Tonight on Dateline. Oh, my God. You're gonna lose my money. Her screams on that call were so raw and so real.
I can't believe I'm losing Leslie. He walked into the bathroom and he found her on the floor. He sort of thought, gosh, what a terrible accident. She slept in the shower.
Why is there blood on this wall? Why is there blood on these window shades, the headboard? There's no way she fell on here and died. I said it's a homicide.
Leslie was murdered. I thought, this can't be happening. How could this man be investigated for his wife's death? You have a doctor, a very, very likable guy who brings babies into the world.
My entire family is standing behind him. Do you think we'd be with him if we thought he was guilty? The doctor, his wife, and the mysterious end to her life. Accident or murder?
This is about standing up for Leslie. She didn't deserve this. I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline. Here's Andrea Canning with the house on Shalimar Way.
In a quiet suburban town outside of Syracuse, New York, there's a street called Shalimar Way, A winding cul de sac lined with well adorned mansions, swimming pools and tennis courts. Take this final turn and there behind the trees lies one of the street's Crown Jewels. An 8,000 square foot home owned by a couple who seem to have it all. A close family wealth, prestige.
They were very involved in the community. Both of them spent their lives giving back. Life was good here. That is, until the morning of September 17, 2012.
Oh my God. Oh my God. My mommy. It was just before 8.30am Dr.
Robert Newlander, an OB GYN, had returned from a job to discover his wife Leslie on the floor of the bathroom shower. He yelled to his 23 year old daughter Jenna to call for help. My mother, I don't know if she's breathing. She's laying on the ground in the shower.
Is she unconscious? Ma'? Am? Okay.
Sergeant Tom Norton of the DeWitt Police Department was nearby when the call went out. Over the radio. I hear a unconscious person call. We get those all the time.
A female had slipped and fell in the shower and she was unconscious. That was all the information you had? That was all that I knew going into this. I went inside.
This house is enormous and I'm following the noise and I go upstairs and I'm in this office area and there's a gentleman who I later learned was Dr. Newlander. And there was a female who I later learned was Jenny Newlander. She was on the floor, and she was just screaming hysterically.
And she just kept screaming mommy over and over again. And it made me focus on her because, like, why is she reacting to this? I mean, we go to people who are passed out all the time. Before Norton could get his bearings, a paramedic emerged from the bedroom where the victim was being worked on.
He says to Dr. Newlander, I'm gonna speak to you on your level as a physician. There's nothing that we can do for her. I'm asking for your permission to stop cpr.
And I'm like, stop cpr? I mean, this is so much. Just unconscious. What do you mean, stop cpr?
And that made Jenna scream even more. That was also the moment when Sergeant Norton realized just who Dr. Newlander was and that they had a personal connection. My wife used to go to him.
Oh, so he was really on your radar? I didn't know him personally, but, yeah, I knew who he was. Did he deliver your child? His midwife?
Yeah, his office did. It's a bit of a coincidence there, correct? Yeah, it was strange. While another officer stayed with the New Landers, Norton decided to take a look around.
And I walked past them into this bedroom, and I just immediately stopped in the doorway because of what I was seeing. What are you seeing? Off to my right, I see the paramedics working on a female. She's on a backboard.
There's a lot of blood around her. And then I look off to my left, and that's the entrance to the bathroom. And there's just blood all over its marble floor. There's blood all over the floor.
It's on the walls. Blood, presumably from a head wound. After that fall, Norton walked over to get a closer look at the body. Leslie's hair was matted with blood.
And he noticed her left eye. It was closed and swollen and completely black. And I'm looking at it, and, you know, I'm like, well, I've seen people with black eyes. I mean, I've been doing this a long time.
And that was unlike any black I've ever seen. Leslie was officially declared dead at the scene. The news would be impossible for friends like Mary Jambelic to absorb. I was confused at first.
I thought maybe the information was incorrect. Did you say how? Details. I think I couldn't even ask that question initially because I was too overwhelmed with the news.
I just cried. Another friend, Terry Barr, heard the news from her daughter, who was close with Jenna. I just didn't believe it. I just thought, this can't Be true.
Jenna had sent out a group text to her friends that my mother's died. She fell in the shower. I think that's what it said. What are you thinking as you're driving to New Las Vegas?
I just couldn't believe that. I just thought, I can't believe I'm losing Leslie. And all you know is that it's an accident. Right?
And it just sounded so freaky. Freaky for sure. After reviewing the scene, Sergeant Norton made a quick assessment. He wasn't going home anytime soon.
I asked the fire chief to remove all of his personnel from the bedroom. Paramedics, everybody. I wanted them all out so I didn't have to worry about contamination. I called my captain.
I told him, coyfrank, I don't know what I have, but you need to come here. Crime scene experts were on the way, but what would they find? An accident or something much darker when we come back. What a loss this was.
She's very healthy. She's athletic, she's strong. It was almost unimaginable what had happened to Leslie. Sergeant Norton is about to make a curious discovery.
She was moved over 50ft from where the shower was. So if the shower is way over here, what is she doing way over here? Leslie Newlander was dead after a fall in the shower. But responding Officer Tom Norton had questions about the scene.
For one, why had he found her body in the bedroom, not the bathroom? She was moved over 50ft from where the shower was. So that's going through my mind. If the shower is way over here, what is she doing way over here?
And there was that strange looking black eye. Answers would have to come from the county medical examiner who arrived at the house. I remember he spent quite a bit of time looking at the head injury, which was just massive, you know, her skull fracture. Norton listened as the M.E.
reviewed the scene. Yes, there was a lot of blood, but head wounds bleed profusely, and the location of Leslie's body didn't seem troubling. Dr. Newlander told paramedics he carried her to the bedroom so he could perform cpr.
As for that black eye, the ME Said it had resulted from her fall. He was explaining that when you have an injury to the skull on the right side, it's common for it to bleed into the left side. Her eye was pooled with blood. He explained to us that the injury was very common.
When you fall and hit your head. Did the black eye explanation put things a little more into perspective for you? Yes, that made sense right there at the scene. The Emmy concluded that Leslie's death was an accident, just as the family said.
He made the determination that it was consistent with an accidental slip and fall in the shower. Are you a little surprised? You know, I'm not a medical examiner, so, I mean, I take his word for what he's seeing. I told my evidence technician, you know, he's ruled it accidental.
Finish what you're doing and, you know, and pack up your stuff. The house was turned over to the grieving family. Mary Jambelic knew it wouldn't be easy for Leslie's many loved ones to say goodbye. What a loss this was for Bob, for Jenna, for her other kids, for the community, for her friends.
It was almost unimaginable. Mary says that together, Leslie and Bob were a force to be reckoned with. They just always seemed to have a very powerful public Persona. They had two lovely children from their marriage together.
They were also very friendly and successful and gregarious. So they seemed to have the perfect life. Good friends, a close knit family. Not to mention that sprawling home on Shalimar Way.
A house in the Caribbean too. But Mary says Leslie didn't flaunt it. She had the fancy house, but it might as well have been a shack. Yeah, she was totally unpretentious.
Despite her social status, she was very able to relate to anyone on any, any level. Bob was well liked too. He built a successful medical practice, working hard to earn a reputation as one of the top OB GYNs in the area. He was definitely a very good doctor and he definitely delivered a lot of babies.
Leslie's friend Terry is a labor and delivery nurse who worked for Bob for a couple of years. Was he really calm under pressure? Yes, he was very good in an emergency. Leslie had a career in medicine too.
She was a nurse before giving up to be a stay at home mom to Jenna and their younger son Ari. She also played stepmom to Bob's kids from his first marriage. Absolutely adored him and definitely made them the priority in her life and the kids deep affection for Leslie is clear on this tribute they made for her 60th birthday. Thank you for being you.
I love you. The video was later posted on YouTube where daughter Jenna and her stepsister joked about Leslie's unforgettable New York accent. Hi, Emma, now from New York. I don't have his pants.
How does everyone know I'm from New York? Yeah, I don't know, mom. You know, like, it was that accent that drew friend Nevin Roby to her. They met one day while waiting in line At Starbucks, she was probably four or five people in front of me.
Loud, big hair, you know, Long island accent. You recognize her right away? Oh, immediately. I mean, you probably could have heard her a half block away easily.
They immediately hit it off. Like Leslie did with so many others in town. I used to joke with her. She's from Air Syracuse.
Everyone here knows you. Everyone. Leslie and Bob were also known for their contributions to local charities. What was it about them that they wanted to give back?
I think there's a certain amount of responsibility one feels when you live in a small community. A sense of responsibility that extended to their dearest friends. Friends like Mary. She'd had a rough year, was hospitalized after complications from a serious fall.
The new Lakers were right there to support her. The whole family came over to my house to welcome me back, and all four. Bob, Leslie, Jenna, Ari were all there. You could have died.
Yes, I was very close to death. She hugged me and kissed me and said, it's amazing to think that a little fall like that could cause you so much trouble. Wow, now those are kind of prophetic words. Sad, really?
Yes. Leslie's fatal fall happened just two days after that visit. Did that seem odd to you, that you had just gone through this life changing event with a fall, and now here your close friend has died from a fall? Well, it's.
I certainly ask the question that everyone asks. Why now? Why me? Why my friend?
She's 60 years old. She's very healthy, she's athletic, she's strong. Well, quirky. Weird things do happen.
Mary had no idea at the time how much her friend's death would consume her or the role she would be asked to play to solve a mystery. Leslie Newlander's death had been ruled an accident for Jenna Newlander, an absolutely devastating loss. I think she really relied on her mom. I think her mother was her real rock.
Did they have one of those mother daughter relationships? Talk about anything? Very much. Terry had rushed to the Newlander house as soon as she heard the news arriving just as police were leaving.
The family is in the living room and everybody's obviously, you know, very upset and crying and hugging each other. What do you say when you walk into a situation like that? I'm really sorry. I'm just very sorry.
She was there to support the family and happy to help. Later that evening, when Jenna asked for a favor, she asked me if I would make sure that there wasn't blood on the floor in her mother's room before I left. Blood in her mother's room? Terry didn't understand.
She thought Leslie had fallen in the shower. She pulled the new letter's housekeeper aside. What did she say about the situation? She explained to me that the room had a lot of blood in it and that they tried cleaning and couldn't get it all up.
Did that strike you as odd at all, or. I thought it was very unusual because I didn't think that a closed head injury from a fall in the shower would have any blood. Terry, the trained nurse, decided to see for herself. She got a chill the minute she crossed the threshold.
There was blood in the bedroom. Pools and pools of it. The housekeeper was also perplexed. She said, this just doesn't make sense.
This just doesn't make sense. Together, they got down on their hands and knees and tried to clean up the blood, but there was just too much of it, and it was soaked deep into the carpet. I can only imagine that must have been awful. It was absolutely awful.
It was absolutely awful. All the while, a disturbing thought was taking root, one Terry dared not say out loud. Where does your mind go from there to the obvious? I think that Leslie's been killed.
You have to assume that when things don't make sense. Terry didn't know that the medical examiner had already investigated at the scene and ruled the death an accident or that Bob had given an explanation for all that blood, saying he moved the body. Her mind raced as she went back downstairs to comfort the family. I think I just blocked it.
I just blocked it. Were you being a little bit of an actress in a way that. Oh, sure, Definitely. Definitely.
I have to be something I'm not right now. I have to feel something or express something that I'm not feeling. Absolutely. Terry had to keep a straight face because she says, Leslie's family seems so certain about what happened.
That included daughter Jenna, who'd been in the room that morning. It was just the fall in the shower. Yeah. My mom died in an accident.
Yep. It was left at that. That's what Jenna told police when she gave them a formal statement about the accident. And he had her robe over her and he screaming that she.
She's getting really cold. She gets really cold. And he keeps grabbing for the blanket to cover her. I think he said, like, if someone comes to help us.
And like, oh, it felt like hours. The tragic accident was big news in Syracuse. Megan Coleman is an anchor at NBC affiliate wstm. She says everyone was as shocked by the circumstances as they were sympathetic to Dr.
Newlander. Tens of thousands of people had a connection to this man. He had Been at the bedside when all these women were bringing their children into the world. People loved him.
Not only did Megan report on the New Lander story, but like so many in this town, she also knew the doctor personally. A few months before Leslie died, he took part in a ceremony for Megan's newborn son. Leslie was there, too. They were warm.
They were engaging. She had this beautiful smile. No one would ever have thought that, you know, anything like this could happen to her. And I think generally everyone was just stunned.
During Shiva, the Jewish mourning period, friends and family came in droves to support Bob marriage. And Bella was still bedridden after her own fault. So her husband went alone. So he went over to visit and to represent her family, to talk to the family.
How is Bob coping? Withdrawing, really. It's almost like losing your compass. Yes.
There was people, you know, every day at the house bringing food and staying for several hours. By the end of the evening, Bob was very annoyed by having people still in his house, and he was glad to see it end. Terry visited the New Landers frequently that first week. She says she was even at the house when Bob got a phone call letting him know that Leslie's death was officially being filed as an accident.
I thought, well, then this is a closed case, and everybody's accepting it, it seems to be. But Terry couldn't let it go. Not for her friend Leslie. Did you ever feel like a little bit of a detective or something that you were?
I did. I felt like there. People aren't. Aren't putting the pieces of this puzzle together, and somebody needs to do that.
Coming up. Where do you go? What do you do? Haunted by doubt, Terry reaches out.
I said, you should go to the police. Do you feel like I'm going to the police? This will put an end to it. Yes, I did.
A month had passed since the heartbreaking death of Leslie Newlander. That's just about when the friend she met at Starbucks Nev. And Ruby learned she was gone. They'd been close, but ran in different circles, had different friends.
No one knew to call him about the funeral. It was like a Monday. And I just remember I just woke up an hour before my alarm, and I just went over my computer and I just typed her first and last name, and there was or Bish. And I was, like, in shock.
What was it that was making you feel that you need to search that data? And I just, like, stared at Peterson. I was like, this can't be real. Terry had been in shock at first, too, but now that had been replaced by A deep sense of unease.
To her, the fall in the shower story just didn't add up. You're just kind of waiting for your phone to ring and somebody else to call and say, I think what you think and what you know, what do you think happened? But weeks turn into months and nobody's doing that. Terry helped Leslie's sister clear some of Leslie's things out of the house.
Did she have any thoughts on what happened or. She never discussed it. You didn't feel comfortable bringing up your suspicions? Nope.
I just assumed she would bring up to me. It all left Terry in a very lonely place. Did that weigh on you, that feeling of maybe it's not my business? No, it never weighed on me.
It's not my business. Wait on me. Why aren't people doing anything, you know, and there was some certainly hesitancy because you don't want to be the person that's out there being judged by the whole community. Like, why are you going against them?
That's not a good position to be in for anybody. Are you just every day waking up and this is like on your brain morning, noon and night? And that's what I struggled with for a very long time. Where do you get the only way to do.
She reached out to her priest for advice. He suggested she called the police. But terribly, the case was closed. Then she decided to try someone else.
I thought that she would be the perfect person to ask. A year earlier, Terry had gone to a book club meeting at Leslie's house. The plot of the book involved a coroner. I believe it was a story that took place in England.
It was definitely an interesting book. And it just so happened that there was a real life medical examiner in the club, an expert on death. And I remember Mary saying, you know, if you ever have questions about things that you're wondering, you can always ask me. Mary is the Mary.
You know, Mary Jumbel. She's not just a friend of Leslie's, but also a doctor. The retired chief medical examiner for Onondaga county, where the new leaders lived. Did you think about that book after Leslie died?
I only thought about it because of Mary. Yes, I thought about Mary could explain this, the whole situation with. Correct. Yes.
Terry picked up the phone. Was that a hard call to make, even to Mary? It finally opening up about these feelings you're having? It was.
It was tough. Definitely was tough. But it must have been nagging at you so hard that you just had to. Yes, I think that's how I felt.
Like nobody's doing anything for Leslie. And I'm not going to just sit back and let this happen. Or. Or is there somebody that can help me understand this and know what the right thing to do is?
To say Mary was skeptical would be an understatement. 20 plus years of criminal justice experience told her Terry was probably way off base. I had faith in the system, and I knew there had to have been some investigation concerning the death. And if there was anything, then it would have come out.
There would have been some news about it, and there had been nothing. I thought, I'm not sure why you're worried about this right now. I would imagine most people would say, come on, let's. Bob, she fell in the shower.
Leave it alone. Right? And that's pretty much what I said. Plus, she knew from her own recent fault just how easily accidents can happen.
Happened to me. I fell. Who would have thought I would get so sick? It's very, very sad, but things do happen.
Still, her training told her it was important to hear Terry out. When I was a medical examiner, I would have family members coming in to tell me about what they thought about the circumstances of the death. And I always took those visits very seriously. You have to consider what someone's saying, whether or not they understand what they're saying, or whether or not they have the forensic detail.
So Mary listened intently as Terry described the blood she saw in the bedroom. In the end, Mary didn't feel alarmed at all. Nothing struck me that I needed to make someone aware of these concerns. I thought maybe she was right, you know, and maybe I am jumping to the wrong conclusion.
Still, given how disturbed Terry seemed to be, Mary offered her a suggestion. I said, you should go to the place and make statements. If you have all of these concerns, you really need to just tell someone officially what your concerns are. Because telling me in this informal manner is, I don't think you're gonna get past it.
Do you feel like I go to the police? This will put an end to it? Yes. And we can clear the air and move on?
Yes, I did. Coming up, two days after her death, an investigator received an anonymous letter regarding this case. What is in the letter? Some information about their personal life.
Did this letter writer have secrets to reveal? Is your detective sense starting to tingle a little bit? Well, yeah, it is. When Dateline continues.
In the weeks after Leslie Newlander's death, Terry Barr found herself increasingly angry. Her friend Leslie was too lively, too young to be gone. I felt robbed. What did you think about as far as what you were gonna miss out on with your Friend.
Just being able to run things by her. Not being able to pick the phone and call your friends. Sure. Definitely talk about all the things, you know.
There was no goodbye, right. And I think there's no goodbye in a very tragic way. She wasn't upset just for herself, but for Leslie, too. All those sunset milestones her friend would never get to experience.
Seeing Johnny get married and seeing her kids grow up and have their own families, I think that was huge. Definitely. She was looking forward to those times. Her friend Mary, the trained medical examiner, had dismissed Terry's suspicions.
Suspicions. But Terry was medically trained herself. And as Bob's nurse, who'd worked alongside him for years, something nagged at her. Bob's decision to move Leslie to the bedroom for cpr.
Bob was very good in emergency, and his instinct, family or not, to kick into saving mode. And we all know, not to move the body. Terry felt certain that Bob was hiding something. And though she tried not to think about it, she began to fear that something sinister had happened, that maybe Dr.
Newlander had killed his wife. I was just crushed for her. I was, you know, I was just very crushed that you think you can, you know, trust somebody and. And they're not who you think they are and how.
How awful they must have been for her. But with the community rallying around the doctor, Terry mostly kept those thoughts to herself. Did friends and family see Bob as the grieving husband? Yes, they definitely did.
I think definitely he had a lot of support. A few months after Leslie's death, Terry still hadn't taken the advice to go speak to the police. Then she found herself unexpectedly, face to face with an officer. It just happened, coincidentally, that a police officer came into an office I was working in, and I asked him a couple questions, and he said, I think you need to, you know, have a conversation with my partner.
Was your biggest fear that the family would find out? Yeah, it's very uncomfortable. That would be very uncomfortable, yes. To avoid being seen at the police station, Terry arranged for a detective to come to her house.
His name is Scott Caprell. He's the detective who was at the scene that morning with Sergeant Norton, the responding officer. I personally have seen a lot of wounds over the 22 years of my career from falls and not from falls. And I've never seen a wound that bad.
But like the surgeon, he deferred to the medical examiner. We're dealing with different experts in the field, and he is an expert, and we respect him. And I guess every fall is different. That's right.
Terry told the detective how tortured she'd been over Leslie's death. I said to Scott, my life is living. Dateline. That's what I feel like I'm living.
And this needs to, you know, come to a conclusion. The detective couldn't share details with Terry. It turns out the case was not completely closed. And despite all the public support and sympathy for Dr.
Newlander, she wasn't the first person to express doubts about what had happened to Leslie. We started to hear some. Just some comments coming in from the community. Nothing that we went out and solicited, but it was no via other police officers that may have seen someone else.
The DA's office had also received a letter two days after her death were contacted by an investigator from the district Attorney's office who advises us that they received an anonymous letter regarding this case. What is in the letter and what does it mean for the case? The letter basically outlined some information about their personal life. Enough that we were clear that whoever wrote the anonymous letter felt that we should continue looking at it.
According to the letter, this wealthy power couple was having financial problems. Police wanted to speak with whoever wrote it. Were there any clues in the letter? Did it sound like it was maybe from a family friend, a relative?
Obviously the letter was written by someone that had some sort of knowledge of their life. It's obviously something someone didn't make up. Try as they might, they couldn't figure out who wrote the letter. But now the detective was sitting across from someone who knew the New Landers well.
Terry confirmed that despite the beautiful home, Bob and Leslie had taken a big financial hit. A billing dispute had caused the area's largest health insurer to drop Bob's medical practice. Terry, who was working for him at the time, saw the storm coming. I said, you know, if you lose your blue Crossing Blue Shield patients, that's a third of our practice, and that means layoffs.
So he said that I was the only person that had perceived that, and that's just what happened. Dr. Newlander had to let Terry and several others go. I think he genuinely felt bad and hoped that things would change, you know, And I did come back briefly.
There was an influx of some new patients. And so he did call me, ask me, come back briefly, and I did, and then I was again lay off. Was that kind of the beginning of the end for his practice? Yes, definitely.
One of the patients who left his practice during the insurance dispute was the wife of responding officer, Sergeant Norton. When he lost his contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield, she was forced to find a different position. Was she kind of disappointed about that? Yes, she was very disappointed.
She liked going to him? Yes. She thought that he was a good physician. So the new Landers had money trouble.
Is your detective sense starting to tingle a little bit that? Well, yeah, it is. But again, we follow protocol. And according to the Emmy, Leslie's death was an accident.
He's the expert in his field and we rely on him. If he explains to us that this is the situation that looks like to him, then. Then we have to go with that. If only there was someone else in town who could offer a second opinion.
Perhaps it was time to consult a certain retired medical examiner. Coming up, you probably didn't want to believe that this wasn't an accident. I didn't. I didn't want to believe that.
A new look at Leslie's final moments. Did you feel like Leslie was talking to you from the grave? Yeah. She's telling me what happened.
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You can get our conversation for free wherever you Download your podcasts. Leslie's FrontierI had suspicions about Bob Newlander, and now that she'd spoken with police, she was doing her best to avoid him around town. She had a close call when they nearly bumped shopping carts at the supermarket. Did you just Make a beeline?
Yeah. The other direction. Absolutely. Like, why does a man who's never shot a day in his life or cook a meal in his life show up at Wetmans at noon when everybody else is there?
Terry thought Bob was making an effort to appear as though everything was normal. Then one day, about three months after Leslie's death, Terry's phone rang. It was Bob. I was quite surprised.
What did he want? He just said he was reaching out to friends and catching up with people. Since Leslie died, he's been so distraught and just wanted to see what people were up to. I thought it was very unusual.
He'd never called me before. Did you again have to go into actress mode and pretend like everything's okay? Absolutely, I did. It's very hard because you're just trying to be yourself and you're not used to being in that role.
Mary Jambelic got a catch up phone call too. But unlike Terry, Mary welcomed the call. She and her husband hadn't heard from Bob since that night of morning at his house. My husband and he chatted.
I didn't get on the phone. Sorry I haven't called. I've been out of touch. I'm gonna go visit my daughter who was studying in Israel.
You know, just a casual, light conversation. Mary knew all about Terry's suspicions about Bob, but she thought maybe Terry had been watching too many crime shows. Well, it is true that my field has gotten very popularized in media, and so everyone thinks they have a little piece of it, and they are their own investigators. You probably didn't want to believe that this wasn't an accident.
I didn't. I didn't want to believe that. But now, after this phone call, Mary found herself wondering for the first time, was there something specific he said on that call that bothered you? I think it was just his tone.
What was with his tongue? I'm sorry, I've been out touch. I'm gonna be out of touch again. I'm leaving, but I just want to call you and say hi.
It felt odd. This business of leaving the country troubled her, too. Off to Israel to see Jenna. Why did that concern you?
Well, if it happened that this wasn't simply an accident, then that would raise concern that he could just be gone. Right. And maybe never return. Right.
Was something nagging at you at this point? It was. I don't know. I had nothing other than the friend's concerns, and I just thought, I just need to have a conversation with Bill Fitzpatrick.
Bill Fitzpatrick is the Onondaga County District attorney and A colleague of Mary's until she retired as medical examiner a few years earlier. I thought I should just close the loop with the information and just call the district attorney. What does she tell you? She said, you know, look, I just saw them.
They came to Sydney with the family. That's how close they were. And she says, look, I just want to put the rumors to bed. People are talking, they're gossiping.
What was his response? His response was, would you take a look at the case? Did that surprise you? Yes.
You're friends with the victim and her husband. Yes. Did that feel odd at all? Of course it did.
It took me a moment to answer the question. I had to think if I should or could or would do this. And I thought, well, yes, I do know them both, but if there's a way to answer this, if there's a way to a lady's concerns, then perhaps I'm the best person to do that. I have a lot of respect for Mary.
We worked together for 10 years. The files were brought to Mary's home for her review. I'm sure you just dove right in. Well, this process, you look at everything.
You consider the scene, you consider the autopsy findings, you look at the statements, you weigh it all in and come to a scientific conclusion. Mary could see how the medical examiner drew his conclusions that Leslie's death was a slip and fall. He saw some findings in the brain that he attributed to a fall. And he latched onto that finding and felt that that explained her story as portrayed by Bob.
Mary took it all in the crime scene photos, the Emmys report, she absorbed every detail as she immersed herself in the final moments of her dear friend's life. Did you feel like Leslie was talking to you from the grave as you're looking at this report? Yeah. She's telling you what happened.
Yes. And what Leslie was telling her was devastating. Like Leslie's injuries, there were more than just that gash on her head. She had large 5 inch wound on the side of her scalp with injuries on multiple sides of her face.
It was a pattern of the injuries that's not explained by the story. So in forensic parlance, that's a red flag. Mary was also alarmed by the crime scene photos which showed blood in Leslie's bedroom. It wasn't just pools in the carpet.
There was blood spatter at Leslie's bedside, on her lamp, the water bottles, even up on the wall. There were a lot of things that were adding up for you. There were very significant things, yes. She was about to make a phone call.
That would change the course of the investigation. Coming up, another friend of Leslie's steps forward. Forward with a surprising revelation. She told me that they were gonna get a divorce.
She was looking for a new place, and she was very excited. When DATELINE continues. Mary Janellik, the retired ME had looked at the entire case file about her friend Leslie's death and had come to a startling conclusion. Leslie was murdered.
She died as a result of blunt head trauma, and the manner was homicide. Science aside, though, this is your friend? Yes, it was upsetting. And I knew it could only get more upsetting because the professional side of me came to a conclusion that I supported scientifically.
But that didn't make it easy, and it didn't make it better. But I never could be concerned for that because I speak for the dead person. That's what I did my whole life. So they're my patient, they're who I take care of, and they're who I speak for.
If it hurts the living, so be it. Your part in all this almost reads like a novel. Well, it's not fiction. And truth is often stranger, more painful than fiction could ever be.
She immediately called DA Fitzpatrick. She says to me, this is a homicide. And I was stunned. Now, of course, die.
Gil Fitzpatrick had two conflicting professional opinions to contend with. Mary's and the current Emmys who'd ruled Leslie's manner of death and accident. You need to now go talk to him and say, I think you wrong. Yeah, that's that.
I'm not asking you to re examine your opinion as to the cause of death. I'm just asking you to reconsider manner of death. Fitzpatrick arranged a meeting, inviting the current enemy, as well as a group of other prominent pathologists to review and discuss the case. And the opinions of those other pathologists match.
Mary's. It looked like a homicide. It would have been wonderful if I had been wrong. I wish I had been wrong.
But the Onondaga county medical examiner had the final say, and he held fast. Leslie's official manner of death remained an accident. The fuck stops with me. Ultimately, the medical examiner can call it whatever he or she wants.
It's my decision whether or not to go forward with a homicide investigation. And that's where the case was heading. Before long, word was out around Syracuse. Dr.
Bob Newlander was under investigation for his wife's death. Tom Essen joins us live from outside the Dr. Tambour Square apartment. Anchor Megan Coleman says you could believe it.
This is the biggest standard that we had seen in a very long time in this Community. And for me, personally, because they had been in my home, what, four months before she had died. I thought, this can't be happening. He seemed just like any other dad, any other husband.
Dr. Newlander's family was in his corner, and he was fighting back in the press through his attorney. This has been an open secret and a subject of gossip and irresponsible rumor now for months. Dr.
Newlander has not been charged with any kind of offense. He spoke out and was adamant. These are ludicrous allegations. This is outrageous.
He is the most honest person I've ever met. For detectives, a benefit of the coverage was that it encouraged anyone with information to come forward. You know, sometimes you gotta be brave enough to get involved, even if it's a bad situation. Someone who did was Leslie's friend from Starbucks, Nevin Ruby.
It really wasn't until I read a new story where it got changed from this to an actual investigation. And that's when, you know, I did, you know, go to the police and sit and talk with them. He walked detectives through a story from the beginning, how he met Leslie by chance earlier that year. Although they were years apart in age, the two became fast friends.
Maybe twice, three times a week. You know, we have, like, lunch because he had to work, and she's like, hey, I'm stopping in the mall. Nevin says their conversations were light at first. Things going on in town, the latest news.
But over time, they grew more personal. He says the fact that they were strangers in each other's lives made it feel safe. I could ask her things about things that are going on in my life. I'm gonna get a real 100% response, and I don't have to worry about it.
And vice versa. Who am I? And nobody really in her world. Same thing with her.
It was easy for her to open up to absolutely no judgment. And that was really, I think, for both of us, really was very. You know, it was nice to have that. Nevin told investigators Leslie's husband wasn't a regular topic of conversation, but he got the impression that their marriage was not a happy one.
What were the positive things she had to say about Bob? She never said really anything positive about Bob. The conversations about her and her marriage were always like little crumbs. But Nevin says there was something specific in all those crumbs.
Though Leslie didn't dwell on it. It sounded like he had been cheating on her throughout the marriage. Because they didn't talk much about Bob. Evan was surprised when, after knowing each other for just a few Months.
Leslie's husband sent him a text. Who are you? You know, and what are you guys talking about? You know, what were you guys doing?
And stuff like that. And I just responded very simply. I was like, we're having lunches. She's my friend.
We're talking about things. Life, my life, her life is going on her. We're limiting. It's.
Did he get hostile at all? You went host at the end? My wife and I are having, like, marital issues and stuff like that. And I'm glad you're like, you're her friend, but, you know, please stay out of our marriage stuff.
Nevin told police he isn't sure if Leslie told Bob about their friendship or if Bob had snooped in her phone. Either way, he insists they were never more than friends. Do you think, though, from the husband's perspective, that he could have perceived it as something more potential? I think anyone can perceive anything on.
On any topic, really. So she never said to you, oh, Bob knows about us, and, well, there's nothing to know about us, really. I mean, she has 100 something million friends. My husband, if I'm having lunches with a guy who's a lot younger, he'd want to know about it.
Sure. But I know Brad Pitt. You're an attractive guy. Again, much younger guy.
I would think that Bob would want to know that you're in his wife's world. Right. Again, you'd have to ask Bob. I have no idea what he does or does not know.
Even after Bob had texted him telling him to stay out of their marriage, Nana says Leslie met him for another lunch. She shared some news. She and Bob were splitting up. It was just days before Leslie died.
She told me that they both sat down, told all the kids, the whole family, they were going to get a divorce. She was looking for a new place. The last conversation she said she put down a deposit, was waiting for the credit check for something to this effect, and she was very excited. It was a tantalizing piece of information for the detectives.
We had multiple acquaintances and friends and close friends of hers explained to us that she was most certainly ready to move on and divorce. One of those friends was Terry. She didn't know much about it, but it was another one of the many things that made her suspicious about Bob from the start. She told me that they were separating and that she would.
We were going to meet for coffee and talk later in the upcoming week. Was this a total surprise to you? Yeah, it was a surprise to me. I just asked her if you're are you okay?