also revealed the hair to have come from his own body. This hair was also a precise match with others recovered from the bedspread within the master bedroom and upon the top sheet of Kristen's bed. A hair found in Colette's right palm was also determined to be her own. Three hairs, one from the bed sheet, one found in Colette's body outline in the area of her legs, and a single hair measuring one-fifth of an inch found beneath Kristen's fingernail did not match the DNA profile of any MacDonald family member or known suspect. In September 2012, the district court conducted a formal evidentiary hearing regarding DNA evidence and statements relating to key witnesses who offered testimony indicating MacDonald's innocence. On July 24, 2014, the district court rejected these claims in their entirety and re-affirmed MacDonald's conviction on all counts. Reportedly, MacDonald was disappointed, but not surprised, with this ruling. He presented a motion to alter or amend this judgment to the district court, although this was denied in November 2014. He then appealed the denial of this motion to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. On December 21, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling. In April 2021, MacDonald was denied a request for compassionate release upon the grounds of his ailing health, with Judge Terrence Boyle citing the compassionate release law applies only to individuals whose crimes occurred on or after November 1, 1987. A further appeal against this ruling was dismissed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on September 16, 2021. Later confession of Helena Stoeckley Shortly after MacDonald's initial release from prison in August 1980, his supporters hired a retired FBI Special Agent and private investigator named Ted Gunderson to assist in overturning his conviction. Gunderson contacted Helena Stoeckley, who on this occasion confessed that she and five members of what she described as a "drug cult" had developed a deep grudge against MacDonald as he had "refused to treat heroin- and opium-addicted" patients. Accordingly, she and other members of this group had plotted revenge against MacDonald, intending specifically to murder his family but leave him alive. According to Stoeckley, she had telephoned the MacDonald residence late in the evening of February 16 to determine all members of the family were present in the house. Colette had answered and stated