So I was at film school when my mom died, in this doc class, and I told my immediate group. Hamburg, for his part, said Beach Hamburg was behind on mortgage payments for their property . I know what I've set out to do and tried like hell to fulfill that, to challenge the conventions of true crime and the way that we tell the story, and just to hear people think it's goodjust to think that people were watching and telling other people about it and it was a part of the conversation outside of the people in my immediate circle was just, I don't know, maybe it's silly, but it's something that is really gratifying. November 30, 2020. But the Freedom of Information Commission has argued that police failed to prove the case was active enough to warrant withholding the file or that the investigation was heading toward an arrest. 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. Who do you think did it? In 2016, he began to film a project reviewing the circumstances around his mothers death, interviewing family members and pursuing information from the Madison Police Department about its investigation. It's a sobering, overwhelming realization. It's terrifying, and I think that something that was really important for me was naming and identifying the adverse effects of doing something like this in the documentary itself, because I just think that's one of the unique aspects of the point of view. Madison Hamburg looks back after the finale of "Murder on Middle Beach," the docuseries about his search for his mother's killer. The following year, Beach was present at another vigil, where she called her . It was possible new information or new technology could help solve the case down the line, he said, adding investigators fear releasing information in the case file, including details only known to the perpetrator, could harm prosecution efforts. She remained in class until Conway picked her up. June 3, 2021 8:00AM. It was a. Conways Facebook page includes recent photos with them all, implying that despite her rocky past, she currently has a good and healthy relationship with them. She's just such an amazing, beautiful human being and I think that really comes through. Murder on Middle Beach is a four-part documentary by director Madison Hamburg about the unsolved 2010 murder of his mother Barbara Hamburg. Madison Hamburg and producer Anike Niemeyer had requested the files while filming the series and were summarily denied by the department. The story sort of chronicles and parallels my journey in making this. 5 But Madison's. Dugas acknowledged the court was dealing with competing interests, one of which was the publics right to know. Police Commission Chair Ed Downing warned at the meeting that the appeal could require significant legal resources that could be costly for the Town of Madison. Madison Hamburg On the Middle Beach Finale, India Oxenberg Finally Feels a Sense of Peace, More Coverage of the Documentaries That Matter, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. But the court has no doubt that this decision is not the last word on this issue, nor should it be, Klau wrote in his conclusion. It's like if you have a piece of popcorn in your teeth, finally getting that piece out. When Barbara Hamburg was brutally bludgeoned to death outside her home on Middle Beach Road in Madison, Connecticut in 2010, her sister Conway Beach publicly mourned her loss. We may earn a commission from these links. It should be noted that this was at the height of the recession, and participants many of whom Barbara recruited from her Alcoholics Anonymous meetings were discouraged from telling their husbands or partners about their participation in the Tables. 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. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. "When my mom died, I didn't tell anybody," says Hamburg. Would you do it? 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. Jeffrey appears in Murder on Middle Beach where he repeatedly refuses to talk about Barbara's murder and insists that his ex-wife had dark secrets that he can't discuss. [1] Contents 1 Production 2 Episodes 3 Reception 4 References Production [ edit] The documentary series began as a student film while Hamburg was in college. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Alaine Griffin, director of communications in the Office of the Chief States Attorney said that the department had no comment at this time. Additionally, releasing records that reveal who provided police with information about the crime could prompt witness intimidation, Dugas said. The Madison Police Department is appealing a court ruling upholing an order by the states Freedom of Information Commission that the department release all records except signed witness statements related to the unsolved murder of Barbara Beach Hamburg. It was a huge learning process, balancing those two roles of family member and investigative documentarian. Drumm also said that he hoped the Chief States Attorneys Office and that Attorney General William Tongs Office would file amicus briefs on their behalf. Schulz said the department had provided two boxes of information about the case, but that they were still missing key documents, including witness statements, notes, computer records and telephone records. HBO. It doesn't have a tidy ending, but grief rarely does. The documentary follows the murder of a Connecticut woman, Barbara Hamburg. Conway presents the situation like she simply was scammed; she and Barbara eventually came to terms, and Conway moved in with her prior to the murder (though the docuseries alleges that there was tension between the two because Barbara had asked her to move out). I hope at the end of this that they can see the adverse effects of that and that we're all human beings, you know? At the time of her death, Beach Hamburg had primary custody of Madison and Ali, while their father received visitation rights. "My parents told me that . While Madison police initially questioned Hamburg after Beach Hamburg's murder, he was never formally charged with a crime, despite being named as a suspect. The show is directed by Madison Hamburg, the 29-year-old son of Barbara Beach Hamburg, who was found dead outside of her Connecticut home in 2010. In the height of his grief, he decided he could use his medium of choicefilmto memorialize her, and also explore who she really was, who might have wanted to hurt her, and why. Killed them all, of course.". Drumm said in the meeting that, along with the request from Madison Hamburg and Neimeyer, the department had received three other requests from media outlets from the other coast for the full case files. Schulz echoed the judges world, noting that his clients planned to use the information as part of a documentary. "In setting out to do this, I didn't have an expectation that we would solve my mom's case, but there are many goals I have had throughout this process and they sort of evolve," Hamburg also told Esquire. You watched the last time I talked to my dad. Meghan Friedmann is a reporter with the New Haven Register, covering North Branford, Guilford and Madison. If Barbara dropped Ali off at 7:47 am and the court hearing was at 9:30 am, perhaps the father had enough time to commit the murder. Its an amazing thing as someone who's created something, because the conversations extend week to week and to see the effects that it has and the momentum that it causes is really beautiful. Here's everything you need to know about Beach Hamburg's death and "Murder on Middle Beach.". 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. I was at a point in grief where I was trying to hold on to the memory of my mom and my greatest fear was losing my memory of the sound of her voice or how she smelled or how she looked, and I thought that taking advantage of the class to ask my family members about her could sort of memorialize her. 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. Murder on Middle Beach Season 2 Release Date 'Murder on Middle Beach' season 1 premiered on November 15, 2020, on HBO, and concluded with its fourth and final episode - 'Reasonable Doubts' - on December 6, 2020. 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. After the Police Department appealed a commission order to the release the records, a trial court in August 2021 upheld the commissions decision. On March 3, 2010, Barbara was found brutally murdered in the yard of their Connecticut home. My college was really supportive of me, Savannah College of Art and Design. [2] That was in 2016. From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. Yet the strangest thing was when Conway stated that Barbara, a week before she was slain, told her about a dream where she was violently murdered but refused to reveal who was behind it. Beach also alleges that Ali killed Barbara, Jeffrey Hamburg hired someone to kill his ex-wife. I assume he has, but I'm not sure. While their outing is filmed from a hotel window across the street from the bar, Madison prods his father on details about his marriage to Madisons late mother. But first here are the facts: According to the doc, Barbara Hamburg was a 48-year-old single mother who was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in the front yard of her Madison, CT home on the morning of March 3, 2010. The documentary follows Madison as he investigates the shocking murder of his mother Barbara Beach Hamburg. "Barbie, Barb, it's your sister." The call ends after about five minutes. Sadly, her life was taken on March 3, 2010 in Madison, Connecticut. I'll admit, on my first watch of the finale, I was a little frustrated by the lack of answers. Dec. 10, 2020 HBO The HBO true crime documentary series Murder on Middle Beach has reached its conclusion, without any grand reveal regarding who killed Barbara Hamburg. I think the hidden conflict is the sacrifice of the act of making this, having over 1000 hours of footage and over 200 shooting days. "We miss her dearly, and it is a great loss to not have her with us," she said at a 2011 vigil, the New Haven Register reported at the time. But they're in a really good spot now. It was looked at routinely and remained a top priority of the department, he said. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. The decision also said police failed to prove that, even if there was a prospective law enforcement action, disclosure of the requested records would be prejudicial to such action.. Beach claims to have been accused of being jealous of her sister's success, but denies it in the docuseries. While the Madison Police Department has released some records, including the 911 call that led police to Barbara Hamburgs body, it challenged the commissions decision in court. The series makes other allegations relating to Beach and her sister's involvement in a pyramid scheme known as the Gifting Tables. From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. 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. But it's also really challenging for both my aunts, my sister and my family, so we've had a lot of conversations. Directed by Barbara's son, Madison Hamburg, the docuseries is a chronicle of Madison's return to his home as he is determined to understand . Here, we see how that leads him to investigate his own father, a pyramid scheme The Gifting Tables that his mother was involved in, his sister, and his aunt, Conway Beach. But in 2016 the pendulum sort of swung to this other role I was playing as an investigative documentarian, and I thought it might be my only opportunity to ask these questions on camera and get these authentic reactions. Once this financially-strapped individual realized she couldn't get her money back, the individual or perhaps the individual's angered husband, as Beach claims to have seen a masked man prowling through Barbara's yard the day before the murder opted to take out their frustrations on Barbara in a violent manner. Elizabeth Benton, communications director for the Attorney Generals Office, said the office was not involved in the case. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. Here are the facts: on March 3rd, 2010, Barbara Beach Hamburg was beaten to death in front of her modest house in Madison, Connecticut. It's like crack, I can't stop going through and analyzing and its incredibly rewarding. And we ended up pitching to Lisa Heller, who was one of our last pitches at HBO and it was just incredibly emotional. 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. Barbara B. Hamburg was born April 29, 1961 in New Haven, Connecticut. There was no stone they had left unturned.. In past cases in which the exemption was upheld, police showed the commission they were interviewing witnesses, in the final stages of an investigation or working on it weekly, according to Harmon. The police department initially provided two boxes of materials to the filmmakers late last year which the pair said were incomplete before the department reversed course and appealed the commissions decision in Superior Court. 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. The HBO series Murder on Middle Beach has captivated audiences everywhere as filmmaker Madison Hamburg attempts to uncover the truth about what happened to his mother so many years ago. According to the HBO docuseries, Beach Hamburg's body was covered with outdoor furniture cushions when it was found. Madison police have not yet filed a brief outlining the grounds of their appeal with the Appellate Court, and attempts to reach the department this past week were unsuccessful. And, as Jeffrey alleged via a phone call to Madison, is there any evidence that the documents detailing his financial decisions had been fabricated? On the other hand, we have a very, very compelling I would argue a more compelling interest in finding a murderer, and not letting a murderer run loose, Dugas said. However, when law enforcement has effectively exhausted all efforts to arrest and prosecute a suspect, and when the statistical data show that the probability of a prosecution resulting from long-unsolved cases approaches zero, it is difficult to understand how denying public access to criminal investigation files in perpetuity serves the public interest in solving crimes and bringing perpetrators to justice. 'Ted Lasso' Season 3 Dropped Its First Trailer, 'Outer Banks' Season 4 Is Already In the Works, 'The Last of Us' Ep. The court has attempted to resolve a long unsettled question about the degree of certainty concerning a prospective law enforcement action that is required to withhold records. Have you found anything surprising in the new police files that you received last month? . 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