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[Music] up next an unexplained death had medical experts baffled at the end of the
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autopsy I didn't find anything slightly wrong whatsoever each new clue raises
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more questions betrayal is getting warmer and warmer until a microscopic clue reveals the ultimate betrayal no
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one would ever expect someone would do this sort of thing to to another human being
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[Music] [Music] fall means football at the University of [Music] Florida it's also time for thousands of
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students to get back to their studies 24-year-old Michelle hearnden was entering her senior year after
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graduation she hoped to do volunteer work she wanted to go join the p core she had a very long list of of dreams
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and hopes to accomplish to pay her way through school Michelle worked as a personal trainer between classes and her
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job Michelle kept to a predictable schedule but one day shortly before Thanksgiving she didn't attend any of
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her classes or show up for work this was so unlike her not to return their calls
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or not to show up and I guess their Sixth Sense was that something is very very wrong Michelle's fiance Jason Doyle
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immediately drove the 400 miles from his home in Miami to Michelle's home in
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Gainesville to see what was wrong he finds Michelle's house is it's locked up all the doors are locked all
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the windows are locked the outside lights are still on as they would had been left on from the night
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before her dog was inside and the TV was on through a crack in the blinds Jason could actually see what later turned out
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to be Michelle's foot when police arrived they found Michelle's body in her bedroom face down
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it was clear she'd been dead for some time she was in a somewhat awkward position with her left arm folded up
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underneath her body at first glance there was no trauma to the body no bruises no wounds no blood we had no
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indication of what would have caused her death the medical examiner thought the position of Michelle's Body Face Down
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was unusual if somebody is sick and in the process of dying most folks tend to end up either on their side or on their
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back there were no foreign fingerprints in the apartment no signs of forced entry and no valuables were
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missing her VCR her television set her radio jewelry it was all intact and there was no indication this was a
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suicide if it's going to be a suicide there's going to be pill bottles lying
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around them frequently in note there was none of that on this case there was a half full bottle of
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beer next to Michelle's body only Michelle's fingerprints were on the bottom
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there was no indication that she had gotten drunk off the one beer that was lying on the bed um there was either
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beer in the refrigerator there was just nothing to indicate that she had passed out drunk they wanted to see if perhaps
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something had been inside of the beer bottle perhaps a foul play a substance place in the beer bottle that may have
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contributed to her death but no foreign substances were found inside the bottle it was baffling wow how could this
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healthy 24 4year old young lady have died and is it even possible that she would have simply died of natural
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causes in most cases the medical examiner doesn't have much difficulty determining the cause and manner of an
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individual's death but Michelle hen's case was different at the end of the
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autopsy I really had no idea I didn't find anything anything slightly wrong whatsoever to find somebody that's
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deceased without any indication of what what caused him to die especially somebody that's that young was highly
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unusual the medical examiner estimated that Michelle died about 24 hours before her body was found so investigators
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interviewed everyone who was with Michelle during that time frame they also checked the Alibis of those closest
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to Michelle including her fiance say Jason squeaky clean Jason had an alibi of being at work and was quickly removed
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as a potential suspect then the medical examiner took a closer look at something
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on Michelle's left arm a tiny Mark smaller than most needle marks we needed to find the explanation for that
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puncture wound and there could be a very legitimate explanation for it but Michelle's personal physician said she
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didn't have any blood drawn before her death or receive any injections so the medical examiner told
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investigators to widen their search at the crime scene looking for possible evidence of drug use or an overdose in a
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case like this where we have no clues every clue is significant investigators noticed that
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the trash cans inside Michelle's apartment were empty on a hunch they looked looked outside the apartment to
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see where the trash was Kept For disposal we went over to where the trash bins for that particular little
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Community are stored and on the ground in a small plastic bag I could see what was visible was a bottle a
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pharmaceutical bottle and I called the investigator over and said we got to look at this the bag contained two vials
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of a drug labeled propol some syringes and a pach Patric butterfly IV and it obviously had come
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from Michelle's house cuz contained within the bag was some maale that had been addressed to her to use a pediatric
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butterfly IV is Tiny it would leave a tiny little pin prick that would be very hard to
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discover the items were dusted for fingerprints but none were found investigators needed to know what
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propol was used for propofol is in a nutshell the world's most powerful anti-
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breathing drug in the medical setting it's used by anesthesiologists to essentially put people to sleep propol a
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prescription sedative is an intravenous medication administered by medical professionals the kind of anesthetic
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that when it's administered the anesthesiologist says count backward from 100 and you get to about
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99 very powerful stuff to too much propol can cause death within seconds investigators asked that
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Michelle's Toxicology test be screened specifically for propofol it's highly
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unusual we wouldn't typically see propofol in our drug screen so we've never detected it in other cases as
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expected tests were positive for propol I can't say with specificity how much drug she got but one thing was
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clear the dose was Lethal the amount of drug that was administered was sufficient to cause someone to fall
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unconscious and to stop breathing to the medical examiner it all started to make
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sense whoever it was used a pediatric sized needle to make the tiny puncture wound in Michelle's left arm since there
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was virtually no hemorrhaging all of those things were highly suggestive of somebody who has a
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lot of skill in this the medical examiner believed that this was the work of a medical professional most likely
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someone who worked in a hospital and probably someone Michelle knew whoever had injected Michelle hearnen was
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someone that for whatever the reasons were she had trusted enough to offer that person her left arm she would not
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have been able to administer the dose and then clean up and take the medical waste the 60 ft from her body where it
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was located but who was this person to find out detective Mark woodmancy came up with an idea that
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changed the course of the investigation he told analysts to test the syringe caps found in Michelle's
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trash I can remember seeing medical staff hold needle caps in their mouth while they were giving an injection and
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I thought that there was a potential there for saliva DNA I thought that was um rather brilliant in fact DNA analysts
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swabbed the needle caps and found biological material on the needle cap or cover there was an unknown male DNA
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profile and scientists also found DNA inside the syringe I was able to determine that
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Miss hen's DNA was present in one of them proof it had been used on Michelle
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the substance that was found in the catheter was a mixture of Michelle's blood and
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propal Michelle's death was now classified as a homicide and the murder weapon was
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propol I've never seen a propal related death um ever but who wanted Michelle
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[Music] dead Michelle hen's death had been ruled a homicide the cause of death an
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overdose of the prescription drug propofol propal is a short acting intravenous sedative used in general
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anesthesia but it's also used to treat other medical conditions propal has been
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suggested as a medication to treat migraines it's not a clear indication or definitive indication to treat migraines
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but it has been reported to be helpful to treat migraines detectives learned that Michelle hearnden had been a
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lifelong migraine sufferer from what I understand they were bad I've never had
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one but people who suffer from these things tell me they're just absolutely horrible they would go to the ends of
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the Earth to get some relief from the pain was it possible that Michelle had sought pain medication from someone
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other than her doctor they just wanted to know if Michelle knew anybody in the medical
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field only person I knew was Oliver Oliver was 30-year-old Oliver Oak Quinn an intensive care nurse at Chan's
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Hospital on the campus of the University of Florida a background check revealed Michelle and Oliver were casual
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friends I describe him as cooky and OD is definitely a good adjective there was just something about him something that
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he felt like he had to go the extra mile to prove himself where most people would
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just be themselves the way he acted about Michelle I kind of knew from when he first met her that he had had a crush on
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her I think she made comments to both her friends and her mother that he was weird and that she felt sorry for him
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then police discovered some troubling information a review of Michelle's record showed that o'quinn's interest in
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Michelle bordered on harassment he had called Michelle hearnen 43 times in less than a month and he had called Michelle
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hearnen every single day for nine straight days preceding her murder he never calls her again he knows there's
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no one there to answer o'quinn's job in the Intensive Care Unit would have given
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him access to Pediatric butterfly IVs like the ones found in Michelle's trash
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investigators wanted to see if they could link O'Quinn to the two bottles of
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propol the important thing to me at this point is to track these drugs where did
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they come from how can I put them in an individual's hand the vials of propofol
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have a National Drug control number and a lot number those specific bottles of propa fall were shipped by messen
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Distributors out of Lakeland Florida from there the they were shipped to the shans hospital at the University of
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Florida they were shipped during the time period of when Oliver o Quinn was employed there specifically they were
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placed in an automated dispensing machine in the hospital ICU I traced it to a machine that operates kind of like
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a soda machine you punch in the patient number and it drops a bottle of a pharmaceutical in your
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hand to get the propol from the the dispensing machine a Hospital employee had to enter his employee number and
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whose code was entered to get these two vials registered nurse Oliver oquinn so I actually had that propile all the way
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from the manufacturer in Massachusetts to Oliver o'quinn's hand in the Surgical
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Intensive Care Unit the hospital all investigators needed now was a sample of a Quinn's DNA to compare to the DNA on
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the needle caps found in Michelle's trash when police went to question him they learned he had fled the country and
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was in Ireland where he had applied for a nursing license he doesn't ever intend
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on coming back to the US it's very difficult to extradite someone back from Ireland I spoke with a lady who is in
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charge of just extradition from the Republic of Ireland and I told her look I've got a warrant in my hand I want to
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arrest this man and she said to me and to the effect you know slow down Columbo we've it's it's going to be it's a very
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long process but what was o' Quinn's motive to kill Michelle and would investigators find a
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way to get him back to the United States investigators had two problems in the murder of Michelle
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hen first they couldn't understand why their Prime Suspect Oliver O'Quinn would
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kill her and second O'Quinn had fled the United States to Ireland in order to
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avoid prosecution to smoke him out investigators contacted the Irish Times newspaper and emailed them a picture of
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Michelle a picture of Oliver and a synopsis of the homicide investigation telling them he is wanted for murder in
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the United States and they published it on three separate occasions facing increasing pressure
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O'Quinn left Ireland and flew to the West African country of Sagal where he was immediately turned over to us
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authorities once in custody investigators got a court order to obtain o' Quinn's DNA sample which was
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then compared to the DNA found on the syringe cap it matched to me I would equate that with getting the
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suspect's fingerprint off the trigger of the murder weapon Oliver made a great many mistakes
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thank goodness Oliver O'Quinn was charged with first deegree murder the only remaining question was
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motive I know he tried very hard to infuse himself into Michelle's life and mostly out of pity and feeling sorry for
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him she would bring him along to do things with to go out to watch a band to meet in the morning and have
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coffee but in custody Oliver told a fellow inmate he grew angry with Michelle because he overheard her during
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a telephone conversation saying something unflattering about him she made some comments of a derogatory
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nature about Oliver oquinn comments that she didn't expect for him to hear but he
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did hear he heard Michelle refer to him as an annoying little man and we believe
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because of that that sent him into this mindset that if you're never going to be
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mine then you're never going to be anybody's and the inmate stated that Oliver confided to him that she needed a
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long sleep prosecutors believe O'Quinn hatched a plan he told Michelle the next
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time she had a migraine headache he'd be willing to come to her apartment and
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give her something that would get rid of the pain quickly the evidence shows he got the
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propol from work typing his employee number into the medication control system designed specifically to prevent
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this very abuse then he waited for Melle to call when she did Oliver put his plan
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into action on the night Michelle had the migraine Oliver stopped by her apartment
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on his way home from work he injected Michelle with a lethal dose of propol using a small pediatric syringe but he
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did something medical professionals often do used his teeth to pull the plastic a cap off the syringe and Left
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Behind the DNA that later identified him Michelle was dead within seconds he positioned her arm underneath
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her body so the needle Mark wouldn't be easily noticeable he threw the syringes and
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propal bottles into a plastic B bag which he tossed into the dumpster behind Michelle's rented home not realizing the
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obvious that those serial numbers could be traced I believe that the pain was such that she entrusted Oliver O'Quinn
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to administer the pain reliever and I think that he took advantage of that trust and intentionally took her life
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with the prop of all Oliver O'Quinn went on trial for first-degree murder his
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defense claimed he gave Michelle the propal to help relieve the pain from her migraine headache but accidentally gave
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her too much there's no way that the administration of propal to Michelle hearnen was an accidental death this was
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an action consistent with homicide the jury didn't believe it either O'Quinn
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was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole this is the first reported case
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ever involving Murder By the use of propol so this entire case was driven by and solved by forensics there is no
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eyewitness so how do you put a person there without evidence I mean without the evidence I
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don't think it would have worked everybody did their job and they did a great job and it all came together I've
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never had a case where the Small Things mattered so much where something as small as a needle
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Mark or the amount of DNA left on a needle cap played such a pivotal role in the resolution of the case
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[Music]