Doreen Erbert and the wolf at the door
Neighbors out trick-or-treating saw a man in a cartoon wolf mask staring at her house. Then someone knocked, and Doreen told her daughter to hide behind the couch.
- When
- October 31, 1984
- Where
- Berryessa neighborhood, San Jose, California
- Status
- Convicted
Content note murder, violence against a pregnant woman, child witness, death of a child. No graphic images.
In brief
On Halloween night 1984 in San Jose, California, Doreen Erbert, 31 and eight months pregnant, answered a knock at her door with her four-year-old daughter, Deanna. Her husband, Charles, had gone to the liquor store for about fifteen minutes. Earlier, several neighbors had seen a man in a cartoonish wolf mask in the street, one of them watching the Erbert house. The man at the door told Doreen he was going to kill her. She sent Deanna behind the couch, and he attacked her with a machete-like blade. Her unborn son died at the scene and Doreen died on the way to the hospital. That night police found her former husband, William Michael Dennis, six blocks away with his fingers cut and bandaged. Investigators later found a photo of him wearing the same wolf mask at a party the year before. Dennis blamed Doreen for the drowning of their young son four years earlier. In 1988 he was convicted of murdering her and her unborn son and sentenced to death. Deanna, then eight, testified against him.
Turning pointInvestigators found a photograph from a Halloween party a year earlier. In it, William Michael Dennis was wearing the same wolf mask.
- Victims
- Doreen Erbert, 31, and her unborn son, one month from full term
- Witness
- Her daughter, Deanna, 4, hiding behind the couch
- The disguise
- A cartoonish wolf mask with bulging eyes and a hanging tongue
- Convicted
- William Michael Dennis, Doreen's former husband, August 1988
- Motive at trial
- Dennis blamed Doreen for their son Paul's accidental drowning in 1980
- Sentence
- Death in 1988; reported vacated in 2024 and replaced with life without parole
Watch the episode
Timeline
1980
Paul, Doreen's young son with her first husband, William Michael Dennis, drowns in the swimming pool at the home she shares with her second husband, Charles Erbert. A coworker later testifies that Dennis believed Doreen let him die.
March 1982
Dennis sues Doreen and Charles over Paul's death. A jury finds for the Erberts. Charles tells Dennis never to come to their house again.
October 31, 1984Early evening
Doreen, eight months pregnant, walks Deanna to a few houses Charles saved for them. Neighbors out trick-or-treating see a man in a wolf mask; one father sees him standing in the street, looking toward the Erbert house.
October 31, 1984Before 9:15 p.m.
Charles leaves for the liquor store, telling Doreen to close up for the night. He is gone about fifteen minutes.
October 31, 1984
Doreen and Deanna answer a knock together. Doreen tells the man to get out of her house; he says he is going to kill her. She sends Deanna behind the couch, and he attacks her with a heavy, sword-like blade.
October 31, 1984About 9:15 p.m.
Charles returns to find Doreen bleeding on the floor and calls for help. Police briefly arrest him and hold him in a patrol car for about an hour. Doreen dies on the way to the hospital; her unborn son died at the scene.
November 1, 198412:23 a.m.
Police reach Dennis's house six blocks away. After a long wait and the sound of running water, he answers the door with his fingers bleeding through bandages. He says he cut them catching a tossed kitchen knife. Police find blood in his house, garage and truck, and he is arrested.
November 1984
A search of Dennis's closet turns up the label from an 18-inch machete. Investigators find a photo of him wearing the same wolf mask at a Halloween party in 1983.
July 19, 1988
Deanna, now eight, is the prosecution's first witness. She tells the court her mother told her to hide behind the couch.
August 16, 1988
A jury convicts Dennis of first-degree murder of Doreen and second-degree murder of her unborn son, with a special circumstance. It later returns a death verdict.
February 19, 1998
The California Supreme Court unanimously affirms the convictions and death sentence.
October 1, 2024
According to Dennis's own later Supreme Court filing, a Santa Clara County judge vacates his death sentence and resentences him to life without parole, after the district attorney asks to resentence everyone on the county's death row.
The full story
Halloween, 1984
Doreen Erbert was eight months pregnant on Halloween night in 1984, but she still wanted to walk her four-year-old daughter, Deanna, to a few houses for candy. Her husband, Charles, had taken Deanna around the neighborhood in San Jose’s Berryessa area after work and saved a few stops for Doreen.
Neighbors out with their children noticed a man in a wolf mask, a cartoonish thing with bulging eyes and a tongue hanging out. On Halloween, that was just a costume. But one father noticed the man was standing in the street, looking toward the Erberts’ house.
Later in the evening, Charles drove to the liquor store and told Doreen to close up for the night. He was gone about fifteen minutes.
The knock
Someone knocked, and Doreen and Deanna answered together. Four years later, Deanna told a jury what happened. Her mother told the man at the door to get out of her house. He said he was going to kill her. Doreen told Deanna to hide behind the couch, and she did. From there she heard the voices but did not see the attack.
The man struck Doreen again and again with a heavy blade. Charles came home to find her on the floor and tried to stop the bleeding. Police, seeing a blood-covered man who had been drinking, put him in handcuffs in a patrol car for an hour. Doreen died on the way to the hospital. Her son, one month from being born, died at the scene.
Six blocks away
Just after midnight, officers rang the bell at a house six blocks away. A light was on but nobody came. They had dispatch phone the house, then heard water running. When William Michael Dennis, Doreen’s first husband, finally opened the door, the fingers of his right hand were bleeding through bandages. He said he had tossed a kitchen knife in the air and caught it by the blade. Police followed a trail of blood from the street to his garage and found more in his truck. A week later they found the label from an 18-inch machete in his closet, and then a photograph of Dennis at a Halloween party the year before, wearing the same wolf mask.
Four years before, Paul, Doreen’s young son with Dennis, had drowned in the Erberts’ pool. Dennis blamed her, sued her and lost.
The trial
Dennis’s lawyers did not deny he killed Doreen. They argued mental illness. In 1988, a jury convicted him of murdering Doreen and her unborn son and sentenced him to death. Deanna, by then eight, was the first witness. “My mommy told me to hide behind the couch,” she said, “so I did.”
Dennis’s death sentence was replaced with life without parole in 2024, as part of a county-wide review of death sentences.
What the video couldn't include
"Michael"
At trial, Charles testified that Deanna told him her mother had called out "Michael" during the attack. It was a detail he first recalled four years later, in court.
The defense did not deny it
Dennis's lawyers conceded he killed Doreen and her son and argued for manslaughter on grounds of mental illness, pointing to depression after Paul's death. The jury rejected that and found premeditation.
What was in the toolshed
Police found two lockable wooden boxes, two hand-stitched body bags and two anchors in Dennis's shed. His psychiatrist testified that Dennis had fantasized about drowning Doreen and Charles at sea from his boat.
Why the second count was second-degree
The baby was one month from full term and could have survived a premature birth. Because he never breathed on his own, his death was charged as the murder of a fetus, an issue the California Supreme Court addressed in its 1998 opinion.
The mask was never found
A wolf mask was found on the Erberts' porch corner, and the photo from the 1983 party showed Dennis in it with matching rubber hands. No mask or rubber hands were ever found in Dennis's home.
Survivors
Deanna grew up and later spoke publicly about the murder with her father, Charles. The family named the baby Dennis Charles Erbert.
The video and the record
The episode tells this case in about 3 minutes with illustrated recreations. Here is how its key moments line up with what is documented.
One father noticed something else. The man was standing in the street, looking toward Doreen Erbert's house
Documented
Trial testimony of a neighbor out trick-or-treating with his children, as recited in the California Supreme Court opinion.
"Get out of my house." He answered, "I'm going to kill you."
Documented
Deanna's testimony at the 1988 trial.
Doreen was still breathing when Charles returned
Documented
She was taken by ambulance and declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
Dennis was wearing the same distinctive wolf mask
Documented
The 1983 party photograph was entered into evidence.
In 1988, he was convicted of murdering Doreen and her unborn son and sentenced to death
Compressed
The episode ends at the 1988 sentence. The death sentence was reported vacated in 2024 and replaced with life without parole.
The wolf in the street, the doorway, the couch
Reconstruction
AI-generated illustrations. Crime-scene descriptions from the court record are not depicted.
What the four marks mean
- Documented
- Shown as it is recorded in court filings, police statements, or consistent reporting.
- Reconstruction
- A reasonable visual recreation of a documented event. The event happened; the image is illustrative.
- Compressed
- Real events shortened, merged, or reordered to fit the runtime.
- Dramatized
- A storytelling choice (framing, wording, emphasis) that the record does not establish.
Sources
- [1]Supreme Court of CaliforniaPeople v. Dennis, 17 Cal.4th 468The opinion recites the trial testimony and forensic evidence in detail.
- [2]United Press International“Girl recounts grisly Halloween murders”
- [3]United Press International“Halloween killer found guilty in slaying of wife, unborn child”
- [4]Supreme Court of the United States, docket 24A565Dennis v. Broomfield, application and petition for a writ of certiorariDennis's own filing, which describes his 2024 resentencing. The resentencing order itself was not reviewed.
- [5]Death Penalty Information Center“Santa Clara, California County District Attorney Requests Resentencing for County's Entire Death Row”
- [6]Find a GraveDennis Charles Erbert (1984–1984)
VerifiedKey facts in this file were checked against multiple consistent reports and first-person or official accounts. Last reviewed October 6, 2026. How we check cases
