by John Glatt
“We’re a small police department here,” explained Det Sergeant Jones. “We don’t have the experience or the logistic support to conduct homicide investigations.”
He then called Det Laurie Agnew, telling her about Kristin’s suspected affair with her boss in the ME’s office. Then, armed with this new information and Jerome’s suspicions, she asked her supervisor, Sergeant Howard Willams, to call the medical examiner’s office and place a hold on Greg’s body to stop the cremation. It would be another two days until the cremation would be stopped.
After meeting with Jerome, Det Agnew spent several hours confirming his account. She spoke to Cal Vine at the ME’s office, learning that Greg’s body had been autopsied at UCSD and his specimens were currently at the sheriff’s crime laboratory, awaiting analysis.
The following morning, Det Agnew officially opened a Homicide investigation in the death of Greg de Villers. But it would be many months before she would have enough evidence to make an arrest.
On Wednesday afternoon, Kristin went to the medical examiner’s office to clear out her desk. She had been granted bereavement leave, and spent time in the laboratory area, accepting sympathy from her colleagues.
“It seemed like she wanted to take work home to have something to do,” remembered toxicologist Cathy Hamm. “Saying ‘Hi’ to people and possibly gathering some folders or files.”
Earlier that day, Nicole Robertson had left for England for a vacation. Dr. Robertson would finally be able to stay the night at Kristin’s apartment.
Soon after arriving at work that day, Dr. Robertson went to the ME’s autopsy room, where he asked Bob Sutton if he could view Greg’s toxicology samples, which were being temporarily kept there before being transported to Frank Barnhart in the sheriff’s crime lab. Sutton allowed him to look at the organs, although he didn’t touch them.
When Dr. Blackbourne discovered that Dr. Robertson had disobeyed his order to stay away from Greg’s toxicology, he was furious, summoning Robertson into his office to explain himself.
“I was pretty irritated and let him know that,” Dr. Blackbourne would later testify. “I made it clear that I expected him to cease any inquiries about the toxicology in this case.”
A few hours later, Robertson told toxicologist Cathy Hamm that he had seen the contents of Greg’s stomach and that they were red, speculating that he had maybe overdosed on cough syrup.
At 6:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, the ME’s autopsy room supervisor, Robert Sutton, personally delivered a cardboard box to Frank Barnhart, at the sheriff’s crime lab, containing vial samples of Greg’s blood, stomach contents, urine and liver. The box was marked “Gregory de Villers, 2000- 2088.” Along with the toxicology, there was also a list of tests that Dr. Blackbourne wanted, including blood alcohol, drugs of abuse, a urine drug screen, aspirin, clonazepam and cyanide.
Barnhart decided to send the samples to Pacific Laboratories in Woodland Hills for analysis. He telephoned Pacific’s director of toxicology services, Mr. Michael Dean Henson, to ask for the testing.
“He was not comfortable in doing the work himself,” said Henson. “He knew the people involved in the case.”
Henson promised to run a comprehensive drug screen on the samples, but it would be another five days before the results were ready.
Late Wednesday night, Dr. Yves de Villers had landed at Los Angeles International Airport. Bertrand went to collect him, and the following morning they drove to Huntington, where Jerome picked them up and took them to San Diego.
Earlier, Jerome had left a message with Det Sergeant Robert Jones saying that he needed to talk to Jones urgently.
“I called him back,” said Det Jones. “He wanted to express his opinion that he didn’t feel that this was suicide. He felt Kristin was involved in his death and he wanted me to know that.”
Jerome also demanded an independent autopsy, and Det Jones assured him that he would make that happen now that he was in close touch with San Diego Homicide.
A couple of hours later, Jones drove to police headquarters on Broadway, where he officially handed the investigation over to Det Laurie Agnew.
As a trained medical doctor, Yves de Villers also wanted to meet Dr. Blackbourne, to ask him about the autopsy he had performed on Greg. Jerome decided to take his microcassette recorder with them and secretly tape the conversation, so he could have a record of everything said. In his job as a field appraiser for a nationally known insurance company, he was used to taping conversations with clients.
“I was real emotional,” recalled Jerome. “The person who did the autopsy worked with Kristin. There was a conflict of interest, [so] I taped it.”
During their meeting, Dr. Blackbourne again brought up the relationship between Kristin and Dr. Robertson, saying he was never certain that the rumors were true. He also told them that Kristin had recently attended the SOFT conference in Milwaukee with Dr. Robertson.
Then Dr. de Villers asked the medical examiner for a second independent autopsy on his son’s body. Dr. Blackbourne tried to allay Dr. de Villers’ fears, explaining that the bloodwork and organ specimens were going to be tested by laboratories outside his office.
After leaving the ME’s office, Dr. de Villers and his two sons drove across San Diego to Orbigen, for another talk with Greg’s co-workers. They told Dr. Stefan Gruenwald that the police were treating Greg’s death as suicide, and many of his organs had been removed with Kristin’s consent. Jerome said they had to move fast, as his brother’s body was being cremated on Sunday.
Dr. Gruenwald, who had worked in forensic medicine in his native Germany, was amazed that Kristin had allowed her husband’s eyes to be donated for cornea transplants, knowing they might hold the chemical key to his death.
“If you donate yourself,” Dr. Gruenwald would later testify, “you donate the liver, heart, or something. Definitely not your eyes. That would never cross most people’s minds.”
Dr. Gruenwald agreed that they must stop Greg’s cremation at all cost, until a proper outside autopsy and investigation could be conducted. So far, Dr. Gruenwald, who had collected a number of suspicious e-mails from Kristin off Greg’s computer, had not even been interviewed by police.
They decided that all the Orbigen staff should send a letter to San Diego Homicide detectives, explaining why Greg de Villers may not have committed suicide.
“Dear Homicide Detectives,” the letter began. “This statement is to express our strong belief that Gregory de Villers, who was our friend and co-worker for many years, has not shown any sign of suicidal tendency during all the time we have known him.” The letter went on to portray Greg as a happy and ambitious person with exciting plans for the future, including reaping the rewards of Orbigen’s financial growth and going to law school.
The Orbigen staff members concluded by declaring that “suicide is not an option for his death,” and asking for an opportunity to discuss the matter with a San Diego homicide detective.
The letter was signed by Dr. Gruenwald, Terry Huang and five other Orbigen employees. Later, Dr. Gruenwald would estimate that Orbigen was worth $5 million at the time of Greg’s death and his stock options added up to $150,000 on paper.
That afternoon, San Diego Homicide detectives officially placed a hold on Greg’s body, to prevent it being cremated on Sunday. And at 6:00 that evening, the de Villers family pulled up outside Kristin’s apartment at La Jolla del Sol. It had been decided that all three of them appearing might be too overwhelming for Kristin, as Jerome was unsure if he could control his emotions. So Dr. de Villers and Jerome went to get coffee, while Bertrand went in to see Kristin.
“I was concerned about how she was doing,” remembered Bertrand. “I thought it was kind of odd that she would want to be in the apartment [where] my brother died. Her husband. And that she would sleep in the bed [where] his body was found.”
When Bertrand knocked on the front door, Kristin answered—and she had male company. She introduced Michael Robertson to
him, explaining that he also worked for the ME’s office and had come to drop off her paycheck.
He was wary of Robertson, who looked extremely nervous, waiting in the living room while Bertrand asked Kristin how she was doing. But as soon as he began discussing his brother’s death, Robertson disappeared into the kitchen.
“To be honest, I was a little scared of Michael Robertson,” he said. “I had never met him before. I didn’t know who he was.”
A few minutes later, Bertrand left feeling uncomfortable that his recently bereaved sister-in-law was already entertaining men.
When Bertrand got back into the car with his father and brother, he told them Michael Robertson had been with Kristin in the apartment.
“I was really concerned,” said Jerome. “I was being told about this possible affair, and then three days after Greg dies, he’s in Greg’s apartment.”
So the two brothers went back to see Kristin, while their father waited in the car. Without even telling Bertrand, Jerome flipped the tape over in his microcassette recorder and set it to RECORD.
By the time they entered the apartment, Robertson had left. Kristin seemed talkative, inviting them to sit around the dining room table with her. Then they asked about the events leading up to Greg’s death.
She began by telling Greg’s concern about her working around drugs in the ME’s office.
“He said it was unhealthy for her, given her past drug history,” remembered Bertrand. “She said that since her problem in the past, she had become interested in methamphetamine and its psychosis.”
Kristin freely admitted Greg had suspected that she was back on drugs, telling the brothers that “it hurt her so badly.” She also told them of Greg’s ultimatum, after searching her purse a week earlier and finding Robertson’s “old letter,” that she either quit her job or he’d expose her “drug history.”
When Jerome asked her point-blank if she was back on methamphetamine, Kristin categorically denied it.
“She was acting like Greg was wrongly accusing her,” said Jerome. “As if Greg was out of line.”
Then they brought up the conference that Dr. Blackbourne had told them she’d recently attended with Robertson. She explained that Robertson was her “lab supervisor” and a “good guy,” pointing out that Bertrand had seen him in the apartment earlier, dropping off her paycheck.
“He wanted to make sure I was okay,” she told them. “That’s allowed. Because he knew how devastated I was ... He knew that I would feel responsible.”
Suspicious, Jerome then asked her exactly what her relationship with Dr. Robertson.
“She said they were just friends,” he recalled. “Just good friends.”
Jerome remembered what Kristin had said two days earlier in Claremont, when she’d mentioned Greg’s concern that she wouldn’t stop seeing someone from her past. Now he pressed for more details why Greg would be so upset about her friendship with Robertson.
“I told him that I had an emotional relationship with Michael,” she replied. “And that was over—that was it.”
When asked to elaborate, she said, “I was unhappy, or thought we were—it was something we shared. You know, find yourself. There was some flirting. But that was it. And it was over.”
Then Kristin started hinting that Greg was taking drugs because of her relationship with Robertson. When Jerome said it was totally out of character for his brother to take drugs, she agreed, adding that he didn’t even take aspirin. She told them that she had tried to give Greg cough medicine on several occasions, but he had stopped taking it, saying it didn’t work anymore. Greg had some vicodin, she said, left over from the removal of his wisdom teeth a year earlier, but it upset his stomach.
Bertrand then asked about Greg taking half a day off the Thursday before his death. Kristin told him how Greg had come home and found Robertson’s letter, which she had shredded. She said that Greg had then telephoned Michael Robertson to confront him, telling him to “stay away from my wife!”
Astonished, Bertrand asked why she would bring a love letter home.
“You don’t leave that kind of stuff at work,” his sister-in-law explained.
She then related how Greg had come home for lunch that Thursday, becoming “aggressive and accusatory.”
“You are doing drugs,” she remembered him saying. “I know you are on drugs.”
Kristin’s demeanor was constantly changing throughout the often-emotional conversation around the dining room table. One minute she would be calm, and then she would become defensive and emotional. The brothers wondered if she was on drugs.
She seemed particularly unnerved when they asked her about the day of Greg’s death. She had called in sick for him, she said, as she didn’t want his boss to hear him sounding slurry, like a drunk. After going to work, she had returned at about 9:30 a.m. to check on him and found him “sleeping soundly.”
“I came back at lunch,” she said, her eyes welling up with tears. “I made him some soup, and he didn’t eat much of it at all. He pushed it around and seemed upset. So I went back to work.”
She then told them how she had begun to worry about Greg.
“I shared that with Michael,” she said. “And I took off a little early ... because I was really scared, and didn’t know who else to talk to about this. We took off early, around three o’clock. We were talking and then we stopped at the grocery store, picked up some more soup and stuff.”
She then said she returned home about 5:00 p.m. to find Greg sleeping soundly and snoring. She made him dinner. When it was ready, she told him and he acknowledged her with a grunt, but never left his bed.
At about 6:00 p.m., she told them, she had suddenly remembered leaving her “instrument” on in the ME’s office, and had gone there, stopping for gas on the way.
When she had returned to the apartment at 6:45, she had kissed Greg on the forehead, noting that he was warm.
“I regret that I decided to take a long bath,” she told them, adding that she had been studying the policies of the various political candidates, so she could vote in the local elections the following morning.
After her bath, she said, she came into the bedroom to find Greg cold and not breathing, immediately calling 911.
Jerome told her he found it hard to believe that his brother had committed suicide, as he’d never seen any signs of depression.
“I don’t think he did,” replied Kristin enigmatically. “I don’t think he did. I think it was accidental. I don’t know if he had a reaction to something. Maybe he’s allergic to a drug.”
Jerome then asked about the clonazepam she claimed Greg had told her he’d taken. Kristin explained that they were from a five-year-old prescription of hers.
“Greg threw away the prescription bottles five years ago,” she declared. “I saw him, and as you know, you always throw away the prescription bottle and drugs in separate places. He kept the pills, I guess, without the containers.”
Bertrand said it would be “weird” for Greg to keep drugs, as he never took any.
“It seems weird,” Kristin agreed. “It seems very weird.”
Jerome pressed her further, saying that he had a problem with her explanation, as his brother loathed drugs.
“It’s not a problem I have an answer to,” she replied, adding that Greg may also have taken some cough syrup, although she had spilled most of it.
“It’s very unfortunate,” she said. “It’s unlike him, yes. But so is his behavior. So is his depression.”
Kristin theorized that Greg might have been depressed about the credit debt she had accrued since she had started college. But this didn’t ring true to Bertrand, who recalled Greg recently boasting that he had worked off everything they owed and they were in the black.
“It was accidental,” an exasperated Kristin finally told them. “Don’t you understand? I’m grieving too. I am just as confused as you. I don’t know all the answers.”
Jerome and Bertrand left with even more q
uestions about their brother’s death. Bertrand would later admit he believed her that night. He even felt some guilt about probing so deeply, feeling that he should be there to support her and help her to grieve Greg. But Jerome was not so sure.
Later that night, the brothers transcribed every word on the tape, rewinding it over and over again, as some of it was hard to hear.
“It was kind of a long process,” Bertrand remembered. “We would listen to it, write it down by hand. Try to make certain words out.”
When Jerome gave Det Agnew a CD he’d made of the tape and his written transcript, it would prove a crucial part of her investigation.
At 8:00 on Friday evening, Greg de Villers’ friend Bill Leger arrived at the La Jolla del Sol apartment to see Kristin. Now that police had put a hold on Greg’s body, and there would be no cremation, Kristin had arranged a simple memorial service on Sunday, which would have been Greg’s 27th birthday. Leger had planned to attend.
Kristin looked terrible, with fresh scabs on her once-beautiful face, her blonde hair unwashed and greasy.
“She was withdrawn,” Leger remembered, “and a little distraught in her appearance.”
Leger ordered in a large pizza, but when it arrived, Kristin did not have much of an appetite, managing to eat a few bites while Leger ate two slices. While he was there, the phone rang and Kristin talked for a few minutes.
She informed Leger that the call had come from her boss, Michael Robertson, asking if he could come over to see her that night. Then she surprised her husband’s close friend by announcing that she had started to have “feelings” for Dr. Robertson, and that they had been to a toxicology conference together a few weeks earlier.
At about 10:00 p.m., Kristin said she was getting tired and wanted to take a bath before going to bed. Leger took the hint and, after wrapping the remaining seven pizza slices and putting them in the fridge, he left.
Leger and his mother returned to the apartment early the next morning, bringing food for the guests after the memorial service. When he opened the fridge, he was surprised to see that only one slice of the pizza remained. He was shocked to think Dr. Robertson had spent the night alone with the new widow in Greg’s bed.
