The Widower: 'Til Death Do Us Part premieres on Netflix on September 30, 2026. The documentary film is built around a real criminal case involving Thomas Randolph and follows an investigation shaped by marriages, suspicious deaths, evidence, trials and appeals spanning decades. The most careful way to approach the story is to separate Netflix's narrative framing from what courts actually decided.
When does The Widower premiere and what is the format?
Netflix's official release calendar confirms September 30, 2026 as the release date for The Widower: 'Til Death Do Us Part. The official title page classifies the production as a documentary, while the Netflix Media Center identifies it as a documentary film directed by Chris Smith and produced by Library Films and NBC News Studios.
The official synopsis describes a journalist and a detective trying to reconstruct the truth behind a trail of failed marriages and suspicious deaths over roughly 30 years. That framing suggests the film is not limited to a single trial. Instead, it uses the criminal case as the main thread for revisiting a much longer investigative history.
What is the real case behind the documentary?
The case centers on Thomas Randolph of Las Vegas. On May 8, 2008, his sixth wife, Sharon Causse, and Michael Miller were shot to death at the couple's home. Randolph told police that he found Sharon shot and that he killed Miller, whom he described as an intruder. Investigators, however, came to view the episode differently.
At trial, prosecutors argued that Randolph and Miller had planned a staged home invasion, that Miller would kill Sharon, and that Randolph then killed Miller. The Supreme Court of Nevada recorded that theory and the history of the first trial. In 2017, Randolph was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of first degree murder.
In 2020, the Supreme Court of Nevada reversed that conviction after concluding that the trial had admitted prior act evidence whose risk of unfair prejudice outweighed its probative value. The court ordered a new trial. That is different from an acquittal: the court did not declare Randolph innocent of the 2008 crimes, but found a significant evidentiary error in the first trial.
At the retrial in 2023, Randolph was again convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of first degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. The aggregate sentence was 720 months to life in prison. On August 31, 2026, shortly before the documentary's release, the Supreme Court of Nevada affirmed the second conviction. Randolph disputed the accusations and also appealed the conviction.
What does The Widower investigate?
Based on Netflix's official promotional material and the court record, the documentary is positioned to organize the investigation around four main areas:
- The night Sharon Causse and Michael Miller died: Randolph's account, the scene investigators found, and the inconsistencies that led police to dig deeper.
- The relationship between Randolph and Miller: the 2020 court opinion records hundreds of phone contacts between the two in the months before the killings and describes evidence prosecutors used to support the existence of a plan.
- The history of earlier relationships and deaths: Netflix frames the film around a decades long pattern. This point requires care because suspicion, accusation and conviction are not the same thing. In the case of Becky Gault, Randolph's second wife, he was charged with murder in Utah and later acquitted of that charge.
- The trials and legal reversals: the first verdict, the 2020 reversal, the 2023 retrial and the 2026 decision affirming the conviction are essential to understanding why the case remained contested for so many years.
What is documented fact and what requires caution?
| Point | What is documented | Editorial caution |
|---|---|---|
| Release | Netflix lists the documentary for September 30, 2026. | Availability can vary by territory, so viewers should confirm it in their local account. |
| Format | Netflix Media Center classifies it as a documentary film directed by Chris Smith. | It should not be described as a series unless the platform changes that classification. |
| 2017 conviction | There was a conviction, but the Supreme Court of Nevada reversed it in 2020 because of an evidentiary error. | A reversal for trial error is not the same as an acquittal. |
| Retrial | Randolph was convicted again in 2023, and the Supreme Court of Nevada affirmed the conviction on August 31, 2026. | When reporting Randolph's position, it is important to note that he denied responsibility for the crimes. |
| Deaths in other marriages | The documentary and earlier reporting revisit deaths connected to Randolph's marital history. | It is not accurate to automatically treat every death mentioned as a proven homicide or to attribute it judicially to Randolph without a specific ruling. |
What to know before watching
The Widower arrives on Netflix with a case that has already gone through two trials and more than one Supreme Court of Nevada review. The key for viewers is to distinguish three layers: what the film presents as an investigative narrative, what prosecutors argued in court, and what judicial decisions actually established.
That distinction also explains why the real case cannot be reduced to the promotional premise of a man surrounded by marriages and suspicious deaths. The court record shows a more complex path involving a conviction, a reversal over evidentiary issues, a retrial, a second conviction and the 2026 affirmance of that conviction. That legal path provides the essential context before the documentary premieres on September 30.
