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On a windy October night in 1995,
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a mysterious house fire swept through
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the palatial home of a doctor and his
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family. Two of the family members made
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it out alive. Two of the children did
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not.
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In the debris, medical detectives
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discovered much more than simply how the
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fire started.
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[Music]
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Michael Ferrar 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 IQ's. There was an instant
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attraction and they married less than a
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year after they met. Over the next 16
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years, the couple raised three children,
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Jennifer, Timothy, and Kelly, in an
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affluent suburb of Kansas City, Kansas.
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To outsiders, their lives seemed
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perfect. But the marriage was showing
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signs of stress.
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At the North Kansas City Hospital, Dr.
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Michael Ferrar 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. She battled
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depression, weight gain, and was rumored
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to have a drinking problem.
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>> You got the impression that Deborah
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wasn't the easiest person in the world
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to live with. Um, she was uh
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I don't want to say, well, let's just
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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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[Music]
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While sightseeing along the Amazon River
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and among the Incan remains, an
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attractive blonde nurse caught Michael's
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attention. She was the mother of one of
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the other students. When they returned
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to Kansas City, Michael continued to see
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his new friend, which soon blossomed
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into a sexual affair. It didn't take
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Deborah long to find out about her
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husband's affair. She moved into a
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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 uh she no
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longer had her own career. Um I I felt
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that, you know, maybe it was just really
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hard for her to let go of that. maybe
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she felt like um
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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. Shortly after the Peru trip,
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Michael developed diarrhea, vomiting,
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and chills so severe he was admitted to
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the local hospital. he'd been in South
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America where he might have had access
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to a whole variety of things that that
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could make him very 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. Ferrar's illness.
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>> When I saw him, it's like, Mike, man,
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you look bad. I'm sorry, but you don't
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look good. And he said he'd been really,
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really violently ill since he had gotten
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back from Peru. He assumed that he had
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gotten some tropical parasite from hell.
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Michael Ferrar was rapidly losing
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weight, dropping to just 125 lbs.
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Whatever was causing this illness was a
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mystery.
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For a cardiologist who seemingly had it
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all, Dr. Michael Ferrar's life in 1995
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was one crisis after another. When he
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was released from the hospital for the
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illness many believed he caught 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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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 purse.
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A packet of caster beans. On the label
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was a warning that the beans were
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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 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
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mean, doctors kill themselves, all
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right? I mean, in professional people do
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commit suicide, but fortunately, we've
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got the best of drugs available to us. I
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mean, if you're going to go, why would
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you go stooling yourself to death? I
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mean, you aren't going to want to die
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with bloody diarrhea. I mean, that is a
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very horrible, bad way to die.
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>> Dr. Ferrar decided to do a little
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investigating of his own.
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The caster beans were purchased from the
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Earl May Garden Center. A receipt from
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that store in Deborah's purse indicated
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she purchased the beans just 4 days
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before Michael first got sick.
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While consulting his medical textbook,
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Farrar learned some terrible news that
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castor beans contain Ryson, a deadly
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toxin with no known antidote.
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And the symptoms of Ryson poisoning were
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vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and
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gastrointestinal bleeding. Symptoms
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which were identical to his own.
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Farrar quickly took a sample of his own
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blood for testing, but Ryson leaves the
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body quickly and the lab could find no
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trace of it in his system.
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Although he had no proof, Farrar was
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convinced that his wife had somehow
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poisoned him with Ryson and this was the
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cause of his mysterious symptoms.
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A few days later, Michael confronted
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Deborah during an angry telephone call.
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I told her that I was uh very angry with
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her. Uh that I thought she was crazy.
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That I thought she had been poisoning
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me. That I thought she needed 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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>> 1 hour later around midnight, a fire
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broke out in the Ferrar family home. By
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the time firemen arrived, the home was
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totally engulfed in flames.
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>> I've never seen a fire spread as fast
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throughout the house as I have on this
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one. The heat was tremendous. Uh there
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was no way that uh anyone could get even
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get close to the house. Of course, the
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flames were were roaring out u probably
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20 to 30 ft.
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Deborah and her 10-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, Deborah 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.
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>> Oh, God. Beautiful family, beautiful Joy
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are both dead.
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Jesus Christ, did they make any attempt
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at all to save them?
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6-year-old Kelly died of smoke
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inhilation in her own bed.
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13-year-old Tim 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. I'll 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 Green was
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a suspect early on. It's fair to say
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that Mike Ferrar was a suspect early on.
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>> Both had motive. 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 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 Ferrar,
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police looked a little deeper into the
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relationship between Michael and his
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aranged wife Deborah. A few weeks before
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the fire, the couple had a fight at the
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house. Michael said his wife was
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intoxicated, angry, and threatening to
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kill herself. The police were called and
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took Deborah to the hospital for
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psychiatric evaluation. Dr. Pamela McCoy
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was the 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 Deborah Green was really that
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mentally ill and is sitting there in the
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u in the waiting room of the KU medical
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center emergency room talking to Deborah
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Green 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 walks
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Michael Ferrar
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>> when they met in our kind of entryway
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there, she just like turns on him like
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she's I mean for a minute I kind of hold
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her like I think she's going to
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physically attack him and she spits at
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him and calls him a cold and then she
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says, "You're going to get these kids
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over 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,
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saw flames and smoke, closed the door,
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and ran outside through a door in the
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bedroom.
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>> Tim, can you hear me? Deborah said she
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told her son Tim to stay inside until
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firemen arrived and ran to the next door
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neighbor's house for help to find out
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whether an accelerant or flammable
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liquid was used in starting 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 on how to how to detect
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different types of liquid accelerants
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like diesel fuel or kerosene or gasoline
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or charcoal lighter 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
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to carry flammable liquids throughout
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the house. Next to Dr. Ferrar's desk.
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Investigators found another clue that
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the fire had been intentionally set.
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>> We found an empty liquor bottle laying
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on the floor right behind this desk.
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Again, this it's possible that uh the
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contents of this bottle were poured out
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and 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 where an
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accelerant was ignited as a test. The
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accelerants also gave investigators a
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clear path of the fire. The path led
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directly to Deborah Green's bedroom
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door.
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That fire was set at that bedroom door
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with the intent of doing a tremendous
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amount of damage to that house and
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cutting off the escape route of those
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children upstairs.
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>> And the analysis of the burn patterns on
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the bedroom door contradicted Deborah
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Green's story.
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Deborah 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 opened. The
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door jamb revealed the same thing. If
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the door had been closed, the door jamb
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would have been protected from the fire.
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Instead, it was completely covered with
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soot.
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In the bathroom was Deborah's bathrobe
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wrapped in a ball on the floor. On the
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underside of the robe were burn 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. Green 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 uh
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more of a flash than she probably was
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prepared for. Uh when she did that, uh I
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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, detectives took a
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sample of Deborah's hair. Microscopic
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analysis revealed that Deborah's hair
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showed signs of heat damage consistent
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with singing from a highintensity 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 Chapen is a forensic chemist whose
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job was to analyze the fire debris
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evidence from the Ferrar 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. The canisters are
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heated to between 80 and 90° centigrade
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and the air inside removed. If the
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vapors contain accelerants or
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hydrocarbons, they're trapped in
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charcoal filters. The filters are then
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rinsed with a neutral solvent carbon
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dulfide and the mixture is placed into a
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gas chromatograph mass spectrometer for
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analysis.
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After 2 days of testing, Bill Chapen
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found what he was looking for.
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>> In this particular case, the accelerant
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that I found was an accelerant called
00:15:27
isoparafin. Isoparafins are often used
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in odorless uh 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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Ferrar's garage.
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Investigators were now convinced that
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Deborah Green set the fire that killed
00:15:45
two of her children. The only question
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that remained, had she also tried to
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kill her husband with caster beans?
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When Dr. Michael Ferrar told police he
00:16:00
was sure his wife had been poisoning him
00:16:02
with caster beans. Investigators were
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unsure of where to start. Since the
00:16:07
local laboratory could find no evidence
00:16:10
of Ryson in Michael Ferrar's system, his
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blood was sent to the FBI to Dr. Drew
00:16:16
Richardson, an expert in chemical and
00:16:19
biological research at the Naval Medical
00:16:21
Research Institute in Washington DC.
00:16:24
People in the intelligence community are
00:16:26
quite familiar with Ryson based on a
00:16:29
handful of cases that most everybody
00:16:31
would know about. Very few people in the
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lay public and and even highly trained
00:16:35
professionals such as medical doctors
00:16:37
would be quite unlikely to know much
00:16:39
about Ryson, if anything. Ryson is an
00:16:41
antigen that causes a breakdown of red
00:16:44
blood cells at the tissue level. In
00:16:47
large enough doses, it can be fatal.
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When an antigen enters the body, the
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immune system's response is to produce
00:16:55
antibodies which fight the invading
00:16:57
organism. To find out whether rice and
00:17:00
antibodies were in Michael Ferrar's
00:17:02
system, Dr. Richardson used a technique
00:17:05
called alysa, which stands for enzyme
00:17:09
linked imunosorbent essay. A 96 well
00:17:13
plastic plate is coated with the
00:17:15
solution containing Ryson. In theory,
00:17:19
any Ryson antibodies in Dr. Ferrar's
00:17:22
blood would bind to the Ryson coated on
00:17:24
the plate, which is exactly what
00:17:27
happened. Next, Dr. Richardson analyzed
00:17:30
the blood of goats that had been exposed
00:17:33
to small amounts of Ryson. It appeared
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that the goats and Michael Ferrar both
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had similar antibodies in their systems.
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Antibodies designed and structured to
00:17:44
recognize and seek out the target
00:17:47
invader, Ryson. Dr. Richardson
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discovered something else. The number of
00:17:54
Ryson antibodies in Ferrar's system was
00:17:57
staggering.
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>> 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,
00:18:07
a response that would have lasted a few
00:18:09
weeks. on second and third and perhaps
00:18:12
other exposures. A separate immune
00:18:14
response would have been produced for
00:18:16
each one of those exposures and the
00:18:19
latter exposures would have produced a
00:18:21
response and antibodies that would be
00:18:23
present in the blood for again many
00:18:25
months to perhaps a few years.
00:18:27
>> Deborah Green was charged with two
00:18:29
counts of murder and two counts of
00:18:31
attempted murder.
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Prosecutors believe that when Deborah's
00:18:36
attempts to kill her husband failed, she
00:18:39
feared losing custody of her children in
00:18:42
the impending divorce.
00:18:45
>> I don't have to listen to this.
00:18:51
After the argument on the telephone,
00:18:54
prosecutors believe that Deborah poured
00:18:56
accelerants throughout the house with
00:18:59
special attention to Michael's
00:19:01
possessions and making sure to cut off
00:19:04
the children's escape route.
00:19:08
The path of the accelerance led directly
00:19:11
to the door of Deborah 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
10-year-old Jennifer survived by
00:19:45
crawling out her bedroom window and
00:19:47
jumping to the ground. Deborah told Tim
00:19:50
to stay inside with his six-year-old
00:19:52
sister until firemen arrived.
00:19:55
Sadly, Tim did what his mother had told
00:19:59
him to do. He and Kelly both died before
00:20:02
firemen 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
Ryson poisoning, but the trial never
00:20:15
took place. Deborah Green pleaded no
00:20:19
contest to the charges, avoiding a
00:20:22
possible death sentence.
00:20:24
>> My attorneys are ready, willing, and
00:20:25
able to present evidence that I was not
00:20:27
in control of myself when Tim and Kelly
00:20:29
died. However true that may be,
00:20:32
defending myself at trial on these
00:20:34
charges would only compound the
00:20:35
suffering of my family and my daughter.
00:20:37
>> She was sentenced to life in prison
00:20:40
without possibility of parole for 40
00:20:43
years.
00:20:45
>> Well, I think uh these kids in this case
00:20:47
were sort of the ultimate pawn, the
00:20:50
ultimate weapon that Deborah Green used
00:20:51
in this fight with Michael Ferrar. She
00:20:55
in some ways probably loved those kids,
00:20:57
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]
00:21:17
Heat. Heat.
00:21:26
[Music]
