Forensic Evidence and Final Conviction

A brilliant young architect mysteriously died just before she testified in a criminal trial The story contains stories of sex, betrayal, and intrigue. Investigators needed to know if the stories were true University Park, Texas just outside of Dallas is better known as the Bubble It's a place of privilege and prestige, an add dress many would like to have, but few can afford It's kind of the Beverly Hills of Dallas. That's the way the park city says Nancy Dillard Lion lived most of her life in Texas She was a Harvard trained architect and the daughter of a wealthy and well connected Dallas family Nancy met her husband, Richard while at Harvard. They married and soon had two children They had great energy, great friendliness. When we moved in, they gave gifts of ice cream and they bake cookies and bring them over to us. And my husband, who, I've said is rarely hyperbolic about anything, used to say she was the nicest person in the world Nancy quickly became the youngest partner in the history of Tramel Crow large real estate development firm Success came Pice. I think she always had as many women did at that time, a conflict between the amount of hours that she wanted to work to develop her career and spending with her children. Nancy was also experiencing some physical ailments And on a January night in nineteen ninety one, her symptoms included vomiting and severe stomach pain Her husband, Richard took her to the hospital emergency room Wers were initially baffled She was seen by multiple consultants, infectious disease, a gastro neurologist Homonologist, nephrolologist And because of her multi organ failure. and still in spite of all the resuscitation measures, she was not recovering Nancy's condition deteriorated She provided doctors with a potential clue She said she first got sick several months earlier after drinking some wine from a bottle left on her doorstep I thought it was a gift from a neighbor or that it was just, you know a house wararmning gift, so to speak from a neighbor. And she drank that wine and became violently ill. later that day, she had nausea vomiting abdominal pain. But that had been months earlier and didn't explain her illness now Even though I suspect it's something foul play, but really can't you cann't pinpoint anything. Doctors sent Nancy's urine samples for testing But her condition began to deteriorate. Her organs failed, and she was put on life support It was clear that she was not going to recover Nobody could really understand it. Six days later Nancy Dillard Lyion was dead But doctors were suspicious And they weren't the only ones I was married to a nurse. She had taken care of Nancy Dilllard in the trauma center. She said she looked like she' been poison to me When the daughter of a wealthy Dallas family, Nancy Dillard Lyon died under mysterious circumstances, her doctors made two telephone calls. One was to the medical examiner to suggest a thorough autopsy. And I told them, listen, I have a patient here I suspect Foul play. The other was to police. No, they thought the death was suspicious and it needed to be investigated. And it was suspicious and it was investigated. Investigators learned that Nancy was about to testify at the embezzlement trial of her former boss from Tramel Crow Nancy told Friends, she was uncomfortable at the thought of testifying against her former colleague Part of that may have resulted from a threatening letter she received Stay out of the Bagwell case, or you and your family will face the wrath of God. It's a, I guess kind of a bell threat No one ever knew where it came from Nancy's autopsy, the pathologist found no signs of disease in her internal organs Psycology test revealed some surprising results Nancy Lyion poisoned with arsenic. Well, all the specimens showed significant amounts and levels of arsenic And what that shows is that the poison was absorbed through the GI tract, that it was distributed through the blood. Patients often don't know they're poisoned since the symptoms are so common people don't think about a poisoning immediately. They think it's just some natural thing. and When you have nausea and vomiting, that certainly is a common symptom. Most of the poisonings that you see nowadays are of a much more sophisticated variety that are harder to detect initially or even after doing tests. So arsenic was a surprise. The manner of death was ruled a homicide. Questions remained Investigators discovered a receipt among Nancy's papers, a receipt For arsenic Nancy's husband Richard said she bought the poison to kill a colony of fire ants in their yard and friends also revealed Nancy had been depressed over the past year she discovered her husband was having an affair briefly separated. Richard had, you know, met another woman. And she felt he was going through a midlife crisis So she said at first, her take was, hey, I'm going to stay patient I'm going get some counseling because she was just devastated really. I wouldn't discount a woman making yourself ill or even taking something to make herself ill. to get the attention of her husband. Yet, medical experts were skeptical that Nancy committed suicide I don't believe that for a minute. I mean, you've got someone who's dying a very I would consider hideous death certainly capable at any time of voicing that she had taken the poison because the symptoms are You're both painful And you certainly are deteriorating with this Absolutely ludics. I mean she had two children. she loved very dearly. as her mother. She was young It's everything to live for. Also among Nancy's papers was a diary, and it contained a blockbuster revelation She accused her older brother Bill of sexual abuse when they were younger Nancy said she feared her brother and questioned his ability to control himself Sex Sick sex, The notation read With me Girls. Nancy's brother angrily denied the allegation, but couldn't explain why she had written this in her diary Her family strongly suspected Richard was the killer since they knew he was having an affair with another woman I did not Poison my wife, Nancy Dillard Lyion Nor did I have anything to do with her tragic death So there was no shortage of suspects Who sent the wine to Nancy's home Who sent the threatening letter Why did Nancy accuse her brother of sexual abuse and Would he kill to keep her quiet And was Nancy planning to divorce her husband in the event that this case becomes A murder charge This will be an honest to goodness Cerry Mason style who dun it No Investigators had plenty of suspects, but little evidence in the poisoning death of Nancy Lyion The only thing they knew was that Nancy didn't kill herself not why you would do it It's too painful, it's too drawn out. It's a horrible way to die. And you're very aware and very conscious up until the very end of it. There's no way you would kill yourself that way. When a person ingests arsenic, the poison attaches itself to the hair follicles As the hair grows, the poison residue remains on the hair shaft and becomes a permanent record. So scientists cut Nancy's hair into seven millimeter pieces. Each piece corresponded to a two week period. Each piece was placed in a separate vial And then exposed to radiation in a nuclear reactor The sample can be analyzed as it is in most cases just simply weighed into a radiation bial Most other methods require dissolution of the sample When scientists examined the hair with gamma ray spectrophotometry, they discovered a startling piece of information Nancy had ingested small doses of arsenic every week, starting four months before her death. dose of arsenic increased four weeks before her death The highest amount of arsenic was in Nancy's system. two weeks before her death Her levels were anywhere from four to one hundred times what normal levels were So it was a very significant level and it was lethal A forensic test showed the poisoning started when Nancy's husband, Richard moved back home after the separation. But Richard wasn't the only person in Nancy's life who had both motive and access Nancy's handwritten diary alleged her brother Bill had sexually abused her as a child Investigators wanted to know whether this possible motive To see if these entries were written by Nancy, investigators sent the diary to a forensic document examiner, Hartford Kittle Handwriting examination is based upon two. Distinct facts No two people write exactly alike Within the writing of a single individual, there's normal variation. It's this normal variation that we associate or we don't associate with the question writing Surprisingly Nancy and Richard's handwriting looked strikingly similar. My friend said this was intentional. While in college, Nancy had written some of Richard's research papers, and she mimicked his writing Kittle first looked at known handwriting samples from both Nancy and Richard Despite their similarities, there were differences She used her A perents quite extensively through her writing, so every fifty six line will have an Aerscent on it in her known handwriting Whereas Richard always used the A and D for the Berby jam Kettle also noticed But Nancy and Richard made their capital eyes differently. Richard just used one downstroke like a one Whereas Nancy used a downstroke like the one and then across at a top and She was willing to take a lot more time in executing them than Richard was Their lower case Fs were different as well Richard used a clockwise motion. Coming down from the top of the F down to the bottom, he'd swing off in a clockwise motion to finish off the lower loop of the F Whereas Nancy always came down and went counterclockwise to finish off the F. Chittle concluded Richard wrote the diary entries about Nancy's brother Bill Absolutely certain that he had written that. one hundred percent certain Yes. Prosecutors now believed Richard Lyon had forged Nancy's diary Cover up the murder. He never crossed his m. He was gonna be caught He thought he had it ace and he certainly didn't think it'd be his own handwriting Pase. No one granted him the power of God to take her life. She was slowly poisoned to death. P one of the most hideous things that you can do to someone. This wasn't done in a moment of passion or anger of picking up a weapon that was handy to him. This was done with slow premeditation and over a period of time. And it's a hideous, hideous way to murder somebody. Richard Lyon insisted he had nothing to do with the poisoning death of his wife, Nancy as proof. He offered a receipt for arsenic that he said Nancy had signed Prosecutors asked forensic experts whether this was in fact Nancy Sature I wasn't able to reach a conclusion as to authorship But the owner of the company listed on the receipt told prosecutors all they needed to know. Did you sell her these chemicals? No, I didn't Is this a receipt? Do you sell chemicals? No, I don't Is this your receipt from your business? No, it's a forgery. It's not fine Investigators also discovered that arsenic was not shipped to the lion's home post office box Richard opened There was no reason in the world to have a post office box set up at Preston center for him to get this arsenical If everything is completely legitimate, why aren't you having it delivered at home, or would you work That's because of's nefarious reasonons of having it delivered to a post office box in the hospital before she died Nancy Lyion told her doctor about a suspicious incident that occurred several months earlier She said, Well, one time when they were separated They had gone to the movies together And Richard had gone and got her a drink. and when he brought it to her and she drank some of it and she said it tastesed awful. and she looked in there, there was a white powder on the top of drink. Nancy said she became violently ill later that night. And she told her doctor Something else So My husband, he's been giving me these capsules for the last several months And he say Nancy go Tch these, these are like vitamins and these are good for you Police confiscated every pill in the lion's home and sent them for forensic testing Two pills tested positive for barium carbonate, a toxic chemical used in the production of glass. Despite her suspicions, Nancy never directly accused Richard of poisoning her. You know, noobbody wants to believe that they've married to somebody that they can can murder Then what do you ask what are you saying about yourself And it's kind of outside the realm of most pe people'. I mean, reality that someone would in you and I don't think she wanted to believe it And I think that she was embarrassed or ashamed to say anything about it. Prosecutors believe the motive was money and the desire to live with his girlfriend He didn't want her oneed the family Affiliations and alliances, I think that It was partly money and it was partly just the position that he wanted And he couldn't have either one which just a divorce Prosecutors believe Richard first tried to kill Nancy by putting barium carbonate in her vitamin pills And they had put it in Nancy's soda at the movies When that didn't work He used Asenic Forensic testing showed Nancy started ingesting arsenic in September around the time she and Richard reconciled fatal dose was administered Two days before Nancy was admitted to the hospital where she died Deside his involvement, Richard created the fake invoice for the arsenic. And forensic analysis proved that it was Richard who wrote the sex related entries in Nancy's diary implicating her brother as a possible suspect. I think he was calculating. He thought of himself as a ladiesman I think it was a cold blooded killer. And he did it in the most conspicuous way possible slowly ingesting Arsenic to his wife. When he went on trial for murder Richard Lyon pled not guilty W the forensic handwriting analysis, the timeline of the poisonings captured in Nancy's hair and the discovery of poison in vitamin pills found in the home were difficult to deflect. Richard's girlfriend even testified, claiming Richard lied by telling her that Nancy had a rare and fatal blood disease. Anytime that you catch a defendant or any witness in a lie. And that was a pretty big one. And I don't think a coincidence that she was going to die from a fatal blood disease. think that those things immediately begin to color their Their view of him, and he was a liar, he would lie It took a jury less than three hours to convict Richard Lyon first degree murder He was sentenced to life in prison I worked lots of cases like this, and the question was always, why not just a divorce? You know, they may be intelligent, but they're criminally stupid. for good reason, and thank God, they are because we We could't catch him. It was hard for me to believe that he had actually killed his wife and it had just It's finally broken down based on the shape of an F and an L and an R Just scratchings on a piece of paper