All language subtitles for Pushed.to.Death.S01E04.Shower.of.Lies.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

A fatal
fall in the shower.

A woman's life
cut short in an instant.

Sitting there
talking to me two days earlier,

and now she's dead.

It was so sad and shocking.

Was it truly
a tragic accident--

He claims
that he goes into the bathroom.

And there she is,
lying on the floor,

bleeding with
a massive head wound.

- or murder?

Looking at it
as a forensic pathologist,

she had head trauma,
and it was not

consistent with an accident.

This starts to raise

some serious questions.

Leslie Neulander was
born in the early 1950s and

grew up on Long Island,
New York, before later

moving north to Syracuse.

Former local chief medical
examiner Mary Jumbelic

met Leslie shortly after she
moved to the same neighborhood.

Leslie Neulander was

a prominent woman in the
community here in Syracuse.

And our social
circles and business

circles over overlapped.

She belonged
to the same synagogue

that my family belonged to.

And we would see
each other at holiday

events and other community
fundraising events in town.

Leslie was
a devoted philanthropist.

And she donated
her time to causes

like the Jewish
Community Foundation,

Syracuse University,
and loads of other charities.

It
was always a joy

to see her because she had such
a bubbly and kind personality.

She just had a way about
her of making you laugh

and feel at ease.

And I always admired
that about her.

In 1983,
Leslie had married

prominent local
obstetrician and

gynecologist Dr.
Robert Neulander.

People
looked up to him

greatly in the medical world.

And she had been
a critical care nurse,

but had given up her career
to raise her children.

Bob had been married
previously and had two

children from that marriage.

And so she helped to raise
those children as well,

and had a very full life.

But on the morning
of September 17, 2012,

a distressing call was made
from the Neulander family home

to emergency services.

On the other line was

Leslie's 23-year-old daughter.

Responders arrived
at just minutes later at 8:27.

But unusually, they found
Leslie not in the bathroom

but in the bedroom.

And Robert was kneeling
down near her body,

covered in blood,
with his daughter

just screaming in distress.

Robert
told paramedics

that his wife had slipped
and fallen in the shower.

The first
police officer

arrived five minutes later.

They secured the scene
and followed the trail of blood

from the bathroom
to the bedroom, where

the first responders were
working on Leslie's body,

giving her CPR.

Despite their best
efforts, she was pronounced

dead at the scene at 8:42 AM.

Shortly after Leslie
was pronounced dead,

the police went
into the bathroom.

They found the shower
still running.

And in the bedroom, there
was blood everywhere.

And a trail running in the
corridor between the bedroom

and the bathroom.

Robert explained that
he had moved Leslie

from the bathroom, where she
had fallen into the bedroom,

because he said, it was
easier and more comfortable

for me to perform
CPR on her there.

The movements that
Robert said he made

checked out with
the patterns of blood

that the police
found at the scene.

This theory was
actually backed up

on the 911 call,
where we can hear

his daughter
pleading with Robert

not to move her mom's body.

One of the next
to arrive at the scene

was the medical examiner,
Dr. Robert Stoppacher.

Dr.
Stoppacher spoke very briefly

to some of the officers,
but he was

advised that she had slipped
and fallen in the shower.

She had a massive wound
to the right side of her scalp.

It was probably about 6 inches
long, maybe an inch wide.

And based on that preliminary
examination, he looked at it

and said, yeah, this head
wound is consistent with a slip

and fall in the shower.

In the shower itself,
there was a stone bench.

If one were to hit their head
with sufficient force,

it could cause
a serious injury.

On the same afternoon,

Dr. Robert Stoppacher conducted
an autopsy on Leslie's body.

He found that she'd had
bleeding to the brain.

Her skull had been
shattered in so many places.

And she also had bruising
to her internal organs.

Taking into account
Robert's version of events,

Dr. Stoppacher
ruled that Leslie

had died from
an accident, blunt force

trauma due to a fall, and that
she'd slipped in the shower

and banged her head
on the stone counter.

News
of Leslie's tragic death

began to spread through
the Neulander's close

knit community.

I had
just arrived home

from Europe, where I
had been hospitalized

and near death myself
from a small fall and

subsequent infection.

And so, two days later, when
I'm sitting in my recliner,

still recovering.

My son with me, he saw a post
on Facebook that was suggestive

that Leslie had died.

And so then there were a lot of
phone calls that went around.

And so, finally, I got
hold of my husband,

and he said, yes, it's true.

You know, She fell
in the shower and she's dead.

I felt shocked because she
had just been in the home

two days earlier
and now she's dead.

It was so sad and shocking,
but I just accepted

that that is what happened.

Although Leslie
Neulander's sudden death

at her home had been ruled
an accident following

a fall in the shower, police
followed standard protocol

in cases of sudden death by
opening an investigation, which

would come to the attention
of Onondaga County District

Attorney William Fitzpatrick.

I was
advised that Leslie Neulander

had slipped and fell
in the shower, struck her head,

and died.

And that's unusual
for a healthy 60-year-old,

but not unheard of.

There's probably
2,500 people a year

in the United
States, on average,

die due to bathroom accidents.

Most of them are elderly
people caused by heart attacks.

But there wasn't
anything reported to me

that indicated this
was suspicious.

And, you know, the case
just kind of sat in limbo.

While
the police carried out

their investigation,
friends rallied

around the Neulander family.

After Leslie
died, and the next night,

my husband went
to the home to visit.

Bob stayed in his room.

He didn't really come
out, so my husband just

talked with the kids,
and the rabbi was there

and they just had
a conversation.

When he returned, he said
it was a little awkward

that the kids
seemed uncomfortable

when he would bring up how
close their parents were

and how sad this was.

And I just attributed
that to grief.

On September 20, 2012,

three days after Leslie's
death, friends and family

gathered for her funeral.

Through the days
that followed Leslie's death,

including at a funeral,
at other social gatherings

where her name would come
up, that the details were

not clear.

The only consistent story was
Leslie fell in the shower.

And that is pretty much
what everyone knew.

While
friends and family

tried to move on from
Leslie's tragic passing,

police continued to look
into the circumstances

surrounding her death.

Although
the medical examiner

had ruled Leslie's
death as an accident,

the police still carried
on their investigation.

And they now wanted
to talk to their daughter

about what she
had seen that day.

Meanwhile,
following her illness,

Mary tried to return
to normal life.

Mark and I decided

we would have
a Thanksgiving party

to thank my friends for being
helpful during my recuperation.

A friend of mine
approached me at the party

and said she had information
that a close friend of Leslie

had concerns about her death.

She said, please, will
you talk with her?

And so I agreed to do it.

The friend had a lot to say
about Bob's infidelity,

about Bob's financial
problems, his behavior

on the day of Leslie's death.

The friend talked
about how she was

sure that Bob killed Leslie.

And I was a bit stunned.

From my perspective
as a medical examiner,

it didn't carry the weight
of actual evidence or

forensic data.

After she finishes her
story, I say, well,

why don't you go to the police
and give them your statement?

So she called me
afterward and said,

thank you for telling me to go.

They're going to bring Bob
back in for questioning.

I heard he already
has a lawyer.

And while she's
telling me this,

I'm thinking, how odd is that?

If this was just a cold
piece of information,

there's no way they
would be saying to her,

we're going to bring Bob
back in for questioning and

telling her about the lawyer.

And so I thought, wow, there's
something already going on.

And a few hours later,
Bob called the house.

Mark took the call.

They chat for a moment or two.

And he gets off the phone
with Bob and says,

well, good for him.

He's going to Israel.

And now I'm sitting
there thinking,

oh, gosh, I think he will just
go to Israel and not come back.

It set off a red
flag for me because I

was looking at those two
pieces of information

and they were
highly concerning.

He's supposed to give
another statement to police.

He's leaving the country.

And why do the police
want another statement?

The fact that the police were
grateful the friend came in and

provided her own observations
meant that the police are still

concerned about this case.

So I became concerned
at that point.

Unbeknownst to Mary,
the district attorney's office

was about to reopen
the investigation

into Leslie's death.

Initial reports

were that this was
a slip-and-fall accident,

and there wasn't anything that
was brought to my attention

initially that
indicated that this was

a homicide worth looking into.

And then came an anonymous
letter to my office

that piqued my interest.

It focused
on the financial aspects

of the Neulanders,
the fact that they were

living in separate bedrooms.

Not only pointed that
out, but pointed out

that Leslie was going
to sign a lease arrangement

that day, which is
something that I

certainly was not aware of.

Whoever he or she
was, was concerned

that Neulander had
a serious financial motive

to kill Leslie.

Now, he or she might not have
said that in such overt terms,

but that was the clear
import of the letter

that this was not an accident,
that this was a homicide.

That kind of spurred a renewed
interest, certainly by me,

in considering bringing
in Mr. Neulander

for a further interview.

Just
as the district attorney

resumed the investigation
into Leslie's death,

Leslie's friend and former
medical examiner,

Mary Jumbelic, got in touch.

I had worked for
years with William Fitzpatrick.

And even though I hadn't spoken
to him, probably at that point

in, you know,
for years, I called him

because I just
wanted to alert him

that someone the police
is looking at

is going to leave the country.

I telephone Fitz, and I
said I was calling

about a friend of mine.

Before I could say
anything further,

he said, Leslie
London Neulander.

It was
a good guess on my part.

I did not know why
Mary was calling me.

I did not know that she was
very close to Bob and Leslie.

I hadn't really seen
everything at that point,

because we were still in the
embryonic stages of recharging

this homicide investigation.

But the crucial thing
that I said to Mary was,

would you look at the file?

I realized that something
about the cause and the manner

of death were not settled.

The only thing I
knew was that Leslie

had fallen in the shower.

I didn't know what
her injuries were.

I didn't know if she
had a heart attack.

I didn't know anything.

But I had a drive to try to
help and answer the questions.

That is what I spent my life
doing, looking at the dead

and speaking for them
and trying to understand

what happened to them.

And so then I said, yes,
I'll look at the file.

That's
when things really took off.

And it became a full-throttled
homicide investigation.

Following
an anonymous tip off,

District Attorney
William Fitzpatrick

had reopened the investigation
into Leslie's death.

Had she slipped and fallen
in the shower, as her husband,

Bob claimed, or had
she been murdered?

Hoping for a second
opinion, William

sent the case file to former
medical examiner Mary Jumbelic.

I focused really
quickly on Leslie herself.

Because that is my area
of expertise, the examination

of the deceased.

And so I focused
on her body position,

the wounds I could see, what
I could see at the scene,

and all the details that I
could learn from the autopsy.

The photographs
were very graphic.

It was shocking to see
my friend in the photographs,

but even more shocking to see
the trauma to her body.

Leslie's right side of her
head was bleeding extensively

with a massive
open wound there,

and the skull was
caved in partly.

Looking like two blows
to the head, at least.

And in addition to that,
she had injuries on her face

and on her neck.

She had bruising on her arms.

She had injuries on her
fingers with bruising.

The type of wound that
she had, the amount

of fracturing of the skull,
and the other injuries

that are present on the body
all point to inflicted injury,

as opposed to just
tripping and falling.

But other
details documented

at the scene of Leslie's
death also raised

questions about Bob's story.

She was laying
on the floor of her bedroom,

face up, and had been scooched
into an area between the end

table and the bed.

So not a really ideal
position for CPR.

But why a physician
would choose

to carry an injured
person, who potentially

could have a neck injury,
60 feet to perform CPR?

Certainly, it's
suggestive of a concern.

But in addition
to that, there were

blood trails going all the way
from the bed to the shower.

And not much per se
in the shower itself,

even though that was
the purported area of the fall.

The manner of death
being called an accident

didn't capture what
really happened to Leslie.

That she had head trauma,
certainly, but was

not consistent with a fall.

She had been struck in the
head, and it was a homicide.

Mary took her
findings to William,

and he requested
a search warrant

for the Neulander's home.

Around six months
after Leslie's death,

Mary, William,
and forensic pathologist

Dr. Baden visited
the house, which they were

now viewing as a crime scene.

The house
had been sold,

but the new owners
hadn't moved in yet.

And the second floor
was still untouched.

And we wanted

to focus on the area
in the bedroom

where Dr. Neulander claims he
took Leslie after he removed

her body from the shower.

Most of the blood on the wall
had been cleaned away,

but several things of
incredible importance remained.

So we ripped up the carpet,
and there's a little rubber

undercarriage to the carpet.

That was completely
soaked with blood.

And then when we
lifted that up,

the floorboard, completely
soaked with blood.

It should have been
a minimal amount of blood

because she had no pulse.

In fact, there was a massive
amount of blood completely

inconsistent with his story.

What that indicates to me is
that while she's alive and

has a pulse and is
bleeding, her head

is somewhere in that vicinity.

The other amazing
thing that we were

able to get from that
examination was the headboard.

Now, it is very, very difficult
to see any physical evidence

on the board because it's
a cloth-like material

and it's very, very dark.

And then when we examined
that, there were several dozen

blood spatters from Leslie.

The new
evidence discovered

at the Neulanders home was sent
away for forensic analysis.

I
knew Leslie's death

wasn't an accident
when I looked

at the pictures of her body.

The scene was corroborative
with the findings there.

This is a homicide.

This is not a fall from
standing height accident.

Six months
after Leslie's death,

her case was now a full-blown
murder investigation,

but her death certificate
remained an issue.

It would
be very difficult to ask a jury

to convict someone beyond a
reasonable doubt of a homicide

when your medical
examiner says, hold on,

she died as a result
of an accident.

William and Mary
presented their findings

to the medical examiner,
Dr. Stoppacher,

to ask if he would reconsider
the manner of Leslie's death.

We discussed
our difference of opinion

and discussed
the science behind it,

and talked about
wounding patterns and

what happens to the brain in a
fall versus blows to the head.

And at the end of that, I
think the medical examiner

felt they needed more.

They needed more information.

They needed more opinion
in order to budge

from the concept of the fall.

So we decided
that the expertise

of a neuropathologist,
and particularly

a forensic neuropathologist,
would be useful to elucidate

this difference of opinion.

In December
2013, while William awaited

the forensic
neuropathologist report,

he approached Bob's
lawyer with a request

for a formal interview.

Robert said
that he had nothing to hide,

so he voluntarily sat
down for an interview

with officers
and the district attorney.

During the questioning,

he admitted that there was
difficulty in their marriage.

William soon turned
his questioning to the day

that Leslie died.

He says
that he got up that morning,

that he went jogging.

He came back, prepared a cup
of coffee for his wife.

He
cleaned up from jogging,

then began to make
a small breakfast,

then goes back upstairs.

The shower is still running.

Now she's been in there,
according to him, at least

35 minutes at that point.

He claims that he goes into the
bathroom to see if she's OK.

This
is a doctor of 30 years.

What's the first thing you
would do if you had never

even seen a medical school?

There's a phone 5
feet away from them

on the counter
of the bathroom sink.

Pick up the phone.

Call 911.

Instead, he leaves her there.

He does a cursory check
to see if she's alive.

Claims that she's breathing.

Goes about 90 feet further
into the house to get

his daughter to call 911.

Bob claimed
he then carried

Leslie from the bathroom into
the bedroom to continue CPR.

I then
simply slid over to him

a number of photographs.

And said, Dr. Neulander,
can you explain this?

Can you explain the blood?

And he looked at me,
and he said, no, I can't.

Despite Bob's
calm, matter-of-fact account

of the events surrounding
Leslie's death,

William wasn't
convinced by his story.

My theory that he attacked her

in the bedroom and left her,
probably to die on the floor

while he's trying
to figure out what to do.

This is not
a premeditated crime.

He did not plot this out.

This was a rage homicide.

Something snapped.

They argued about something.

Whatever it was,
it set him off.

And then he's faced
with an opportunity.

Now, what do I do?

The only thing I can say
to describe that wound

is that she fell in the shower.

But if Bob had
murdered Leslie in the bedroom,

the one thing
that didn't add up

was why the bed sheets
weren't covered in blood.

Before questioning Bob,
police had interviewed

the Neulander's housekeeper.

The housekeeper says,

I changed the sheets
on Friday, and

Leslie was killed on a Monday.

She looks
at the photos and says,

those are not the sheets that
I put on the bed on Friday.

And she says, by the way,
there's a pillow missing.

There's only three
pillows there.

So when he was asked
about the pillows,

oh, we didn't have
a pillow in a guest room,

and we needed
a pillow for that.

Well, who is that for?

Well, people were coming over.

Oh, yeah, people were coming
over after she was dead.

The pillow was missing
before she was dead, Doc,

what are you talking about?

There's no question in my mind
that the original sheets

that she left on that bed
Friday were on that bed

Monday morning when
Leslie was assaulted.

And then soaked with
blood, he removed

the sheets, removed the pillow
that probably had blood on it

as well, removed
the murder weapon.

And then while he went
for his supposed jog,

he was actually going out
to dispose of those items.

With missing bed
sheets and no murder weapon,

investigators couldn't
determine what

had been used to kill Leslie.

And with her death
still ruled accidental,

police remained unable
to charge Bob with her murder.

Then, 18 months
after Leslie's death,

came the news they've
been waiting for.

The neuropathology report,

an evaluation
of the brain, indicated

it was inflicted
injury, allowed

the medical examiner to be
able to change the death

certificate to homicide.

The size
the wound, combined

with the discovery
of distinctive bruising

on the opposite side
of Leslie's brain,

was consistent with
being hit by an object,

not with a fall from
standing height.

Based on
the accumulation of evidence,

Dr. Stoppacher changed,
not the cause of death,

but the manner of death.

Cause of death was still
a massive blow to the head,

but the manner of death
was now listed as homicide.

That was it.

There were no more avenues
of escape for Dr. Neulander.

Three
days later, on June 23,

Dr. Robert Neulander is charged
with second degree murder

and tampering with
physical evidence.

On March 16, 2015,
2 and 1/2 years after Leslie

Neulander was found dead at her
home in Syracuse, New York,

her husband, Dr.
Robert Neulander,

went on trial for her murder.

Big
trials are part theater,

and no one knew that
better than Bob Neulander.

Every day we would watch
this litany of him walking

down the courthouse hallway.

And he'd have his
daughter, his son,

or, in some instances,
Leslie's sister,

consoling him as he walked.

It might look unusual

that the family
of the victim are

seemingly siding with
the accused perpetrator.

But you've got
to remember, at this time,

the family do not have all
the evidence that Mary has

or that the DA office have.

They have not been subject
to all of that information yet.

And so at the moment,
naturally,

a family going through
a traumatic period

are rallying together.

You've also got to remember
from the perspective

of the children, they've just
lost their mother in really

traumatic circumstances.

And if they believe that
their father did this,

they're also, in a way,
losing their father.

So you can understand
why people group together

in this moment,
because they're just

trying to protect
the little sort of normality

of their family unit.

The prosecution
argued that Leslie's death

was no bathroom accident.

Instead, that she was murdered
in the bedroom by her husband,

as proven by forensic evidence.

There's
blood spatter on the wall

and on the ceiling
from an object

being struck on Leslie's head.

And then when it comes
back for another strike,

it gets cast off
on the wall, in the ceiling.

There are blood droplets

on the lampshade, on the clock
radio, on family photos,

on the headboard,
on the blinds to, say,

nothing of the blood
in the bathroom.

Here's the explanation
they come up with.

So he went out for a jog,
came home, showered up,

put his pajamas on, and then
put another pajama top on,

for some reason.

And when he was
carrying Leslie,

that top became
saturated with blood.

He took the shirt off because
it was uncomfortable for him.

And this blood cast off
and spattered at various points

throughout the bedroom.

Secondarily, when
the EMTs got there,

as they removed
their gloves, they removed

them slingshot fashion.

And that spattered a lot
of blood throughout as well.

Now there's two significant
difficulties with both

of those explanations.

Number one, no one saw
him with a second shirt.

The second thing is
that the EMTs were all

very professional,
and they are trained

on how to remove
a glove to avoid

exactly this type of issue.

In addition to that, they
also indicated, we hardly

had any blood on our gloves
that we noticed

because she wasn't bleeding.

The prosecution
also argued that Leslie's head

injuries were not caused
by an impact in the shower

as Bob had claimed.

On the right
side of the head,

the skull injury
is caved in partly

in a pattern that is not
consistent with hitting

the edge of a marble bench.

In addition, it appears
there's two blows

on that side of the head.

So both of those
things don't line up

with the stone bench theory.

If you leave aside

the medical evidence,
the blood spatter,

I thought the most
significant part was calling

the daughter to the stand.

The daughter
was called as a witness.

And the 911 call was
played in the courtroom.

What was
chilling in the courtroom

was that the family
is there listening

to the daughter's 911 call.

And it's just
heartbreaking because you

can feel the pain that the
daughter feels when she first

sees her mother being
carried by her father,

and the terror in her voice,
the sadness, the angst.

The problem was
that perception of events

just didn't stack
up to the facts.

One of the most
crucial pieces of evidence

for the prosecution was the
moment Leslie's daughter placed

the 911 call on hold,
leaving her mother's office

to head toward
the bathroom, where

she claimed Leslie was lying.

When quizzed
about the 12-second

gap between switching
phones, her story fell apart.

Her story had

changed significantly
at trial in this very,

very important regard.

Yes, I went into the room
with a bidet and the toilet,

and I picked up the phone.

But it wasn't working,
so I dropped that phone.

I then assisted
my father in removing

my mother from the shower.

We then took her
a couple of feet.

We laid her down
outside of the bathroom.

My dad began to perform CPR.

It didn't seem
to be successful,

so we moved her again
further into the bedroom

and dropped her just
short of the bed.

I then went,
remembering that the 911

operator was still on hold.

I picked up the phone, and I
don't remember what I said,

but I can hear the tape
and I understand that.

None of that is
remotely possible.

You cannot do everything that
she claims that she did in 12

seconds, which was the amount
of time between the 911

operator being put on hold.

And the, oh, my god,

there's blood everywhere,
resumption of that call.

It would have taken
conservatively a minute

to do everything that
she claims that she

did do in that 12 seconds.

Her statement

has some really contradictory
points the evidence

can prove a false.

But you also have to remember
that she has witnessed

something really
traumatic, you know,

her mother dying
in heinous circumstances.

And so trauma can
do really strange

things to a person's memory.

So it might not be that she
intentionally misleading

or proposing false information.

It might just be
that, actually, she

can't remember exact details.

After she
testified, the case was done.

After two weeks
of hearing evidence,

the jury retired to deliberate.

The worst part of a trial

is waiting for a verdict.

And you always
feel the same way.

You put your heart
and soul into the case.

In some cases, you feel
more confident than others.

I was nervous because juries
are very earnest,

and they try very hard
to do the right thing.

But it doesn't always come
out as a forensic professional

might think it would.

After three
days of deliberation,

the jury returned
their verdicts.

They found Robert Neulander
guilty of second degree murder

and tampering with evidence.

Everybody
in this case was resolute.

They knew that he did it,
and they felt comfortable

with their verdict.

And I felt great.

I was just
professionally satisfied

that justice was done.

Four months
later, he appeared in court.

And Robert Neulander was
sentenced to 20 years to life.

Bob was
facing incarceration

for the rest of his life.

But his defense team appealed
and argued for a retrial,

citing serious
juror misconduct.

An alternate
juror pointed out

that they believed 1
of the 12 actual jurors

had been involved in something.

So the judge
ordered examination

of this juror's phone.

This investigation found that
this juror had sent over 7,000

messages during this
three-week period

to family and friends talking
about the criminal trial.

And this was
in direct violation

of the judge's
instructions for jurors

not to discuss the case
with outside sources

or to get information
from anywhere else.

And these messages included
one from her father,

saying, make sure
he is found guilty.

And she failed to disclose
this to the court.

The outcome of all of this
was that in June 2018,

the conviction was vacated.

It was annulled as if the trial
and conviction never happened.

Robert was
released on $1 million

bail until the retrial
could take place.

They hired
a very good guy, very good

lawyer out of New York City.

And we began to prepare
for trial number two.

On February
28, 2022, almost

10 years after Leslie's
death, the retrial began.

I thought
another group of jurors

presented with these
same information

would see it the same way.

But, again, you
never know until it's

all the way through the trial.

The jury, to our amazement,

five hours after they
retired, they came back

in with a verdict of guilty.

And I feel great about that.

When I
heard the verdict of guilty

for the second trial, it was
just, oh, thank goodness.

I hope the family can try
to move on in some way now.

Because they
really are carrying

a huge burden with them.

On May 2, 2022,
Bob was sentenced to 20 years

to life for the second time.

Thanks, not only
to the prosecution team,

but also Leslie's friend,
former medical examiner

Mary Jumbelic.

I took
Leslie's message--

look what happened to me.

And I gave it to people
who needed to hear that.

And, yes, I do
feel proud of it,

but I also feel like
it was a fulfilling of,

you know, what has
always been my calling,

which was to do
that for the dead.

I remember Leslie
for her lightheartedness

and her kindness and her humor.

But I remember
her in death, too,

because it has helped other
women who maybe are trapped

in situations with
spouses or have

experienced domestic violence.

She was important
in the community,

but she was just important
on a personal level

of how she made others feel.

And I think those that knew
her should think of that

and remember her.