00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:04
up next
00:00:05
a young man falls ill and no one knows
00:00:08
why
00:00:09
maybe he had been exposed to something
00:00:11
through his work
00:00:12
despite the best of medical intensive
00:00:14
care
00:00:15
he dies is accidental is it suicide
00:00:19
is it homicide but investigators know
00:00:22
there must be a clue
00:00:24
somewhere the more we looked into it the
00:00:26
more bizarre it got
00:00:37
the research triangle in raleigh-durham
00:00:39
north carolina
00:00:40
home to many high-tech research and
00:00:43
development companies
00:00:45
thirty-year-old eric miller worked there
00:00:47
looking for a cure for pediatric aids
00:00:50
his wife ann was also a scientist
00:00:52
working for a large pharmaceutical
00:00:54
company
00:00:55
eric and anne miller were living the
00:00:57
american dream they had good jobs
00:00:59
they had a beautiful baby they lived in
00:01:02
a nice house they attended church
00:01:04
despite a satisfying professional life
00:01:07
eric developed health problems
00:01:09
that some suspected might have been
00:01:11
related to his job
00:01:13
he exhibited a lot of flu-like symptoms
00:01:17
vomiting fevers headaches
00:01:20
and people generally thought that he had
00:01:23
a virus or that he had a bacterial
00:01:25
infection
00:01:26
that they just couldn't isolate
00:01:29
one night while bowling with his friends
00:01:32
his symptoms were so
00:01:33
severe he had to be hospitalized
00:01:36
anna miller said he was pale and white
00:01:38
and he was holding a trash
00:01:40
can and said he had eaten a hot dog at
00:01:42
the bowling alley and felt like he had
00:01:43
gotten food poisoning
00:01:45
eric was put into intensive care but
00:01:48
when his condition improved
00:01:50
he was released several days later he
00:01:54
was hospitalized again
00:01:57
this time doctors found a huge amount
00:02:01
of arsenic in his system well over the
00:02:04
lethal level
00:02:06
the urine test from the second hospital
00:02:09
was
00:02:09
um was really high it was sky high it's
00:02:13
tasteless it's odorless it's water
00:02:16
soluble
00:02:17
can easily be mixed in with food or
00:02:19
drinks
00:02:20
arsenic is a poison used in pesticides
00:02:23
herbicides and insecticides
00:02:26
they asked him if he knew of anybody
00:02:28
that would have any reason to
00:02:30
to harm him or hurt him in any way and
00:02:32
he indicated that he did not
00:02:34
within hours eric miller was dead
00:02:42
it's a very very painful way to die
00:02:45
arsenic basically eats away at your body
00:02:48
from the inside out it causes you to
00:02:51
have violent
00:02:52
violent nausea convulsions
00:02:56
your system starts shutting down organ
00:02:59
by organ
00:03:01
but where did the arsenic come from
00:03:05
a check of eric's workplace showed he
00:03:07
had no exposure to arsenic there
00:03:10
we went to the lab and we looked at
00:03:12
every chemical in the lab and
00:03:14
checked for arsenic we did not find
00:03:16
anything that was arsenic or arsenic
00:03:18
derivative
00:03:19
they also checked eric's home we seized
00:03:22
every bottle of water every carton of
00:03:24
milk
00:03:25
everything that was there again
00:03:28
they found nothing
00:03:31
so investigators focused on that night
00:03:34
in the bowling alley
00:03:35
when eric first exhibited the extreme
00:03:38
symptoms a witness said
00:03:42
eric had a beer shortly before feeling
00:03:45
ill
00:03:46
eric had commented during the time that
00:03:48
the beer tasted bitter
00:03:49
to him that there was a strange taste to
00:03:51
the beer he
00:03:52
went to the bathroom a number of times
00:03:54
and he became so ill that in fact he
00:03:56
brought
00:03:57
the trash can from the bathroom over to
00:03:59
the lane where they were bowling
00:04:01
witnesses said eric's friend daryl
00:04:04
willard had given eric the beer
00:04:06
investigators tried to speak to daryl
00:04:08
about that but he refused
00:04:11
daryl said i can't talk to you anymore
00:04:13
i've got to talk to my lawyer
00:04:15
then six weeks after eric's death
00:04:19
daryl's wife found him on the floor of
00:04:20
the garage in a pool of blood
00:04:23
a gun in his hand my husband just killed
00:04:26
himself
00:04:34
there was a suicide note tacked to the
00:04:37
wall
00:04:38
of the garage i am sorry to leave you my
00:04:41
wife
00:04:42
my beautiful daughter like this i have
00:04:45
been accused of an action
00:04:47
for which i am not responsible i have
00:04:49
taken no one's life
00:04:51
saved my own i love you all
00:04:56
i think daryl willard had to know
00:04:57
something about the death of eric miller
00:05:00
in police work that's what we call a
00:05:02
clue
00:05:06
police in raleigh-durham north carolina
00:05:09
had two
00:05:10
suspicious deaths
00:05:11
[Music]
00:05:13
eric miller's death was caused by a
00:05:15
massive dose of arsenic
00:05:18
six weeks later eric's friend daryl
00:05:21
willard committed suicide
00:05:26
the two had been together at the bowling
00:05:28
alley on the night
00:05:29
eric miller fell ill daryl
00:05:33
completely out of character for him
00:05:35
according to everybody we talked to
00:05:37
buys a picture of beer while they're
00:05:39
waiting for elaine to free up
00:05:41
when eric took his first swallowed beer
00:05:45
you know doesn't taste quite right and
00:05:47
shortly before daryl willard committed
00:05:49
suicide
00:05:50
he had confessed to his wife that he had
00:05:53
been having an affair
00:05:54
with anne miller eric's wife we don't
00:05:57
know
00:05:57
whether or not he told his wife anything
00:05:59
else about
00:06:02
his potential involvement with arsenic
00:06:05
or
00:06:05
eric miller at the bowling alley
00:06:08
investigators searched willard's work
00:06:10
computer and phone records
00:06:12
they also searched ann miller's they
00:06:16
found
00:06:17
ample evidence of the affair
00:06:20
from the middle of october until
00:06:23
eric's death she's got
00:06:26
like 500 cell phone calls to daryl
00:06:29
willard's desk
00:06:31
to his house or to his cell phone she's
00:06:34
called him
00:06:34
over 500 times and
00:06:38
also sent daryl emails
00:06:43
i want to make you feel so many things i
00:06:46
want to show you
00:06:47
new things i want to touch places in you
00:06:50
that you didn't know
00:06:51
existed you better leave the women alone
00:06:54
you have me ann miller and daryl willard
00:06:58
both worked together at the same
00:07:00
pharmaceutical company
00:07:02
[Music]
00:07:03
investigators learned they spent a
00:07:06
weekend together at the ritz-carlton
00:07:07
hotel in chicago
00:07:09
shortly before eric's death they
00:07:12
registered
00:07:12
as mr and mrs darryl willard
00:07:16
but hotel employees later confirmed that
00:07:19
the woman
00:07:20
was anne miller ann and daryl
00:07:23
ordered a lot of room service
00:07:27
just three days later when eric miller
00:07:29
was in the hospital
00:07:30
investigators learned that his wife ann
00:07:32
contacted
00:07:33
another man with whom she was having an
00:07:35
affair a fellow scientist
00:07:37
living in california ann says
00:07:40
my husband is gravely ill but if i could
00:07:43
buy you a beach house and spend the
00:07:44
night with you i would do it in a
00:07:46
heartbeat
00:07:46
she also said in that email
00:07:48
communication that he could call the
00:07:50
house
00:07:51
and they could speak by phone because
00:07:53
their in-laws wouldn't know any better
00:07:55
and they wouldn't suspect anything no
00:07:57
one knows if daryl willard knew
00:07:59
anne miller was involved with other men
00:08:02
but it was clear to investigators
00:08:04
that daryl willard and ann miller both
00:08:07
had a motive to kill eric
00:08:09
at the pharmaceutical company where both
00:08:11
anne miller and daryl willard were
00:08:13
employed
00:08:14
police found arsenic they were using
00:08:17
cacadelic acid
00:08:19
to clean their glassware and at first
00:08:22
glance
00:08:22
you might not know a cacadelic acid but
00:08:24
it's actually
00:08:26
it actually is arsenic this was the same
00:08:29
type of arsenic found in eric miller's
00:08:32
body
00:08:33
which meant the poison that killed him
00:08:36
probably came
00:08:37
from the lab where his wife and her
00:08:40
lover worked
00:08:41
there were some controls with regard to
00:08:44
arsenic and access to arsenic in
00:08:48
in the lab those controls were were not
00:08:52
particularly tight but a search of both
00:08:55
the willard and miller homes turned up
00:08:58
nothing we had it all tested for arsenic
00:09:01
it all came up negative
00:09:03
although police considered ann miller a
00:09:06
suspect
00:09:07
eric's parents did not eric's parents
00:09:10
were very adamant that anne was not
00:09:12
involved
00:09:13
they had accepted ann into their family
00:09:17
she was their daughter-in-law and they
00:09:18
had a good relationship with ann
00:09:21
but strangely against the wishes of
00:09:24
eric's family
00:09:25
anne insisted that eric's body be
00:09:28
cremated
00:09:30
everyone that follows any type of
00:09:32
forensic
00:09:33
investigation knows that the easiest way
00:09:35
to get rid of evidence is by cremating
00:09:37
somebody
00:09:38
eventually anne miller quit her job sold
00:09:41
her home
00:09:41
and moved three hours away to wilmington
00:09:43
north carolina
00:09:45
where she refused to cooperate further
00:09:47
with investigators
00:09:50
but even though eric's body was cremated
00:09:53
the medical examiner kept samples from
00:09:56
his autopsy
00:09:58
investigators hoped something in these
00:10:01
samples would prove
00:10:02
a homicide
00:10:07
in the search for eric miller's killer
00:10:09
medical detectives hoped to find some
00:10:11
clues in
00:10:12
tissues saved from his autopsy
00:10:15
scientists knew eric's death was caused
00:10:18
by arsenic poisoning
00:10:20
but they needed to find out when and
00:10:23
by whom arsenic stays in your hair
00:10:27
obviously your hair grows and so the
00:10:29
poisonings
00:10:30
that occurred earlier are going to be on
00:10:32
the end of your hair and the poisonings
00:10:34
that
00:10:34
are more recent are going to be towards
00:10:36
the scalp
00:10:37
eric miller's hair was kept in storage
00:10:39
after his autopsy
00:10:41
from the length of eric's hair
00:10:44
investigators would have a record
00:10:46
of the last six months of his life
00:10:49
in a process called neutron activation
00:10:53
the hair samples were cut into five
00:10:55
millimeter sections
00:10:58
each section represented about two weeks
00:11:01
in eric miller's life you can't take
00:11:04
hair and say this person was
00:11:06
poisoned on january 12th but you can
00:11:09
take hair and say
00:11:10
this person was poisoned during this
00:11:12
two-week period
00:11:14
each clipping was put into its own vial
00:11:18
placed in a nuclear reactor
00:11:21
and bombarded with radiation
00:11:24
the resulting graph showed eric ingested
00:11:28
a huge dose of arsenic in the two weeks
00:11:31
before his death in that two-week period
00:11:36
eric complained of severe symptoms on
00:11:39
three separate occasions
00:11:43
once was at the bowling alley when eric
00:11:45
was with daryl willard
00:11:47
it's my opinion very strong opinion
00:11:51
that daryl willard had actually given
00:11:53
eric
00:11:54
a lethal dose of arsenic in that cup of
00:11:57
beer that he served to him
00:11:59
interestingly witnesses said daryl
00:12:02
knocked over eric's beer before he could
00:12:05
finish it
00:12:06
i think that beer got spilled because
00:12:08
daryl willard did not want
00:12:10
eric miller to die i think daryl willard
00:12:13
was a good man and i think that he got
00:12:16
caught up
00:12:17
in ann miller's web if you will
00:12:20
and he realized what was happening
00:12:24
and and did not want to go through with
00:12:26
that
00:12:27
anne told investigators she was at home
00:12:30
with her daughter on the night eric went
00:12:32
bowling
00:12:33
but a check of ann's cell phone record
00:12:35
showed something
00:12:36
very different at about 7 20
00:12:40
ann miller's cell phone was used
00:12:43
in close proximity to the bowling alley
00:12:44
based on where the tower was hit
00:12:47
in fact cell phone records showed anne
00:12:50
actually made a call
00:12:52
to her home to check her voicemail
00:12:55
the call bounced off a cell phone tower
00:12:57
near the bowling alley
00:12:59
so it put a little bit of a hole in ann
00:13:01
miller being at home
00:13:03
a couple of days later eric had dinner
00:13:06
with his wife
00:13:06
alone at home and again he got sick
00:13:11
ann prepares a meal and serves at
00:13:14
derrick
00:13:15
and that night about two
00:13:18
three hours later eric has a recurrence
00:13:22
of the same symptoms that he had the
00:13:24
night of the bowling alley
00:13:26
again eric was rushed to the hospital
00:13:29
but this time
00:13:30
he was dead within 16 hours
00:13:34
we have put it enough together to say
00:13:37
in all reasonable probability in miller
00:13:41
and darrell willard conspired to kill
00:13:43
eric
00:13:45
but the other shocking piece of
00:13:47
information that came from the analysis
00:13:49
of eric's hair
00:13:50
was that the poisonings had been going
00:13:52
on
00:13:53
for months the testing showed
00:13:56
that eric miller had been poisoned
00:14:00
multiple times and they were able to
00:14:03
isolate
00:14:04
i believe three times for certain but
00:14:07
multiple times
00:14:08
over the six-month period previous to
00:14:10
his death
00:14:12
but if she wanted him dead why
00:14:15
take so long to do it there were a lot
00:14:18
of theories about this one
00:14:19
was that she was torturing him the most
00:14:23
obvious one that i think investigators
00:14:25
kind of settled on was that she wanted
00:14:27
to create a pattern of him appearing to
00:14:29
be sick
00:14:30
so when he finally did die nobody would
00:14:32
suspect poisoning
00:14:34
but investigators had a problem they
00:14:37
knew what caused eric's death
00:14:39
and they knew when he was poisoned
00:14:42
but proving who was responsible
00:14:46
would be another matter
00:14:52
investigators believe that anne miller
00:14:54
had poisoned her husband
00:14:55
and was responsible for his death it was
00:14:58
the motive
00:15:00
they had a hard time figuring out since
00:15:03
eric didn't have a big life insurance
00:15:05
policy money was not
00:15:06
considered a motive the only life
00:15:09
insurance was in the amount of one
00:15:12
hundred thousand dollars
00:15:14
investigators believe anne's lover daryl
00:15:17
willard
00:15:18
may have been involved in putting
00:15:20
arsenic and eric's beer at the bowling
00:15:22
alley
00:15:24
but they're convinced it was at ann's
00:15:27
direction i think dan miller was driving
00:15:30
the train
00:15:32
daryl willard was a passenger he was not
00:15:35
making these decisions and he was a
00:15:37
victim
00:15:38
just like eric miller they also believe
00:15:42
that anne put
00:15:43
arsenic in eric's food the last meal he
00:15:45
consumed
00:15:46
before his death the massive dose of
00:15:50
arsenic
00:15:50
was given to eric the night before he
00:15:54
finally went to the hospital for the
00:15:55
last time
00:15:57
investigators also found evidence that
00:16:00
eric miller had come
00:16:01
very close to finding out about anne's
00:16:03
affair with daryl willard
00:16:05
it happened when ann didn't come home
00:16:07
from work on time
00:16:09
eric got upset and started driving
00:16:11
around trying to find anne because
00:16:13
they didn't know where ann was at nine
00:16:14
o'clock she then calls her mom and she
00:16:16
finds out everyone's looking for
00:16:18
and i think in my opinion what triggered
00:16:20
anne to do something
00:16:22
it was getting closer ann miller she
00:16:23
almost got caught by eric on november
00:16:25
29th
00:16:26
of committing adultery for having an
00:16:28
affair and it triggered the fatal dose
00:16:30
of november 30th
00:16:31
i think she didn't want to be a divorced
00:16:33
woman she didn't want that stigma she
00:16:35
didn't want to deal with child support
00:16:37
child visitation
00:16:38
custody as a widow she got sympathy
00:16:42
and she didn't have to deal with all of
00:16:44
the messy stuff that comes along with
00:16:46
divorce
00:16:48
before his death daryl willard made an
00:16:51
offhand comment to investigators
00:16:54
that made it appear he knew he'd been
00:16:57
set up
00:16:58
i said daryl i think you're being used
00:17:01
i think a woman's using you and i think
00:17:04
you know
00:17:05
it'd be in your best interest to
00:17:06
cooperate with us
00:17:08
and the only thing he said was yeah
00:17:11
and she's doing a mighty good job of it
00:17:14
the very next day
00:17:16
willard committed suicide i mean you had
00:17:20
the scientific evidence
00:17:22
and that was hard and fast but
00:17:25
you needed a witness you needed
00:17:28
somebody to say ann miller did this
00:17:32
daryl willard he was the only witness
00:17:36
that could testify against anne miller
00:17:39
and could give them the information that
00:17:40
they needed to arrest her
00:17:43
so prosecutors asked the north carolina
00:17:45
supreme court
00:17:47
to force daryl willard's lawyer to
00:17:49
reveal
00:17:50
what daryl told him about anne miller's
00:17:52
involvement
00:17:53
client confidentiality is is one of the
00:17:57
most important parts of our our system
00:18:01
the judge studied the case and ruled
00:18:04
that a small
00:18:05
portion of what daryl willard told his
00:18:07
lawyer was
00:18:08
admissible in court in other words the
00:18:11
attorney
00:18:12
can talk about what his client told him
00:18:15
if it involves a third party
00:18:17
who might have committed an egregious
00:18:20
crime like murder
00:18:23
daryl willard told his lawyer about a
00:18:25
conversation he had with anne miller
00:18:27
in a parking lot just after eric's death
00:18:31
the attorney stated that his client
00:18:34
daryl willard told him that anne miller
00:18:37
went to the hospital on that first
00:18:39
hospital stay
00:18:41
took a syringe and injected something
00:18:44
into eric miller's iv which presumably
00:18:48
was arsenic he then stated that he asked
00:18:52
mrs miller why she had done this and she
00:18:54
replied
00:18:55
i don't know killers all share one
00:18:59
common bond
00:19:00
and that is they are arrogant they are
00:19:02
in denial that they're doing anything
00:19:04
wrong this person's in their way
00:19:06
they're messing up their life and they
00:19:07
want him out of the way and that's it
00:19:09
it's it's very simple
00:19:11
with a search warrant investigators
00:19:14
found
00:19:15
a love note and had written to eric
00:19:17
around the time
00:19:19
the poisoning started some believe
00:19:22
this was the beginning of the cover-up
00:19:25
others think it's a look into anne's
00:19:29
soul
00:19:31
there once was a girl who knew little of
00:19:33
sharing little of caring
00:19:35
she knew how to love but not
00:19:37
unconditionally she knew little of
00:19:39
giving and nothing of sacrifice
00:19:41
she lived in her own world and then you
00:19:44
entered my world and changed everything
00:19:46
i knew
00:19:47
there is nothing i wouldn't do for you
00:19:50
and miller's a psychopath she suffers
00:19:54
from the malignant narcissism
00:19:57
that you know to her the whole world
00:20:00
revolves around what she wants what she
00:20:03
needs
00:20:04
rather than risk a jury trial ann miller
00:20:07
agreed to plead guilty to second-degree
00:20:09
murder
00:20:10
and received a minimum sentence of 25
00:20:14
years in prison
00:20:15
it's one of those cases where you
00:20:18
are left with as many questions
00:20:21
as answers and so that that can be very
00:20:24
difficult
00:20:25
not only from the prosecutor but
00:20:27
certainly for the family members as
00:20:29
you don't get the why
00:20:32
even though anne miller tried to
00:20:34
eliminate the evidence through cremation
00:20:37
it only took a single strand of eric's
00:20:40
hair
00:20:40
to chart months of deception and
00:20:44
the final act of murder and to think
00:20:47
that a record of this poisoning was just
00:20:49
kept in one single strand of hair
00:20:52
is pretty unbelievable pretty amazing
00:20:54
people can think they can get away with
00:20:56
murder but the technology is going to
00:20:57
bite people
00:20:58
this is my first homicidal arsenic
00:21:00
poisoning and i hope it's my last
00:21:03
it's just you have to look for truth and
00:21:07
justice
00:21:08
you never give up the fight
