08x21 - The Big Chill

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: in months' time,

Carol hellar went to the hospital times

Complaining of various ailments

That her doctors thought were all in her head...

That is, until she d*ed.

[ Flatline ]

This is how a forensic toxicologist

And a middle-aged woman in a cheerleader's outfit

Cracked the only known case of its kind

In the history of forensic science.

After her divorce,

Carol hellar moved to the small town of perry, oklahoma,

To be closer to her family.

[ Train whistle blows ]

With only , residents and almost no violent crime,

Perry seemed like a good place to start over.

Carol was fighting a lifelong battle with manic depression,

Also known as bipolar disorder.

♪ In the name of the lord

Narrator: although carol became active in the local church

And developed a circle of friends,

It wasn't enough.

There are a lot of people who don't feel fulfilled

Unless they have a spouse.

They want someone in their life,

And she wanted a man in her life.

Narrator: so carol decided to place a personal ad

In a local christian newspaper.

She was looking for a christian male person

Who could take charge of household finances,

And dennis was the one that answered the ad.

Narrator: dennis hellar was a -year-old handyman.

When the two started dating,

Carol's family made sure dennis was aware of her past.

Piearcy: my parents talked to him about it,

So he was aware that she had had some mental-health problems.

Narrator: within a year, carol and dennis were married,

And it wasn't long

Before some of carol's old demons resurfaced.

Busby: she'd wander away from her house,

And we would go find her and take her back home.

Sometimes she wound up in the emergency room at the hospital.

Sometimes she was taken to a mental-health facility

For evaluation.

They would try to get her on medications.

Piearcy: and my dad asked her one time --

He said, "carol, have you ever thought about k*lling yourself?"

And she says, "well, yes."

She said, "I have thought about it before."

Narrator: doctors prescribed lithium,

A common medication for bipolar disorder.

Piearcy: like maybe a lot of people with the bipolar,

She had a lot of manic phases,

But as far as being real depressed,

She handled that pretty good.

Narrator: the medication caused nausea, drowsiness,

And slurred speech.

Her doctors reduced her dosage of lithium,

But her symptoms persisted.

To get relief, carol sought the advice of other doctors,

But none were able to help her.

Cooper: she had been in perry, stillwater, ponca,

Oklahoma city, and denver, colorado, hospitals

In those months.

I think the doctors and nurses who treated her

Tended to tune her out after a while.

She'd get to the hospital, and they'd stabilize her,

And they'd...just determine

That they either had solved the problem

Or couldn't figure out what the problem was.

And they'd send her home, and a month later,

It would start again, and it would happen again.

Narrator: carol's health problems

Were also causing strains in her new marriage.

Piearcy: when I talked to carol, she was just so down and out.

She said, "I think dennis is getting disgusted with me."

She said, "I have been sick

The whole time we have been married."

Narrator: carol was convinced that it was the lithium

That was causing these symptoms,

So against doctors' orders,

She stopped taking the medication altogether.

That's when her problems really started.

♪ Why don't they know

Narrator: one sunday, about a year after her marriage,

Carol hellar was uncharacteristically absent

From church.

Her husband, dennis, told the congregation

That carol's condition had taken a turn for the worse.

Later that night, dennis called for an ambulance.

Carol was in a coma,

So they transported her by helicopter to a larger hospital

In oklahoma city, some miles away.

Piearcy: about an hour later, I got a phone call,

And when the phone rang, I knew what it was.

[ Voice breaking ] I knew that she had d*ed.

Narrator: carol had never regained consciousness.

Doctors believed carol d*ed of natural causes.

Farrow: the cause of death was congestive heart failure.

That's what they believed that she had d*ed from.

Narrator: the medical examiner was overwhelmed with cases

From the oklahoma city bombing,

Which had happened just six weeks earlier.

Many of the victims of that blast still were unidentified,

So no autopsy was performed on carol hellar.

In accordance with her wishes, carol's body was cremated.

Piearcy: that was her wish,

So my dad said there was no sense in embalming her.

Narrator: in a town as small as perry,

News of carol's death spread quickly.

So did word of her husband's insensitivity.

[ Siren wailing ]

Paramedics.

Busby: when the ambulance crew arrived at his home,

Dennis was on the couch on the telephone.

When they walked in, he did not acknowledge them,

Nor would he speak to them.

They asked him what room she was in,

And he did not respond,

And so they went looking through their apartment

And found carol unconscious, in a coma, on the bed.

Narrator: and there was another peculiar incident

At carol's funeral service.

Piearcy: dennis was sitting back in behind us

About four rows or so,

And, of course, we got reports that he had been

Dozing off to sleep during the memorial service.

Narrator: curious about the situation,

Detective farrow went to the hellar's apartment,

Where the building manager told him an even more bizarre story.

The day before carol's death,

She saw huge flames coming from the outdoor grill

Behind the couple's apartment.

Farrow: she thought at first he was cooking something,

But then after he went back in, she had looked into the grill,

And there was nothing in there

But a bunch of burnt pieces of paper.

So she really wasn't sure what he was doing out there,

And this was all prior to carol's death.

Narrator: and later that same night,

The apartment manager saw dennis

Carrying boxes and boxes of trash to the dumpster.

Farrow discovered those boxes were filled

With carol's personal items.

Farrow: I found a bible that belonged to carol --

Was a gift from her father and it was very old,

So you could tell it was an heirloom.

There was documents. There was letters.

Oh, god, there was just --

I mean, just basic stuff that you would find in someone's,

You know, drawers -- like dresser drawers and stuff --

That had been tossed in there.

Narrator: but why would dennis dispose of carol's belongings

On the day before she d*ed?

In the hellars' apartment,

Investigators found something odd in the kitchen pantry --

A container of antifreeze.

Farrow: I've never known anyone to keep antifreeze in a kitchen.

A garage, yes, but not a kitchen.

Narrator: but according to dennis,

It was carol's idea to keep the antifreeze in the kitchen.

Busby: he said that she had drank

A half a gallon of antifreeze back in november

And that he had bought a new gallon of antifreeze

And half of it was gone,

So he thought that she might have drank it again.

Narrator: corroborating this unusual story

Was the fact that dennis told carol's sisters

The same thing shortly before her death.

Piearcy: he said, "I found some antifreeze in carol's closet,

And some of it's gone."

You know, it just really flew all over me.

Why would somebody mention something like that?

Narrator: yet, on the night carol d*ed,

Doctors found absolutely no sign

Of ethylene glycol in her system,

Which is the primary ingredient of antifreeze.

If investigators suspected foul play,

They had no way to prove it,

Since there had been no autopsy,

And carol's body had already been cremated.

Narrator: homicide detective david farrow

Joined forces with his colleague buzz busby

To look into the suspicious death

Of -year-old carol hellar.

Almost everyone they talked to told stories

About dennis hellar's unusual behavior

Both before and after carol's death.

To get to the bottom of the mystery,

Busby and farrow sifted through

, Pages of carol hellar's medical records.

To organize the materials,

They used a spare courtroom and sorted the records by month.

Each chair represented a different month in carol's life.

When all the records were arranged,

The chair representing march of was empty.

This was just three months before her death.

Busby: we couldn't understand that

Since we hadn't had a chance to go through the records

And read all of them yet.

Why would there not be records

When there was records for every other month?

Narrator: they soon discovered a possible explanation.

In march of ,

Dennis hellar was in jail in oklahoma city for shoplifting.

District attorney mark gibson

Responded to the news with caution.

Gibson: well, my policy has always been

That I will not file charges on a case of any kind

Until I'm convinced beyond a reasonable doubt,

That I have evidence to show someone

Beyond a reasonable doubt, that the crime was committed.

Narrator: and a little deeper in carol's medical records,

Investigators found another clue.

Shortly before her death,

Carol went to a hospital miles away in ponca city,

Complaining of slurred speech and confusion.

Dr. Danny cassidy treated carol that day

And found evidence that the acid levels in carol's blood

Were elevated, a condition known as metabolic acidosis.

Busby: when he saw the elevated metabolic acidosis levels,

He realized that there was only a couple of things

That would cause that.

Narrator: in response, dr. Cassidy ordered more tests.

Dr. Cassidy: I was testing for

Other unusual forms of acidosis --

Things like methanol, or -- I believe it's wood alcohol

That is highly toxic.

Narrator: dr. Cassidy told carol those test results

Would take about a week,

But carol didn't want to wait for the results.

Dr. Cassidy: she did not want to be in the hospital,

And she didn't represent a thr*at to anyone or to herself,

And so she could not be forcibly detained to be in the hospital,

And so she left willingly with her husband.

Narrator: those gas chromatography tests

Found ethylene glycol in carol's system,

Milligrams per deciliter.

Sadly, carol was already dead

By the time her personal physician got the results.

Now there was an even bigger question.

How did the ethylene glycol get into carol's system?

Gibson: we've never found another case

In the united states -- or anywhere, for that matter --

Where someone was gradually being poisoned with antifreeze.

Narrator: but investigators had no way of knowing

Whether carol ingested it intentionally

In a crude su1c1de attempt

Or whether her husband had poisoned her.

To find out,

Investigators looked for an expert in antifreeze poisoning.

Farrow: we took his book,

And we contacted some of the people in there,

And it seemed like everybody we talked to

And kind of give them our story,

They pointed us to dr. Poklis in virginia.

Narrator: noted toxicologist dr. Alphonse poklis

Is one of the world's foremost authorities on ethylene glycol.

He reviewed carol hellar's medical records

And immediately noticed a discrepancy.

Carol told doctors she had slurred speech, confusion,

A lack of coordination, nausea, and dehydration.

Her doctors attributed this to lithium,

But the symptoms of ethylene glycol poisoning

Were virtually identical.

Dr. Poklis: this is almost a greek tragedy.

You read the medical records.

The sicker she gets, the more she becomes convinced

The medications the physicians are giving her

Are making her ill.

The more she complains about it,

The more the physicians think that she's becoming paranoid.

Narrator: the milligrams of ethylene glycol

Found in carol's system was about / the lethal dose.

Dr. Poklis says this amount is consistent with slow poisoning,

Not su1c1de.

Dr. Poklis: that's a strange way to commit su1c1de.

I don't know anybody that's gonna poison themselves

With ethylene glycol or arsenic or anything

And make themselves repeatedly ill

For or months to k*ll themselves.

Narrator: but there was no scientific evidence

To prove dr. Poklis' hypothesis.

There had been no autopsy, carol's body had been cremated,

And there was no ethylene glycol in her blood the night she d*ed.

It appeared that if dennis hellar

Had poisoned his wife with antifreeze,

He was going to get away with it.

Narrator: investigators in perry, oklahoma,

Faced a dilemma.

Gas chromatography found milligrams of ethylene glycol

In carol hellar's system just a few weeks before she d*ed.

Busby: at least on different occasions,

Dennis hellar would talk to people about antifreeze

And the effects it would have on you if you drank it.

One of the common things he would say --

And it seemed like this was always out of context.

I'm not sure what context discussing antifreeze poisoning

Would be appropriate, but people would say, "we were talking,

"And dennis just came up with a statement,

"'Did you know that one teaspoon of antifreeze

Taken every day for days will k*ll you?'"

Narrator: so investigators tried a different tack.

They knew that dennis hellar spent quite a bit of time

In oklahoma city, about miles away.

He had a girlfriend there for most of the time he was married.

Her name was karen dawson,

And she was more than willing to talk to police.

Gibson: after carol d*ed,

The girlfriend kind of put it all together

And was very willing to work with us,

To assist us in any way she could.

He had actually taken carol's wedding rings down to karen

To have her try them on.

This was prior to her death.

Had karen try these things on to see how they fit,

Because they would soon be hers, according to dennis.

Narrator: karen told police that dennis was attracted

To girls wearing cheerleaders' outfits,

And he bought one in a secondhand store.

It's a lemon-yellow s cheerleading outfit with pleats

That he gave to her that he had bought for carol

To wear at years old.

Narrator: investigators convinced karen

To wear that cheerleader's outfit

On the couple's next date, along with a hidden microphone.

The two went to a drive-in restaurant.

Undercover officers listened from a van across the street.

Karen began by telling dennis

That if they were to have any kind of a life together,

Dennis would have to be completely honest with her.

Then karen asked dennis if he had anything to do

With his wife's death.

I put it in her food.

Busby: myself and detective farrow were listening

On a receiving device.

He even described how he'd done it with an eyedropper,

Et cetera.

He had bragged to her that he was kind of proud

That he had managed to do this and fool everyone.

That was a huge moment. That was a confession.

Narrator: ethylene glycol has a distinctive taste and odor.

How dennis placed antifreeze in carol's food without detection

Will not be revealed in this program.

Surprisingly, when investigators arrested dennis hellar,

He wasn't at all concerned.

Cooper: he did say to the investigators

That it only takes one person on a jury with reasonable doubt,

And slow poisoning is hard to prove.

Dennis hellar thought he had committed the perfect m*rder.

He thought he had covered his tracks medically.

Narrator: but there was one thing he hadn't counted on.

Although there hadn't been an autopsy on carol

Due to the oklahoma city bombing,

The medical examiner took some tissue samples for analysis.

When tested, he found calcium oxalate crystals

In her brain and kidney samples.

Prolonged exposure to ethylene glycol

Can cause calcium oxalate crystals to form,

Causing renal failure and death.

Dr. Poklis: they were getting clogged up.

She probably got a pretty good dose...

Two days before she d*ed, from what we know.

He's a coldhearted k*ller, is what he is.

And anyone who can sit around and see somebody suffer --

I couldn't even stand to see an animal suffer all that time,

Much less your spouse.

Narrator: but what was his motive?

Gibson: dennis was of even fewer means than carol.

She had an apartment. She had a car.

She had a j.c. Penney's life-insurance policy,

Or at least dennis believed that she did.

He wanted what she had, and he wanted her out of the way.

Narrator: when confronted with this forensic evidence,

Dennis hellar pled guilty to manslaughter.

In return, he was sentenced to life in prison.

Had it not been for investigators' persistence,

One doctor's suspicions, and the cheerleader's outfit,

Dennis hellar might have gotten away with m*rder.

In all those visits to doctors,

None of them had ever discovered,

Detected the antifreeze poison in her system.

And that's one of the most fascinating things

About the case, from my perspective,

Is that there's a relatively simple test that will detect it.

Narrator: carol's family credits forensic science

For bringing dennis hellar to justice.

Piearcy: I would like to say to the doctor

Who finally figured out what was going on

[ Voice breaking ] thank you very much from the whole family

From the bottom of our hearts.

And I hope that it saves some lives,

And I hope that this program will save more lives,

And people can be tipped off to symptoms that --

What is happening.

I don't think that there's anything

That we can't find or do when we use forensics.

And anyone who wants to go out here and commit a crime,

You know, you're gonna leave something,

You're gonna say something.

We're gonna find it one way or the other by using forensics.