Trace of Suspicion - Ep. 4: Smoke and Mirrors

Summary

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Dateline Originals – Trace of Suspicion

Episode 4: Smoke and Mirrors
Date: May 22, 2026
Host: Josh Mankiewicz (NBC News)

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Trace of Suspicion" dives deep into the 2006 murder trial of Cindy Summer, who was accused of poisoning her Marine husband, Todd Summer, with arsenic in 2002. The episode meticulously explores the evidence, the twists and complications of the investigation, the strategies and missteps of both prosecution and defense, and the emotional and factual complexity facing the jury. With new details about the crime scene, financial motives, forensic science, and the courtroom drama, listeners are taken inside a trial where smoke and mirrors obscure the truth and leave more questions than answers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cindy Summer's Experience in Jail

• Cindy Summer was a high-profile inmate, known as the "arsenic assassin," and faced intense scrutiny and notoriety in the Las Colinas Women’s Detention Center (00:57 – 01:49).
  • Cindy: “If I compartmentalized before, oh, I really could now. So I put my nose down. I focused on my case. I read books. I did Sudoku. I kept my nose clean for 10 months.” (02:46 – 03:02)

2. The Evidence, or Lack Thereof

• Cindy believed there was no direct evidence against her: “Yeah, there was no evidence against me. There was nothing there.” (03:11)
• Prosecutor Laura Gunn set the stage: “No one thing is ever enough in a circumstantial evidence murder case.” (03:20)
• Conflicting views on the science:
  • NCIS: “There are lethal levels of arsenic in Todd Somers tissues.” (03:26).
  • Defense: “The premier expert in this country on arsenic told the government, take a walk, you got it wrong.” (03:34)

3. NCIS Investigation: Changing Agents and New Theories

• NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon inherited the case, looking for less obvious connections and inspiration, including possible motives drawn from TV shows like “Melrose Place” (04:44 – 06:10).
• After ruling out those paths, a new lead emerged via a phone call from Susan Beach, the friend Cindy called the night Todd died. Beach claimed to have arrived at the Summer house before first responders, raising the theory that Cindy delayed her 911 call to perhaps clean up or hide evidence (06:37 – 11:38).
  • Rendon: “She was very certain about what she saw that night.” (06:37)
  • Mankiewicz: “Was it possible...Todd Summer collapsed long before Cindy ever called 911?” (07:35)

4. 911 Timeline and Doubts

• Susan Beach's account conflicted with official emergency responder reports; responders didn’t see another adult at the house, but investigators believed Beach could have been there unnoticed (10:17 – 11:41).
• Judge and jury faced the question: could prosecutors win with a theory that couldn't be proven? Mankiewicz notes, “most investigators will tell you...you never know what a jury will do.” (11:41).

5. The Prosecution’s Case: Motive and Opportunity

• The prosecution asserted that Cindy had the most to gain financially from Todd’s death, referencing life insurance and a depleted family trust fund (15:19 – 18:52).
  • Gunn: “Only one person benefited financially from Todd's death...and that was his wife Cindy.” (15:46)
• Cindy’s discussions—immediately after Todd’s death—about insurance money and bonuses, were presented as suspicious.
  • Gunn: “She approached his sergeant major and said, Do I have to give back his re-enlistment bonus?” (16:19)

Financial Desperation

• Forensic accountant April Real testified about the Summers’ depleted finances:
  • “As of 2/18/02, the Marine Federal Credit Union savings account had $5.24… the checking account had $1.93...” (20:04)

Motive for Implants

• Prosecutor highlighted Cindy’s consultation for breast implants—costing $5,000—at a time they were broke, and Todd was absent on assignment (21:10).
• Contradiction: “She said, oh, he was all for it. He came with me to the consultation.” But records placed Todd elsewhere (21:39 – 22:31).

Use of Insurance for Cosmetic Surgery

• NCIS: “When she was interviewed in Florida, we asked her how she dealt with Todd’s death, and she said, well, I got these, and pointed to her breasts.” (23:01)

Medical and Forensic Evidence

• Scientists testified that Todd’s tissues contained “more than 200 times the normal range of arsenic in his kidney, and more than a thousand times...in his liver.” (23:39 – 23:52)
• Sudden illness and death despite activity days prior was crucial in the prosecution timeline, but also under scrutiny in defense arguments.

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6. The Defense Responds

Cindy’s Testimony and Character

• Cindy described tender details of her life and marriage, stated she was “the all American girl” who only ever wanted to be “the wife of a Marine” (31:15 – 31:20).
• Defense sought to humanize Cindy, but was challenged by facts like memorializing other men alongside Todd and the use of Todd’s phone after his death.

Financial Behavior

• Admitted to living “over their head” financially—“Every military family does.” (33:10)

Missteps: Opening the Door

• When Cindy’s mother testified to her grief, it allowed prosecution to introduce previously barred “lifestyle evidence”—her post-murder social life, including dating sites, parties, and plastic surgery (34:32 – 35:56).
  • Udell, reflecting on the error: “The judge ruled that I had opened the door to it. And that's the sin I confess to today...I still think the judge was wrong in allowing that into evidence.” (35:15)

Defense Counter-Evidence

• Defense used Cindy’s phone records to argue the timeline contradicted prosecution theory—showing Susan Beach’s visit after paramedics arrived (37:05).

Star Witness: Forensic Toxicologist

• Dr. Alphonse Poklis, a leading arsenic expert, testified that the tissue sample test results didn’t make sense:
  • “Arsenic’s carried everywhere through the body and goes into all the tissues.” (38:39)
  • “It makes absolutely no sense that that’s acute arson [poisoning].” (39:04)
  • Implied lab error or sample contamination—suggesting “If there’s no arsenic, there’s no murder, and that’s that.” (40:12)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Compartmentalizing in Jail:
  Cindy Summer: “If I compartmentalized before, oh, I really could now. So I put my nose down. I focused on my case. I read books. I did Sudoku. I kept my nose clean for 10 months.” (02:46)

• On the Science:
  Dr. Alphonse Poklis: “Arsenic’s carried everywhere through the body and goes into all the tissues.” (38:39)
  “It makes absolutely no sense that that’s acute arson.” (39:04)

• On the Verdict’s Unpredictability:
  Josh Mankiewicz: “Most investigators will tell you, quote, you never know what a jury will do.” (11:41)

• On Financial Motive:
  Laura Gunn: “We had somebody who liked to spend, didn’t have very much money, whose nest egg had just run out, who knew that divorce was not going to pay her well...who stood to gain a great deal financially by this murder.” (18:52)

• On Prosecution’s Challenge:
  Laura Gunn: “Clearly it’s not a slam dunk case, but in the end, with everything taken together, it absolutely was a case that we thought, you know, we need to try to pursue justice for this young Marine and his family.” (17:37)

• On Defense’s Error in Strategy:
  Bob Udell: “...the judge ruled that, no, I had opened the door to it. And that's the sin I confess to today, making that error. I still think I'm right. I still think the judge was wrong in allowing that into evidence.” (35:15)

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Important Timestamps

• 01:25 – 03:15 – Cindy’s life in jail and her reflections on notoriety and compartmentalization.
• 04:44 – 06:10 – Transition of the NCIS investigation, search for inspiration from TV crime shows.
• 06:37 – 11:38 – Susan Beach’s crucial phone testimony and theory on timeline.
• 15:19 – 18:52 – Prosecutor Laura Gunn’s opening arguments—establishing motive and behavior.
• 20:04 – 21:10 – Forensic accountant’s financial testimony.
• 23:39 – 24:54 – Scientific breakdown of the arsenic evidence.
• 29:52 – 32:20 – Defense opening: Cindy’s testimony, efforts to humanize her, and character revelations.
• 33:10 – 33:39 – Defense answers about financial pressure and plastic surgery.
• 37:05 – 40:12 – Defense challenges timeline and forensics, Dr. Poklis’s expert testimony.
• 41:01 – End – Reflections on the verdict, jury reactions, and aftermath.

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Conclusion and Tone

The episode portrays a tense, tightly contested, and emotionally charged trial with no clear answers. Both the prosecution and defense are seen struggling with circumstantial evidence, inconsistencies, and high-stakes courtroom maneuvers. Multiple experts challenge each other on science, while the drama of everyday life and tragedy haunts the background.

Listeners are left pondering not just who killed Todd Summer—but how much certainty is possible when the trail is made of “smoke and mirrors.”

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For true crime followers and Dateline fans, this installment is a compelling dive into the ambiguous gray areas of forensic investigation and courtroom theatrics, revisiting evidence and motivations with an ever-present sense of doubt and drama.

Transcript

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[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

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[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. She could feel their eyes on her. She could smell their contempt, even though she could not hear their thoughts. The taunts and cat calls that greeted Cindy Summer that first week in the Las Colinas Women's Detention center in San Diego were unrelenting.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Everybody knew who I was. I was very high profile.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

In a lockup full of accused criminals. Cindy Summer was not just a new fish. She was a celebrity. A husband killer. The arsenic assassin.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Even, like the homeless girls that came in from the street, knew who I was. All the deputies knew who I was.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

And her notoriety was far and wide. Every week brought a new stack of mail. Letters from strangers. Some offering encouragement, others condemnation.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Yeah, and getting letters from around the country. Hate letters. Watching TV and your story comes on, you know, the news four times a day.

[Livy Dunn]

It was February 19, 2002. Prosecutors say Summer was living with her husband, a 23 year old U.S. marine.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

No doubt there were times during those spring days of 2006 when Cindy Summer felt like screaming, venting, crying even. She did not. The advice she had received from that deputy back in Florida had taken hold. Do not engage. Do not cry. Keep a stiff upper lip. Never let them see you sweat.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

If I compartmentalized before, oh, I really could now. So I put my nose down. I focused on my case. I read books. I did Sudoku. I kept my nose clean for 10 months.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

She gritted out every day, waiting for the exoneration she knew was coming. Once a jury heard the evidence in her case.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Yeah, there was no evidence against me. There was Nothing there.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

In this episode, you will hear about what evidence there was.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

No one thing is ever enough in a circumstantial evidence murder case.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Evidence the prosecution had.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

There are lethal levels of arsenic in Todd Somers tissues.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Evidence the prosecution ignored.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

The premier expert in this country on arsenic told the government, take a walk, you got it wrong.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

And you will hear about a courtroom misstep that allowed a murder trial to become a public airing of so much dirty laundry.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

The judge ruled that I had opened the door to it. And that's a sin I confess to today in that era.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

I'm Josh Mankiewicz and this is Trace of Suspicion, a podcast from day one. Episode 4 Smoke and Mirrors. Shortly after the arrest of Cindy Summer, NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger was reassigned. Somebody else has to take over.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

Exactly.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

You're telling me this is not like the TV show?

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

No, no. You don't stay in one place for very long. There is a planning process that goes on. And so when the case agent, the new case agent, opens it up, there is an investigative plan. These are the things based on what the old case agent saw that have been done. And there's a list of things that still need to be done.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The agent who inherited the Cindy Summer file from Terwilliger was Special Agent Rick rend, himself a 16 year Marine Corps veteran. Rendon was not exactly coming into the case cold. Remember, he was the NCIS agent who had interviewed Cindy's ex husband, Dan Peace.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

When I talked to her husband, I asked him, what kind of shows did she watch? I asked him specifically, was it like Forensic Files, New detectives, did she watch these type of things?

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

That was not a question. Out of thin air. Killers have been known to draw tips and inspiration from TV crime programs like Dateline and like ncis. Rendon wondered if there might be something there that would make their circumstantial case that much stronger.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

His response to me was, now, Cindy was the type that liked to watch like 90210, Beverly, you know, friends, Melrose Place. He gave me a list of shows.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Rendon's ears perked up when he heard Melrose Place.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

Melrose Place was probably the most vindictive show that there could be some type of nexus here. So we do an Internet query and, you know, it turns out that there's two poisoning episodes that were spousal poisoning episodes.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

In the end, the investigator decided those TV episodes had little in common with the Summer case, so he dropped it.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

It's a circumstantial case. It's you Know it's. It was definitely no smoking gun.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The fact was, agents before Rendon had also come up empty in the search for that same metaphorical gun. And then one day the phone rang. As Agent Rendon listened to the woman on the other end, he might well have imagined he could smell the scent of gun smoke.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

She came across as very genuine. She was very certain about what she saw that night.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The woman on the phone was Susan Beach. She was the woman a frantic Cindy called on the night Todd Summer died. Susan had been following the news of Cindy's arrest and she told the investigator she knew a few things about the case that he needed to hear.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

She said Cindy called, paramedics are already on the way. Please come here to watch my children. I want to go to the hospital with Todd.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Okay, that makes sense.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

Susan says she gathers up the kids, they get in the car, they drive to Cindy's house. And it took her five to 10 minutes to get there. Not that far away she should not have beat the first responders, but she did. She says she arrives there and it strikes her odd that there is no police cars, there is no ambulance, there is no fire trucks.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Suggesting to you that Cindy called Susan to watch her kids before she called 91 1?

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

I think that's a safe assumption.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Was it possible, the investigator wondered as he hung up the phone, that Todd Summer had collapsed long before Cindy ever called 91 1. Todd, 9 11, do you have emergency? Yeah, my husband just clamped. Had Cindy actually delayed calling for help because she needed to clean up the scene? Perhaps hide evidence? The investigator's head spun. Thinking back on it. Rendon remembered Something about that 911 call seemed off.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

There's parts of the tape where it sounds like she is frantic and crying.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The parameter on the way right now. Okay, okay. They're on the.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

There's other parts of the tape where it sounds like a routine call. And some of the. It's kind of odd where she asks the 911 operator, Should I do CPR? And he questions, do you know how to do CPR? Yes, I do, by all means. And then you can hear the sound of CPR being administered.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Yes you are? Yes.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

Do you know how?

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Yes. Okay.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

But it wasn't a hands free phone. She's talking clear into it as if it's still to her head.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

I need to finally stay with my kids. If I didn't go to the hospital. Dr. Cassandra Stroud, the ER doc who pronounced Todd Summer dead about 50 minutes after that 911 call, would later remember that his Body looked as if it had been dead for longer than that.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Based on my viewing of the body, it had been a bit before the 911 call because he was blue and mottled.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Combine all of that with Susan Beach's story, and suddenly a new theory of what might have happened that night seemed to be taking shape.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

She gets there, and Cindy's not there. She says she assumed she was upstairs. Looks like the kids are having a slumber party in the living room. And she knows that Todd has collapsed. That's the only information she's going off of. So with her kids and Cindy's kids, she confines them into the living room area, which is tucked away opposing side of the house's structure. Master bedroom is not above the living room area. And she's watching the kids.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

And where was Cindy during this time?

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

She assumed Cindy was upstairs, but she never saw her. She couldn't hear nothing. She explained that she was there a good 20 minutes before first responders arrived.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

It was an intriguing theory, except for this little detail, none of the emergency responders who were there that night reported seeing another woman minding the kids at the summer house.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

Nobody said that they saw her. However, they weren't there to look for her or see who else was in the house.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The investigator figured maybe the paramedics, cops and EMTs simply did not see Susan Beach.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

When you first enter the threshold, that foyer area immediately to your right is the stairway that leads upstairs to the master bedroom. They go in, they go upstairs, they do their thing. They're not milling around inside the house. So it's very possible you come down those stairs, you're not even going to see anyone in there. If they're all sitting at the couches, the kids are asleep. Ms. Beach is in there with the kids, containing them in there. Specifically, the older ones didn't want them to see their father being carried out like that. It wasn't a crime scene that they were responding to. The military police role is to get there and assist the first responders, however,

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

need be not to seal it off. See how many people were inside, take their names, put up the tape.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

Right. And notify us to come process a crime scene.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

So the fact that nobody noticed Mrs. Beach is, to you, not indicative of anything?

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

Not at all.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

And you believe she was there?

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendon]

I do believe she was there.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The big question was, would a jury believe Susan beach beat the first responders to the summer house that night? Would they buy a theory without proof? Now, that is a question you might be asking at several points in this story. Most investigators will tell you, quote, you never know what a jury will do. I've heard that sentiment a lot. It's kind of law enforcement boilerplate. And across town, prosecutors were also unsure of how to proceed as they tried to decide what shape their case against Cindy Summer would take at trial.

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[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

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[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent]

Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent]

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[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

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[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The blonde woman in the blue power suit sat quietly at the prosecution table, reading through her prepared remarks. A few feet away sat the accused, a woman about to be tried for murder. The prosecutor knew everything about that woman. After all, she had spent years immersed in that Woman's life. She knew the evidence and she knew the science. She knew this case backwards and forwards. She knew what every expert would say. She knew how the defense would respond. Yes, she might have thought to herself as the judge took his seat. I've got this. Once the formalities were done, the blonde woman rose to speak.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

In February of 2002, Sergeant Todd Sommer, a 23 year old active duty marine, was murdered.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Those were the first words San Diego county deputy district attorney Laura Gunn said to the jury that had been seated and asked to decide Cindy Summers fate.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Lethal levels of arsenic were found in Todd Summers kidneys and liver.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The evidence, she said, would show that only one person benefited financially from Todd's death, and that was his wife Cindy. Only one person could have poisoned him and that was his wife Cindy. And only one person had behaved suspiciously in the hours after he died. Again, she said that was Cindy.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

As Todd was being taken out of the bedroom on a gurney, she said, we joked about his SGLI policy, but I never thought I'd actually see it.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

His life insurance?

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Yes. Then when she got to the hospital, she approached his sergeant major at the time and said, do I have to give back his reenlistment bonus? And that was the first question out of her mouth. So that was a second inquiry about money.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

She's not the first person to begin worrying about money immediately after the death of a spouse. What about this looked suspicious?

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Well, we didn't look at anything in isolation and certainly the way that she behaved after he died was something that raised suspicion.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Ah, yes, the way she behaved. The prosecutor knew she had to be careful. The judge had ruled before the trial started that lifestyle evidence that is talk of Cindy's carousing and sleeping around in the months after Todd died was irrelevant and off limits. Given those constraints, the prosecutor was like a high stakes poker player holding to pair. She had a hand that was good enough to win, but it was close and even then everything else would have to go her way.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Clearly it's not a slam dunk case, but in the end, with everything taken together, it absolutely was a case that we thought, you know, we need to try to pursue justice for this young Marine and his family.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

How big a problem was it that you didn't have a controlled, searchable crime scene?

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

That was one weakness in the case was that we didn't have an on the spot full crime scene investigation.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

What the prosecution did have was a parade of first responders who told the jury the things they did, saw and heard the night Todd Summer died. The prosecution also called Susan beach, who told her story about arriving before first responders did. She was not challenged by the Defense on cross.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

Mr. Dunn?

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Yes, sir.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Do you have any further questions?

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Nothing, sir.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The next building block in the prosecution's case focused on motive. The Summer family, prosecutor Gunn told the jury, was broke. They spent far more than they earned and had, in fact, fully depleted Todd's $30,000 trust fund two weeks before he died.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

We felt like we had strong motive evidence in this particular case. We had somebody who liked to spend, didn't have very much money, whose nest egg had just run out, who knew that divorce was not going to pay her well for her four kids and not going to put her in a good situation, who stood to gain a great deal financially by this murder and who made several comments after the fact about the money and her concerns about the money.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

To support that theory, the prosecutor called an accountant to the stand who had carefully gone over the Summer family finances.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

I analyzed bank records belonging to Todd and Cynthia Summers around the time of Todd's death, before and after.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

That's forensic accountant April Real.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

So some of the things that you looked at were the couple's bank records?

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

That's correct.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Did you look at credit reports?

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

I did.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

A chart was then shown to the jury which listed the balances in each of the Summer accounts. In reading them off, the accountants started with Todd's trust fund account, the Eaton

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Vance funds, and it had zero balance as of 2-18-02. The Marine Federal Credit Union savings account had $5.24. The Marine Federal Credit Union checking account had $1.93. And the bank of America checking accounts had $801.75.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

That was the financial picture on the day Todd died. Just 10 days earlier, on February 8, the outlook had been even more grim. Todd and Cindy then had only $280 to their name. That day was significant not only because that was the day Todd first complained of being sick after eating a gas station egg roll. As the prosecutor pointed out, that was also the same day medical records showed Cindy had consulted with a plastic surgeon about getting breast implants, a procedure that was going to cost more than $5,000.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Where was she going to get that money? And why did she go at a time when Todd was gone all day in El Centro on a training exercise,

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

suggesting to you that she wanted to keep that visit a secret from him?

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

It appears so.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

That was key, the prosecutor argued, because the day before Cindy Summer was arrested. Investigators say she told them Todd had been in favor of her getting implants.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

Asked how Todd felt about the breast implants, and she said, oh, he was all for it. He came with me to the consultation.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

That's NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger, one of the investigators who had questioned Cindy before her arrest. That's not true.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

And that's not true because her appointment was at 0930 or somewhere in that time frame on the morning of Friday, February 8th.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

And you know exactly where Todd was that day.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

According to the Marines that were in his squadron, they were with him, and he did not get home until late in the evening. And at no point during. During that interview did she tell us that. Well, I went to multiple consultations. She said. He went to me with the consultation, at the consultation in La Jolla, not knowing that we had already reviewed her medical record and knew that Todd Sommer could not be at two places at one time.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Gotcha. For the investigators who had surprised Cindy at her workplace in Florida nearly four years after Todd's death, that counted as a lie. An intent to deceive, not an oversight, not a misremembering, a lie. And the fact that Cindy later used some of the money from Todd's life insurance policy to pay for those new implants, well, that just bolstered the financial motive theory.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

When she was interviewed in Florida, we asked her how she dealt with Todd's death, and she said, well, I got these, and pointed to her breasts.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The heart and soul of the prosecution's case was the lab analysis of Todd Summers tissues that had been done more than a year after he died, a potential danger zone for any lawyer hoping to hold a jury's attention.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

I knew that when we got to that part of the case, it was going to get difficult and it was going to be, you know, possible for somebody to get bogged down in it.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

According to the analysis, Todd Sommer had died with more than 200 times the normal range of arsenic in his kidney and more than a thousand times the normal amount in his liver.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

In the week and a half before Todd died, he suffered from vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, all symptoms that are consistent with acute arsenic poisoning.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

In this part of the trial, it was scientists who took center stage. The prosecution presented witnesses who talked about the different kinds of arsenic, which kinds are toxic and which are not. Others spoke in numbing detail about the chain of custody regarding Todd Sommers tissues and how they were preserved, prepared for testing, and analyzed.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

A little part of the tissue is taken, it's cut, and then it's weighed.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

That is todor Todorov, the chemist who tested Todd Sommers tissues.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

The tissue is digested in nitric acid, and the resulting solution is analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to get the concentrations of the various metals.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

According to the scientists from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the lab that did the testing, every test came out the same. Consistently high levels of arsenic in Todd's liver and kidney.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

We have a guy whose tissues were full of lethal levels of arsenic. And poisoning is, you know, kind of by definition, a crime that requires some access. And so we looked into his movements that week, and really, there weren't any other adults that had both a financial motive and consistent access to him in that regard.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

And then, unlike other parts of the prosecution's case, where the jury could be shown facts, financial records, and solid scientific results, this section was where the case could turn on the prosecutor's ability to sculpt smoke. Since there was no way to show the jury how, when, or where Cindy Summer obtained the poison that killed her husband, the prosecutor needed to convince them that it happened the way she theorized it happened some way somehow. Where do you think she got the arsenic?

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

There's really no way to stay. There are so many places where she could have gotten arsenic. And, you know, we know that she was an Internet user, we know that she was an ebay client, but we don't know everything about her computer used.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

That is because the computer Cindy owned at the time of her husband's death was long gone by the time investigators got around to classifying that death as a homicide. That did not stop the prosecutor from arguing Cindy could have bought arsenic on the Internet.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Arsenic is gettable on the Internet. It's gettable from various other sources, and there really isn't any way to say, you know, anything is possible in terms of where she could have gotten it.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Laura Gunn was certainly not the first prosecutor to build a case on an airy foundation of circumstance, essentially asking the jury, who else but the accused could have done this? After presenting more than 40 witnesses over the first two weeks of this trial, that was the question the prosecutor wanted the jury to ponder.

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[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

The responsibility for defending Cindy Summer rested on the narrow shoulders of Bob Udell, a Florida based attorney hired by Cindy's mom. Udell was one of those guys where it's hard to to tell where their beard stopped and their hairline began. He kept a pair of granny glasses perpetually perched on the end of his

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

nose, the first one to put on any evidence.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Yes sir.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Udell's first witness for the defense was his client, Cindy Summer. Cindy wore a black pantsuit. She was also sporting a shiner under her right eye that nearly matched her purple blouse. Cindy would later say she got the black eye from falling out of her bunk at the jail.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

We're going to take you back to the night of February 17, 2002.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Udell started by asking Cindy to talk about the night Todd died.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

We were just sitting on the bed Getting ready for bed. And he said that his heart had fluttered. And I asked him if he was okay and if we needed to go to the hospital. He said that he was okay.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

For the next 55 minutes, Cindy told the story of her life with Todd, from the moment they met till their last moments together on the night he died. It was a credible performance, One her lawyer believed showed Cindy to be authentic, likable, and completely incapable of murder.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Cindy's the all American girl.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

That's Cindy's lawyer, Bob Udell.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

When Cindy grew up, her goal in life was to be the wife of a marine. That's what Cindy wanted to do in life, and she married a marine. And she didn't all of a sudden decide to kill that marine. Cindy Summer is the kind of girl that when they play the national anthem, she cries.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Oh, there were some tender moments, all right. Like when Cindy spoke of getting a tattoo memorial to Todd on her arm just weeks after he died. The tattoo was a cross, just like one Todd had wanted. And it included two dates.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

The date of his birth and the date of his death.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Correct.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Okay. And was that put on there when you put the tattoo on?

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Yes.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Then there was a touching account of how Cindy had frequently called her dead husband's cell phone.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Why were you calling Todd cell phone?

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Just to hear his voice.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Unfortunately for Cindy, those stories lost a bit of their emotional punch when she had to explain why she had also memorialized two other men on the same tattoo she had gotten for Todd and why phone records showed those sentimental calls to her dead husband's cell phone were being returned.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Are you sure you didn't loan Todd's phone to somebody? And anywhere calling you back here, Cindy

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

had to explain that. Well, you know, she had loaned that phone to her daughter, and there are

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

times that she probably called me back. It was an active phone in the house.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

It was a rocky road for the defense. But Cindy was game. She spoke frankly about the family's money

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

struggles during the marriage. You guys lived over your head, correct?

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Every military family does. Yes.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

And she defended her decision to use part of Todd's life insurance policy payout to cover her breast augmentation, saying it was something Todd had wanted her to do. In fact, she said Todd had gone with her to several consultations, not just the one that the investigators who'd questioned her in Florida had focused on. Remember, no recording of that conversation exists.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

He told them Todd was with you when you went to a doctor to get consultation.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Right. I'd been to more than one consultation. I didn't just find one doctor and go there. I researched it.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Then Bob Udell called a series of character witnesses to bolster his claim that Cindy had been a loving wife and a dutiful mother. And it was right then when this happened. Okay, we put that in. It's the sound of a door opening. Legally, that refers to one side giving the other an unexpected opportunity to introduce testimony or evidence that had previously been banned. It happened when Cindy's mother took the stand. She told the jury what a grieving widow Cindy had been after Todd's death.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

I walked into their bedroom, and she was in bed, and she was curled up in the fetal position, and she was just sobbing uncontrollably.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Well, to prosecutor Laura Gunn, that testimony probably sounded like a very large door open. If the defense was going to present Cindy to the jury as a grieving widow, then the prosecution had an opportunity to rebut. You had to see that coming.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Absolutely. We saw it coming, and we knew it was a problem, and we tried to keep it out. And I thought I had kept it out. And the judge ruled that, no, I had opened the door to it. And that's the sin I confess to today, making that error. I still think I'm right. I still think the judge was wrong in allowing that into evidence.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Suddenly, all of Cindy's indiscretions as the merry widow were fair game, and it

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

got blown out of proportion. Breast implants, parties, sex. Must be guilty.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

And like Top 40 radio on memorial Day weekend, the hits just kept coming. The prosecution pointed out that two weeks before Todd Summer died, Cindy had used her credit card to access an adult singles dating site.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

The significance of that is certainly open to debate on both sides.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Prosecutor Laura Gunn.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

But one has to question why somebody would be on an adult singles dating website if one was. In the happy marriage that was portrayed by the defense in this case, the

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

optics, to say the least, were bad.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

We understood how it doesn't look good.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Now on the substance of the case, Bob Udell definitely had his moments. He countered the claim that Susan beach had beaten first responders to the Summer home on the night Todd collapsed by citing phone logs from that night, something the prosecution did not do. According to those phone logs, Cindy called Susan to come watch the kids at 1:43. That would be minutes after paramedics arrived

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

in that phone call. EMS has already been there, correct?

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

Correct.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

As for the question at the center of the prosecution case, the allegation that Cindy Summer had somehow poisoned her husband with arsenic, well, the defense called their star witness, Dr. Alphonse Pokless, please tell

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

the jury your present occupation.

[Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Alphonse Pokless]

I'm a forensic toxicologist and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Pokless, you will remember, was the arsenic poisoning expert NCIS first consulted when they got the results from lab tests done on Todd Summers tissues. Those lab tests had shown more than a thousand times the expected amount of arsenic in Todd's liver. Poglas says he told the NCIS investigator who met with him that those tests did not make sense and that there must have been some kind of mistake.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Did that concern you as to whether or not Sergeant Sommer had been poisoned with arson?

[Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Alphonse Pokless]

It concerned me. Whether he was poisoned, it concerned me what in the world was going on and who did this test.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Did you tell them that?

[Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Alphonse Pokless]

Yes.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

According to Dr. Pokless, the problem was the test results showed very high concentrations in some tissues and normal levels in others. That, he said, is not the way arsenic is processed in the human body.

[Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Alphonse Pokless]

Whatever you want to analyze, arsenic's carried everywhere through the body and goes into all the tissues.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Furthermore, Dr. Pogla said he told those investigators from NCIS that anyone exposed to those astronomical levels of arsenic would be very sick. And Todd's medical records from the week before he died said Dr. Pokless did not show that.

[Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Alphonse Pokless]

I've come to understand that after that visit to the hospital Tuesday, he went to work Wednesday, he went to work Thursday, he went to work Friday. Then he went to some amusement park on Saturday, and then he suddenly died Saturday night. It makes absolutely no sense that that's acute arson.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Dr. Pokla said he told the NCIS investigators all of that. And the result? He never heard from any of them again. When it came time for closing arguments, both the defense and the prosecution leaned passionately into points neither could prove. Defense attorney Bob Udell argued there was no murder. Lab tests showing lethal levels of arsenic in Todd Summers tissues were bogus, he said. So wildly out of whack that the sample sent out for testing must have somehow been contaminated.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

If there's no arsenic, there's no murder, and that's that. There isn't even any arson.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

For her part, prosecutor Laura Gunn told the jury Todd Summers death was clearly a case of murder and that his wife, Cindy was the only person on earth who could have given him the arsenic that killed him.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

It's a fact that nobody else had access to Todd Sommer at the time that he first started to get sick and show signs of being poisoned.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

After 18 days of testimony, the jury of seven women and five men went to a secluded room to decide which of those arguments represented the truth.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Next time they thought I was an animated jerk. They commented upon my glass glasses and faces that I make. Jury hated me.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Everybody was, you know, like, they couldn't believe our verdict. And I mean, I was like, what?

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

One alternate juror has come forward to say that she heard two of the jurors discussing some parts about the case when they shouldn't have been.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

Since without verdicting this case, I received probably 50 letters and emails. These are encouraging me to do one thing or the other with regard to the verdict. Either hold the verdict or reverse the verdict.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

This podcast is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Tim Beacham is the producer. Marshall Housefeld, Brian Drew and Meredith Kramer are audio editors. Molly DeRosa is associate producer. Rachel Young is field producer. Adam Gorfin is co executive producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer, and Liz Cole is senior executive producer from NBC News. Audio sound mixing by Rich Cutler.

[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent]

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[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent's Spouse]

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[Liberty Mutual Insurance Agent]

Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

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[Narrator Josh Mankiewicz]

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