48 Hours on ID is examining the murder of Ray Green, who was shot dead by his ex-wife, Danielle’ Dani’ Green, at their farm in Dillsboro, Indiana.
Ray and Dani Green had first met around 2002; they then married and bought a house in Palm Beach, Florida. However, financial crises and aging relatives caused them to sell up and move to Dani’s native Indiana.
By 2014, the pair were living on a 300-acre farm near Dillsboro, and they had divorced but still lived together. Dani decided to kill Ray at some point, but her plan to cover up the crime was incredibly bizarre.
In May 2014, Dani Green began telephoning family and friends of Ray Green, claiming their pet German Shepherd, Jazzy, had killed him. Dani said the dog had bitten him by the throat. Ray’s mother contacted the police with a request to check up on this claim.
When the police turned up at the Green farm, Dani told them that Ray was away working as a truck driver. The cops were suspicious of this claim, his cellphone location pinged on the farm, so they asked to search the property. She told them they could look anywhere they liked except for in a large toolbox.
The detectives noticed that the toolbox was surrounded by flies and smelled severely of decay; they decided they needed to look in that box as soon as possible. When the cops retrieved a search warrant, they opened the large toolbox and found Ray’s naked body lying inside. He had been shot multiple times.
Dani Green claimed self-defense in Ray Green murder
Dani finally admitted to the police that she had killed her ex-husband, but she claimed it was in self-defense after he threatened to kill her.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelThis claim of self-defense appeared highly dubious as the detectives determined Ray was killed as he lay in bed. He had been shot ten times with a .38-caliber gun; once in the temple, four times in the back of the head, and five times in the body.
A search of Dani’s internet history found some incredibly incriminating evidence. Three months before the murder, she had written into a search engine: “If you shot someone with a .38 caliber revolver in the head, would it be lights out or possibly survive?” and “what happens when you get shot in the head?”
In the fall of 2015, Danielle Green was convicted of murder and was sentenced to 60 years in prison, just five years below the maximum possible penalty.
The police never found the Green’s dog, Jazzy, who Dani had tried to frame, and it’s unknown what happened to the German Shepherd.
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48 Hours on ID airs at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.