This week, Investigation Discovery’s Evil Stepmothers features the case of Donna Yaklich, who was convicted of hiring a teenager and his brother to murder her husband, a police detective, in Colorado in 1985.
The episode, titled Nanny Nightmare, revisits how Donna Yaklich stole money from her husband, Dennis Yaklich, and tormented his four children in the lead-up to the cold-blooded plot.
“Donna is fit, beautiful, and maternal — exactly what Dennis Yaklich needs as a single dad to four kids,” says a press release from ID. “Soon his children see another side to their new stepmom.”
Dennis Yaklich, a weightlifter and steroid user, was gunned down in his driveway in Pueblo, Colorado. Donna Yaklich claimed he had abused her and also said she feared for her life. She further accused Dennis Yaklich of having been involved the death of his first wife, Barbara Yaklich, who died after an overdose of diet drugs in 1977.
Donna Yaklich was later arrested and accused of hiring brothers Edward Greenwell, 25, and Charles Greenwell, 16, to kill her late husband.
She was eventually convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Edward and Charles Greenwell, meanwhile, were sentenced to 30 and 20 years behind bars, respectively.
In 1994, a made-for-TV movie that told Donna Yaklich’s story and starred Jaclyn Smith of “Charlie’s Angels” was released.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelIn October 2005, a judge ordered that Donna Yaklich be released from prison and moved to a halfway house.
Evil Stepmothers airs Sundays at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.
She never should have been let out!!! I did time with Donna who is one of the most manipulative people I have ever met.
Well good for u stupid. You need to worry about urself and not others
had no clue anoymous she is/was set free, got the lifetime movie on now, bought it on ebay, and i am enjoying watch this very good true story OR not all parts are true, but, i did like it, premised on the lovely charlie angels star, Jacklyn Smith, and the average actor, but ruggedly good looking playing a cop actor Brad Johnson. Some say it was not all true. So many others say, it’s completely false. I tend to go with somewhere in the middle.”Then came on net, to see if she was free, i am hearing the men who did it been free for years. smh. he definitely was abusive, and shouldn’t have been, but continue rip because no 1 has or ever deserve to be gunned down without any warning, and he had zero warning.” A shame for him, and IF she abused the kids again IF, then, that alone should have kept her locked up, but, I have read three of the kids already said, it was not true, the ID discovery story.
NEVER should have been released-straight up evil!!! I did time with her and she is the most manipulative person I have ever met.
Like another criminal’s say so is what people should listen to. ?
You’re starving for attention aren’t you?
That’s Not what all the Prison Guards have to say about Donna so you can keep your story. She was released 22yrs early for her Good behavior and staying out of Trouble in a place where trouble is not far.
Dennis was a Monster on Steroids who only married Donna because he was a Single Dad with 4 kids looking for a Mom for them. Donna was raising their 4yr old Son and 4 Stepchildren on the family Farm. Many Witnesses to the Abuse and no one did anything about it mainly because he was a Police Detective who would get away with it.
*Dennis was involved in the murder of his 1st wife* leaving their 4 kids without a mother. He was a Cop so no one pursued the investigation. Donna was gonna be Next. So Let them smear her name all they want with this Evil Stepmother story just because she had Dennis killed. I’m Glad she served 18yrs in Prison for it. Murder is WRONG and cannot be condoned but what she did doesn’t change the Fact that Dennis was dangerous, wild on Steroids and Abusive.
Thank you finally someone said it.
I watched the film about this case “Cries Unheard – The Donna Yaklich Story” ( 1994 film starring Jaclyn Smith). I agree murder is wrong, but also no one in the law enforcement should get away with beating their wife and or killing people in their own private lives. In the 1994 film at the end it stated that Men who kill their wives get 2-6 years to serve in prison, yet women who kill their husbands get 15-20 years to serve in prison? This is gross and sexist if i ever saw sexism and misogyny alive with a role to play in the legal system, so what is this about apart from definitely misogyny and misogyny also kills wives at the hands of their husbands! That women serve more of a sentence then the male counter-part types in spousal killings? This is clear ill-will and hatred towards women, i thought that Hatred was illegal and a criminal offence!!! For a start the law of how many years a spouse of the male kind ought to be the same as the female spouse who kills her husband, the same at 15-20 years, plus the law should recognise that spousal battery is suffered by females more by at least 89% more. It’s disgusting and so shameful that the legal system only has males who kill their wives on a prison sentence of only 2-6 years, as soon as they are let out, no sooner will they be killing the girlfriend, the next female to die at their hands!
Wow Donna don’t go on the internet. You killed that man and you deserve to be in a cage
You’re accusing him of AAAAAALLLLLLL these things yet when he was autopsied and his look was checked for ANY AND ALL SUBSTANCES, he tested negative! But he was a monster steroid user, right?!! How stupid do you feel??!! I’m a SURVIVOR of SEVERE D.V., needing surgeries to fix my spine, fusions in my back, artificial discs in my neck, EXTREMELY SEVERE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. There is NO WAY that she went through what she’s claiming he did to her, NO WAY! SHE DID IT FOR THE MONEY, THAT’S ALL! SHE’S A SELFISH, GREEDY, NARCISSISTIC B!TCH!! SHE TORMENTED THOSE POOR CHILDREN & CAUSED SO MUCH DAMAGE FROM HER ABUSE THAT IT STILL DRASTICALLY AFFECTS HIS KIDS 30+ YEARS LATER!! BUT SHE WAS THE VICTIM & HE WAS A MONSTER THAT ABUSED HER. OK, YEAH RIGHT, WHATEVER!! ABSOLUTE B.S.!! She is a psychopath that’s destroyed the lives of innocent people that didn’t deserve the treatment they got from her! They should’ve locked her up for life and thrown away the key, the jury 100% got it wrong when hey found her not guilty of his murder. SHE’S the reason he was killed! He would’ve lived a much longer life, probably still be alive today, if SHE didn’t hire those young men to kill him, IT’S HER FAULT HE’S DEAD!! SHE SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN LIFE IN PRISON!! An eye for an eye! You take a life or cause a life to be taken, then you deserve to get the same punishment!! I SERIOUSLY HOPE THAT SHE DIES AN EXTREMELY SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH!! THAT’S WHAT SHE DESERVES!! THE WAY SHE TREATED HIS DAUGHTER IS F#CKING DISGUSTING TOO!!! AN INNOCENT CHILD THAT DID NOTHING WRONG AND SHE WAS TORMENTED, ABUSED, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY, BY THIS PSYCHOPATHIC NUTJOB AND YOU SERIOUSLY THINK HE DESERVED TO BE SHOT AND KILLED??!! WOW, JUST WOW!!
This man worked his tail off to provide for his kids and the twatwaffle murdering whacko and instead of her taking care of the bills & the kids, she blew the money on materialistic things to try & make herself look better. She stole $11,000 from his parents bank account, but SHE is the victim? Make that make sense, PLEASE!! She accused him of abuse but NOBODY saw ANYTHING wrong with her! No bruises, marks, black eyes, NOTHING AT ALL!! Her FALSE CLAIMS of domestic violence is absolutely DISGUSTING!! And that sh!t is what makes it EVEN HARDER for TRUE LEGITIMATE VICTIMS TO COME FORWARD! Scared they won’t be believed or even listened to! The psycho “taught” yoga for Christ sake, she was in a friggin leotard every day! IF she was a TRUE VICTIM of DV then SOMEONE AT SOME POINT would’ve seen proof of it! YEARS in a leotard every day and she’s he abused her the way he allegedly did, there would’ve been proof of it and there was NONE!! She’s a selfish nasty vile absolutely DISGUSTING female!! There’s no other words to describe her. She’s NO WIFE, NEVER DESERVED TO BE CALLED MOM, BE A MOTHER, NOTHING!! And she’s a poor excuse for a human being! So I’ll call her the twatwaffle female because THAT is what she deserves! SHE IS A WASTE OF TAX PAYERS MONEY AND SHE SHOULD’VE BEEN SWALLOWED! HER MOTHER SHOULD HAVE LET HER JUST SLIDE DOWN HER THROAT INSTEAD OF WEASELING HER NASTY SELF UP INTO THE WOMB!! SHE’S AN OXYGEN THIEF & I HOPE SHE DIES AN EXTREMELY SLOW, PAINFUL DEATH AND THAT SHE CAN’T GET ANY RELIEF FROM THE PAIN!! DISGUSTING HORRIBLE FEMALE!!
Be careful what you wish for just remember what you wish for others may come true for you. He can’t be all that Innocent otherwise they wouldn’t have made a movie So there’s 2 sides to the story.
You have to walk in her sboes before you criticise her or are rude to her, she has done her time leave it be. In my opinion she should of removed herself from the situation because in those situations the outcome can often result in death. If he hit her her, he must pf known this as a policeman as well. Her trouble was she was too weak to run the opportunity was there as he left the house to gp to work, that was her mistake run far enough away so that he could never find her, rather than tske a life.
Maybe she was worried about the children and what might happen to them if she left.
So you personally know all these people?
He probably wasn’t taking drugs 24/7. Had he done that, he would have likely died. There are frequently stories in the news about men on steroids who have done terrible things, usually to women or children (esp. little girls)! I’d be very afraid of someone like that.
Exactly!
Yes to me he was an animal that couldn’t be tamed. Other people don’t know what its like if they never had the Experience Of someone that is abusive to them.Let them get slapped around Or beat around a couple of times And I bet they changed their mind About someone like him. He needed someone To take him to the woods tie him to a tree And beat his ass a couple of times And then let’s see how much the big shot would like that Just because he was
a cop Don’t make him better than anybody else And it doesn’t give him the right to do what he done. I don’t believe in killing someone but I can bet u this much if I would have had that Abuse done to me I Would have taught him a lesson And beat his ass within a inch of his life. After that I would have left his ass And he would have never found me. And I think it’s awfully sad That a man serves less a time in jail for killing his wife And a woman’s spends more time for killing her husband. What gives them the right to kill a woman and whoever made or came up with that law is a TOTAL IDIOT WHICH MUST HAVE BEEN A MAN. I’ve lived to see my mom beat by my dad all my life for nothing and I DO MEAN NOTHING!!!!.. SO when I married my husband trust that same shit and I promise you I took a bat to him in the shower I don’t play that shit so divorce I filed and I Dared him to stop me . He went his way Quick With his tail between his legs Be a cold day in hell When a man is gonna beat on me And not get beat back.!! Ain’t happening.. And I can bet you my last bottom dollar That He probably did kill his 1st wife That’s what you call a animal !!!!! There is no excuse for that To take Some ones else is life.. I don’t care who he is or what he was or what he did for a job its still WRONG People like that discuss me!!