Haylie Duff is returning to TV in a new Lifetime movie, Til Death Do Us Part. The plot deals with a woman who suspects her doctor husband of being a murderer, so are there any real-life cases like Til Death Do Us Part ? Duff stars in the Lifetime thriller, as Sandra, who only met her husband, Dr. Kevin Richardson six months before marrying him and, to make things even creepier, moving to a small town with him. Nothing like moving to an unfamiliar, remote location with a man you barely know to get the thriller movie party started.
The trailer starts with Duff's character Sandra saying, "I think Kevin killed Alec, and his dog, and maybe Ethan." Once she starts to become suspicious of Kevin, it looks like she will become his new target. Now this premise sounds oddly familiar — a young woman marries a doctor she barely knows and becomes his victim — thanks to TV. Although Til Death Do Us Part isn't actually based on a true story, real-life cases of murderous husbands, murderous doctors, and murderous newlyweds all have a way of intriguing the public. In a genre that South Park spoofed as "murder porn," many people can't get enough of the sensational true stories of seemingly average people who are revealed to be murderers.
Oxygen's TV shows Snapped and Killer Couples, as well as much of the channel Investigation Discovery's programming, focus on the stories of real-life murders. Even filmmaker John Waters tackled the subject of murderous spouses in 2007 with his TV show also titled 'Til Death Do Us Part. Each episode was focused on a true crime in which someone murdered their spouse — and the eccentric Waters narrated.
Unfortunately, there have been multiple real cases that are similar to Til Death Do Us Part, in that a doctor was accused of killing his wife. In 2014, a Utah doctor was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced 17 years to life in person. But as People reported, Martin MacNeill had eight children with his wife, former beauty queen Michele, before he murdered her to be with his mistress, so it's not exactly the story of newlyweds that Til Death Do Us Part presents.
Another terrible tale of a doctor taking the life of his wife is that of Yazeed Essa. CNN reported that Essa was a doctor in Ohio who poisoned his wife Rosemarie with cyanide, and then she died in a car crash after passing out due to the poisoning. He then fled the country, but was convicted for aggravated murder in 2010 and sentenced to life in prison.
Although none of these cases seem to fit exactly into the plot of Til Death Do Us Part, they are all tragic stories of marriages to doctors that went horribly wrong. And although I hope Duff's character will survive her murderous doctor husband when Til Death Do Us Part airs on Saturday, April 25 at 8 p.m., I'd prefer that real stories like this just didn't exist.
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