warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
The case of Amber Hilberling and her husband Josh Hilberling is one of the most unforgettable true crime cases of its kind. The shocking high rise case grabbed headlines, and quickly became one of the most memorable true crime stories told in true crime podcasts and now revisited in this crime story
Amber Hillberling had a lot to get off her chest.she just left her husband splattred at the bottom of a high -rise building.her grandmother sat quietly beside her ,there to support her through the trauma.
that support would quickly turn into damage control.but there was no control in the damage.not with Amber.the pregnant young wife had a lot to say and couldn’t help herself.and once she had spoken, there was no taking it back.
the case of joshua Hilberling , a case with a fall so violent ,witnesses were traumatized.
they thought the man had jumped, but he had not.
he was most definitely pushed ,but that’s the only part of this case that was not in dispute.the real question is what his 87 months pregnant wife said when she thought no one was listening.
it was short after 4:00 pm. on june 7th ,2011, when the Tulsa 911 call came in .
a man had plunged from the the university club Tower, a high -rise apartment building located at 17th and South Carson in downtown Tulsa,Oklahoma.
when officers approached the eight floor parking level where the 23 year old airforce veteran Joshua Hilberling had landed, it wasn’t pretty.
” when somebody falls from that far,he’s really broken.they just look like clothes on the ground but you could tell that was a human being at one time.”
his 19 year old wife, who was 5’5 and 7 months pregnant,crouch beside her 6’5,225 -lb husband,urgently pleading for someone to ” fix him, so i don’t go to jail”
Joshua and Amber Hilberling lived on the 25th floor of the university club Tower joshua , who went by josh ,had fallen from their apartment,landing 17 stories below onto the eight floor parking level.
Witnesses saidhcame out of the window face first ,not backward.it was painfully , unmistakably clear that he had died on impact.the official cause of death would be due to multiple blunt injuries consistent with the fall from that height.
those injuries were violent,both legs were broken,six fractured vertebrae,multiple broken ribs, a fractured sternum and pelvis,plus bruised lungs, a lacerated liver and spleen , and kidney damage.
hearing the list of the injuries is one thing,but seeing them in person was something else entirely.
no words on a medical report could adequately reflect what Amber had seen and would recount in unsettling detail.
as first responders secured the parking level below , officers rodethe elevator up to the couple’s 25th floor apartment.
the first thing they noticed was that the large window in the living room was shattered with glass laying nearby,but it seemed to be the only thing out of the place. other than the window , there was no signs of a struggle.
even the vulnerable candlesticks near the shattered living room window were standing.
police began gathering as much information as they could about what transpired two window repair men was present on the scene. the men reported that they had been there to fix a cracked bedroom window.
one man worked inside the bedromm while the other was stationed near the large living room window. when the second man went downstairs to grab some additional tools from the truck ,he heard the loud crash from above.
looked up and saw josh free falling toward the ground.he described the scene saying,”it was like something out of a movie. he was flailing.”
he watched Josh flail and scream the whole way down,making it clear just how terrified he was.just before that , neighbors and the repairmen inside the apartment reporting hearing shouting, glass breaking, and then someone screaming, ” no,no,nooo!”
one neighbor even recalled the sound of running just before the crash. a detail that would prove important later.
the witness across the street also saw the fall happen.moments after the fall, Amber came running downstairs, pannicked.she began wailing over Josh’s body cradling him , and begging someone to help.
Amber had called her grandmother right after the fall , and she arrived a short time later .
upstairs, police noticed that Josh’s belongings appeared to be packed near the door
they also found a protective order that josh had once filed against Amber.
the protective order had been issued a month earlier,but it was not active at the time of the fall because josh had failed to show up to court for it.
they were not positive whether the clues were connected, but based on what they found at the scene and learned from their repairmen , neighbors, and Amber.
they definitely wanted to hear more details from Amber to determine whether this was a baffling accident or a brutal choice.
police brought Amber to the station.Amber’s grandmother came with her and the authorities led them into one of the interrogation rooms.
police would join them later,but until then,the cameras were recording her unfiltered reactions to what had happened.
her grandmother had been trying her best to make sure Amber would not talk to the authorities when they came in.
grandmothers earlier warning to keep her mouth shut are still lost on Amber. since Amber still hasn’t gotten the message ,grandma switches the narrative for her.
as far as Amber’s family wasd concerned, what happened in that room was not just emotional,it was unfair. they believed that Amber shoul d have been made aware that she was being recorded.
but law enforcement reflected otherwise.with Amber lawyering up,the flow of information would end there , at least for the moment.
but from later interrogation and investigation,the full story would eventually come to light.
Amber and Josh’s relationship began fast,a whirlwind romance that led to a quick marriage,a move to Alaska for Josh’s Air Force service and soon after a pregnacy.
Amber came from what appeared to be a well-off Tulsa family.her stepfather was a plastic surgeon and her mother was a nurse.
Josh’s family was known for being close- knit and grounded in Oklahoma.
behind the early excitement for the couple were signs of serious trouble.
family and friends on both sides later described their relationship as toxic and volatile, filled withconstant fighting and high emotions.
Amber’s family blamed Josh. they claimed that he was verbally abusive, used and sold drugs , and had grown more unpredictable after being discharged from the military and the couple’s return to Tulsa.
But others pointed to Amber’s behavior,including a prior incident where she reportedly pushed Josh down a flight of stairs during an argument.
additionally,about a months before the fall, Josh filed that protective order against her after she hit him in the head with a lamp hard.
hard enough to require 21 stitches.
Josh had also filed one other instance of Amber abusing him along several other abusive incidents that he had described to others but never filed against her
.
on the day of the fall,Amber said the couple had started arguing while she was doing laundry.according to her ,Josh became angry and threw a laundry basket at the bedroom window , cracking it.
that break,which had nothing to do with what happened later , is what prompted Amber to call maintenance.
as the workers began assessing the damage, the tension inside the apartment kept growing.one of the repairmen would later describe Amber repeatedly storming in and out of the room during the escalating argument.
a neighbor testified to hearing running, a loud crash, and a women screaming.
by that time ,Josh’s belongings were already packed.and he had reportedly called his dad to come pick him up. but his dad was unable to leave work.
some of the most compelling information came from Amber herself.
At the scene. her grandmother and others heard her say” i pushed him.”
and of course, inside that interrogation room ,there was no stopping her from repeating it.
then there was that window.the window that Josh fell through was part f a high -rise building built in the 1960s
the university Club Tower in Tulsa was considered a feat of architectural ingenuity at the time.
it was one of the first residential buildings in the US designe with help of computer technology.
because of its round shape , every apartment was pie-shaped.narrow at the entrance.
and widest where the windows bordered the outer edge.but as much of a designed achievement as it was, it was equally fragil.
thin, untreated glass insecurely held in place by aging caulk.
wheter that mattered would be determine by the experts .
in the meantime , police believe they had enough cause to arrest Amber. she was taken into custody within 4 hours of the incident,but later released on BOND.
while out on bond, she gave birth to their son,Levi. and began settling into motherhood.perhaps too settled.
she began slipping out of compliance with her release conditions.she missed curfew on at least five occasions,failed to keep her ankle monitor charged at least 10 times.
and failed two court-ordered drug tests for marijuana.that latter offense led a judge to revoke her bond early, and she was returned to jail .
as Amber’s case gained public attention,a wave of online support began to surface.
some facebook posts and online claims suggested that amber had also filed a protective order against josh, that there were text messages showing that she wanted him out of her life,not the other way around.
and that she had called police on him several times during their brief marriage.
regarding th protective order Josh filed against Amber. Amber’s family said that that protective order was something that Josh and Amber had actually laughed about together.
Josh had only obtained it because his family insisted on it.
but many asked why.why why would his family insist that he take out a protective order on his own wife.unless thay had reason to believe that he needed to do so.
and why would he smear his wife’s name with a such a serious public accusation. if there was truly no cause?
shortly before her trial began in march 0f 2013,
prosecutors offered Amber two plea deals. the first proposed a 5 year prison sentence with additional time on parole.
the second deal’s specifics were never mde public other than that it carried a longer prison term than the first.but was still less than what she risked if convicted at trial .
Amber rejected both.
she insisted that she had not meant to hurt Josh and believed a jury would see it that way ,too.
for the trial ,Amber’s defense fought hard to get Amber’s interrogation room recording suppressed. they were unsuccessful.
the judge ruled the recording admissible, citing that there was no resonable expectation of privacy.
at trial , Amber admitted that Josh’s bags were packed,but she said that it was because she had asked him to leave.
according to her,she was the one who wanted out of the relationship.to go along with that ,her defense preented a new version of events.
that she acted in self- defens.she testified that during the argument,Josh grabbed her by the shoulders hard enough to scare her.
so , out of fear for herself and her unborn child, she pushed him away. she claimed that Josh lost his balance,hit his head ,and crashed through the window .
which was completely covered by their closed vertical window blinds.
a tragic accident,not an intentional act. she described making eye contact with Josh as he fell and that muich of what followed was a blur…
her attorney cast Josh as the aggressor,alleging he had a history of drug use that contributed to his volatile behavior.
they argud that Amber had not meant to hurt Josh.
she had simply been frightened and reacted instinctively to protect herself.
the prosecution argued otherwhise. they pointed out that there wasn’t any physical evidence of a struggle near the window whatsoever
with even the candlesticks that stood near it remaining untouched.
and they also played Amber’s own words in court. words that directly contradicted her current claim that she pushed Josh because he attacked her.
and there was no getting around the facts that during her nearly hour- long recording in the interrogation room. what the jury saw her unfiltered retelling of every detail.she never once mentioned a struggle,aggression by Josh,or anything other than her simply pushing him.
in fact when her grandmother brings up the notion of a struggle, note Amber’s reaction.she brings the issue of a struggle up again later and meets less resistance this time.
they also pointed out that the evidence did not support her claim that Josh’s aggression was drugfueled.since the toxicology results show that there were no drugs in his system at the time of his death. in contrast ,the prosecution introduced Amber’s alleged history of drug abuse, including during her pregnancy.
and implied that she may have been the one under the influence at the time of the fall.they argued that the running ,that the neighbors heard just before the glass shattered was Amber running toward her much larger husband in order to build enough momentum to push him through th window.
they also cited not just the witness statements at the scene where Amber admitted to pushing Josh.
but additional admissions two fellow inmates said she had made while incarcerated on her parole violations. they claimed that Amber joked that;
” you better.. or i’ll push you out the window.”
and then started laughing.inmates also claimed that amber told them that she pushed Josh intentionally and did not regret it.
and central to the prosecution’s case was the claim that this was not a sudden isolated incident ,but part of the pattern of abuse,evidence by the protective order Josh had filed and the repeated allegations he made.
the prosecution suggested that Josh packing his clothes preparing to leave Amber was likely what triggered her anger.
and of course, the condition of the window had to be addressed. the defense had already brought in a glass expert who testified that the type of glass used in the apartment’s windows was typically reserved for small windows and picture frames.not for use in high- rise buildings.
he also said the window had been culked and recalked multiple times,but that caulk was decomposing and no longer holding properly.
he said the problem affected the entire building,not just the couple’s unit.
in fact , during the trial , Amber filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the building’s owners and management.
Unusual edge of insulated glass used at University Club Tower. The two layers of glass are fused to one another at the edge
she claimed that they knowingly installed dangerously thin non-safety glass that violated safety code.
and wouldshatter under minimal pressure. the lawsuit sought just over $ 10.000 in damages for her and her son.
but court records indicate that the suit was dismissed in march 2015 for failure of Amber’s lawyer to serve notice to the defendant within 180.
stoked during closing arguments, prosecutors pushed back.they countered that neither the deteriorating caulk nor the thin glass caused the window to break.
Amber pushing him into it did. overall, the prosecution felt that while Amber initially showed remorse,at some point she chose to stop taking responsibilityfor her action and to blame Josh for his own death instead by claiming self- defense.
after just 3 hours ofdeliberation,the jury reached a verdict.
guilty of second – degree murder.
chocked that the jury could even come close to finding Amber guilty of murder, Amber’s family and friends felt that the jury got it wrong.
they believe Amber was the victim and was merely defending herself from an abusive husband.they claimed there was a paper trail filings,protective orders, and text messages to prove it.
we could not find any publicly available records that mathes those claims.
in contrast ,Josh’s claim filed agains Amber was readily accessible through Oklahoma’s public records.
on the flip side,those who believe she is guilty point to the fact that a jury of 12 unanimously agree based on the evidence that she was guilty.
much of that evidence ,they note, came from Amber herself,her own words, her own actions.
Josh ‘s family also believed the jury got it right. prior to the fall , they had been getting reports from Josh about Amber abusing him on regular basis.
they had been worried about his safety and urged him to leave her.Amber’s own words confirmed the concerns they had for their son.
“i wonder if his parents know yet… they were right.they kept sayingif we stay together,i’m going to kill him.”/ Amber.
when Josh’s dad was notified that Josh had been killed ,he said, he knew exactly who was responsible before it was even said.
for Amber’s sentencing, Josh’s family provided written statements to the judge.his brother outlined the abuse Josh endured from Amber.
a tremendous loss he and his family face after josh’s death and Amber’s strain relationship with her own family.
while describing his family’s owerwhelmingloss, Josh’s father responded how Amber’s family had portrayed their son. he wrote;
“we have nothing left of Josh, except our memories,and they’re trying to ruin those too” he ended his letter by asking the judge to considere the sentence for the person who is not willing to admit any wrongdoing or responsibility for her actions.
Josh’s mother wrote” Amber was found guilty following a fair trial and by a jury of her peers,saying that the system was unfair. andor the whole truth did not come out in the trial is just more evidence of her lack of remorse.”
Josh’s grandma wrote”after Josh was released from the Air Force ,he called me one day and said” hi grandma , this is Josh ,i hear you need your yard mowed. well, i can do it tomorrow morning,but it will cost you” i said ” okay, how much vanilla pudding will it cost me?” Josh said” oh,how much milk do you have?” i told him about a quart , and he said ” a quart of pudding sounds good!”
Amber’s family disagreed with the outcome.her mother believed that law enforcement and the media zeroed in on their prominent family because the case promised big headlines and rattings.
in her view ,they push a sensational story line of the rich bitch kills military hero . while leaving out key evidence that could have helped Amber.
she does appeal and loses with the court of Appeals stating that the jury found the state’s evidence more convincing.
Amber’s family and supporters were not the only ones who questioned the verdict.Mark Meshulam was a seasoned building facade consultant known as the chicago window expert.he had served as the defense’s expert witness at trial.
three years after the verdict he laid out on his website sharply compelling findings that raised questions about the role that conditions may have played and what happened.
in a addition to the dangerous neglected and structureally unsound condition of the window system ,he detailed the chimney-like air pressures caused by the extreme heat that week and explained how highaltitude winds can exert powerful suction on weakened glass.
A photo taken shortly after the incident shows the blinds blowing outwards through the shattered window .
clear evidence Meshulam claimed that the wind was pushing from inside the apartment out.
the blinds and even Josh’s body landed noticeably north of the window.
evidence ,he said ,that wind played a role.between elements like the wind perssure the tihn, untempered glass,and the brittle weathered framing that barley held it in place Meshulam described as a fatal set of circumstances that aligned in the worst possible way.
while the attenton Amber’s case attracted was unusual with TV coverage, abook, and widespread media focus…
her 25 years sentence were not. Oklahoma leads the nation in incarceration rates driven by policies.like the 85 % law ,which requires those convicted of certain crimes to serve the vast majority of their sentence.
the state also chooses to incarcerate more nonviolent offenders than most other states, a pattern that has disproportionately impacted women , many of them mothers ,in overcrowded underfunded prisons.
similar to Amber, Josh Hilberling’s family also fileda wrongful death suit against university club Tower,it’s management , and the window installer,seekingmore than $75 ,000 in damages.
given the university club Tower’s well documented facade and windows issues, we fully expected to find some sort of city response, citation ,mandated retrofitting, or civil action.
but surprisinlgy,we found no publicly available record of penalties, safety upgrades,or even formal evaluations tied to the building following the incident.
in february ,2016, Amber was interviewed by by Dr Phil,where she was finally asked some of the Questions she felt, she never got to answer in court.
she said that Josh had started using drugs again and that after he was kicked out of the AirForce, he was not in a rush to find a real job and wanted to continue selling drugs. she claimed everything escalated that afternoon and when he grabbed her , she called him a coward befor pushing him off of her.
she said that those were her last words she spoke to her husband before he fell to his death..
Dr Phil asked her directly”why she never once mentioned self- defense to her grandmother in the police interrogation room.
she replied “i can see where it would look bad. yes”. she went on to say “the reason she didn’t mention it was because” my grandmather new better, ske knew what kind of marriage it was ,she knew what had happening in the recent days leading up to this, so i didn’t have to explain it to her”
Amber was serving her sentence at the Mabel Basset Correctional center.
in mcloud, Oklahoma.
while in prison , she formed a multy-year romantic relationship with another inmate named Patricia , whom Amber spoke fondly of during one of her interviews.
later that year,Amber was asked to do another interview on a local TV station.
on october 23rd, she sent a handwritten lettr responding to the request,expresing that she wanted her story shared and agreeing to the interview.
the day after she mailed that letter, Amber was found dead,hanging in a prison cell she was 25 years old.
the TV station would receive a letter a few days later.
an autopsy performed by the prison revealed a mix of methamphetamine, amphetamine, and antidepressants in her system, the official cause of death was ruled to be suicide,but that would not be the last word.
Amber’s parents were notified of their daughter’s death via vague voicemail from the prison on each of their phones.
her parents, Rhonda and Brian Whitlock, repeatedly tried calling back to find out why the prison was calling, but kept getting transferred, hung up on or sent to non-working lines.after hours of trying, someone finally picked up…
simply said ” she is dead.” then ung up.
they were ultimately left to learn that their daughter’s death was ruled as suicide from then news.
then the messages reportedly started coming into the family and online posts from inmates and even some prison staff claiming that Amber did not die by suicide and that foul play was at hand.
the claims they were making were serious that Amber had been threatened ,silenced, and that the prison covered it up.
Amber’s family and supporters do not believe that Amber died by suicide.they said she was hopeful,planning her future with her son,who shw would never leave, and that she was exited for her upcoming TV interview.
Amber’s family maintained that she was sent to prison wrongfully,tortured while she was there ,and prison ultimately killed her.
following her death, they filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Amber’s estate against the Oklahoma departement of Corrections seeking more than $ 75,000.
in that suit, they alleged that the facility failed to protect her,pointing to broken surveillance cameras,incomplete or skipped cell checks, a lack of protection from known predators,insufficient mental health care, and inconsistent administration of her prescribed psychotropic medication.
they eventually dropped the lawsuit.
caught in the middle of a tragedy , he had nothing to do with, Amber and Josh’s son Levi, was not yet born when his father died and his mother was taken into custody.Amber’s family maintains custody of Levi where he continues to be raised away from the spotlight.
during the impact statement at sentencing, Josh’s grandmother,Beverly Hilberling, spoke through tears about the grandson she may never know.
she was referring to a baby that she would not be able to give her grandson because custody passed to Amber’s family .
was Amber guilty of nothing more than changing her story to self-defense, unnecessarily casting doubt on her intentions?
or was her only crime the push itself ,justifiably never imagining it would send her husband through a closed , covered window,let alone end in death?
or was this always a case of intentional murder fueled by abuse and anger?
depends on whom you ask…..