
Prosecutor Aaron Negangard says some of the bullets fired passed through a blanket before striking Ray.
Aaron Negangard: There were three bullet holes…and this one actually went in there and out here. … It showed that he was sleeping at the time.
Peter Van Sant: And that’s significant because she is claiming self-defense.
Aaron Negangard: Correct.
But Dani’s attorney, Delmar Weldon, says the blanket tells a very different story.
Delmar Weldon: It wouldn’t be uncommon for someone to get out of bed and have a blanket around them.
Peter Van Sant: I think that’d be highly unusual. He’s about to attack her … he was lunging toward her, wrapped in a heavy blanket?
Delmar Weldon: Danielle said exactly what happened.
DANI GREEN : I remember him going down …
DET. TOM BAXTER: Onto the floor?
DANI GREEN: … Onto the floor with his head in this area [points to the floor at the foot of the bed].
What Dani didn’t tell police was that she cut out a piece of carpet from the trailer floor.
Aaron Negangard: There’s clear blood here…
And put it in the toolbox where Ray’s body was found.
What Dani Green didn’t tell police was that she cut out a piece of carpet from the trailer floor and put it in the toolbox where Ray’s body was found.
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Aaron Negangard: How is it self-defense if you’re cutting carpet out, putting a body in the box and trying to destroy or hide evidence?
And if Dani killed in self-defense, why didn’t she call 911 after shooting Ray 10 times?
Delmar Weldon: To second-guess the things that happen in a moment like that, this life-or-death moment … is very unfair to say, why wouldn’t you do this? … She believed that he could come back and get her … even after he was obviously dead.
Peter Van Sant: Like some horror movie, he’d rise from the dead and come after her?
Delmar Weldon: She was living in a horror movie.
“Carol” the mail carrier, gave a deposition that was read to jurors, but investigators said they found no evidence supporting Dani’s claims of abuse.
Peter Van Sant: Do you have any proof whatsoever beyond your belief that he actually laid a fist on her face?
“Carol”: No.
Dani never took the stand, but jurors watched her version of what happened on that deadly morning.
DANI GREEN : I’m in fear for my life.
After two weeks of testimony, the jury got the case, and deliberations stretched on for eight hours.
Peter Van Sant: So, they come in. What’s the verdict?
Aaron Negangard: Guilty.
Dani Green was convicted of murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
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Dani Green was convicted of murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Delmar Weldon: I believe the jury got it wrong. … I believe that Danielle Green is innocent.
Peter Van Sant: Do you think justice was served?
“Carol”: By him being killed, yes. By her being in prison, no.
Tracey Abbott: [Crying] The nicest man that would do anything for anyone suffered execution-style. … She was a monster.
Jazzy, the family dog who Dani once said attacked and killed Ray, has never been found.
Dave Warr’s world without his friend Ray is just not the same.
Dave Warr: I think you go through life with very few true friends. … There’s a big void in that circle that will never be replaced.
Peter Van Sant: How do you want your father to be remembered?
Tracey Abbott: A wonderful, loving, caring man. … A great grandfather. He was a great husband to my mother.
In a tragic coincidence, Ray’s death occurred on the 12th anniversary of the passing of his first wife, Maggie.
Tracey Abbott
Ray and his first wife, Maggie, both died on May 26 – exactly 12 years apart. Bob Stevens thinks that’s more than just a coincidence.
Bob Stevens: A message from God. … I think it was a sign from God that they’re back together.
An appeal by Dani has been denied. She will be eligible for parole when she’s 71 years old.
Produced by Susan Mallie and Jennifer Terker. Jordan Kinsey is the field producer. Marc Goldbaum is the development producer. Charlotte Collins is the associate producer. Jud Johnston, Mike Baluzy and Gregory F. McLaughlin are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.