Dateline: Who is Christine White and where is she now? Details from The Figure in the Garage, Explored

If you’ve watched Dateline long enough, you know it has this way of making true stories feel personal. Not exaggerated, not dramatic, just real. One‍‌‍‍‌ of the episodes that people talked the most about was The Figure in the Garage.

This Dateline episode retold the murder of Don Fluitt in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and how his ex-wife, Christine White, eventually became entangled in the middle of it all. 46-year-old Christine was charged with conspiracy. Let's understand who she really is, what happened after the accusations were dropped, and where she is now.

Who is Christine White?

Christine White wasn’t a stranger to Don. They had a daughter together who was 11 years old, and they shared custody. Don lived alone in Albuquerque, and Christine, after her divorce, had married a man named Terry Lee White. Everything was going on as usual until December 29, 2016.

Their daughter was unable to get in touch with her father, so Don's coworkers decided to check on him. However, upon arrival, they only found a dead body in the garage. That was the time when everything changed.

Initially, detectives speaking to Christine found out that she said she had no idea of any person wishing to harm Don. Among other things, she also mentioned that he had taken their daughter to the place the night before, around 8 P.M.

And then came something even stranger. A neighbor’s security camera showed a figure in a hoodie walking up to Don’s home just minutes after he got back. Later, DNA evidence proved that the person in the hoodie was Terry Lee White, Christine’s husband.

While Terry sat in prison, an inmate came forward claiming Terry had confessed to killing Don. According to the inmate, Terry described exactly how it happened and even said that Christine had asked him “to protect his family.” Around that time, Christine and Don were set to go to court to discuss custody changes, a detail that made the whole thing sound even more complicated.

Where is Christine White now?

By the middle of 2017, police charged Christine White with conspiracy to commit murder when she was 46. That happened after the very first statement of the inmate was made known to the public. The trial of Terry moved ahead, and he was found guilty. But just before the trial was about to start, the charges against Christine were dropped.

Prosecutors said they were still investigating and made it clear that there’s no statute of limitations for first-degree murder.

Nevertheless, that was not enough for Don's family. His brother, Dennis, was full of anger and said,

"Until they charge her and try her and convict her, we’re not going to have justice."

His words were so powerful - a combination of grief, rage, and the wish that there would be answers one day.

Dateline reported that after Christine was released, the court placed her under supervision. A judge ordered that her father, who lives in Oregon, keep tabs on her through phone calls. Since then, Christine White has stayed out of the spotlight.

She has chosen to live far away from the cameras and the media, so maybe she is trying to start over, or maybe she is just trying to forget.

Final thoughts

Dateline: The Figure in the Garage is more than just a murder case - it tells how life can be very complicated and ‍‌‍‍‌untidy.

Trending

Terry Lee White is behind bars for Don Fluitt’s murder, but questions about Christine White haven’t completely gone away. Viewers who watched the Dateline episode still wonder if there was more to her story or if she was just caught in the storm.

Either way, she’s stayed silent. And maybe that’s what keeps this story alive- the quiet, unanswered part of it that Dateline captured so well in The Figure in the Garage.

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