Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Hubby Comes Home With Flowers, Finds Wife Nude, Dead in Pool of Blood

Episode Date: December 27, 2022

Dr. John and Susan Hamilton were a well-known and socially prominent couple in Oklahoma. Even though they had been married for nearly 15 years, romance seemed to surround the couple.  On Valentine's Day, Dr. John Hamilton is late for surgery, saying he had been delayed while buying his wife a gift. Before heading from the hospital to his practice, Hamilton calls one of his employees to let the practice know he’d be a few more minutes. He planned to stop by his house to pick up his appointment book. The home was only six or seven minutes from the hospital. At 11:05 am, 911 gets a call from Hamilton. He’d found his wife, naked and bloody, on the master bathroom floor. What happened to Susan Hamilton?  Joining Nancy Grace Today: Kent Frates - Attorney (Oklahoma City, OK), Former Minority Leader Oklahoma House of Representatives, Author: “Oklahoma’s Most Notorious Cases”  Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta, GA.: Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University; Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital; Voted "My Buckhead's Best Psychiatric Practice of 2022" Tom Bevel - Expert Witness in John Hamilton trial; President, Bevel, Gardner & Assoc. Inc. (Edmond, OK); Author: "Bloodstain Pattern Analysis With an Introduction to Crime Scene Analysis" Dr. Michelle DuPre - Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner, and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff's Department; Author: "Homicide Investigation Field Guide" & "Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide;" Forensic Consultant   Alicia Dean - True Crime Author and Blogger; Author: "Death Notice: The Monroe Donovan Series;" Instagram: @AliciaDeanAuthor, Twitter: @Alicia_Dean_ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Mystery swirling around a gorgeous socialite. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. First of all, take a listen to this. Country club set, absolutely. She looked like she would hang out with that kind of affluent crowd. Everyone said they were just wonderful people and very much in love. The Hamiltons are a well-known and socially prominent couple in Oklahoma. It is the second marriage for both. John Hamilton is a

successful physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. Susan Hamilton is her husband's business manager, running his clinic, usually spending two days a week in the office. The couple has been married for nearly 15 years and do all things that most married couples do. They lunch together twice a week, take vacations, including jetting away for weekends on what the couple calls their quick fix trips. Quick fix trips sounds like quick, expensive fix trips, jetting away at the last moment on a weekend on a plane. But it sounds like a happy marriage. You were just hearing our friends at KWTV and CrimeOnline.com. But the first thing I heard from KWTV was Country Club Set.

To Alicia Dean, joining us, true crime author and blogger, author of Death Notice, the Monroe Donovan series. Alicia, thank you for being with us. What exactly does that mean, the Country Club Set? They were members of the Quill Creek Country Club. It's an affluent country club here in the Oklahoma City metro area, and they lived, you know, the lifestyle that went along with that. Oh, tell me about it, because I didn't even know what a country club was until I guess I was in college, maybe high school. Okay, tell me all about the country club set. I want to hear the whole thing. It just involves there's, you know,

the golf course. It involves lavish dinners and parties. I'm sorry. It sounds good to me. Golf. I don't know. No offense to all of you golfers, but how can you spend eight or nine hours in one day on the golf course? Doesn't anybody have to go to work or take care of their children? And don't start with it's a weekend. There's still children on the weekend. I guess maybe if you're retired and you're not working and you're not raising children, then fine, go fritter away nine hours on a golf course if you can afford it. Kent Freitas is joining me. Now, you may know his name.

He's a high-profile lawyer out of Oklahoma, and he's a former minority leader in Oklahoma House of Representatives. He's the author of Oklahoma's Most Notorious Crimes. That's a heck of a read right there, Kent Freitas. Kent, tell me about this Quail Creek Country Club. Well, let me tell you, Dr. Hamilton, I don't get the wrong impression of him. He was a very hardworking doctor. He was a very professional and successful doctor. He was also a controversial doctor because besides being an OBGYN, he had an abortion clinic. Oh, dear Lord in heaven. You're not dragging abortion into it, are you? I mean, if you don't

want an abortion, don't have one. Can you just tell me about Quail Creek Country Club? Because right now, I don't care if the doctor performed an abortion. Tell me about the country club. All right. The country club is, as described, a country club for affluent people in northwest Oklahoma City. I think it is surrounded by houses, very, very nice residences, and the Hamiltons lived in one of those houses. They were part of that entire community. Okay, now this is what I know. That the Quail Creek Country Club is billed as Oklahoma City's premier destination for over 60 years. A family country club. And in all of the advertising, it's all about families.

They have social events, a social calendar full, they say, of fun, exciting events for members to enjoy year round. Okay, what more do I know? Let's see here. Pasta night. Seafood buffet night. Father-daughter dinner dance. Let's see what else do they have besides just food. Okay, cooking classes with chefs, wine dinners. The Lillis members have fun at kids movie nights and kids night out. That sounds like a night for the parents to dump their kids. Trivia, sing-o in the restaurant, tennis mixers, wine and beer dinners, happy hour, character brunch, Valentine's Day, now that's important, Quail Creek Corral, Easter egg hunts, Mother's Day, blah, blah, blah, blah, men's girl Christmas party. Okay. Santa brunch, boo bash. Okay. And all the

pictures have, okay, nevermind. There are some people, everybody's holding an opaque cup. I think I know what's going on there, but I'm looking at Quail Creek Country Club. It's beautiful. It's wow. At one point it says host an event and it shows this gigantic, it looks like the ballroom in Beauty and the Beast. That's what it looks like. Oh, there's a rotunda. When I hear that, I know that's a big structure and somebody very important is going to be there very soon. Let's see here. The pheasant room, the partridge room. This is one exclusive place.

Now, what does that have to do with this? Well, you stated, Kent Freitas, if I am correct, that their home was one situated around the golf course. Is that correct? That's correct. Did situated around the golf course. Is that correct? That's correct. Did it border the golf course? Also curious. Bordered Quail Creek, which runs through the whole addition. I'm just wondering who could see into the home from that golf course. Now, I am not a golfer, but I have been to a lot of charity golf events. And I've always noticed these beautiful, fantastic homes on the edges of golf courses.

And they all seem to have big picture windows. Of course they do, because you look out at nothing but green trees and manicured lawns. And I always think, well, they're enjoying the view, but I wonder if there's a reverse view for people on that golf course. All men, no offense to you men on the panel, but Dr. Angie, you know where I'm going with this. With me right now is psychiatrist Dr. Angela Arnold. You can find her at AngelaArnoldMD.com.

Just as much as you're looking out of the golf course, all these men you don't know are walking by and driving by on their golf carts looking at you, whether you think about it or not, Dr. Angie. I don't like that. I know. And not only the men on the golf course. What about the people that are taking care of the golf course? I'd probably be more afraid of the men golfing because it's my opinion most of them have a snoot full and they're out there drinking and golfing you know people do

things when they're drinking they wouldn't normally do. Correct. But yeah yeah there's a whole other group of manicure lawn groomers and manicurists and golf experts out there taking care of them. Yeah you don't know who's out there looking in your picture window. Go ahead, Angie. And Nancy, they've gone by time after time after time, and it's easy for someone to stock a property like that without anybody even really knowing it. You're right. You're absolutely right. And I also heard, is this correct? Alicia Dean is with me, true crime author and blogger, that she, the wife, Susan Hamilton, was like the business manager or the secretary at his, the husband's, Dr. John Baxter Hamilton, OB practice.

She worked in his office. Yes, that's correct. She was the office manager and she handled his books and oversaw the nursing staff. You know what? I've tried often, and you'll enjoy this, Dr. Angela Arnold, to snoop on whatever my husband's doing at work. Can I tell you, when I tried to read his emails a couple of times, my eyes bled. It was so boring. Every time I've ambushed him at his office, he's doing the same thing. He's on a conference call, minding his own business. I always catch him being good.

So that really hasn't helped me to just be right there at his office. But here, it sounds like she's actually helping him. crime stories with nancy grace guys let's advance into the mystery surrounding this gorgeous socialite susan hamilton listen on valent Valentine's Day Dr. John Hamilton arrives at the Surgicare Center across the street from Mercy Hospital between 6 45 and 7 a.m. He performs a surgery which is completed by 7 45. Within 15 minutes Hamilton calls the scheduling coordinator and asks her to move up an operation scheduled to start at 9. The coordinator believes Hamilton can get started at 8 45. Hamilton asks to be paged when the patient is wheeled in. At 9 a.m. Hamilton responds to the page saying he's on his way. About 9 15 Hamilton arrives apologizing for being late saying he has been delayed buying a Valentine's Day present for his wife. I had gone into the doctor's lounge to dictate the procedure, and he was in there. He was talking

on the phone. It sounded like he was talking to Susan. Just a very lighthearted conversation. Okay, you're hearing not only our friends at CrimeOnline.com, but you're also hearing Hamilton's former partner speaking to Dateline. So let me understand to you, anyone that knows Alicia Dean or Kent Freitas, what was the procedure he was performing? Do we know that morning that he could schedule it right down to the quarter hour? The second procedure was the removal of an ovarian cyst. Okay, because you know what's so interesting is if it's, for instance, a C-section, they have them lined up like it's, you know, a conference call.

And it's right on time. That said, then we hear the partner, Dr. Karen Rison, speaking that she heard him on the phone speaking to his wife, Susan, just before the procedure. Guys, with me, an all-star panel. You heard Kent Freitas, high-profile lawyer out of Oklahoma. Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist. Tom Bevel is joining me, the president of Bevel, Gardner & Associates, Inc. Also, author of Bloodstained Pattern Analysis with an Intro to Crime Scene Analysis. Ooh, Tom, I didn't know that about you. My interest has just been heightened in you as an individual. Dr. Michelle Dupree joining me. You know her well. Famed forensic pathologist and author of

Homicide Investigation Field Guide. And of course, you know, true crime author and blogger Alicia Dean so it's valentine's day and here he is juggling not only procedure after procedure after procedure but he actually darted out moving one procedure earlier to 8 45 a.m he darted out to get something for his wife for valentine's. But listen to this. 911. Please, please, please send an ambulance, please. What's the problem? My wife, my wife, my wife, I think my wife is dead. Sir? Please, sir. Listen, I'm a doctor. I've been trying CPR. Please send somebody, quick. Okay. Is she not breathing? No, she's not breathing. I don't get pulse. Please. Okay. Please. You're doing CPR on her? Yes, I'm trying. Yeah, I'm going to hang up so I can continue, please.

All right. We'll be right there. Okay. You hear a frantic and distraught Dr. Hamilton calling about his wife. To Alicia Dean, true crime author and blogger, he came home to find what exactly? He came home to find the door unlocked. He called out for his wife wife and she didn't respond. He made his way into the master bath where he found her in a mess of a bloody pool and attempted to perform CPR. There was blood all over the bathroom, all over her, and she was severely bloodied. And he had just spoken to her in the doctor's lounge. Listen to our friends at Dateline and Forensic Files.

Susan lying beaten and strangled on their bathroom floor. Her head bludgeoned, surrounded by a pool of blood. Her face savage, almost unrecognizable. She had been strangled with some neckties. Then the perpetrator drove her head onto the floor many times. So this gorgeous socialite, Susan Hamilton, was killed two times over. Strangled with neckties and then bludgeoned in the bathroom floor. And I can only assume Kent Freitas, a high-profile lawyer out of Oklahoma City,

that she was naked, correct, in the bathroom? That's correct. There was a wrap found on the floor of the master bathroom. You mean like a house coat? Cover-up type wrap was found on the floor, but she was naked. Was she getting in or out of the tub? Do you know, Kent? That was unclear. However, her hair was wet, so she may have just been in the shower. Oh, my stars, it sounds like a horror movie, you know, where the perp sneaks in, the woman's in the shower, and then he kills her. Kind of a psycho thing.

Guys, I'm trying to make sense of what we know right now. Kent Freitas, tell me what you know about the crime scene. What do you know of specifically the bathroom? Well, this was the master bathroom of their house that you've described in Quail Creek. It is about six or seven minutes drive from Mercy Hospital. To Dr. Michelle Dupree joining me renowned forensic pathologist and author and medical examiner. Dr. Dupree, it's my understanding that two neckties were wrapped around her neck and her skull had been bashed with such force, her brain was actually visible. Yes, Nancy.

I mean, this is traumatic, obviously. And to me, this tells me that this is overkill. I mean, you strangle someone and then you bash their head so hard that the brain is showing. That's overkill. This is a rage. This was very personal. You know what it's reminding me of is Jodi Arias. Exactly.

Remember her rage? She and her victim, Travis Alexander, had been dating. She was obsessed and stalking him. He, after the breakup, got a date with another woman to go, I think it was to Cancun. She travels in secret, literally across the desert to his place. They have a marathon day of sex, and then he still is sticking to his guns about taking the other woman to Cancun. So she stabs him, we believe, 29 to 30 times, and then shoots him in the head.

Exactly. Again, this is the same type of rage that I would see in this type of crime scene. And you know what's interesting? Well, so much is interesting. To Tom Bevel, joining me, expert in crime scene analysis and blood pattern. Tom, when you have a random attacker, they're not going to stick around to kill the person twice. You know, they're not going to shoot them, then stab them, then run over them in the car, all right, and then force poison down their mouth. That's not

happening. If this was a rape or someone coming into burgle, they would see her and typically run or if they're going to kill her, hit her over the head or strangle her one or the other and leave. And that in itself for a burglar to kill is also rare. And her car was there to my understanding. So a burglar probably wouldn't come in. But even if they did Tom Bevel, they wouldn't kill her two times over. It wouldn't take the time. Well, actually, that's correct in most cases.

If a person is suddenly confronted by the owner of the house, the usual thing that occurs is they flee. I'm sorry, what? That they flee the scene. In other words, they don't want the confrontation. They want to get out of the scene. And your question relative to being killed twice, there are several things that are interesting there. The necktie that has created two separate linear lines around the neck. In between them, there is a fingernail mark, which is coming from Susan,

which is an indication that during the strangulation, she is, in fact, still alive. You know what, Tom Bevel, you're really good. So there's a fingernail mark off her own, probably trying to get hands or the neckties off her neck, struggling, fighting at her own neck, which means if you see the fingernail mark and there's blood, that would probably mean she was still alive or else she wouldn't be bleeding because your heart is no longer pumping. You explain explain that, Dr. Michelle Dupree? Yes, because actually, if your heart is still pumping, then, of course, blood is still circulating.

And when blood is circulating, then that person is usually still alive. Guys, take a listen to the medical examiner in that jurisdiction, Dr. Jeffrey Goffton, speaking to Forensic Files. The wound to her forehead or the left side of her head was substantial and massive. That weapon has to be a weapon of opportunity. Investigators discovered what may have been the murder weapon. The Hamilton's maid said that a marble figurine from the bathroom was missing. Okay, Kent Fraser is joining me, high-profile lawyer out of Oklahoma City. Kent, a marble figurine was missing?

Well, that evidence did not develop. At first, they thought that, but there was no corroboration of that. So at first, we think possibly a marble figurine was the murder weapon. To Dr. Michelle Dupree, would you be able to look at the wound to the head, the skull fracture, and determine if that had been the murder weapon? Yes, Nancy, in all probability.

We call these pattern injuries, and pattern injuries can tell us what type of weapon and perhaps the actual weapon. Of course, we would want to compare anything found on that weapon to make sure that there was hair or blood or DNA or whatever. But yes, we should be able to tell what type of weapon was used. Kent Freitas joining us out of Oklahoma City. Was that figurine ever found? No.

Who would have come in and murdered this gorgeous young socialite? Seemingly with everything to live for. Take a listen to our friends at Forensic Files. In a search for suspects, investigators learned that an anti-abortion group planned a demonstration in front of the Hamilton's home. We were able to determine that the house had been picketed, as well as a permit to picket that residence had been attained within a month of the time of this homicide. Okay so Kent Freitas I guess now you can tell me how wrong I am. You're right. Abortion does come into this because people were at the home picketing but there is a dichotomy Kent

Freitas is someone that would go to the trouble of getting a permit to picket and then breaking in to commit murder on top of murder. And one group had created a wanted poster that identified Dr. Hamilton as wanted dead or alive. Well, curious, Tom Bevel with me. He is a high profile expert witness and president of Bevel Gardner and Associates in Edmond, Oklahoma at bevelgardner.com. Tom, that wanted poster that Kent Freitas is talking about, the wanted poster was for Dr. Hamilton, the husband, because he performed abortions through his OBGYN clinic, not the wife. Is that a little fantastical to you that, I mean, I know every once in a while PETA will go crazy and throw blood on somebody and their wife standing there. But to go murder the wife when you're angry at the doctor? That sounds like a fifth grade girl's novel.

Well, it certainly isn't the person that you would expect to be targeted. And in addition to that, we talked previously about the two ties, and it's of interest that a stranger takes the opportunity to get two ties that belong to Dr. Hamilton out of the closet to come back in order to strangle her. Again, I don't see that as a stranger or a person that is associated with the poster. Agreed. Who would take the time to do that? It reminds me so much of the JonBenet Ramsey case where someone breaks into the home, then takes the time to kick back on the den sofa and write not one but two, a practice and a for real two or three page

ransom note. Not at all concerned they're going to be caught. But then what about the crime scene? What would you be looking for at the crime scene, Dr. Dupree? Nancy, I would be looking at the entire spectrum of things. Look for any disarray, look for any blood spatter, any tracks, any available hairs, fibers, or anything that doesn't belong there. Anything that is going to tell us, you know, basically sort of what happened, where it happened, and even a time frame. I'd be looking at the blood on the floor. Is it dry? How much of it is dry? You know, show me the pattern. I want to know everything about that same. Joining me is a special guest, Tom Bevel, expert witness. Tom, tell me about the blood in this particular bathroom, in Susan Hamilton's bathroom.

Well, there's an awful lot of different types of blood. Dr. Dupree is correct in looking at the various types, the locations, any disturbances. One of the things of interest is the blood pool that is above the right side of her head. At the time the picture was taken, the blood is drying from the outside edges inward, and it is already crusting, which is showing a period of time that has elapsed from the time that this has occurred. There is evidence in blood that blood has accumulated on the floor and then subsequently her head is driven forcefully into that blood pool so forcefully that it is projected blood over to a cabinet door where you have a slight you know area where the foot could go under but it is that blood is hit so forcefully that it ricochets up into the inside of the door that was closed again very very forceful for that to have occurred to the right side of her we have a tremendous amount of blood that has been disturbed and smeared. This actually is consistent that Dr. Hamilton stated that he was on her right side when he

rolled her and then subsequently did CPR. Yeah, because when police and EMTs got there, he was covered in blood and he was frantic having performed CPR. And he returned home after that first 7 a.m. surgery to give her her Valentine's Day's gift. And then after 9, he returned back for the next surgery and he was heard on the phone talking to the wife. Well, what more do we know about the crime scene? Take a listen. On the kitchen counter, they found the Valentine's Day card John purchased for his wife. And the card read, we are important, loving, caring people together. My life would be incomplete without you. I love you, John. And of course, she has a Valentine's card for him as well. Listen. The card Susan gave to her husband had an entirely different message.

One of the captions she had written herself said, Obviously, I bought this card before last Monday. Then as you open the card and begin to read the inside of it, she had written, I bought this card two weeks ago, so they don't seem as appropriate now. I love you. Signed, Susan Hamilton. Okay.

What? She has written him a Valentine's card and says, You know, I bought this two weeks ago. It's kind of inappropriate now. Why? Listen to our friends at KWTV. There was accusations that he was having an affair with one of his clients who was a topless dancer. And this came from phone calls that Susan Hamilton had gotten a hold of.

Kent Freitas. What? What phone calls did she get a hold of. Kent Freitas. What? What phone calls did she get a hold of? Well, outwardly, their marriage was very loving and in very good shape. It turned out that actually they were having some marital difficulties. Well, I guess so, because when you're checking your husband's cell phone, the last thing I have time to do is to check David Lynch's cell phone. Kent, what were the calls she got a hold of? What were they?

What did she see on the phone register? Well, he had been calling a woman who was a patient who was also a topless dancer. Wait, stop. Alicia Dean, topless dancer? Who says that anymore?

She's a stripper. Kent Freitas, you really do know what I have. You really are putting perfume on the pig there. Topless dancer. Like what? She studied dancing on Broadway? I mean, Alicia Dean, who's the woman? Who's the stripper?

Her name is Nina. Of course it is. Go ahead. I mean, Alicia Dean, who's the woman? Who's the stripper? Her name is Nina. And of course it is. Go ahead. She was a patient of Dr. Hamilton's and he was speaking with her to try to. She was depressed. He was providing her with birth control shots. A what shot? Birth control shots. Inject shot? Birth control shots.

Injections. Okay, well, wait. Depressed. She's depressed. Dr. Angie, I'm not all about an OBGYN giving me advice about my depression. And let me tell you something, Nancy.

Oh boy, here she goes. OBGYNs don't give you advice about your depression. They send you to me. Okay? They don't have time for that. Nor the training, nor the training for that. And I'll tell you something, Nancy.

Part of our training is that we set boundaries with our patients. So 60 calls back and forth with a stripper is excessive. Can't frighten us. No wonder she was upset. 60 calls to a stripper? That's right. And that is exactly what happened. obsessive. Camp Freitas, no wonder she was upset. 60 calls to a stripper? That's right, and that's, that is exactly what happened. He pleaded a course of innocence, but she had told her neighbors that

she no longer trusted him. Well, I guess not. So how did that happen? I'm just trying to envision this. Right in the middle of a pelvic exam she says oh i'm so depressed okay that said take a listen to our friends at crimeonline.com susan hamilton believed her husband was having an affair with a patient it would not be unheard of especially since dr hamilton had cheated during his first marriage susan hamilton found out dr hamilton had called the dancer more than 60 times in a two-month period. Dr. Hamilton denied it, saying he was only trying to help the woman cope with her depression. Susan Hamilton didn't believe him and confided in friends and even moved out for a night.

Information soon comes to light that the good doctor had been to the so-called patient's club. The dancer had performed a table dance for him for about $100, maybe more than once. One week before the Valentine's Day murder, Susan Hamilton had made Dr. Hamilton write a letter to this dancer, refusing to be her doctor any further. Okay, I'm trying to figure out what all we're learning from this 60 phone calls in just two months. He says he's trying to help her cope with her depression. You know, no offense to all the men on the panel, but I'd like to go to you, Dr. Dupree, but let me just start with Dr. Angie Arnold. She's a shrink. What is wrong with men?

No, seriously. It's not just rhetorical. Why do they always cheat down? You've got this beautiful woman. It's his second go around. It ain't his first time at the rodeo. He could learn something. The first marriage where he cheated.

Now he's got this gorgeous wife. And he's doing it again. With a stripper. Like what? He thinks that he is more than an ATM to her? He's not. It's never enough. It's never enough.

And I'm going to tell you something. This man is a narcissist. Okay? That's why he has a beautiful wife also. But it's never enough. They need many different forms of supply. And for all we know, maybe his, you know, you've been married to a guy for a little while. The wife wasn't giving him psychologically everything that he wanted anymore to keep him

pumped up. What are you talking about? Are you somehow trying to blame the wife for him cheating? Oh, God, no, sweetheart. Oh, no. First of all, no G.O.D. on crime stories. Do not pull God into this. No G-O-D. Don't work that out. But that said, Dr. Michelle Dupree, I know you're not a shrink, but you are an author and you've seen a lot of dead bodies.

Why? Why? How often have you seen a man cheat and then somewhere somebody ends up dead out of the whole thing? Nancy, too many times to count. I mean, in a situation like this, for whatever reason, when I was a homicide detective, one of the first things that we always looked at is the spouse. It's just the way it is.

But that does not answer my question. Why do men cheat down? He's got this gorgeous wife. The first one's probably beautiful too. Nancy, if I could answer that question, I'd write a book. Alicia Dean and Kent Freitas, were these two married when they met? Were they married to other people when they met? No, they were both divorced. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Now that we know about the stripper, cops are looking at Dr. Hamilton. Take a listen to our friends at Forensic Files. when reporters heard the tape of dr hamilton's 911 call no listen listen i'm a doctor i've been trying cpr please send something quick and if you listen to it over and over again it

sounds strange so the local tv station sent the tape to a company specializing in computer voice stress analysis this doctor is not stressed to the degree that I would think he would be under those circumstances, which makes me feel very confident that he rehearsed this before he made his call. It's so interesting that they said rehearse this because Alicia Dean, joining me, true crime author of Death Notice, the Monroe Donovan series. She's at aliciadeen.com. I was about to say it sounds like he's reading really quickly from a script. Yes, I agree.

It sounds unnatural and forced. There's no real grief or hysteria in his voice. He's just, it sounds like a script that he's reading. It really does. It really does. And there's more. Listen. Homicide investigators started to question Dr. Hamilton's unusual behavior captured on videotape just after the murder. He seemed to be out of control with emotions one way or another. He

would get upset and start moving back and forth. He would start crying. It stops almost like he was acting. So here we have this bizarre behavior while he's talking to police and still taking him down to police headquarters is not unusual. He found the body. He's the husband. So describe for me Kent Freitas and Alicia Dane. What was his bizarre behavior? First to you, Alicia. Well, first of all, in the cop car, he was scraping his knuckles on the screen and banging his head, just acting bizarre while they were they had him in the patrol car as they were, you know, working the scene. Of course, bizarre behavior during a police interrogation is not always that unusual. You never know what's going to happen when people are under the pressure of an interrogation.

But there's more than just unusual behavior because an affair and unusual behavior does not a murder defendant make. But take a listen to our friends at Forensic Files. Dr. Hamilton's claims presented some major contradictions. I don't expect to find spatter. The spatter I observed were present on the front of his shirt, below his neck, on both sleeves, at the cuff. He suggested that his arms and his body had been in close proximity to a spatter event. Scientists performed DNA testing on each and every blood stain

on Dr. Hamilton's shirt and shoes. It was all Susan's blood. There was blood found on the steering wheel. There was blood found on the seat and also some hair and tissue found on the floor of the driver's side. To Tom Bevel, expert witness and president of Bevel Gardner and Associates in Edmond, Oklahoma. Tom, all of that blood evidence is extremely damning. I find the most damning to be blood on the steering wheel, hair and tissue on the floor of the driver's side because according to him, he was at the hospital or the doctor's

office. He comes home and finds her and calls 911. There's no indication he ever went back to the car but you're the expert, Tom Bevel. You explain to me the significance of the blood evidence. Well, the tissue and blood that's found on the car and specifically on the steering wheel, he actually does attempt to explain that in that while he was doing CPR, he stated that he started thinking about the emergency vehicle having the ability to get where it needed to be and that he quit doing CPR, ran out to try and move the vehicle and got in the car and he was shaking so vigorously that he couldn't put the key in. So we ended up leaving with the vehicle where it was.

Okay. That was possibly explained, the blood and the tissue in so we ended up leaving with the vehicle where it was okay uh that would possibly explain the blood and the tissue in the car of course that's certainly not the only possibility there are other possibilities what about the other blood spatter on the front of his shirt below the neck on both sleeves at the cuff you for it to be not a smear or a drop, for there to be spatter. Spatter comes at the time of the gunshot or at the time of the blow or the stabbing. Yes, the blood as far as spatter is concerned, there's none that I recall immediately below the neck on the front of the shirt. There is, however, on the cuff, primarily on the right side of the right cuff.

It's also important here to talk about where blood is not, because ultimately the excuse for the spatter is doing CPR. Well, we have blood, it seems, all over the floor, on the face, on the sternum or also none on the abdomen, which is where firefighter Bradbury said that when he walked in, the left hand was on the sternum, the right hand was on the abdomen. Well, neither of those places has an accumulation of blood that is capable even if you hit into those areas of creating spatter. That goes against the possibility of CPR having created the spatter that we see on the shirt. There is another place where there was not any blood and that is there was no trail of bloody footprints either to the front or the back door. All of this goes to a jury. Listen.

John Hamilton was found guilty of his wife's murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. Our friends at Forensic Files speaking to you, Tom Bevel, the expert witness in the John Hamilton trial. What do you think was the most, the strongest evidence? There's an awful lot of circumstantial evidence that certainly comes together in a holistic view. But to me, the cuff was not included as being present.

If you look at the spatter on the outside of the cuff from the prosecution expert, however, turning the shirt inside out while examining it, I found over 40 directional impact spatter on the inside of the cuff. And what's important here also is that that is the double layer on the cuff. So it's not a bleed through from the outside to the inside. All of it is occurring to the inside of the cuff. And with a buttoned shirt, long sleeve cuff, there is a very small opening that is even capable for blood to go into the inside of the shirt. And it is certainly the type of blood that is associated with an impact. If you have a hand coming down and meeting resistance such as the skull that's the point where the cuff is going to be at its lowest point with that sudden stop and that allows an opening capable of the blood from the impact going into, and it's the right direction. It is not consistent at all with CPR.

You know, Tom Bevel, I could listen to you and Kent Freitas and Alicia Dean all day long as you analyze this case, the circumstantial evidence, the forensic evidence, the blood evidence, but this is what I know. He did it. Rot in hell. Nancy Grace from Story Signing Off. Goodbye, friend.

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