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on a windy october night in 1995 a
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mysterious house fire swept through the
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palatial home of a doctor and his family
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two of the family members made it out
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alive two of the children did not
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in the debris
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medical detectives discovered much more
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than simply how the fire started
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[Music]
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michael ferrara and deborah green first
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met in medical school in 1977
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both were gifted students with near
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genius iqs
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there was an instant attraction and they
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married less than a year after they met
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over the next 16 years the couple raised
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three children jennifer timothy and
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kelly in an affluent suburb of kansas
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city kansas
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to outsiders their lives seemed perfect
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but the marriage was showing signs of
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stress
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at the north kansas city hospital dr
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michael farrar was a successful heart
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specialist who worked very long hours
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often at the expense of time with his
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children
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deborah quit her own medical practice
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when the children were born
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she battled depression weight gain
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and was rumored to have a drinking
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problem you got the impression that
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deborah wasn't
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the easiest person in the world to live
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with
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she was
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i don't want to say
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well let's just leave it at that
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in an effort to rekindle their marriage
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the couple decided to go on a school
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trip to peru with their son tim
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while sightseeing along the amazon river
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and among the incan remains
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an attractive blonde nurse caught
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michael's attention she was the mother
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of one of the other students
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when they returned to kansas city
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michael continued to see his new friend
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which soon blossomed into a sexual
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affair it didn't take debra long to find
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out about her husband's affair she moved
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into a separate bedroom and her drinking
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increased
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her whole identity was her marriage and
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her family because she didn't
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she no longer had her own career
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i felt it you know maybe it was just
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really hard for her to let go of that
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maybe she felt like
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she could change or something could
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change and they could somehow stay
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together
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and michael had some serious problems of
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his own
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shortly after the peru trip michael
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developed diarrhea vomiting and chill so
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severe he was admitted to the local
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hospital
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he'd been in south america where he
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might have had access to a whole variety
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of things that that could make him very
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sick
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despite undergoing a full battery of
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tests doctors could not determine the
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cause of dr farrar's illness when i saw
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him it's like mike man you look bad i'm
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sorry but you don't look good and he
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said he'd been really really violently
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ill since he got back from peru he
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assumed that he got some
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tropical parasite from hell michael
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ferrar was rapidly losing weight
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dropping to just
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125 pounds
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whatever was causing this illness
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was a mystery
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[Music]
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for a cardiologist who seemingly had it
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all
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dr michael farrar's life in 1995
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was one crisis after another
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when he was released from the hospital
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for the illness many believed he caught
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in peru
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michael took another step towards
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divorce by moving into his own apartment
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across town
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his wife deborah was angry depressed
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drinking heavily and would stay in her
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bedroom for days at a time
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[Music]
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michael was concerned for her welfare as
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well as the safety of their three
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children
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while visiting the house to pick up some
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of his things michael noticed something
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suspicious in his wife's
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purse a packet of castor beans
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on the label was a warning that the
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beans were poisonous
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with so many packets of castor beans in
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her purse michael suspected that his
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wife was planning to commit suicide
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so he was telling me that he was pretty
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sure she was going to try and kill
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herself with these poisons which really
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to me didn't make any sense because dr
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green is a bright woman i mean she's
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extremely bright woman and is an
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oncologist and if you're a doctor i mean
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doctors kill themselves all right i mean
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in professional people do commit suicide
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but fortunately we've got the best of
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drugs available to us i mean if you're
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going to go why would you go stooling
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yourself to death i mean
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you aren't going to want to die with
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bloody diarrhea i mean that is a very
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horrible
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bad way to die
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dr ferrard decided to do a little
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investigating of his own
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the castor beans were purchased from the
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earl may garden center
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a receipt from that store in deborah's
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purse indicated she purchased the beans
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just four days before michael first got
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sick
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while consulting his medical textbook
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farrar learned some terrible news
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that castor beans contain verizon
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a deadly toxin with no known antidote
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and the symptoms of ricin poisoning were
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vomiting nausea diarrhea and
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gastrointestinal bleeding
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symptoms which were identical to his own
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[Music]
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farrar quickly took a sample of his own
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blood for testing
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but ricin leaves the body quickly and
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the lab could find no trace of it in his
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system
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although he had no proof
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farrar was convinced that his wife had
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somehow poisoned him with ricin and this
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was the cause of his mysterious symptoms
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a few days later michael confronted
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debra during an angry telephone call
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i told her that i was
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very angry with her
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that i thought she was crazy that i
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thought she had been poisoning me that i
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thought she needed uh serious
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psychiatric help
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i don't have to listen to this
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[Music]
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one hour later around midnight a fire
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broke out in the farrar family home
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by the time firemen arrived the home was
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totally engulfed in flames i've never
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seen a fire spread as fast throughout
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the house as i have on this one the heat
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was tremendous there was no way that
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anyone can
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even get close to the house
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of course the flames were
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roaring out
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probably 20 to 30 feet
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deborah and her ten-year-old daughter
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jennifer both escaped
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during questioning on the night of the
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fire debra learned the tragic news
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that her other two children had been
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trapped and died in the fire oh god
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beautiful family beautiful joy are both
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dead
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jesus christ did they make any attempt
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at all to save her
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six-year-old kelly died of smoke
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inhalation in her own bed
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thirteen-year-old tim
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burned to death
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christ i saved one of the kids and i
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could have gotten the second one out and
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didn't will never forgive myself for
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that
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investigators immediately suspected
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arson
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it's fair to say that deborah greene was
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a suspect early on it's fair to say that
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mike farrar was a suspect early on
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both had motive
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both had opportunity
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if the fire had been deliberately set
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the charge would be more than arson
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it would be
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murder
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[Music]
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while investigating the suspicious house
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fire that killed tim and kelly farrar
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police looked a little deeper into the
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relationship between michael and his
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estranged wife deborah
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a few weeks before the fire the couple
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had a fight at the house
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michael said his wife was intoxicated
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angry and threatening to kill herself
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the police were called and took deborah
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to the hospital for psychiatric
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evaluation dr pamela mccoy was the
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physician on duty
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pam mccoy indicated that at first she
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was somewhat skeptical about whether or
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not debra green was really that mentally
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ill and is sitting there in the uh
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in the waiting room of the ku medical
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center emergency room talking to debra
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greene about these issues asking her if
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she's okay if there's anything she can
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do to help her and trying to get a read
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on her mental state when in my in walks
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michael ferrara when they met in our
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kind of entryway there
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she just like turns on him like she's i
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mean for a minute i kind of hold her
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like i think she's going to physically
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attack him and she spits at him
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and calls him a cult and then she says
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you're going to get these kids over
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their dead bodies
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deborah said she made the statement in
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anger and denied having anything to do
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with the fire
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[Music]
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she said she was asleep when the fire
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alarm sounded
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she said she opened the bedroom door saw
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flames and smoke closed the door and ran
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outside through a door in the bedroom
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[Music]
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deborah said she told her son tim to
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stay inside until firemen arrived and
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ran to the next door neighbor's house
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for help
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to find out whether an accelerant or
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flammable liquid was used in starting
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the fire
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arson investigators used specially
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trained dogs that can identify vapors
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which remain after the fire this is a
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dog that has been through several weeks
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of training
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on how to how to detect different types
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of
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liquid accelerants like diesel fuel or
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kerosene or gasoline or charcoal lighter
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fluid
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the dogs identified a number of
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suspicious areas
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investigators found melted plastic
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containers on the floor possibly used to
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carry flammable liquids throughout the
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house
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next to dr farrar's desk investigators
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found another clue that the fire had
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been intentionally set
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we found an empty liquor bottle laying
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on the floor right behind
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this desk
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again this it's possible
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that
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the contents of this bottle were poured
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out and ignited on the desk
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a section of the basement floor had what
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appeared to be a poor pattern
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where an accelerant was ignited as a
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test
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the accelerants also gave investigators
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a clear path of the fire
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the path led directly to deborah green's
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bedroom door
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that fire
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was set at that bedroom door
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with the intent
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of doing a tremendous amount of damage
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to that house and cutting off the escape
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route of those children upstairs
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and the analysis of the burn patterns on
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the bedroom door contradicted debra
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greene's story
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debra said her bedroom door was closed
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when the fire alarm sounded and that she
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closed the door before running outside
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for help
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but the carpet underneath the door
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revealed the door had been open
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the door jamb revealed the same thing
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if the door had been closed
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the door jamb would have been protected
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from the fire instead
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it was completely covered with
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soot in the bathroom
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was debra's bathrobe wrapped in a ball
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on the floor
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on the underside of the robe were burn
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marks
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at some point the person wearing the
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robe had been very close to the flames
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the neighbors said deborah's hair was
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wet when she ran over asking for help
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this did not come as a surprise to arson
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investigators
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when dr greene actually
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ignited that accelerant outside of her
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bedroom door and in the hallway that
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there was enough vapors present that
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there was there was quite a flash
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more of a flash than she probably was
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prepared for
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when she did that
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i believe that is when she got the hair
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singed on the right side of her head
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with a search warrant
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detectives took a sample of deborah's
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hair
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microscopic analysis revealed the
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deborah's hair showed signs of heat
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damage consistent with singing from a
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high intensity flame
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the damage to deborah's hair was
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extensive since the sample wasn't
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collected until after she had her hair
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cut for her children's funeral
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bill chapin is a forensic chemist whose
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job was to analyze the fire debris
00:14:41
evidence from the farrar home fire
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debris is stored in metal canisters
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which preserve any vapors which may
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still be present
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the canisters are heated to between
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80 and 90 degrees centigrade
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and the air inside removed
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if the vapors contain accelerants or
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hydrocarbons they're trapped in charcoal
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filters
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the filters are then rinsed with the
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neutral solvent carbon disulfide and the
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mixture is placed into a gas
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chromatograph mass spectrometer for
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analysis
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after two days of testing
00:15:19
bill chapin found what he was looking
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for
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in this particular case the accelerant
00:15:24
that i found was an accelerant called
00:15:26
isoparaffin isoparaffins are often used
00:15:30
in odorless
00:15:32
charcoal lighter fluids
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there was an empty container of charcoal
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lighter fluid on the floor of the
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farar's garage
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investigators were now convinced that
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deborah green set the fire that killed
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two of her children the only question
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that remained had she also tried to kill
00:15:51
her husband with castor beans
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when dr michael ferrar told police he
00:16:00
was sure his wife had been poisoning him
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with castor beans investigators were
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unsure of where to start
00:16:06
since the local laboratory could find no
00:16:09
evidence of ricin and michael ferrara
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system his blood was sent to the fbi to
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dr drew richardson an expert in chemical
00:16:18
and biological research at the naval
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medical research institute in washington
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dc people in the intelligence community
00:16:26
are quite familiar with ricin based on a
00:16:28
handful of cases that most everybody
00:16:31
would know about very few people in the
00:16:32
late public and even highly trained
00:16:35
professionals such as medical doctors
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would be quite unlikely to know much
00:16:38
about rice and if anything
00:16:40
ricin is an antigen that causes a
00:16:42
breakdown of red blood cells at the
00:16:45
tissue level
00:16:46
in large enough doses
00:16:48
it can be fatal
00:16:50
when an antigen enters the body the
00:16:53
immune system's response is to produce
00:16:55
antibodies which fight the invading
00:16:57
organism
00:16:58
to find out whether rice and antibodies
00:17:01
were in michael ferrara's system dr
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richardson used a technique called elisa
00:17:07
which stands for enzyme-linked
00:17:09
immunoabsorbent assay
00:17:11
a 96-well plastic plate is coated with
00:17:14
the solution containing ricin in theory
00:17:19
any rice and antibodies in dr farrar's
00:17:21
blood would bind to the ricin coated on
00:17:24
the plate which is exactly what happened
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next
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dr richardson analyzed the blood of
00:17:31
goats that had been exposed to small
00:17:33
amounts of ricin it appeared that the
00:17:36
goats and michael ferrar both had
00:17:38
similar antibodies in their systems
00:17:41
antibodies designed and structured to
00:17:44
recognize and seek out the target
00:17:47
invader
00:17:48
ricin
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dr richardson discovered something else
00:17:53
the number of rice and antibodies in
00:17:55
farrar's system was staggering
00:17:58
in the case of dr michael ferrar it's
00:18:00
thought that perhaps he was exposed
00:18:02
three times a certain immune response
00:18:05
would have been produced the first time
00:18:06
a response would have lasted a few weeks
00:18:10
on second and third and perhaps other
00:18:12
exposures a separate immune response
00:18:14
would have been produced
00:18:16
for each one of those exposures
00:18:18
and the latter exposures would have
00:18:20
produced a response and antibodies that
00:18:23
would be present in the blood for again
00:18:24
many months to perhaps a few years debra
00:18:27
greene was charged with two counts of
00:18:30
murder and two counts of attempted
00:18:32
murder
00:18:33
prosecutors believe that when deborah's
00:18:36
attempts to kill her husband failed
00:18:39
she feared losing custody of her
00:18:41
children in the impending divorce
00:18:44
i don't have to listen to this
00:18:51
after the argument on the telephone
00:18:53
prosecutors believe that deborah poured
00:18:56
accelerants throughout the house
00:18:58
with special attention to michael's
00:19:01
possessions and making sure to cut off
00:19:03
the children's escape route
00:19:08
the path of the accelerants led directly
00:19:10
to the door of debra green's bedroom
00:19:17
[Music]
00:19:19
but she used too much accelerant the
00:19:22
vapors ignited causing a mini explosion
00:19:24
that singed her hair
00:19:29
while dousing her head with water she
00:19:31
saw that her bathrobe had also caught
00:19:33
fire and discarded it
00:19:43
ten-year-old jennifer survived by
00:19:45
crawling out her bedroom window and
00:19:46
jumping to the ground
00:19:48
deborah told tim to stay inside with the
00:19:51
six-year-old sister until firemen
00:19:53
arrived
00:19:55
sadly
00:19:56
tim did what his mother had told him to
00:19:59
do he and kelly both died before firemen
00:20:02
could reach them
00:20:05
deborah green's trial was scheduled to
00:20:07
begin one week after michael's brain
00:20:09
operation to repair damage caused by the
00:20:12
rice and poisoning
00:20:14
but the trial never took place
00:20:17
deborah greene pleaded no contest to the
00:20:19
charges avoiding a possible death
00:20:22
sentence
00:20:23
my attorneys are ready willing and able
00:20:25
to present evidence that i was not in
00:20:27
control of myself when tim and kelly
00:20:29
died
00:20:30
however true that may be defending
00:20:32
myself at trial on these charges would
00:20:34
only compound the suffering of my family
00:20:36
and my daughter she was sentenced to
00:20:38
life in prison
00:20:40
without possibility of parole
00:20:42
for 40 years
00:20:44
well i think
00:20:46
these kids in this case were sort of the
00:20:48
ultimate pawn
00:20:49
the ultimate weapon that deborah green
00:20:51
used in this fight with michael ferrar
00:20:54
she in some ways probably loved those
00:20:56
kids in other ways viewed them as an
00:20:59
expendable resource to be used in this
00:21:01
war
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:18
[Music]
00:21:24
so
00:21:26
[Applause]
00:21:30
[Music]
00:21:41
you
