In 2000, after appearing on an episode of The Jerry Springer Show, Nancy Campbell-Panitz was murdered by her ex-husband.
In May 2000, 52-year-old Nancy Campbell-Pantiz went to Chicago to film an episode of The Jerry Springer Show. Her belief was that she would have the opportunity to reunite with her ex-husband Ralf Panitz. The couple had divorced a year earlier in 1999.
Nancy’s son Jeffery Campbell said:
“My mother believed that Ralf had been deported to Germany and that the show was going to pay for his travel back to America, and that they would reconcile, and that he would tell his new girlfriend that he wanted to be with my mother.”
“I don’t think my mom had any idea what she was walking into, it’s pretty obvious that they were there to ambush her.”
Ralf Panitz went on the show for a different reason. He took his new wife Eleanor with him and he told Nancy he didn’t want to be with her. Nancy handled it graciously and left the stage. THe producers told her that if she didn’t go back on stage they would not pay for her flight back to Florida, but she stood her ground.
Jeffery Campbell said:
“After the show, no one from The Jerry Springer Show contacted to check on her, see where she was, where she went, as far as I know it never happened.”
Even though Nancy and Ralf had divorced, and he had remarried, they still had a bit of an on-off relationship, with Ralf sometimes living with Nancy, usually when he was having marital problems with his wife.
On the morning of July 24, 2000, Nancy went to court to have Panitz removed from her home in Sarasota. The judge granted Nancy ‘Sole Ownership’ of the home and also a restraining order against Ralf Panitz.
Then, that evening, Ralf Panitz was drinking at a bar where it’s alleged the episode of Jerry Springer he and Nancy were on started airing. That, combined with the judge’s ruling earlier that day made him increasingly angry. He then went to Nancy’s home and beat and strangled her to death.
Panitz DNA was found under Nancy’s fingernails, and bloody footprints matching his shoes were found at the scene.
In March 2002, Ralf Panitz, 42, was found guilty of second-degree murder and violating a domestic violence order.
In May 2002, Judge Nancy Donnellan sentenced Panitz to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Nancy Campbell-Panitz.
Eleanor Panitz, Ralf’s wife, said:
“I will never give up trying to see my husband is a free man because in my heart I don’t believe he did this,”
Jerry Springer said:
“I don’t mean to trivialise this. It was a very, very sad event, but it has nothing to do with the show.”
Sources:
https://people.com/jerry-springer-show-netflix-woman-murdered-8770625
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/happened-jerry-springer-murder-victim-100000719.html
https://www.mamamia.com.au/jerry-springer-show-woman-murdered
