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this week's 48 Hours digs into the case of a former beauty queen who died with drugs in her body in 2022 Sarah Harris
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was found unresponsive at the Maryland home she shared with her boyfriend Dr James Ryan Ryan an oral surgeon told
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police it was an overdose but her mother believes Sarah was murdered and the scene looks suspicious 48 Hours
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contributor Nikki batist explains why it was January 26 2022 about 700 a.m. when police with body cameras
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discovered 25-year-old Sarah Harris at home with her 48-year-old boyfriend Dr James Ryan who told them he'd last seen
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her the night before Oh you just found her un responsive yeah I pulled her onto the floor to start CPR Ryan said Sarah
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struggled with depression and drugs that she had worked for him and sometimes stole from his office where he kept the
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surgical anesthetics ketamine and propal both found in her body did she do any drugs yesterday while you were around
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her no I was around okay authorities at the scene accepted Dr Ryan's account but
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Sarah's mother Tina Harris soon arrived already suspicious Dr Ryan was behind her daughter's death and I went towards
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James and attacked him I started kicking and hitting him and screaming up Sarah's sister
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Rachel soon Unearthed text messages between Sarah and Dr Ryan suggesting he'd brought her the drugs and just
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weeks before she died even dosed her himself if you wake up I just went to change after I gave you ketamine just
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now he writes he's injecting her while she's asleep detective Ian cavello who specialized in pharmaceutical cases
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before retiring last year says First Responders may not have understood what they were looking at he says cops
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usually see street drugs not surgical medication and supplies like Sarah had usually what we see is burnt spoons tin
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foil not medical grade drugs on March 22nd 2022 James Ryan was arrested and prosecutors charged him with a crime
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known as depraved heart murder he pled not guilty but assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Harrison says Ryan
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showed a reckless disregard for human life the act of giving her the drugs is handing her a loaded gun
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[Music] Nikki bati joins us now uh so Nikki why would Dr Ryan have killed Sarah Harris
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what's the motive it's a good question there really is no obvious motive in this case and there's really no
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conclusive evidence he even wanted Sarah haris dead but as a doctor he's an oral
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surgeon he had to see that she was wasting away and prosecutors argue he wanted to use those anesthetic drugs to
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control her but what can you tell us about Sarah's sister who the the authorities say was very critical to
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this case remarkable Rachel Harris really was the first investigator on this on this case
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everyone told us that without her there would have been a murder charge and this
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probably would have never gone to trial mom seemed very suspicious from the word
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go did she ever try prior to that moment to get her daughter away from Dr Ryan she tried a couple times to get Sarah
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away she kept asking her leave and Sarah threatened to cut her off like any mom she didn't want to lose her but in the
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end that is exactly what happened sadly I've covered many many criminal cases I've never covered one like this it's
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incredibly unique using these anesthetic drugs and this charge I'd never heard of
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depraved we we all looked at each othering Saturday night to find out what exactly that means how it applies in
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this case it's really fascinating wow all right yeah you got me hooked Nikki uh thank you very much you can catch
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Nikki's report the depraved heart murder on 48 hours this Saturday night at 10: 9
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Central right here on CBS and of course streaming on Paramount Plus