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Forensic Files

Past Lives

Forensic Files

HLN

Society & Culture, True Crime

4.63.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode originally aired May 6, 2019. The body of a businessman was found in his rental car. Teeth and bone fragments were all that remained of the body; When the victim's wife filed a life insurance claim, investigators sought the help of a forensic anthropologist.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

A wealthy American executive was found dead in his car in Mexico.

0:09.9

It looked like an accident until a forensic anthropologist found evidence of a chilling tale of fraud and deceit.

0:31.4

I don't know you. tale of fraud and deceit. 34-year-old Madison Rutherford had everything.

0:35.4

He was ambitious, successful, happily married, and rich.

0:40.5

He worked as a financial advisor in Connecticut

0:43.4

with an uncanny ability to make money for his clients.

0:47.6

He also managed money for his friends, like Brigada Beck.

0:51.4

I thought, since I am alone in this country, I thought it might be wise.

0:57.1

If anything would happen to me, I thought I should have him as my executor.

1:03.2

By all accounts, Madison Rutherford and his wife, Rennie, lived lavishly and had expensive

1:09.1

tastes.

1:14.6

So it wasn't unusual for Madison to travel outside the United States pursuing his various interests. Madison Rutherford and his wife

1:21.0

had a pension for various types of animals, including dogs. And part of the reason for supposedly going to Mexico

1:29.4

was to obtain another exotic dog.

1:35.6

But a few days later, Mexican police found Rutherford's car

1:40.0

in a ravine near Monterey.

1:44.6

It appeared that the car had swerved off the road and caught fire.

1:50.4

When they got there, the car was burnt beyond recognition.

1:54.1

Everything was gone, and he opened up the driver door

1:58.2

and found some bone fragments on the driver's side.

2:03.6

Inside, investigators found a medic alert pendant and a wristwatch.

2:10.7

On the back of the watch, barely legible was the inscription to Madison, Love, Rennie.

...

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