Marie Hilley: The Mom Who Poisoned Her Daughter & Husband | The New Detectives | Real Responders

as a young woman slowly grows weaker a murder investigation gains strength to solve it detectives must extract a dark family secret from the grave [Applause] a tight circle of friends contracts as one by one its members die mysteriously the circumstances are suspicious but there's little evidence of murder [Music] when a woman is poisoned to death her survivors point fingers at each other to find the killer investigators must get to the source of the bad blood even when its symptoms are dramatic poison is a subtle menace the poisoner is a two-faced monster whose loved ones become victims of tainted trust [Music] on september 19 1979 marie hilly rushed to the university of alabama hospital in birmingham [Music] her 19 year old daughter carol was very sick for the past five months she'd suffered severe vomiting stomach cramps a deteriorating nervous system and paralysis in her legs her hands became clawed and nearly useless marie a widow who doted on her only daughter was frantic to find a cure for carol's grave illness after months of shuttling carol from doctor to doctor seldom leaving her bedside marie was at the end of her rope doctors told her that carol might have a virus or some other condition but she'd yet to get a clear diagnosis about what was crippling her daughter carol's illness was taking its toll on marie as well on carol's first day at the university of alabama hospital a plainclothes police officer came looking for marie what can i do he asked if he could speak to her in private truth carol's mounting medical bills were wreaking havoc with marie's finances a bank and a furniture store in nearby anniston filed complaints against her for passing bad checks the officer served marie with an arrest warrant he was taking her to jail not wanting to alarm her daughter marie made up a story about why she had to [Music] leave had no knowledge of her mom's arrest the next day when carol couldn't reach her mother she called her aunt freda who came to see her and tell her about marie [Music] freda had news for the doctors too expressing her concern about marie's care of carol she said that marie moved carol from hospital to hospital before the young woman could be properly diagnosed she also claimed to have witnessed marie giving carol shots [Music] she feared that marie's desperate attempts to heal her daughter were only making her more ill this possibility made carol's doctor rethink his diagnosis perhaps her illness was caused by a toxin rather than a virus he realized her symptoms were consistent with heavy metal poisoning most commonly arsenic often called the great imitator arsenic routinely escapes early diagnosis masquerading as food poisoning or the flu the misjudgment could be fatal according to forensic toxicologist chip walls now lab director at the university of miami school of medicine in many cases the chronic poisoning with arsenic has been missed at the early stages and the person either goes on and either gets better or dies from the chronic poisoning hi mr milly we're gonna take a nail sample but once it's suspected long-term arsenic poisoning is easy to diagnose [Music] carol's fingernails displayed the broad white lines called knees lines that signal the presence of arsenic in the bloodstream for longer than six weeks following up on this crucial discovery nail and hair samples were sent to the lab to determine the extent of her poisoning that would help determine the source of her exposure and how long she'd been exposed the samples are carefully weighed before they're put into what's called a digesting flask nitric and sulfuric acid are mixed with the sample and heated the digested sample is then ready to be analyzed early readings showed high levels of the poison in carol samples but it would take weeks to get more detailed results because arsenic is found in nature and is a common ingredient in pesticides her exposure could have been accidental but not everyone believed that while the samples were being tested aniston police received a letter from carol's brother he believed that marie hilly may have killed her husband four years earlier and was now poisoning her daughter lieutenant gary carroll now chief investigator went to speak with carol hilly during the interview carol had outlined a number of events that had occurred to her beginning sometime i think in mid april of 1979. carol explained that within a month she'd endured two hospital stays she enjoyed a brief recovery until august when her illness took a turn for the worse she told detectives that the change occurred just after she moved from her mother's house to her own apartment though carol looked forward to living alone marie practically moved in with her from the very first day keeping house and doing most of the cooking so much carol honey we're ready to go within days she fell seriously ill suffering from nausea and severe cramps marie rushed her to a hospital where she stayed for a week but when doctors offered no quick solution marie abruptly moved carol to another hospital carol recalled that in september while she was in the hospital her mother gave her two orange pills and two injections marie told her daughter they would ease the paralysis in her legs but still her illness progressed marie hilly's behavior prompted lieutenant carol to request the police file on her he knew that she had been a victim of a series of strange events ever since her husband died carol hoped the files might reveal some pattern back in 1977 our police department had received numerous complaints from marie hilly regarding vandalisms harassing phone calls burglaries fires and etc many uh things going on at her residence marie collected substantial insurance claims for damage to her house her daughter's car and her husband frank's death seeing a possible motive lieutenant marie was the beneficiary but the policy had lapsed i'll meet with you tomorrow according to the insurance company marie had made several desperate attempts to have it reinstated but every one of her checks bounced yeah following up on the letters sent by carol hilly's brother lieutenant carol received a copy of frank hilly's medical records frank and marie hilly appeared to be an average happy couple they were married for 25 years and raised two children mike and carol as her kids were growing up marie maintained an active social life frank enjoyed his role of the hard-working breadwinner active healthy and rarely missing a day of work [Music] but one evening in may 1975 frank came home in agony from an upset stomach he stayed home most of the next week marie tended to him around the clock but frank's condition worsened rapidly within a matter of days he was dead at the time the circumstances were considered tragic but not criminal and even now it seemed inconceivable that a woman could be cold-blooded enough to poison her own family marie hilly just didn't fit the mold of murderer but in hindsight frank hilly's symptoms suggested a classic case of arsenic poisoning to be sure investigators needed to exhume his body at any time she was still in custody for writing bad checks she denied any involvement in her husband's death and granted permission for his exhumation and autopsy the person at the hospital when asked about carol she denied poisoning her or even giving her medication but investigators persisted finally uh upon being confronted about having given carol uh shots she finally admitted that she did give give carol some shots she said she got it was some medication she got from a nurse who worked at one of the hospitals he's in pleas but police were unable to locate a nurse matching the name or description marie gave [Music] one week later authorities exhumed frank hilly's body it's said that dead men tell no tales but only frank could tell them if his devoted wife and the mother of his children was a murderer [Music] while investigators in alabama collected hair and nail samples from frank hilly's exhumed remains the results from carol hilly's arsenic testing came back from the lab the analysis showed abnormal levels of arsenic along the length of her hair demonstrating long-term exposure to the poison the hair closest to carol's scalp had 35 times the amount of arsenic than on the outer part revealing that she'd received recent high doses her mother marie hilly was still the prime suspect in the slow and painful poisoning of her daughter all that remained was the proof it wasn't long in coming on the morning of october 8 police received a note from carol's aunt frida along with a prescription bottle containing a clear liquid the note said she found the bottle in marie's jewelry box detective carol sent the bottle for analysis a half hour later the lab confirmed the bottle contained arsenic a similar file was taken from marie's purse when she was first arrested for check bouncing it appeared empty but investigators suspected it might hold some residue they rinsed it with distilled water then tested the rinse water once again they found arsenic mrs hilly you're under arrest for the attempted murder of your daughter on october 9 1979 marie hilly was served with warrants charging her with attempting to poison carol not make any statement at all any statement you make additional warrants were served for passing more bad checks but these charges paled in comparison to what police still suspected that marie hilly had murdered her husband still they had no proof to hire a lawyer you have the right to have a lawyer appointed we had not received any information from the alabama department forensic sciences on the autopsy results from frank so we were awaiting those and during the meantime she made bond and got out on the attempt to poison charge and also the two check charges but marie could not feel too relieved the same tests that found arsenic in her daughter's system were being used on samples taken from her late husband and with much the same result frank hilly had been poisoned [Music] the evidence showed that the poison was taken a little at a time with a large dose at the end on january 11 1980 the calhoun county grand jury indicted marie hilly for first degree murder hilly received life plus 20 years for attempting to poison her daughter but marie hilly wound up serving only a fraction of that time after three years she'd manipulated the warden into trusting her with a three-day furlough when it was time for her to return it was clear that marie hilly had escaped but her getaway didn't last a week later she was discovered apparently trying to break into a house her clothes were soaked and she acted delirious she suffered a massive heart attack and died that evening marie hilly was buried next to her husband frank the man she poisoned to death why would a seemingly devoted wife and mother poison members of her family [Music] perhaps money was the original motive but since her daughter carol's life insurance policy had lapsed there was no financial reward in killing her maybe in marie hilly's mind murder became its own reward in that regard she wasn't alone on the afternoon of june 28 1987 carrie middleton answered a call to check on 30 year old lisa k chandler in odessa texas lisa had been seriously depressed and her friends were concerned [Music] carrie found lisa in her bedroom dead [Music] she ran to phone the police not to call in a suicide but to report a murder police found no evidence of a crime no forced entry or signs of struggle in fact there seemed no cause of death at all you need to bag this note dawn on the nightstand lay a scrap of paper with scribbled notes but it didn't mention suicide or anything else that could be related to lisa's death a washcloth on the floor had no stains or other visible clues it seemed the victim had died peacefully and mysteriously in her sleep good morning how are sworn according to detective mickey brown now a chief of police okay that was reason enough to investigate further thank you uh you have a victim here that apparently there's no reason for cause of death and this is a young female there's no trauma so you i immediately become suspicious it's what caused this young lady's death out of her mind with grief kerry middleton insisted to police that her friend was murdered but without any evidence their best strategy was to wait for the autopsy report tissue samples were sent to the texas college of osteopathic medicine where forensic toxicologist gary wimbisch tested them we look for the drugs or substances with the highest probability of having an association with the cause of death for example ethyl alcohol carbon monoxide other volatile substances or alcohols that may have been involved drugs of abuse would be high priority and then second with routine prescription medication blood specimens revealed a high concentration of ethyl alcohol found in wine or beer though it may have contributed the alcohol couldn't have caused lisa's death on its own with the victim's death still a mystery detective brown couldn't discount the possibility of foul play he'd learned from carrie middleton that lisa was in the middle of a bitter divorce from her husband kyle harry also said lisa was having an affair with david dowler a mutual friend with an exotic lifestyle well the more she talked she got into uh telling us about dollar and it began to read like a tom clancy novel you know he was claiming to work for the government to be a work for the cia to be a spy catcher things of that nature and she was very sincere in what she was telling us but it was it seemed far out at the time dowler was the last person to be seen with the victim an interview was arranged he was cooperative and seemed friendly and personable dowler claimed kerry was mistaken about his work for the cia but he did share the opinion that lisa chandler was a victim of foul play he also had an idea who her killer was kyle chandler lisa's husband he said kyle was furious that she was cheating on him good morning kyle chandler was next on the list to be interviewed fearing he was the prime suspect in his wife's death chandler brought his lawyer with him kyle also felt that lisa was murdered but he pointed the finger back at his accuser david dowler the names of her your closest friend kyle chandler portrayed dollar as an unusual man with a sinister edge he owned and operated a one-hour photoshop but claimed that was only a cover for his real job as a cia agent as a government insider dowler claimed he knew in advance which friends were in danger he seemed to be right according to kyle chandler dowler knew more than he was letting on about the death of lisa chandler and the unexplained deaths of two of their other friends the investigation into lisa chandler's death was taking an unexpected turn when detective mickey brown looked back over the files he discovered that lisa chandler was the third of her circle of friends to die mysteriously and in each case david dowler was mentioned as one of the last people to see the victim alive four years before the death of lisa chandler another of dowler's girlfriends met a similar fate lisa craig was found lying as if she'd died in her sleep there were no signs of forced entry into her home nor any signs of trauma on her body the only suspicious things were notes scribbled in the margins of her bible craig believed someone wanted to kill her craig had a history of anorexia nervosa an autopsy found no other evidence so the medical examiner concluded she died as a result of that condition however since there was no specific cause of death he left her file open and saved her tissue samples three years later the next to die was dowler's business partner juan casillas after dowler was laid off from his job at an oil company he and casius opened a photo store together in 1986 kyle chandler found cassius at his home dead on the kitchen floor [Music] the autopsy revealed an unidentified substance in his tissues samples were saved according to hospital policy but no cause of death was determined detective brown now wondered if kyle chandler did more than just discover juan casius's death he began to think that maybe he caused it brown learned that juan cassius was married to lisa chandler before kyle married her first cassius died and now lisa was dead too that gave kyle chandler a direct connection to two of the three mysterious deaths in his tight circle of friends but kyle chandler wasn't the only suspect in each of the three deaths david dowler made the phone call that led to the body being discovered detective brown had three deaths and two likely suspects [Music] he needed help sorting them out he remembered an offer made to him by carrie middleton concerning david dowler she was convinced dowler was the killer living out some deranged fantasy she wanted the chance to prove it during the interview with kerry i expressed some reservations to her about the story that she was telling me and she voluntarily said that she would be more than happy to wear a microphone or a wire where i could first hand listen to david doubter telling her these stories david dowler may have pretended to be a government agent but kerry middleton was about to do some real undercover so that police could hear her conversations with david dowler let's make sure it doesn't show up detective mickey brown also had surveillance cameras set up in carrie's apartment so police could watch them hear me through this yes yes make sure we'll test it before you go in a couple buttons brown knew that time spent here would either help the investigation or take him down the entirely wrong road we had a total of 16 hours of recordings on him on about three occasions he totally dominated the conversations he talked constantly most of the talk was idle banter but in one of these conversations he described how to murder someone by putting chloroform in their car ventilation then he outlined a likely method the killer would have used to kill lisa chandler with chloroform dollar offered detailed descriptions of how lisa craig and juan cassius were probably murdered using cyanide and he told carrie he was afraid she might be next [Music] these were either the veiled confessions of a mad serial killer the ramblings of a man desperate for attention or both [Music] his own words made dowler the prime suspect but the proof of those words had to be verified in the lab tissue samples from lisa craig and juan casius were sent to gary wimbish to test for cyanide the test that we employed to assay for the cyanide actually is is a testing protocol that is uh not ancient but certainly it's been around for a while called a conway diffusion cell it's a simple device that holds a blood sample in one compartment a trapping solution in the center and sulfuric acid on the other side the container is then sealed and rotated so that the blood and acid mix the acid releases the cyanide from the blood in its gaseous form which is then trapped by the solution in the center compartment the solution changes color to indicate how much cyanide is present we found rather large amounts of cyanide present in the blood specimens of gaseous and craig the concentrations were about seven to ten times the amount that are often found in lethal cases the results were indisputable both craig and cassius were killed with cyanide to test lisa chandler wimbisch used a gas chromatograph to detect traces of chloroform a microscopic tissue sample was placed into the apparatus which was calibrated to show the unique spectroscopic fingerprint of chlorine compounds this is the internal standard and this is where the test revealed that lisa chandler had enough chloroform in her system to kill seven people unmasked by his own incessant conversation the real david dowler was finally revealed and then once we verified through the postmortem and the toxicology results that this was in fact how the victims had died we knew then that we had our predator we knew who we had then david dowler wasn't a concerned friend or a government agent but a very sick and dangerous serial killer armed with the toxicology reports and information gathered from surveillance detective brown secured a warrant for dowler's residence but he wasn't through yet he wanted to be sure he had enough to win this case he hoped for a confession if not to police than to kerry middleton we decided to take one more conversation to try to obtain as much evidence as possible by going through with another meeting brown was using his key witness as live bait for a known killer kerry was putting her life on the line by now dowler might have suspected she was talking to police even with officers just outside she'd be on her own if dollar moved in quickly with a knife or gun as an extra precaution detective brown wired carrie's entire home and had additional police standing by just in case that evening when dowler came to carrie's home the two spoke amiably at first concentrating on small talk then dowler began talking about how the police were bungling the investigation into lisa chandler's death he mentioned that he kept a pistol in his car and once again told kerry that she was in danger then he suddenly announced he had to leave for a moment but he'd be right back that was enough for detective brown not wanting to risk carries life any further he had his officers move in and arrest them [Music] from the evidence retrieved at the scene detective brown may have acted just like anything we arrested doubter shortly after he left the witness's residence and we found in his possession of pistol a silencer ammunition uh we also found some lock pick sets and ski masks that he had these suspicious articles couldn't begin to suggest the vast and deadly arsenal dowler had at his disposal at his house detectives uncovered explosives blasting caps crude eavesdropping equipment more homemade gun silencers and chemicals used to make explosives and poison the police needed a truck to haul it all away dowler's lab was the incubator for three murders mixing chemicals into a lethal brew he was able to concoct his deadly schemes he denied killing lisa chandler and told investigators he was only trying to help her first he said he had her write down questions about their relationship then he said he would help her find a hypnotic state by pouring chloroform into a washcloth that was covering her face according to dowler she would then be able to answer her own questions with her subconscious he said that she was getting tired dowler claimed she must have taken more chloroform herself to commit suicide investigators didn't believe it no bottle of chloroform was found at the scene the forensics report also proved dollar's story couldn't be true that couldn't have happened because when we when dr wembice did the toxicology she had seven times the toxic amount in her system and she would have been sound asleep long before she could have administered self-administered that much chloroform to her dowler had administered the fatal dose he may have lived a fantasy life as a secret agent but he played the real-life role of murderer in january 1988 david dowler was sentenced to life in prison for the death of lisa chandler because he received the highest possible penalty he was not tried for the other two murders he is suspected of [Music] david dowler killed for the sake of killing in little rock arkansas investigators found that poison was just one part of a killer's elaborate master plan georgia weaver had recently come to live with her sister jeannie allen when jeannie had told her younger sister that her cozy home had become too much for her to manage by herself georgia was happy to move in and help out on december 19 1992 jeannie was struck with a sudden intense illness georgia who also felt ill rushed her sister to the hospital for two weeks doctors puzzled over the root of her symptoms thinking it might be food poisoning when her condition worsened they ordered tests for heavy metal poisoning the results showed genie had nearly 20 times the normal amount of arsenic in her system intentionally or by accident jeannie allen was being poisoned jeannie's son jerry allen reacted to the news by going to the he was certain his mother's poisoning was no accident he told him that the situation wasn't always so rosy between his mother and his aunt georgia weaver detective steve moore listened to jerry allen's story he told us that they had been involved in a dispute in years past over inheritance from their mother who had died and apparently miss weaver had spent some of the money without miss allen's knowledge the sisters hadn't spoken to each other for four years jeannie had only recently decided to make amends and invite georgia back into her life jeannie was lonely her husband james allen was incapacitated with a stroke and her kids were grown georgia began spending the night at genie's house and cooking all of the meals but jerry believed that georgia was scheming to take financial advantage of his mother once again three months before genie fell hill jerry confronted georgia at his mother's house triggering a tremendous argument georgia called the police to have jerry removed from the premises bad blood clearly flowed within the family but there was little to link it with genie's current condition when jerry allen first came to us we were concerned about were we getting the middle of a family squabble was there really a crime here was it really something we needed to be involved in but two days after jerry filed his report jeannie allen died from arsenic poisoning now the police had to get involved though it was still uncertain if genie's poisoning was intentional the death needed to be investigated police began by interviewing genie's friends and family members one of the first was georgia weaver cordial and friendly her anger rose when she talked about her nephew jerry allen georgia told police that jerry resented her because jeannie trusted her more she claimed that if anyone poisoned genie it would be jerry who was jockeying to gain control of jeannie allen's money investigators now had two suspects and yet they weren't even certain a crime had been committed before they could determine that they had to determine how long jeannie allen had been exposed to the arsenic and how she had consumed it to find out if genie allen had been intentionally poisoned investigators examined her hair the arsenic leaves a record along the growing strands the hair samples are cut into segments then wrapped securely in a paper form that establishes the chain of evidence because plastic bags could contaminate biological samples labs use paper wrapping each segment is individually tested for arsenic the duration of a person's exposure can be determined by seeing how much of the hair contains the poison according to criminalist gary lawrence it is not uncommon to find arsenic in any hair sample most people have a normal background level of arsenic within the body and if they receive from some form an amount of arsenic that's abnormal to the body i think the system has a way of working some of that out if the arsenic were in the environment investigators would expect to find minute traces along the length of the hair if the poison were administered intentionally it would usually appear as one big dose on the portion of hair closest to the scalp i don't believe it's very easy to hide arsenic poisoning it can be done but again even when you get up to the long term dosages even at low levels the buildup of the arsenic within the body is eventually going to show up the report showed normal trace levels of arsenic along most of the length of the hair but on the segment closest to the scalp the hair contained 13 times the normal amount of the poison the results suggested that genie allen's death was no accident let's get everything out of his closet to find the source of the arsenic police conducted a search of her house and confiscated all of the food and medicine they could find about 100 items in all [Music] at the arkansas state crime lab each sample was bombarded with x-rays in a technique called x-ray fluorescence electrons in the samples become excited giving off specific levels of energy the lab looked for energy levels characteristic of arsenic the lab tests for the samples taken from jeannie allen's home would take several months to complete [Music] it wasn't long before they narrowed their list of suspects from two to one many neighbors said that mysterious changes occurred once georgia weaver moved in genie allen came outside less and less georgia collected the mail and ran out jeannie soon stopped calling her friends and when they tried to get in touch with her georgia was always there blocking the way if somebody went over there or called over there georgia answered the phone georgia came to the door and they never saw jeannie again it was like she didn't exist basically georgia checked the mail georgia basically took over the household which made me suspicious that a grown lady that was not in any medical condition at that time no senility or anything would just let somebody take over their home like that as suspicions began focusing on georgia weaver investigators uncovered more to incriminate her on december 22nd just days after jeannie allen was admitted to the hospital georgia went to the bank and using a power of attorney closed jeannie allen's account she took 1300 and the contents of her safe deposit box georgia was arrested at her job in a local motel in her possession was about 1 000 jeannie allen's car a credit card and her power of attorney upon closer inspection investigators noticed an odd detail about the power of attorney yeah see if you know these guys on this document legally handing genie's rights to georgia weaver both jeanne allen's printed name and signature were misspelled in order to get a true sample of george's signature police had her sign her name and genies several times in front of witnesses the signatures were sent to the arkansas state crime lab for analysis jeannie allen's known signature was compared with george's version of the signature the differences went beyond the spelling errors according to dawn reed chief of question documents there were pressure habits that were extremely different extreme differences were noted between the spacing habits of the writer on the question document and the known handwriting of jeannie allen the uppercase j was a two-stroke j that jenny allen usually wrote and on the question document it was very flourished but when reed compared the signatures written by georgia weaver to the one on the power of attorney she knew she caught the forger hands down i positively identified georgia weaver as writing jeannie allen's signature on the power of attorney which is totally conclusive there was no qualified opinion she wrote that the qual the probability that any other individual could have is nil georgia was arrested for theft and forgery she may have been a killer too if investigators could only prove it georgia weaver posted bond for her arrests on theft and forgery but her troubles weren't over a few weeks later she was charged with stealing employee checks from the motel where she worked and forging the signatures on them she was arrested again though she was proving to be a thief and a forger investigators had nothing to tie her to the murder of her sister jeannie allen then a co-worker reported finding a bottle of rat poison hidden where georgia always kept her purse it wasn't a brand the motel used [Music] it was sent to the police and passed on to the arkansas state crime lab for analysis the active ingredient was arsenic this evidence tangible but circumstantial was the first to link georgia to the poison now investigators needed to link the source of the poison to her sister in august 1993 the extensive tests on items from genie allen's home were complete arsenic was discovered in two containers of punch and a bottle of cold medicine the link was established detective moore only hoped it was strong enough at that point i felt we had what we needed to bring her to justice we knew that it would be a battle as far as getting her convicted but we didn't feel that we could we had any other choice but to try to get her put in prison where we felt she belonged from the evidence investigators surmised that after ingratiating herself with her sister georgia began spiking her medicine and beverages with the rat poison she kept hidden at her workplace finally killing her with one big dose on may 4th 1994 georgia weaver was convicted of the capital murder of her sister jeannie allen i believe what motivated georgia was greed power and also probably a motivational fact was that she wanted what jeannie had as far as a home a family the financial stability that she had whereas georgia was alone out of money and i believe that maybe she saw that's the only way she could get what that had was to take this route but the route she took proved to be a dead end georgia weaver was sentenced to life in prison with no parole and is currently serving at the arkansas department of corrections the act of poisoning begins with a simple premise the poisoner believes he can hide his guilt behind a mask of concern but time and again forensics has proven this premise false [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Keywords: The New Detectives, bombs, bomb, bomb disposal, mail explosive, explosive disposal, police documentary, forensic science, investigation, detectives, police investigation, cold cases, criminals, crimes, true detectives, sherlock holmes, real crimes, real detectives, private detective, The New Detectives Season 4, Reenactment, Crime Reenactment, American Crime Story, True Crime, Police, Criminals, Murderers, Serial Killers, Wonder, Real Crime, Investigation Discovery, crime and Justice

Id: _QtyJdQU6p8

Length: 50min 54sec (3054 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 26 2020