EP. 119 FLORIDA - The Killer Captain & The Sea Orphan: Family Annihilation On The High Seas

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It's 1961 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The sun is shining, the waves are lapping, and it's the perfect day to go for a cruise.

In the month of November that year, the Duperrol family boarded a vessel known as the Bluebell,

captained by a man named Julian Harvey, and set out sailing towards the Bahamas.

For years, the family had been saving money, suffering through the freezing cold Wisconsin winters,

waiting for the time when they could finally head south and chase sunny skies.

And finally, that chance had come.

But storm clouds were on the horizon.

On November 8, 1961, five members of the Duperrol family boarded the Bluebell,

along with the captain, Julian Harvey, and his wife, Mary.

And in less than 10 days, Captain Harvey would be found dead in his hotel room after an apparent suicide,

and most of the members of the Duperrol family would be dead.

This is one of the most disturbing stories we've ever heard about a man on the edge, a person who truly snapped.

I'm Colin Brown, and you're listening to Murder in America.

when a crew member peering off the side of the ship notices something strange floating in the waves.

It's a small dinghy, or boat, that appeared to have been launched from a sinking ship.

Sitting inside of the vessel is a man violently waving his arms, screaming,

who appears to be holding the deceased body of a child.

As the small dinghy approaches the massive oil tanker,

crew members aboard the Gulf Line slowly begin to hear what the man is screaming.

and before long, the man is aboard the ship, along with the deceased body of a red-haired prepubescent girl.

Immediately, the man identifies himself as Captain Julian Harvey, the skipper of the doomed sailboat Bluebell,

and according to Julian, he was the lone survivor of a horrific accident that had taken place the previous night.

As the sailors listened to Julian's story, they couldn't help but feel horrified.

Apparently, at around 8.30 p.m. on the previous evening,

a strong squall, or sudden sharp increase in wind speed,

had caused the Bluebell to keel over, or flip onto its side in the water.

In a full-blown panic mode, Julian had watched in horror as the main mast of the ship had snapped,

an action which injured his wife, Mary.

The hull of the ship was also pierced, and water had immediately begun to flood in.

According to Julian, the mast, or the pole of the ship that carried the ship's sails,

had fallen in the worst area imaginable, and had forcibly separated him from his wife and the other passengers on board.

Thinking quickly, he had attempted to grab a wire cutter from his cabin to try cut through the ropes and wires

separating him from the other passengers, but it was too late.

A fire had broken out on the main deck, and this was the final nail in the Bluebell's coffin.

Sadly, Julian was then forced to abandon the ship, along with everyone on board,

and had rapidly detached the dinghy, or emergency boat, and barely escaped death.

He then watched in horror as the flaming boat sank to the bottom of the dark sea.

A few minutes later, the lifeless body of seven-year-old Rene Duperrol,

one of the family's daughters, had floated by his dinghy,

and he quickly pulled her aboard and attempted to render CPR to her.

Unfortunately, though, she was already far gone,

and he had then kept her corpse in the small boat with him, out of respect.

Obviously, this was an extremely shocking story for the crew of the Gulf Line to hear,

and they quickly decided to make a stop in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas,

to drop Julian off so he could speak to authorities and begin to sort out this tragedy.

Immediately, though, officials in Nassau were suspicious of Julian's story.

First off, it was really strange to them that he seemed so... calm.

He seemed almost happy, or relieved, as opposed to traumatized and grieving.

I mean, how could a man who just lost his wife and entire passenger load to the depths be smiling and joking around?

Where was the pain, the suffering?

Officials had also found loads of emergency survival supplies packed aboard his dinghy, which had been recovered,

and if Julian really had been forced to cut the small ship loose in a moment of desperation,

there was no way he would have had time to load it with rations and other survival goods.

But, as his story couldn't be proven false, authorities were forced to cut him loose,

and shortly thereafter he returned to Miami, Florida on November 15th,

where he was to be questioned by the U.S. Coast Guard the following day.

But this whole story was about to take a complete 180-degree turn,

after a shocking discovery would be made the following afternoon.

On November 16th, 1961, the Greek freighter Captain Thea was passing through the same Atlantic channel

that the oil tanker Gulf Line had been traveling through days prior,

when second officer of the ship Nikolaos Spakidakis spotted something floating in the water about a mile ahead of them.

At first, the object appeared to be a small fishing vessel,

a ship that was obviously too small to be safely operated that far out in the ocean.

The ship's captain, Stylianos Koutsoudantis, was quickly summoned to the bridge to analyze what Nikolaos was seeing,

and suddenly, to their horror, the two began to realize that what they were looking at was a small white raft holding a child.

They could see from where they were that on board the tiny oblong raft was a very young blonde-haired girl,

who sat dressed in a white blouse and pink slacks, and was waving at them in desperation.

And through their telescope, the captain and second officer also noticed a group of sharks circling the raft.

It seemed that the sharks had identified the small girl as a delicious lunch,

and thinking quickly, Captain Stylianos ordered that the ship's engines be stopped and the crew rescue the girl.

Quickly, crew members sprung into action to lower a life raft, but it wasn't going to be easy.

In fact, the crew members had to yell and scream to the kid that she should not jump into the water,

as they were sure that the sharks would immediately pull her down into the murky depths.

But before long, the girl was pulled aboard the life raft and brought on board the Captain Theo,

where she was given a spare cabin, along with some water and orange juice.

Once she was settled in, the crew of the Captain Theo began to try to figure out what exactly had happened to the child.

Obviously, she had experienced something horrific, as she was barely able to form sentences and was largely incoherent.

What had happened to her family?

How had she ended up in the middle of the open ocean on a raft as small as she had been on?

Members of the crew used wet towels to sponge salt from the girl's body and applied Vaseline to her cracked lips,

and shortly afterwards, she was able to begin explaining her story.

Her name was Terry Jo DuPerrault, and she told crew members that she had been stranded in the ocean for days aboard that small float after the ship she had been on had sunk.

Shortly after she told them this, however, she sunk down into a semi-comatose state and lost consciousness.

Immediately, the crew knew that they needed to call their Discovery in, and they informed the U.S. Coast Guard of their Discovery.

And at that exact same time, ironically, Captain Julian Harvey was also chatting with the Coast Guard about that same incident that Terry had apparently died in.

On November 16th, when Julian sat down with the U.S. Coast Guard officials, he told the same story he had told the authorities in Nassau.

According to Julian, the Bluebell had been hit by a sudden squall which had destroyed the ship's masts, ruptured the hull, and set the boat on fire.

Certain extraneous circumstances had forced him to abandon ship without being able to rescue any of the other passengers, and he had been the sole survivor.

It seemed like an airtight story, one which could never truly be factually disproven, as all evidence of what happened aboard the ship now lay at the bottom of the sea.

And so, on that day, he left the interrogation room feeling confident, laid his head down to rest, and felt relieved that he had gotten away with the crime of the century.

But that next day, on November 17th, while he was in the middle of his second day of interrogation, Julian was informed of something shocking.

It was actually during the middle of his meeting with authorities, like something out of a movie,

when a member of the Coast Guard burst into the room and told Julian that they had recovered young Terry Joe Duperon, alive, floating in the middle of the ocean.

After receiving the shocking news, Julian exclaimed,

in a panicked tone, before he quickly calmed down and added in,

After learning of this, Lt. Ernest Murdoch with the Coast Guard then informed Julian that they would be launching an official investigation into the loss of the Bluebell,

and the passengers on board that very day, and that they would then begin to heavily scrutinize his story and would need him to be present for more interrogation.

Shortly after learning of this revelation, Julian became tired and asked to be excused for the rest of the day,

claiming that he wanted to call his wife's family and discuss with them what had happened that day on the boat.

His request was granted, and he then left the interrogation.

But Julian had other plans.

That afternoon, he left the Coast Guard headquarters, hopped in his car, and drove towards Biscayne Boulevard in Miami,

where he checked into a room at the low-budget Sandman Motel under the false name John Monroe.

He paid cash for the room and headed straight for his bedroom upon arrival.

Once inside of the suite, Julian got out a pen and paper and began to write a note.

But this wasn't just a letter. This was a suicide note.

The note, which Julian addressed to a good friend of his who he had met during his time spent in the military,

left no explanation for exactly what had happened on board the Bluebell and contained no apology for his actions,

but ended with the words,

I'm a nervous wreck and just can't continue. I'm going out now.

I guess I either don't like life or don't know what to do with it.

I got too tired and nervous. I couldn't stand it any longer.

The letter also requested that his body be buried at sea, a request which would eventually be honored,

and that his friend look after his 14-year-old son, Lance, who he was about to leave behind.

After he had finished writing out his final testament, Julian set the letter on the center of the motel room's desk,

placed $10 on his pillow for the maid, headed into the bathroom, got out a razor blade,

and sliced his ankles, jugular vein, thigh, forearms, wrists, and throat.

Apparently, in slicing himself up, Julian had cut himself down to the bone,

and before he died, he played and splashed around in his own blood

and attempted to smear it around the walls like a child's finger painting.

He would shortly thereafter die, and left behind a gruesome, bloody scene in the bathroom.

In fact, the scene was so horrific that upon its discovery,

responding police officers wondered if it was a suicide or if he had been murdered

and a clumsy attempt had been made to make it look like a suicide.

Two hours after Julian took his own life, when a maid stopped by the room to see if he needed anything,

she entered the suite and noticed blood in the bathroom.

Upon further inspection, she discovered Julian's lifeless body

and immediately ran to the front office to phone the authorities.

Julian had killed himself, and the story of what happened aboard the Bluebell on that fateful night

was about to be blown wide open.

To tell the full story of the tragedy aboard the Bluebell, we have to go back in time for a few days.

It's now November 8th, 1961, nine days before Captain Julian Harvey would take his own life in a motel bathroom,

and the Duperell family is boarding their vessel of choice, the Bluebell, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

For years, the Bluebell had been the only lifeboat in the world,

For years, the Duperell family had been saving up for this trip,

dreaming through the dreary winters in their home state of Wisconsin,

and they had finally saved enough to treat themselves to a tropical getaway.

On that day, the people who boarded the Bluebell included Duperell family father Arthur, age 40,

mother Jean Duperell, age 38, son Brian, age 14, daughter Renee, age 7, and daughter Terry Jo, age 11.

Onboard the ship was also Captain Julian Harvey, age 44,

and his wife Mary Harvey, who was only 34 years old.

Back in their home state of Wisconsin, the Duperells were a well-off family,

as father Arthur was one of Green Bay's most successful optometrists.

Arthur had grown fond of tropical waters during his service in the U.S. Navy during World War II,

as he had been stationed in the South Pacific,

and he had always longed to bring his family along with him to experience the warm ocean breezes themselves.

In the year 1961, Arthur had finally saved up enough money for the family's getaway,

and planned an extended leave from his optometry practice,

took his children out of school, and brought his family down to Florida.

Initially, they planned on getting down there and just outright buying a boat

and spending the entire fall cruising through southern waters.

But after searching for a while, and being unable to find a ship that perfectly fit their needs,

they decided to simply charter one instead.

This is how they came into contact with Julian Harvey.

As the Duperell family walked amongst the vessels moored in the Bahia Mar Yacht Basin,

they encountered a handsome 44-year-old man named Julian and his wife of four months, Mary Dean.

After chatting for a bit, the family was shown the captain's vessel,

a beautiful 60-foot two-masted catch named the Bluebell,

which had ironically been first launched in the year 1928 in the Duperell's home state of Wisconsin.

It seemed like the perfect match, and for the family in that moment, it was.

Plans were then made, and a launch date for their voyage to the Bahamas was set for November 8, 1961.

On that day, as we said before, the Duperell family boarded the ship with Julian and his wife,

who was appointed to serve as a cook during the voyage, and they then set sail towards the Bahamas.

Over the next four days, the family traveled across the sea to locations like Sandy Point and Bimini,

where they snorkeled, collected shells, dined on fine food, and purchased quirky souvenirs.

On the day of November 12, at their final port of call prior to their return to Florida,

Arthur Duperell and Julian Harvey stopped into the office of British District Commissioner Roderick Pinder to give him a visit.

They had a short chat, and during their talk, Arthur stated that,

quote, this has been a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, end quote, before adding,

we'll be back before Christmas. It seemed that everything had gone exactly as planned.

The Duperells had experienced the vacation they had all longed for,

and Julian and his wife were about to make great paychecks from the journey.

And so, that evening, they set sail back towards Florida.

And that night, while on board the Bluebell, they dined on a fine meal of chicken cacciatore and salad, prepared by Mary Dean.

According to the testimony of Terry Jo, the sole survivor, on that evening,

she retired to her bunk at around 9 o'clock p.m., while her parents and other siblings still sat awake,

helping clean up the waste from dinner and chatting.

It was a quiet night at sea, no extreme wind, no inclement weather, and she was ready to get back to shore.

But suddenly, a little bit later, she was awakened by the sounds of screaming and stomping coming from the upper deck above her.

At the time, she thought she could make out the sound of her brother's voice yelling at their father, Arthur, for help.

But she couldn't really tell what she was hearing.

After deciding that she needed to investigate, Terry Jo then crept up to the top deck from her quarters,

and in the main cabin, she was met with a gruesome sight.

Her mother and brother's bodies were lying on the floor, motionless, with blood pooling around their heads.

Shocked and frightened, she then silently traveled up the companionway stairs to the main deck,

where she noticed more blood near the cockpit of the ship, but noticed no movement and heard no sound.

It seemed like the rest of her family, along with Julian and his wife, had disappeared.

Suddenly, though, out of the darkness, Julian rushed towards Terry Jo, carrying a bucket,

his face contorted with rage, screaming,

He then pushed the scared Terry Jo back down the stairs, and in fear, she retreated to hide near her bunk.

Fifteen minutes passed, and all that Terry Jo could hear in that time was the sound of sloshing water,

which she assumed may have been Julian washing blood from his hands.

Soon after, oil and water began to gush onto the floor of her cabin,

and out of nowhere, Julian entered the room brandishing a rifle in his right hand.

For a second, Terry Jo's world stopped.

She thought that this was the moment she would die.

But even though Julian and Terry Jo made direct eye contact, he chose not to shoot her,

and he quickly returned back to the top deck without saying a word.

For a few minutes after this interaction, Terry Jo heard hammering noises echoing down from above,

and then silence.

But she couldn't stay down there for long,

as the water that was now pouring in from outside of the boat had reached the height of her mattress,

and she then realized that the bluebell was sinking.

After waiting a bit longer, Terry Jo then headed back to the top deck,

where she noticed Julian standing, silently, staring out into the waves.

The sound of silence was deafening, as there was no other sign of life on board.

Suddenly, Julian whipped around and stared Terry Jo down,

before he quietly asked her,

''Is the dinghy loose?''

She replied, stunned, that she didn't know,

and he then ordered her to hold onto a rope that he had attached to the dinghy

while he retrieved something from somewhere else on the ship.

But, in a stunned state, Terry Jo somehow let go of the rope and lost control,

and the dinghy began to float away from the bluebell.

After returning and noticing that his escape boat was floating away,

Julian quickly hopped into the dark waves and caught up to the fleeting vessel,

before he crawled on board and floated off into the night.

But now, Terry Jo was alone on a sinking ship,

in the middle of the night, and it was time to think fast.

Remembering that there was a small oblong cork-and-canvas webbing float attached to the deck,

Terry Jo scrambled and undid the knots.

Time was going fast and the water was rising on the deck,

but just before the entire ship sunk beneath the dark waves,

Terry Jo managed to free the small craft and climbed aboard.

She watched in horror as the remainder of the bluebell,

along with the bodies of the rest of her family,

sunk into the ocean, and suddenly, it went completely silent.

For the next three and a half days, Terry Jo floated alone on the open ocean,

with no water, no food, no sunscreen, and no shelter.

It was swelteringly hot, super bright,

and it seemed to Terry Jo that her life was over.

She was doomed.

The small float that she was sitting in was also so tight

that she had to sit upright for the entire time that she was stranded,

and she later told authorities that almost the entire time she was lost at sea,

she sat and prayed for a rescue.

And that rescue would finally come when the Greek freighter Captain Thea would notice her,

surrounded by sharks, and finally pull her to safety.

After telling the crew on board her name and the details of what she had been through,

Terry Jo passed out and was immediately airlifted by the U.S. Coast Guard

to Miami's Mercy Hospital.

Upon arrival back on the mainland,

the U.S. press quickly picked up the story of the Sea Orphan,

or Sea Waif, as they dubbed her,

the little girl miraculously found alone and alive floating in the middle of the ocean.

By Monday, November 20, 1961,

only five days after she had been discovered on death's door in the middle of the sea,

Terry Jo had made a shockingly fast recovery

and was able to sit through an interrogation by U.S. Coast Guard officials.

And unsurprisingly, the story that she told them about what had really happened aboard the Bluebell

was radically different than the story they had heard from Captain Julian Harvey before his suicide.

The stories, in fact, couldn't be any more different.

While Captain Harvey stated that a strong squall or burst of wind

had capsized the Bluebell and destroyed its hull,

Terry Jo claimed that there had been practically no wind that night.

It was about as calm of a night as ever.

And while Captain Harvey had claimed that there was a fire on board

and that he had tried as hard as he could to rescue everyone,

Terry Jo stated that there was never any fire,

and that he, in fact, had murdered everyone else on board

before calmly making an escape by himself aboard the dinghy,

leaving her to drown and die.

Now, while all of this finally helped to explain the mysterious events of that day

that had claimed the lives of five individuals,

there were still so many questions.

One being, just who was Captain Julian Harvey?

Well, Julian Harvey had just about one of the craziest life stories one could imagine.

Born on March 1st, 1917 in the town of Scarsdale, New York,

Julian never knew his biological father,

who had left his mother, a well-renowned Broadway chorus girl,

when Julian was only a baby.

A few years after his biological father left the family,

Julian's mom married a vaudeville performer who gave Julian everything he ever wanted,

including the gift of a sailboat on his tenth birthday.

It was here at a young age where Julian's love for the sea was fostered,

and even though he lived through the Great Depression,

which turned his home life upside down and caused his mother and her second husband to divorce,

he still enjoyed a certain level of opulence,

as he was then sent to live with his wealthy aunt and uncle

who pampered him with everything he ever wanted.

Julian was a scrawny young boy,

but as he grew older, he threw himself into bodybuilding

and became a fitness fanatic, obsessed with growing his muscles

and becoming as strong as he could be.

His passion for health and bodybuilding carried on with Julian throughout his entire life,

and he obsessively maintained an impressive physique

and wanted to look as good as possible at every waking moment.

In fact, his obsession with his own self-image

even led Julian to work as a male model for a short period of time

with the famed John Roberts Powers Agency.

One surviving image of Julian from this time of his life

shows him posed in a tight swimsuit, flexing his muscles,

aiming a bow and arrow at a target that lies just off camera.

It was around this time when Julian became involved in his first of many accidents as well,

many of which ended up being on purpose.

He was behind the wheel of his first car at the time,

a Model A Ford Convertible,

when his steering wheel detached in his hands and he lost control of the vehicle.

The passenger in the car, a male friend of his,

and Julian both leapt out of the vehicle to safety

just moments before it spun out of control and flipped over.

He cheated death once,

and would go on to cheat it many more times throughout his life.

After spending a few years studying in college,

Julian actually went on to become a decorated war hero

serving in the United States Air Corps during World War II.

He had an incredible military record during the war,

and flew the B-24D Halsadropen plane during Operation Tidal Wave in Romania,

during which he was forced to return to base after suffering a massive engine failure

just 35 minutes into his mission.

His military record was actually pretty crazy.

He survived two crash landings, won a number of combat medals,

and was even chosen to pilot a plane during a dangerous test

where the Air Force had Julian purposely crash and ditch a B-24 bomber

in the James River in Virginia,

a stunt which earned him the highly sought-after Air Medal.

And while in the Air Force, Julian kept up his glamorous playboy image.

He was well-known for wearing custom clothing,

including a custom-cut Eisenhower jacket,

pearl pink Chino trousers, and a yellow scarf.

Julian flew a total of 29 combat missions with the 93rd Bomb Group during World War II,

and remained in the Air Force after the war,

where he qualified to continue flying fighter aircraft on bombing missions.

During the Korean War, he flew 114 fighter-bomber missions,

and by the time he was medically discharged from the Air Force in 1958,

he had worked his way up to the rank of Major,

and was a highly respected member of the Armed Forces.

Julian was a playboy throughout his life,

and was actually married a total of six times,

with most marriages ending in divorce.

Well, all except for two.

On April 21, 1949, Julian was living at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida,

and on that fateful night, he was driving home from the movies

with his then-wife, Joanne, and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Myrtle Boylan.

On the way home on that rainy night,

while crossing a rickety old wooden bridge over a bayou,

the car suddenly spun out, skidded through the railing of the bridge,

and crashed into the murky waters of the bayou below.

Both Joanne, Julian's wife, and her mother Myrtle drowned in the bayou after the crash,

but Julian seemed to cheat death again, without even accruing a scratch.

While being interrogated by authorities after the fatal crash that claimed two lives,

Julian stated that he had, quote,

seen the accident coming, and at the last minute I opened the door and was thrown free, end quote.

However, when a professional diver was sent down into the dark bayou to recover the bodies,

he noticed that all four doors, including the driver's side door, were locked,

and that the driver's window had been rolled down.

This suggested that, more than likely, Julian had indeed crashed into the bayou

with his wife and her mother, but had rolled down his window and escaped,

and had left the two women alone in the vehicle to drown.

Julian's father-in-law at the time was convinced that Julian had wanted the two women dead,

but as there was never any real concrete evidence of foul play, nothing ever came about from this.

However, one military doctor who was appointed to interview Julian at around the same time of the accident

concluded that, quote,

underneath his veneer of charm and sophistication was an amoral man with no real empathy for others,

a man who could be dangerous, end quote,

and it should be noted that after Joanne's death, Julian collected the money from her life insurance policy,

which helped him get out of some financial trouble he had been in at the time.

But there were more accidents to come during Julian's life.

Only a few months after Joanne's death, Julian was married again,

this time to a businesswoman from Texas named Jiddy.

Their marriage lasted three years, and they barely ever saw each other,

as during that time, only three months after their wedding,

Julian was sent to serve in Korea during the Korean War,

and after returning to the States in 1953, he and Jiddy had divorced,

and he was back on the market again.

But less than a year after his latest divorce, he was married again,

this time to a woman named Georgiana,

and he purchased a 68-foot boat named the Torbatros.

It had been a lifelong dream of Julian's to own a large boat like the Torbatros,

but this dream wouldn't last long.

You see, only a few months after purchasing the vessel,

while sailing with the crew through Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of the United States,

the ship sank after colliding with the submerged wreckage

of a World War I battleship named the USS Texas,

and this was suspicious.

According to locals and to captains that frequented the waters around the sunken ship,

it was nearly impossible to miss the wreckage of the battleship.

It was marked with a large buoy,

and its exact location was known by sailors and explicitly visible from the surface.

Crew members aboard the Torbatros even claimed that before the wreck,

Captain Julian Harvey had deliberately circled around the wreckage twice

before the boat eventually struck it,

causing the cataclysmic crash and subsequent sinking.

But even though the wreck was very suspicious,

Julian eventually won a payout of $14,258,

which equates to around $113,000 today from the U.S. government,

and he then used the money to purchase another boat,

this time a bigger 81-foot luxury cruiser or yaw named the Valiant.

And a few years later, in 1958,

while entangled in a bitter legal battle with his ex-wife Georgiana,

who was at the time suing Julian for divorce, citing extreme mental cruelty,

the Valiant, with Julian again at the helm,

was sailing through the Gulf of Mexico

when it unexpectedly and mysteriously caught fire and sank into the depths.

Once again though, Julian escaped the sinking scot-and-injury-free

and collected a $40,000 insurance payout from the accident,

money which helped him through his divorce and newly found financial difficulties.

Eventually though, by the year 1961, Julian found himself in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,

making money by taking tourists and charter parties on cruises off the coast

aboard a ship that this time he didn't own, the Bluebell.

He had recently wed his sixth wife, Mary,

and was working aboard the ship as part of an arrangement

where he could live with his wife on board the vessel

and make a salary by taking groups out on adventures.

And that leads us to the week of November 8th, 1961,

when the Duperrols hired Julian and Mary to take them to the Bahamas on a chartered cruise.

But one of the big questions that this case has left behind was, why?

Why had Julian murdered everyone on board the vessel, including his own wife,

and sunk it, when he didn't even own the ship

and couldn't even collect an insurance payout on it?

Well, as it turned out, just a few months before that fateful cruise,

Julian had taken out a $20,000 insurance policy on his wife Mary's life.

As the pieces of the mystery fell into place,

the theory emerged that on that fateful evening, Julian had set out to only kill his wife,

possibly by strangling her and pushing her into the ocean,

and had then planned to report it as an accident and claim the insurance money.

But a member of the Duperrol family had allegedly surprised him

by walking in on him during the murder, and he had then decided to kill them all.

It's been theorized that he also meant to murder Terry Jo, the sole survivor,

but he had chosen to chase after his dinghy, which was floating away,

instead of killing her, as he assumed that she would go down and drown with the ship.

But because of Terry Jo's tenacity and survival instincts,

she indeed did survive, and she was the one who eventually was able to tell the world

of the horrific things that had happened to her family on the ship that night.

But what happened to Terry Jo?

Well, in the last week of November 1961, she was released from the hospital in Florida

and flown back to Green Bay, Wisconsin, her hometown,

where she would then be raised by relatives until the time that she was an adult.

But those around Terry Jo didn't help her through the trauma.

In fact, they tried to completely ignore it.

Her guardians, after her arrival back home, put up a wall of silence around Terry Jo

and her traumatic experience, and never mentioned what had happened on the boat at home,

while her friends, neighbors, family members, and teachers at school

were instructed by her guardians to avoid all discussion of the topic completely.

She received no trauma counseling to help her deal with the ordeal,

and she didn't speak publicly a single time about the loss of her family

and her survival for over 20 years.

Eventually, though, she was able to work through the trauma,

and was able to live a fulfilling life, as she eventually married, had three kids,

and even chose to live and work close to the ocean.

In 2010, Terry Jo came forward and released her memoir, Alone, Orphaned on the Ocean,

a work co-authored with psychologist and survival expert Richard Logan,

a book that detailed that fateful cruise, the murder of her family, and her own survival story.

And once again, people have often wondered,

why didn't Julian Harvey kill Terry Jo?

He really could have gotten away with this crime,

and he had plenty of opportunities to kill her.

He could have shot her with that rifle, he could have bludgeoned her with an object,

he could have even stabbed her.

But he didn't.

Some say he almost wanted to get caught.

Others think that, like we said before,

he was forced to leave Terry Jo aboard the Blue Boat because his own escape craft was floating away.

But I guess, we'll never know.

49 years after the murder of her family and her miraculous escape,

Terry Jo appeared on the Today Show, in an interview conducted by then-host Matt Lauer.

She stated that she thought that he probably believed she'd go down with the ship,

but the one thing that she wanted people to take away from the massacre was the fact that she survived.

She stated that she doesn't want people to read her story and get sad and lament,

but rather to think to themselves that she has gone on with her life.

She even stated that she has, quote,

always believed I was saved for a reason.

If one person heals from a life tragedy after reading my story,

my journey will have been worth it.

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And now let's get back to today's story.

Hey everybody, it's Colin here.

So you may have noticed that I was the only one narrating today.

That is because Courtney and I are on completely different coasts right now.