A New Bern resident who was a reporter in Fayetteville 40-years ago is recalling his days covering murder trial that continues to make national headlines now that the man convicted, a former Green Beret at Ft. Bragg, fights for a new trial.
Mack Freeze was a reporter and was the first on the scene where Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald was accused of killing his pregnant wife and two daughters.
A defense attorney said that if jurors in 1979 could have considered two new types of evidence in MacDonald's case, they would have found him not guilty. The case hinges on testing the DNA of hair found in the home and a deputy U.S. marshal's claim that a prosecutor intimidated a witness.
Freeze remembers the night of the crime in 1970 vividly. Freeze says, "A guard on the door kept watching me and finally looked down and saw that the screen door was open and when someone would come in or out I might get a view inside, so he closed the screen door. And that was interesting because it had Jeffrey MacDonald's name and rank on the door of the apartment, so i got a shot of that."
Freeze plans to attend the majority of the the hearing.
MacDonald is serving three life sentences for the 1970 murders of his pregnant wife, Colette, and their daughters, Kimberley and Kristen. The case terrified the nation and was the basis for the book "Fatal Vision."
