'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wAARCAAGAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFgABAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMH/8QAIhAAAwABAgYDAAAAAAAAAAAAAQIDAAYRBBITFSFRIzFB/8QAFAEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABP/EABoRAAICAwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAhITMVH/2gAMAwEAAhEDEQA/AMyjrmaSiOywYJyk/Mw6hHg77fh9DKV11d6u8+AnNGYlUFTso9fWMYm8uh8cXtH/2Q=='%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Dateline has reported a wide range of strange and unsettling crimes over the years, but this David Jackson murder stands out for having languished an incredible length of time unsolved and for having come to light in such an unexpected manner. It is a tale that begins in the summer of 1988 with a mundane mission, a short sprint to buy cigarettes and alcohol, and evolves into an enigma that would haunt his family for years to come.
Dateline's episode reporting on this case paints a step-by-step portrait: no exaggeration, no sensationalized headlines, but rather a crawl through the facts, witnesses, and steps that eventually unraveled what became of David Jackson. The case is also engaging for viewers because of the human interest that made it open. The Dateline narration highlights how a cold case can instantly melt because of a careless utterance, an everyday remark, or an old lead re-examined years later.
Here is a complete timeline of the David Jackson murder case
June 25, 1988 - The vanishing
According to Dateline, David Jackson, 24 years old, a father from Pembroke Pines, Florida, left his home on June 25, 1988, for what would prove to be a short, routine trip out. As far as anyone knows, David told others he was going to go buy cigarettes and some beer. There was nothing special about this and there were no hints that something could go wrong.
David did not come back home that evening. His disappearance was reported to the authorities, who carried out a preliminary search that only produced minimal leads. Weeks passed, and his car was found abandoned at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, but no evidence of David taking a flight was discovered, nor was there any paper trail indicating that he had departed voluntarily.
The abandoned car deepened the curiosity. For David's family, the revelation yielded no closure but questions, as the investigation did not obtain any concrete leads. It would be the last breakthrough in the case for years, leaving those who knew him best to swing between hope and fear.
August 1989: Unidentified remains – A clue lurking in the background
As per Dateline, in the weeks immediately following David's disappearance, in August of 1989, a group of construction workers in Miramar found something grim: bones in the earth, skeletal human remains. The bones were collected by the police and photographed as unidentified. The forensic technology available at the time was not as sophisticated as it is now, and the powers they had available for them to work with were not enough to produce an identification.
The remains were stored in hopes that science might one day provide the answers that stumped detectives in 1989. They remained there for the next ten and a half years as an anonymous part of an open case file, and David's family continued living without knowing if he was dead or alive.
2003 – A cold case reopened
As shown in Dateline, fifteen years had passed since David had vanished when the case ended up on Detective Donna Velazquez's desk at the Pembroke Pines Police Department. Velazquez was known to be diligent, and she was determined to give the case new eyes. She started by getting thoroughly familiar with all the information she could dig up, then did the small but significant thing by prominently displaying David Jackson's missing-person poster on her desk.
This mundane gesture turned out to be instrumental in the end. When police officers from the local Police Explorers unit stopped by one day, one of the teenagers lingered at Velazquez's desk, spotted the poster, and remarked that the subject in the photo resembled someone he knew, because the subject was his father. That teenager was John Wolfe, David's son, who was a child when his father went missing.
This identification hadn't solved the case right away, but it opened a door closed for decades and inspired Velazquez to re-examine past evidence with new determination.
DNA testing – Identifying the remains at last
According to Dateline, with renewed inspiration, Velazquez started investigating reports of unidentified remains discovered in the region. Employing national records and sophisticated forensic techniques, she located the Miramar remains of 1989. Seizing on the potential link, she arranged DNA tests, using a sample from David's mother and comparing it with the embalmed remains.
The tests were conclusive: the bones belonged to David Jackson. This was a distressing discovery for his family, closing years of doubt but validating their worst fears. It also turned the case into a missing persons investigation turned homicide, because the circumstances of David's death could not be construed as an accident.
Barbara Britton and Michael Wolfe enter the picture
As per Dateline, the spotlight then fell on Barbara Britton, ex-wife of David, and her then-husband, Michael Wolfe. Barbara's response when she heard of David's death was eerily detached, Velazquez reported, generating suspicion. It was found that Wolfe had adopted David's son, John, shortly after David disappeared, a detail that pointed to an incredibly quick switch in the family.
Wolfe's history and his relationship with Barbara were examined by investigators. Questioning of former occupants of his previous residences began to yield chilling testimony.
Chilling testimony from ex-wives
As depicted on Dateline, two ex-wives of Wolfe, Nancy Graham and Carol Larson, became prime witnesses. Nancy informed police that Wolfe had once admitted to her that he had murdered David Jackson at the behest of Barbara and Harry Britton. According to her recitation of events, the idea was to lure David to a Motel 6, where Wolfe had shot David dead.
David's body would then be concealed, while his car would be abandoned at the airport to make it look like he had left it and parted ways. Carol Larson, Wolfe's second ex-wife, remembered Wolfe talking about the crime and even going into specifics about employing a silencer and a stun gun. These admissions gave them a story of premeditation, but they still required more tangible evidence to apprehend.
The arrest of Michael Wolfe
According to Dateline, it was October of 2004 when the authorities finally apprehended him in Ohio after having collected enough corroborative evidence and hearing Wolff's partial confessions when he was questioned. Wolfe's trial laid bare the extent of the conspiracy, though he tried to lay blame for some of it on others. He was found guilty by the jury of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
This belief was a turning point for the case, as it was the first time that anyone had legally been held accountable for the killing of David Jackson after over 15 years of uncertainty.
Barbara Britton's guilty plea
One month following the conviction of Wolfe, Barbara Britton herself was arrested. Although not accused of murder, prosecutors indicted her as an accessory after the fact. Barbara eventually entered a guilty plea, acknowledging that she helped cover up the crime for Wolfe.
She was given a prison sentence of around three years, house arrest, and probation. Her father, Harry Britton, was also implicated in testimony from witnesses, but he was not charged. Dateline reporting of the case made it clear that although Wolfe was the one who fired the fatal shot, the conspiracy to murder David was more and larger than one individual alone.
The Dateline retelling
The Dateline episode about the case, Buried Secrets, leads through each stage of the investigation with accuracy. It preserves how the cold case gradually thawed, the part luck played in breaking the stalemate, and the determination of detectives who would not shelve the file for good. There's a time reconstruction for the audience, from David's last working day through identification of the remains to the verdicts in court.
Trending
The tone is objective, fighting the temptation to sensationalize and oversimplify what happened. Rather, the episode demonstrates the dedication, painstaking work, and at times unexpected sources of information that sometimes go into solving long-stalled crimes.
Reply
