DENVER (Court TV) — More than a decade after Oliver “Chip” Northrup and Claudia Maupin were brutally murdered in their California home, true crime fans at CrimeCon heard chilling new details about the case from 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty and family members of the victims.
Daniel Marsh is seen at a transfer hearing in 2018. (Davis Enterprise)
Daniel Marsh was 15 when he carried out the murders and 16 when he was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances.
In a police interview, Marsh confessed to the murders and said that he had killed the couple to satisfy a long-standing urge to kill; he said his goal was to become a serial killer.
Changes in California state law opened the door for Marsh’s case to be returned to a juvenile court — a fact that grabbed Moriarity’s attention and prompted her to create a 48 Hours podcast dedicated to the case. A judge ruled in 2018 that the case had been correctly heard in adult court, and his sentence was reinstated. Other changes in state law mean that as a youthful offender, Marsh will be eligible for a parole hearing in 12 years.
Court documents reviewed by Court TV revealed the true brutality of the murder and the extent of planning Marsh did beforehand. Marsh studied serial killers and the night of the murders went out dressed in all black with a black ski mask and gloves. He taped his shoes to not leave footprints, and “after he stabbed the victims to death, he then placed a glass tumbler into the male victim and a cell phone into the female victim with the purpose of confusing law enforcement.”
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Sarah Rice, Maupin’s granddaughter, joined Mortiarty on stage and told the packed audience that Marsh’s brutal murder granted the victims’ final wish. “They always wanted to die together. And I know that’s a weird thing to say, but we used to talk about it,” Rice said. “There is beauty in that. There’s not a lot of beauty in the crime, but there’s beauty in that for us.”
Erin Moriarty, Sarah Rice and Dr. Matthew Soulier speak at CrimeCon in Denver on Sept. 5, 2025
Dr. Matthew Soulier interviewed Marsh before his criminal trial and described the defendant as “cold and callous.” He told the audience that during his initial interview with Marsh, the defendant became quiet and distant before revealing, “I’m thinking about stabbing you in the neck with a pen … crushing your head with a laptop,” which forced the doctor to end the interview.
In 2018, as Marsh was pushing to have his case reclassified as a juvenile case, which would likely have ended with his early release from prison, he delivered a TEDx talk at the prison. A clip from the talk showed Marsh telling the audience, “Hurt people hurt people….When I heard that saying, it was like the entire world made sense to me.”
Reacting to hearing the talk for the first time, Rice visibly gagged on stage. Rice and her mother, who initially discovered the TEDx talk, have had the video scrubbed from the internet. Rice also revealed that she had learned Marsh had an image of the crime scene tattooed on his body, detailing each of the 128 stab wounds he inflicted on the victim.
Soulier later re-interviewed Marsh after the TEDx talk and said he appeared changed, even claiming not to remember his earlier threats. Still, Soulier warned the audience that Marsh is a “clever, manipulative psychopath.”
Court records show Marsh scored a 35.8 out of 40 on the PCL-R scale for psychopathy — higher than serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who scored a 23.
According to the California Department of Corrections, Marsh will be eligible for parole in December 2036.
