When Hans Hansen married in 1968, he knew his life was about to do a one-eighty. His wife Betty had two young children from her first marriage, but Hans was ecstatic about becoming an instant father. He adored and adopted his stepchildren, daughter Becky and son Donny.

When the Hansens had their own children, twins Jill and Julie, the following year, their life seemed complete. Nothing was more important than the family bond and nothing could drive a wedge between them and any of their children . . . or so they thought.
In 1986, Hans and Betty’s life experienced another, but this time awful, one-eighty, as Jill and Julie’s lives were taken at age sixteen. Their half-brother, Donny, was soon charged with their murders.

When one family member is convicted of killing another, the other family members often staunchly stand by their loved one, insisting he or she was incapable of such a heinous act. In the murders of Jill and Julie Hansen, the flip-side came to fruition.

A jury acquitted Donny Hansen of murdering his half-sisters. In the eyes of his family, however, Donny is guilty.

Jill and Julie Hansen

Hans Hansen owned a logging supply business in Willow Creek, California, a small mountain community in the Six Rivers National Forest in the northwest part of the state, approximately two-hundred-fifty miles north of San Francisco.

The Hansen family lived in a mobile home next to the warehouse.

Hans and Betty Hansen

On the evening of November 14, 1986, Hans, Betty, Jill, and Julie went to bed at approximately 11:00 p.m. Twenty-one-year-old Donny was visiting from Fortuna, approximately seventy miles away. He said he went to sleep on the living room couch around midnight.

Becky was not at the home that evening.

The Young Hansen Kids

Top: Becky and Donny

Bottom: Jill and Julie

At approximately 3:00 a.m. on November 15, Hans and Betty were awakened by the smell of smoke. When he opened his bedroom door, Hans was greeted with intense orange flames. He grabbed a fire extinguisher but was unable to suppress the inferno. Repeated cries to his children went unanswered.

As Betty ran through the hallway, she saw Donny standing at the end of the couch. She yelled toward him, but he did not respond. Instead, Betty heard her son screaming, “Get out of here,” as if someone else were in the room. Donny then ran outside; to Betty, it appeared as if he were chasing after someone.

Betty ran to the warehouse where several more fire extinguishers were stored. Donny was already there and Hans soon arrived, but there was no sign of Jill or Julie. Believing they were trapped in their room, Hans grabbed a ladder and shoved it through the window. He did not get a response, nor did he see either girl. The flames were too intense for him to enter the room.

No Response from the Twins

It took firefighters fifteen minutes to get to the rural, isolated location. Shortly after their arrival, a neighbor noticed a crumpled figure in a vacant lot across the road. It was Julie, and she was bleeding from her stomach. Shortly after she was found, Donny ran to the location, saying he had pulled her from the home.

Emergency personnel rushed Julie to the hospital, believing her stomach injury had been caused by a fire related explosion. In surgery, however, doctors discovered she had been shot in the abdomen at point black range. The wound was determined to have come from a twelve-gauge shotgun.

Jill had been unable to get out of her room, and her body was discovered in the ruins the following day. An autopsy confirmed she, too, had been shot.

Jill Dies; Julie Wounded

Authorities uncovered three shotgun shells and a five-gallon gas can from the ashes. When he made his way out of the house, Hans had kicked over the empty gas can, and, in the chaos, was confused as to why it was there.

The Hansen warehouse was undamaged by the fire. Behind some boxes, investigators found a twelve-gauge shotgun. Ballistic tests showed it was the weapon used in shooting Jill and Julie.

The Hansen property was cordoned off and kept under round-the-clock surveillance. Two days after the fire, in the early morning hours of November 17, the officer on duty caught a prowler outside the warehouse. To his shock, the culprit was an all-too-familiar face: Donny Hansen. He told the officer he had come to feed the family dog. It was not a valid claim, as the dog had been taken to a neighbor.

Growing suspicious of Donny, police learned that three days before the fire, he had borrowed a shotgun from a friend. The friend identified the shotgun found by police in the warehouse as the one he had loaned Donny. In addition, unspent shells found in Donny’s car matched those used in the attack. Donny said he had moved the shotgun from his car and placed it in the warehouse during the fire.

Police believe Donny went to the warehouse to retrieve the shotgun, not knowing police had found it and confirmed it as the murder weapon.

Donny’s credit card statement showed that two days before the fire and the shootings, he had purchased five gallons of gas at a local station. Witnesses confirmed the container he filled was identical to the one found at the home on the morning of the fire.

Police also determined Donny had purchased the ammunition used in the shootings the evening before the fire.

Donny’s Credit Card Statement

Two weeks after the fire, Julie recovered enough to talk about the incident. At first, her recollections of the morning were murky; she recalled being awakened by the flames and crawling over Jill, who was still asleep in the bed beside her. Julie remembered stepping out her bedroom door, then seeing a bright flash and hearing a loud pop. She thought it sounded like a bomb, but after feeling a pain in her stomach, she realized she had been shot. Julie had no recollection of Donny coming to her aid; she recalled stumbling out of the home, unassisted.

Upon her arrival at Mad River Hospital on the morning of the shooting, Julie told doctors she had not seen anyone before she was shot. Later, however, she experienced flashbacks and believed she had seen Donny’s face through the fire.

Donny Hansen voluntarily met with police. In the course of a two-hour interrogation, he changed his story several times. At one point, he reiterated that he had moved the shotgun from his car and placed it in the warehouse during the fire, but later claimed he had moved it from the home’s porch.

After failing a polygraph test, Donny was arrested and charged with arson and first degree murder.

With their son accused of killing their daughter and the attempted murder of her twin, Hans and Betty did not think things could get any worse, but they did in the worst way. Julie was recovering from her injuries, but on December 19, shortly over one month after her shooting, an air bubble entered her bloodstream through an intravenous tube and stopped her heart. She died eight days short of her seventeenth birthday.

Notwithstanding the devastation to her family, Julie’s death was also a huge blow to prosecutors in their efforts to prove Donny’s culpability. Her statements were now inadmissible as evidence, since she could not be cross-examined by Donny’s defense attorneys.

Julie Speaks

But She Can’t Be Heard

Nevertheless, Donny Hansen went on trial in April 1988, now charged with two counts of murder. His defense was based on testimony from the Hansens’ neighbors, who said they saw two men near the trailer while it was on fire. Other neighbors heard screeching sounds shortly thereafter; it sounded to them as though a car was hastily departing the area.

The following is the scenario proffered by Donny Hansen’s defense team of what occurred on the morning of the fire and murders.

Donny Is Charged

Two intruders observed by neighbors, identity and motive unknown, approached the Hansen trailer where they found Donny’s shotgun and gas can outside the home. They picked the lock, came through the sliding glass door, and spread the gasoline around the living room at the front of the trailer and the kitchen. Julie awakened and encountered one of the perpetrators, who shot her as she was in the hallway. As Julie fell, Donny awoke, picked her up and took her to the front porch. He then returned to the home in an attempt to rescue Jill.

The defense contended at least one assailant was still in the trailer after Hans, Betty, and Donny were outside. It was only then that Jill was shot.

The killers left the gas can on the outside step, where it was kicked by Hans as he ran out of the home. They put the gun into Donny’s car and fled amidst the chaos.

Donny contended he had seen one of the intruders exiting the home and chased after him but was unable to catch him.

William Bragg

Donny’s Attorney

The prosecution believed the defense theories did not pass the muster test.

They argued if perpetrators were going to commit a murder, they would have brought their own weapons. Instead, all of the items used in the commission of the crime: the gun, ammunition, and gas can, were brought to the scene by Donny.

Donny had also hidden the gun and attempted to retrieve it after the murders. He had no explanation as to why he had moved it to the warehouse before anyone knew that such a weapon had been involved, or even that a crime had been committed.

Prosecutors also questioned why the killers would shoot Jill and Julie, but not Donny, who said he had seen them.

A motive for the murders was not established, but Humboldt County District Attorney Terry Famer believed the circumstantial evidence was strong enough for a conviction.

Terry Farmer

Humboldt County District Attorney

The jury, however, acquitted Donny Hansen of the murders of his half-sisters.

Most jurors believed he was responsible but said they had reasonable doubt because the fingerprinting of the gun used in the murders was done improperly.

 

Donny is Acquitted By a Jury . . . 

Despite the jury’s verdict, Hans and Betty Hansen believe Donny killed Jill and Julie. The couple’s sentiments were shared by the majority of the Humboldt County community.

The Hansens believe the two men seen by the neighbors at the home while the fire was raging were accomplices. These men have never been identified.

. . .  But Not By The Public 

Hans and Betty believe their life insurance money may have been Donny’s motive, theorizing he may have intended to kill them as well but that something occurred in the chaos to foil his plans.

After Julie died, Hans and Betty sued Mad River Hospital, contending they were negligent, but a jury rejected the claim.

The Hansens now live in Oregon. It appears they have disowned Donny and remain convinced of his guilt.

Claim against The Hospital Denied

Because of the publicity resulting from the trial, Donny Hansen moved out of California and changed his name. His account of the events of the early morning hours of November 15, 1986, are still debated.

Although his attorney claimed Donny had been awakened by the sound of the shotgun, Donny later said he never heard the blast.
Despite the discrepancy, Donny Hansen maintains his innocence and contends someone other than he has gotten away with the murders of his half-sisters.

Donny Has a New Identity

The murders of Jill and Julie Hansen are officially still an open case. Investigators and prosecutors believe they determined the killer; the twelve people chosen to render a verdict, however, had reasonable doubt.

Many believe the killer of Jill and Julie Hansen was identified, but that he escaped justice.

Justice Denied?

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65972250/jillian-lee-hansen#

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65970588/julie-ann-hansen

SOURCES:

• Eureka Times Standard
• Humboldt Beacon and Fortuna Advocate
• Sacramento Bee
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Unsolved Mysteries