Beverly Hills 911

Summary

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48 Hours Podcast — "Beverly Hills 911" (May 11, 2026)

Episode Overview

This powerful episode of “48 Hours” walks listeners through the investigation into the death of Violet Jacoby, a well-loved Beverly Hills widow. Through interviews with detectives, prosecutors, family friends, and medical experts, CBS News explores whether Violet’s demise was a tragic accident, suicide, or a calculated murder for financial gain. The episode meticulously tracks the investigation process, the complex family dynamics, the shocking trial, and the forensic battles that ultimately led to her son, Daniel Jacoby, being convicted for her murder.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The 911 Call and the Scene (02:01–04:12)

• Detectives recount the initial 911 call received on October 10, 2017, by Daniel and his sister Deena after they found their mother, Violet Jacoby, unconscious in her Beverly Hills home.
• First impressions: No forced entry, mother found under staircase; absence of trauma like gunshot or stabbing.
• Early theories ranged from accidental fall, suicide, to possible strangulation due to neck and jaw abrasions.
• The discovery: “There was very significant abrasion on her jawline in a kind of V shaped pattern. There was a separate abrasion just below that on her neck.” (Det. George Elwell, 04:22)

2. Investigative Doubts: Accident, Suicide, or Murder? (05:35–12:54)

• Detectives express skepticism about the “fall” theory because of the body’s placement, undisturbed dust on railings, and the improbability due to Violet’s height.
  • “If she wanted to climb over...the dust would have been completely damaged. For her to accidentally fall over was just not reasonable.” (Det. Mark Schwartz, 08:19)
• Family and cultural context: Suicide seen as deeply taboo in Violet’s Russian Jewish community; detectives consider if the family tried to conceal suicide for financial or reputational reasons.

3. Daniel Jacoby Under Scrutiny (12:46–20:30)

• Daniel’s inconsistent accounts of performing CPR, presence at the scene, and timelines during interviews arouse suspicion.
  • “There’s only one person that doesn’t seem to be forthcoming and doesn’t seem genuine.” (Det. Mark Schwartz, 12:25)
• Cell phone and interview analysis suggest Daniel may have been alone at the scene prior to his sister’s arrival and had opportunity.

4. Exploring Motive: Family, Money, and Resentment (22:56–27:14)

• Violet was a pillar in her community; her husband was a respected doctor, and the family lived in an $8M Beverly Hills home.
• Prosecutors and investigators delve into Daniel’s finances:
  • Recent large loan, business setbacks, evidence of living beyond means.
  • Statements from family and acquaintances describe Daniel’s deep resentment and sense of being controlled by his parents (Dean Summers, 25:08: “I hate my life. I hate being married. I hate my mother. I hate my father. Those were his words...”)

5. Evidence Mounts: Digital Trails and DNA (28:21–31:20)

• Cell phone records and security camera footage contradict Daniel’s alibi, place him at his mother’s home the night she died, and show suspicious behavior (driving around, computer searches about DNA transfer after death).
• Daniel caught texting his sister to "get the CPR story straight," indicating potential cover-up rather than grief.

6. Arrest and the Trial’s Medical Mystery (31:16–38:12)

• After four months, Daniel is arrested; he spent seven years awaiting trial.
• The defense introduces a second narrative: Dr. Larry Sims, a forensic pathologist, vigorously disputes the official conclusion of strangulation, citing a previously missed spinal fracture and a brain condition (AVM).
  • “There was no evidence that she was strangled, period.” (Dr. Larry Sims, 32:54)
• The prosecution and defense’s battle of experts centers on ambiguous autopsy findings, missed injuries, and the plausibility of a catastrophic fall versus a manual killing.
• “If you can convince the jury to believe that she died of natural causes, then Daniel Jacoby’s not guilty of a crime.” (Julie Rendelman, 38:18)

7. Trial Twist: Pre-meditation and Digital Evidence (39:04–44:47)

• Prosecutors present Daniel's search history (chokeholds, unexplained deaths, inheritance tax), suspicious online behavior, and financial maneuvering shortly before Violet’s death.
• Timeline reconstructed via Facebook location records, city cameras, and home security footage puts Daniel at the scene during the key time.
  • “Almost like a shark. He’s circling the block and he’s going down the alley. He pulls up right around here, just behind the residence, and for whatever reason, he stops. And then he slowly backs up.” (Det. Mark Schwartz, 43:23)

8. Verdict and Aftermath (45:17–46:01)

• Jury finds Daniel Jacoby guilty of first-degree murder for financial gain, sentencing him to life without parole after a three-week trial and nearly eight years after the crime.
  • “On some level, this guy has gotten away with murder.” (Det. George Elwell, 45:27)
  • “This broke that family apart.” (Det. Mark Schwartz, 45:51)
• Friends and the community are left with sadness and questions about motive, family bonds, and the high cost of ambition and resentment.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “He did the research.” – Det. Mark Schwartz, on Daniel’s suspicious online searches (41:10)
• “It was calculated.” – Narrator, on Jacoby’s behavior following the murder (44:38)
• “I feel for Violet. And I feel for Daniel. What in the world made him do that?” – Galena Blackmon, Violet’s friend, reflecting on the tragedy and its ripple effect (46:00)
• “There’s absolutely no disturbance on that railing that would have indicated anything had gone over.” – Det. Aaron Moriarty (07:12)
• “He was not talkative. He just looked very unhappy...I hate my life. I hate being married. I hate my mother. I hate my father.” – Dean Summers, on Daniel’s confession of resentment (25:08)

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Timestamps for Significant Segments

| Timestamp | Segment / Topic Covered | |-------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:01-04:12 | 911 call, initial scene observations | | 06:12-08:30 | Ruling out fall/suicide, doubts about family accounts | | 12:46-16:20 | Daniel’s interviews, suspicions about his timeline and behavior | | 22:56-25:56 | Family background, money as motive, Daniel’s resentment | | 27:07-28:06 | Daniel’s texts to his sister during police interview—possible cover-up | | 28:21-29:07 | Cell phone records and digital evidence contradict Daniel’s alibi | | 31:16-32:07 | Arrest of Daniel Jacoby | | 32:24-38:12 | Medical examiner controversies, alternative theories presented at trial | | 39:04-44:47 | Prosecution case: digital trail, search history, premeditation | | 45:17-45:51 | Verdict and sentencing | | 46:00 | Community/family reaction |

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Episode Tone and Style

The episode maintains a sober, investigative tone, blending methodical police work, legal strategy, and profound personal tragedy. The reporting style is direct, empathetic, and rich with detail—designed both to explore the procedural complexities and human costs involved.

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Summary Takeaway

"Beverly Hills 911" offers a compelling true crime narrative where acute investigative instincts, digital forensics, and expert medical testimony unravel a family’s dark secrets. The episode is a sharp study of motive, opportunity, and the many ways truth can be obscured—showing how, beneath Beverly Hills glamour, a web of resentment, financial desperation, and forensic ambiguity led, after years of doubt, to a murder conviction that shattered a family and stunned a community.

Transcript

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[Detective George Elwell]

We've all been angry at people that we love. And I think we've all probably done things that we wish we could take back or regret.

[911 Operator]

Beverly Hills 911. What is the address of your emergency?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

October 10, 2017. The Beverly Hills Police Department received a 911 call of an unintended death.

[911 Operator]

What's going on there?

[Detective George Elwell]

We found mother unconscious.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

She's found on the floor by her son and daughter.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Violet Yacobi was a 67 year old widow whose husband had passed a year earlier. She was living in that house alone. It was a nice house.

[Detective George Elwell]

No one had heard from her that day, which was uncommon. Daniel Jacoby and his sister Dina Jacoby meet at the house. Daniel calls 911.

[911 Operator]

Okay. Is she still unconscious?

[Detective George Elwell]

Yes.

[911 Operator]

Yes. Is she breathing?

[Detective George Elwell]

No.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Daniel colby is a 36 year old son of Violet. He was a dentist.

[911 Operator]

How long ago did you last see her? Like how long has she been like that? Do you know?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

No, I have no.

[Detective George Elwell]

He's asked by the 911 operator if anyone knows CPR.

[911 Operator]

Do you need me to walk you through it or does somebody know it?

[Detective George Elwell]

No, we're both doctors.

[911 Operator]

You're both doctors? Okay. We have.

[Daniel Jacoby]

Never mind.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

He says, my sister's doing cpr.

[911 Operator]

Who's doing cpr?

[Narrator]

My sister.

[Detective George Elwell]

During that call was just a matter of minutes. The first patrol car had arrived at the house.

[911 Operator]

The police are there?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Yes.

[Narrator]

This is Violet's house?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Yes, this is it.

[Narrator]

Do you remember coming here?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Yeah. It was dark, nighttime. I remember walking up the steps and in the door.

[Narrator]

And no sign of forced entry?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

No.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

It's a large entry doorway, marble floor. There's a large curving staircase that's to the right. The victim was laying on her back. Initially they thought that she had fallen over the railing.

[Julie Rendelman]

They just didn't know the cause of death. It wasn't like she'd been stabbed or shot. One of the issues that becomes incredibly relevant to this case is where she's laying, where it is in vicinity to a railing.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

I'm looking straight down and her feet are under the staircase. That to me, she didn't fall over the railing.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

He was the one who said, this is not sitting well with me.

[Detective George Elwell]

There was very significant abrasion on her jawline in a kind of V shaped pattern. There was a separate abrasion just below that on her neck.

[Shane Michaels]

What you're saying is they were suspecting pretty quickly that she might have been strangled.

[Detective George Elwell]

Certainly it was an option.

[Shane Michaels]

What did you learn about this family?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

We learned it was a tight family. It was a tight community.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

I'm telling you straight to your face, you're not being completely honest with us,

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

that it was not all roses and rainbows in that house.

[Daniel Jacoby]

Aaron Moriarty reports Beverly Hills 91 1.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Any unattended death like this we will get called out to. Some are clearly more suspicious than others.

[Narrator]

When Beverly Hills police detective Mark Schwartz got the call about an unintended death at the home of 67 year old widow Violet Jacoby, he didn't know what he would find.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

This one gradually got more and more suspicious.

[Narrator]

It was October 10, 2017. Violet's son Daniel and daughter Dena had told police they found their mother on the marble entryway below the staircase around 7.30pm Responding officers initially suspected it might be a suicide.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

The information that we got very early on about possibly being depressed and possibly falling over the railing, those are the things that we showed up with her dog had Just died. She had canceled her cleaning lady.

[Narrator]

Violet had just marked the one year anniversary of her husband's death. But when Detective George Elwell, now retired, arrived at the home, he didn't think she could have gone over the railing. In this crime scene photo, 48 hours rendered the body as a graphic to show the position.

[Shane Michaels]

Is that a pretty good description?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Yes.

[Shane Michaels]

And so what am I seeing there,

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

where the body was laying at the time I got there?

[Narrator]

Alwell says that when he looked down from the top of the railing, he was surprised that he couldn't see Violet's feet, which were under the staircase.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

I'm not an expert in physics, but anything that's going to go over that, that has any kind of weight to it, momentum is going to take it away from the staircase a little bit.

[Narrator]

Elwell, an old school investigator with a background in burglaries, also had an eye for more tactile evidence, like the dust that still covered much of the staircase railing.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Up and down the entire railing, there's dust patterns. But for a person of her stature, there's absolutely no disturbance on that railing that would have indicated anything had gone over.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

When he got to the station, he pulled me aside and he said, we got to write a search warrant. I'm not comfortable with what I'm seeing.

[Narrator]

Around midnight, the two detectives went to the scene together, and they asked Daniel and Deena to come for a walk through. There were no signs of a burglary.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Her wallet was there. Her checkbook, cell phone, iPad, anything that would have been stolen was still there.

[Narrator]

And they soon became more convinced that Violet had not gone over the railing.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

We had Deena stand next to the railing. I asked her how tall the mother was. She told me she said she was shorter than me.

[Narrator]

Violet was about 5ft tall, and the railing was just over 3ft, more than half her height. The railing would come up too high.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

If she wanted to climb over. The dust would have been completely damaged. For her to accidentally fall over was just not reasonable.

[Narrator]

Raising more questions, were the injuries on Violet's face and neck?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

There was some sort of mark under her chin here. There's unnatural marks on her neck.

[Narrator]

It also appeared Violet had vomited.

[Shane Michaels]

And what does that say to you guys?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

To me, there was a couple of different possibilities. Did she choke? Was she strangled?

[Narrator]

During an initial interview with two other detectives, Daniel had also wondered if his mother had been strangled.

[Daniel Jacoby]

Let me ask you something, though. I mean, I don't know. I just can't get my head around,

[Narrator]

like,

[Daniel Jacoby]

I saw Ruth everywhere, right? And I saw a bruise right here,

[Detective George Elwell]

so

[Daniel Jacoby]

looks like she was trembling.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

I, at that point, had not ruled out this idea that she had hung herself.

[Narrator]

Yet. There were no obvious signs like a rope or a belt near Violet's body. And Violet's family members rejected the idea that she would take. Daniel had described seeing her just two days earlier at a family dinner. And we were sitting right next to

[Daniel Jacoby]

each other and everything was fine.

[Narrator]

When Detective Schwartz learned that Violet was part of a close knit Russian Jewish community where suicide is taboo, it occurred to him that her children might be covering it up.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

I'm a little more in tune with the Jewish community, so I was thinking, how would it be looked at?

[Shane Michaels]

And so you thought maybe the kids might hide?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Right? Right. Could it be an insurance thing? Could it be a shame thing?

[Narrator]

Later that day, they talked about oddities they both had observed in Daniel's behavior. For Elwell, it was during the walkthrough.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Daniel's in the foyer where the body was found, just moving from side to side. He's looking down, he's crouching, he's touching the tile. And it just didn't sit well with me.

[Shane Michaels]

You didn't think it could just be a grieving son trying to figure out why his mother ended up on the floor?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

No, it was so animated. It was just like watching an episode of Columbo when he would look for evidence.

[Narrator]

For Schwartz, it was Daniel's demeanor when they met.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Daniel was very eager to help.

[Shane Michaels]

And what's wrong with that?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Nothing. But it was like a nervous energy that he had.

[Shane Michaels]

But, I mean, all along, Daniel Jacoby is being cooperative.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Absolutely, yes.

[Shane Michaels]

Your concern may be too cooperative.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Yes.

[Narrator]

They had questions about the initial story that Daniel told to other detectives of how he and his sister had come to meet at their mother's house when he learned that no one had heard from Violet.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Apparently they went there because no one had been able to get ahold of her during the day.

[Daniel Jacoby]

So I called my sister immediately.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

A few times Daniel calls his sister, and there's some sort of convoluted story about the keys.

[Daniel Jacoby]

Hey, sis, I can't find my keys anywhere. Do you know where do you have your keys?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

To the house.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

So Daniel's telling Dena, meet me at the house.

[Daniel Jacoby]

So we meet exactly at the same time.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Didn't sit right.

[Narrator]

And there were conflicting stories about who would perform CPR on the 911 call. Daniel told the operator his sister was performing CPR, but when talking to detectives, he said he also had done compressions.

[Daniel Jacoby]

My sister and I she did more

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

of the mouth to mouth.

[Daniel Jacoby]

I did the compressions. Did your brother help with the cpr?

[Deena Jacoby]

No.

[Narrator]

When Detective Schwartz called Deena, she confirmed that Daniel had not done CPR.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

20 George and I said, there's only one person that doesn't seem to be forthcoming and doesn't seem genuine.

[Narrator]

They decided they needed to interview Daniel themselves, especially once they learned that Violet had died the night of Monday, October 9, nearly 24 hours before she was found.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Based off of missed phone calls, contents in her stomach, we're pretty confident right now that it's the night of the

[Narrator]

night that she dies and detectives want to know where was Daniel.

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[Galena Blackmon]

Initially. It's like unbelievable explosion of horrible news.

[Narrator]

The nudes of Violet Jacoby's death stunned and saddened her large circle of friends in Beverly Hills, including Galena Blackmon.

[Galena Blackmon]

Who would ever kill Violet?

[Narrator]

Violet and her husband had long been pillars in their community.

[Galena Blackmon]

Perfect couple. He was a very, very solid doctor. They were very well known

[Narrator]

what was

[Galena Blackmon]

important to Violet family, her brothers, her husband, her children. She had a mission of making everybody happy.

[Narrator]

I think her son Daniel was a dentist, and her daughter Dena worked in physical therapy.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

They are the American dream immigrant family and were able to create a beautiful life in Beverly Hills. From the outside, it is a tight knit, successful family, and that's what we saw initially.

[Narrator]

But detectives began to take a closer look. On Friday, October 13, nearly three days after Violet's body was found, the deputy medical examiner completed the autopsy. The official cause of death was asphyxia by neck compression. Strangulation.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Yes.

[Narrator]

Her death was being ruled a homicide. This was now a murder investigation, and detectives asked Daniel to come back for another interview.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Any interview at this point forward is voluntary. You're not under arrest. So we know that he is saying he had not seen his mother since Sunday. First time he sees his mother is Tuesday, when he discovers the body. So we have that full time frame that we're looking at.

[Narrator]

They first asked Daniel to go through the events of Tuesday, October 10, and the night he and his sister had arrived at Violet's house.

[Daniel Jacoby]

We both get there at the same time.

[Narrator]

He told them he was in a panic when he walked in and saw her on the floor.

[Daniel Jacoby]

And I go there, like, in utter shock and, you know, like, it's my mom, so I'm, like, hysterical.

[Narrator]

He said he hugged his mother's body before starting cpr.

[Daniel Jacoby]

I grab her a little bit and just, you know, one hug, and then they start doing chest impression.

[Narrator]

But when detectives shared with Daniel the results of the autopsy, he didn't seem surprised to learn her death had been ruled a homicide.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

I can tell you that she has ligature marks on her neck at this point.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

She was frightened.

[Daniel Jacoby]

Oh, my God.

[Detective George Elwell]

I knew it.

[Daniel Jacoby]

I had a sense of that.

[Narrator]

They told him, based on the lividity patterns, the way the blood settles in the body after death, that they suspected Violet's body had been moved shortly after she died.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

She wasn't lying on her back like that for hours at a time and died.

[Daniel Jacoby]

She was moved.

[Narrator]

They also told him they believed he was hiding something.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

But you're not giving us the truth. Your story on the body is not lining up, Daniel.

[Narrator]

Daniel continued talking even when he was asked if he was responsible for his mother's death.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Was there any animosity between you and your mom? Did you ever think about killing her?

[Daniel Jacoby]

No.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Did you kill him?

[Daniel Jacoby]

No. God, this is awful. I was a stuck with him.

[Narrator]

Detectives decided they needed to lock down Daniel into his story about where he was the night Violet died.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

What'd you do Monday night?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Driving home

[Narrator]

from Inglewood, he had consistently told them that on that Monday, he worked at his dental office In Inglewood, about 12 miles from Beverly Hills, and then drove straight home, which was another six miles from Violet's house.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Did you stop at the house?

[Daniel Jacoby]

No. On Monday? No.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Positive.

[Narrator]

But each time he was asked to describe his drive home, he seemed stymied by the details.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

What route do you take to go out?

[Daniel Jacoby]

Because I was. I take.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

I take.

[Daniel Jacoby]

Sometimes I go through Beverly Hills. So I did go through Beverly Hills when on, but I didn't go through that street.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

When we started getting his time frame of Monday, that's where he got uncomfortable. At this point, we don't know he wasn't at Inglewood. But his description of how he got home it was so labored for such a simple question, and he could not give a clear answer.

[Narrator]

But Daniel was adamant when asked if he was at or near his mother's house Monday night or any point Tuesday before he reported finding the body.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

The next day.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Do you ever come into Beverly Hills the next day?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

No.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

So we're not gonna find your car or you anytime. Tuesday? No. Or Monday night?

[Daniel Jacoby]

Monday night.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

You sure about this?

[Daniel Jacoby]

Yes.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

We couldn't call him out on the lie, but we knew he was lying. And I knew he was lying during a time frame that was very significant in this case. Whatever he was holding in, it was for a reason.

[Narrator]

Detective Elwell told Daniel that they suspected he had been alone inside his mother's home before going over with his sister on Tuesday night.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

I see right through you. I can read you. It's right in there bugging the crap out of you.

[Narrator]

But Daniel pushed back and said the detectives had it all wrong.

[Daniel Jacoby]

I'm telling you everything I know. You think this is easy for me?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

My mom just died.

[Daniel Jacoby]

There's nobody closer in this world than my mom.

[Narrator]

Nobody. And there was something else. He had told detectives he had a great relationship with his mom, saying they talked and texted on a regular basis.

[Daniel Jacoby]

I text her baby pictures all the time. How are you? Blah, blah, blah.

[Narrator]

But when Detective Schwartz looked at Daniel's phone, the last phone photo he had sent his mom was a month earlier. It's been a while. And it wasn't a picture of his baby, but of his bank account.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Were you having financial problems?

[Narrator]

No.

[Daniel Jacoby]

We're just always, like. We're very open about everything.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

At this point, I found that to be significant. By that Friday, he's our suspect. No. No doubt about.

[Narrator]

I think a lot of people, when

[Shane Michaels]

they hear the name Beverly Hills, they think of movie stars.

[Galena Blackmon]

No, that's not Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills is very, very reachable. You can drive and you see the homes. Movie stars live in areas where they cannot be rich.

[Narrator]

That wasn't the case with Violet Jacoby, says Galena Blackmon.

[Galena Blackmon]

She liked to impress.

[Narrator]

Blackmon, a Beverly Hills realtor for more than 36 years, specializes in luxury properties like Violet's. Galena was asked to appraise the home while Violet's husband was still alive.

[Galena Blackmon]

At that time, I said, I think it's an $8 million house.

[Narrator]

When interviewing Violet's son Daniel, just days following her death on Friday, October 13, Detective Schwartz wondered if money was a motive.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Who gets the house?

[Daniel Jacoby]

I do.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

How much is that house worth?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

A lot.

[Narrator]

Daniel stood to inherit half of the family fortune.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Any discussion about the will or the money or where the house is going, anything like that, it's all to me.

[Daniel Jacoby]

It's all to you and to my sister.

[Narrator]

Detectives now had a murder, a potential motive, and a suspect. But after more than two hours of questioning, they let Daniel go.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

We can't arrest him.

[Shane Michaels]

Why not?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

We don't have the evidence.

[Narrator]

Dino was ruled out as a suspect, but they needed to shore up their case and dig deeper into Daniel's finances and his relationship with his mother.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

This is not like a business deal gone bad. There's a complexity to that that we had to understand.

[Narrator]

Daniel, who had grown up in Beverly Hills, was now living near Tony Bel Air. His wife was also a medical professional, and their baby was five months old.

[Dean Summers]

Everything in his life was wonderful. Dear good boy.

[Narrator]

Dean Summers got to know Daniel casually. Dean's brother was Daniel's neighbor.

[Dean Summers]

Daniel lived right next door. He was marketed as the dentist to the stars.

[Shane Michaels]

First time you met Daniel, what were your impressions? Nice guy, someone you wanted to be friends with?

[Dean Summers]

Somebody that I could potentially be friends with. Just a nice, normal guy that had his act together.

[Narrator]

But it may have been just an act, say investigators.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

I think resentment was one of the things that we started to learn pretty quick, that he had a lot of resentment towards his parents, that he had to live a certain life and be a certain way.

[Narrator]

Dean Summers says Daniel had later confided in him about those feelings. It was the last time Dean saw him, sometime in the year before Violet's death.

[Dean Summers]

He was not talkative. He just looked very unhappy. And I said, daniel, what's wrong?

[Narrator]

That's when he says, daniel unloaded a laundry list of complaints.

[Dean Summers]

I hate my life. I hate being married. I hate what I'm doing for a living. I hate my mother. I hate my father. Those were his words, and I was just taking it back.

[Narrator]

He says Daniel complained about how both his parents, his mother in particular, had controlled every aspect of his life, even pushed him into dentistry and marriage.

[Dean Summers]

I asked him, why don't you just break free of it and live your own life? He goes, I can't. I'm not making any money. They basically helped support me. He felt he was stuck because he's financially dependent on them.

[Narrator]

Although Daniel had at one point owned his own practice, he now worked for

[Shane Michaels]

other dentists, even though he said he hated his parents.

[Narrator]

Did you get any sense that he

[Shane Michaels]

might hurt his mother?

[Daniel Jacoby]

Never.

[Dean Summers]

Never.

[Narrator]

But according to investigators, after his father died, Daniel's relationship with his mother and access to the family fortune became more complicated. They had received a tip early on from Dr. Elena Spector, who was Violet's sister in law at the time.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

She tells me that Daniel has had an obsession with money and control of the estate for some time, that Violet would confide in her.

[Narrator]

Detectives went back and reviewed the video of their interview with Daniel on October 13, during a period when Daniel was left alone, he had contacted his sister.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

We leave the interview room, but it's still recording.

[Narrator]

He says Daniel didn't realize that his sister was with other detectives in another room.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Daniel starts sending texts to the sister about, hey, just remember, I was doing CPR, too.

[Narrator]

Daniel wrote, I remember we both doing chest compressions one at a time, but both of us, just to keep the

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

story straight, the sister tells the detectives, you know what? He's sending me some weird texts. So she calls him, hey, hey. And again, these are being recorded separately, but you can hear it all.

[Deena Jacoby]

What is this about chest compressions?

[Narrator]

When Deena called Daniel, she told him that she had done the compressions.

[Deena Jacoby]

No, no, no, Danique. I did the chest compressions. And you called 911.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

No.

[Daniel Jacoby]

But you had torsure.

[Deena Jacoby]

No. Oh, no, you didn't.

[Daniel Jacoby]

Da, da, da, da, da.

[Narrator]

Daniel speaking in Russian, insisted he had as well.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Daniel is trying to put himself on

[Shane Michaels]

the body because he's concerned there's DNA on the body.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

He's concerned there's DNA. That's exactly it.

[Narrator]

Detectives were convinced that Daniel was likely lying about where he was on Monday, October 9, the night Viola died. But they couldn't prove it until they received his cell phone records the following week.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

The cell phone records blew his story out of the water. He wasn't in Inglewood at all?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

No.

[Narrator]

On that day, the phone records placed Daniel in Beverly Hills and not just driving through. And not only that, police had obtained footage from NEST security cameras inside Daniel's house that showed him arriving home around around 8pm that night. Later, they saw this man typing at a computer. They were surprised to learn who it was.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

We didn't know Daniel was bald and

[Narrator]

here he is with his hairpiece at the same computer 40 minutes after he came home.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

You don't know what he's typing until we get the results from the computer search from our forensic team.

[Galena Blackmon]

And.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

And he does a search of latent fingerprints on human skin. And that's when I knew it's time. We gotta go arrest him. He killed his mother and he did it for the money.

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[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

I was getting ready to retire. I wanted to be the one to walk up and put the handcuffs on him.

[Narrator]

On February 12, 2018, four months after launching the investigation into Violet Jacoby's death, Beverly Hills detectives George Elwell and Mark Schwartz arrested Daniel Jacoby at home for his mother's murder.

[Shane Michaels]

What was his reaction?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Not shock, like he just sunk into himself.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

The first thing he asked me, he says, can I get my toupee?

[Narrator]

Daniel Jacoby was denied bail and would spend more than seven years in jail due to court delays before finally going on trial for murder in July 2025. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Shane Michaels says the evidence shows that Jacoby strangled his mother for financial gain.

[Detective George Elwell]

It's a very personal type of crime. You have to physically squeeze the life out of someone. That's what strangulation is.

[Narrator]

According to the autopsy report, Violet had petechia around her eyes and face. The rupturing of small blood vessels, a classic sign of strangulation.

[Detective George Elwell]

There was also very significant abrasion on her jawline. There was a separate abrasion just below that on her neck.

[Shane Michaels]

We're talking about a line around here.

[Detective George Elwell]

Yeah.

[Narrator]

But at trial, the defense presented a very different theory.

[Dr. Larry Sims]

The truth is that she wasn't killed, period. Full stop. End of story.

[Narrator]

Dr. Larry Sims is a forensic pathologist and a former medical examiner in Las Vegas, Nevada, who says he has conducted about 10,000 autopsies. You don't believe that Violet Yacovi was murdered? No.

[Shane Michaels]

But her son went on trial for her murder.

[Dr. Larry Sims]

That is correct. And I testified at that trial.

[Narrator]

Dr. Sims rejected Violet's official cause of death.

[Dr. Larry Sims]

There was no evidence that she was strangled, period.

[Narrator]

None?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

None.

[Narrator]

Dr. Sims says the petechia were just sunspots. And those marks across Violet's neck? Skin folds. What's more, he says the deputy medical examiner missed injuries that pointed away from strangulation and toward a fall from the second story landing.

[Dr. Larry Sims]

This is where the fracture is, right here.

[Narrator]

Violet had a spinal fracture that was not mentioned anywhere in the autopsy report.

[Shane Michaels]

Are you at all concerned that the autopsy that you were relying on for this prosecution had errors in it? That's a pretty big mistake, isn't it?

[Detective George Elwell]

Yeah, well, when we talk about, you know, errors, I think that was an omission.

[Narrator]

That wasn't the only omission. The same deputy medical examiner also failed to take note of rib fractures, including several on her back. He didn't testify at trial, and the prosecution tried to address the problem, pointing out that the injuries had been photographed and that none of them contributed to Violet's death. The medical examiner's office declined a comment for this story.

[Julie Rendelman]

I've handled many homicide cases. I've never seen an autopsy with so many mistakes. And that was a deeply troubling part for the prosecution to have to explain.

[Narrator]

Julie Rendelman, a criminal defense attorney and former homicide Prosecutor, is a 48 Hours conf consultant who reviewed the case.

[Julie Rendelman]

It left, in a sense, open for an expert on the defense side. To kind of jump in and say, these mistakes are so overwhelming, we have to start to question everything about this case.

[Narrator]

Daniel Jacoby's trial became a battle of experts, with five doctors testifying about how and why Violet died, including a new deputy medical examiner brought in by prosecutors who agreed with the finding of asphyxia due to neck compression. But Dr. Sims told the jury that he believed Violet's death was instead caused by a rare mass of blood vessels in her brain stem called an arteriovenous malformation, or avm.

[Dr. Larry Sims]

This is an arteriovenous malformation here. That's in the fourth ventricle.

[Shane Michaels]

This is what you think contributed to Violet's death?

[Dr. Larry Sims]

Yes.

[Narrator]

He says he spotted the problem in this microscopic slide of Violet's brain stem. According to Dr. Sims, the AVM had hemorrhaged, causing Violet to become disoriented.

[Dr. Larry Sims]

She's stumbling around and she slammed into the railing. Before she went over the railing, the

[Narrator]

defense presented a photo superimposing the abrasion against a star shaped design on the railing. Dr. Sims says it's a match.

[Dr. Larry Sims]

This is a very unusual patterned injury and it fits it perfectly.

[Shane Michaels]

Is this at all possible that Violet could have died because of a medical event and fallen down?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

For me, no. I went up and down every inch of that railing. And there's absolutely no physical evidence to show that anything went over that railing.

[Dr. Larry Sims]

I look at the body. Those are things that are hard evidence that speaks to me.

[Narrator]

Prosecutor Shane Michael argued that Dr. Sims simply cherry picked the evidence and disputes his theory about the cause of that odd abrasion.

[Detective George Elwell]

He didn't know the dimensions of the star. If you were to fall and smack your chin on a piece of metal, you would not expect an abrasion. You'd expect to see bruising. You might see a cut, bleeding.

[Narrator]

And he says Violet had osteopenia, a weakening of the bones.

[Detective George Elwell]

A 67 year old woman would have had to have been on the floor with her back arced like in a yoga class cobra pose to get her chin flush with that.

[Shane Michaels]

What do you think then caused that V mark on her chin?

[Detective George Elwell]

Her son strangling her?

[Narrator]

The prosecution's radiologists also testified that if Violet had fallen from the railing, he would expect to see more catastrophic injuries.

[Detective George Elwell]

There was no skull fracture. There were no fractures in her arms. There were no fractures in her legs. There was no pelvic fracture. There was nothing on the floor that would be consistent with falling from approximately 13ft onto a marble floor.

[Narrator]

The other doctors testified there was no brain hemorrhage. Nor did they say they saw an AVM, including the neuropathologist who created the very slides Dr. Sims used to form his opinion. The fact that you have dual medical experts who can't agree on how Violet

[Shane Michaels]

Jacoby died, doesn't that add up to reasonable doubt?

[Julie Rendelman]

It can. If you can convince the jury to believe that she died of natural causes, then Daniel Jacoby's not guilty of a crime.

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[Narrator]

Thank you. Prosecutor Shay Michael used the trail of evidence left by Daniel Jacoby to show that his relationship with his mother had reached a breaking point in October 2017 and that greed for of the family fortune worth an estimated $13 million had fueled his plot to kill Violet.

[Shane Michaels]

Do you believe that he killed his mother because he wanted his inheritance early?

[Detective George Elwell]

Yes.

[Narrator]

The defense disputes that Jacoby was in the process of buying a new dental practice and had recently secured a million dollar loan. Still, his now ex wife admitted in court they had lived beyond their means. And Shane Michael pointed to Jacoby's own statements.

[Detective George Elwell]

He was regularly talking about his need for money and need to make more money.

[Narrator]

A family friend testified that Jacoby had asked him about inheritance tax a couple of weeks before Violet's death.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

The ideation and thought of killing his mom had been building.

[Narrator]

The prosecutor also presented a timeline of Jacoby's online searches going back to August of 2017 that he said revealed Jacoby's plan to murder his mother and stage the scene.

[Detective George Elwell]

He was searching unexplained deaths, death statistics, things like chokeholds, bruises caused by chokeholds falling downstairs. That he was trying to figure out a way to deflect any suspicion that might be pointing toward him.

[Narrator]

Of particular interest to the Prosecution was a YouTube video. This is the rear naked choke, demonstrating what's known as a rear naked chokehold. They played it at trial.

[Detective George Elwell]

It's certainly the kind of chokehold that could cause abrasions similar to the ones that we saw in the photos of Mrs. Jacoby.

[Narrator]

The prosecution theorized that Jacoby caused the spinal and rib fractures while choking Violet from behind.

[Detective George Elwell]

If he's choking her from behind. You assume he's applying as much pressure as he can. If he's lifting her off the ground, if he's got his hip in her back, there are any number of ways that you could apply force to her back.

[Shane Michaels]

Do you believe that is how Violet Jacoby died? That her son actually used his own arm to kill his mother?

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

I do, yes.

[Narrator]

And Detectives Elwell and Schwartz say Jacoby's DNA under Violet's fingernails proves it.

[Shane Michaels]

Did you notice any kind of scratches on him?

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

We weren't looking. The DNA's under her fingernails for a reason. He's asking about DNA for a reason. He did the research.

[Narrator]

It was calculated Detective Schwartz had done some calculations of his own using data from Daniel's iPhone Facebook account, and he says it places Daniel at his mother's house at the time he believes she was killed.

[Detective George Elwell]

One of the things that came back in the Facebook records were latitude longitude coordinates.

[Narrator]

Schwartz used those coordinates to pull video from the city's closed circuit cameras and security cameras from Violet's neighbors.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

We were able to track his movement through the whole day into the next day.

[Narrator]

That's Daniel Jacoby's white Jaguar in Beverly hills traffic on October 9. Before the prosecutor describes him stalking his

[Detective George Elwell]

mother's house, he was driving up and down the street at least two or three times.

[Narrator]

Around 4 o', clock, Daniel Jacoby's car appeared on the next door neighbor's security footage. A few minutes later, it popped up again on another home security camera in the alley behind Violet's house.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Almost like a shark. He's circling the block and he's going down the alley. He pulls up right around here, just behind the residence, and for whatever reason, he stops. And then he slowly backs up.

[Detective George Elwell]

He never gets out. And he's not moving the garbage cans back there. He is in the car, presumably looking into the back of his mother's property.

[Narrator]

Then he drives away. But Facebook coordinates place him at his mother's house from 6:39pm until 7:48 that night.

[Detective George Elwell]

How he entered the house? Don't know. Don't know if he rang the doorbell. Don't know if he snuck around the side.

[Narrator]

What the data establishes, according to the prosecution, is that Violet was alive when Daniel arrived. And by the time he left, she was dead. Afterwards, Jacoby drove straight home.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

Now we have his NEST camera, and almost to the second you're seeing him

[Narrator]

walk through the door less than 45 minutes after walking in, he was typing in that search for latent fingerprints on human skin.

[Detective George Elwell]

22%, hours before his mother's body was located, he was already thinking about what evidence might have been left behind at the scene.

[Narrator]

It's evidence of consciousness of guilt, says Shane. Michael and Jacoby would do it again the following morning when he went back to the scene for less than four minutes and then drove back home. At around 1:00 o', clock, he contacted a financial investor via Skype. If I get a mill, I'd want garlic to manage it.

[Detective George Elwell]

A million dollars. And six hours before his mother's body is found, his belief was that he was coming into Money.

[Narrator]

In late August 2025, after three weeks of testimony and nearly eight years after Violet's death, the jury got the case.

[Detective George Elwell]

They come back not guilty. On some level, this guy has gotten away with murder.

[Narrator]

After deliberating for nearly five and a half hours over two days, the jury was unanimous. Guilty of first degree murder for financial gain. It's a judgment that carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

[Detective Mark Schwartz]

This broke that family apart.

[Detective Aaron Moriarty]

Very sad that it ended that way.

[Galena Blackmon]

I feel for Violet. And I feel for Daniel.

[Shane Michaels]

You feel for Daniel too?

[Galena Blackmon]

I feel for for him, yeah. What in the world made him do that?

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