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[Music]
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a brilliant young architect mysteriously
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died just before she testified in a
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criminal trial
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her diary contains stories of sex
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betrayal and intrigue
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investigators needed to know if the
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stories were true
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[Music]
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university park texas just outside of
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dallas is better known as the bubble
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it's a place of privilege and prestige
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and a dress many would like to have but
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few can afford
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it's kind of the beverly hills of dallas
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that's the way the park city sits
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nancy dillard lyon lived most of her
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life in texas
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she was a harvard trained architect and
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the daughter of a wealthy and
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well-connected dallas family
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nancy met her husband richard while at
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harvard they married and soon had two
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children
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they
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had great energy uh great friendliness
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when we moved in they they gave gifts of
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ice cream and they baked cookies and
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bring them over to us and my husband who
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i've said is rarely hyperbolic about
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anything used to say she was the nicest
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person in the world
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nancy quickly became the youngest
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partner in the history of trammell crow
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a large real estate development firm
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but success came at a price
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i think she always had as many women did
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at that time a conflict between the
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amount of hours that she wanted to work
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to develop her career and
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time spending with her children
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nancy was also experiencing some
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physical ailments
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and on a january night in 1991 her
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symptoms included vomiting and severe
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stomach pain
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her husband richard took her to the
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hospital emergency room
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doctors were initially baffled
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she was seen by multiple consultants
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infectious disease
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a gastroenterologist
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pulmonologist nephrologist
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and
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because of her multi-organ failure and
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still inside in spite of all the
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resuscitation measures
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she was done recovering
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nancy's condition deteriorated but she
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provided doctors with the potential clue
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she said she first got sick several
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months earlier after drinking some wine
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from a bottle left on her doorstep
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she thought it was a gift from a
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neighbor but then it was just a you know
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a housewarming gift so to speak from a
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neighborhood and she drank that wine and
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became violently ill later that day she
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had nausea vomiting and abdominal pain
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but that had been months earlier and
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didn't explain her illness now
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even though
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i suspected uh something foul play but
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really can't you couldn't pinpoint
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anything
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doctors sent nancy's urine samples for
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testing
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but her condition began to deteriorate
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her organs failed
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and she was put on life support
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it was clear that she was not going to
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recover
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it was clear it was really
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beyond
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nobody could really understand it
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six days later
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nancy dillard lyon
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was dead
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i didn't quite understand what it was
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that had killed her so there was a great
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deal of sadness
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uh for
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for what was lost
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but doctors were suspicious
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and they weren't the only ones
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i was married to a nurse she uh taking
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care of nancy dillard in the
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trauma center she said she looked like
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she'd been poisoned to me
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[Music]
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when the daughter of a wealthy dallas
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family nancy dillard lyon died under
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mysterious circumstances her doctors
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made two telephone calls one was to the
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medical examiner to suggest a thorough
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autopsy
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and i told him listen i have a patient
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here and i suspect a
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foul play
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the other was to police you know they
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thought the death was suspicious and
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it needed to be investigated and
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it was suspicious and it was
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investigated they were absolutely
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correct
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investigators learned that nancy was
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about to testify at the embezzlement
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trial of her former boss from trammell
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crow
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nancy told friends
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she was uncomfortable at the thought of
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testifying against her former colleague
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part of that may have resulted from a
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threatening letter she received
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stay out of the bagwell case or you and
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your family will face the wrath of god
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it was a i guess kind of a failed threat
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no one ever knew where it came from
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at nancy's autopsy the pathologist found
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no signs of disease in her internal
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organs
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but toxicology test revealed
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some surprising results
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nancy lyon
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had been poisoned with arsenic
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well all the specimens showed
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significant amounts and levels of
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arsenic and what that shows is that the
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poison was absorbed through the gi tract
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then it was distributed through the
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blood
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patients often don't know they're
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poisoned since the symptoms are so
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common
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you know people don't think about a
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poisoning immediately they think it's
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just some natural thing and when you
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have nausea and vomiting that certainly
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is a common
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symptom most of the poisonings that you
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see nowadays are of a much more
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sophisticated variety that are harder to
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detect
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initially or even after doing tests so
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arsenic was a surprise
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the manner of death was ruled a homicide
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but questions remained
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investigators discovered a receipt among
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nancy's papers a receipt for arsenic
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nancy's husband richard said she bought
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the poison to kill a colony of fire ants
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in their yard
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fire ants can be
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a really big problem and a bad problem
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especially with individuals who have
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really small children
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fire ants
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can get all over you and almost cover
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parts of your body before they even
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start biting and stinging
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and friends also revealed
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nancy had been depressed over the past
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year
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she discovered her husband was having an
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affair
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and the couple briefly separated richard
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had you know met
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another woman and she felt he was going
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through a midlife crisis
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so she said at first her take was hey
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i'm going to stay patient
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i'm going to get some counseling because
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she was
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just devastated really i wouldn't
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discount
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a woman
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making herself ill or
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even taking something to make herself
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ill
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to get the attention of her husband
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yet medical experts were skeptical that
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nancy committed suicide
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i don't believe that for a minute i mean
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you've got someone who's dying a very
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i would consider hideous death
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certainly capable at any time of
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voicing that she had taken the poison
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because the symptoms are you know both
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painful
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and you certainly are deteriorating with
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this
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absolutely ludicrous i mean she had two
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children she loved very dearly as a
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mother she was young she had everything
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to live for
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though
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you know it is absolutely
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ludicrous to believe that somebody would
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poison themselves with arsenic also
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among nancy's papers was a diary and it
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contained a blockbuster revelation
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she accused her older brother bill of
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sexual abuse when they were younger
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nancy said she feared her brother
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and questioned his ability to control
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himself
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sex
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sick sex the notation read
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with me
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my girls
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nancy's brother angrily denied the
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allegation but couldn't explain why she
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had written this in her diary
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her family strongly suspected richard
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was the killer since they knew he was
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having an affair with another woman
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i did not
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poison my wife nancy dillard lyon
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nor did i have anything to do with her
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tragic death
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so there was no shortage of suspects
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who sent the wine to nancy's home
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who sent the threatening letter
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why did nancy accuse her brother of
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sexual abuse and
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would he kill to keep her quiet
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and was nancy planning to divorce her
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husband
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in the event
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that this case becomes
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a murder charge
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this will be an honest to goodness
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perry mason style
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who done it
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investigators had plenty of suspects but
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little evidence in the poisoning death
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of nancy lyon
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the only thing they knew
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was that nancy didn't kill herself
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no way you would do it
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it's too painful it's too drawn out
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it's it's a horrible way to die
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and you're
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very aware and very conscious up until
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the very end of it
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there's no way you would kill yourself
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that way
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when a person ingests arsenic
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the poison attaches itself to the hair
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follicles
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as the hair grows
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the poison residue remains on the hair
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shaft and becomes a permanent record
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so scientists cut nancy's hair into
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seven millimeter pieces
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each piece corresponded to a two-week
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period
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each piece was placed
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in a separate vial
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and then exposed to radiation in a
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nuclear reactor
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the sample can be analyzed as is in most
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cases just simply
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weighed into a radiation bile
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most other methods require dissolution
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of the sample
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when scientists examined the hair with
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gamma-ray spectrophotometry they
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discovered a startling piece of
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information
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nancy had ingested small doses of
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arsenic every week starting four months
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before her death
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the dose of arsenic increased four weeks
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before her death
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the highest amount of arsenic was in
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nancy's system
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two weeks before her death
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her levels were anywhere from four to
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100 times what normal levels were so it
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was a very significant level and it was
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lethal
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the forensic test showed the poisoning
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started when nancy's husband richard
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moved back home after the separation
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but richard wasn't the only person in
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nancy's life who had both motive and
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access
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nancy's handwritten diary alleged her
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brother bill had sexually abused her as
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a child
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investigators wanted to know whether
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this was a possible motive
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to see if these entries were written by
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nancy
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investigators sent the diary to a
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forensic document examiner hartford
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kittle handwriting examination is based
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upon two
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distinct facts
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no two people write exactly alike
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within the writing of a single
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individual there's normal variation
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it's this normal variation that we
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associate or we don't associate with the
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question writing
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surprisingly
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nancy and richard's handwriting looked
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strikingly similar
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friends said this was intentional while
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in college nancy had written some of
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richard's research papers and she
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mimicked his writing
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the similarities in these two writers
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was significant but they weren't able to
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completely
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make their handwriting look the same
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because
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they had two
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different minds that were
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picturing things a little differently
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but they tried to make them look the
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same
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kettle first looked at known handwriting
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samples from both nancy and richard
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despite their similarities there were
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differences
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she
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used her ampersands
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quite extensively through her writing so
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every fifth sixth line will have an a
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percent on it in her known handwriting
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whereas richard always used the a-n-d
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for the verbage and
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kettle also noticed that nancy and
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richard made their capital eyes
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differently
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richard just used one downstroke like a
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one whereas nancy used a down stroke
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like the one and then across at the top
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and the bottom she was willing to take
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a lot more time in executing them than
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richard was
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their lower case f's were different as
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well
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richard used a
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clockwise motion coming down from the
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top of the f down to the bottom he'd
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swing off in a clockwise motion to
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finish off the lower loop of the f
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whereas nancy always came down and went
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counterclockwise to finish off the f
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kittle concluded
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richard wrote the diary entries about
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nancy's brother bill
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absolutely
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certain that he had written that
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100 certain
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yes
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prosecutors now believed
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richard lyon had forged nancy's diary
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to cover up the murder
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he never crossed his mind he was going
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to be caught
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he thought he had it aced and he
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certainly didn't think he'd be his own
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handwriting
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no one granted him the power of god to
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take her life she was slowly poisoned to
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death play one of the most hideous
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things that you can do to someone this
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wasn't done in a moment of passion
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or
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or anger
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of picking up a weapon that was handy to
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him this was done with slow
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premeditation
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and over a period of time
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and it's a hideous hideous way to murder
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somebody
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richard lyon insisted he had nothing to
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do with the poisoning death of his wife
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nancy
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as proof
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he offered a receipt for arsenic that he
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said nancy had signed
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prosecutors asked forensic experts
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whether this was in fact
00:15:46
nancy's signature i wasn't able to reach
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a conclusion as to authorship
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but the owner of the company listed on
00:15:53
the receipt told prosecutors all they
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needed to know
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did you sell her these chemicals no i
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didn't is this a receipt do you sell
00:16:02
chemicals no i don't is this your
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receipt from your your business no it's
00:16:07
a forgery it's not mine
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investigators also discovered that
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arsenic was not shipped to the lion's
00:16:13
home
00:16:14
but to a post office box richard opened
00:16:18
there was no reason in the world to have
00:16:19
a post office box set up at preston uh
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center for him to to get this arsenal
00:16:25
if everything is completely legitimate
00:16:27
why aren't you having it delivered at
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home or will you work
00:16:31
that's because it's nefarious reasons of
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having it delivered to a post office box
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in the hospital before she died
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nancy lyon told her doctor about a
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suspicious incident that occurred
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several months earlier
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she said well one time when they were
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separated
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they had gone to the movies together
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and richard had gone and got her a drink
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and when he brought it to her and she
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drank some of it and she said it tasted
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awful and she looked in there there was
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a
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white powder on the top of the drink
00:17:02
nancy said she became violently ill
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later that night
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and she told her doctor
00:17:09
something else
00:17:12
my husband he's been giving me these
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capsules for the last several months
00:17:18
and he
00:17:20
said
00:17:20
nancy go take these these are like
00:17:22
vitamins and these are good for you
00:17:25
police confiscated every pill in the
00:17:27
lion's home and sent them for forensic
00:17:30
testing
00:17:32
two pills tested positive for barium
00:17:35
carbonate a toxic chemical used in the
00:17:38
production of glass
00:17:42
despite her suspicions nancy never
00:17:45
directly accused richard of poisoning
00:17:47
her
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you know nobody wants to believe that
00:17:49
they've married to somebody that they
00:17:51
can
00:17:52
can murder
00:17:53
i mean because then what do you ask what
00:17:55
are you saying about yourself
00:17:58
and it's kind of outside the realm of
00:18:00
most people's i mean reality that
00:18:02
someone would
00:18:03
poison you and i don't think she wanted
00:18:04
to believe it
00:18:06
and and i think that she was embarrassed
00:18:08
or ashamed to say anything about it
00:18:10
prosecutors believe the motive was money
00:18:13
and the desire to live with his
00:18:15
girlfriend
00:18:16
he didn't want her but he wanted the
00:18:18
family
00:18:19
affiliations and the alliances i think
00:18:21
that
00:18:22
it was partly money and it was partly
00:18:25
just the position that he wanted and he
00:18:27
couldn't have either one with just a
00:18:29
divorce
00:18:32
prosecutors believe
00:18:34
richard first tried to kill nancy by
00:18:37
putting barium carbonate in her vitamin
00:18:39
pills
00:18:40
and may have put it in nancy's soda at
00:18:44
the movies
00:18:45
when that didn't work
00:18:47
he used arsenic
00:18:49
forensic testing showed nancy started
00:18:51
ingesting arsenic in september around
00:18:54
the time she and richard reconciled
00:18:58
the fatal dose was administered two days
00:19:02
before nancy was admitted to the
00:19:04
hospital where she died
00:19:08
to hide his involvement richard created
00:19:12
the fake invoice for the arsenic
00:19:14
and forensic analysis proved that it was
00:19:17
richard who wrote the sex-related
00:19:20
entries in nancy's diary implicating her
00:19:23
brother as a possible suspect
00:19:26
i think he was calculating
00:19:27
he thought of himself as a ladies man i
00:19:29
think he was a cold-blooded killer and
00:19:31
he did it
00:19:33
in the most conspicuous way possible
00:19:35
slowly
00:19:36
ingesting arsenic to his wife
00:19:39
when he went on trial for murder
00:19:41
richard lyon pled not guilty
00:19:44
but the forensic handwriting analysis
00:19:47
the timeline of the poisonings captured
00:19:50
in nancy's hair and the discovery of
00:19:52
poison in vitamin pills found in the
00:19:55
home
00:19:56
were difficult to deflect
00:19:59
richard's girlfriend even testified
00:20:02
claiming richard lied by telling her
00:20:04
that nancy had a rare and fatal blood
00:20:07
disease
00:20:09
any time that you catch a defendant or
00:20:11
any witness in a lie and that was a
00:20:13
pretty big one and i don't think a
00:20:15
coincidence that she was going to die
00:20:17
from a fatal blood disease i think that
00:20:19
those things immediately begin to color
00:20:21
their
00:20:22
their view of him and he was a liar he
00:20:24
would lie
00:20:25
it took a jury less than three hours to
00:20:28
convict richard lyon of first degree
00:20:32
murder he was sentenced to life in
00:20:34
prison
00:20:35
i worked lots of cases
00:20:37
like this and the question was always
00:20:40
why not just a divorce you know they may
00:20:42
be intelligent but they're criminally
00:20:44
stupid
00:20:45
and
00:20:46
for a good reason and thank god they are
00:20:48
because we
00:20:49
we couldn't catch them it was hard for
00:20:51
me to believe that he had actually
00:20:53
killed his wife and it had just
00:20:56
finally broken down based on the shape
00:20:58
of an f and an l and an r and
00:21:01
just scratchings on on a piece of paper
00:21:04
[Music]
00:21:14
[Music]
00:21:33
[Music]
00:21:42
you
