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Martin Duram, 45, was fatally shot in his home in May 2015.
After their son's death, Duram's parents recorded a video of his pet parrot
mimicking what sounds like a male voice screaming, "Don't f---ing
shoot!" They think the bird witnessed the killing. (Monica Akhtar/The
Washington Post)
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A possible murder witness is talking.
The question is whether anyone should listen.
His name is Bud, and he’s an African gray parrot in Ensley
Township, Mich., with a filthy mouth, according to NBC affiliate WOOD-TV.
His latest phrase — the one he won’t stop shouting at the
top of his lungs mimicking his owner’s voice — is a chilling one: “Don’t f—ing
shoot!”
The bird’s antics might be laughed off, were it not for the
fact that Bud’s owner, 45-year-old Martin Duram, was fatally shot at his home
in May 2015, according to ABC affiliate WABC. His body was found near his wife,
Glenna, who had suffered a gunshot wound to her head but is alive. Although
police initially assumed Glenna Duram was a victim of the shooting, police
reports obtained by WOOD-TV reveal that she is now a suspect in the slaying.
Relatives told the station that they think Martin Duram’s
final moments were imprinted in the bird’s memory and that he continues to
relive the slaying. They noted that Bud mimicked both Duram and his wife.
“That bird picks up everything and anything, and it’s got
the filthiest mouth around,” Duram’s mom, Lillian Duram, told WOOD-TV.
“I personally think he was there, and he remembers it and he
was saying it,” Duram’s father, Charles Duram, added.
Bud’s new owner, Martin’s ex-wife, Christina Keller, agrees,
telling the station that the bird has a habit of replaying voices of a man and
a woman locked in a fierce disagreement.
“I’m hearing two people in an intense argument,” Keller, who
believes “Don’t f—ing shoot!” were Duram’s final words. “Two people that I
know, voices that I recognize.”
“It’s intense,” she added. “When it happens, my house turns
cold.”
Police reports reveal that investigators have been asked
whether the bird could be used as evidence, according to WOOD-TV, but they
don’t show how police responded.
Newaygo County Prosecutor Robert Springstead told that
station that he has heard about the talking parrot but hasn’t reviewed any
footage of the animal. He said he’s waiting for Michigan State Police to finish
the investigation before deciding whether to file charges, noting that “there’s
some evidence to support” the idea that Glenna Duram killed her husband.
“Although the law allows charging on probable cause, I don’t
like to do that, especially when you have a very serious case,” Springstead
told the station. “When the investigation is done, I like to be satisfied
there’s proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Duram told police that she remembers nothing of the shooting
and regained her memory only once she was in the hospital. She left three
suicide notes for relatives before the shooting that she claims she doesn’t
remember writing, police records reveal.
“I know for a fact I didn’t kill my husband,” police quoted
her as saying.
Doreen Plotkowski, owner of Casa La Parrot in Grand Rapids,
told WABC that African gray parrots typically vocalize phrases they’ve heard
many times, but the birds also are capable of using words they’ve heard on only
a few occasions. Presented with video evidence of the bird using the violent
language, Plotkowski told the station that she “definitely” heard the bird
mimicking an argument between a man and a woman.
She told the station that she also heard the bird say,
“Don’t f—ing shoot.”
“In my mind, it’s something that he’s heard, definitely
heard before,” she said. “And if it’s fresh in his mind, he might even say it
more now.”
Michael Walsh, a Muskegon, Mich., attorney told WOOD-TV that
the bird is inadmissible because there’s no way to trace his dirty mouth.
“How did it get there?” Walsh said, referring to the Bud’s
words. “If there’s no reliable way of making that determination, you can’t rule
out that the bird witnessed a homicide or that the bird witnessed something on
TV.”
Martin Duram’s father told WOOD-TV that he’s not ready to
weigh in on his daughter-in-law’s guilt or innocence.
“I got hope that maybe there’s something out there that we
don’t know about that can change this whole situation,” he said.
Even if charges are brought against a suspect, Keller
doesn’t expect to see her parrot on the witness stand.
“I don’t think he would be able to help the case,” she said.
“But I think it puts the emotion out there, like there’s a dead man there.”
Washington Post
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