11x04 - Sunday's Wake
Posted: 01/19/24 07:26
Narrator: a little girl d*ed, and investigators didn't know
Why or how.
Was it an accident?
Was it an unexplained illness?
Or was she m*rder*d?
Scientists would go halfway around the world before finding
The answer in two unlikely places -- a shredded legal
Document and her mother's signature.
Document and her mother's signature.
[ Siren wails ] narrator: in the spring of
, A /-year-old girl was in the intensive care unit of a
New hampshire hospital, fighting for her life.
From the very beginning, no one knew that she had anything
More than a bad cold, but then she went downhill so
Dramatically.
Narrator: her name was sunday abek, and her story was
Unlike any other in the hospital.
Sunday was from the sudan, where a bloody civil w*r was claiming
Thousands of lives.
She and her family were lucky to be alive.
She had to flee because of v*olence in her area.
Her father was a political prisoner in sudan, and that may
Have been more dangerous for her family to remain in the sudan
Because of that.
[ Speaking native language ] interpreter: people were
Being k*lled.
Didn't matter what side you were on.
We had to leave.
Narrator: shortly after sunday was born, the family fled
To a refugee camp in egypt.
After two years, a missionary group was able to get them to a
Small apartment in manchester, new hampshire.
No one in the family spoke english.
The change from their life in africa was enormous.
There must've been a culture shock.
This is an old mill city in new hampshire.
Big mill buildings and whatnot, much colder weather.
But this family moved in and started to prepare a better
Life, a safer life.
They thought at least their kids could be raised without getting
sh*t at.
Narrator: the family had been in the u.s. For just a little
More than a month when one day, for no apparent reason, sunday
Started vomiting, she ran a high fever, and she became delirious.
Her mother was sleeping on the hospital floor in sunday's
Room.
She would sit and hold the child in her arms.
That was her main concern was that sunday was sick, and she
Had to get her better.
Narrator: at first, doctors thought sunday had contracted a
Bad case of the flu, but none of their treatments worked, and
They were unsure what was wrong with her.
Sunday's initial symptoms were high fever and vomiting,
And that could be anything.
That could be virus.
That could be all kinds of problems.
Interpreter: I didn't know what the problem was.
The doctors didn't know.
They couldn't tell me what was wrong.
Narrator: despite a battery of tests, the cause of sunday's
Illness couldn't be determined.
None of her siblings or her mother had gotten sick.
Three days after she was admitted to the hospital,
Sunday's temperature soared, and her brain swelled
Uncontrollably.
She went into a coma and d*ed.
Interpreter: when you have children, god gives them to you,
And he can take them.
When sunday d*ed, I tried to remember that god gave her to
Us, and now he wanted her back.
Narrator: for sunday's family, the promise of a
Peaceful life in america had turned into an unspeakable
Tragedy.
The mother's lawyer said that she had told him that if she had
Any idea this could've happened, she never would've moved her
Family to the united states.
But, of course, she couldn't have known.
She knew she was moving them away from a danger.
She just had no way of knowing she was moving them into another
Danger.
Narrator: soon an investigation was mounted to
Find out how it happened, and what it uncovered was not an
Illness, but a crime.
Narrator: during a spring snowstorm in ,
/-Year-old sunday abek was laid to rest thousands of miles
From her native sudan.
I'll never forget the women in the group wearing their
African clothes and wool hats and gloves, and they were
Singing african prayers as the snow came down.
They probably never saw snow before.
And the whole scene to me was just one of the saddest things.
Narrator: after two years on the run, the family thought they
Had finally found a safe haven in america, but they were wrong.
They had come here, trying to have a better life for their
Daughter, and they end up burying her in a snowstorm in
New hampshire, and that led to an intriguing story.
How did this come to pass?
Narrator: investigators thought poisoning might be a
Possibility.
Whenever there is an unexplained death of a child, I
Think the police first suspect is always a family member.
Narrator: sunday's mother was questioned, but she had no
Apparent motive.
She was asked if one of the siblings could have done it.
Interpreter: it was ridiculous.
In africa, a child cannot poison her sister or her brother or
Even me.
They wouldn't know how.
It did not come from the family.
Narrator: was it possible one of the neighbors, perhaps
Resentful over the influx of refugees into the neighborhood,
Was responsible?
Interpreter: in our apartment complex was another family from
Sudan.
Before my child got sick, so did theirs, but he recovered.
He didn't die.
Narrator: but a severe flu caused that child's illness.
New hampshire officials couldn't determine how sunday d*ed, and
This raised alarms.
One of their initial concerns was to make sure there was not
The importation into the u.s. Of some exotic disease that could
Have been transmitted by sunday or her family into the u.s.
Narrator: all members of the family were thoroughly tested.
Everyone was perfectly healthy.
But then results came back from an extensive test on sunday's
Blood.
Analysts were shocked by what they found.
Her blood contained unusually large amounts of lead --
Micrograms per deciliter, times the lethal level for a
Child.
High level for us might be or .
I think we may have even had a or an over the years that
I've done inspections.
But a was just absolutely off the charts for us.
Narrator: lead kills by attaching itself to red blood
Cells.
This takes oxygen out of the blood and starves the brain.
Sunday's official cause of death was lead poisoning, the first
Such case in the u.s. In more than a decade.
The family seemed to be having trouble grasping what had
Happened.
One of them said to me, "we don't have lead in africa."
In africa, lead is b*ll*ts.
They're getting sh*t at.
Narrator: investigators now checked the rest of the family
To see if they'd also been exposed to lead.
The tests showed they were all within normal levels.
There was something unique to sunday.
It wasn't something that they had commonly all been exposed to
That created this horrific problem for all of the family.
Narrator: how could a k*ller dose of lead have gotten into
Sunday's system while the rest of the family was unaffected?
Their apartment building was locked down in a search for
Answers.
Paint, the most common source of lead poisoning, was tested with
A portable x-ray analyzer.
It uses a radiation source to basically excite the lead atoms
In the paint, and then it actually sends x-rays back into
The machine.
Narrator: minor amounts of lead were found in the paint --
Not unusual in an old building, and not nearly enough to k*ll
Someone.
Now investigators moved on to the water, the air, the cooking
Utensils, and toys.
Everything in the apartment was tested.
We select an area of the home and mark off a square foot and
Actually wipe it with a sterile wipe and collect the dust and
Put it in a sterile container, and that's analyzed to see what
The dust level in the home.
Narrator: the contents of the wipes were dissolved in
Hydrochloric acid.
In a process called atomic absorption, the solution was
Exposed to temperatures of more than , degrees fahrenheit.
It burns the sample in the flame, much like an acetylene
Torch, and the instrument is set up to see only lead.
Narrator: no abnormal levels were found.
Nothing in the building could produce a dose of lead large
Enough to k*ll.
I walked back to the office and said, "I don't think it's
The house.
There's something else going on."
Narrator: extensive testing provided no clues as to how
Little sunday abek was exposed to a lethal dose of lead.
Lead has been known as a hazard for , years.
Lead was one of the first occupational diseases identified
By the romans and even the greeks many, many years ago, so
It's not a new issue.
Narrator: while investigators couldn't rule out an intentional
Poisoning by someone in the u.s., They had to consider the
Possibility that sunday was poisoned before she got to
America.
Perhaps in the refugee camp.
They even brought in the
Health department in egypt, and they sampled the formula that
The little children were given.
Because if something was contaminated in the formula,
That could affect thousands of kids.
Narrator: food, air, water, and soil in the camp were
Tested.
Everything was negative.
It seemed the question of how sunday had been k*lled might
Never be answered.
There was this mystery.
What had happened to her and why?
Narrator: investigators now turned back to sunday herself.
Since lead is a poison, the body goes to great lengths to expel
It.
Deposits build up in the nails and hair.
The average person's hair grows about a half-inch per month.
Sunday's hair was an inch long and provided a wealth of
Information.
She had spent a month in the united states, and before that
She had been in egypt.
So by taking her hair and looking at it specifically for
Lead content and dividing it in half so that we had the
Half-inch that grew in the united states and the half-inch
That grew before that, we were able to make a comparison and
Time her exposure.
Narrator: the hair was bombarded with radioactive
Neutrons.
This caused different elements in the sample to react in unique
Ways.
The tip of sunday's hair had trace amounts of lead, but the
Base, the part closest to the scalp, showed massive amounts.
What that tells me is in the united states, she got exposed
To a pretty significant amount of lead and that her level
Before that wasn't abnormal.
So her exposure was in this country.
It wasn't back in egypt.
Narrator: investigators must have overlooked something, but
They didn't know what.
They went full circle.
They went back to manchester.
They started saying, "what did we miss?"
Narrator: they questioned sunday's mother again and were
Told something they had not heard before.
Sunday spent a lot of time on the front porch of their
Apartment building.
Interpreter: I knew always that the cause of sunday's
Sickness had something to do with the apartment.
They were able to ascertain that the child did, in fact,
Spend time playing on the porch.
And the mother had seen the child pick at the paint on the
Porch.
Narrator: the porch of the apartment was in bad shape.
The paint was old and peeling.
Suddenly investigators thought they'd solved the mystery.
It looked to be a phenomenon called "pica."
The word comes from the latin name for "magpie," a bird that
Eats almost anything.
Pica is a condition
Particularly of children, but not always of children.
It's sort of a craving for food items to eat.
Lead paint often tastes sweet.
So here's a little malnourished girl who's never had enough
Food, and it became pretty clear she was probably picking up
Chips of paint and sucking on them or chewing on them.
Narrator: samples of paint from the porch showed levels of
Lead times the legal limit.
To see if it was this paint that k*lled sunday, investigators
Brought in the centers for disease control.
The samples were dissolved in nitric acid and then heated so
The isotopes, or chemical signature of the lead, would be
Exposed.
We can run the sample of analysis for the child's blood
And compare that to the different potential sources that
She was exposed to and then plot that out, and we can either
Identify or exclude various sources.
Narrator: the isotopes from the paint on the porch and from
Sunday's blood were identical.
This test left no doubt.
Sunday abek got a lethal dose of lead by eating the paint on the
Front porch of her apartment building.
But the case was far from over.
Investigators soon found evidence that someone knew
Sunday was in danger all along and mounted an elaborate
Cover-up to keep that knowledge from her family and police.
Narrator: a yearlong forensic investigation proved without a
Doubt what k*lled little sunday abek.
We concluded that lead paint and dust in the environment of
Her apartment in manchester was the principal source of her lead
Poisoning.
Narrator: property records showed the rental agent for the
Apartment building, james aneckstein, had been
Informed that his building did not meet current standards for
Lead safety.
By law, he had to let his tenants know this.
Landlords and property managers who lease buildings
Constructed prior to , they are required to provide general
Lead-paint warning notices.
Narrator: to prove that they had been informed, tenants must
Sign these disclosure documents.
The landlord provided photocopies of these documents
And signed an affidavit saying they were legitimate.
Investigators weren't so sure.
The tenants advised us that they had not signed those
Documents.
We looked at the signatures on those documents and were
Actually looking at them to see if they were forged.
Narrator: document experts compared signatures from the
Documents to known signatures of the tenants.
The signatures were exact matches.
He was too good at it, actually, because the signatures
Were too much alike.
If he had varied them in some way, it would've been a much
More difficult case to resolve.
Narrator: the signatures weren't forgeries.
They were duplicates of signatures from other documents
The tenants had signed.
The signatures are what we determined to be a layover.
They were an exact replica of an authentic signature, which
Indicates to us that it was placed there by some other means
And was fraudulent.
Narrator: one of these signatures stood out.
It was from sunday's mother, mary alorout.
In the document provided by the landlord, her name was spelled
Out.
But at the time, mary could barely write english.
She was still signing her name with an "x," though she was
Undergoing training by a church-sponsored teacher to
Learn how to read and write and speak the english language.
It was readily apparent to nonhandwriting forensic
Examiners that this was, indeed, not her signature.
Narrator: investigators raided the landlord's office.
In the bottom of a trash can, they found more than torn
Scraps of paper.
The secret service reconstructed that document for
Us, finding all but one of the -something pieces.
Narrator: when the pieces were reassembled, investigators
Found the original forgery of mary alorout's signature,
Identical to the one on the lead disclosure notice.
He forged the signature of sunday abek's mother on the
Lead-paint disclosure form.
He copied it and produced copies to the environmental protection
Agency and the grand jury.
Narrator: the landlord's fingerprints were on the
Document.
Mary alorout's were not.
It's very unlikely that she had handled or had anything to
Do with that particular document.
Narrator: investigators say
That when aneckstein found out about sunday's death, he knew he
Was potentially liable.
So he took his tenants' signatures, copied them from
Other documents, and then placed them back onto the lead
Disclosure agreements.
His biggest mistake was forging the signature of sunday's
Mother.
Apparently he was unaware how she signed her name.
So it was clear this was not her signature.
If I were to grade his attempts here at forgery, he'd
Probably be about a "d."
Narrator: when faced with the evidence, james aneckstein
Pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and failing to notify
His tenants that they were living in unsafe conditions.
What motivated him, and what motivates all of our criminals
In this arena, it's all about money.
They want to save it, and at what cost?
I think the cost in this one was real high.
Not to him -- to her.
Narrator: repainting the porch would've cost just a few
Hundred dollars and would've saved sunday's life.
Her family won a $, civil award against aneckstein and his
Real-estate company.
He was sentenced to months in prison and fined $,.
His was the first-ever conviction in the u.s. For
Failure to notify about the presence of lead.
He dug himself a real deep hole and got hit with a big
Penalty, and I think the e.p.a.
Hoped that sent an alarm across the country so other landlords
Don't take part in similar activities.
Interpreter: I was happy he got punished.
He was lying.
I never signed those papers.
He lied, and it was right that he was punished.
Narrator: sunday's family has relocated to tennessee.
They're still adjusting to life in america and the aftermath of
Sunday's death.
Meanwhile sunday lies in an unmarked grave in a
New hampshire cemetery hundreds of miles from her family,
Thousands of miles from home.
Her death could easily have been avoided.
But thanks to the forensic analysis, it's far less likely
Another family will suffer the same tragedy.
Her death couldn't have been solved without forensics.
The work in the lab is what solved this case, and that
Happened at the federal, state, and local level.
Took a lot of technicians to study this material and figure
Out exactly what happened.
And they did, which is
Gratifying, I'm sure.
Why or how.
Was it an accident?
Was it an unexplained illness?
Or was she m*rder*d?
Scientists would go halfway around the world before finding
The answer in two unlikely places -- a shredded legal
Document and her mother's signature.
Document and her mother's signature.
[ Siren wails ] narrator: in the spring of
, A /-year-old girl was in the intensive care unit of a
New hampshire hospital, fighting for her life.
From the very beginning, no one knew that she had anything
More than a bad cold, but then she went downhill so
Dramatically.
Narrator: her name was sunday abek, and her story was
Unlike any other in the hospital.
Sunday was from the sudan, where a bloody civil w*r was claiming
Thousands of lives.
She and her family were lucky to be alive.
She had to flee because of v*olence in her area.
Her father was a political prisoner in sudan, and that may
Have been more dangerous for her family to remain in the sudan
Because of that.
[ Speaking native language ] interpreter: people were
Being k*lled.
Didn't matter what side you were on.
We had to leave.
Narrator: shortly after sunday was born, the family fled
To a refugee camp in egypt.
After two years, a missionary group was able to get them to a
Small apartment in manchester, new hampshire.
No one in the family spoke english.
The change from their life in africa was enormous.
There must've been a culture shock.
This is an old mill city in new hampshire.
Big mill buildings and whatnot, much colder weather.
But this family moved in and started to prepare a better
Life, a safer life.
They thought at least their kids could be raised without getting
sh*t at.
Narrator: the family had been in the u.s. For just a little
More than a month when one day, for no apparent reason, sunday
Started vomiting, she ran a high fever, and she became delirious.
Her mother was sleeping on the hospital floor in sunday's
Room.
She would sit and hold the child in her arms.
That was her main concern was that sunday was sick, and she
Had to get her better.
Narrator: at first, doctors thought sunday had contracted a
Bad case of the flu, but none of their treatments worked, and
They were unsure what was wrong with her.
Sunday's initial symptoms were high fever and vomiting,
And that could be anything.
That could be virus.
That could be all kinds of problems.
Interpreter: I didn't know what the problem was.
The doctors didn't know.
They couldn't tell me what was wrong.
Narrator: despite a battery of tests, the cause of sunday's
Illness couldn't be determined.
None of her siblings or her mother had gotten sick.
Three days after she was admitted to the hospital,
Sunday's temperature soared, and her brain swelled
Uncontrollably.
She went into a coma and d*ed.
Interpreter: when you have children, god gives them to you,
And he can take them.
When sunday d*ed, I tried to remember that god gave her to
Us, and now he wanted her back.
Narrator: for sunday's family, the promise of a
Peaceful life in america had turned into an unspeakable
Tragedy.
The mother's lawyer said that she had told him that if she had
Any idea this could've happened, she never would've moved her
Family to the united states.
But, of course, she couldn't have known.
She knew she was moving them away from a danger.
She just had no way of knowing she was moving them into another
Danger.
Narrator: soon an investigation was mounted to
Find out how it happened, and what it uncovered was not an
Illness, but a crime.
Narrator: during a spring snowstorm in ,
/-Year-old sunday abek was laid to rest thousands of miles
From her native sudan.
I'll never forget the women in the group wearing their
African clothes and wool hats and gloves, and they were
Singing african prayers as the snow came down.
They probably never saw snow before.
And the whole scene to me was just one of the saddest things.
Narrator: after two years on the run, the family thought they
Had finally found a safe haven in america, but they were wrong.
They had come here, trying to have a better life for their
Daughter, and they end up burying her in a snowstorm in
New hampshire, and that led to an intriguing story.
How did this come to pass?
Narrator: investigators thought poisoning might be a
Possibility.
Whenever there is an unexplained death of a child, I
Think the police first suspect is always a family member.
Narrator: sunday's mother was questioned, but she had no
Apparent motive.
She was asked if one of the siblings could have done it.
Interpreter: it was ridiculous.
In africa, a child cannot poison her sister or her brother or
Even me.
They wouldn't know how.
It did not come from the family.
Narrator: was it possible one of the neighbors, perhaps
Resentful over the influx of refugees into the neighborhood,
Was responsible?
Interpreter: in our apartment complex was another family from
Sudan.
Before my child got sick, so did theirs, but he recovered.
He didn't die.
Narrator: but a severe flu caused that child's illness.
New hampshire officials couldn't determine how sunday d*ed, and
This raised alarms.
One of their initial concerns was to make sure there was not
The importation into the u.s. Of some exotic disease that could
Have been transmitted by sunday or her family into the u.s.
Narrator: all members of the family were thoroughly tested.
Everyone was perfectly healthy.
But then results came back from an extensive test on sunday's
Blood.
Analysts were shocked by what they found.
Her blood contained unusually large amounts of lead --
Micrograms per deciliter, times the lethal level for a
Child.
High level for us might be or .
I think we may have even had a or an over the years that
I've done inspections.
But a was just absolutely off the charts for us.
Narrator: lead kills by attaching itself to red blood
Cells.
This takes oxygen out of the blood and starves the brain.
Sunday's official cause of death was lead poisoning, the first
Such case in the u.s. In more than a decade.
The family seemed to be having trouble grasping what had
Happened.
One of them said to me, "we don't have lead in africa."
In africa, lead is b*ll*ts.
They're getting sh*t at.
Narrator: investigators now checked the rest of the family
To see if they'd also been exposed to lead.
The tests showed they were all within normal levels.
There was something unique to sunday.
It wasn't something that they had commonly all been exposed to
That created this horrific problem for all of the family.
Narrator: how could a k*ller dose of lead have gotten into
Sunday's system while the rest of the family was unaffected?
Their apartment building was locked down in a search for
Answers.
Paint, the most common source of lead poisoning, was tested with
A portable x-ray analyzer.
It uses a radiation source to basically excite the lead atoms
In the paint, and then it actually sends x-rays back into
The machine.
Narrator: minor amounts of lead were found in the paint --
Not unusual in an old building, and not nearly enough to k*ll
Someone.
Now investigators moved on to the water, the air, the cooking
Utensils, and toys.
Everything in the apartment was tested.
We select an area of the home and mark off a square foot and
Actually wipe it with a sterile wipe and collect the dust and
Put it in a sterile container, and that's analyzed to see what
The dust level in the home.
Narrator: the contents of the wipes were dissolved in
Hydrochloric acid.
In a process called atomic absorption, the solution was
Exposed to temperatures of more than , degrees fahrenheit.
It burns the sample in the flame, much like an acetylene
Torch, and the instrument is set up to see only lead.
Narrator: no abnormal levels were found.
Nothing in the building could produce a dose of lead large
Enough to k*ll.
I walked back to the office and said, "I don't think it's
The house.
There's something else going on."
Narrator: extensive testing provided no clues as to how
Little sunday abek was exposed to a lethal dose of lead.
Lead has been known as a hazard for , years.
Lead was one of the first occupational diseases identified
By the romans and even the greeks many, many years ago, so
It's not a new issue.
Narrator: while investigators couldn't rule out an intentional
Poisoning by someone in the u.s., They had to consider the
Possibility that sunday was poisoned before she got to
America.
Perhaps in the refugee camp.
They even brought in the
Health department in egypt, and they sampled the formula that
The little children were given.
Because if something was contaminated in the formula,
That could affect thousands of kids.
Narrator: food, air, water, and soil in the camp were
Tested.
Everything was negative.
It seemed the question of how sunday had been k*lled might
Never be answered.
There was this mystery.
What had happened to her and why?
Narrator: investigators now turned back to sunday herself.
Since lead is a poison, the body goes to great lengths to expel
It.
Deposits build up in the nails and hair.
The average person's hair grows about a half-inch per month.
Sunday's hair was an inch long and provided a wealth of
Information.
She had spent a month in the united states, and before that
She had been in egypt.
So by taking her hair and looking at it specifically for
Lead content and dividing it in half so that we had the
Half-inch that grew in the united states and the half-inch
That grew before that, we were able to make a comparison and
Time her exposure.
Narrator: the hair was bombarded with radioactive
Neutrons.
This caused different elements in the sample to react in unique
Ways.
The tip of sunday's hair had trace amounts of lead, but the
Base, the part closest to the scalp, showed massive amounts.
What that tells me is in the united states, she got exposed
To a pretty significant amount of lead and that her level
Before that wasn't abnormal.
So her exposure was in this country.
It wasn't back in egypt.
Narrator: investigators must have overlooked something, but
They didn't know what.
They went full circle.
They went back to manchester.
They started saying, "what did we miss?"
Narrator: they questioned sunday's mother again and were
Told something they had not heard before.
Sunday spent a lot of time on the front porch of their
Apartment building.
Interpreter: I knew always that the cause of sunday's
Sickness had something to do with the apartment.
They were able to ascertain that the child did, in fact,
Spend time playing on the porch.
And the mother had seen the child pick at the paint on the
Porch.
Narrator: the porch of the apartment was in bad shape.
The paint was old and peeling.
Suddenly investigators thought they'd solved the mystery.
It looked to be a phenomenon called "pica."
The word comes from the latin name for "magpie," a bird that
Eats almost anything.
Pica is a condition
Particularly of children, but not always of children.
It's sort of a craving for food items to eat.
Lead paint often tastes sweet.
So here's a little malnourished girl who's never had enough
Food, and it became pretty clear she was probably picking up
Chips of paint and sucking on them or chewing on them.
Narrator: samples of paint from the porch showed levels of
Lead times the legal limit.
To see if it was this paint that k*lled sunday, investigators
Brought in the centers for disease control.
The samples were dissolved in nitric acid and then heated so
The isotopes, or chemical signature of the lead, would be
Exposed.
We can run the sample of analysis for the child's blood
And compare that to the different potential sources that
She was exposed to and then plot that out, and we can either
Identify or exclude various sources.
Narrator: the isotopes from the paint on the porch and from
Sunday's blood were identical.
This test left no doubt.
Sunday abek got a lethal dose of lead by eating the paint on the
Front porch of her apartment building.
But the case was far from over.
Investigators soon found evidence that someone knew
Sunday was in danger all along and mounted an elaborate
Cover-up to keep that knowledge from her family and police.
Narrator: a yearlong forensic investigation proved without a
Doubt what k*lled little sunday abek.
We concluded that lead paint and dust in the environment of
Her apartment in manchester was the principal source of her lead
Poisoning.
Narrator: property records showed the rental agent for the
Apartment building, james aneckstein, had been
Informed that his building did not meet current standards for
Lead safety.
By law, he had to let his tenants know this.
Landlords and property managers who lease buildings
Constructed prior to , they are required to provide general
Lead-paint warning notices.
Narrator: to prove that they had been informed, tenants must
Sign these disclosure documents.
The landlord provided photocopies of these documents
And signed an affidavit saying they were legitimate.
Investigators weren't so sure.
The tenants advised us that they had not signed those
Documents.
We looked at the signatures on those documents and were
Actually looking at them to see if they were forged.
Narrator: document experts compared signatures from the
Documents to known signatures of the tenants.
The signatures were exact matches.
He was too good at it, actually, because the signatures
Were too much alike.
If he had varied them in some way, it would've been a much
More difficult case to resolve.
Narrator: the signatures weren't forgeries.
They were duplicates of signatures from other documents
The tenants had signed.
The signatures are what we determined to be a layover.
They were an exact replica of an authentic signature, which
Indicates to us that it was placed there by some other means
And was fraudulent.
Narrator: one of these signatures stood out.
It was from sunday's mother, mary alorout.
In the document provided by the landlord, her name was spelled
Out.
But at the time, mary could barely write english.
She was still signing her name with an "x," though she was
Undergoing training by a church-sponsored teacher to
Learn how to read and write and speak the english language.
It was readily apparent to nonhandwriting forensic
Examiners that this was, indeed, not her signature.
Narrator: investigators raided the landlord's office.
In the bottom of a trash can, they found more than torn
Scraps of paper.
The secret service reconstructed that document for
Us, finding all but one of the -something pieces.
Narrator: when the pieces were reassembled, investigators
Found the original forgery of mary alorout's signature,
Identical to the one on the lead disclosure notice.
He forged the signature of sunday abek's mother on the
Lead-paint disclosure form.
He copied it and produced copies to the environmental protection
Agency and the grand jury.
Narrator: the landlord's fingerprints were on the
Document.
Mary alorout's were not.
It's very unlikely that she had handled or had anything to
Do with that particular document.
Narrator: investigators say
That when aneckstein found out about sunday's death, he knew he
Was potentially liable.
So he took his tenants' signatures, copied them from
Other documents, and then placed them back onto the lead
Disclosure agreements.
His biggest mistake was forging the signature of sunday's
Mother.
Apparently he was unaware how she signed her name.
So it was clear this was not her signature.
If I were to grade his attempts here at forgery, he'd
Probably be about a "d."
Narrator: when faced with the evidence, james aneckstein
Pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and failing to notify
His tenants that they were living in unsafe conditions.
What motivated him, and what motivates all of our criminals
In this arena, it's all about money.
They want to save it, and at what cost?
I think the cost in this one was real high.
Not to him -- to her.
Narrator: repainting the porch would've cost just a few
Hundred dollars and would've saved sunday's life.
Her family won a $, civil award against aneckstein and his
Real-estate company.
He was sentenced to months in prison and fined $,.
His was the first-ever conviction in the u.s. For
Failure to notify about the presence of lead.
He dug himself a real deep hole and got hit with a big
Penalty, and I think the e.p.a.
Hoped that sent an alarm across the country so other landlords
Don't take part in similar activities.
Interpreter: I was happy he got punished.
He was lying.
I never signed those papers.
He lied, and it was right that he was punished.
Narrator: sunday's family has relocated to tennessee.
They're still adjusting to life in america and the aftermath of
Sunday's death.
Meanwhile sunday lies in an unmarked grave in a
New hampshire cemetery hundreds of miles from her family,
Thousands of miles from home.
Her death could easily have been avoided.
But thanks to the forensic analysis, it's far less likely
Another family will suffer the same tragedy.
Her death couldn't have been solved without forensics.
The work in the lab is what solved this case, and that
Happened at the federal, state, and local level.
Took a lot of technicians to study this material and figure
Out exactly what happened.
And they did, which is
Gratifying, I'm sure.