| 00:00:11 | Dr. Gary Cumberland begins the
Sybers autopsy like any other.
|
| 00:00:15 | He examines the outside of the
body, looking for any sign of
trauma.
|
| 00:00:20 | >> She had what appeared to be a
needle injection in her right
arm, which was suspicious.
|
| 00:00:26 | We made sure that we retrieved
that.
|
| 00:00:29 | We actually cut that side away
and took it for toxicology
examinations so that they could
look at it and analyze it for
any substances.
|
| 00:00:37 | >> KURTIS: When he opens the
body up, Cumberland sees normal
lungs, a healthy brain, and most
significantly a healthy heart.
|
| 00:00:47 | >> Well, the conclusion
basically was that we had a
woman who was in her early 50s
who died suddenly and
unexpectedly with an autopsy
that showed really no anatomic
reason for her to have died at
that particular point.
|
| 00:00:59 | And when that happens, we
automatically start thinking in
terms of toxicology, because
that's the one thing we can't
see at the autopsy examinations.
|
| 00:01:06 | >> KURTIS: In this case,
however, a reliable toxicology
exam proves to be difficult.
|
| 00:01:11 | After deciding an autopsy was
unnecessary, Bill Sybers had
released his wife's body to a
funeral home, where it was
immediately embalmed, making it
almost impossible to detect any
hint of poison in the body's
tissues.
|
| 00:01:27 | >> My gut was telling me that
there's something going on here
that I just couldn't find.
|
| 00:01:30 | In fact, my wife reminds me that
when I came home from the
autopsy, my comment to her was,
"Oh, I just did an autopsy on a
woman who died suddenly."
I said, "There's something going
on here, I just can't find out
what it is."
>> KURTIS: If Kay Sybers was
murdered, it was done with great
skill-- the heart attack induced
by poison, and then the evidence
of poison drained out of her
body when she was embalmed.
|
| 00:01:52 | It is an elegant theory of
murder-- one that points to her
husband as the culprit.
|
| 00:01:57 | Absent any other evidence, it
might also be the perfect crime.
|
| 00:02:14 | While Dr. Cumberland works over
Kay Sybers's body, Agent
Sanderson works the netherworld
of office gossip.
|
| 00:02:21 | He wants to learn more about
Bill Sybers and a female
technician at Sybers's lab.
|
| 00:02:26 | Rumor places the two of them in
the midst of an affair.
|
| 00:02:30 | When asked directly about the
alleged affair, the doctor is
adamant.
|
| 00:02:35 | >> We ask him that specifically,
and he denied that-- totally
denied that.
|
| 00:02:41 | >> KURTIS: Sybers's cell phone
records tell a different story--
hundreds of calls placed over a
period of a few weeks, all to
the technician in question, the
last logged in at 6:36 AM
on the day Kay Sybers died.
|
| 00:02:56 | >> Personally, I believe he
called her and said he's
finished.
|
| 00:02:59 | I have nothing to base it on
other than the... through the
course of the investigation, but
I believe he let her know then
what had happened.
|
| 00:03:09 | >> KURTIS: Sanderson believes he
has credible evidence
establishing why Kay Sybers was
killed.
|
| 00:03:16 | It is the how that remains a
problem.
|
| 00:03:19 | Without some evidence tying Bill
Sybers to his wife's mysterious
heart attack, state prosecutors
refuse to issue a warrant for
the doctor's arrest, and the
case goes cold.
|
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until tragedy strikes again and
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| 00:08:23 | >> KURTIS: A woman dies suddenly
at home.
|
| 00:08:25 | Her husband is Dr. Bill Sybers,
medical examiner for Bay County.
|
| 00:08:30 | He orders the body not to be
autopsied and sends it on to the
funeral home.
|
| 00:08:37 | Less than six hours after she
died, Kay Sybers's body is
drained of blood and embalmed.
|
| 00:08:44 | At about the same time, police
are beginning to take an
interest, wondering how an
apparently healthy woman could
die so suddenly.
|
| 00:08:53 | The body is retrieved from the
funeral home.
|
| 00:08:56 | An examination reveals Kay
Sybers's heart to be healthy and
two mysterious needle marks on
her right arm.
|
| 00:09:04 | Because Kay Sybers was embalmed,
any traces of poison have been
flushed from her system.
|
| 00:09:10 | The events have the look and
feel of murder.
|
| 00:09:12 | With no hard evidence, however,
the case stalls.
|
| 00:09:16 | A year later, Dennis Norred
picks up the file.
|
| 00:09:20 | >> The thing you've got to focus
on is I've got a body, and I
know that this person shouldn't
be dead, because the medical
examiner that did the autopsy is
telling me she shouldn't be
dead.
|
| 00:09:32 | And then why is she dead?
|
| 00:09:34 | >> KURTIS: Norred believes the
answer to that question rests
with Bill Sybers.
|
| 00:09:38 | As a doctor, Sybers would know
how to induce a heart attack,
and as a medical examiner, he
had the opportunity to cover his
tracks.
|
| 00:09:47 | Norred is not alone in
suspecting Sybers of killing his
wife.
|
| 00:09:51 | As Norred discovers, some of
those closest to the doctor feel
the same way.
|
| 00:10:06 | In 1993, Kim Shiro is a graduate
student at Harvard University.
|
| 00:10:11 | On a Sunday morning, she gets a
call from one of her closest
friends.
|
| 00:10:15 | Tim Sybers is the son of Bill
and Kay Sybers.
|
| 00:10:20 | >> He just kept saying how he
couldn't live with the
information he had, he could
never face his dad again, this
is really too much on his head,
on his heart.
|
| 00:10:30 | Out of respect for his mom, he
just felt like he couldn't
continue on.
|
| 00:10:34 | >> KURTIS: From the time of his
mother's sudden death more than
a year earlier, Tim Sybers has
struggled with depression.
|
| 00:10:40 | Increasingly, he has become
convinced that his mother was
murdered and that his father was
her killer.
|
| 00:10:46 | Although half a continent away,
Kim Shiro hangs on to Tim's
voice at the other end of the
line.
|
| 00:10:53 | At one point in the rambling
conversation, Kim hears a
strange noise.
|
| 00:10:57 | >> I heard him blowing into
something and not knowing what
it was.
|
| 00:11:01 | I'd say, "Tim, what's that
noise?"
And he would say, "Oh, it's the
wind."
To me, it sounded like a Coke
bottle.
|
| 00:11:07 | I'd say, "Tim, what is that
noise?"
And he would just laugh, and he
just said, "You know, you're a
wonderful friend to me.
|
| 00:11:12 | I care about you."
And he said, "But I just can't
take it anymore."
And with that, I heard a noise.
|
| 00:11:18 | I literally thought that they
were-- and I always described it
the same way-- that they were
dishes, and they just fell.
|
| 00:11:23 | And I didn't know what that
noise... and I kept saying,
"Tim," you know, over and over,
"Tim, Tim," and no response.
|
| 00:11:32 | >> KURTIS: The wind that Kim
Shiro hears is Tim Sybers
blowing into the barrel of a gun
he holds close to the phone.
|
| 00:11:39 | The sound of dishes falling is
actually the discharge of the
gun, a self-inflicted wound that
kills 27-year-old Tim Sybers
almost immediately.
|
| 00:11:49 | >> It's something that never
goes away.
|
| 00:11:52 | It's something that is truly
haunting.
|
| 00:11:54 | And for me, he was a dear
friend, but putting myself in
his position now, I can see
that, you know, the ghosts that
were following him for those two
and a half years were much more
frightening to deal with.
|
| 00:12:05 | >> KURTIS: As Tim Sybers lies
dead on the floor of his
family's home in Wisconsin,
Detective Dennis Norred is paged
with the news.
|
| 00:12:13 | >> And I said, "Can you hold the
crime scene for me?
|
| 00:12:16 | I'll get on the next plane that
I can get on."
>> KURTIS: Norred arrives in
Door County and heads for the
Sybers's home, hoping to
discover why Tim Sybers
suspected his dad, but finds no
such clue in the details of
Sybers's suicide.
|
| 00:12:31 | Meanwhile, Kim Shiro attempts to
get in touch with Dr. Sybers to
tell him what has occurred.
|
| 00:12:37 | She is unable to do so and, in
the days subsequent, never gets
a return call from the doctor.
|
| 00:12:43 | >> I never, ever heard from him.
|
| 00:12:44 | I was just advised-- I guess it
was, like, on Tuesday, I had a
call from a lawyer on behalf of
the family just saying, you
know, it's a private... it's a
private funeral and that I
shouldn't go.
|
| 00:12:57 | I was told not to go.
|
| 00:12:59 | >> KURTIS: Tim Sybers's suicide
and Dr. Sybers's reaction to it
convinces Norred he's on the
right track-- that Bill Sybers
is directly responsible for the
death of his wife and now
indirectly responsible for the
suicide death of his son.
|
| 00:13:13 | Searching for a case to support
those suspicions, Norred returns
to the only piece of evidence he
has, Kay Sybers's body.
|
| 00:13:32 | In order to discover exactly how
Kay Sybers died, Norred convenes
a brainstorming session with
some of the brightest minds in
forensic science.
|
| 00:13:41 | They begin by reviewing the
details of the autopsy.
|
| 00:13:45 | Then they draft an unusual top-
ten list.
|
| 00:13:48 | >> We created a list of poisons
that would be the best type
poisons to be used in... if you
wanted to kill somebody.
|
| 00:13:58 | One of the first things that we
were told in one of these
meetings was that the ocular
fluid showed elevated levels of
potassium.
|
| 00:14:08 | >> KURTIS: Potassium-- a small
amount keeps the body healthy,
too much stops the heart dead.
|
| 00:14:14 | In Kay Sybers's case, the ME's
report shows elevated levels in
fluid drawn from the eyes.
|
| 00:14:20 | Norred wants to learn more, so
he takes the only part of Kay
Sybers's body that's still above
ground-- organ samples taken
from the body at autopsy-- and
sends them to a lab that blazes
the trail for others in the
field of forensic toxicology.
|
| 00:14:50 | Dr. Frederic Rieders is the
founder of National Medical
Services, a leader in the field
of toxicology analysis.
|
| 00:14:57 | Before reviewing Kay Sybers's
case, Rieders gives Norred a
primer on potassium chloride.
|
| 00:15:04 | He explains that it is a
particularly fine choice for
murder, that in fact, it is the
third and final drug used in
executions by lethal injection.
|
| 00:15:15 | >> Now, if you inject potassium,
death can be very quick, and so
that it doesn't have a chance to
go all the way throughout the
body, but it goes from the
injection to the heart and stops
the heart.
|
| 00:15:30 | >> KURTIS: Rieders attempts to
measure the potassium levels in
Kay Sybers's autopsy samples.
|
| 00:15:34 | Unfortunately, the samples are a
mixture of blood and embalming
fluid, making an accurate
reading all but impossible.
|
| 00:15:42 | In this sea of ambiguity,
however, Rieders finds an
anchor: iron.
|
| 00:15:46 | In normal human blood, iron
exists in a ratio of one to one
with potassium.
|
| 00:15:51 | That ratio, Rieders believes,
should remain unaffected by the
introduction of embalming fluid,
which contains neither potassium
nor iron.
|
| 00:16:01 | >> That's the assumption.
|
| 00:16:02 | And then from there it follows
that if potassium is
administered in addition to that
which is present, the ratio of
potassium will go up; that of
iron will remain the same.
|
| 00:16:14 | >> KURTIS: Rieders compares the
levels of iron in Kay Sybers's
organ samples to her potassium
levels.
|
| 00:16:20 | What he uncovers is perhaps the
first misstep made by Kay
Sybers's killer.
|
| 00:16:26 | >> I know in one of the
specimens, the ratio was eight
parts of potassium to one part
of iron in the blood.
|
| 00:16:33 | So that's way... it's not a
percentage, but it's way high.
|
| 00:16:36 | In my opinion, this indicated
that potassium had been brought
into that fluid by injection.
|
| 00:16:47 | >> KURTIS: Investigators take
Rieders's findings to a judge
and ask that the rest of Kay
Sybers's body be exhumed.
|
| 00:16:54 | The court, however, rejects
Rieders's science as too new.
|
| 00:16:58 | His conclusion is nothing more
than speculation.
|
| 00:17:01 | Kay Sybers's body remains in its
grave, and the case against Dr.
|
| 00:17:05 | Bill Sybers remains in dry dock.[ Female
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| 00:21:56 | >> KURTIS: Six years removed
from his wife's death and five
years from his son's suicide,
Bill Sybers enjoys the gentle
breeze of good fortune with a
busy medical practice, extensive
real-estate holdings, and a net
worth of $6.5 million.
|
| 00:22:11 | The county medical examiner is
living the good life in
Florida's panhandle, until a
district attorney named Harry
Shorstein decides to pull the
plug.
|
| 00:22:23 | >> What I thought was very clear
was the defendant's explanation
of what had occurred.
|
| 00:22:31 | It just didn't make sense.
|
| 00:22:34 | >> KURTIS: In 1991, Dr. Sybers
told detectives his wife died of
a heart attack, despite the fact
that an autopsy revealed her
heart to be healthy and normal.
|
| 00:22:43 | When mysterious needle marks
turned up on Kay Sybers's arm,
Dr. Sybers explained that his
wife had suffered heart problems
the night before.
|
| 00:22:52 | Fearing she was a diabetic,
Sybers claimed he drew blood
from her arm to check her blood
sugar, then went back to bed.
|
| 00:23:00 | Shorstein doesn't believe a word
of it.
|
| 00:23:03 | >> It's really just a manner of
common sense.
|
| 00:23:05 | If you believed that your wife
was having an acute heart
episode that you believed was
actually a potentially fatal
heart attack, there are really
only two things you can do, and
that's call 911 and have an
ambulance come or rush your wife
to the emergency room.
|
| 00:23:24 | There are no other alternatives.
|
| 00:23:27 | >> KURTIS: three prior DAs had
reviewed the case against
Sybers, but declined to press
charges due to a lack of
evidence.
|
| 00:23:34 | Harry Shorstein is not deterred.
|
| 00:23:36 | In February 1997, a grand jury
returns an indictment for
murder.
|
| 00:23:42 | Dr. Sybers is arrested.
|
| 00:23:44 | Less than 24 hours later, he
makes bail.
|
| 00:23:46 | Harry Shorstein's case is based
almost entirely on circumstance
and speculation.
|
| 00:23:52 | The trial will be a short one,
most likely ending in an
acquittal unless the state can
develop some concrete proof that
Kay Sybers died not from a heart
attack, but from poison.
|
| 00:24:14 | Five years earlier a group of
toxicologists drew up a top-ten
list of poisons Kay Sybers could
have been injected with.
|
| 00:24:23 | At the top of the list:
potassium chloride.
|
| 00:24:26 | High levels of it were found in
organs preserved from Kay
Sybers's body, but the science
underlying those findings was
thrown out of court.
|
| 00:24:34 | Next on the list of possible
poisons is succinylcholine.
|
| 00:24:38 | As a paralyzing agent, the drug
is commonly used in open-heart
surgery.
|
| 00:24:44 | As a murder weapon, it is
thought to be practically
perfect because it breaks down
quickly in the body.
|
| 00:24:51 | Forensic toxicologist Kevin
Ballard is asked to screen for
the drug.
|
| 00:24:55 | What he discovers is a profile
for succinylmonocholine, a by-
product of succinylcholine and a
clear footprint of the poison's
presence in Kay Sybers's body.
|
| 00:25:06 | >> These were pretty high
levels.
|
| 00:25:10 | These were unquestionably
toxicologically significant
levels.
|
| 00:25:15 | It's not just a little residue.
|
| 00:25:16 | This is enough to affect
somebody.
|
| 00:25:20 | >> KURTIS: After seven years,
Kevin Ballard appears to provide
investigators with the hard
evidence they need to turn a
simple heart attack into murder
and a county coroner into a
killer.
|
| 00:25:32 | Harry Shorstein, however, is not
satisfied and decides to seek a
second opinion.
|
| 00:25:49 | In 1999, the FBI has the only
lab in the United States that
can duplicate Ballard's tests.
|
| 00:25:56 | Forensic toxicologist Marc
LeBeau uses a machine similar to
Ballard's and inputs the same
samples.
|
| 00:26:04 | >> Not only did our lab
independently verify its
existence from the results of
National Medical Service, but
within this lab, I myself did
the analysis, and I had two
other technicians perform the
same analysis independent of me,
and we all ultimately identified
succinylmonocholine in that
tissue specimen, the kidney.
|
| 00:26:25 | >> KURTIS: The FBI's
confirmation comes not a moment
too soon.
|
| 00:26:29 | The capital murder trial of Dr.
|
| 00:26:31 | Sybers is set to begin.
|
| 00:26:48 | If there's a crack in the
prosecution's case, it's that
their theory appears to have
changed.
|
| 00:26:54 | First they said potassium
chloride killed Kay Sybers.
|
| 00:26:58 | Now succinylcholine, a drug
often used in surgery, is the
poison.
|
| 00:27:03 | Ballard and LeBeau come to court
ready to explain the apparent
inconsistency.
|
| 00:27:08 | >> It's in pharmacology
textbooks that succinylcholine
and related drugs causes an
increased release in potassium.
|
| 00:27:16 | In fact, it's a common side
effect of the drugs.
|
| 00:27:20 | >> KURTIS: LeBeau then provides
the jury with a blow by blow of
death by succinylcholine
poisoning.
|
| 00:27:26 | The drug paralyzes all the
muscles, including the
diaphragm, the muscle that opens
the rib cage to suck in air.
|
| 00:27:34 | >> It would be a very traumatic
death to the individual because
they would be conscious and
realize that they were not able
to move or breath.
|
| 00:27:45 | >> KURTIS: When Kevin Ballard
takes the stand, the defense
asks a particularly cutting
question.
|
| 00:27:52 | If succinylcholine is so
unstable, how did Ballard find
it after the body was embalmed
and the organ sample sat on a
shelf for eight years?
|
| 00:28:02 | Ballard's answer goes back to a
decision that was made right
after Kay died-- the decision to
immediately embalm her body.
|
| 00:28:10 | >> Embalming, actually, it can
work both ways.
|
| 00:28:12 | Depending upon the compound, it
can result in preservation, or
it can result in destruction.
|
| 00:28:17 | Our experience has been that the
embalming process actually helps
preserve succinylmonocholine and
makes it a little easier to
detect.
|
| 00:28:25 | >> KURTIS: According to Ballard,
the fluid used to embalm Kay
Sybers helped to preserve the
poison that killed her and to
make the state's case for
murder.
|
| 00:28:34 | According to prosecutors, the
decision to embalm also went
directly to premeditation and
transformed this murder into a
death-penalty case.
|
| 00:28:45 | >> This was a brilliant murder.
|
| 00:28:47 | I thought it was much more
aggravated than many, many
murders I've prosecuted where
the death penalty was given.
|
| 00:28:58 | >> KURTIS: On the issue of
Sybers's guilt, the jury agrees
with Shorstein.
|
| 00:29:02 | >> We, the jury, find the
defendant guilty of first-degree
murder as charged in the
indictment.
|
| 00:29:08 | >> KURTIS: The jury sentences
Bill Sybers to a term of life in
prison.
|
| 00:29:14 | That verdict, however, is not
the end of the road.
|
| 00:29:18 | In February 2003, the doctor is
granted a new trial by a Florida
appeals court.
|
| 00:29:24 | Bill Sybers then pleads guilty
to manslaughter and is sentenced
to time served.
|
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| 00:34:06 | >> He went to pull the blanket
out of the bag, and something
fell at his feet.
|
| 00:34:10 | And he went to hollering, "Mama,
there's something dead in it.
|
| 00:34:15 | >> This was a place where
someone was leaving babies, and
had done it twice.
|
| 00:34:35 | >> KURTIS: In Chilton County,
Alabama, Rebecca Mims works a
minimum- wage job and lives in a
travel trailer sized eight feet
by 14.
|
| 00:34:44 | In the summer of 1996, Mims
decides to upgrade to a bigger
trailer home.
|
| 00:34:51 | >> I was living in a eight-by-14
travel trailer with no restroom
or anything, and this was ten by
40, ten by 50, and it had a real
bedroom in it and a real
bathroom.
|
| 00:35:04 | >> KURTIS: Rebecca buys the
trailer for $500.
|
| 00:35:07 | Inside it she finds a few years
worth of trash.
|
| 00:35:10 | Undeterred, Rebecca and her son
begin to clean.
|
| 00:35:14 | A few hours into the job,
Rebecca's son finds a blanket
inside a bag of garbage.
|
| 00:35:20 | >> He went to pulling the
blanket out of the bag, and
something fell at his feet,
which I thought was a baby doll.
|
| 00:35:28 | And he told me it wasn't, that I
better come look.
|
| 00:35:31 | >> KURTIS: Rebecca looks at the
baby doll and discovers it is
actually the mummified remains
of what appears to be an infant.
|
| 00:35:39 | Rebecca calls the Chilton County
Sheriff's Department, who
process the crime scene and
remove the infant's remains.
|
| 00:35:47 | After police leave, Rebecca and
her son continue to clean,
trying to forget what just
happened, until Rebecca's son
picks up another blanket from
the floor of the trailer home.
|
| 00:35:58 | >> Well, he stepped in the door
and took the blanket and took it
outside.
|
| 00:36:04 | And he went to hollering, "Mama,
there's something dead in it."
And I said, "No, there's not."
He said, "Yes, it is."
>> KURTIS: Inside the second
blanket, Rebecca finds the
skeletal remains of a second
baby.
|
| 00:36:16 | A team of county police returns
to the trailer.
|
| 00:36:18 | State medical examiner Jim
Lauridson is also called in to
work the scene.
|
| 00:36:23 | >> I had never seen two infants
in that close a proximity, and
obviously they had not died at
the same time.
|
| 00:36:32 | This was unusual.
|
| 00:36:33 | This was a place where someone
was leaving babies and had done
it twice.
|
| 00:36:42 | >> KURTIS: Detectives begin
their investigation by tracing
the trailer's history-- who
owned it and when.
|
| 00:36:49 | Chief investigator Butch Naish
traces ownership papers to a
local named Odis Baker.
|
| 00:36:55 | Baker tells police he owned the
trailer for 15 to 20 years.
|
| 00:36:59 | Most of the time he had left it
derelict on the back end of a
piece of farmland.
|
| 00:37:04 | Naish asks Baker who might have
had access to the trailer.
|
| 00:37:08 | >> He told me that his
granddaughter Susan had used the
trailer as a playhouse after it
was abandoned.
|
| 00:37:16 | >> KURTIS: Susan Connell is
actually Odis Baker's niece.
|
| 00:37:19 | In 1996, she is 18 years old--
old enough to have given birth
to two children and left them to
die in a trailer.
|
| 00:37:27 | When asked about the infants,
however, Connell claims to know
nothing.
|
| 00:37:32 | >> She acted like she was
shocked about the whole
incident, you know?
|
| 00:37:35 | She couldn't believe it that,
you know, the babies were found
there or anything, like she had
no knowledge of .
|
| 00:37:42 | >> KURTIS: Naish is not
satisfied with the flat denial.
|
| 00:37:45 | He puts his ear to the ground
and listens to the rumor mill
that churns its way through
Chilton County.
|
| 00:37:52 | The rumblings center on Susan's
past.
|
| 00:37:55 | >> Once people found out about
it, you know, my phone started
ringing off the hook, everybody
calling saying, "Well, I saw
her, and she was pregnant back
in '93, and, you know, I saw her
at the restaurant in '94, and
she was pregnant again."
>> KURTIS: Complete medical
records documenting Susan
Connell's pregnancies do not
exist.
|
| 00:38:15 | The only chance to link her to
the two infants is through
science.
|
| 00:38:20 | >> We drew the blood on... about
two days after the babies were
found.
|
| 00:38:24 | The next day it was turned over
to the FBI, and that was in
August of '96.
|
| 00:38:30 | We received the results back in
August of '98, so it took, you
know, two years.
|
| 00:38:36 | >> KURTIS: Lab results indicate
that Susan Connell is indeed the
natural mother of the two
infants.
|
| 00:38:42 | That, however, is not enough.
|
| 00:38:44 | In order to support a criminal
charge for murder, investigators
must also establish that the
infants were born alive in the
first place.
|
| 00:38:53 | >> Our usual methods, such as
looking for aeration in the
lungs-- has a child taken a
breath, has a child swallowed,
has it been fed?-- those sorts
of changes that are important
clues for the medical examiner
were all absent in this case.
|
| 00:39:11 | So it was impossible for me to
establish whether they were
stillborn infants or whether
they were born alive.
|
| 00:39:20 | >> KURTIS: Without a life, there
can be no death.
|
| 00:39:23 | It is a simple fact that stops
this investigation cold, until
cold-case detectives reopen the
case and approach Susan Connell
about two births she would
rather forget.
|
| 00:39:37 | >> All I remember is I was
upstairs in my bedroom, and I
started cramping really bad, and
I didn't know what it was.
|
| 00:39:45 | I mean, I had no clue, and I
ended up having the baby.
|
| 00:39:52 | And I wrapped it up in a blanket
and brought it to a trailer.
|
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| 00:44:40 | >> KURTIS: Summer has come and
gone twice over since the
remains of two infants were
found wrapped in blankets and
left among the garbage inside an
old mobile home.
|
| 00:44:51 | Suspicion still swirls around a
teenaged girl as the one who, on
two separate occasions, left the
infants to die.
|
| 00:44:59 | While Susan Connell denies she
was ever pregnant, science puts
the lie to her claim.
|
| 00:45:04 | DNA tests prove Connell gave
birth to both children, but no
tests could determine if the
infants actually were born
alive.
|
| 00:45:13 | Without a life, there can be no
criminal case for murder, and
the case goes cold.
|
| 00:45:33 | In January of 1999, there's a
new sheriff in town, one who
wants to put this investigation
back on track.
|
| 00:45:41 | >> The case bothered me from day
one, and I said if I ever got an
opportunity to be the sheriff of
this county, I would reopen the
case and see, you know, if we
could solve it.
|
| 00:45:52 | >> KURTIS: Fulmer puts his two
best men on the case-- a couple
of young guns named Jay Edwards
and Scotty Wells.
|
| 00:46:01 | >> We got together, and we had a
case conference where we all
discussed and sort of
brainstormed over what we needed
to do.
|
| 00:46:10 | >> Something as traumatic as
childbirth and then placing the
child into a trailer and
allowing it to die has to affect
people, no matter how cold-
hearted you may think they are.
|
| 00:46:20 | And we think it was just a
matter of approaching her the
right way so that she could
release some of this guilt.
|
| 00:46:26 | >> KURTIS: By 1999, Susan
Connell is 21, married with one
child and another on the way.
|
| 00:46:33 | FBI profilers suggest that a
middle-aged man and younger
female detective might have the
best chance of connecting with
Connell.
|
| 00:46:41 | The former will act as a father
figure.
|
| 00:46:44 | The latter should be a mother
herself.
|
| 00:46:47 | Lynn Rhodes from the Alabama
Bureau of Investigations and
Greg Shaner from the FBI's
Violent Crime Task Force are
chosen for the job.
|
| 00:46:55 | Their assignment: Get susan
talking.
|
| 00:47:01 | >> You can call me Lynn and call
him Shaner.
|
| 00:47:04 | Susan okay with you?
|
| 00:47:05 | Just call you Susan?
|
| 00:47:06 | >> Uh-huh, uh-huh.
|
| 00:47:07 | >> KURTIS: On April 21, 1999,
Shaner and Rhodes pick Susan
Connell up for questioning.
|
| 00:47:18 | >> KURTIS: For over two hours,
Connell vehemently denies the
two infants were hers, even
after being confronted with the
DNA proof.
|
| 00:47:43 | >> KURTIS: Early on it is Rhodes
who connects with Connell,
coaxing her into the first and
critical step-- acknowledging
the infants were hers.
|
| 00:48:04 | >> I could tell she was
embarrassed responding to some
of the questions that Rhodes
were asking her.
|
| 00:48:09 | I would purposely get up during
the interview sometimes and walk
out of the room, hoping...
|
| 00:48:14 | And I think the second time that
I actually left the room is when
she told Rhodes that they were
her babies.
|
| 00:48:20 | >> I was sitting in front of
her, holding her hands, and she
began to cry.
|
| 00:48:25 | And I said, "Susan, I'm not here
to judge you.
|
| 00:48:27 | I just want to help.
|
| 00:48:29 | I want us to get some closure
regarding these infants, your
babies."
And she said, "Yes, they're
mine."
>> KURTIS: Two and a half hours
into the interview, Susan admits
she gave birth at home, alone
and unassisted, to both babies.
|
| 00:49:02 | Connell does not, however,
indicate that the babies were
born alive.
|
| 00:49:17 | Nine days later, the three sit
down again.
|
| 00:49:22 | Shaner and Rhodes press Susan
for details.
|
| 00:49:25 | Susan begins by describing the
birth of her first child.
|
| 00:49:28 | She was 15 and gave birth in her
parents' bathroom using her
father's mustache scissors to
cut the umbilical cord.
|
| 00:49:48 | >> KURTIS: According to Connell,
she went back to the trailer the
next day to see if she could
hear the baby crying.
|
| 00:50:03 | >> KURTIS: Connell's second baby
came at least two years later,
when she was living at an
apartment complex on the other
side of town.
|
| 00:50:17 | >> KURTIS: Connell cites an
abusive home life as her reason
for dumping both babies.
|
| 00:50:40 | >> KURTIS: Agent Lynn Rhodes
says she can perhaps accept that
reasoning as mitigation for the
first infant, but not the
second.
|
| 00:50:48 | >> I think one thing was "I got
away with it before."
Number two, her family would not
have been supportive of her
having an abortion or her
adopting their grandchild out to
someone they didn't know.
|
| 00:51:03 | So I think she thought this is
the easy way out.
|
| 00:51:07 | >> KURTIS: After her confession
is committed to paper, Susan
Connell is eventually taken to
the Chilton County jail and
booked on two counts of murder.
|
| 00:51:15 | She pleads guilty to both counts
and is sentenced to 20 years in
prison.
|
| 00:51:32 | Susan Connell spends her days
here at the Tutwiler Prison for
Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.
|
| 00:51:39 | Only six months into her
sentence, Susan has still had
plenty of time to reflect on how
she got here.
|
| 00:51:46 | >> If I had it all over to do
again, I would give my own life
before I would do that.
|
| 00:51:51 | There might have... might have
been other options at that time
when that happened, but I did
not see it.
|
| 00:51:57 | I didn't see it at all.
|
| 00:52:00 | All I saw was death for me.
|
| 00:52:05 | I mean, that's all I saw.
|
| 00:52:08 | >> KURTIS: Connell harkens back
to the fall of her 15th year and
the night she told her father
she was pregnant.
|
| 00:52:15 | >> When I told him I was
pregnant, he said he would fix
that problem.
|
| 00:52:19 | He went out to his truck or
somewhere and got a gun, came
back in, held it to my stomach,
and then he brought it to my
head.
|
| 00:52:27 | And when he went to pull the
trigger, I hit his hand, and he
shot a hole in the ceiling at my
mother's house.
|
| 00:52:33 | >> KURTIS: Although some in
Chilton County doubted Connell's
story at the time of her arrest,
Cold Case Fileshas unearthed a
police report that substantiates
her claim.
|
| 00:52:43 | Michael Connell was arrested
that night, but the case was
subsequently dropped.
|
| 00:52:48 | As to the critical issue,
whether the infants found inside
the trailer were born alive,
Connell claims she actually
never admitted that during
questioning and to this day
simply cannot remember.
|
| 00:53:00 | >> I do not know.
|
| 00:53:02 | I never... I mean, when it
happened, all I remember doing
is covering them up.
|
| 00:53:09 | That's all I remember.
|
| 00:53:11 | >> KURTIS: But in a statement
signed by Connell, she admits
she returned to the trailer
after the first baby was born to
see if she could hear it crying.
|
| 00:53:21 | More than two years later, she
drove around town with the
second baby in the back of her
van and the radio turned up
loud.
|
| 00:53:29 | >> She gets in the van, and
she's driving back to the
abandoned trailer when she hears
the baby crying.
|
| 00:53:36 | So she turns the radio up
really, really loud in the van
so that she couldn't hear the
baby crying.
|
| 00:53:42 | >> KURTIS: Whatever Susan
Connell does or does not
remember, her focus now is on
the future, doing her time at
Tutwiler and getting on with her
life.
|
| 00:53:54 | Connell says her case doesn't
compare to others where mothers
have killed their children.
|
| 00:53:59 | >> In my opinion, when I see
other cases similar to mine on
TV, it makes me sick.
|
| 00:54:04 | I think they should get death...
|
| 00:54:05 | you know, death row.
|
| 00:54:07 | I mean, it makes me really... it
really aggravates me, and I
mean, I can't stand it.
|
| 00:54:13 | And it's hard for me to look at
myself and see myself in them
(male narrator)
For Homicide detectives,
the clock starts ticking
the moment they are called.
|
| 00:54:34 | (Miguelez)
It looks like something else
went on up here.
|
| 00:54:39 | There's a blood trail that leads
from here, all the way around.
|
| 00:54:44 | The guy that you know,
that's the guy I'm looking for.
|
| 00:54:48 | They shot him?
|
| 00:54:48 | (Miguelez)
They shot him.
|
| 00:54:49 | (narrator)
Their chance of solving a murder
is cut in half...
|
| 00:54:53 | (man)
No, he never went
inside that building.
|
| 00:54:55 | (narrator)
If they don't get a lead...
|
| 00:54:58 | Yo, baby!
|
| 00:54:59 | (narrator)
Within the first 48 hours.
|
| 00:55:02 | (Castellanos)
He's going to be out there.
|
| 00:55:04 | He's going to be out there.
|
| 00:55:22 | (narrator)
It's 3:00 a.m.
|
| 00:55:22 | on a balmy spring night.
|
| 00:55:29 | [speaking gibberish]
That's what it sounds like,
to our
English speaking audience.
|
| 00:55:34 | (Castellanos)
Who needs vitamin supplements?
|
| 00:55:37 | The nectar
of the midnight personas.
|
| 00:55:39 | (narrator)
Detective Carlos Castellanos
and Detective Manny Castillo
work Miami Homicide's
night shift.
|
| 00:55:49 | (Castillo)
Know when you have
that fresh cup of coffee
and that feeling that
comes over you like that?
|
| 00:55:54 | You can rule the world.
|
| 00:55:56 | Right here.
|
| 00:55:59 | (narrator)
Meanwhile in Little Havana:
[dog howling]
(narrator)
The victim is rushed
to the hospital
but dies in the ER.
|
| 00:56:28 | (Castellanos)
We're on our way
to the scene.
|
| 00:56:31 | Information we have is,
our victim was stabbed
multiple times.
|
| 00:56:37 | We don't got
a body there,
so we'll see what we got
when we get there.
|
| 00:56:54 | Man, but look
at this blood.
|
| 00:57:03 | Mira.
|
| 00:57:06 | Oh, yeah.
|
| 00:57:09 | (Castillo)
It was very,
very gruesome attack.
|
| 00:57:14 | Somebody was angry
from the core.
|
| 00:57:19 | This had to have been
from the neck.
|
| 00:57:24 | When he--when he
hit him here,
it just went boop.
|
| 00:57:28 | (woman)
Arterial spray.
|
| 00:57:33 | That's him.
|
| 00:57:36 | (narrator)
The victim is 35-year-old
Julio Argueta
Julio came from El Salvador
20 years ago
to make a new life
for himself.
|
| 00:57:47 | There's his passport.
|
| 00:57:49 | (narrator)
He had recently become
an American citizen.
|
| 00:57:55 | There was some sort
of a struggle in here.
|
| 00:57:59 | Our offender arms himself
with a knife
and starts to, basically,
bludgeon this guy.
|
| 00:58:05 | I think one person
took this picture frame down
and then came in
to this part of the room.
|
| 00:58:12 | And then the person
who followed cut himself,
by walking on top of it.
|
| 00:58:19 | You know, I'd say
our offender has
some sort of an injury
to his foot from the glass.
|
| 00:58:26 | According to the people
who live next door,
at 10:00 at night,
there was music on.
|
| 00:58:35 | There's a condom.
|
| 00:58:36 | Pair of, like, underwear,
boxer-type shorts
and a pair of shorts.
|
| 00:58:40 | Well, look, he even got
the oil up there on the bed,
so something was getting ready
to go down.
|
| 00:58:46 | This is all going
to be probably offender.
|
| 00:58:48 | That's gonna be
the offender's shoe.
|
| 00:58:51 | Then there's women's clothing
up here.
|
| 00:58:58 | Our victim is a man,
yet we have a wig,
fake breast,
some female's clothing,
[cell phone rings]
(narrator)
Castellanos gets a call
from the victim's employer.
|
| 00:59:10 | When Julio didn't
show up for work,
his boss began
to worry.
|
| 00:59:15 | (Castellanos)
He was taking treatments?
|
| 00:59:17 | And he'd--so he'd always
identified himself as Julie,
took on the role
of a woman.
|
| 00:59:23 | (narrator)
The boss tells Castellanos
that Julio Argueta
was a transsexual.
|
| 00:59:32 | (Castellanos)
He was a man on paper,
but he not only wanted
to be a woman,
but acted as if he were a woman;
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