Came across Fatal Error (HBO) and I forgot that I intended to go to bed after the kids left for school. The best part came at the end of the movie just before the credits–it was based on a true story. According to some sites, the film was supposed to have been retitled Fatal Desire for legal reasons but on HBO this morning, it was Fatal Error.
Anyway, whether Fatal Error or Fatal Desire, the story was based on the book Fatal Error by Mark Morris and Paul Janczewski, reporters who documented the case of Sharee Miller who was convicted for conspiracy to murder her husband, Bruce.
The murder of 48-year-old Bruce Miller had all the hallmarks of a botched robbery. Miller was known to carry thousands in cash and was closing up his auto salvage business in Flint, Mich., on Nov. 8, 1999, when someone shot him and took his wallet. Sharee Miller, his 28-year-old wife, appeared devastated.
The police focused their investigation on John Hutchinson…
But the spotlight quickly shifted to Sharee Miller. A Missouri lawyer called with documents he had found in the briefcase of a man named Jerry Cassaday, who had just committed suicide. In suicide letters, Cassaday, a ex-cop and Reno casino pit boss, admitted to killing Bruce Miller and said Sharee Miller had put him up to the job…
Cassaday’s briefcase also contained a transcript of an AOL Instant Messenger (IM) chat between Sharee Miller and Cassaday. This document would become the prosecution’s strongest evidence. In the chat, Miller gives Cassaday directions to the junkyard where her husband worked and tells him which roads to use to avoid police. She tells him the best way to approach her husband without causing alarm, and suggests that Cassaday shoot inside to minimize the noise. She tells him to get out when “it’s done.” [CourtTV.com]
You really have to read the full account (also available at MobMagazine.com) because it isn’t just a murder case. It’s the story of a manipulative woman, a pathological liar who lived a double life and who provoked her lover to kill her husband based on make-believe stories of wife beating, gang rape and mafia connections. And you know how she did most of it? Through chat and e-mails. The true story is so fantastic you’d think it was a movie script. But it isn’t.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
amsy_qt 11.11.06 at 12:27 pm
fatal error sounds interesting
thanks for sharing… i will definitely read it 
Connie 11.11.06 at 1:20 pm
on of those “truth is stranger than fiction” kinda thing hehe
Carlos 02.24.07 at 1:45 pm
I am buying this book tomorrow. Does anyone know if her maiden name before all her marriages was Johnson?
Diane 06.05.07 at 7:04 am
Why would you ask about her madien name. Do you think she is Celeste?
ManView 08.07.07 at 1:03 pm
I hope the stupid cunt and every one of them out there rots from the inside out.
Jwol 04.08.08 at 12:44 am
FYI - it has been turned into a Lifetime Movie…. I don’t recall the name, but Sharee is played by Anne Heche and Jerry is played by Eric Roberts. I did not know that the movie was based on a real story until I watched this on Notorious on the Biography channel….
Jwol 04.08.08 at 12:46 am
Fatal Desire - I just looked it up.
Brandy Kennedy 09.03.08 at 1:05 am
I am searching for pictures of John Hutchinson after veiwing the story on trutv. If anyone has any information please contact me!
beartoy 10.29.08 at 2:34 pm
To answer some questions to comments through out.. no her madien name is not Johnson. As for information.. She has three children that will not be left alone by the media. They are with out a mother, their real father has nothing to do with them, and I am sure the same goes for Bruces family. Except for his kids are grown. Sharee’s are not. Sharee did not pull the trigger. We can all talk whatever we want, that does not mean we really want it to happen, but when a person we are talking to takes it that way, then it should fall to their shoulders also. I am glad that she is happy again, and might be able to see her children in school plays and see her daughter in her prom dress. Yes, I am sorry Bruce was taken from his family, but like reports say, there were two other guys the police were looking at with really good motives and no alibis.
Hope this helps a little with the information you were looking for.