All language subtitles for Accident.Suicide.or.Murder.S06E09.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

-A New Jersey police officer

reports he's found
his wife unresponsive.

-Ellen Andros
had no medical problems,

no drinking, no drugs,
31 years old.

It's not too often
someone like that

winds up on the floor deceased.

-While a beloved mother
of two is mourned.

-She was a great mother.

You don't meet a lot of people
that you become very close with.

And to lose somebody, it hurts.

-A community divided
in grief lays blame.

-He medical examiner concluded

that this was, in fact,
a homicide.

-James is claiming
his innocence,

but Ellen was terrified
of her husband

and he threatened her
repeatedly.

-I knew it was not him.

Just had to figure out
what it was.

-Until a single discovery
turns everything upside down.

-Now the husband knows
that there's a boyfriend.

She talked about
a life together.

-That was a big "wow" to us.

-We're trying to find anything
that's there

that answers that question
of how she died.

-They're going to take a look
at the original autopsy.

This is a huge moment.

Is this really the truth?

♪♪

♪♪

-In the early-morning hours,
just miles

from the glittering shores
of Atlantic City, New Jersey,

police receive a 911 call

from a distressed husband
about his wife.

-Around 4:30 a.m.,

a medical call came in
of an unresponsive female.

Dispatch immediately sends out
the patrol units to respond.

When units arrived there,

the man who called 911,
James Andros III,

came out to let them know
what was going on inside.

-James Andros says he's
an Atlantic City police officer

and he came home late at night

and found his wife,
Ellen, unresponsive,

slumped over at her computer.

Put her on the floor,

tried to resuscitate her,
to no avail.

-First responders
race inside the house

to help the 31-year-old victim,

who is lying on the floor,
face up, unresponsive.

-She was in a bedroom
with two of her children

who were sleeping at the time.

-Ellen's 5-year-old
and 3-year-old girls

are asleep in a bunk bed
inches away from their mother.

-First responders decided
to get the children

out of the bedroom,
and of course,

they were taken
to another room in the house.

Fire and rescue were there
attending to Ms. Andros.

She was just laying right
by the computer desk table.

-The medics
had a pillow under her head.

She was laying on her back.

She had, like,
on a white blouse.

She had a pair of sweatpants.

-And she's cold to the touch.

-Paramedics were
able to determine rather quickly

that she was deceased.

-There was nothing
further they could do.

-James asked the officer,
"Is she dead?"

And the officer says, "Yes."

-Mr. Andros wasn't crying.

He was just more concerned.

-When we took the initial look
at Ellen,

there were no obvious signs
of defensive wounds.

There was no obvious signs
of injury to her,

as far as cuts or bruises
or anything of that nature.

-She did have
some discoloration.

The chin and the nose --
they were pale and white.

And other areas were blue.

-We asked James
during that time

about Ellen's medical history.

She had had
some swollen tonsils,

but other than that,
no other big medical issues.

-Looking for an expert opinion,

detectives call in Dr. Gross,
the medical examiner.

As he examines Ellen,
areas of her face draw concern.

-You saw some petechiaee
around the eyes.

-There were pinpoint hemorrhages

on the whites of the eyes
and on the eyelids.

Those were the petechiaee.

Those were caused by blood
seeping out of the capillaries

because of high pressure.

And this is often seen
in some kind of asphyxia.

That could either be
strangulation or smothering.

-Petechiae raised a flag

as to whether or not this was
a natural cause of death

or whether there was something
involved, such as a homicide.

-Dr. Gross had come
to a conclusion,

because of the petechiae
in the face,

that she had been smothered.

He sort of biased himself
that way

even before he started
the autopsy.

-I asked him,
"Well, do me a favor.

Please expedite the autopsy

so we can figure
out what's going on here."

-All the information James
had given us about Ellen Andros

was no medical problems,

no drinking, no drugs,
31 years old.

It's not too often
someone like that

winds up on the floor deceased.

It was reported
as medical rescue.

But this might not just be
a medical call here.

This could be something else.

We need to really get busy

and investigate a lot further.

-While Ellen's body
is transported to the morgue,

Detective DeShields and his team

turn their attention
to questioning James.

-You could tell he
had been out drinking.

You could smell the alcohol.

-Mr. Andros
made several comments,

saying he's [bleep] up,

and his demeanor indicates --

you could tell he was
under some type of influence.

-Detectives ask him about what
happened prior to the discovery.

-James indicated that he was
at the Beach Bar until 4:00 a.m.

with his father
and a couple other individuals.

-James Andros arrived
there 8:00, 9:00

and left there around 3:45,
according to reports,

to come home from Brigantine.

-The Brigantine Beach Bar

is a 20-minute drive
from the Andros House.

-When he pulled in the driveway,
the lights were on.

He was a little surprised to see
Ellen and the girls were home

because sometimes they
would spend the night on Fridays

at her parents' place.

The door was locked.

He didn't notice anything
out of the normal,

walked in,
went back to the girls' room.

Saw Ellen sitting in the chair.
He was talking with her.

Realized that she was
unresponsive.

The 5-year-old daughter
started waking up.

James asked her,
"What happened with Mommy?"

She was like, "I don't know."

So he called 911.

And that was essentially it.

The police arrived,
and this is where we're at.

-As detectives hear
James's account of the evening,

a question emerges --

was Ellen's unusual death
the result of a heated argument

between husband and wife?

-I asked him
if something had taken place.

Because you've been
out drinking, you come home.

Did an argument occur?
Did something get out of hand?

Was a mistake made?

He had said, no,
there was no fight that night.

But when you looked at
his mannerisms, his body,

he was getting real deep red
in the face.

But that by itself
doesn't mean anything.

The man just lost his wife.

-The line of questioning
from police

soon becomes too much
for James to handle.

-James has a firearm
on his ankle.

He wants to give the gun,

and he makes comments to the
effect, "So I don't hurt myself.

I don't want to leave
my two little girls alone."

That raises a red flag for me.

If this is a medical call,

I'm not too sure that I would be
in that state of mind.

I'm not worried about hurting
myself or leaving my kids alone.

My opinion would be,
he's a police officer

in Atlantic City, okay?

So he's probably experienced
some of these things,

and that type of response would
be a little bit off for me.

-The odd behavior
forces investigators

to keep an eye on James

and treat this
as more than a medical issue.

-We're trying to find
how she died.

You know,
we're not just focused on Jim.

We're looking at
every potential avenue.

-Intruders who may have come in,

somebody that may have
been there and left.

They're looking
for any and all evidence

where they could start
ruling things out.

James Andros is an
Atlantic City police officer

who had been on that police
force for a number of years.

-He's a cop.

Did he make someone angry
and they came back

and they decided
to kill his wife?

Pleasantville back in 2001 was
a tough town in terms of crime.

We're just west
of Atlantic City.

Is this a home invasion?

We've had many in Pleasantville.

Is there anything stolen,
any damage to any windows

or doors
or things of that nature?

-We did an assessment
of the house

to make sure that there was
nothing broken into,

anything was out of place.

You know,
door jimmied open or anything.

-Broken window
or any kind of intrusion,

anything that might
look suspicious.

-There was nothing to indicate
something was moved

so somebody could make entry
into the house.

-We didn't have any reason

to believe anybody
broke into that house.

-The lack of forced entry
supports a natural death.

But if foul play occurred,

it may have involved someone
Ellen knew.

Considering all options,
by 6:00 a.m.,

police begin canvassing
the neighborhood.

-We did a neighborhood check,

where you'll go
and knock on a neighbor's door

to see if there was
anything suspicious,

they heard anything,
and things of that nature.

-Police check with neighbors,
but no one recalls

hearing or seeing anything
out of the ordinary,

and the news of Ellen's death
sparks rumors and speculation

about what may have happened
to her.

-Early in the morning,

I get a call
from a friend of mine.

She told me that someone
broke into the house

and Ellen was murdered.

I thought that
that could have happened

because there was crime
in Pleasantville,

but I was in shock.

Ellen was part of my family,

and I was part of hers.

Jim and Ellen were one
of those matches made in heaven.

They adored each other.

They were a loving couple.

-Jim has been one of my best
friends since I was in my 20s.

A very loyal friend.

-James found himself attracted
to Ellen since high school.

-Ellen lived in the neighborhood
when they were kids.

Ellen was a smart woman.

She was very quiet,
but very sure of herself.

And when they were teenagers,

that was the first girl
that he ever kissed.

And then, as time went on,
they went apart.

-Before becoming
a police officer,

James Andros was working
at an athletic club

where a fated encounter
changes his life.

-He was working,

and he couldn't believe
that he met this woman

that he knew
from when he was a kid.

-Now that destiny brought
James and Ellen back together,

James doesn't waste any time
and he proposes.

-It was a picture-perfect
wedding.

A lot of people
attended the wedding,

and they were very happy.

-Excited to start
their new life,

James makes a career move

and decides to go into
the family business.

-Jim went into
law enforcement.

His father was a police officer
in Atlantic City,

and Jim started
in Atlantic City.

-While still basking
in the glow of marital bliss,

Ellen becomes pregnant,

and the couple is giddy
with excitement.

-Ellen was over the top happy.

-Two years later, the couple
has a second bundle of joy

and their family is complete.

-We were all happy about that.

They asked me
to be her godfather.

When her kids were born,
I saw something change in Ellen.

I think she found
her purpose in life.

She loved their children,
teaching them,

spending time with them,
being a great mother.

When the kids were close
to 3 and 5 years old,

she was anticipating them
going to school.

So she was gonna go
back to school to be a teacher.

And I know
that's what she wanted to do

in the next stage of her life.

You don't meet a lot of people
that you become very close with.

And to lose somebody,
it's very -- it hurts.

[ Stammers ]

Um, I'll need a minute,
just a minute.

[ Sniffles ]

-It's now 9:00 a.m.
at the Andros house

when Ellen's family
arrives on scene,

frantic for information.

-I was informed
by the Pleasantville officers

that Ellen's family had arrived,
that James had contacted them.

And they were across the street.

-When Ellen's mother
walks up to the front yard,

the first thing
she says to James is,

"What did you do to her?
Did you kill her?"

-The first thing
he said to me was,

"Don't believe anything that
you're hearing on the news."

-That sort of thing
is not natural.

You can't smother yourself
that way.

-There was just total
discrepancy in the reports

by doctors in this case.

-When 31-year-old Ellen Andros
mysteriously ends up dead,

detectives aren't the only ones
who suspect foul play.

The scene is explosive
at the Andros residence.

Ellen's parents confront
her husband, James,

and accuse him
of killing their daughter.

-When James hears Ellen's mom
say that,

he basically says,
"Please don't say that.

Don't say that."

-This heated confrontation

piques the interest
of detectives,

so they pull him aside
to question him further.

-James' attitude at the time was
a combination of being upset,

but also being a little agitated

as they asked him
additional questions.

-The officer there says,
"Would you sign

a consent to search
the interior of the house?"

-James is a little irritated
by that,

used a little vulgar language.

-He tells police officers
he knows his [bleep] rights.

He goes, "Give me the paper,"
and snatches it from his hand.

And Mr. Andros eventually signs
the consent form.

Does that look kind of like
you're hiding something?

Maybe. Some people
may look at it that way.

-After securing
the search warrant,

detectives move
inside the house,

looking for any clues
to help them figure out

what happened here.

-We conducted
a search warrant,

a thorough search of the house.

We tried
to go through everything.

It wasn't like she had blood
or anything,

so we weren't looking for
blood evidence.

Just trying to find anything,

anything out of place
that indicated

that somebody else
was in the house.

-A computer left running
in the bedroom

catches detectives' attention.

Could it hold clues
to Ellen's final hours?

-When officers check the area,

they of course look at the
computer where she was sitting.

Her screen name is EJAndros.

It's an AOL screen,

and it says, "You've been
logged off due to inactivity."

-Could be that there was
no further activity after that.

Did she just sign off?
She was doing something else?

We don't know.

-Detective DeShields sends the
computer for forensic analysis.

If they can confirm the
last time Ellen sent an e-mail,

it will help determine
her time of death.

-We sent an order out to AOL

so we could get
the computer information.

And then we could put together
a timeline.

-Now that James
is starting to sober up,

detectives escort him
to the police station

while they wait for the results
of the autopsy report.

-James Andros III
had been escorted

to the Northfield office,
where the Major Crime Unit

does their interviews.

-When we asked questions
about Ellen, we were asking,

anybody she was dealing with,
anybody she had problems with?

You know, trying to figure out
if she had issues with somebody

that maybe could have come
by the house and caused this.

He said he didn't know.

And we broke off at points and
let him go get a little rest

because we're still waiting to
get the results of the autopsy.

-Dr. Gross did his usual
complete autopsy.

He noticed
she had a tonsillitis.

The tonsils were enlarged
due to being inflamed,

but they were not so large

that they actually
blocked the airway.

So that wasn't the cause
of her death.

Dr. Gross examined her heart

and made cross-sections
of the coronary arteries

and noticed she had
normal thin-walled arteries.

-Ellen had thin-walled arteries,

which is normal
for a healthy 31-year-old woman.

-There was no atherosclerosis,
which you get in older people.

So it was normal.

-Dr. Gross rules out
a medical explanation

for Ellen's death and looks
for signs of strangulation.

-Strangulation is applying
pressure to the neck.

Normally, they would
look for bruising

or a broken bone,
her hyoid bone.

-He also didn't see any
hemorrhage in the neck organs

indicating
manual strangulation --

and no fractures, either,
in the upper airway.

The hyoid bone was not broken.

-Even though there's no evidence
to prove Ellen was strangled,

Dr. Gross circles back
to his original theory

that Ellen
may have been smothered.

-Because of the paleness
of the chin and nose --

that's called burking.

Burking is smothering
by someone's hand

covering the nose and mouth.

That sort of thing
is not natural.

And it can't be a suicide.

You can't smother yourself
that way.

-Burking is a way to silence
someone with your hand.

It's named
after the 19th-century

Scottish serial killer
William Burke,

who used this method
to kill his victims

without leaving
any evidence behind.

-Dr. Gross goes through
the litany of things

that are examined
microscopically,

and the organs are examined.

And he comes to a conclusion,

basically that this was,
in fact, a homicide.

-Ellen Andros died of asphyxia
by suffocation.

-Sergeant DeShields
gets the call

that this is now
a homicide investigation.

-Now they call it a homicide.

Now everything has
got to change.

We got to be very careful
and do our due diligence,

because now all eyes
are gonna be on us.

-Because James
is a police officer,

investigators must notify
his department

and union representatives.

-That puts a lot of pressure
on law enforcement

when that happens.

-Detective DeShields
has to break the news to James

that the medical examiner

is declaring Ellen's death
a homicide

and right now
he is their main suspect.

-I speak with James.

I indicates to him at that time

that Dr. Gross
had finished his autopsy

and, unfortunately, he's calling
Ellen's death a homicide.

When I told him that,
it kind of surprised me

that his reaction
really didn't change.

He didn't, like, jump out of the
chair and go, like,

"What? What do you mean?"

I asked him
if he killed his wife.

He indicated that he didn't.

-James denies any involvement
in his wife's death.

-He also says he has no idea
who would want to hurt his wife.

-At that point where I believe

that we'd gotten a phone call
from an individual

that indicated
that he was James's attorney

and he was gonna request
that we end the interview

at that time, which we did.

-Detectives don't have
enough evidence to arrest James,

so he's released.

After getting nowhere
with Ellen's husband,

detectives turn
to Ellen's friends and family.

-Now investigators have
to learn about the marriage,

what kind of issues,
if there were any issues.

Did she feel scared?

Now you got to build
a case to find out,

you know,
what's going on here.

-We were starting to hear

that there were issues
in the marriage

and that there were some friends
that may have known

certain information
about things.

-Then Ellen's friends drop
a bombshell on detectives

that rocks this investigation
to its core.

-It turns out Ellen
was in a relationship

with another man
at the time of her death.

-That was a big "wow" to us.

-It was also a police officer.

His name was Calvin Gadd.

-Do we have a situation
where now he becomes a problem

because, you know, the husband
knows that there's a boyfriend?

It just really mucks up
the water,

and we have to be very careful
of how we proceed.

-There's obviously
a problem in this marriage.

-The investigation
into Ellen Andros' death pivots

when family and friends reveal

she was involved
with another man.

Now detectives must determine

whether this new lover
is their killer

or if the affair drove a jealous
husband to kill his wife.

-They track down
Ellen's boyfriend,

and he agrees to an interview.

-The boyfriend lived across
the street about a block away.

-We learned of him.
He was on duty.

We pulled him in.

All we found out from Mr. Gadd

was that he had lived
in the neighborhood

and when he'd walk his son
he would often see Ellen

out walking with the girls.

And from that,
they formed a friendship.

I believe he indicated
it turned into a relationship.

You know, she liked him,
he liked her.

And he indicated
that him and Ellen,

they were sending e-mails
back and forth.

-On the night
of Ellen's death,

she drove home with her children
from her parents' house,

and according to her boyfriend,

they planned to take advantage
of James being out

and were going to chat
on e-mail.

-Gadd says he waited
anxiously for an e-mail from her

after she got home from
her parents' house that Friday.

When he never got that e-mail,
he drove by her home,

and that's when he saw
the coroner's van

parked outside their house.

-Calvin would learn
the details of what happened

from friends
in the following days.

Now, feeling the pressure
of suspicion,

he offers an alibi.

-Calvin said to me

he was home with his son
that night.

His son was very little.

There was nothing
that we learned from him.

-Calvin appears
to have an alibi,

so detectives turn
their attention

to his relationship with Ellen.

-He said they cared for
each other.

I don't know how deep that went.

But they spent time together,

and she would talk
about the relationship with him.

-Calvin tells detectives
that Ellen confided in him

about her volatile relationship
with James.

-There were times where,
like, James would be driving

and he would say to her,
"Hey, look,

I could drive off the road
and have an accident

and, you know, hurt you
and nobody would know."

-Ellen was terrified
of her husband,

and he threatened her
repeatedly.

Calvin said at one point

James had threatened her with
a gun and put a gun to her head.

-It was stuff that's
not reported or substantiated,

but it's something
that was said.

-Detective DeShields
interviews Ellen's girlfriends

to corroborate Calvin's story.

-Friends close to Ellen
told investigators

that James was really nasty
when he drank

and he was verbally abusive.

-One of her friends
remembers seeing a bruise

on Ellen's arm and her leg.

-But the explosive accusations
against James

are dismissed by friends
who knew the couple

since their fairy-tale
beginning.

-I don't even have
one instance

where I remember Jim
yelling loudly at Ellen.

Not one.

-As investigators are hearing
all of these things about James,

they're wondering,
"Is this really the truth?"

Is this a boyfriend
who's making things up

to kind of deflect the attention
away from himself?

-We're not focused
on just James.

Once Calvin
came into the picture,

now he's got to
clear himself to me

because, you know,
an investigation --

I can't go around anybody.

-Police find Calvin
to be another dead end.

They verify his alibi through
both family and work records.

-They found he was home
that evening with his child.

-And then left for work
in the morning.

He worked the day shift,

so we knew that he reported
to work on time.

-Investigators confirm
Calvin's story

with both his superior officers
at his department

and his family.

-I do know Mr. Gadd personally.

I've known him
probably most of my career.

If you were gonna sit here
and evaluate

personalities
and type of people,

Gadd would have
more credibility.

-Now that Calvin
has been ruled out as a suspect,

detectives zero in
on James Andros,

getting more details
from Ellen's parents.

-I sat down with Ellen's
parents

as I was trying to get
more background information

on their relationship.

Ellen's parents confirmed

Ellen was unhappy
in her marriage.

He was controlling with her.

-Two weeks before her death,

she talked about reaching out
to a divorce lawyer.

Did this pending divorce
have something to do

with how she died?

-As Detective DeShields
unravels the rocky relationship

between Ellen and James,

Ellen's friends come forward
with mind-blowing information

that correlates with the
autopsy report by Dr. Gross.

-One friend shared
that Ellen had said

that James put his hand
over Ellen's mouth

while they were having sex.

-In his autopsy report,
Dr. Gross states

that Ellen may have been
the victim of burking,

a method of smothering someone

by putting your hand
over their mouth.

And if James has a history
of covering Ellen's mouth,

was it possible that James
may have smothered Ellen

either accidentally
or intentionally?

-Things happen in relationships.

So, every night he's drinking,
comes home --

"Just shut up. Just shut up.
Stop talking."

Put your hand over her mouth
and do it too long.

She wasn't a big girl.

Dealt with countless
domestic homicides,

and all it takes is just a spark
and something happens.

We need to figure out

if this is what happened
that night

-On a stormy day in March 2001,

Ellen's family lays her to rest.

But as police suspicions
surround her husband,

the funeral is anything
but peaceful.

-There is bad blood
between Ellen's family,

Ellen's friends, and James.

-The fact
that her parents thought

he had something
to do with her death,

it just crushed him.

-There was a lot of discontent
at the funeral.

-Funerals are terrible anyway.

And then, with the animosity
between the families,

it was not good.

-At the funeral, Ellen's friends
and family stare at James,

and they mouth the word
"murderer."

-After Ellen is finally
laid to rest, reality sets in,

and her two children
are now left without a mother.

-I start thinking about
my kids

and what we would do
without my wife, you know?

♪♪

-These are the worst cases
because there's a woman

that's deceased who's young,

there are kids that
aren't gonna have a mother,

there's family there
that's hurting

because their daughter,
you know, is deceased.

-While the funeral concludes,
detectives continue their work,

centering the investigation
on James Andros

and verifying his account
of that night.

-James says he was at the bar
until 4:00 a.m.

And Ellen -- if she died
between 2:00 and 2:30,

then who killed her?

What happened here?

-James's alibi was his father.

-We spoke with his father,

who said that he had
been there drinking.

But the father indicated
that they were there

until the time that the owner
was shutting the bar down.

In fact, he had slept
in the parking lot that night.

He didn't want to drive
because he had so much to drink.

-When they question
James Andros Sr.,

he says that his son
passed out with him

and when he woke up
at 4:00 a.m.,

that's when James drove home.

-We knew where he was.
We had people confirm that.

But what we don't have
is nobody that says,

"Hey, I know he left
at this time

because I walked out there
with him."

-Investigators believe
it's possible

that James left the bar
and came back.

-This guy's a police officer,

so he probably has
a little more experience

as what we investigate.

He's covering his tracks
to make sure he's seen

certain places at certain times.

-The tension building
before Ellen's death is clear

when the forensic results
from Ellen's computer come back.

-With the computer,
what we found

was that she had sent
some e-mails.

-She wrote an e-mail
to a friend late one night.

"I feel like such a failure.

I have these beautiful girls,
and they can't even have

a nice, happy childhood

because their mommy
can't marry a nice guy."

-The last e-mail Ellen sent
was to a friend at 1:48 a.m.

-She was disappointed
that she couldn't be happy.

She wanted to be
with Calvin Gadd.

She talked about
a life of them together,

but she needed to end
what she had going with James.

-AOL logged her
off of her account

due to "inactivity"
at around 2:30 a.m.

-Police have a strong theory
of what happened

after Ellen logged off.

-I think she was in bed

and that somehow he applied
pressure to the face

while she was in bed

and cut off her oxygen

and that she expired from that.

We believe
that he brought her in the room,

laid her down on the floor,
called 911,

said he came home
and found her in the chair.

-With the gap in James's alibi

and his wife's affair
a clear motive,

investigators feel as though
they have enough evidence

to arrest James
for the murder of Ellen Andros.

-The fact that the medical
examiner concluded a homicide.

The fact that there was
some information from the family

about possible abuse
in the past.

There was also allegation
about a boyfriend.

There was also allegation
about some threats in the past.

With all the evidence obtained,
they had probable cause

to bring an indictment
against James Andros.

-On April 23, 2001,

James Andros
is arrested for murder.

-I go into the office,
see James.

I tell him, "Look, Jimmy,
I'm sorry to tell you

I have to charge you
for the murder of your wife."

James looked at me
and said, "Bruce, I understand."

-Even though James Andros
is calm during his arrest,

he is not budging on his story.

-James is still claiming
his innocence.

He's still saying he
did not kill his wife, Ellen.

-It's crystal clear
to detectives

that there are two camps --

those that believe
James is innocent

and those that don't.

-I never had an inkling
to ask Jim

if he had anything
to do with her death.

I knew it was not him.

-The case of Ellen Andros
explodes on April 23, 2001,

when her husband, James,

is charged
with first-degree murder.

-We looked to see if there
could have been anybody else

that was involved in this,
that showed up at the house

or broke into the house or had
a key to get in the house.

I mean, we looked at everything.

Based on the information,
what we had at that time,

we concluded that it
would have been James Andros.

-He's the only adult male
at the time of death.

-The juicy story
of a police officer

who claims his innocence
sparks a media storm.

-When you have somebody
charged of killing his wife

who's an Atlantic City
police officer,

the case immediately generated
a lot of public interest.

-And those closest to James
are rattled by the idea

that James may be involved
with Ellen's death.

-The next day,
after Jim was arrested,

I got a hold of Jim,

and the first thing
he said to me was,

"Don't believe anything that
you're hearing on the news."

He sounded completely in shock

and shook up.

-Ellen's parents take custody
of their grandchildren.

-During the time
that this case was pending,

he lost custody of his children.

-Ellen's parents were still
telling their young children

that their dad killed their mom.

And he had some embarrassment
that this was going on.

Even though I'm a good friend,

he didn't want to talk to me
about it.

-James is immediately
suspended from his job

as an Atlantic City
police officer.

After years
of chasing criminals,

now he's the one behind bars.

-He's transported

to the Atlantic County
Justice Facility.

-Because James
is a police officer,

he's put in a different area.

He's segregated
from the general population.

-The pressure of the situation
weighs heavily on James,

and once again, he begins
threatening to kill himself.

-He's on suicide watch,

and guards check on him
every 15 minutes.

-Within days of his arrest,

James Andros Sr.
posts bail for his son.

-He did post bond.
I believe it was $170,000.

-Jim's father posted bail,
and he was released.

-Without a murder weapon
or eyewitness testimony,

the case is sent
to the grand jury

to ensure a speedy trial.

-We've had cases
where police officers

or law enforcement people
are defendants,

and you look at them
just like anybody else.

They're innocent
until proven guilty.

-The Andros family
hires a powerful attorney

who digs into the case.

-Months go by.

The prosecution
is working on their case.

The defense
is working on theirs.

And the defense decides to hire
their own expert witness.

-The defense indicated
they were getting

their own expert
to review all the medical,

to review the autopsy,
perform additional tests.

And of course,
they had that right.

-The defense hires
world-renowned

forensic pathologist
Dr. Michael Baden.

-Dr. Michael Baden
is known for investigating

some of America's
most notorious cases,

including O.J. Simpson.

-I had heard of
Dr. Michael Baden.

I knew his reputation.

-Dr. Baden
is going to take a look

at the original autopsy
performed by Dr. Elliot Gross.

-In early November 2002,

Baden begins his analysis
of Ellen,

and he finds
some contradictory information.

-Dr. Baden, Dr. Gross,
the investigators,

the attorneys,
they all gather together.

At this meeting,
Dr. Baden examines

small pieces of Ellen's remains
that have been preserved.

He picks up a tiny chunk
of her heart muscle,

about the size of a nickel.

-Immediately, there's something
in the preserved human remains

that catches Dr. Baden's
attention,

but the doctor doesn't reveal
what he sees.

-Dr. Baden says,
"I'm not ready yet."

He's not gonna give his ruling.

He needs to do more work.

This is a huge moment.

What is Dr. Baden seeing
that hasn't been seen before?

Everybody there must have been
thinking to themselves,

-As prosecutors prepare for
a trial against James Andros,

they're blindsided
by a new finding

by the defense's
medical examiner.

-I was in my office
preparing to start,

and First Assistant Prosecutor
Murray Talasnik

knocked on my door.

He put a piece of paper
in front of me,

and I looked at the paper and
it said an order of dismissal.

I looked at him
and said, "What's this?"

And he said,
"We're dismissing the case.

We got an updated report,

and Dr. Baden says Mrs. Andros
did not die by homicide.

She had a very rare condition
in her lower descending artery

that caused her death."

-She had a complete blockage

of the left
anterior descending artery,

and that's called
coronary artery dissection.

-A coronary artery dissection
is a condition

where the coronary artery
develops a tear,

causing blood to flow
between the layers of the heart,

forcing them apart.

-Just like a run
in a pantyhose,

the tear began small
and run and it spread.

-The bleeding widened the wall
of the artery to the point

where it finally was so thick
that it blocked the path

that the blood would flow
through,

and she died rather rapidly.

She had heart failure.

-Spontaneous coronary
artery dissection occurs

primarily in women and
can cause sudden cardiac arrest.

-This is a
very rare condition.

There have only been about
150 cases reported

since 1931.

-Although rare
that it could happen,

and it did in fact happen
in this case.

-It was a natural death,
not a smothering or suffocation.

-With the report's ruling

Ellen's death
was from natural causes,

there is no case
against James Andros,

but detectives are still left
with unanswered questions.

What could have triggered her
heart to give out so abruptly?

-Did something happen where
her heart rate got elevated

that caused this to happen?

Nobody knows.

But what I do know is that when
you look at Dr. Jason's report,

he says the artery disruption
would cause the body to convulse

and fall to the ground.

But I'm like,
"That's not what James said."

He said she was in the chair.

How do we explain the chair?

But again,
I asked these questions,

but the answers aren't given.

-People
that might still have questions,

I say this --
that in these kind of cases,

many times it becomes
a battle of the experts.

An expert will come in and say,

"I performed an autopsy
and I found A, B, and C,

and based on A, B, and C,
I conclude a homicide."

The other expert will come in
and say, "I redid the autopsy.

I looked at the slides,
and based on A, B, and C,

I conclude this was
natural causes."

-I've never seen
a conflict in any homicide case

where there was
just total discrepancy

in the reports by doctors.

To me,
it just raises a red flag.

You know, what's
really going on here?

I mean,
how can they be that far apart?

-Unless they had
some smoking gun

as to the non-forensic
type evidence --

they had somebody seeing
Mr. Andros leaving the bar,

saying, "I'm going to go home,
kill my wife and come back."

Absent some smoking gun
like that,

I believe that the state
would have had a very hard time

convincing 12 jurors
that this was a homicide

based on the reports
that I read.

-Without
ever having to go to trial,

James Andros is exonerated
and released from prison.

-James says
throughout this whole ordeal

none of his fellow officers
nor his family

questioned his innocence.

-I got a call from Jim
after the medical examiner

that he hired
found the real cause of death,

and there was
a huge feeling of relief.

And that's what started
the process of healing

and of mourning
his wife's death.

I still feel bad for Jim.

Even though Ellen was
the victim of death,

Jim has been the long-term
victim of this whole thing

because he's still suffering
from her death.

But it took almost a year
for all this to clear

and for him to get his job back
and custody of the kids.

He's had some hard times
throughout these 20-some years,

but he's doing okay.

He's still going through it
every day,

every time he looks at his kids.

I couldn't imagine.

The children are grown up.

They have their own lives now,
but I think they're doing well,

both of them.

Every time I think of
or see their children,

I wonder how their relationship
would have been

with their mother at this point
if she was still around.

Ellen would always see good
in someone.

She would always find
something good to say.

But Ellen was a great mother
above everything else.

That's her legacy.

I think her family
is still her legacy.