KIVITV.COM | Boise. News, Breaking News, Weather and Sports-Thorngren Kids Create Web site To Clear Donna
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BOISE, IDAHO --
Donna Thorngren's family visits her once a week at the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center, where she's serving a life sentence for murder.
Her victim? Curt Thorngren, Donna's husband, and the father of her children.
"We know 100% our mom is innocent," said Ana Lisa Juarez, one of the couple's three grown children.
Juarez, her brother Austin, and her twin sister Amber are out to prove Donna's innocence with a website the completed two weeks ago.
Donnathorngren.com features information the kids have learned sorting through boxes of court documents, evidence they say never made it to court.
"There was blood and tissue under our dad's fingernails, indicating a struggle," Juarez said.
But that DNA was never tested, and neither was an unidentified palm print found next to Curt's lifeless body.
The Thorngren kids say there are just a few of the mis-steps on the part of Meridian Police detectives, who concluded early on that Donna shot Curt to death.
"We never got to grieve our dad. [9 days after the murder], police told us our mom did it. She was always under a cloud of suspicion," Juarez said.
During Thorngren's 2007 murder trial, prosecutors said the couple had a loveless marriage, and that Donna shot Curt for insurance money. They also alleged Donna killed Curt to protect her son Austin, who Curt wanted to kick out of the house on his 18th birthday (2 days after the murder).
Austin was involved in drugs and other criminal activity. Ana Lisa says that put her entire family in danger. She's certain whoever killed her dad, crawled in Austin's window to get him.
"It was a Sunday. Austin should have been home. There was a bullet in his pillow," she said.
Juarez and her siblings believe Curt heard a noise, grabbed a phone and was attacked in the hallway by the bathroom.
"There were bullets and signs of struggle all over the house," she said.
Prosecutors said Donna staged a home invasion to cover her actions up.
But Juarez says her father was terrified about what Austin's friends might do to him and his family. She says he was afraid to leave the house alone, and wanted someone there at all times to protect against burglaries, several of which happened on Sundays.
But a jury didn't buy it. They found Donna guilty of first degree murder, and a judge sentenced her to life behind bars. She's up for parole after 20 years.
The appeal process is just starting now. The Thorngren kids are hoping to hire a private attorney, but are still buries under the costs of paying for one during the initial trial.
"We have too much information for someone not help us," Juarez said. "Maybe people will see the website and how it's affected our family."
