Kurt Kuenne and Andrew Bagby grew up as close friends in the suburbs of
San Jose, California. Bagby acted in many of Kuenne's
amateur movies and, as these films became more professional in quality, he invested in them with some of the money he was saving up for
medical school. Near the end of his time at
Memorial University in
Newfoundland, Bagby began a relationship with Shirley Turner, a twice-divorced recent graduate of MUN's medical school who was nearly thirteen years his senior. Bagby's parents, friends, and associates were uneasy about the relationship because of what they saw as Turner's off-putting behavior. After graduating in 2000, Bagby moved to New York to work as a surgical resident, and Turner moved to Iowa, also for work, but they maintained a
long-distance relationship. Not enjoying his surgical residency, in 2001 Bagby switched to a
family practice residency in
Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which he felt was a better fit for him. Bagby's and Turner's relationship began to crumble, and Turner became increasingly possessive. On November 3, 2001, Bagby broke up with Turner at the end of a visit she made to Pennsylvania. She took her return flight to Iowa, but then, the next day, drove the almost 1,000 miles back to Latrobe, arriving early on the morning of November 5. She arranged to meet Bagby at
Keystone State Park that evening, where Bagby was found dead the following morning, having been shot five times. When Turner learned she was a suspect in the murder investigation, she fled home to
St. John's, Newfoundland. Kuenne began collecting footage from his old
home movies and interviewed Bagby's parents, David and Kathleen, for a documentary about his friend's life. In St. John's, Turner discovered, and later revealed, that she was
pregnant with Bagby's child. She was arrested in December 2001, but released on
bail while her
extradition to the United States worked its way through the Canadian courts. The extradition process was repeatedly prolonged by Turner's lawyers based on legal technicalities, and Turner gave birth to a boy she named
Zachary on July 18, 2002. Bagby's parents moved to Canada to attempt to gain custody of their grandson. When, in November 2002, a provincial court ruled that enough evidence pointed to Turner as Bagby's killer, Turner was again arrested, and Bagby's parents were awarded custody of Zachary. Turner wrote to the judge who locked her up and, contrary to normal legal procedure, received advice on how to appeal her arrest and imprisonment. She was released on bail in January 2003 by Judge Gale Welsh, who felt Turner did not pose a threat to society in general. The Bagbys had to give Zachary back to Turner, but they were able to arrange a visitation schedule. While this fraught situation dragged on, Kuenne traveled to the United Kingdom and across the U.S. to interview Bagby's friends and extended family. He went to Newfoundland and visited Zachary in July 2003. On August 18, 2003, Turner jumped into the
Atlantic Ocean with thirteen-month-old Zachary strapped to her stomach, drowning them both in a
murder–suicide. Distraught over Zachary's death, and outraged at the Canadian legal system's failure to protect the child, David and Kathleen mounted a campaign to reform the country's bail laws, which they believed had helped allow Turner to kill her child and herself. Kuenne's attempts to arrange interviews with the prosecutors and judges who facilitated Turner's freedom were denied, but, in 2006, a panel convened by Newfoundland's Ministry of Justice released a report calling Zachary's death preventable and the government's handling of the case inadequate. Turner's
psychiatrist was found guilty of misconduct for helping her post bail, and the director of Newfoundland's
child welfare agency resigned. David Bagby wrote
Dance with the Devil: A Memoir of Murder and Loss, a best-seller in Canada in 2007, about his family's ordeal. Kuenne finished his documentary and dedicated it to the memories of both Bagby and Zachary. The film ends with the Bagbys and their relatives, friends, and colleagues reflecting on the father and son, as well as the impact that Kathleen and David, whom Kurt realizes the film is really for, had on all of them. ==Production==