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Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace Mysteries: The Death of Michele MacNeill
Aired October 04, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NANCY GRACE MYSTERIES, a wife and former beauty queen gets a routine facelift. But days later, she`s dead in her own bathtub. Was it murder?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My father orchestrated this whole plan on how to murder my mother.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: When I think of Michele MacNeill, a former beauty queen, I think of how picture-perfect their family seemed on the outside looking in. The father, Martin MacNeill, was not only a doctor but a lawyer, as well. The couple had eight children, including children that they had adopted and brought over to America from Russia.
It`s always astounding to me that this woman, who is just so physically beautiful and by all accounts beautiful on the inside and the outside, just a completely devoted mother -- how she could be talked into, coerced into, having a complete and drastic facelift by her husband. It pains me to say, "Dr. Martin MacNeill."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything was stolen from us! Everything. Our memories, even. Everything we ever thought we knew was based on the lies my father made and -- I`m just -- I`m grateful now that we know the truth, that we`re able to live in reality and...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re just glad someone finally listened to us. It took over a year-and-a-half before anyone would even listen to our concerns. The police laughed in our faces. They said -- you know, they didn`t even question my father.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: On the outside, they had it all, a beautiful home, wonderful, fabulous vacations. As I said, he`s a doctor and a lawyer. She`s a former beauty queen, now a devoted mother to eight children -- they`re adopting children from overseas -- apparently philanthropist. They had it all.
But they had a little too much because in addition to a gorgeous and loving wife and eight children, apparently, doctor/lawyer Martin MacNeill had several mistresses and a bent for murder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: OK, what`s the problem, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: in medical.
911 OPERATOR: Sir, what`s wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife`s fallen in the bathtub!
911 OPERATOR: Who`s in the bathtub? Who`s in the bathtub?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we went to the Pleasant Grove Police Department, and they didn`t even take notes. We were -- I told them my concerns about my father and his behavior and how it was suspicious. My aunts went in there. They didn`t take notes that time, as well. They said, Oh, those daughters are just upset that he had an affair. Lots of people have affairs.
They didn`t take anything serious. On the police report, my aunt`s name was transcribed as my mother`s -- I mean, just such poor reporting. The whole -- there wasn`t an investigation. They never questioned my little sister, who found my mother. They never questioned the neighbors. The whole police report is a paragraph-and-a-half. That`s it. They never questioned my father.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: OK. Is she conscious?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s not (INAUDIBLE) I`m a physician!
911 OPERATOR: Sir...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Sir, I need you to...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Sir, I can`t understand you, OK? Can you calm down just a little bit?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need help!
911 OPERATOR: OK. What -- your wife is unconscious?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is unconscious! She`s under water!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It`s very, very odd, when you look at the entire scenario, that we learn that MacNeill, months before Michele is found dead in a bathtub full of reddish-brown water -- he had apparently stood up in church and pronounced that he had cancer, was dying of cancer. So we see later on how that proclamation, that open proclamation, weaves into the death of Michele MacNeill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Information filing from the Utah County Attorney`s office. In summary, evidence collected by the state shows Martin intentionally or knowingly killed his wife, Michele MacNeill, on April 11th, 2007. Further, he used his experience and unique knowledge as a doctor and a lawyer to commit the murder and frustrate the investigation in an attempt to cover it up."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what it looked like inside the courtroom today as Pleasant Grove doctor Martin MacNeill is now finally facing charges for the murder of his wife.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The world now knows that my father has committed murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carrying photos of their mother, MacNeill`s daughters and other family members say they watched the proceedings with both a sense of anguish and yet relief.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s the first time there`s some sort of justice for our mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back in 2007, Michele MacNeill was found unconscious in her bathtub. An initial autopsy report said she died of natural causes, but the family never bought it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believed from the beginning that he murdered my sister and fought along with my nieces to get justice for Michele.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MacNeill`s attorney claims his client is innocent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s adamantly professed his innocence from the beginning, continues to do so. And I`m confident when all the evidence in this case is heard that the jury will conclude that he`s not guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His daughters are prepared to fight that claim in court and want the world to know that their father cut their mother`s life short.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was a beautiful person on the inside and out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our mother. She means something, that she`s -- that she means so much to so many people, and this is who he took away from everyone! This is our mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alexis told me -- as soon as she could, she pulled me aside after my mother`s death and said, Rachel, Dad murdered mom. And as time unfolded, I began to see so many different things unfold. And those things are all listed in the reports that have just been released and that I`ve given to you, and there`s just so much information. We`re just so relieved at this point that the information we`ve given with them now -- they`ve charged my father finally.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kind of horrible to be so excited about, you know, your father being arrested. But this has been such a long -- a long battle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alexis Somers (ph) on the arrest of her father, 56-year-old Martin Joseph MacNeill of Pleasant Grove. Alexis and her siblings believe their father killed their mother, Michele MacNeill, five years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mom deserves this. She deserves justice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Utah County attorney`s office arrested and charged Martin MacNeill with murder and obstruction of justice. They say he devised a scheme to make his wife`s death look accidental.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My father orchestrated this whole plan on how to murder my mother.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prosecutors say MacNeill convinced his wife to have plastic surgery against her wishes, then gave her a dangerous mix of prescription drugs. He later told police he found Michele unconscious in the bathtub. From the beginning, Alexis and her siblings didn`t believe their mother accidentally fell in the tub. Pleasant Grove police did not investigate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn`t interview anyone. People never questioned my father. They -- you know, he was the physician, the attorney. People didn`t want to question him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alexis and her family then took their case to the Utah County attorney`s office. They investigated again, and now allege MacNeill got rid of his wife to be with his mistress. And a second review of Michele`s autopsy determined her cause of death was drowning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is someone that I thought loved his family and would do anything for us, and it`s horrifying. It`s horrifying to be the person to have to push for his conviction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In our society, women are constantly under pressure to not only perform at work, to be the best mothers, but to also look years and years younger than they are, to be thin and fit and glamorous and beautiful, and to have it all together all the time.
Apparently, just being a beauty queen and a loving mother was not enough because Michele MacNeill was repeatedly pressured by her husband to undergo a complete and drastic facelift. She apparently did not want to go under the knife. Her husband insisted that she have a facelift.
And not only that, being that he was a doctor in that Utah community, her husband goes to great lengths to research, ultimately finding this doctor in an ad in the newspaper to perform the facelift on his wife.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we just have to show you how good your mom is. You`ll be so proud of her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See? She`s got (INAUDIBLE) OK.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let`s trade places. (INAUDIBLE) now, she only needs to touch lightly with her fingers on the bars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) first!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) first.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) back here, so I can`t get it. OK.
ANNOUNCER: After Michele MacNeill`s sudden death, suspicion immediately starts to turn to the husband as he act more and more bizarre. Is it just the behavior of a grieving husband, or is something else troubling him? And in a shocking twist, you`ll never guess who ends up moving into the family home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: The evening she had plastic surgery -- and this is the account of several people who observed this happen. MacNeill wanted desperately to take his wife home after a seven-hour surgery and not let her stay in the hospital that night, insisting that he could take care of his wife himself. He wanted her to come out of a seven-hour surgery and go home, get rolled out on a wheelchair, like you`ve had arthroscopic surgery, and go home.
Well, her physician refused. Got to give him credit for that. He insisted. And they really had a knock-down, drag-out about it. But her physician insisted that she spend at least one night in the hospital recovering.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Sir, I need you to...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Sir, I can`t understand you, OK? Can you calm down just a little bit?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need help!
911 OPERATOR: OK, what -- your wife is unconscious?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is unconscious! She`s under water!
911 OPERATOR: OK, did you get her out of the water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t! (INAUDIBLE) I let the water out! (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: She`s under the water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is out of the water now (INAUDIBLE) and I need an ambulance!
911 OPERATOR: OK, is she breathing at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s not!
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, the ambulance has been paged. They`re on their way, OK? Do not hang up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: What? Sir?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: One of the eight children, their daughter, Alexis, who herself was in medical school at the time, will not leave her mother`s side once her mother gets home. And she insists -- Alexis insists on staying there with her mother, while the father, Martin MacNeill, keeps telling Alexis -- and this is from Alexis yourself -- You`re tired. You need to go to bed. Go, go. I`ll take care of her. Well, Alexis won`t leave her mother`s side.
Finally, she sits there through the night. It`s the early morning hours. Martin MacNeill finally coerces his daughter, Alexis, to leave her mother`s side. She goes to bed. When she comes back in there, her mother, Michele, is totally unresponsive, she`s so doped up. And Alexis immediately questions her father. What happened? What happened?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Why would an adult female be...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Sir? This is 911. Can I help you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need help!
911 OPERATOR: OK. Sir -- they`re on their way. Is your wife breathing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is not! I am a physician! I have CPR in progress! (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: You`re doing CPR?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Sir, how old is your wife?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife is 50 years old! She just had surgery a couple of days, a week ago!
911 OPERATOR: What kind of surgery did they have?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Facelift!
911 OPERATOR: She had a facelift?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: OK, do you know how to do CPR?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m doing it!
911 OPERATOR: OK, do not hang...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And he says that he got mixed up and he may have accidentally overmedicated Michele to keep her out of pain.
Well, the daughter, Alexis, the medical student, becomes so concerned at this point -- now, remember, she has the surgery on April the 3rd. She spends the night. It`s April the 4th. Daughter Alexis stays with her the whole night of the 4th. We`re now into the 5th.
The daughter, Alexis, the medical student, becomes so concerned about what medications her father is giving her mother, she starts writing it all down. She questions him and she writes it all down.
And there is a list of multiple prescriptions. There is a liquid codone. I believe it was oxycodone or hydrocodone. There was Percocet. There was Xanax. There`s just an entire medicine cabinet full of medicine that MacNeill has talked this doctor into prescribing for her. No other doctor would have agreed to these medications.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The evidence shows on the morning of Michele`s death, the defendant administered a dangerous combination of drugs to her, including Valium, Percocet, Fenergen (ph) and Ambien. These drugs would have caused the victim`s respiration to become depressed. The combined effects of these drugs had a potentially lethal effect. Information filing from the Utah County attorney`s office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: On the night of April the 5th, having had her drastic surgery on the 3rd, Michele tells her daughter, her grown daughter Alexis, Alexis, if anything happens to me, your father did it.
Now, this woman had her face totally in bandages, her eyes covered in bandages. The mother, Michele, was now insisting that she feel the pills her husband was giving her, she was so suspicious of what he was giving her.
That night (INAUDIBLE) she told her daughter, If anything happens to me, your father did it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Until he is convicted and locked away, he`s always going to be a threat. He`s ruined so many lives, not just ours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are things we`ve worried about for -- since my mother`s murder. And I am just glad now that the world knows that my father is charged and that -- that I have full faith in the prosecutor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: (INAUDIBLE) police department.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) I need an ambulance! (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK, what`s the problem, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) medical.
911 OPERATOR: Sir, what`s wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) fallen in the bathtub!
911 OPERATOR: Who`s in the bathtub? Who`s in the bathtub?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was actually not acting like even he missed my mom. I never saw him cry at the funeral. He never even talked about my mother, except to say, This woman in the box before me. He was joking to people, saying he`s a bachelor. You know, he was still -- Gypsy was there at the funeral. She was there -- he was text messaging her, actually, at the funeral.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In criminal law, the behavior and the demeanor of a suspect can be assessed and brought into evidence before, during and after the incident. Now, just before her death in the bathtub, he, Martin MacNeill, made a point of being at a health fair, where he was at a booth of some sort. And out of character, he insisted that people take his photo with them at this health fair, many people argue to set up an alibi.
That is behavior before. Now, we already know about his multiple affairs, particularly with the nanny, Gypsy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, for the last year before my mother`s death, my father began, you know, working out, tanning, you know, not being at work when he was supposed to be, I mean, doing suspicious behaviors that my mom was concerned that he might be cheating, concerned enough that I took his phone and was able to log on through his passwords to get his phone records.
My mom and I went through those phone records, and we found a number that he`d been calling very often late at night. We called that number and a woman answered. We did an on-line search and the name Gypsy Gillian (ph) Willis popped up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her name is Gypsy. At first, we -- you know, like, Is this a stripper? I mean, who names somebody Gypsy? But yes, her name is Gypsy, Gypsy Gillian Willis. And my mother confronted my father about this woman and he denied it. He told my mother that, no, this woman was a nurse that he was renting a home to. There`s nothing going on.
And then right after her death, he told me that he found the perfect nanny to come move in the home, and he said her name is Gillian. And I said, Dad, Gypsy Gillian Willis? Mom told me about that woman. She was concerned you were having an affair. And you`re not to bring her into this home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Let`s take a look at the time of the death. He comes home. He does not pull his wife out of the bathtub, OK, where her dead body is floating. He doesn`t pull her out.
He calls 911, but he tells -- first of all, he tells his 6-year-old daughter to run next door to get a neighbor. That`s the first thing he does, instead of calling 911. When the neighbor comes, he refuses their help getting her out of the tub, saying he doesn`t want a woman, he needs a man to help him.
When he does get on with 911, he says he`s resuscitating her. That`s impossible because she`s still in a bathtub. She`s in a bathtub of water.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: OK. Your wife is unconscious?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is unconscious! She`s under water!
911 OPERATOR: OK, did you get her out of the water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t! I couldn`t (INAUDIBLE) I let the water out!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We all know from the Michael Jackson case in particular that CPR cannot be performed when someone is not on a flat surface, such as on a bed the way Michael Jackson was. He didn`t take her out of the tub, so he could not have performed CPR.
When he gets 911 on the phone finally, he is belligerent and angry with them, hangs up on them, and ultimately gives them the wrong home address to get them to the home. Now, those are facts that we know. These are uncontested facts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: She`s under the water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is out of the water now! (INAUDIBLE) I need an ambulance!
911 OPERATOR: OK, is she breathing at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s not!
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, the ambulance has been paged. They`re on their way, OK? Do not hang up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: What? Sir?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We also know that immediately after her death, he instructs another daughter to throw away all the prescription drugs in the home, that they`re a sad reminder of his wife. This is the day she dies. He has all of that evidence thrown out.
We know that he goes to the hospital. There he tries to -- very openly tries to bribe an ER physician by giving him 10 grand, $10,000, to continue to perform CPR on his wife.
Also, just after the time of death, the older daughter comes home, older than the 6-year-old. Remember, they`ve got eight children. The medical student, Alexis, comes home that night. She`s the one that refused to leave her mother`s side.
She gets home, and that night, the day, within hours of her mother`s death, the father, Martin MacNeill, has already cleaned out her closet. He`s gotten rid of all of her clothes, all of her shoes, everything. Everything has been cleaned out already. This is the day she dies!
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Moving back to the motion to disqualify...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The judge refused to dismiss the Utah County attorney`s office from prosecuting Dr. Martin MacNeill. The case was in jeopardy when Dr. MacNeill`s defense attorneys accused prosecutors of withholding evidence from them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, the remedy is to not disqualify the state but to make them produce the evidence, and that`s what has been done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that the judge acknowledged that there was bad faith on our part. To the extent that there were issues, we resolved those as quickly as we could. And we look forward to trying the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The judge`s ruling is a big win for prosecutors. The accusations that were leveled by the defense could have derailed the entire case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re happy that it wasn`t.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michele MacNeill`s family left the courthouse prepared for Dr. Martin MacNeill to face trial in his wife`s death. Michele MacNeill died in 2007 in her bathtub. Prosecutors claim she was murdered so Dr. MacNeill could continue an affair with this woman, Gypsy Willis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prosecutors argued Willis is the motive for the murder. They fought hard to have two of her former friends testify.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. MacNeill`s defense attorney left the courthouse without comment. More legal motions are pending. Prosecutors are gearing up for trial, but tell FOX 13 they`re open to a plea deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll see. We`ll see. We haven`t really bridged that gap yet. As a general approach to our cases at the Utah County attorney`s office, if we can reach a responsible plea deal in basically any case, we`ll do that. But with respect to this case, there`s nothing specific here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexis, are you able to see this through?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We`ve been there from the beginning, and we`re going to continue to do everything in our power to make sure he is convicted and put away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And are you concerned at all that he will be granted bail?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course. Of course. I know that this whole legal process is very drawn out. We`re aware of what can happen and we`re just hoping for the best and going to do everything in our power to make sure that our mother gets justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Let`s just fast-forward to her funeral. During his wife, Michele`s, funeral, he is texting or sending messages to his lover, Gypsy, who apparently is at the funeral.
Within days of his wife`s death, he moves his then lover into the home under the auspices of being the new nanny. He takes her around to all of the neighbors, giving them each a bottle of non-alcoholic, I guess, champagne or cider as a gift to introduce them to his lover as the new nanny. All of this is within days of his wife`s death.
So that`s just some of the behavior that a jury will hear, behavior before, during and immediately after the death of Michele.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In court documents obtained by FOX 13 news, Dr. Martin MacNeill`s defense attorneys present an alibi, what they claim happened the day Michele MacNeill died. It offers a timeline of events claiming Martin MacNeill was at the Utah State Developmental Center, leaving to take his daughter to school and back before 9:00 AM, and leaving only to pick her up at 11:30. That`s about the time Michele MacNeill`s body was discovered in a bathtub in their home.
Prosecutors allege she was drugged and drowned, a murder plot so Dr. MacNeill could continue an affair with this woman, Gypsy Willis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stakes are high. It`s a homicide case. It`s going to change everyone`s life, whatever the verdict is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Greg Skordas (ph) is a criminal defense attorney. He says alibi defenses can be risky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The risk to that, yes, is that the jury will say, Well, the state`s case is more believable. We like the state`s case. And defense, you haven`t put on a good case. Therefore, we don`t have much doubt about the state`s evidence.
We`ll wait and see what the defense case holds, but that`s the risk you run when you, as a defense, come forward and say, No, no, no, the state`s got it wrong. Here`s what really happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the case moves closer to trial, the media attention surrounding it has intensified. Utah County prosecutors are asking the judge to ban TV cameras from the courtroom. Utah has only recently allowed television cameras inside courtrooms, and now cable TV networks are asking to broadcast portions of the trial, much like they did in the Jodi Arias and Casey Anthony trials.
Prosecutors say they have inmate witnesses who will testify that Dr. MacNeill admitted to killing his wife. One went so far as to claim if other inmates found out he was snitching on another, that he would, in effect, be a dead man. Utah County prosecutors will argue it on Monday. A lawyer representing the cable networks says the courts should be open to the public.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prohibiting the television cameras is not going to solve the harm that the state is alleging. The identity of these prison witnesses is well known. It`s plastered all over the public record. It`s in the public domain. So all banning television cameras will do is prohibit the public from actually seeing what happens and hearing what happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: There are a lot of inconsistencies from Martin MacNeill`s own mouth about the scene of the death. At one point, he said he found his wife in the water. At another point, he said he found her slumped over the water, like when you would hang over the side of the tub to wash your hair under the water faucet, that he found her that way. At one point, he said someone else drained the water, which is evidence because it had her blood in it, drained it from the tub. On another occasion, he told police he drained the water out of the tub. He told 911 he was performing CPR. He did not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need help! (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: They`re on their way. Is your wife breathing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is not! I am a physician! I`ve got CPR in progress! (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: You`re doing CPR?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: How old is your wife?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife is 50 years old! She just had surgery a couple of days ago, or a week ago!
911 OPERATOR: What kind of surgery did she have?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A facelift!
911 OPERATOR: She had a facelift?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Do you know how to do CPR?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m doing it!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Then at a certain point, he begins beating her forcefully on her chest to make it look like he`s giving her CPR. Those are just some of the inconsistencies in his own statements. There are many, many more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Pleasant Grove Police Department. (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need -- I need an ambulance! (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: OK. What`s the problem, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Need medical.
911 OPERATOR: Sir, what`s wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) fallen in the bathtub!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Information filing from the Utah County attorney`s office. Only two days after the surgery, Alexis found Michele listless and unresponsive in bed. Alexis was concerned and approached her father for an explanation. Martin admitted to giving Michele some of each of the prescribed drugs and acknowledged that he may have overmedicated her.
Later that day, Alexis was helping her mother with a bath when Michele said, quote, "If anything happens to me, make sure it wasn`t your dad," end quote, and then she cried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Interesting behavior -- and this is circumstantial, of course -- several ladies from the church came over after the death and all he would talk about is home remodeling. He would never once talk about the death, the loss of his wife -- even at the funeral.
He was making comments to other men at the funeral, I guess I`ve got to get used to the bachelor life now, hanging out with my buddies, going to play golf, like he was looking forward to it. This is at the funeral, with his wife`s body there in the coffin, he`s talking about this carefree life coming up as a bachelor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Who`s in the bathtub? Who`s in the bathtub?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife!
911 OPERATOR: OK, is she conscious?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s not! I`m a physician! I need help!
911 OPERATOR: OK. Is she...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Sir, I can`t understand you, OK? Can you calm down just a little bit?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need help!
911 OPERATOR: OK. Your wife is unconscious?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is unconscious! She`s under water!
911 OPERATOR: OK, can you get her out of the water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t! I couldn`t lift her out! I let the water out! I have CPR in progress!
911 OPERATOR: She`s under the water?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is out of the water now! (INAUDIBLE) need an ambulance!
911 OPERATOR: OK, is she breathing at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s not!
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, the ambulance has been paged. They`re on their way, OK? Do not hang up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alexis, you said that you were concerned by the amount of medication that your mom was receiving. A couple of days before her death, you said she seemed out of it, I believe, and that you were monitoring or trying to monitor the medication that she was getting, and that`s why you suspected your father was doing this on purpose, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s correct. I had been monitoring everything my mother had been taking. She had done well after the surgery. She was recovering. She was taking the minimal amount of medication.
One night, I was told to leave the room, that my father wanted to take care of her. The next morning is when I came in and my mother was very heavily drugged. When she woke up hours and hours later, she told me, Your father just kept giving me medication. He kept giving me medicine, and I didn`t need it.
And after that, I told my father, You`re not allowed to give her any medicine. I`m doing it. And I kept a record of every pill that she was given. She was hardly taking any medication when I left.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: At the funeral for his wife, Michele, someone approached him and said, Let me help you find a baby-sitter or a nanny. I mean, they did have eight children. And he said, No, I`ve already got someone.
Days pass. They`re back at church, and he suddenly runs into -- runs into Gypsy. And right there on the spot, they pretend that they are contemporaneously arranging for her to be the new nanny, where days before, he says, I`ve already got somebody. Obviously, he had long planned to move his lover into the home, immediately following his wife`s death to be the nanny.
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911 OPERATOR: What? Sir?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would an adult female be so...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello!
911 OPERATOR: Sir, this is 911. Can I help you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need help!
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir, they`re on their way. Is your wife breathing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is not! I am a physician! I`ve got CPR in progress! (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: You`re doing CPR?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Sir, how old is your wife?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife is 50 years old! She just had surgery a couple of days -- or a week ago!
911 OPERATOR: What kind of surgery did she have?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had a facelift!
911 OPERATOR: She had a facelift?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!
911 OPERATOR: OK. Do you know how to do CPR?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m doing it!
911 OPERATOR: OK, do not hang...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is someone that I thought loved his family and would do anything for us. And it`s horrifying. It`s horrifying to be the person to have to push for his conviction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Questions swirling about MacNeill`s behavior before and after his wife`s death.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need an ambulance! (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The Deseret News" reporting the morning his wife died, an employee reportedly filed a complaint against him, saying he was acting, quote, "belligerent and nervous."
911 OPERATOR: Sir, what`s wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) fallen in the bathtub!
911 OPERATOR: OK, is she conscious?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s not! I`m a physician!
911 OPERATOR: OK, sir...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need help!
GRACE: How many times is he going to tell the 911 operator, I`m a doctor. I`m a physician.
OK, let`s talk about the scene, the scene that they found, the EMTs found when they got there. To Jim Kirkwood, talk show host, KTKK, joining us out of Salt Lake.
For those of you just joining us, a prominent doctor and lawyer -- has he gotten away with the murder of his wife? Jim, what did they find when they arrived at the home?
JIM KIRKWOOD, KTKK: Well, apparently, there`s a bunch of different stories from him, but they found her. She still had some undergarments on. He claimed she was in the tub, claimed she was leaning over. The problem with this guy is his stories, they`re so different, to different people.
GRACE: Like what? What`s the discrepancies?
KIRKWOOD: One, that she was in the tub, under water except for her feet. Another, that she was leaning over the tub with only her head in the water. Another one is she was partially clothed, which is weird if you`re in a tub. I`ve never done that, but maybe someone does. This kind of thing, Nancy, it`s very strange.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: It was only at the insistence of his adult daughters that this case really moved to the forefront. And after looking at the evidence that had amassed over time, the autopsy cause of death moved to possible homicide. The second review says that the death was not natural, not accidental and not suicide. That certainly narrows the playing field.
But the state has to contend with the first autopsy conducted by a medical examiner that did not have all the facts that we have today. That medical examiner may have very well changed her mind, knowing what we know. However, she passed away with cancer. So that will be an avenue of exploitation for the defense at trial.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MacNeill`s attorney claims his client is innocent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s adamantly professed his innocence from the beginning, continues to do so. And I`m confident when all the evidence in this case is heard that the jury will conclude that he`s not guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His daughters are prepared to fight that claim in court and want the world to know their father cut their mother`s life short.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We`ve seen a lot of cases with seemingly overwhelming evidence. It`s really hard to make a call on a jury verdict. I don`t see any way they can acquit in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mom deserves this. She deserves justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: But history shows that that can be wrong.
END
