Chapter 1: What led to the unexpected death of Violet Yacobi?
We've all been angry at people that we love. And I think we've all probably done things that we wish we could take back or regret.
Beverly Hills 911, what is the address of your emergency?
October 10, 2017, the Beverly Hills Police Department received a 911 call of an unintended death.
What's going on there? We found the mother unconscious.
She's found on the floor by her son and daughter. Violet Yacobi was a 67-year-old widow whose husband had passed a year earlier. She was living in that house alone. It was a nice house. No one had heard from her that day, which was uncommon. Daniel Yacobi and his sister, Dina Yacobi, meet at the house. Daniel calls 911.
Okay, is she still unconscious? Yes. Is she breathing? No.
Daniel Kobe is a 36-year-old son of Violet. He was a dentist.
How long ago did you last see her? Like, how long has she been like that?
Do you know?
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Chapter 2: How did the 911 call unfold during the emergency?
He's asked by the 911 operator if anyone knows CPR.
Do you need me to walk you through it, or does somebody know it? No, we're both doctors. You're both doctors? OK. We have.
Never mind. He says my sister's doing CPR. Who's doing CPR? My sister. During that call, it was just a matter of minutes, the first patrol car had arrived at the house.
They're here. The police are there? Yes. This is Violet's house?
Yes, this is it.
Do you remember coming here?
Yeah. It was dark, nighttime. I remember walking up the steps and in the door.
And no sign of forced entry?
No. It's a large entry doorway, marble floor. There's a large curving staircase that's to the right. The victim was laying on her back. Initially, they thought that she had fallen over the railing.
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Chapter 3: What evidence was found at the crime scene?
I mean, I don't know. I just can't get my head around it. Like, I saw bruising everywhere, right? And I saw a bruise right here. So...
And it looks like she was strangled. I, at that point, had not ruled out this idea that she had hung herself.
Yet there were no obvious signs like a rope or a belt near Violet's body. And Violet's family members rejected the idea that she would take her life. Daniel had described seeing her just two days earlier at a family dinner.
And we were sitting right next to each other, and everything was fine.
When Detective Schwartz learned that Violet was part of a close-knit Russian Jewish community where suicide is taboo, it occurred to him that her children might be covering it up.
I'm a little more in tune with the Jewish community, so I was thinking, how would it be looked at? And so you thought maybe the kids might hide? Right, right. Could it be an insurance thing? Could it be a shame thing?
Later that day, they talked about oddities they both had observed in Daniel's behavior. For Elwell, it was during the walkthrough.
Daniel's in the foyer where the body was found, just moving from side to side. He's looking down, he's crouching, he's touching the tile, and it just didn't sit well with me.
You didn't think it could just be a grieving son trying to figure out why his mother ended up on the floor?
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Chapter 4: What injuries were discovered on Violet Yacobi?
They had questions about the initial story that Daniel told to other detectives of how he and his sister had come to meet at their mother's house when he learned that no one had heard from Violet.
Apparently, they went there because no one had been able to get a hold of her during the day.
I called my sister immediately a few times.
Daniel calls his sister, and there's some sort of convoluted story about the keys. Hey, sis, I can't find my keys anywhere. Do you know where? Do you have your keys to the house? So Daniel's telling Dina, meet me at the house. So we meet exactly at the same time. Didn't sit right.
And there were conflicting stories about who had performed CPR. On the 911 call, Daniel told the operator his sister was performing CPR. But when talking to detectives, he said he also had done compressions. When Detective Schwartz called Deena, she confirmed that Daniel had not done CPR.
George and I said, there's only one person that doesn't seem to be forthcoming and doesn't seem genuine.
they decided they needed to interview Daniel themselves, especially once they learned that Violet had died the night of Monday, October 9th, nearly 24 hours before she was found.
Based off of missed phone calls, contents in her stomach, we're pretty confident right now that it's the night of the night that she dies.
And detectives want to know, where was Daniel?
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Chapter 5: How did family dynamics play a role in the investigation?
So we know that he is saying he had not seen his mother since Sunday. First time he sees his mother is Tuesday when he discovers the body. So we have that full time frame that we're looking at.
They first asked Daniel to go through the events of Tuesday, October 10th and the night he and his sister had arrived at Violet's house.
We both get there the same time.
He told them he was in a panic when he walked in and saw her on the floor.
And I go there and like in utter shock and, you know, like it's my mom. So I'm like hysterical.
He said he hugged his mother's body before starting CPR.
I grab her a little bit and just, you know, one hug. And then they start doing chest depression.
But when detectives shared with Daniel the results of the autopsy, he didn't seem surprised to learn her death had been ruled a homicide.
I can tell you that she has ligature marks on her neck. At this point, she was trying... Oh, my God, I knew it. I had a sense of that.
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Chapter 6: What were the initial theories about Violet's death?
I see right through you. I can read you. It's right in there, bugging the crap out of you.
But Daniel pushed back and said the detectives had it all wrong.
I'm telling you everything I know. You think this is easy for me? My mom just died. There's nobody closer in this world than my mom.
Nobody. And there was something else. He had told detectives he had a great relationship with his mom, saying they talked and texted on a regular basis.
I text your baby pictures all the time. How are you? Blah, blah, blah.
But when Detective Schwartz looked at Daniel's phone, the last photo he had sent his mom was a month earlier.
It's been a while.
And it wasn't a picture of his baby, but of his bank account.
Were you having financial problems? No. We're just always, like, we're very open about everything. At this point, I found that to be significant. By that Friday, he's our suspect, no doubt about it.
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