Dateline: Secrets Uncovered is investigating the murder of David Jackson, a young father from Pembroke Pines, Florida, who was lured to his death by his ex-wife Barbara Britton and gunman Michael Wolfe.
In 1988, 24-year-old truck driver David Jackson was embroiled in a custody dispute with his ex-wife Barbara Britton over their 4-year-old son, John. Britton married Michael Wolfe and suddenly announced she was moving with their son to Arizona.
Jackson had fought hard to win visitation rights, and in June 1988, it was agreed that Britton would travel with the boy back to Florida so he could spend a week with his father.
On June 25, a few days before the visit was set to take place, David received a phone call and then told his roommate he was going out for cigarettes; he was never seen alive again.
In September, the cops found David’s car at Fort Lauderdale Airport. The vehicle had been wiped totally clean, leaving not even David’s fingerprints. The car had been in the parking lot for 35 days, but David had been missing for 88 days. Finally, the gun he was known to keep under the seat was missing.
The following summer, human bones were discovered on a building site under a Walmart in Miramar. The investigators suspected these remains belonged to David but could not confirm.
A cold case unit became suspicious Barbara Britton was involved with David Jackson murder
The case remained cold until a fresh cold case unit took over in 2003. By chance, a young John Wolfe was taking part in a program for young people interested in police work when he saw a missing poster of his dad, David, on Detective Donna Velazquez’s desk.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelJohn told his mom, Britton, that they had reopened the case into his missing father. Velazquez was suspicious when John told her Britton had not welcomed the news. The policewoman was also suspicious when she learned Michael Wolfe had officially adopted John just a few months after his father went missing.
Eventually, the police pulled in the older Wolfe. He had since left Britton and moved to Ohio. Wolfe had been married seven times, and two of his ex-wives testified that he would often get drunk and talk about the time he killed David Jackson and buried him in Miramar.
In the meantime, advances in forensic DNA science confirmed the remains in Miramar belong to David. Michael Wolfe was subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Michael Wolfe convicted of murder; claimed he was instructed by Barbara Britton
Wolfe said Britton and her father, Harry Britton, had convinced him that David abused his son and that he needed to be murdered. David was lured to a hotel room, supposedly to speak with Harry about the child, and was shot twice by Wolfe.
Barbara Britton was placed on house arrest in 2010, and two years later, she finally agreed to plead guilty to accessory after the fact to murder. This meant she admitted to knowing David was going to be killed and did nothing to stop it.
Britton received two years house arrest and eight years probation. Harry Britton died in 1998.
At the sentencing, David’s mother, Judy Carlson, told Britton, “Michael is where he should be, in prison. Your father is where he should be. And you will join him one day because that’s where you should be: in hell.”
Carlson also accused Britton of only marrying Wolfe so she could groom into killing David.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Oxygen.