Original subtitles

-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.