Dateline’s The Intruder: Federal Trial, Life Sentence, and Appeal

The NBC “Dateline” episode “The Intruder” tells the story of the December 18, 2014, home invasion in Saco, Maine, in which Gregory Owens, a retired Army sergeant major from Londonderry, New Hampshire, shot his sleeping wife Rachel three times and shot family friend Steve Chabot three times through a bedroom door. Both victims survived. Owens was convicted in federal court of interstate domestic violence and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, sentenced to life in prison in July 2016, and had that sentence affirmed on appeal in 2019.¹

The Night of the Shooting

Rachel Owens, 55, was staying overnight at the Saco home of longtime friends Steve and Carol Chabot. Her husband drove roughly 90 minutes from Londonderry and arrived around 2:45 a.m. Wearing a black mask and carrying a 9mm pistol, he broke in through the garage by shattering a window pane to reach the deadbolt.²

He found Rachel asleep in a spare room and shot her in the right arm, the right leg, and the back of the head.³ Steve Chabot woke to the noise and was shot three times through a closed bedroom door, taking rounds to the arm, neck, and rib area.⁴ Carol Chabot barricaded herself in a home office and was physically unharmed. Chabot managed to call 911. Officers arriving at the scene did not expect Rachel Owens to survive.

The Double Life That Set the Crime in Motion

For about seven years, Owens had carried on an affair with Betsy Wandtke, a married woman in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He would spend up to ten days at a time with her, explaining his absences by telling her he was a military contractor on secret overseas missions.⁵ Investigators later determined that Owens had been forced to resign from the military over sexual harassment complaints rather than serving as the “Special Forces” reservist he claimed to be.⁴

The lie collapsed on December 3, 2014, fifteen days before the shooting. Owens accidentally “butt-dialed” Wandtke twice from his cellphone, and she overheard him talking to someone he called “Rach” and ordering fast food at a time when he had told her he was on a covert mission in Afghanistan. She realized he was still married and had never separated from his wife.⁵ Prosecutors argued that the exposure of the double life pushed Owens to plot Rachel’s murder. They also said he wanted to be free of her because she was suffering from rapidly advancing early-onset dementia.¹

How Investigators Placed Him at the Scene

Because the case crossed Maine, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin, the FBI became involved alongside state and local police.⁶ The physical evidence at the Saco home tied Owens to the break-in. DNA recovered from the shattered garage window, the door handle, and the deadbolt matched him, with a reported 1-in-123-quadrillion probability that it belonged to anyone else. A footprint in damp dirt outside a first-floor window matched boots later found in Owens’ Hyundai Santa Fe.⁷

The timeline came together from surveillance video and vehicle inspection. Cameras caught Owens at a gas station in Hudson, New Hampshire, shortly after midnight and at a Londonderry Dunkin’ Donuts around 4:30 a.m. When officers arrived at his Londonderry home around 5:24 a.m., the hood and grill of his SUV were still warm. Reddish marks on the steering wheel and armrest tested positive as human blood. Owens said he had cut his hand on a glass in the kitchen sink; investigators believed the cut came from breaking the Chabots’ garage window.⁸ His computer showed no activity between 9:49 p.m. on December 17 and 5:16 a.m. on December 18, and analysts found that he had manually rolled the clock back three hours to fake an email timestamp.⁷

Owens was arrested on January 11, 2015, at a Portland medical facility while on his way to visit his wife.⁹ A federal grand jury in Portland indicted him on March 11, 2015, on interstate domestic violence and firearm counts. Federal prosecutors moved first, in part to protect Rachel Owens once she was discharged from the hospital.¹⁰

The Federal Trial and Verdict

The trial opened in February 2016 in U.S. District Court in Portland before Chief Judge Nancy Torresen. It ran roughly two weeks.

Rachel Owens testified with a bullet still lodged in the back of her skull, describing the brain damage and physical limitations she now lived with and the help she needed for basic tasks.³ Betsy Wandtke testified about the years of deception and the accidental phone calls that exposed his lies. She also described jailhouse phone calls in which Owens continued to insist he had been in Afghanistan during the shooting. Wandtke acknowledged she had initially lied to investigators before cooperating.⁵

Owens took the stand and denied any involvement. On February 16, 2016, the jury returned guilty verdicts on both federal counts.⁶

Life in Prison

At sentencing on July 12, 2016, Owens spoke for more than 30 minutes, disputing the facts and proclaiming his innocence. Judge Torresen told him directly, “You’re deceitful, and you’re mean. I don’t see any possibility of you rehabilitating yourself,” and added, “I don’t believe you, the jury didn’t believe you, and I don’t think a person in this room believes you.”¹

She imposed the 20-year statutory maximum on the interstate domestic violence count and a life term on the firearm count, noting that life exceeded the federal guidelines but was warranted by the cold-blooded nature of the crimes and Owens’ refusal to take responsibility. He was also ordered to pay more than $80,000 in restitution.¹¹

Rachel Owens addressed the court. “I’ve got my sentence, and he’s got his,” she said. “I’ve got a bullet in the back of my head.”¹

The Appeal

Owens appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. He argued that the evidence was insufficient to identify him as the intruder, pointing out that Rachel had initially described the shooter as a “dark skinned person with dread locks”; that it was physically impossible to make the round trip within the established timeline; that police had conducted an illegal warrantless search of his driveway; that five search warrants rested on flawed affidavits; and that his life sentence was unreasonable.¹²

On February 25, 2019, the First Circuit denied the appeal and affirmed both the conviction and the life sentence.¹³ As of the most recent reporting, Owens is incarcerated in a federal prison in Pennsylvania.¹⁴

Where the Victims Stand

Rachel Owens survived but lives with permanent injuries. As of the 2016 trial, a bullet remained lodged in the back of her skull. She has brain damage, limited use of her right hand, and needs ongoing help with daily tasks, all on top of her earlier early-onset dementia diagnosis.³

Steve Chabot survived his three gunshot wounds. Carol Chabot was physically unharmed during the home invasion; she later suffered a serious brain hemorrhage and aneurysm in October 2022 that required emergency surgery and extensive rehabilitation. At sentencing, Judge Torresen noted the “long lasting emotional damage” the home invasion inflicted on both Chabots.¹²

1
Portland Press Herald. NH Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Attempting to Kill Wife
2
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. United States v. Owens, No. 16-1945
3
Portland Press Herald. Saco Shooting Victim, Still With a Bullet in Her Head, Testifies Against Husband
4
Union Leader. Pathological Londonderry Man Gets Life Sentence for Failed Murder Attempt
5
Portland Press Herald. Mistress of Man Accused of Saco Shootings Testifies Against Him
6
WMTW. NH Man Convicted of Shooting Wife, Other Man in Saco Home Invasion
7
Central Maine. Scientist Says DNA Evidence at Scene of Saco Shooting Matched Defendant’s
8
Central Maine. Jurors in N.H. Man’s Trial Told About Key Blood Evidence in Saco Shooting
9
Portland Press Herald. Man Charged With Attempted Murder in Wife’s Shooting
10
U.S. Department of Justice. New Hampshire Man Indicted on Domestic Violence and Firearm Charges Arising Out of Saco Home Invasion
11
U.S. Department of Justice. New Hampshire Man Sentenced to 20 Years Plus Life in Prison for Domestic Violence and Firearm Charges
12
FindLaw. United States v. Owens, No. 16-1945
13
ATF. U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms Conviction and Sentence of New Hampshire Man Sentenced to Life in Prison
14
Portland Press Herald. Appeals Court Upholds Conviction in Saco Home Invasion Shooting