Tracy Smith

Cassandra Andres died in 2006. Ralph Smith was released from prison in 2012.

4.8.

It had been anywhere from six to seven.

By the end of the evening, I probably was a little intoxicated.

No.

No. Doesn't even look like me.

No. I was at my parents' house in Arlington Saturday and Sunday.

A friend of mine introduced us. All I knew was that he was in real estate. David was nice, very charming, easy to get along with. We've always had a good time. He had a lot of ambition, a lot of good ideas.

There was nothing to gain. Nothing.

Donna has gained everything. She wanted the house.

I've never been in trouble with the police. I've never thought the police were anything but out there to help you. I didn't know what the heck was going on.

To go to a restaurant or to go shopping in shorts when it's 105 degrees, it's hard. Everybody stares, leaves bruises on my ankle and stuff.

Tracy was the only one who had anything against him, really.

Somebody's lying. If I wasn't walking in my shoes, I wouldn't believe somebody telling me the story.

I don't know. If I did, they would be sitting here and I wouldn't be.

That's correct.

No. Doesn't even look like me.

So I don't have an answer for it, but I don't think that I would use a discount card if I was trying to sneak around town. One would think. It's pretty odd, though. I agree.

Oh, yes. When he had it, he liked to show everybody. He liked to be flashy.

Well, I mean, I knew he gambled. I just didn't know to the depth of it, I guess I could say.

Jerry Val, friend at the lake, used to be a friend. He's into businesses of helping people, you know, if they need to borrow money or whatever.

Okay, hold on. Can I answer that?

Well, that's obvious. I mean, Donna has gained everything.

It had to be her. Everybody else I knew that knew him As the trial begins, the defense is confident the prosecution has no real case, no proof.

I feel like everything's going to turn out right.

it's pretty apparent that they don't have as much as they would lead you to believe they had.

No.

I thought we'd hang out here in the lobby.

Today, I don't think we'll ever find out because they never looked very far once they accused me.

Yeah.

In his safe.

Yeah.

He showed it to me just to, you know, make sure I was okay with it.

No.

No.

I don't believe in justice very much right now, and I don't know how I'll feel after it, but I have to believe that the right thing will be done.

It's a reality, but I don't think that I'll have to worry about that.

I'm just glad it's finally over. It's gone on long enough.

Oh God, I hope so. Yes.

I'm not sure. They threw a lot of stuff at him.

Just the best I can.

The unknown, I guess.

Yeah, in the justice system.

I don't know, but I'm scared.

Just the rest of my life.

I don't really get the whole thing, you know, but I don't know. It's weird.

I knew the second he never called me back, because he would never not call me back. I knew something had happened.

Cobble. I was deep-sea fishing. This was in a steamboat. We were snowmobiling.

Trustworthy, dependable, protective. Anybody who knew him knew that he would do just about anything for anybody.

He was always bragging about something I did.

He could sell you just about anything.

He was nice, very charming, easy to get along with, very smooth. I wasn't interested in dating right then, but he was pretty persistent.

It's just how he was.

The trips were amazing.

Absolutely. He always wanted to have the best of the best. Drive a Lexus, drive a Mercedes.

Yes.

I knew everybody out there and, you know, it was great.

Absolutely. I hoped that things would get better, and it just didn't.

It was cats and dogs. Every time we saw each other, there were a lot more angry words than there were happy.

No, not on a regular basis. Absolutely not.

Donna, she was his ex-wife. It was weird. I liked him and his personality. If he had a son, that didn't matter to me.

We got in some shoving matches, but I wouldn't say that's battering.

Yeah. I told him that this isn't what I wanted. And, you know, we should probably think about going our own ways.

Well, I had full ownership of the house.

I wouldn't say civil, it was business. I wasn't going to leave him high and dry.

I was crying and they just said he had been murdered. He was... Shot and burned. Didn't even cross my mind that he had been hurt or injured in any way.

Tracy was nice.

Sure. I mean, it was, there was a lot of things going through my mind. I just, I just couldn't believe it.

Just about everything was good at the beginning. Well, I started finding out stuff. He gambled like crazy. David owed everybody money.

Nothing. I mean, it's normal. At that point, it was not uncommon for him to do what he wanted, to go out with the guys or go stay in a hotel. I didn't call him, beg him to come home or whatever. Absolutely not.

Prostitutes, call girls.

I don't really know how to say this. Apparently, there were prostitutes, call girls, other activities that happened.

To rent a van. I mean, we've rented them before.

They just said he had been murdered, gunshot wound, and they had to use the dental records.

And that's not true.

No.

David, you know, he was totally against it. Wasn't interested in it at all.

He could be very vicious with his tongue.

He was shot and burned.

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Ja, ja. Ich auch. Wie sie anfängt zu sagen, er war nicht müde. Oh ja, ich glaube, er war ziemlich müde. Es ist interessant, wie sie diesen Schritt macht.

Zwei Wochen nach dem Tod von Suzanne, hat Dr. Sills Marie eine Letter gesendet. Und ich möchte dir nur eine Teil davon lesen, weil es das ein bisschen mehr illuminiert. Entschuldige, er antwortet ihr als «Ma chère Marie».

Whoever I find out there, and I pray it really is you, I am confident she will be an exceptionally bright and vivacious woman and I will be envied by all other men because I will have her. But you need to understand that in my heart, at the end of the day, that relationship will always be judged against your glow. I'm not just saying this to jack up your ego.

For me, you really have set an incredibly high standard and you probably weren't even trying. So I want the original, and then in capital letters, you.

But, you know, we did ask Jack early about this flat out. Did he want to get Suzanne out of the way? And he said no. And then he actually went on to say off camera that Dr. Sills really was just looking for a He's very complimentary to Marie and he actually kind of...

Sure. Basically, first degree murder is premeditated and second degree murder is not premeditated. So second degree, you didn't plan it. First degree, you did plan it. Now, in this case, the prosecution.

Er argumentiert, dass er vielleicht nicht über diese Tage oder Wochen vor dem Zeitpunkt gedacht hat, aber es wurde, wie sie sagen, premeditiert, dass er, wenn er sie verabschiedet hat, sie für einen langen Zeitraum verabschiedet hat. Und der Zeitraum, den es dauert, jemanden zu verabschieden, und nicht nur sie zu verabschieden, ist lang genug, um ihm zu sagen, was ich tue und stoppe.

And so during that time that he was strangling her, he could have stopped. That was where the premeditation came in.

You know, it's interesting because we talked with the jurors quite a bit about motive. And they said that they didn't They wanted to know the why, but they also said that they didn't need the why to know that he did it. And they told us that they spent a lot of time going first degree, second degree, first degree, second degree.

And the reason that they couldn't do first degree is just that they felt like he snapped and that it was not something that he planned out.

Yeah.

Yes, that sentence is 25 years to life in California. And he's eligible for parole, as we mentioned at the end of the hour, in 2033. Das sieht aus, als wäre es nur um die Kante.

Oh yeah, we mentioned this in the hour, the staircase, that, you know, here is this staircase that Suzanne dreamed of seeing Mary Catherine walk down on her wedding day. And I think as moms, we all think about that. Like I think about the staircase in my home and watching my daughter walk down for prom.

And that just was so poignant that, of course, the staircase ended up playing an entirely different role.

So Jack Early, the defense attorney for Dr. Sills, says, yes, he calls her the patient, but he's in doctor mode. So he is maybe detaching himself a little bit, but that's because he's gone into doctor mode now. He's getting the pulse ox because the 911 operator asked if she was alive. So his thought is, I can get the pulse ox to find out if she's alive. This is what Jack Early is telling us.

He also was saying, he's not doing CPR every day in his IVF practice. So of course he's maybe a little rusty on CPR. And he also argues that Mary Catherine, the daughter, is sitting there. Would Mary Catherine be in on this conspiracy? This is what Jack Early is asking me. Okay, those are all really, really interesting points that I had not considered.

Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting point, Anne-Marie. The forensic pathologist testified at trial that the ligature mark required a sustained even pull on both sides. And the jurors discussed this when they went into deliberations. The dogs would have had to be pulling evenly at the same time.

And the other thing that the jurors brought up is that if she was on this wooden staircase, how could the dogs with their nails even get a grip to be able to pull on the scarf? So, yeah, it would have to be a very coordinated effort by the dogs, according to how the jurors looked at this. Yeah.

He kind of had two theories, but let me just explain this. It was tough to get the full story out of Jack early because he says he can't tell it because it's Dr. Sills' story. Dr. Sills didn't testify, so he basically said we didn't get the whole story at trial. There's more to tell and Scott Sills has to tell it. Now having said that, what he said to us was...

Maybe she was killed by the C3 fracture, so the fracture to her neck, which would have happened from a fall down the stairs. Or maybe she was incapacitated enough from the C3 fracture that then she's at the bottom of the stairs and the dogs pull on the scarf enough to leave the mark, not necessarily to kill her.

He also theorized that maybe it was one dog because the scarf was tied around her neck and then you wouldn't have to have the coordination of the two dogs. Then you just have the one dog pulling on the tied scarf and it could have made that even mark. This was his theory.

Yes, he did. He even went so far as to test the scarf for dog DNA. And it came back positive with dog DNA, cat DNA and pig DNA, which they explained as the dogs were eating pig ears as snacks. And so that would leave pig DNA on the scarf. But yeah, I mean, he went with the dog theory.

Yes, he poked holes in exactly in the ruling that it was ligature strangulation that caused that was the cause of death. Yes.

Yeah, that's true. I mean, they said that they didn't need to prove motive, but they gave a lot of options. Right, Diane?

I think the texts are really interesting because, you know, in talking to Jack early, he basically said, if you pull out these things that we pulled out, like I just want out and you're killing me. Yes, they sound very damning, but these are all related to work. This couple worked together, that it's that working relationship that caused all of the tension and you shouldn't read so much text.

into it. You know what? I work with my spouse. I kind of get that argument. It can get tense. And it doesn't mean it's not a reflection on the whole marriage. It's just in that working situation.

So it's basically this political chat room that's frequented by conservatives, kind of like Twitter or Reddit, but they say much more freedom of speech than either Twitter or Reddit.

Well, the defense argued at one point that it was Mary Catherine who took the photo, right? And I'm not sure... wie das ihnen hilft, und sagen, dass es vielleicht eine Familienaktivität war, und dass er nicht so wütend sein würde. Ich schätze nur, ich bin nicht sicher, wo sie damit gehen.

Aber Jack Early hat es uns sehr klar gemacht, dass er nicht glaubte, dass Scott von dieser Foto und dem Chat wütend war. Die Frage ist, wenn es ihn nicht so wütend macht, dann warum hat er ein Bildschirm von dem Patrick.net-Chat auf seinem Telefon und dann ein Printout von dem auf seinem Printer?

I mean, she feels very tainted. She feels that people look at her with disgust and blame her. And she wanted us to know that she was a loving mother who had raised a good son in her mind. We meet a lot of families of people who commit murder. Very rarely do they admit that that their loved one actually did it and take responsibility and feel terrible. And most of them, they just can't go there.

They just can't. And she did, you know, I admire that. I wondered also about, did she talk about

Well, they bonded over their belief, or Lisette thought that Holly believed it as well, that Andrew was innocent. So they had a really, you know, they had a cause. Right, us against the world.

Right. The minute he gets out on bond, she just disappears.

It was unbelievable. I mean, just to go back to how stupid it was, for instance, they made up this decision to have him appear as a white man, as an African-American man. Yep. So they got this makeup, you know, sort of the Java makeup, and he put this on like... It was ridiculous. And then he put on a fake beard that was a Halloween costume.

And he expected people to think that he was an African-American man. And a lot of the witnesses said, you know, something about him. I don't think he was. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And he wasn't fooling anybody. It was ludicrous. And you do wonder, I mean, one of the things we think about all the time is like, why how did he think that he was going to get away with this? There's no way.

I mean, he had a history with this woman of tormenting her and stalking her. And here he is in the nine o'clock in the morning doing this savage murder.

Do we know why? Holly Elkins was just acting and she says they met for the first time. They all had a meal together and they were very friendly. And she wrote texts to Alyssa that said, I really want a super healthy relationship. And Alyssa's like, yes, thank goodness. And her mother was happy and her sister was happy and everything.

finally, you know, somebody that's going to be able to calm Andrew down. But behind the scenes, let me tell you, behind the scenes, she was up to no good.

What's sort of interesting is we spoke to Holly's best friend growing up and in high school. And this is exactly how she treated boys growing up. She was the catch of the day. You know, everybody wanted Holly, all the guys.

She had the fanciest clothes and the nicest pocketbooks, and she wound them around her little finger and got them to do things for her, like pick her up at midnight and take her to get a hamburger. Yeah, she really, she had it down.

Andrew Beard said Holly was behind a lot of these schemes. She called 911 claiming to be a woman named Amber, for instance. And she wanted to report that there's a car that matched Alyssa's car with the same license plate, driving recklessly, drunk. And she was afraid. Holly was afraid. And they went and checked it out. And they didn't find any evidence that

Melissa was even on the road that night.

One thing the cops told us, that she always thought she was the smartest person in the room. She thought she could outsmart everybody.

And she was obviously not afraid of getting caught. I mean, this was an opportunity for her to go disappear somewhere in a remote region of the world and get away with murder. But I guess she didn't think she had anything to fear.

Right, right. Well, they had all these very damning texts, but they also had some real evidence that really put her smack in the middle of the plot. They found that she had bought that makeup, that dark makeup, and ordered him, according to his FBI interview, to wear it and to be this persona. She was there when they bought the knife, when they brought the ammunition.

I mean, really tangible stuff, you know.

And there was one search on her phone that said, creepy stalking music.

Right.

And also what's so weird is that if it was so obvious that Andrew did this and he was going to get caught for doing it, she would never get Willow, and she knew that. So really, what was the game? What was it?

The first time you ever told anyone in law enforcement that your son was at your home on Saturday, December 7th, is as you sit here today before this jury. Isn't that correct, Dr. Davis?

Prepare for inspection. Sergeants, inspect your officers.

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I was 15 years old.

I could see maybe resemblance because my hair was a different color when I was younger. At that time, I was into drugs, and so we would get high together. After doing the drugs, he started to get a little paranoid. That's what he did. He would start thinking people were following him.

Merry Christmas, everybody. Merry Christmas.

But soon, Chris says, they were a couple.

Dr. Sills, who was also coming out of a previous marriage, seemed to have met his match.

Suzanne fit right in at Scott's 20th high school reunion.

The couple married and welcomed twins through IVF, adding to Dr. Sills two older kids. And eventually, Suzanne's business acumen would lead them to start their own IVF practice in April 2015.

The practice soon took off.

And Dr. Sills was often featured on the TV program, The Doctors, which was distributed by CBS.

Dr. Julio Navoa is an OB-GYN who co-authored a book with Dr. Sills.

But about a month before her death, Rick Leeds, another of Suzanne's friends, says she left him a troubling message.

When they spoke, Rick says it sounded like there was tension over a photo.

When news of Suzanne's death reached her friends, they were stunned.

It didn't sound like the vibrant Suzanne they knew. Dr. Sills' friends say they were equally perplexed.

What were your impressions of Scott Sills throughout the investigation?

All very businesslike. Yeah. In fact, the day after Suzanne's death, the doctor had gone to work.

Joni Ricker's daughter was a nurse at the Sills IVF clinic, and had called her in a panic. She said her patients are in cycle and they have to be treated. Joni volunteered to help manage the office, something Suzanne did, and ended up working there for two years. Did Dr. Sills talk about his wife?

Did he ever say how she died? Oh, it was never discussed. Pretty soon, she says, the doctor started changing his appearance. He started to dress like a movie star.

And she says the once balding doctor now had a full head of hair.

The behavior raised eyebrows, but it was hardly evidence. Then, in November 2017, a year after Suzanne's death, there was finally news from the coroner's office. Suzanne's cause of death was cited as ligature strangulation and the manner a homicide. Dr. Sills was now the prime suspect. DNA results on the blood in Mary Catherine's room showed a mixture of his and Suzanne's DNA.

On August 8, 2018, nearly two years after Suzanne's death, detectives Holloway and Hatch made a surprise house call at the doctor's home. Did you ask Dr. Sills at this point, just flat out, did you kill your wife?

They say the doctor denied killing his wife, and he now offered an explanation for his blood in Mary Catherine's room. He said he had injured himself replacing a window screen. Wouldn't Mary Catherine have seen the blood that he left from replacing the screen?

And she didn't mention it?

Despite the death being ruled a homicide, detectives said they still had more investigating to do, like finding a motive. A search of Suzanne's phone provided some clues. Text messages hinted at problems in the marriage.

In text sent in late August, less than three months before her death, Suzanne wrote, I am trapped. You are killing me. And about a month before her death, Suzanne had confided in Rick Leeds.

He said Suzanne was also upset about a photo she'd posted online.

Suzanne had posted a topless photo after making a bet in a political chat room called Patrick.net.

And on the day of her death, detectives had found a printout in Dr. Seale's home office of an exchange between Suzanne and another Patrick.net member from August 30, 2016, discussing the photo. The man, who went by 10lbbass, wrote, All I've got to say is you must have a super cool husband. Suzanne, aka Turtledove, replied, Dr. Sills denied that he had printed that chat.

But when investigators later searched his phone, they found a photo of the same exchange. Does this sound like this could lead to motive?

Detectives also learned that Dr. Sills had tried to collect on a $250,000 life insurance policy on Suzanne, but he claimed the insurance company had called him.

Do you think Scott Sills thought he'd gotten away with it?

On April 25, 2019, nearly two and a half years after Suzanne's death, Dr. Sills was arrested for her alleged murder on his way to surgery. He quickly posted a million-dollar bond, but investigators were about to get an unexpected tip from a woman who said she had met Dr. Sills while Suzanne was still alive.

She shared an email Dr. Sills had sent her about two weeks after Suzanne's death. Pour ma chère Marie. Yes. So it's in French. This is probably the most important manuscript I have ever written. I am asking you to seriously rethink our suspended but once intense relationship. When you first read that email, what was your reaction?

So when you went inside, what stuck out to you?

So could Dr. Sills have killed his wife to get her out of the way?

Dr. Sills' defense attorney, Jack Early, denies that there was a romantic relationship. And he says that email was merely a devastated father's desperate attempt to find a new mother for his children. Did you feel in your gut that you could win this case? Oh, yes. Yes.

In November 2023, just over seven years after Suzanne Sills' death, Scott Sills, now stripped of his medical license, went on trial for her murder. The Orange County District Attorney's Office declined our request for an interview, but cameras were allowed in court for portions of the trial where Senior Deputy DA Jennifer Walker laid out her case to the jury.

Walker argued that Scott Sills beat and then strangled Suzanne to death before staging the scene to make it look like she'd fallen down the stairs.

The prosecution's case relied heavily on Suzanne's autopsy, but Scott Sills' defense attorney, Jack Early, came to court armed with a unique theory. He suggested that Suzanne fell, either going up or down the stairs, and that one or both of the family dogs then tugged on the scarf that was wrapped around her neck. Do you honestly think that the dogs pulled hard enough to strangle her to death? No.

Instead, Early focused on another injury identified in Suzanne's autopsy, that fractured C3 vertebra. He says that injury is consistent with a fall and that it would have left Suzanne incapacitated.

The defense had the scarf tested for dog DNA. It came back positive. And there was testimony that the dogs were known to play tug-of-war, as seen in this video. And when Suzanne and Scott's now 19-year-old daughter, Mary Catherine, took the stand for the prosecution, her testimony supported the defense's theory. Investigator Dave Holloway was at the trial.

How did that strike you?

Do you think she's trying to protect her dad?

Early denies that. He says the reason Mary Catherine didn't tell investigators is simple.

He says Scott Sills did tell first responders. And he argued that Suzanne's toxicology tests point to an accidental fall. She had a muscle relaxant and pain medication in her system. And Early told the jury that Suzanne suffered from a fainting disorder and that vertigo would accompany her migraines. But the prosecution said the defense's theory just doesn't make sense.

Not reasonable. And why would Suzanne have a scarf around her neck that early in the morning to begin with? Prosecutors suggested that Scott Sills used it to strangle her and then left it around her neck to cover the marks. But Early told the jury it wasn't unusual for Suzanne to wear a scarf, especially when she wasn't feeling well.

But the prosecution also pointed out that Suzanne and Scott's son, Eric, told investigators he saw his mother put the dogs away in their crate in the hours before she died. Eric said that his mom put the dogs in the crate.

There was also no blood on the stairs or damage to them. There are all these injuries that you say come from the fall down the stairs all over her body, but she leaves no marks on the stairs. But there's no marks anywhere in the house. But there was that blood in Mary Catherine's bedroom, and the prosecution argued it was evidence that a fight occurred.

A forensic scientist testified that the stains on the nightstand and drapes were consistent with Scott Sills' DNA. Early did acknowledge that his client's blood was in the room, but he told the jury about Scott's claim that he hurt himself there on an earlier date. From Scott replacing a screen?

That forensic scientist, though, testified that one of the stains on the wall was a mixture of DNA — And Scott and Suzanne were likely contributors. Early says that doesn't mean it was Suzanne's blood and that it could have been her touch DNA that was picked up.

But the prosecution pointed out that there were also clumps of Suzanne's hair found in Mary Catherine's room. And there were bloodstains on Suzanne's clothing that were found to be consistent with Scott Sills' DNA, too. Early had a rebuttal to it all, starting with the hair.

And the blood on the clothes?

The jury was also shown pictures of those injuries that were observed on Scott. Remember how he told investigators that he hurt himself while working on his car with his son? And how, according to investigators, Eric said that his father didn't get injured? Well, when Eric took the stand, his testimony allowed for the possibility.

So he didn't necessarily say at age 12, dad didn't get the injury from the car.

While Eric Sills did testify that a loud discussion between his parents had woken him up shortly before his mother's death, the defense told the jury that there was nothing to it. And those texts between Scott and Suzanne in the months before Suzanne's death?

The jury didn't hear about the life insurance policy, that email Scott sent to another woman, or his social media photos in the wake of his wife's death. But they were told about the Patrick.net posts. And the prosecution argued that topless photo that Suzanne posted on the site enraged Scott.

It's not striking to you that he had this photo in two places, on his phone and then on the printer?

Early maintains there is no motive for murder.

Scott Sills chose not to take the stand. The trial spanned three weeks, and then the case went to the jury. My heart was just pounding.

Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X. Jurors Aaron Ellis, Jack VanCamp, and Susan Blahoe say that when deliberations began, they felt the pressure.

Do you think that the dogs could have pulled on her scarf hard enough to strangle her to death? Could they do it? Yes. When you came to the house, it was a death investigation. By the time you left, was it a murder investigation?

Did you think about that, that these kids didn't only lose their mom, that if you convict him, now they're losing their dad? Of course. Yeah. They say they also felt a clear motive was lacking.

After about three hours, they came to a decision.

The clerk read the verdict.

Guilty of second degree murder. Scott Sills, who gave the gift of life to so many through his IVF practice, now convicted of taking the life of his wife, the mother of his kids.

The jurors we spoke to say that no one on the jury bought the defense's theory about the dogs.

Instead, what they spent the most time grappling with was whether Scott Sills was guilty of first-degree or second-degree murder. First-degree murder requires premeditation and deliberation.

But investigator Dave Holloway says while Scott Sills may not have planned his crime, he certainly had the time to think about what he was doing.

On March 15, 2024, about three months after the verdict, court reconvened for sentencing. Suzanne Sill's mother, Teresa Neubauer, addressed the court and kept the focus on her daughter.

Hopes and dreams, Neubauer said, that one day Suzanne would see her daughter, Mary Catherine, walk down the stairs of the family's San Clemente home on her wedding day.

Mary Catherine also addressed the court and spoke of all the loss she had endured at such a young age. She and her brother were taken in by a family friend after their father's arrest, and that family friend died suddenly of a health condition around the end of the trial. She asked the judge to show her father mercy.

Judge Patrick Donahue sentenced Scott Sills to the mandatory sentence under California law, 15 years to life in prison.

His fate was decided, but for so many, questions remain. Exactly what led up to Suzanne Sills' death? Do you think we'll ever know exactly how it happened?

Scott Sills declined our request for an interview. But in the end, no explanation will suffice or ease the profound sense of loss that lingers. Patients now without their doctor.

and children without their father or their mother.

Do you have a spidey sense when you go into these scenes?

On that Sunday morning in November 2016, Orange County Sheriff's homicide detectives Eric Hatch and Dave Holloway had more questions than clues. At that point in time that morning, November 13th, was Scott Sills a victim or a suspect?

Dr. Scott Sills had made that 911 call and reported finding his wife and business partner, Suzanne, at the bottom of the stairs.

Did it seem plausible that a 45-year-old woman in pretty good shape would have fallen down the stairs to her death?

And around her body was that odd collection of items.

The detectives say Dr. Sills didn't seem nervous that a homicide team was in his home asking questions.

And when they interviewed the Sills' children, Mary Catherine and Eric, the 12-year-old twins, each told a similar story to their dad, that Suzanne had not been feeling well that night.

The migraine seemed to explain that large pot.

And the empty pill bottle was for a pain medication Dr. Sills said his wife took to treat her migraines. So did that make it sound more possible that she could have fallen down the stairs because she was suffering from a migraine?

And there seemed to be nothing in the couple's relationship to suggest another reason. What did you learn about the Sills' marriage?

Both children attested that their parents loved each other and said they rarely argued and were never violent. Detectives started piecing together a timeline of the weekend.

It was around midnight when Eric said he and his mom went back upstairs after she put the dogs away in their crate. Mary Catherine had gone to bed in her parents' bedroom. Suzanne was going to spend the night in Mary Catherine's room, which was the quietest.

Mary Catherine had left a note on her door with what would be her last words to her mom. I know you are tired, she said, but you need to know that I love you. Around 4 a.m., Eric said he woke to the sound of his parents arguing in the next room.

So Eric is right next to Mary Catherine's room where his mom was.

Eric told detectives that after about five minutes, he decided to go sleep in the main bedroom with his sister. According to Mary Catherine's statement, she thought he'd come in around 3.40 a.m., and told her their parents were arguing about a work email.

Dr. Sills told detectives he had argued with Suzanne because he found her working late on her laptop, which made her migraines worse. When you heard that they had an argument shortly before she was found at the bottom of the stairs dead, what was going through your mind?

Neither Eric nor Mary Catherine heard their dad return to the bedroom.

It was around 6.30 a.m. the next morning when Dr. Sills and the twins woke up. He asked them if they wanted to go to the pool and get some donuts. Mary Catherine said when she left the bedroom and looked over the banister... she saw her mom's body at the bottom of the stairs, that long red and white scarf around her neck.

Adding to the mystery were the injuries to Suzanne's neck the deputy coroner had noticed during a preliminary examination of the body earlier that morning.

Is it possible that she could have fallen down the stairs and then somehow the scarf strangled her?

As detectives continued their investigation, the questions mounted. Did anybody in the house hear a fall down the stairs?

And something else the detectives thought was strange.

Did you ask him to remove the beanie?

As it turned out, Suzanne wasn't the only one with injuries that morning.

Dr. Scott Sills said there was a simple explanation for the injuries. He had hurt himself while working on his car in the garage with his son, Eric. There was just one problem.

Did he say to you, I left the garage, so maybe you hurt himself while I was gone?

And investigators said they found something Dr. Sills couldn't explain on that day. You found blood?

Blood in Mary Catherine's room, where Suzanne had been staying, on the curtains, the wall, and the nightstand. So that morning, when you asked Scott about the blood, what did he say?

Mary Catherine told investigators the room was, quote, perfect when she left it. She also said she'd turned down the bed, but now it was made.

So if you found blood in Mary Catherine's bedroom, you know that there are ligature marks on Suzanne. Why not take him down to the station at this point and question him?

Suzanne's autopsy four days later didn't provide any definitive answers. The forensic pathologist noted that Suzanne had injuries all over her body that could have resulted from a fall, including a fractured C3 vertebra near the base of her neck, which can be fatal. Then there was that ligature mark across her neck and hemorrhaging of the blood vessels in her eyes, which pointed to strangulation.

It would take months to make an official ruling.

In the meantime, detectives requested DNA testing on evidence collected from the Sills' home and forensic analysis on Suzanne's phone and laptop. They also dug deeper into who the Sills were.

Sandy Roberts and Jamie Akins have known Scott Sills since their high school days in Harriman, Tennessee.

So she's not breathing?

His future seemed limitless. He was accepted to both law school and medical school.

And it was no surprise when the hometown boy became a renowned IVF specialist, a profession that would lead him to Suzanne.

Chris Soleimani met Suzanne Arsuaga in business school, where she earned an MBA. She had confided in him about her struggles to get pregnant.

I keep a picture of her in my wallet.

I keep it all the time.

I concentrate my investigation on you.

This was like the homicides that I worked on.

I had to stick up for the Boulder Police Department a little bit.

My gut feeling was the parents did it.

John Ramsey came through very, very sincere. So when I first found her, I was like, thank God I found her. When I left that interview, there was no doubt in my mind that he had nothing to do with the death of his daughter.

They hired me as a detective to take a look at this case. They may not like what I say, but I'm going to say it. I don't think the Ramseys did it. And I think they ought to start looking for people that did.

As a detective, I'm looking for clues.

You see hair right inside the windings of that cord. That's John Bonnet's hair.

She did have her own DNA under her fingernails. I'm pretty sure that's a scratch to get that off. I think she was struggling then.

There's no motive for the parent to do that.

It's not a mother waking up in the middle of the night saying, oops, I think I hurt my child. Oops, I got to bring her downstairs and fashion one of these things. Then I'm going to put it around her neck and I'm going to tighten it a couple of times while she's struggling. Now, if you want to believe that, go ahead. I can't say this on the air, but that's bull.

Sure.

No. You just can't rely on fiber evidence because fibers could come off of the jacket or something similar to the jacket.

This is one of the best clues left behind by the killer. This shows what's going on in his mind. This is a sexual device. I'm looking for a pedophile that's a sexual sadist. That's what Lou Smit's looking for.

This is where I believe that the killer got in.

He opened a grate, he went in.

There's three windows there. The center one was the one that was open. Take a look real closely at the window on the left. What you're gonna see is leaves and debris pressed right up against the window. Now let's take a look at the one again in the center. No leaves or debris. Which says? That window was open. Directly below that open window you have a suitcase.

Directly around that suitcase, you have leaves and debris from that window well around that suitcase. Also see, if you look very closely, you're going to see a mark that goes right down the wall. Right here.

You can fit through that window? Without any problem.

It is much easier to go out that window if you stand on something. You put the suitcase in front, you step on the suitcase, and you're right out into the window well. Lift the grate, you're gone. It's that easy.

I mean... Well, if you want to look at it from a sophisticated criminal's mind, they probably wouldn't bring it in. Why would you bring in something that can be traced back to your house where you have actual the pen and the ink and you have the paper right there that it was written on? But you can't count on finding that in the house. Can't count on it. Most houses have that.

No, not at all. You always are going to have similarities in handwriting. To sit down and write a note like that with all of those details in there after you brutally killed your daughter, you'd never done that before. Come on, give me a break.

The killer had a stun gun. I am sure the killer had a stun gun.

There's no reason at all for the parents to have used a stun gun to help stage the murder of their daughter.

There is nothing to indicate the Ramseys ever owned a stun gun.

It's approximately 3.5 centimeters.

And they're approximately 3.5 centimeters apart.

And I think they ought to start looking for people that did.

Sure. I believe that that would have probably been the most accurate way to do it.

The person who did this, if we're right, he's still out there.

Many times, criminals do return to the scene, and that was on the anniversary. That puts him right there at the Ramsey house a year later.

He definitely is a sex offender for assaulting another seven-year-old girl in Oregon. He spent time in prison for that.

On my computer, I probably got 25 good leads, and I probably have another 50 pages of other leads to follow.

Well, let's put it this way. I don't think I did. If the Ramsey's did this and I found out, I'd be the first one standing in line at the Boulder Police Department.

Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case.

My dad was sitting there, he's like, come on, let's try.

I wish to God I could remember something. I mean, even just a smidgen of something. But I remember nothing.

I said, who the heck's Leslie? I don't know Leslie.

No, nothing. Nothing? Nothing.

I don't know how he did make it. I don't understand how he did. He's a miracle.

So I'm half the man I used to be, but I'm trying to get it back as hard as I can. And then my left leg is partially paralyzed from my hip to my knee, then from my knee to my toes, completely paralyzed. So if there's any neurosurgeons out there, any researchers out there, please get a hold of me. I'll be your guinea pig. Just make me normal and give me my life back, please.

Tough doesn't even describe it. It doesn't even describe it.

Yep, right here. You still feel it on my skull. Right there.

I miss her. She was my little peanut pod. I mean, we did everything together.

You didn't think you'd be able to just sit there? Oh, no. No way. I know myself. There's no way. No.

Why would somebody do this to him? Why would they try to hurt my baby? That's all I kept thinking. He's my baby. Someone hurt him.

Lost my house, lost my truck. I've literally lost my life without being killed.

If guys, you feel like that, you want to hurt a woman, get help.

I've got a do-over. Good Lord, give me a do-over. How many people get a second chance in life?

She's an angel, loving me and accepting me the way that I am.

I just asked her if she'd marry me, guys.

Don't ever give up on anything, ever, no matter how bad things are. Don't ever give up.

I think she probably laid right next to him.

You've probably heard of the NCIS from the hit TV series, but we're about to take you inside its real life work. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS early and ad free on the 48 Hours Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts.