00:00:06
what happens when a healthy middle-aged
00:00:09
woman suddenly collapses and dies and
00:00:12
medical science can't find the cause of
00:00:15
death months later a second forensic
00:00:19
look discovered evidence that had been
00:00:21
right under their noses the entire time
00:00:26
[Music]
00:00:33
[Music]
00:00:37
[Applause]
00:00:52
Dana Point California just 60 Mi South
00:00:55
and a world away from Los Angeles is a
00:00:58
Haven for those seeking a quiet
00:01:00
Oceanside
00:01:03
lifestyle in 1988 it was home to Janet
00:01:06
and Richard Overton and their
00:01:08
17-year-old son Eric 60-year-old Richard
00:01:13
was a successful computer consultant and
00:01:15
part-time
00:01:17
Professor 46-year-old Janet was a member
00:01:20
of the local school
00:01:22
board she was such a genuinely nice
00:01:25
person uh smiling and and um had good
00:01:29
things to say the Overton lived on a
00:01:33
tranquil
00:01:34
cuaac after 19 years of marriage they
00:01:37
seem to be a classic example of when
00:01:39
Opposites Attract While Janet was
00:01:42
outgoing and high school educated
00:01:45
Richard held a PhD and was much more
00:01:48
reserved he was always the loner and I
00:01:52
don't uh I understand that he graduated
00:01:54
from high school after 3 years he was
00:01:57
editor of one of his campus newspapers
00:02:00
uh as I said he was a very smart man
00:02:02
Janet was passionate about her work on
00:02:05
the school board a job she took
00:02:07
seriously at one point she served as
00:02:09
president but her number one priority
00:02:12
was her son she took such pleasure in
00:02:15
him and I know that one of her goals was
00:02:20
to hand him his diploma when he walked
00:02:22
across the stage uh graduating from Dana
00:02:25
Hills High
00:02:26
School on January 24th J and her son
00:02:30
Eric packed up the family van to spend a
00:02:33
day on a yacht with some
00:02:37
[Music]
00:02:42
friends but before leaving the house
00:02:45
Janet collapsed Eric told his father who
00:02:48
immediately called for an
00:02:52
ambulance by the time emergency
00:02:54
Personnel arrived Janet was
00:02:58
unconscious when they got to the
00:03:00
hospital she was
00:03:04
dead an autopsy found no indication of
00:03:08
how she died they did not find anything
00:03:11
that they were comfortable calling a
00:03:13
cause of death or even close
00:03:16
surprisingly Janet's medical records
00:03:18
indicated she had made 60 visits to
00:03:21
different doctors clinics and hospitals
00:03:23
in the last year there was just an
00:03:26
amazing amount of work up done on the
00:03:30
deceased Janet Overton uh in the
00:03:32
previous year because she had been very
00:03:35
sick and had been to all sorts of
00:03:37
special clinics working things up they
00:03:39
didn't find anything she had complaints
00:03:42
of of pains in various parts of her body
00:03:47
um she began to get like ulcerated areas
00:03:51
on her
00:03:52
skin Janet had complained of a number of
00:03:55
various ailments from nausea to skin
00:03:57
irritations to General Pain
00:04:01
she was walking very slowly and had a a
00:04:04
cane to help her walk and was really
00:04:08
looking
00:04:10
miserable it appeared to the medical
00:04:12
examiner that Janet's death was as
00:04:15
mysterious as her other medical problems
00:04:18
over the past year her death would have
00:04:21
remained a mystery had it not been for a
00:04:25
telephone call about an incident 14
00:04:28
years earlier tried to kill me and
00:04:33
[Music]
00:04:42
I Janet Overton's death at the young age
00:04:45
of 46 was officially listed as pending
00:04:48
investigation which is another way of
00:04:50
saying
00:04:52
unknown but the next 6 months there was
00:04:55
no further investigation into Janet's
00:04:58
death
00:05:00
that is until the local sheriff's
00:05:02
department received a telephone call
00:05:05
from darthy Boer who was once married to
00:05:08
Richard
00:05:09
Overton Dorothy had heard about Janet's
00:05:11
death and had a story to tell about
00:05:14
Richard's past Dorothy said she divorced
00:05:18
Richard when she found out that he was a
00:05:20
bigamist he was married to another woman
00:05:23
at the same time he was married to her
00:05:25
and had children with both women he
00:05:28
maintained a two households and he
00:05:31
deceived two women he consistently had
00:05:33
troubled relationships with women all of
00:05:36
his adult life which went to his first
00:05:38
marriage the bigamous marriage with
00:05:40
Carolyn Hutchinson and his uh third
00:05:42
marriage with Janet there was a definite
00:05:45
pattern there when the couple divorced
00:05:48
Dorothy gained custody of their children
00:05:50
and took possession of their house which
00:05:52
infuriated Richard almost immediately
00:05:56
Dorothy began to suffer from skin
00:05:58
lesions NAA and pain the same symptoms
00:06:02
that plagued Janet
00:06:07
Overton one day after their divorce
00:06:10
Richard visited daroy to discuss some
00:06:12
issues relating to their
00:06:18
children after he left Dorothy noticed
00:06:22
an unusual odor coming from her milk
00:06:31
she took the milk to police for testing
00:06:34
scientists discovered large amounts of
00:06:36
selenium a type of
00:06:39
poison Dorothy accused Richard of
00:06:42
placing the selenium in her Milt during
00:06:44
his visit when confronted with the
00:06:47
evidence Richard
00:06:49
confessed in return Dorothy refused to
00:06:52
press charges against Richard he had to
00:06:55
admit yes I did do this and he was sent
00:06:58
into anger counseling when he came out
00:07:00
of anger counseling he made another
00:07:01
attempt which he denied and that was
00:07:04
when Dorothy confronted him and just
00:07:06
told him you make any more attempts on
00:07:07
me or anybody in my family and I'm going
00:07:10
to have you taken away in handcuffs and
00:07:13
from then on he backed off and he didn't
00:07:15
do anything to Dorothy after hearing
00:07:19
this news Lieutenant Carney wanted to
00:07:21
exume Janet Overton's body for another
00:07:24
autopsy but there was a problem Janet
00:07:28
Overton had been been
00:07:31
cremated toxicologist Paul sedwick's
00:07:34
only option was to re-examine Janet's
00:07:37
Blood and Tissue samples left over from
00:07:40
the
00:07:41
autopsy when he tested those samples for
00:07:45
selenium he could find none
00:07:48
present despite the setback
00:07:51
investigators pressed on and soon
00:07:54
discovered the Janet had a secret life
00:07:57
of her own she had been involed involved
00:07:59
in a longtime affair with Bill Dawson
00:08:03
someone she worked with on the school
00:08:05
board and who owned the yacht she was
00:08:07
going on the day she died Mr Dawson was
00:08:11
very forthright very honest he knew his
00:08:14
career was on the line by revealing this
00:08:17
Mr Dawson was also adamant that he had
00:08:20
nothing to do with Janet's death in
00:08:23
Janet's home police discovered 133
00:08:27
computer discs and dozens of Diaries
00:08:30
written by Richard Overton some were
00:08:32
written in Russian and
00:08:34
Spanish as you read the Diaries and read
00:08:38
the uh
00:08:40
diset it tells a whole different story
00:08:42
of Richard Overton's relationship with
00:08:44
Jen the relationship Richard pointed out
00:08:47
to me at my time of interview of they're
00:08:49
having a loving
00:08:51
relationship uh and the bonds of Love
00:08:53
were strong was totally inconsistent
00:08:57
with what he wrote in his Diaries
00:09:00
and Lieutenant Carney noticed an
00:09:02
interesting deletion in the Diaries I
00:09:06
opened up the diary for January 24th the
00:09:09
handwritten Diary of January 24th this
00:09:11
is the date that Janet died he had cut
00:09:14
the page out of the
00:09:17
Diary many of the discs contained
00:09:20
portions of documents that had been
00:09:23
deleted the discs were sent to a
00:09:25
computer forensic examination firm for
00:09:28
analysis
00:09:30
when material in a computer document is
00:09:32
deleted it's not actually deleted
00:09:35
instead the material is identified on
00:09:38
the disc as space available to be reused
00:09:41
if needed if that space isn't needed the
00:09:45
deleted material is still
00:09:47
there the recovered information from
00:09:50
Richard's hard drive revealed that
00:09:52
Richard knew of his wife's affair with
00:09:55
Bill Dawson and was angry about it
00:09:58
overall his writings chronicled a deeply
00:10:02
troubled
00:10:04
relationship approximately one week
00:10:06
before her death he made an entry that
00:10:08
said the love hate relationship between
00:10:10
Jan and I has turned to Pure hate I will
00:10:12
deal with this
00:10:14
soon some passages of the handwritten
00:10:17
Diaries had been covered with correction
00:10:20
fluid Carney suspected incriminating
00:10:23
information might be
00:10:26
underneath to find some way to see
00:10:29
underneath the deletions the Diaries
00:10:31
were sent to the forensics lab the
00:10:34
forensic document examiner um had
00:10:36
brought the diary for us to look at and
00:10:40
was curious if we could use some type of
00:10:43
a light source that was available to us
00:10:45
in the dentification bureau to
00:10:46
illuminate that information that was
00:10:48
underneath the correction fluid black
00:10:50
used what a decade ago was a new and
00:10:53
untested piece of equipment a
00:10:56
laser it was a very simple procedure
00:10:58
using the light source of through the
00:11:00
laser shining it through the back of the
00:11:03
paper uh trying to illuminate what was
00:11:05
underneath the correction
00:11:07
fluid the process worked some of those
00:11:11
hidden entries corroborated the severity
00:11:14
of the problems in the Overton's
00:11:16
marriage I recall him documenting words
00:11:20
that they had had what she had said to
00:11:22
him about how they were getting along or
00:11:24
not getting along the Overton marriage
00:11:27
was a marriage that slowly
00:11:29
deteriorated over uh a period of time
00:11:32
and then quickly deteriorated to the
00:11:35
point where uh there was no uh uh
00:11:38
contact between Richard and Janet
00:11:40
Overton they had separate bedrooms they
00:11:42
took meals separately um she confided to
00:11:46
a couple of her friends that as soon as
00:11:47
Eric graduated from high school she was
00:11:49
out of there and he knew it too the
00:11:52
Diaries were important because it showed
00:11:54
motive we saw the relationship between
00:11:57
Jan and Richard on a daily basis there
00:12:01
was everything listed in these Diaries
00:12:04
and when I say everything I mean
00:12:06
everything but if Richard was somehow
00:12:09
involved in Janet's death the Diaries
00:12:12
gave no hint of how he killed
00:12:18
[Music]
00:12:22
her forensic scientists suffered a major
00:12:26
setback when they could find no Trace of
00:12:29
the poison selenium in Janet Overton's
00:12:32
tissue
00:12:33
samples years earlier Richard Overton
00:12:37
admitted putting selenium in his
00:12:39
ex-wife's drink because he was angry
00:12:41
about the financial terms of their
00:12:44
divorce but his ex-wife never filed
00:12:47
charges but this admission of an earlier
00:12:51
poisoning prompted forensic scientist to
00:12:53
take a second look at Janet Overton's
00:12:56
tissue
00:12:57
samples almost immediately medely the
00:13:00
toxicologist made a startling Discovery
00:13:03
he detected the odor of bitter
00:13:07
almonds within
00:13:09
seconds the odor of cyanide didn't
00:13:12
really overpower me but it just jumped
00:13:14
out I was 2 or 3 feet away and there was
00:13:16
just no question this was this was
00:13:18
Cyanide and large amounts only one
00:13:21
person in three has the ability to
00:13:23
detect cyanide in this
00:13:26
way but he would need more proof than
00:13:28
his nose
00:13:29
no Sedrick performed a Prussian Blue
00:13:33
test a sample of Janet's stomach
00:13:36
contents were mixed with water and
00:13:37
sodium hydroxide then after adding some
00:13:41
Ferris sulfate the mixture was heated to
00:13:45
Boiling if there was cyanide present the
00:13:49
mixture would turn a deep Prussian
00:13:52
Blue the result was
00:13:55
positive cyanide in Janet's stomach
00:13:58
meant she had ingested it shortly before
00:14:02
her
00:14:02
death and toxicologists found something
00:14:06
else traces of cyanide in Janet's brain
00:14:10
tissue an indication she had ingested
00:14:14
cyanide on previous
00:14:16
occasions cyanide was found in Trace
00:14:19
Amounts in some herbal and prescription
00:14:22
medicines that Janet Overton had been
00:14:24
taking to see if any of Janet's herbal
00:14:27
treatments could have produced the iide
00:14:30
sedick tested all of the substances she
00:14:33
was taking I ground them up I took them
00:14:37
fresh without grinding them I put them
00:14:39
in tubes I made them slightly acidic
00:14:42
somewhat mimicking stomach
00:14:44
contents I I tried crushing them and
00:14:47
grinding them in the acid I tried
00:14:49
blending them any way I could
00:14:52
to bring out any cyanide that might be
00:14:56
might possibly evolve from these
00:14:58
compounds and then I smelled them and I
00:15:00
tested them chemically and I found no
00:15:02
cyanide in any of the
00:15:04
compounds another obstacle was reports
00:15:07
that cyanide can be created in blood
00:15:09
samples after death these reports of
00:15:13
cyanide being created in systems in
00:15:15
stored blood after death are actually
00:15:17
measurable amounts of cyanide but
00:15:19
they're extraordinarily
00:15:21
small before heading to trial
00:15:25
prosecutors needed to know whether the
00:15:27
storage process caused the iide in
00:15:29
Janet's tissues and wanted testing done
00:15:33
by an internationally known expert I
00:15:35
called Scotland Yard because Scotland
00:15:37
Yard dealt with more poisonings than we
00:15:39
did here in the state so I called up and
00:15:42
I said do you know of an expert that
00:15:45
deals in cyanide that would know
00:15:47
exclusively about Cyanide and I was
00:15:49
referred to Brian Valentine One of the
00:15:51
foremost experts in the world on
00:15:54
cyanide the level of cyanide found in
00:15:57
Janet's blood sample 7 months after her
00:16:00
death was 2 microG per 100 ml of blood
00:16:05
while that amount was consistent with
00:16:07
other fatal cases of cyanide poisoning
00:16:10
balentine's personal standard was much
00:16:13
higher he studied the storage conditions
00:16:16
in the lab containing Janet's tissues
00:16:19
and mathematically determined cyanides
00:16:21
conversion and evaporation rates when
00:16:24
this was complete Dr Valentine knew that
00:16:28
the s in Janet system was the result of
00:16:31
Foul
00:16:33
Play This was a death of from of acute
00:16:38
cyanide uh poisoning the quick acting
00:16:41
cyanide that killed Janet had to be
00:16:43
administered minutes before her death
00:16:47
this fact eliminated Janet's lover Bill
00:16:49
Dawson as the killer since he had an
00:16:51
alibi that he was on his boat at the
00:16:53
time of Janet's death but if Richard
00:16:56
Overton had given his wife the
00:16:59
cyanide where did he get
00:17:02
it it wasn't long before investigators
00:17:05
discovered the answer Richard's friend
00:17:08
owned a gold and silver mine and he kept
00:17:11
a lab in his house which contains
00:17:13
cyanide since it's used in mining
00:17:16
operations to extract precious metal
00:17:18
from the raw
00:17:19
core this individual was uh frequented
00:17:23
these these mines mining
00:17:26
operations and while he was gone
00:17:29
Richard would go over to his house and
00:17:32
pick up the the person's mail and feed
00:17:35
the animals Etc prosecutors could now
00:17:38
prove Richard had access to the murder
00:17:41
weapon and had opportunity and
00:17:45
motive 3 years after Janet's death
00:17:49
Richard Overton was arrested and charged
00:17:51
with first deegree murder
00:17:56
[Music]
00:18:02
Richard Overton was charged with the
00:18:04
first-degree murder of his wife Janet he
00:18:07
insisted he was
00:18:09
innocent there is a very famous and
00:18:11
inspired saying that says you shall know
00:18:14
the truth and the truth shall make you
00:18:17
free the truth is I am
00:18:20
innocent it's one thing to say look we
00:18:23
have a cause of death and it's cyanide
00:18:25
but it's another thing to be able to
00:18:27
prove it in front of 12 people
00:18:29
and that was our job is to prove it to
00:18:32
the jurors in the Box prosecutors
00:18:35
believe that Richard Overton was jealous
00:18:37
of the notoriety his wife achieved as
00:18:39
president of the local school board
00:18:42
their marriage deteriorated when Richard
00:18:45
learned that Janet was having an affair
00:18:48
he was hurt when you're finished with
00:18:50
the working day um and you're married
00:18:54
whether it's been a long-term marriage
00:18:56
or a short-term marriage there should be
00:18:57
something to come home to
00:18:59
and in Janet's case there wasn't
00:19:01
anything to come home to when Richard
00:19:03
discovered that Janet planned to divorce
00:19:05
him he got angry and sought
00:19:09
Revenge just as he had done to his
00:19:11
previous wife darthy when she divorced
00:19:15
him at the trial Dorothy testified
00:19:18
against Richard about her poisoning
00:19:21
incident Richard Overton also testified
00:19:25
in his own defense he could not explain
00:19:30
logically uh the prior poisoning of uh
00:19:33
Dorothy Boer and
00:19:37
uh came off uh by making a comment that
00:19:40
he thought that the poison of her was
00:19:42
just a neat
00:19:44
joke and I think that was a uh a damning
00:19:47
thing to say and something that the
00:19:50
certainly this jury could not understand
00:19:52
in my opinion the forensic evidence
00:19:55
against Overton was overwhelming
00:19:58
not just the toxicology which found the
00:20:01
cyanide and Janet system but also the
00:20:04
forensic document examination of
00:20:06
Overton's Diaries which clearly shows
00:20:09
Overton's frame of mind at the time of
00:20:12
Janet's death the theory is that Richard
00:20:15
Overton really fixed her a real good
00:20:17
cocktail in the morning with her orange
00:20:19
juice after she drank it uh she uh went
00:20:22
she was going whale watching with her
00:20:24
son Eric and collapsed in the driveway
00:20:27
he was very clever very good and U
00:20:29
Almost Got Away With
00:20:31
It 7 years after Janet's death Richard
00:20:35
Overton was found guilty of first
00:20:37
deegree
00:20:39
murder this defended is sentenced to the
00:20:41
term of life without
00:20:43
parole Richard Overton dropped down his
00:20:46
guard he thought that he was so
00:20:47
intelligently uh far above these
00:20:50
investigators that uh they weren't on to
00:20:53
anything and uh he didn't realize really
00:20:55
how wrong he was until it was it was
00:20:58
really too late I felt a great sense of
00:21:01
relief that uh justice indeed had been
00:21:03
served that she did have her day in
00:21:05
court and that um he did it and he was
00:21:09
going to pay for it and I was still sad
00:21:12
that she was gone and especially under
00:21:14
those conditions sadly in
00:21:17
1999 darthy Boer died of
00:21:21
lymphoma there is a possibility that the
00:21:24
years of selenium
00:21:27
poisoning could have cus
00:21:29
this U it's nothing that right now
00:21:32
science or art technology can can prove
00:21:35
Beyond a reasonable doubt we get people
00:21:38
off in our job as well as finding the
00:21:42
guilty and either one is satisfaction
00:21:45
but I will have to admit that finding
00:21:47
murderers and getting them off the
00:21:49
Street's a big one we had to show the
00:21:52
cause of death and the only way we were
00:21:54
going to show a cause of death is
00:21:56
forensically and the forens
00:21:59
those are scientists those are facts
00:22:01
those don't lie that you can't beat
00:22:03
forensics you can't beat science the
00:22:06
forensics were very important to this
00:22:08
case this case was primarily a science
00:22:10
case uh and uh if I were to put a number
00:22:14
to it I would say it was probably 90%
00:22:16
science and 10%
00:22:19
[Music]
00:22:27
investigation one
00:22:29
[Music]
00:22:35
[Music]
00:22:44
[Music]
