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Monday, June 10, 2019

The Randolph Maidens Murder Case

     In April 2013, Dr. Rachael F. Maidens, a successful orthodontist, resided with her husband Randolph and their two-year-old daughter Natalie in a $900,000 home inside a gated, 600-acre subdivision in Brentwood, an affluent suburb outside of Nashville, Tennessee. The Brentwood native had attended Father Ryan High School, Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama, and the University of Florida College of Dental Medicine. She began practicing orthodontics in her hometown in 2006.

     Randolph Maidens, the 34-year-old orthodontist's husband, worked for a biotech firm called Dendreon as a regional pharmaceutical sales manager. Rachel, her family, and Randolph Maidens' fellow employees were concerned that the 42-year-old salesman had, over the past several weeks, lost control of himself. Maidens had been drinking heavily and fighting with Rachael. In February 2013, police in Brentwood arrested him for driving under the influence.

     Randolph and Rachael, while attending a Dendreon Company conference at the Dolphin Resort at Walt Disney World, argued in front of other pharmaceutical company employees and their spouses. Randolph, in a drunken rage, smashed glasses and screamed that he was going to kill Rachel. The out-of-control sales manager, when fellow employees tried to settle him down, started throwing punches. The police came and took Maidens into custody. Charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct, he spent the night in jail. Three days later Maidens returned to work.

     At 5:50 PM on Sunday, April 21, 2013, Rachael Maidens' mother, Elizabeth Frisbi, concerned that Randolph had become suicidal, asked officers with the Brentwood Police Department to make a welfare check at the couple's home in the Governors Club subdivision.

     When the officers entered the house they encountered two-year-old Natalie who said, "Daddy gone. Daddy gone." In a second floor bedroom they found Rachael who had been shot to death. Randolph was not in the dwelling.

     In the kitchen, police officers discovered a note in which Randolph apologized for what he had done to his wife. (I do not know the exact wordage of the note or if Maidens explained exactly what he was sorry for.) In the murder scene note, Randolph Maidens had allegedly written that he wanted his daughter Natalie placed into the custody of Rachael's parents.

     Fearing that an armed madman was on the loose, police officers evacuated the homes in the vicinity of the murder and locked down the subdivision. At 6:30 the next morning, officers arrested Randolph Maidens when he returned to his house on Governors Way. He did not resist arrest and was not armed.

     In the trunk of Maidens' car officers discovered $87,200 in cash. In the house they had found $8,500 in 100-dollar bills.

     Charged with first-degree murder, two counts of evidence tampering, and child neglect, officers booked Maidens into the Williamson County Jail. Two days later, a judge set his bail at $2.5 million.

     Shortly after his arrest, Maidens' attorneys petitioned the court for a bail reduction. In June 2013, the judge reduced Maidens' bail to $750,000. With the help of a bonding agency, Maidens gained his release by posting his bail. Corrections officers fitted the suspect with a GPS tracking device and the judge prohibited Maidens from contacting his daughter or members of his dead wife's family.

     At a preliminary hearing on June 25, 2013, Maidens pleaded not guilty to all charges. In November a Williamson County judge announced that in December 2013, a date would be set for Maidens' murder trial.

     On January 7, 2014, Williamson County Judge Timothy Easter revoked Maidens' bond and sent him back to jail. The judge took this action because on December 10, 2013, Davidson County Sheriff Office deputies arrested Maidens at his apartment complex for public intoxication. (The charge was later dropped.) District Attorney Kim Helper had filed the revocation motion on grounds that Maidens was a threat to public safety.

     On September 15, 2014, Randolph Maidens pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of his wife Rachael. In his plea statement he said, "And to Rachael, I promised to love and cherish you and I betrayed all of that. I will live with the anguish forever…No prison is worse than what I inflicted on myself. To all of Rachael's family and friends, I am truly sorry for all the pain and for all the moments that could have been."

     Judge Timothy Easter sentenced Maidens to 25 years in prison. 


  1. I always wonder why more people don't admit their guilt, like Randolph Maidens did. If you have any humanity in you whatsoever you have to own up. I hope that his incarceration and his accepting of responsibility can in some small way help those who love this woman to get some closure.

  2. Hallo,

    which case do you personally believe, is the most weird and dramatic one you've ever written in the blog?

  3. Good question. There are so many unbelievably weird and dramatic cases out there that it is impossible to choose. I hate to use the word, but it comes down to a matter of taste. Thanks for your question.

  4. This breaks my heart. I went to HS with Randy and its just sad that his life turned out this way. I feel horrible for his daughter and his wife's family. In no way am I supporting Randy, its just a terrible, sad situation all around.

  5. Just another example that if you are rich enough you can get off on a first degree murder charge.

    1. This is not first degree murder. It happened in the heat of an argument so that is second degree murder. If he had been waiting for her with a gun when she got home, that would be first degree. Thank you :)

    2. What does it matter ann wuht murder is murder and his sorry cowardly Acts of violence should have got the death penalty by firing squad that innocent woman did not do nothing to him Rachael's daughter now grows up without parents because of him in my opinion he should be killed just like he killed her thank you very much ms Ann idiot

    3. Well Ann wuht wow I'm so proud of you I guess you know the difference between first and second degree murder and only reason he did not get first-degree murder is because he is rich that poor woman Rachel did nothing to him besides probably tell him she was going to leave his sorry ass and she did not do that wrong guess she just wasn't aware he was a Psychopaths about like you ann you he should be put in front of a firing squad and murdered just like he murdered that poor woman so thank you very much miss Ann moron

  6. I worked w Randy at Dendreon in the same capacity. Randy seemed to have lost his edge as he was a very intelligent, well read and well travelled intellectual. I would like to say we were surprised but, sadly we were not. Randys drinking had to be enhanced w some other drugs because he would become black out drunk in many instances. We heard stories directly from Rnady that were far from normal. I think he resented his wifes success despite the fact he was successful and well respected in his own right. We knew that he had disdain for his wife, we simply didn't realize the depths of the of his despair. I live in Colorado where Chris Watts just killed his wife and 3 babies. I simply can not comprehend what drives people to this unimaginable acts. I am glad that can not. I hope that Rachels Mom has found some level of peace through her granddaughter.

  7. I worked with with Dr. Maidens while she was working out of Dr. Larson out of Chattanooga TN. She was kind and she was so funny. It was insane to us all when we learned about her death. She was generally private but had hinted several times about marital issues as we all did during conversations. But nothing to even hint at anything close to the possible outcome