Woman convicted of killing husband after parrot repeated victim's 'last words'
A woman who murdered her husband by shooting him to death didn't realise that she was leaving behind a witness in the form of a pet parrot.
In 2015, Glenna Duram shot dead her husband Martin at their home in Michigan, US, hitting him five times before attempting to turn the gun on herself.
When police arrived they found Glenna still alive and claiming she didn't know who had shot them, and investigators initially thought that it was a double murder since the woman had sustained a gunshot wound to the head.
However, their pet parrot Bud kept repeating the words 'don't shoot, don't f**king shoot' in Martin's voice, and the man's family thought there was something in the bird's words.
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Further investigations uncovered a series of suicide notes written by Glenna to her family, and that the couple were in financial difficulty because of gambling issues.
It turns out their debts were so large that they were facing the prospect of losing their house, and the investigation turned towards the idea that Glenna had been the shooter.
The parrot's words and cries of 'don't shoot' helped convince Martin's family that there was more to the case than there first seemed.
Glenna claimed she couldn't remember what happened on the day of the shooting, but insisted she didn't murder her husband.
However, the woman ended up being put on trial on murder charges, though the parrot was not allowed to have a turn as the star witness.
While Martin's family thought there was something to the parrot's words and prosecutors had initially considered the idea of doing something about the bird's words, it was decided not to use the parrot's squawks as testimony.
The parrot reciting what might have been Martin's last words ended up being dismissed as evidence, despite Duram's family recording a video of the parrot talking.
Quite understandably, prosecutors decided that putting a bird on the witness stand was somewhat beyond the realms of ridiculous and the fate of the trial ought not to rest on the prattling of a parrot.
Besides, actually getting it to say certain phrases and be sure the bird was understanding of what it was saying would have been pretty much impossible.
In the end, despite the parrot not being used in court proceedings the jury returned a guilty verdict after their deliberations and Glenna Duram was sentenced to life imprisonment.
As for what happened to Bud, he was taken in and given a new home by Martin's ex-wife Christina Keller.
Joe Harker