A Halloween Murder Came Knocking
By: Madeline O'Brien
Tags: Murder, Halloween, Death Penalty

Doreen Erbert courtesy of Oxygen.com

Santa Clara California, nicknamed the mission city due to churches being scattered along the California coast of San Diego to Sonoma, in the 1700’s. It is the home of many high tech companies, Oracle, Hewlett Packard, Nvidia and Intel. It is also the birthplace of Doreen Rae Hitchens, who was born on November 29th, 1952 to Franklin and Catherine Hitchens and was the fourth of five children The family was tight knit and loving, enjoying family activities such as fishing and camping. Doreen was described as an angel, who had a cheery attitude and generous spirit. Her husband Charles said of Doreen, “When she smiled and laughed, you couldn’t help not loving her. She was always giving.” These qualities lead her to pursue a career in the medical field and she went on to become a physical therapist. In 1975, she met William Michael Dennis, called Mike for short, a technician at the Lockhead factory, an aerospace manufacturing plant. Mike suffered significant hearing loss as a child which caused him to stutter, he also wore a hearing aid which back in those days, was wired and a component of it sat in your pocket. Due to these reasons, Mike was a depressive type, he was described by some as confrontational and unhappy. It seems that he and Doreen were on opposite sides of the personality spectrum, but despite this, they got married in 1975 after only a few months of dating. Mike felt he had found the one in Doreen. In 1976, the couple gave birth to a son they named Paul Dennis. Mike relished his role as a father, but the marriage didn’t hold up well with the added stress of parenthood and Mike was being treated for depression. When Doreen didn’t want to live with Mike’s moodiness any longer she filed for divorce in 1977. Doreen was given full custody of Paul and Mike regularly visited his son, but was bitter about the divorce.

In 1978, Doreen was still working as a physical therapist, on her way home from work one afternoon, her car broke down and she pulled off to the side of the road. Charles Ebert, a cheery looking man with curly, red hair stopped to help Doreen. The two conversed under the hood of Doreen’s car and they hit it off. Later that week, they had dinner together and Doreen was impressed with Charles’ stable life. He owned his own home and a successful carpet business and soon, the two were a couple. They went on to marry later that year and Doreen gave birth to a daughter, Deanna, in 1979. Soon after, Doreen quit her job as a physical therapist and became a secretary for Charles’ carpet business and by all outward appearances, they were a happy family. Mike continued to visit Paul on the weekends as he lived close by. It is said that Mike was still bitter about the divorce.

One sunny California day in February of 1980, Doreen was doing household chores while 3 year old Paul was playing in the backyard. Doreen would periodically check out the window to make sure that he was in sight and doing alright. One such time, she peered out the window and could not see him. Feeling panicked, she hurried outside and frantically searched for him. Those of us with kids are familiar with this overwhelming feeling of dread. Looking across the yard, she noticed a hole in the fence that led to the family swimming pool. As she approached the pool, she realized a nightmare that no parent wants to live, She saw her beloved, 3 year old son Paul, floating in the pool. Paul was transported to the hospital where he was placed on life support for a week. After three days of being removed from life support, he died. He was born on April 17th, 1976 and died just short of his 4th birthday, February 13th, 1980. As to be expected, this was such a tragic loss for Doreen. Mike, Paul’s father, was also devastated. He blamed Doreen and Charles for Paul’s death, making the wild accusation that they did it on purpose so that they could erase Mike from their lives. He filed a wrongful death suit against Doreen and Charles. The case went to trial in March of 1982 and the jury ruled in favor of the Erbert’s. After the trial was over, they asked Mike to never come to their house again. Doreen saw him once after this, at a shopping center.

In 1984, Doreen discovered that she was pregnant again, this was good news as she had suffered two miscarriages since the death of Paul. As the pregnancy progressed, they found out that she was going to have a boy. The Erbert family was ecstatic.

After the lawsuit against Doreen and Charles, Mike’s life took a downward spiral. He lost his position as a technician at Lockhead and had to take a lower paying job in order to remain employed there. The bitterness of the divorce from Doreen and the grief over the loss of Paul, continued eating at him. Because he lived near Doreen and Charles, he was able to keep tabs on what was happening in their lives and it soon became apparent that she was pregnant again.

Doreen was a petite woman, she stood about 5 feet tall. Once she became far along into the pregnancy, her sister teased her saying that she was as far out as she was high.

On Halloween night of 1984, Doreen was almost 9 months pregnant by that time so she stayed home and handed out candy while Charles took Deanna trick or treating. Charles saved a few houses for Doreen to take Deanna to for a visit and some Halloween candy. After the two got home, Charles went to the liquor store and claimed he was gone for about 15 minutes. He asked Doreen to lock the door after he left. Some time around 9pm, there was a sharp knock on the front door of the Erbert house. Deanna, who was 5 at the time, has since described it as aggressive. The two proceeded to answer the door together and Deanna heard the man say, I’m going to kill you. Doreen screamed at Deanna to hide before the man at the door in a wolf mask began stabbing Doreen with a machete. Once he was done, the man walked through the house in search of Deanna. As panicked and as frightened as she was, she stayed quiet and hidden, moving only to get her blanket for comfort. Eventually, the man got spooked by something and fled the house through the front door. Once outside, he threw the wolf mask into the yard, near the porch.

Charles arrived home after not being gone long and noticed the front door was unlocked . Once he stepped inside, he saw Doreen lying bleeding on the entry room floor. He saw the baby on the living room floor. Thinking at first she had miscarried, he saw a hand lying in the living room near the baby, it was Doreen’s. He tried to stop her bleeding by holding her arm tight, but noted she had severe cuts to her stomach and neck. At some point, Charles slipped and fell in Doreen’s blood, getting her blood all over his clothes. He attempted to call 911, but for some unknown reason, was unable to get through. He ended up calling the fire department and a neighbor. After this, Charles found Deanna hiding in the living room. He pulled her away to the kitchen so that she couldn’t see any more than she already had . He continued to try and stop Doreen’s bleeding until help arrived.

The police and paramedics responded to the fire department dispatch and arrived at the Erbert home around 9:15. Charles was bloody and his breath smelled of alcohol and the police were immediately suspicious that he was involved. Deanna was placed with the neighbor while the police and paramedics conducted their work. Charles was hysterical and the police handcuffed him and put him in a patrol car. Reserve San Jose Police Officer Glen Sutfin was one of the responding officers. He and some of the others searched the house just in case the perpetrator was still there. Paramedics noted that Doreen was still alive and she was placed in an ambulance to be transported to the hospital. Doreen was pronounced dead upon arrival to the hospital. Inside the home, the crime scene was extremely bloody. Officers noted a severed hand lying in a pool of blood near the body of the baby. The wolf mask worn by the perpetrator was found in the front yard near the porch. Charles was later questioned as to whether he recognized and he claimed that he did not.

During the course of the investigation that night, the police learned that Doreen had been married previously and that it was a contentious split. Sergeant James Morin and four other officers went to Mike Dennis’s house around 12:30am and rang his doorbell several times. It was obvious somebody was home as they heard water running and lights were on. The officers surmised that he may be cleaning up bloodied clothes or wounds. Finally, dispatch called Mike at his home and informed him that police were at his door and to answer it. Mike answered the door, he was wearing a robe and didn’t look as if he had been asleep. Sergeant Morin explained that his ex wife Doreen had been attacked and that they wanted to question him. Mike let the officers into his home. They went into the kitchen and the officers informed Mike that Doreen had been murdered to which he responded, you’re kidding. It was noted that Mike had an injury on his right hand wrapped in gauze that had obviously been bleeding profusely. The officers asked Mike for some identification and he told them that it was upstairs. Not wanting him to go alone in case he tried to escape or get a weapon, they followed him. They reached the master bedroom where it appeared that Mike was confused as to where his identification was. He kept glancing towards his headboard, which made the officers suspicious. Finally, one of the officers found his wallet and Mike removed his identification from it. Mike consented to a search of his home and officers located a loaded revolver behind his headboard. Sergeant Morin went into the garage where the washer and dryer was located and found blood drops. There were blood drops in the kitchen, a pair of bloodstained jeans on Mike’s bed, bloody gauze in the bathroom garbage and various blood drops in his truck. Mike’s mother lived in an apartment in the rear of his house and she was located in her bedroom, asleep. Mike was taken to the station and waived his rights to an attorney and agreed to a taped interview. He denied killing Doreen. Mike was asked about any costumes he may have worn for Halloween in previous years, he mentioned several, but did not mention the wolf mask. When asked about how he cut his hand, he stated that he had done so by throwing a knife into the air and catching it by the blade. During the ongoing investigation, police were able to obtain a photograph of Mike wearing a wolf mask that was identical to the one found in the Ebert’s yard.

A week later, an official search warrant was served and police found a label belonging to a Stanley eighteen inch machete along with a receipt for a purchase of a machete from a local hardware store. No machete was ever found at the house. A machete would be purchased at the hardware store that matched the label found at Mike’s home and used in the trial. In the garage, the police found what looked like two coffins and two anchors, it would come out later in the trial that Mike had originally planned on placing Charles and Doreen in these coffins and drowning them in the ocean, like his son Paul drowned.

William Michael Dennis went to trial in July of 1988, he was charged with first degree murder for Doreen and second degree murder for the killing of the unborn baby.

In Deputy District Attorney Paula Kuty’s opening statement she told jurors that the wolf mask found on the scene is identical to the one the defendant wore the previous year to a Halloween party. She also said, quote, you will recognize the mask and you will recognize him for what he is, a murderer. Unquote. She went on to tell the jury another detail, quote, He took it off, so she would see him. He wanted her to know who was doing this. unquote

Deanna Erbert was the first to testify for the prosecution. She was only 4 years old when her mother Doreen was murdered in front of her. She was 8 years of age when she testified. When asked what happened on that Halloween night, Deanna told her story in a quiet, clear voice. She and her mother, Doreen answered a knock at the door together. In front of them stood a man wearing a wolf mask who uttered the words, I’m going to kill you. Doreen told the man to get out of her house and Deanna said that quote her mommy told her to get behind the couch, so I did. Unquote

Several of Erbert’s neighbors testified to seeing a man in a wolf mask hanging around the Erbert home that Halloween. Questions had been raised about whether or not it was obvious that Doreen was pregnant and witnesses testified to the fact that it was. The direction the defense was going with this is that Mike didn’t know Doreen was pregnant so therefore he didn’t purposely murder her unborn baby.

The following is the medical examiners testimony regarding the injuries to Doreen and her unborn baby. This is graphic and may be disturbing to some. Dr John Hauser performed the autopsy on Doreen and baby Ebert on November 1st. Doreen died of severe chopping wounds that resulted in exsanguination, which is severe blood loss. The wounds would have been inflicted by a heavy, bladed weapon, much like a Stanly 18” machete. Doreen suffered many cuts to the back and sides of her head, with some cuts penetrating the skull. The wounds on the right side of her head were particularly brutal, some fractured the skull, one penetrated two inches into the brain. Her left hand was severed above the wrist, this hand was found near the baby’s body in the living room. Her back and shoulders received severe wounds that penetrated bone, her right breast had been cut three times and stabbed. Her legs and thighs sustained chopping wounds resulting in gaping cuts and a broken femur. Her abdomen had a nine inch gaping wound, she had also suffered many other cuts while her unborn baby was still inside of her. Her stomach and large bowel were cut open and her uterine wall and placenta also had cuts to it. The umbilical cord was cut near where it had been attached to the baby.

The baby was separated from Doreen’s body due to her abdominal wounds. Little four year old Deanna was a witness to some degree to all of this. Charles told police that Deanna told him that she heard the baby crying during this attack. It is true that the baby was old enough to live outside the womb, but there was a dispute as to whether the baby actually took a breath or not.

The baby suffered some severe wounds, he had a cut on his head that penetrated into the bone. His left shoulder blade was cut through, his right thigh area including the penis, scrotum and perineum were cut. His left leg was severed below the knee. The medical examiner also stated, quote, A large, five-inch wound cut through half of his body. This wound extended from his upper right abdomen through his left chest to his left armpit, cutting through the shoulder blade, the second thoracic vertebra, the liver, and one lung, and transecting the heart. This wound stopped his heart and circulation. Examination of his lungs demonstrated they had never been expanded, and there was no air in them. The fetus never breathed or lived independently of Doreen. The injuries to Doreen and her fetus prevented the fetus from ever breathing.

The defense called friends of Mike who testified that he was compassionate and a good natured person who was proud of his son. That the drowning of his son Paul affected his job performance and he became withdrawn afterwards. Psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Benson interviewed the defendant five times previous to trial. He recounted the fact that Mike was hearing impaired and wasn’t able to get any girlfriends. He then met and married Doreen and he claimed she had affairs and smoked pot. He also claimed that Paul didn’t ever want to return to Doreen’s home after the visitation with his dad was over. It was clear to Dr. Benson that Mike blamed Doreen for the death of Paul. He felt that she should have jumped in the pool after him instead of running to the neighbor’s house. He felt that Doreen wasn’t sad about the death of Paul and that she had done it on purpose to get Mike out of hers and Charles’s lives. Dr. Benson felt that Mike wanted retribution for Paul’s death and became fixated on killing Doreen. He said he was suffering from a mental illness and delusions. Mike admitted to Dr. Benson to killing Doreen but claims he did not know she was pregnant. He also confided in the doctor that he had planned on drowning Doreen and Charles by placing them in body bags, putting them in those boxes found in his garage and weighing them down with anchors. He would then take them out to sea in his boat and throw them overboard. Mike’s mother got on the stand and recounted details of Mike’s life, including awards he had received. She also stated that the two ate dinner together that night at around 6:15 and she retired to her separate apartment in the home at 8:15. A neighbor of the defendant, claimed that Mike gave her some misdelivered mail at around 6:30 and told her he was going to a Halloween party. The defendant didn’t testify in the guilt or penalty phase of his trial.

In August of 1988, the jury returned with a guilty verdict for first degree murder of Doreen and second degree murder of the unborn baby. Before the sentence was passed, Mike sobbed and said that “if his death could bring back his son Paul, then take me now.” He was sentenced to death by gas chamber in the San Quentin prison in San Quentin California.

Epilogue:

In 2019, California governer Gavin Newsome, signed an executive order to put an indefinite moratorium on executions, saying that the death penalty is a failure. The death chamber has been closed, no inmates have been executed in California since 2006.

Mike Dennis has been a model prisoner, so much so that he spends six hours a day outside of his cell on death row, he and other inmates can play basketball, watch sports on tv and run around the prison yard.

The defendant has filed several appeals and petitions over the years, the latest one being in 2017. Some of the points brought up are: whether or not he knew Doreen was pregnant, the definition of murder for a baby who never who an independent breath, Mike’s different mental illness diagnoses, ineffective counsel, there were several other points introduced by the defendal, all have been denied.

It is said that Mike has never shown remorse for killing Doreen and her unborn baby.

Officers that responded to the Erbert house that Halloween night, say it was straight out of a Stephen King movie. There was blood covering the foyer and a jack o lantern that was displayed in the house. The blood on the floor was thick and stuck to the shoes of the officers. Some paramedics and officers needed counseling and some even quit after what they witnessed in the Erbert house.

Mike still has friends that believe he just went insane for a brief period of time and should not be in prison. That his character was strong and he was pushed over the edge.In an interview in 2016 Mike stated to reporters that he is appealing his death sentence because he believes he should have been charged with manslaughter, not first-degree murder. He said he was blinded by grief over the drowning death of his 4-year-old son when he killed his ex-wife. “I lost a son, and I have to live every day with that knowledge,” Dennis said. “I want a new trial. If people knew what I’d been through, the verdict would have been different.” William Michael Dennis sits on death row at the San Quentin Prison. Since the death penalty has been put on hold indefinitely, it is unlikely that he will be executed as he is 70 years old now.

Doreens father, Frank Hitchens died in 2007, he stated in an interview that Doreen’s murder had ruined his life and that if he ever saw Mike Dennis outside of prison, he would kill him. Doreen’s mother, who by all accounts is still alive, echoed her husband’s sentiment.

Charles Erbert sued the city of San Jose for being arrested falsely in front of the neighbors, I was unable to find what became of this suit.