Josh Mankiewicz

After all, he was only 23.

Except sometimes the years don't matter.

As he got ready for bed that night in February 2002, the Reaper was watching.

Todd had been battling some kind of bug for more than a week.

Nausea, diarrhea, stomach pains, chills, fever.

The full menu of misery.

The doctors at the Miramar Marine Base in San Diego thought this might be food poisoning.

Maybe that gas station egg roll he had eaten.

We do not know how much sleep Todd Summer actually got that night.

We do know that at about 1.30 in the morning, his wife Cindy was awakened by the sound of her husband gasping for breath.

Years later, the memory of that night is still fresh for Cindy.

That is Cindy back in 2002 on the phone to 911.

A platoon of paramedics, EMTs, and cops were only minutes away.

But by then, it seemed, the Grim Reaper had her husband in a death embrace.

This story is about the why and the how of Todd Summers' death that night.

It is about the wife he left behind and the questions that have persisted for more than 20 years.

It is a story about private behavior and public shame.

The experts say that people do some pretty strange things in their grieving.

And it is the story about investigators who found reasons to believe Todd Summer's sudden death was really a cold and calculated case of murder.

This was really strange for a 23-year-old seemingly healthy Marine to die.