48 Hours - Post Mortem | The Puzzling Death of Susann Sills

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Correspondent Tracy Smith and Producer Gayane Keshishyan Mendez discuss the case of Susann Sills, a mother of twins who was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in the home she shared with her husband, a renowned fertility doctor. The team discusses the 911 call made by Dr. Sills, the police interview with a woman investigators believed he was courting, and the defense’s unusual theory that the family dogs were involved in Susann's death.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Hello and welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host, Anne-Marie Green, and today we're talking about the case of Suzanne Sills, who was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in her Orange County, California home. Now, her husband, a renowned fertility doctor, claims that she fell and her death was

an accident. But later, he's charged with her murder. So joining me now to discuss the final episode of this season are 48 Hours correspondent Tracy Smith and producer Gayan Kashishian-Mendez. Tracy, Gayan, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having us. Thank you. All right, everyone, before we dive in, a quick reminder for our listeners to go first and watch or listen to this episode. The title is The Puzzling Death of Suzanne Sills. You can find the full audio just below this episode in your podcast feed. So go listen if you haven't already and then come join us for our conversation. All right, here we go.

So there's something really unusual about this case. It's that Susanna's husband is a doctor. And you would imagine that if you're going to have an accident at home and fall down your stairs, this is the best case scenario. The doctor is already there. So we heard some portions of the 911 call that he made on that morning, Sunday, November 13th, 2016. We want to play some of it because there are a few points that really jumped out at me right away. Okay. And what's happened? We've got a patient here who's fallen upstairs and I don't have a pulse and she's cold and I don't know what time this happened. Oh, okay. So is Okay, so she's not breathing? No, she's not breathing.

She's not breathing. Okay, sir, I've got help being sent while we're talking. Is there anybody else there with you? Oh, yes, our whole family's here. Okay, let's get her down on a hard, flat surface on her back. Okay. We're going to give you instructions while paramedics are driving. I'm going to put you on speakerphone. Hang on a minute.

Okay. Can you hear me okay? I can still hear you, sir. You found her down at the bottom of the stairs? Yeah, partially on the stairs. Okay. Looks like her shoe come off or something. So you want me to put her on her back? Right, on her back, flat on her back. Why is he acting like he doesn't know CPR? He's a doctor. That's a really good point. And it's something that was debated at the trial. The 911 call was actually played several times, both by the prosecution and the defense. She really dissected it from the perspective of look at all these things that sound different than what you would expect a person who's just of fiddling around trying to find something called a pulse oximeter, which measures if you're breathing, if you have a heartbeat. And so he waits about five minutes before he actually starts administering the CPR. And, you know, I think we all know that it's key to start doing CPR right away. The prosecution said that this 911 call is really just a setup for him to tell his story for the first time.

And he knows that she's dead. There's nothing he can do. So he's just sort of biding his time and going through the motions. But then he also calls her the patient. So Jack Early, the defense attorney for Dr. Sills, says, yes, he calls her the patient, but he's in doctor mode. So he is maybe detaching himself a little bit, but that's because he's gone into doctor mode now. He's getting the pulse ox

because the 911 operator asked if she was alive. So his thought is, I can get the pulse ox to operator asked if she was alive. So his thought is, I can get the pulse ox to find out if she's alive. This is what Jack Early is telling us. He also was saying he's not doing CPR every day in his IVF practice. So of course, he's maybe a little rusty on CPR. And he also argues that Mary Catherine, the daughter, is sitting there. Would Mary Catherine be in on this conspiracy? This is what Jack Early's asking me. That she would see her father not doing CPR and not say something? Okay, those are all really, really interesting points that I had not considered. So, a year after Suzanne's death, the coroner's office finally cited her cause of death as

ligature strangulation and the manner a homicide. Out of curiosity, why did it take a year to come to a conclusion? Or is that a standard length of time? It's something that was brought up at trial and something that Jack Early, the defense attorney, kind of went after the fact that it took a year to get this ruling for the cause of death and made the case that the forensic pathologist was essentially on the prosecution's team, you know, working with the investigators rather than being sort of an objective, scientific mind looking at the case. And when the forensic pathologist who did the autopsy was on the stand, the defense attorney tried to say that she kind of arbitrarily picked the cause of death and waited until there was more from the investigation so that she could figure out which one fit best and chose that conclusion.

But the investigators say, look, she just wanted to be careful. She wanted to look at all the facts. And the forensic pathologist does look at evidence in the case. They're not looking at just the body. So in this case, she saw early on that there was a C3 fracture and the ligature mark. And she indicated all of the injuries, you know, on a diagram right away, but she didn't draw her conclusions until she actually saw some crime scene photos and found out about the blood in the room. ligature marks could have been made by Sill's two dogs pulling at the scarf around Suzanne's neck after she'd already fallen down the stairs. How did that argument stand up at trial? I know they showed pictures of the dogs playing tug of war. I don't know if you guys are pet people. I think anyone who has had a dog knows they play tug of war, but I don't know with your scarf around your neck. Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting point, Anne-Marie.

The forensic pathologist testified at trial that the ligature mark required a sustained even pull on both sides. And the jurors discussed this when they went into deliberations. The dogs would have had to be pulling evenly at the same time. And the other thing that the jurors brought up is that if she was on this wooden staircase, how could the dogs with their nails even get a grip to be able to pull on the scarf? So, yeah, it would have to be a very coordinated effort by the dogs, according to how the jurors looked at this. Yeah. to be a very coordinated effort by the dogs, according to how the jurors looked at this. Yeah. There was also the fact that, you know, there was no damage on the stairs from Suzanne falling. You would think that there would be some scuffs, something. How did the defense explain

that? He didn't necessarily try to explain it. I think he was more trying to poke holes in the prosecution's theory. And he countered it with, well, you don't see marks anywhere else in the house. You know, like the prosecution's arguing there's this big fight to the death in the bedroom and that he placed her at the bottom of the stairs. But he's saying, if that's true, where's the evidence of that? Why isn't there more blood? Why isn't there blood all over the floor, damage to the furniture? You know, he's saying there are no marks anywhere if you're going to make the argument that there are no marks on the stairs. So that was more his strategy was to kind of give you the argument for the reverse.

And then, you know, Tracy, when you spoke to Jack early, he sort of gave a little more insight into what he thought happened. He kind of had two theories, but, and let me just explain this. It was tough to get the full story out of Jack early because he says he can't tell it because it's Dr. Sills' story. Dr. Sills didn't testify. So he basically said, we didn't get the whole story at trial. There's more to tell, and Scott Sills has to tell it. Now, having said that, what he said to us was, maybe she was killed by the C3 fracture. So the fracture to her neck, which would have happened from a fall down the stairs. Or maybe she was incapacitated enough from this C3 fracture that then she's at

the bottom of the stairs and the dogs pull on the scarf enough to leave the mark, not necessarily to kill her. He also theorized that maybe it was one dog because the scarf was tied around her neck, and then you wouldn't have to have the coordination of the two dogs. Then you just have the one dog pulling on the tied scarf, and it could have made that even mark. This was his theory. Did they present any of that at trial? I mean, yes, he did. He even went so far as to test the scarf for dog DNA, and it came back positive with dog DNA, cat DNA, and pig DNA, which they explained as the dogs were eating pig ears as snacks. And so that would leave pig DNA on the scarf. But yeah, I mean, he went with the dog theory. Yes. So he's sort of asking the

jury to disregard the coroner's report and to find a different cause of death. Yes. He poked holes in exactly in the ruling that it was ligature strangulation that caused that was the cause of death. Yes. All right. So let us talk about the motive, because it seems like the prosecution really didn't have a clear explanation for why Dr. Sills would want to murder his wife. Yeah, that's true. I mean, they said that they didn't need to prove motive, but they gave a lot of options. Right, Diane?

Yeah. motive. But they gave a lot of options, right, Diane? Yeah. I mean, some of this we went into in our hour, but there were some angry texts that Suzanne had sent within three months of her death. You know, there were finances that were kind of tight because they had started this business. And so they had to put kind of everything into it while it got off the ground. And so they had to put kind of everything into it while it got off the ground. And another issue that we heard not only in trial, but also from one of the friends of Suzanne that we interviewed was that Suzanne felt really disrespected by Scott's older children at times, his son, and she was upset that, you know, her husband really didn't stick up for her. So that was something that the prosecutor also mentioned at trial, that in these text messages was one of the things that she was mad at him about. I think the texts are really interesting because, you know, in talking to Jack early, he basically said, if you pull out these things that we pulled out, like I just want out and you're killing me.

Yes, they sound very damning, but these are all related to work. This couple worked together, that it's that working relationship that caused all of the tension and you shouldn't read so much into it. You know what? I work with my spouse. I kind of get that argument. It can get tense and it doesn't mean it's not a reflection on the whole marriage. It's just in that working situation. And then, of course, there are those Patrick.net posts and the photo that was posted of Suzanne Toplas. Yes. Let us talk about this because I found the whole thing just really odd. But let's just start with, because I'd never heard of

Patrick.net. Can you just sort of explain what Patrick.net is? So it's basically this political chat room that's frequented by conservatives, kind of like Twitter or Reddit. But they say much more freedom of speech than either Twitter or Reddit. Patrick actually testified. Patrick from Patrick.net? Yes. Patrick actually testified. Patrick from Patrick.net?

Yes. He was a witness, and he said that there were about 13,000 members. A few hundred of them were active. So kind of a small online community, but Suzanne seemed pretty active. And they were really friendly exchanges. She seemed to feel really comfortable talking about her political views. She even shared some personal photos of herself, her family, her pets. It was kind of like her little space, and she seemed comfortable expressing herself. Is this something that she argued with her husband about, her participation on this site?

patient on this site? When Patrick testified, he said that someone claiming to be Dr. Sills emailed him after Suzanne's death. He was being asked to remove Suzanne's information off of Patrick.net. And he said that that made him really uncomfortable and he felt like it would be destroying evidence. He said he left everything as is pertaining to Suzanne. And when Dr. Sills was arrested, somebody, one of the users actually posted something like, you know, why do I have a feeling this is going to end up on 48 Hours Mystery on CBS? So yeah, it was very interesting. Okay, let's talk about that Patrick.net post that Suzanne made this photo, this topless photo. One of her friends that we interviewed, Chris Solomini, he said that, you know, she wasn't like an overly flirtatious person. That wasn't the purpose with which she would do this. But he said she was somebody who would stick to her word. So she made that

promise. She was not going to back down. So in the photo, though, you notice both of Suzanne's hands are partially visible. It might have been taken using a self-timer, but do we have any idea who actually took this photo? Well, the defense argued at one point that it was Mary Catherine who took the photo, right? And I'm not sure how that helps them in saying that maybe that it was like a family activity. And so he wouldn't have been angry about this. Like, I'm just guessing. Like, I'm not sure where they were going with that. But Jack Early made it very clear to us that he did not think Scott was angered by this photo and by the chat.

not think Scott was angered by this photo and by the chat. The question is, if it didn't bother him so much, then why did he have a screenshot of the Patrick.net chat on his phone and then a printout of that on his printer? I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, wherever you get your podcasts. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals.

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I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Welcome back. So another possible motive that investigators explored was a one-time relationship Sills had with a woman named Marie Dalton. Now, she was a former nurse that he met online while he was still married to Suzanne. I want to play a clip that we didn't get to put in the hour of Marie's conversation with police after Suzanne died. So did he mention that he was stuck in his, you know, a loveless marriage and, you know, he was kind of... Kind of.

Miserable? He wasn't miserable, but he would say that they... Oh, he slept in his office a few times. We text... It seems like we had a big affair, right? Yeah. But nothing... I promise you, nothing like that.

We met once for, like like an hour. One time. One time. This was all done email or text. And I think I boosted the guy's ego. That's what happened. I think I came in and, you know, here he's been married, what, 10, 12 years. And she's very beautiful, you know, very nice. He said she was a good mother. But yeah, I think he's miserable. I felt that. And because when I would say something nice, he would just like feed me more. You know, he's like a machine. I don't know. You had to feed compliments, too. I mean, it almost sounds a little like she feels kind of sorry for him. Like she's just not that into him, but he is in need of this ego boost. Yeah, yeah.

I also, how she starts out saying he wasn't miserable. Oh yeah, I guess he was pretty miserable. It's interesting how she makes that turn. She kind of makes him sound like a little bit of a narcissist, you know? Although later in the interview, I think she also admits to leading him on a little bit because she's got a thing for doctors. Two weeks after Suzanne died, Dr. Sills sent Marie a letter,

and I just want to read you a portion of that because it kind of illuminates this a little more. By the way, he addresses her as, Ma chère Marie. Whoever I find out there, and I pray it really is you, I am confident she will be an exceptionally bright and vivacious woman, and I will be really is you. I am confident she will be an exceptionally bright and vivacious woman, and I will be envied by all other men because I will have her. But you need to understand that in my heart, at the end of the day, that relationship will always be judged against your glow. I'm not just saying this to jack up your ego. For me, you really have set an incredibly high standard, and you probably weren't even trying.

So I want the original, and then in capital letters, you. Yeah, he's a wee bit rusty, I guess, in the wooing department, but it almost sounds like something that was written by ChatGPT. There's something, I don't know how to explain it, somewhat sort of oddly mechanical about it. Mm-hmm. That's an interesting point. He is a scientist. oddly mechanical about it. Mm-hmm.

That's an interesting point. He is a scientist. Once she heard about the arrest, Marie told investigators she felt guilty and she thought that he might have killed his wife basically to be with her. But, you know,

we did ask Jack early about this flat out. Did he want to get Suzanne out of the way? And he said no. And then he actually went on to say off camera that Dr.

Sills really was just looking for essentially a replacement for Suzanne mother-wise, that he wanted someone to help with the kids, basically, to be a mom to the kids. Does the letter include anything about, I think you'd make such a good mother? He's very complimentary to Marie, and he actually kind of numerically lists the things that he finds so intriguing about her. And I don't remember if her maternal skills are one of them, but he definitely talks about how great she looks in a bikini and says, you know, you would really help me with my practice. You know, we would take it to another level. And he's kind of like offering her the position of business manager that Suzanne held. And throughout this letter, which is quite long, or email rather, he kind of reminds himself that, oh, but I've been through this tragedy.

But now that I've had a chance to grieve, and I'm ready to get out there again, I really want you in my life and we don't have to sneak around now. Just to remind everyone, this letter comes two weeks after his wife dies. So the jury deliberates. And the big question is not only if they're going to find him guilty, but if they will find him guilty of first degree or second degree murder. So first off, can we kind of explain what the difference is? Sure. Basically, first degree murder is premeditated and second degree murder is not premeditated. So second degree, you didn't plan it. First degree, you did plan it. Now, in this case, the prosecution argues that, no, perhaps he didn't think about this days or weeks ahead of time, but it was premeditated, they say, in the fact that when he strangled her, he did it for a long period of time.

And so the amount of time that it takes to strangle someone to death and not just incapacitate them is long enough for him to say, what am I doing and stop. The prosecutor and also the medical experts testified that it takes 30 seconds to render someone unconscious. And then depending on how old you are, you know, your health, it could take, you know, three to five minutes to actually strangle someone to death. And the prosecutor actually looked at a watch and said, let's all just wait for 30 seconds just to see how long 30 seconds feels like. And so during that time that he was strangling her, he could have stopped. That was where the premeditation came in. After about three hours, the jury came back with a verdict and they find him not guilty of first degree murder, but guilty of second-degree murder.

Were you surprised by this decision? You know, it's interesting because we talked with the jurors quite a bit about motive. And they said that they wanted to know the why, but they also said that they didn't need the why to know that he did it. And they told us that they spent a lot of time going first degree, second degree, first degree, second degree. And the reason that they couldn't do first degree is just that they felt like he snapped and that it was not something that he planned out. A split 30 second decision to, you know, the prosecution's argument. The sentencing is about three months after the verdict. And we hear from a couple of members of

Suzanne's family including her daughter Mary Catherine who still believes in her father's innocence and you know this murder would have had to be occurring while both of his children are just upstairs sleeping right it takes a certain type of person to do that Mary Catherine does not believe that her father is that type of person. Here's some of what she had to say. I want my father to walk me down the aisle at my wedding someday. When I have a family and children, I want my father to be there to hold my baby. I've been left orphaned, and I feel so lost without my parents.

My heart was breaking for her. What I heard was a young woman just trying to hang on to anything, a wisp of the life she had before this nightmare began. And if it's just a little bit of her father, then she wants it. Yeah, it's really unfathomable what she and her brother Eric have been through, you know, from the age of 12, losing their mom. They've sort of lost their dad now, even though he's alive, but he's not going to be around, really. And Mary Catherine's foster mom passed away shortly before the sentencing. And she apparently is the one who found her. So just so much tragedy. And it's just heartbreaking. Yeah. Clearly, we know where Mary Catherine stands on this. But what about her brother, her twin brother? Do we know anything about how he feels about his dad and how he feels about what happened?

Catherine still lives in Southern California. But both Mary Catherine and Eric were called to testify at the trial by the prosecution. He would say things like, I don't really remember. But then he would be presented with a statement that he made when he was 12. And when asked, he would say, yes, you know, that that was truthful. So, you know, they're very much in their dad's corner. Dr. Sills received the mandatory sentence under California law for second degree murder, which is 15 years to life. Would his sentence be different if it had been a first degree murder, guilty murder? Yes, that sentence

is 25 years to life in California. And he's eligible for parole, as we mentioned at the end of the hour, in 2033, which kind of seems like it's just around the corner. Yeah, it's true. 15 years doesn't seem like much. Suzanne's mother, Teresa, also gave a statement at sentencing about the loss of her daughter. What was it like to listen to her talk about the kind of person her daughter was? So I was at the sentencing and they were sitting on separate sides of the courtroom where the grandmother, Teresa, and Suzanne's stepbrother were on one side, you know, kind of on the prosecution side. And then Mary Catherine and her other friends and family were on the defense side of the aisle. Teresa was very careful not to say anything really negative about Dr. Sills.

She really focused on her daughter, Suzanne, and this amazing woman that she was and the hopes that she had to see her daughter grow up and get married and all these wonderful things. And then once the sentencing was over, Mary Catherine came over and talked to her grandmother and they reminisced a little bit. That was nice to see because we did know that that was something that was really important for Suzanne's mom was to maintain the relationship, at least with her grandchildren. And she made a really poignant remark during her statement. Oh, yeah. We mentioned this in the hour, the staircase that, you know, here is this staircase that Suzanne dreamed of seeing Mary Catherine walk down on her wedding day. And I think as moms, we all think about that. Like I think about the staircase in my home and watching my daughter walk down for prom. And that just was so poignant that, of course, the staircase ended up playing an entirely different role. Tracy, Diane, this has been

fantastic. The final 48 hours for the season. Thank you. Thanks, Anne-Marie. All right. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this season of Postmortem. We have one more special episode coming up next week, and then we'll be back for a new season of 48 Hours in September. But keep your eye on the 48 Hours podcast feed this summer for more classic 48 Hours episodes and perhaps a few more surprises. If you like this series, Postmortem, please rate and review 48 Hours on Apple Podcasts and follow 48 Hours wherever you get your podcasts.

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