Deadly Dose (29 page)

Eric Miller’s condition continued to decline during the night of December 1, 2000. He was placed in intensive care and at 2:50 AM on December 2, he died. An autopsy was performed at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which determined that the cause of death was arsenic poisoning.

Investigators began to investigate the circumstances of Eric’s death. On the evening of December 2, 2000, Ann Miller was interviewed at the Raleigh Police Department. During that interview she was asked if she knew of anyone with any motive to harm her husband, she mentioned that Eric had been involved in a minor dispute with a neighbor involving several other residents of their neighborhood over a fence; she could not provide any other possible reason for someone wanting to harm Eric. After that interview, despite numerous attempts to ask Ann Miller additional questions, she refused, through her father and then her attorney to answer any questions from the police department.

On December 2, while at her parents’ house, Ann Miller announced her intention to have Eric’s remains cremated to Verus Miller, Eric’s father. She subsequently reiterated her intention to go through with the cremation at a meeting to discuss the funeral arrangements at St. Francis’ Church on the following day. On both occasions, Eric’s parents and sisters were shocked and objected, as the family had no experience with cremation in the past and the subject had never been a topic of discussion by Eric. Eric’s father actually offered to pay for all the expenses of a traditional funeral in lieu of cremation, but Ann Miller would not relent

Eric Miller’s life was closely examined and it was found that he was very popular and well-thought of by his friends, neighbors, and co-workers at UNC. No one could provide any motive for someone to harm him. There was an extensive search conducted of the lab he worked in and no arsenic or arsenic-containing compounds were located. His e-mail, phone records, and office were searched and nothing suspicious was located. No evidence of any substantial conflict could be found in his life.

During the investigation it was determined that Ann Miller did have access to arsenic in the lab she worked in at Glaxo Wellcome. Several arsenic containing compounds were used by her and her co-workers, and there was no system to track how these arsenic-containing compounds were dispensed.

Ann Miller’s cellular telephone records were obtained through court order and it was discovered that there were a large number of calls to one of her co-workers, Derril Willard. Some of the telephone calls placed by Ann Miller to Derril Willard were late in the evening or very early morning hours and the phone records indicate that some of the calls were over thirty minutes in duration. These phone calls began on October 30, 2000, and ended on December 2, 2000.

Derril Willard had been one of the three male co-workers of Ann Miller who accompanied Eric Miller on the bowling outing on November 15. The other co-workers, who had gone bowling with Eric, Randy Bledsoe and Tom Conselor, were interviewed. They both recalled that Eric had consumed part of a cup of beer that had been purchased and poured by Derril Willard, about an hour before he became ill. At the time he drank the beer Eric made a comment to the other men that the beer tasted “funny or bad.” Prior to consuming the entire cup of beer, Eric accidentally spilled it, according to Randy Bledsoe. Within two hours, while bowling, Eric Miller became very ill. He continued to bowl, but was so nauseated he kept a trash bag nearby to vomit in.

Due to the large number of telephone calls between Ann Miller and Derril Willard, investigators attempted on numerous occasions to contact Willard during mid-December 2000. Mr. Willard did not return any messages left for him. Subsequent searches of Ann Miller’s work computer revealed numerous e-mails between her and Mr. Willard. These e-mails were of a flirtatious, intimate nature and were indicative of a romantic relationship between the two. It was discovered, however, in analyzing both the telephone records and e-mails that they started in mid-October of 2000, and ended, abruptly, after the death of Eric Miller.

As investigators looked further into the activities of Ann Miller and Derril Willard, it was discovered that they had both traveled to Chicago, Illinois, on November 11, 2000. Ann Miller had told Eric she had to travel to Chicago on business for Glaxo Wellcome; this was reported to Eric’s parents who he talked with by phone frequently. A check with officials at Glaxo Wellcome revealed that neither Ann Miller, nor Derril Willard, made the trip to Chicago for a business purpose. They [the company] had no records showing them being sent there or asking for reimbursement for the trip. A check of airline records showed roundtrip tickets purchased on Flight 1300 to Chicago on Southwest Airlines for November 10, 2000, and returning November 12, 2000, in the names of Ann Miller and Derril Willard. The tickets had been purchased at the same time and paid for in cash. A short time after their flight arrived in Chicago, Derril Willard checked into a room at the Chicago Ritz-Carlton, he signed the registration for the hotel room, listing Mr. and Mrs. Derril Willard as the occupants of the room.

Subsequent interviews with Mrs. Yvette Willard revealed that she had not gone to Chicago the weekend of November 10, 2000. She had been in Raleigh that weekend. She did remember her husband making the trip. He had told her he was going to reunite with some friends from college for a weekend outing.

Ann Miller and Derril Willard flew back to Raleigh from Chicago on Sunday, November 12, 2000. A check of the records for the room rented at the Ritz-Carlton showed a room service bill for several in-room meals. This trip was the weekend prior to the bowling outing where Eric Miller was first poisoned.

Among the e-mails and other documents recovered in a search of Ann Miller’s work computer were a large number of e-mails and other documents relating to her relationship with a Mr. Carl Mackewicz, who is a research scientist with the University of California in San Francisco. These e-mails and documents dated back to 1997. The content of them plainly showed the existence of an intimate, romantic relationship between Ann Miller and Mr. Mackewicz stretching from mid-1997 until the time of Eric Miller’s death. Investigators were sent to San Francisco, California, to interview Mr. Carl Mackewicz. He initially denied any romantic relationship between them, but when confronted with the e-mails recovered from Ann Miller’s computer he admitted they had been involved in an extramarital affair for some time. At the time Mr. Mackewicz was divorced. He admitted that they had sexual relations on several occasions when Ann Miller traveled to the west coast for job-related seminars and other reasons. Mr. Mackewicz told investigators that he had traveled to New York City in December 1998 for a rendezvous with Ann Miller, where they spent several days together in a hotel, sightseeing and attending Broadway shows. He also stated that he had traveled to North Carolina and had spent several days at the Outer Banks with Ann Miller in May of 1999. He stated that this was the last physical encounter where the two had been intimate, but they had remained in contact with each other by e-mail and telephone. Mackewicz was questioned about the cost of these trips and informed detectives that Ann Miller had paid for them, including his airfare from California and all lodging expenses. He emphasized that had Ann Miller not paid for these trips he would never have gone on any of them. Mr. Mackewicz stated that he had last spoken to Ann Miller on Thanksgiving Day, 2000. He called her in response to an e-mail she sent him requesting that he call.

Dr. Thomas Clark of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner performed an autopsy on Eric Miller. His report clearly indicates that Eric Miller received multiple doses of arsenic during the summer of 2000, based on the analysis of hair samples taken from Eric Miller. These doses started as early as mid-June of 2000, and continued into the fall of 2000. The amount of arsenic ingested, based on the hair analysis and clinical record, suggests that the doses during the summer of 2000 were small and not sufficient to induce acute symptoms. Dr. Clark addresses the proximate cause of Eric Miller’s death in his autopsy report, saying: “Death is due to arsenic poisoning, with the first dose being prior to the first hospitalization. Laboratory findings are most consistent with the administration of at least one additional dose of arsenic during the prolonged hospitalization. It is possible, based on the clinical history, and supported laboratory studies, that a third dose was administered as well, leading to the final hospitalization.” In addition to Dr. Clark, several other experts have consulted on this case. With some variations, these experts substantively agree with the findings of Dr. Clark as outlined above.

It has been clearly established through this investigation that Derril Willard was not in contact with Eric Miller at any time after the night of November 15, when the initial poisoning occurred. During the solitary interview with Ann Miller she never mentions having any visitors during the time Eric’s parents went to dinner on the night of November 30, 2000. She never mentions at any time during that interview, or in any conversations with her family or Eric’s family, before or immediately after his death, the name of Derril Willard.

Derril Willard was spoken to only once by officers. On January 21, 2001, a search warrant was executed for his residence. I had a brief conversation with Mr. Willard. At that time I told him I felt he was being used by a woman. Derril Willard responded: “Yes, and she is doing a good job of it.” He then asked if he could call his lawyer and no further conversation of a substantive nature ensued. The next day, January 22, 2001, Derril Willard was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot in the garage of his residence. Willard left a suicide note, which was found near his body. In the note he states that he is “not responsible for the death of anyone” other than himself.

When Morgan’s song and dance was over, it was Ann’s turn. At sentencing, defendants have an opportunity to speak to the judge and the court, to express remorse about their actions and apologize if they so choose. In many instances defendants are too anxious to speak and instead ask their attorneys do it for them. Ann Miller opted to have Joe Cheshire read her statement.

“For reasons I do not now understand I permitted myself to knowingly participate with Derril Willard in events which cost my husband his life. I feel a deep sense of remorse and regret that things happened,” Joe Cheshire intoned, reading the words he told the court Ann Miller wrote.

“I will struggle for the rest of my life for how this could have happened. Most of all I regret it for my husband Eric and his family. I also regret it for my husband, daughter and for my family. They are all good and decent people,” Cheshire went on as Ann sobbed at the table next to him, “and do not deserve the pain they have suffered. I have asked God to forgive me and I hope that God will also help those others who I have hurt to find it in their hearts one day to forgive me as well. No punishment I will receive today can compare to the pain and remorse I feel in my heart that I was a knowing instrumentality in the death of my husband. I will never get over this event, but I will try to answer my duty to God’s law and man’s law with humility. In doing so I hope and pray to be able to move ahead and one day to receive forgiveness in this world and the next. Signed Ann Miller Kontz.”

And then it was Eric’s turn. While he couldn’t speak for himself, his family spoke for him, eloquently, graciously, and with the weight of grief hanging over every word.

“Eric was a kind and loving and considerate young man. He was a wonderful son, and brother, and a wonderful father to his daughter in the short time that he spent with her,” said Doris Miller as she stood stoically at the end of the prosecution table looking up from her notes periodically to catch the judge’s eye.

“I can see him as a child, running through the house, laughing and playing with his
Star Wars
figures, his Matchbox cars. I can look out the window and see him riding his horse in the corral. I drive by the school and I see him playing tennis on the courts,” Doris Miller said, pausing as if she were sifting through these past images in her mind.

“He was so happy when he graduated from high school. He went off to college. He was going to accomplish so much. He wanted to help mankind. He graduated from Purdue and came down here and I remember he discussed the accomplishments he made when he got his doctorate in biochemistry. He was so happy with what he was doing with his research in pediatric AIDS. He wanted to make a difference. He wanted to help children. He wanted to help people, but I most of all remember his wonderful smile, and the gleam in his eye when he held his infant daughter. He was such a proud father and he loved her so much. And one day he said to me, he said Mom you always said you loved me, he says now I understand exactly how much.” Her voice heavy with pain, Doris Miller bowed her head for about thirty seconds and then continued.

“Ann, you murdered my son,” she said, looking across the courtroom at her former daughter-in-law. “He died a cruel and agonizing death that no one should ever have to suffer, especially someone who loved you so much. You can never, ever, spend enough time in prison, enough years. I have a hole in my heart and pain in my chest every day and with every breath I take. You have taken my son from me. I won’t ever hold him again. He will never sit at my table. I will never see his smile. You have taken him physically away from me but you can never, ever take his love for us, and you can’t ever take away our love for him, and most of all you can never, ever take away my precious memories.”

Doris walked back to her seat in the front of the courtroom and embraced her daughter Leeann before sitting down. Morgan only wished there was something he could do to alleviate some of the grief from this broken family. While he knew that making these statements was cathartic for them, he also knew it was emotionally draining in a way that even he could never truly understand.

Verus Miller took his place at the end of the prosecution table with a pile of photographs in front of him. He sat in a chair and shuffled through the pictures, describing each one to the judge. Eric at Christmas, Eric playing tennis, Eric with his sisters, Eric on his horse, Eric with his daughter. With each photograph his voice became more and more agitated until finally, he was almost yelling.