The American Beauty Murder // 577

Summary

Going West: True Crime

Episode 577: The American Beauty Murder

Release Date: January 27, 2026
Hosts: Daphne Woolsoncroft & Heath Merryman

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Overview

This episode dives deep into the haunting case of Greg de Vieille—a 26-year-old San Diego biotech worker found dead in November 2000 in a scene eerily reminiscent of the film "American Beauty." What initially appeared as suicide, complete with a dramatic arrangement of rose petals and a wedding photo, soon unraveled into a web of betrayal, workplace intrigue, addiction, and murder. Hosts Daphne and Heath meticulously retrace the victims' and suspects' histories, relationships, and the complex investigation that exposed the truth behind Greg’s death.

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Episode Structure & Key Discussion Points

1. Setting the Scene: The Crime (03:37)

• Greg de Vieille found dead in his apartment, laid out on his bed with rose petals and a carefully placed wedding photograph. His wife, Kristen Rossum, reports a suicide but the details raise questions.
• Initial family and victim background: Greg, son of French immigrants, oldest of three, described as stable, intelligent, and supportive—especially after his parents' divorce.

2. The "Movie-Like" Meeting of Greg & Kristen (08:04)

• Greg meets Kristen Rossum in a “movie meet-cute” at the Tijuana border in 1994; both are students in the San Diego area.
• Kristen’s background: child of a high-achieving professor, moved frequently, academically gifted, with a history of ballet and early drug experimentation.

3. Intensifying Relationship & Early Red Flags (12:47)

• Fast-moving romance: Kristen quickly moves in with Greg, despite her parents' reservations.
• Kristen’s parents support the couple financially, providing over $75,000 over a few years.
• Early engagement and marriage; both land promising jobs in science and medicine.

4. Kristen’s Double Life & Marital Troubles (16:51)

• Greg becomes suspicious after finding a romantic letter from Kristen’s boss, Dr. Michael Robertson; confrontation leads to Kristen demanding a separation.
• Kristen’s secret: a pattern of manipulation, previous drug addiction, and multiple ongoing affairs.

Memorable Moment (16:55):

Heath (addressing Greg’s disbelief):

"He's like, what the fuck was that? Why do you seem so weird right now?"

5. The Death Investigation & Suspicion Deepens (19:49)

• Kristen calls 911 after finding Greg unresponsive. Paramedics find him blue-faced, surrounded by rose petals and a wedding photo.
• Kristen repeatedly suggests Greg overdosed on pills, even prompting suspicion by “pushing a narrative” (22:44).

Notable Quote (22:44) Heath:

"It's kind of strange that she's already sort of pushing a little bit of a narrative here."

• Outside toxicologist assigned to Greg’s case, as workplace colleagues note Kristen’s affair with Dr. Robertson—a massive conflict of interest (25:28).
• Massive amounts of fentanyl and clonazepam found in Greg’s system—overdose ruled as suicide, but the officers stay suspicious.

6. Kristen’s Troubled Past Comes to Light (37:13)

• A history of meth addiction from age 16; repeated relapses, extreme behaviors, and manipulations.
• Greg’s attempts to help Kristen get clean; Kristen’s manipulations described through both personal and professional accounts.

Notable Quote (38:04) Heath:

"I mean, it's pretty crazy work to start using meth, especially during that time in the '90s while you're in high school."

7. Trail of Affairs & the “American Beauty” Motif (44:14)

• Kristen’s ongoing affairs before and after marriage; repeatedly doubts the relationship but refuses to leave.
• Obsession with the movie "American Beauty"—films’ iconic rose petal motif directly reflected in the staging of Greg’s death (49:15).

Notable Quote (51:45) Daphne:

"She and Michael would exchange different colored roses as, like, a symbol of their affair and their love for each other. So she's with this guy again, who she admires, who is successful in his career... he gives her roses. So she's comparing Greg to this other man."

8. The Timeline and Forensic Evidence (59:09)

• Reconstruction of the hours before and after Greg’s death:
  • Greg sedated Sunday night with clonazepam and oxycodone; additional fentanyl administered throughout Monday, during several suspicious trips Kristen made home from work.
  • Kristen’s calculated actions: calling in sick for Greg, shopping for soup and roses, repeated contact with Dr. Robertson on a new, secret cell phone.

Memorable Quote (59:51) Heath:

"Yeah, she's such a dumbass."

9. The Investigation and Trial (54:20–67:46)

• Prosecution argument: Kristen poisoned Greg to be with Dr. Robertson, motivated by fear of exposure and addiction.
• Missing fentanyl vials and patches from Kristen’s workplace; evidence of her erratic behavior and drug use noted by coworkers.
• Defense claims evidence mishandling, but the overwhelming circumstantial and forensic evidence points to Kristen’s guilt.
• Dr. Robertson not charged due to lack of evidence in conspiring, despite his clear involvement past the affair.
• Jury convicts Kristen of first-degree murder; she is sentenced to life without parole.

10. Aftermath and Legacy (68:04–end)

• Kristen paints herself as the ultimate “American beauty” — respected, educated, and beautiful — but her manipulations, crimes, and addiction ruined her life and others.
• Greg’s family wins a $14.5 million wrongful death suit; Kristen remains imprisoned, Dr. Robertson returns to Australia.
• Reflections on “wasted” potential, the ripple effect of betrayal, and the importance of shrewd investigation.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:37 – Discovery of Greg’s body, background
• 08:04 – Greg meets Kristen, her early life
• 16:51 – Greg discovers affair, marriage fallout
• 19:49 – The death scene and 911 call
• 22:44 – Kristen pushes overdose narrative
• 25:28 – Autopsy and workplace drama
• 37:13 – Kristen’s drug use history
• 44:14 – Affairs escalate, wedding doubts
• 49:15 – Obsession with "American Beauty," rose symbolism
• 59:09 – Detailed murder timeline and forensic findings
• 54:20–67:46 – Trial and conviction
• 68:04 – Aftermath, societal commentary, victims’ legacy

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Notable Quotes & Commentary

• On Greg’s role as provider (07:40, Daphne):

  "He was very rational, calm and levelheaded… with my father gone, Greg was one of the providers for the household."

• On Kristen’s manipulations (45:49, Daphne):

  "She’s not necessarily playing her options, but just trying to win everybody over."

• On wasted potential (68:25, Heath):

  "She was smart, she had a good job… and she just chose to be an evil piece of shit."

• On the importance of the outside autopsy (70:48, Daphne):

  "Had Greg’s autopsy been conducted by Dr. Michael Robertson, Kristen Rossum may very well have gotten away with murder."

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Host Reflections

• Daphne and Heath repeatedly lament the senselessness of the crime, Kristen’s refusal to simply leave the relationship, and how her selfishness led to Greg’s death.
• They underline how striking the performative and cinematic aspects of the crime were, and how the case could easily have been mishandled or the murderers unpunished, but for key decisions by third parties.
• The episode closes with advice against betrayal and unnecessary violence in relationships, inviting listeners to look at case photos on their social media.

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For Listeners Wanting More

• Book recommendation: “Deadly American Beauty: A Story of Passion, Adultery, and Murder” by John Glatt for a comprehensive account of the case.
• Check hosts’ social channels for case photos and ongoing discussions.

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In Summary:
This episode highlights how true crime can feel stranger than fiction, capturing how deeply personal flaws, professional conduct, and cultural references (like "American Beauty") played into a real-life tragedy — and how detailed investigation and workplace ethics were crucial to uncovering the truth. This is both a cautionary tale and a testament to the diligence of investigators and colleagues who caught what so easily could have been just another “tragic suicide.”

Transcript

[Narrator]

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[Daphne]

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[Heath]

What is going on? True crime fans? I'm your host, he.

[Daphne]

And I'm your host, Daphne.

[Heath]

And you're listening to Going West.

[Daphne]

Hello everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Boy, do we have a story for you guys. One that is so deeply woven with so many twists and turns, with a head nod to a popular movie and a storyline that feels like a movie but somehow isn't one.

[Heath]

Yeah, I'm so surprised that I had not heard of this case before this last week. But yeah, it doesn't seem like it was really that publicized. Maybe it was at the time. But yeah, it's such a wild story.

[Daphne]

I had never heard about it either. And Heath, you found this one, so it wasn't even recommended to us, which means that a lot of people probably don't know it alongside us, which is just crazy.

[Heath]

Yeah, it's one of those ones where I was just kind of digging around the Internet and found it and kind of has something to do with one of Daphne's favorite movies. So I was like, this is gonna be a perfect case for us to cover.

[Daphne]

I'm so glad you found it. Well, without further ado, thank you again everybody for tuning in.

[Heath]

And this is episode 577 of Going West. So let's get into it.

[Daphne]

In November of 2000, a 26 year old biotech worker was found dead in his San Diego apartment, laid out on his bed with rose petals scattered around his body and a wedding photograph carefully place nearby. His death was reported as a suicide by his wife, a county toxicologist. And at first there was little reason to doubt her. But as investigators began to take a closer look, the line between love and betrayal and science and deception started to blur. This is the murder of Greg de Vieille, also known as the American Beauty Murder. Greg de Vieille was born on November 12, 1973 to parents Marie and Yves Tremolet Deville in Park Ridge, Illinois, which is just outside of Chicago, before his two younger brothers, Bert and Jerome. Before Greg and his brothers were born, his parents immigrated to the US from France, his father being a successful plastic surgeon and his mother Marie, a physical therapist. Two years after Marie gave birth to Greg, the family moved to Palm Springs, California, where their other sons were born. But In September of 1981, just before Greg turned eight years old, his parents divorced. After they split, Marie was granted custody of her three sons and she remained in California and lived with them in a modest apartment while Eve moved to Monaco and continued his work as a plastic surgeon. Greg's brother Jerome later stated, quote, my mom worked and my dad paid some child support. Now because it seemed like the boys kind of lacked a strong father figure in their lives, Greg, who of course again is the oldest, really stepped up for his two younger brothers. So on top of being supportive, Greg was described as a great student during his time at Palm Springs High School with a kind nature, a good attitude and, and a popular status amongst his peers. He was very, very, very well liked. His younger brothers really looked up to him as well, of course, because he really stepped in, into that more like masculine, like bigger, masculine role in the home, right? With Burt later saying, quote, we'd run into hardships, but we'd always get through them. With my father gone, Greg was one of the providers for the household. He was very rational, calm and level headed. In 1991, Greg graduated from Palm Springs High and immediately enrolled in the College of the Desert right there in Palm Springs with the goal of stacking up credits so he could transfer to a university. And during this time he was also working at Long's Drugs, which is also cvs, to Help kind of offset the cost of his tuition because he was paying for it in his limited free time. Greg loved spending time outdoors, whether it be skiing or hiking or playing tennis. But again, he was very focused on his school and eventually transferred to the University of California San Diego or UCSD and moved out of his family home in Palm springs. So now 20 years old, Greg is finally kind of gaining some independence. And he was excited to start dating a little bit because he hadn't done very much dating quite yet in his life. And he even continued actually living with his brother Jerome after Jerome got a scholarship to the same college. So now they're roommates again, they're going to the same school, and they also live with another friend of Greg's. So it all felt like kind of a perfect situation.

[Heath]

Yeah, I mean, now he doesn't have to go through being at this campus by himself. He's got his brother there, they can hang out, they also live together. It really is just a perfect situation.

[Daphne]

Yeah. And Palm Springs to San Diego isn't that far. It's like a little over two hours. So it's not like he was moving to a different state or something. But this is a totally different area, a bigger city with a lot more going on. So I'm sure that was really nice to have his brother with him.

[Heath]

Yeah. Completely different culture, you know, it's. He's finally on his own as well. But everything would change when a friend of Greg's named Aaron invited the brothers on a quick trip to Tijuana, Mexico the day after Christmas in 1994. So when Greg was 21 years old. So this group of young men made their way to the border crossing in San Ysidro, which is only about a 30 minute drive away from UCSD where they planned to cross the border and then spend the night partying at bars in Tijuana. But as these guys reached the border, this young, beautiful blonde woman around Greg's age actually physically bumped into him. And then she dropped her jacket on the ground and before she could pick it up, Greg picked it up for her.

[Daphne]

Literally. Definition. Like movie meet cute.

[Heath]

Yeah, it seems like a really adorable situation. Right. Especially since Greg was immediately infatuated with this woman. So he introduced himself and his friends in French, hoping to impress this girl, but was surprised when she responded in French too, Something that she had learned in school, explaining that her name was Kristen. So the two kinda instantly hit it off and Greg asked Kristen if she'd like to join the group to Revolucion Avenue, which is a popular street for bars and nightlife. And to his surprise, Kristen actually agreed to go with them. They spent the night hopping between different clubs, dancing and drinking. And although Greg was very willing to open up about himself, Kristen was a little bit more reserved, almost like she had a mystery about her. And that was something that Greg absolutely loved. Now, around 2am the group left the bars and called it a night. But when Greg asked where Kristen was staying, she explained that she was renting a room at this cheap motel in Chula Vista. Now, of course, like I said, Greg was really smitten by her and told Kristen that he didn't really think Chula Vista was a very safe place for her to be and suggested instead that they go back to his place. You know, back to his apartment in San Diego. And again, to Greg's surprise, Kristen agreed to do this. You know, she. She wasn't tied to staying in Mexico. She was sort of go with the flow at this point in time because she's 18. She's just trying to have fun.

[Daphne]

Well, here's a little bit of backstory on Kristen. So Kristen Rossum was born on October 25, 1976, to parents Constance and Ralph Rossum in Memphis, Tennessee, alongside two younger brothers, Brent and Pierce. Now, her father, Ralph, was actually a nationally renowned professor at Memphis State University, and her mother, Constance, was a journalist. And they'd only just moved to Tennessee shortly before Kristen was born. But they would spend much of her childhood moving around, mostly due to Ralph's job from Memphis to Chicago to Washington, D.C. and then Southern California, mostly in the Claremont area and East Los Angeles county, which, by the way, is known as the City of trees and PhDs. And they also spent some time in Virginia, so they bopped around a lot.

[Heath]

Yeah, I saw somebody online say that she was kind of like the PhD professor's equivalent of an army brat.

[Daphne]

Exactly. So, yeah, he was a professor. He was also an associate professor. He was the dean of a graduate school, and even the deputy director for the U.S. department of justice under Ronald Reagan. So these are the types of jobs that he worked, you know, the type of family this is like. He even wrote many books, one of which was titled Police Criminal justice and the Community and the Politics of the Criminal Justice System. So as you can expect from a child of not only a college professor, but somebody of Ralph's decree, I guess. Kristen was very gifted from a young age. At just four years old, she was already advanced in reading and writing and way ahead of her classmates. She also excelled in classical ballet and by 6 years old, she starred in an ad campaign for McDonald's. But as she got a little bit older and was living in Claremont, California, Kristen started to dance competitively. Like ballet was super important to her, with one school friend describing, quote, she was incredibly thin, which was something I was always jealous of. She was pretty quiet, not gossipy or talkative like the rest of us, and an incredible ballerina. But she actually didn't pursue ballet professionally after high school. Instead, she focused on science, which is what she was doing when she met Greg.

[Heath]

So after meeting that night in Mexico, things moved pretty fast. Kristen quickly ended up living with Greg, his brother Jerome, and their roommate in San Diego, and the two officially started dating. Jerome later remembered Greg really fell for her heart after they met. It was hard to see my brother without her. In fact, just six months into dating, Greg proposed to Kristen without a ring, but just the promise of wanting a future together. And she excitedly said yes. Then also around this time, Kristen's father, Ralph, using his connections, helped Kristen enroll at San Diego State University, and he even paid her tuition, helped her with her rent, and also bought her a car. And then her mom, Constance, moved her into an apartment at La Jolla del Sol, which just so happened to be the very same complex where Greg lived. Because although her parents did approve of Greg, they wanted them to live apart. And they weren't really thrilled about their engagement, you know, because Kristen was only 18. She had just met Greg about six months earlier, and they really wanted her to finish school and build a life first. But despite their concerns, that summer, the couple moved in together into Kristen's apartment. With the Rossums continuing to bankroll them, they even later estimated that they gave Greg and Kristen More than $75,000 over the next few years. And as they set up their careers now, In October of 1996, Greg proposed yet again, this time withering during a trip to Mexico for Kristen's 20th birthday. And she accepted for a second time. By the summer of 1997, Kristen landed a paid internship at the San Diego Medical examiner's office. And this is where her life kind of takes a turn that becomes very important later. She totally fell in love with forensic science, specifically toxicology, analyzing drugs, preparing samples, working cases involving overdoses. And by the end of 1997, Greg had finished school, too, and he landed a job at a biotech company in San Diego called Pharmagen, where he became the assistant and office manager to the vice president of research there. So he's got this kind of, you know, big new job, a Big role in this company. And as a pair, they're this young couple building this perfect future. You know, they're engaged, settling into their careers fully in love and happy. And the following year, in 1998, they set a wedding date for June 5, 1999, four years after their initial engagement. On that beautiful Southern California Saturday, Greg and Kristen married in an outdoor ceremony at the Colleges of Claremont, which is a consortium of private liberal arts colleges, but also a wedding venue and a private event space. And it looked absolutely beautiful. It was a really lovely start to a happy life together with Greg even hoping that they could start a family soon.

[Daphne]

But obviously they're both busy in their careers with Kristen applying for jobs so that she could get out of her internship at the medical examiner's office. You know, she wanted to move up after years of being in this field by now. And in March of 2000, so a little under a year after their wedding, Kristen landed a really exciting new position at the San Diego Medical Examiner's office, Obviously the same place that she had been interning for years. So this is exciting. But sadly, she and Greg's marriage started to crumble later that year when Greg believed that Kristen may be having an affair. On November 2, 2000 days before Greg's 27th birthday, and a year and a half into their nuptials, he arrived home from work to find Kristen on the couch holding something. And as soon as he came in, she kind of panicked. She shoved whatever she was holding away. So this is like, it's really sus, you know, suspicious.

[Heath]

He's like, what the fuck was that? Why do you seem so weird right now?

[Daphne]

Yeah, like, what are you. You clearly just hid something from me. What did you hide? So he's demanding to see what that was. And that's when he found a letter. A letter that started with, to a beautiful girl. And it was written by Kristen's boss, a 30 year old Australian chief toxicologist named Dr. Michael Robertson. So Kristen, who by the way at this point is 24, grabbed the letter and tried to shred it, but Greg spent hours trying to piece it back together with Scotch tape so that he could read it and see what the hell she was hiding. And that's when Kristen demanded a trial separation, explaining that she was already looking at new apartments and that she didn't want to be with Greg anymore.

[Heath]

So Greg is obviously in complete shock because he's like, I don't understand what happened. You know, I. I didn't do anything wrong.

[Daphne]

Yeah, like, we haven't even talked about this.

[Heath]

Yeah. Like our marriage seems really happy. Like, what the hell's going on?

[Daphne]

Yeah. So suddenly, like, not only does he find this letter, but she's like, I, I want to split up. So it's like it all comes crashing down so quickly. So Greg didn't want to go down without a fight, you know, so to speak, and threatened to take the letter to the medical examiner's office and basically expose Kristen's misdeeds with her boss. Which he didn't actually do, but he's threatening like, I'm gonna tell your work that you're having an affair with your boss. Like, this has to stop.

[Heath]

Yeah. Because obviously now knowing that she's having an affair with her boss, he's like, I don't want you to continue working there. Like, I don't want you to work with this guy that you're sleeping with.

[Daphne]

Yeah. And I want to stay. So, like, let's talk about this. You know, he's, he's totally blindsided. He didn't even know his wife wasn't happy. So he's just trying to figure out what to do here. So for the next few days, they didn't speak very much and it seemed like it was really over. Which was a devastating shock for many people who knew them and didn't know that their relationship had any issues.

[Heath]

Yeah. Because from the outside, they did look like the perfect couple.

[Daphne]

Well, a few days later, on Sunday, November 5, 2000, Kristen got up early and headed into work to update her resume. Now, Greg, on the other hand, got up a bit late. He was nursing a slight hangover from the night before. Greg called his brother Burt at 3:37pm and they had a brief conversation where Greg sounded exhausted. You know, it's the afternoon. Yes, it's a Sunday, but Burt's kind of like, what's going on with you? To which Burt later reported, quote, he told me that Kristen had made him a couple drinks of gin and it surprised him how much he felt the effects of the alcohol. So obviously they are still around each other, they're still in the same apartment, but they're trying to figure out what their next move is. You know, are they divorcing? Are they gonna patch things up and fix whatever's wrong?

[Heath]

The following day, Monday, November 6, Kristen left in the morning for work as usual. But Greg never showed up to his work. And when Kristen arrived back home late that night, she found her husband of a year and a half deceased 24 year old. Kristen called 911 at 9:22pm and in this call, she sounded, you know, hysterical. She's screaming. My husband is not breathing. He's cold. I came home a little while ago to check on him, and then I took my bath. The dispatcher asked Kristen to take him off the bed and put Greg on the floor to conduct mouth to mouth resuscitation. Kristen complied with this while sobbing. But the dispatcher noted that it sounded as if Kristen was blowing into the phone, perhaps acting as if she were blowing into Greg's mouth. Kristen was asked to check for a pulse, but she told him that she couldn't find one. One minute later, paramedics arrived at the apartment. And when they walked into the couple's bedroom, Greg's face was completely blue. But even more alarming was what they found lying around his body. A sea of red rose petals. Also near Greg was a framed wedding photo of the couple, almost as if Greg had been looking at it before he passed away. The medics pronounced Greg dead at the scene, but also explained that they didn't believe he had been dead for very long, considering the fact that rigor mortis hadn't set in yet. So the EMTs were just completely dumbfounded at this point. You know, here's a nearly 27 year old man. He's in great shape, and he died so suddenly and without a clear cause. There was no blood, no wounds, nothing. Just a weird, random, and almost romantic display around his body. They asked Kristen if he did any drugs or if he had any history of medical ailments, but she told them no and that she was just as confused as they were. But she did mention that he had been sick recently. Remember that aggressive hangover the day before? And he had been taking medicine. Detectives arrived at the scene to formally interview Kristen, and that's when they found a note in the bedroom from Kristen to Greg that read, hi, sleepy. I'm gonna go shopping for a wedding gift for. For Barb, a friend of theirs. Leftovers in the fridge for you. I hope you feel better, and I'll see you later.

[Daphne]

Weirdly, while Kristin was in their bedroom, she started to spiral a bit. Obviously, that part's not weird. Her husband is dead next to her, but it was kind of like she was talking to herself. She was trying to make sense of her husband's death. Like detectives and paramedics heard her repeat over and over to herself that Greg had died by overdosing on pills. So they're like, what? What are you saying?

[Heath]

It's kind of strange that she's already sort of pushing a little bit of A narrative here.

[Daphne]

Exactly. Greg's body was transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, with Kristen arriving just after the ambulance. And to the shock of many. Arriving to the scene just after her was Dr. Robertson, her boss and apparent lover. Kristen then told the doctors that she believed Greg may have taken oxycodone that he bought in Tijuana five years earlier and that maybe that caused his death. So she's trying to come up with the answer and saying, oh, this could be it, or maybe this, or maybe this.

[Heath]

And, yeah, maybe it was that expired oxycodone that he got five years ago from Mexico, by the way.

[Daphne]

Yeah. So, like, he must have taken it after buying it, and maybe that's why he's dead. At 6:15am the next morning, Tuesday, Greg's autopsy was officially underway at the San Diego Medical Examiner's office where Kristen worked. Meanwhile, Detective Bob Jones called Ralph Rossum again, Kristin's father, asking permission to enter Kristen's apartment because, remember, her parents are still paying for the place, and the detectives wanted to take photographs, so they need permission to enter, and Ralph granted that. At 8:30am Detective Jones and his partner entered the apartment and noticed that everything seemed to be exactly as it was left the night before, aside from a few new water glasses by the kitchen sink. So they photographed everything and then left shortly afterwards, not taking anything into evidence. Well, back at the Medical examiner's office where Greg's autopsy was happening, Dr. Michael Robertson was spinning a story informing his employees. Remember, he's the chief toxicologist. That Greg De Vieillea had taken his own life. But some of the employees who worked under Robertson actually knew about the affair that he was having with Kristen and immediately became suspicious of this.

[Heath]

Yeah, because they see. They kind of see the interactions between Kristen and Dr. Robertson. They're like, yeah, I don't know. That seems really weird that you're the one breaking the news to all of us when we kind of see you guys flirting all the time.

[Daphne]

Yeah. And, like, are you telling us the truth? Like, it's. It's so amazing that they're clocking this. Now. Lloyd Amborn, who ran the San Diego Medical Examiner's Office on the administration side, ordered that Greg's autopsy be conducted by an outside source. He's a smart guy because he, too, caught wind of Kristen and Dr. Robertson's affair, and he found that very, very fishy.

[Heath]

I mean, this guy, I'm just. I want to clap for him, you.

[Daphne]

Know, this is a crazy situation. I don't think we've ever covered a case where there's some, like, fuckery in the medical examiner's office and there's a connection to the victim and the toxicologist. Like, we've never seen that.

[Heath]

Oh, yeah, Massive conflict of interest here.

[Daphne]

Especially because with there not being blood or any wounds on Greg's body and the fact that Kristen is, like you said, he's kind of pushing a narrative that he died via an overdose or pills or some kind of medication. And she is a toxicologist, meaning that is the exact type of death that she and Dr. Robertson would, you know, investigate.

[Heath]

Right.

[Daphne]

Really interesting. So Lloyd Amborn even called Dr. Robertson to inform him of his decision personally, later stating, quote, he expressed real surprise, shock, I would say. I emphasized to him that because of this decision, neither the tox lab or anyone in it, including him, was to have anything to do with the toxicology in this case.

[Heath]

Absolutely fucking badass.

[Daphne]

Seriously. So the autopsy was conducted instead by Dr. Brian Blackbourne, who indicated that Greg had been unconscious for between six and 12 hours before he died and explained that Greg would likely have been lying in bed unconscious since possibly about 7:30am on Monday morning. And although drugs and alcohol were of course tested, medical examiners at the time hardly ever tested for fentanyl. But thankfully they did this time, and massive amounts of the drug were found in Greg's system, as well as clonazepam. So with this, his death was actually ruled a suicide. But then Detective Jones was tipped off about Kristen and Dr. Robertson's affair by an employee of the medical examiner's office. And this was enough for the investigation to dive much deeper for him to put the suicide ruling to bed, possibly. So the police placed a hold on Greg's body being cremated till they knew more.

[Narrator]

For the first time ever, a truly beautiful medical breakthrough promises physical perfection. One shot makes you hot, but with terrifying consequences. In the new original series, FX is the Beauty. The glamorous world of supermodels turns deadly as mysterious deaths draw in FBI agents and a shadowy billionaire who will stop at nothing to protect his empire. From executive producer Ryan Murphy. FX is the Beauty. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers.

[Daphne]

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[Heath]

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[Heath]

While interviewing Kristen, she explained that the day before Greg's death, Sunday November 5, 2000, she headed into work to update her resume. And obviously this is a Sunday so it's not a typical work day for her. But she was there for three hours working on her resume while Greg nursed that bad hangover. She says that she got to work around 8am that day and later went shopping for a birthday present for Greg. She got home around 5pm that day, and then she and Greg had an argument. Kristen said, I started pushing the issue of leaving again and he cried a little bit. He told me to go away. And then he went to bed at 8:30. Then at 9pm she says that she left the apartment in order to call Dr. Robertson, her boss, because she was frustrated and needed to hear his comforting voice. And she did admit this affair to the police. But the call that night only lasted two minutes. And then Kristen says that she watched a little bit of TV and joined Greg in bed at 11pm now, during the interview, Kristen was distraught, still saying that she believed Greg had taken his own life, depressed and suicidal about their marriage crumbling and explaining how shaken up she was about losing her partner. But the news of her affair began to catch wind and Both she and Dr. Robertson were subsequently fired from their positions at work because obviously, again, this is a huge conflict of interest. Now, on top of this, detectives discovered that a 10 milligram vial of fentanyl along with 15 fentanyl patches were missing from the medical examiner's office substances that Kristin Rossum had direct access to.

[Daphne]

And what did Greg die from?

[Heath]

From fentanyl. But even more wild was that when police decided to investigate Kristen's credit card transactions, they discovered that on November 6, the day of Greg's death, Kristen bought soup, medicine and a rose. So Kristen's colleagues were interviewed about her behavior leading up to Greg's death. And they all described that she had exhibited erratic behavior and physical symptoms of drug use, including pick marks on her face, because obviously that is a very common side effect of drug use, or at least specific drugs, I'll say. But police didn't quite have enough evidence to paint any strong particular picture just yet. Actually, it took seven whole months for detectives to build their case. But on June 25, 2001, 24 year old Kristen Rossum would finally be arrested and she was charged with first degree murder.

[Daphne]

Now, before we get into the whole case against Kristen, we need to tell you guys who she really is, because earlier, obviously, we explained how Kristen was a fantastic student and ballet dancer in her youth, but we left out some crucial details.

[Heath]

Yeah, a lot of people just saw her as this all American beauty, but no pun intended, but that's not really who she was.

[Daphne]

Yeah, because she did excel in school for a while, but then she fell into the wrong crowd. A crowd that introduced her to crystal meth during her junior year of high school at a local football game. And suddenly she was hooked on methamphetamine. After crazy enough, her father had helped write parts of Nancy Reagan's Just say no campaign, and he had absolutely no idea his own daughter was using at just 16 years old. Or at least not yet. Yet.

[Heath]

I mean, it's pretty crazy work to start using meth, especially during that time in the 90s while you're in high school.

[Daphne]

Yeah, she just. She got in with the wrong people who showed her the wrong thing. That maybe she didn't know that much about it. Or, of course, peer pressure, thought it was okay because her new buddies were doing it. But eventually, her parents did find out because they found a glass pipe and a razor blade in her backpack. And that's when all hell broke loose. Constance erupted, screaming at Kristen, calling her a worthless slut, even slapping her across the face. But after that, Kristen promised to get clean. And for a while, she did. She still managed to graduate early, and at 17, she enrolled at the University of Redlands on a presidential scholarship. So she was supposed to have this fresh start. And it seemed like maybe she was kind of turning things around. Except she wasn't. By the fall, she had relapsed again, and her life basically unraveled. Like one night, while staying at a hotel with her boyfriend, who, by the way, by all accounts, actually seemed like a decent, responsible guy, Kristin stole $200 from his wallet, vanished for an entire week, and her parents reported her missing shortly before Christmas 94. So it's probably clicking already, but that is what brought her to Greg, to Mexico. Because Kristen didn't end up in Mexico by chance. After that binge, she made her way down to the Amtrak station, bought a one way ticket to San Diego, ended up in Chula Vista near the border. And that's how she winds up. Alone, crossing that border into Tijuana right after Christmas, crossing paths with Greg de Vieillea. So Kristen wasn't in Tijuana for fun. Little did Greg know, she was there to buy drugs.

[Heath]

And soon after they started dating, Greg found a glass pipe tucked inside Kristen's.

[Daphne]

Jacket pocket, just like her parents had.

[Heath]

And when he confronted her about this, she finally admitted the truth. That she did, in fact, have a drug problem. And Greg, of course, being Greg, didn't run, but instead told her that he loved her and that he wanted to help her get Clean. So a few weeks into their relationship, Kristen started writing her parents letters explaining that she wanted to come home, but that she wanted to get better first. She wanted to get clean after disappearing on them, but at the same time, she was spinning these completely wild stories. She even called her ex boyfriend, the one she had stolen that money from, and told him that she had been kidnapped at gunpoint by white slavers in Mexico, driven around in the trunk of their car and barely escaped. And by the way, it's so weird because after leaving that hotel room that night, she just disappears on her boyfriend, like he doesn't hear from her, and then all of a sudden, months later, she's dating a new guy, she's dating Greg. So it's like this guy must just be so confused.

[Daphne]

And she's conjuring the story that we know can't be true because she crossed into the border with Greg and they spent the next few hours together. And then she went back to San Diego. There was no time for, quote unquote, white slavers in Mexico to kidnap her at gunpoint and drive her around and for her to barely escape. So it's almost like she's trying to act like, oh my God, I couldn't, I couldn't get to you, I couldn't reach you, I was in trouble.

[Heath]

But also, you know, just again, the confusion that this guy must be feeling. Like one night, everything's totally fine. I mean, they had been dating for a few months and then she just completely disappears on this guy and then pops up like a month later. But then Kristen did, of course, reunite with her parents in Claremont and tried to present this new, falsely clean version of herself, which they did believe. But then she did get clean again. She started majoring in chemistry in college and she was getting straight A's. So by the way, when she fell in love with toxicology and was doing drug screenings for her job, this was obviously interesting given her history, because even though she had been clean for two years when she started this new internship, she was suddenly surrounded by substances again, like heroin, fentanyl and meth, taken directly from death scenes. So the temptation was all around her all the time. And while she was struggling under the temptation of relapse, Kristen, as she would later admit, felt that the stability that Greg was offering her, this safe, routine, predictable life, started to feel suffocating. And it wasn't making her happy. And actually she missed the impulsiveness and the adrenaline that she once lived on during her drug fueled years. I mean, she, she really just felt like she was becoming domesticated.

[Daphne]

Then maybe she shouldn't be engaged to a man at 23 years old. You know, maybe she should move on, because this is before her wedding. So she's having all these thoughts before the wedding?

[Heath]

Yeah. If this is not what you want in your current life, then don't go forward with it. I mean, you. You have the opportunity, you have the freedom to leave the relationship, especially because.

[Daphne]

Her parents are bankrolling her, like we said. So it's. It's like you can just easily say, hey, help me get out of this, which we'll get into.

[Heath]

But on top of this, she met this guy Greg, who by all accounts, seems like a wonderful guy. He's got a good job. He's trying to help her get clean, he's stable. He wants a family with her. Yeah, and she's just, like, kind of a spoiled brat.

[Daphne]

She's missing the horrible chaos of doing drugs and living life on the edge, like, disappearing for a week and running into Mexico by herself, which is not a good life for her. So, like, you're saying Greg is providing her with something amazing, and for whatever reason, she just doesn't want it.

[Heath]

Right. So instead of talking about it with Greg and making it work, she began chasing excitement somewhere else. And Kristen began having multiple affairs. By April of 1999, just two months before her wedding, Kristen was deep in this double life and started getting serious.

[Daphne]

Cold feet, which, like, is fine. You're not married yet. Cold feet. If this is a sign to tell you to get out of this and don't get married, don't get married. Like, it's okay.

[Heath]

But also, you know, don't be a piece of shit and literally cheat on this. This guy. That seems so nice, you know, what are you doing?

[Daphne]

Well, exactly. So if you're having affairs before your wedding, just don't get married. Figure it out.

[Heath]

Right. So she went to her father, and she admitted that she wasn't sure that she could go through with this, this marriage. And Ralph actually gave her an out. He told her that if she wanted out, he would help her move out and call this whole thing off. But Kristen didn't take him up on it. She also told her mother that she loved Greg, but she didn't know if she was in love with Greg. But this wasn't a Greg problem, it seemed, because even people around Kristen felt a certain way about her. For example, a supervising toxicologist named Dr. Daniel Anderson, who met Kristen at a conference later, said, obviously, she's striking. And I remember she flirted with Everyone, she kissed the women. Also, she's a manipulator and knew just how to get what she wants, which is probably true.

[Daphne]

But he sounds kind of jealous, you know, he sounds like she rejected him.

[Heath]

I mean, possibly. But at the same time, this was who Kristen was. She was this kind of ass kisser. You know, she's. She's really trying to chum chum with the people at this conference. She wants the, the higher ups in the toxicology world to see her and to notice her.

[Daphne]

Well, I think the manipulation angle is interesting because even Greg's brother would later speak about this and say that early on in her relationship with Greg, he felt like she would flirt with him and look at him a certain way and talk to him a certain way, but that she did that more. More with Greg, of course, because they're actually dating. But he kind of saw this early on that she's not necessarily playing her options, but just trying to win everybody over.

[Heath]

Right. Or that she maybe had some wandering eyes, you know?

[Daphne]

Right. Which of course we know now that she very much did. But still, despite all the warning signs, despite the affairs, despite her doubts, Kristen went through with a wedding. But obviously she was still having affairs before and after she said, I do. Just two weeks later, on June 19, 1999, one of her lovers emailed her saying, congratulations, I really can't wait to see you. I was really worried that you didn't love me anymore. And it's so wild to say congratulations before all that, like, congrats on your wedding. Anyway, you're mine.

[Heath]

Yeah, like, what the hell?

[Daphne]

But this goes to show you, like, I was really worried that you didn't love me anymore. So as we're gonna see with this other affair we're gonna discuss, this isn't just sex, which is still not okay because Greg doesn't know about it, but she is having like, intimate, emotional and physical relationships with other people.

[Heath]

Yeah, they're full on separate relationships.

[Daphne]

Well, things got worse when Greg told her that he wanted to start trying for a baby like we mentioned, and hoped Kristen could eventually become a stay at home mom because Kristen wanted absolutely nothing to do with that. Not only was she still emotionally checked out, but she wasn't interested in giving up her career in forensic toxicology to become, you know, something that Greg wanted her to be. You know, this is when she was trying to find more concrete work, trying to move forward from her internship. She didn't want to sit at home and be a mother because she barely wanted to be with Greg as it Was.

[Heath]

Yeah, she was kind of like a loose cannon, you know, what's the, what's the other word for it? Like a, like a free soul.

[Daphne]

Oh, well, like a free spirit.

[Heath]

Free spirit. Yeah, like a free spirit. You know, she really just didn't. She, she thought that doing that would maybe defeat her.

[Daphne]

Well, also, to be fair, she's only 23 at this time, so she's very, very young. This is very young for a lot of people to even get married.

[Heath]

And again, I'll say there's nothing wrong with that. You can be a free spirit. You can do whatever the hell you want to do.

[Daphne]

You don't have to have kids.

[Heath]

Yeah, you don't have to do that. You also don't have to be married. You don't have to stay with Greg. These are all options for you.

[Daphne]

That's why it's weird because it's like she's. She's saying one thing, but she's doing another. She's like, I don't want to be tied down and I don't want to be a mother. Then why did you marry Greg? A man who wants children, a man who wants that. So it's like she's just not really thinking, you know? Well, meanwhile, she tried enjoying time with friends and, you know, while she's struggling with her relationship and applying for jobs and is remaining, of course, in her marriage with Greg. And in September of 1999, so a little over a year before Greg dies and a few months after they got married, the film American Beauty hit theaters. And Kristen became completely obsessed with it. Understandably so. One of the greatest movies of all time.

[Heath]

Yeah, that's a good one for sure.

[Daphne]

For those who haven't seen it, which really, really should, Kevin Spacey becomes obsessed with his teen daughter's best friend, Angela. And at some point in the movie, he has a fantasy about her naked and surrounded by rose petals, all while his wife is having an affair. Sounds familiar, right? So her love for this movie would help spawn a really weird detail in a future plan. By early 2000, Kristen was continuing her pattern. She's moving from affair to affair with an old colleague, an SDSU student. And then she landed the toxicologist job at the San Diego medical examiner's office. And almost simultaneously, alongside her, someone new arrived. A new chief toxicologist was hired. A 30 year old Australian forensic scientist named Michael Robertson. Dr. Dickhead, we've been talking about him already today. You guys know who Michael Robertson is? And he was considered the golden boy of his field. He was brilliant. He was Respected and charming. Kristen even described him as a hunk. And like Kristen, this piece of shit was also married. And he, too, enjoyed playing the field. So Kristen was drawn to him immediately. It's like they have the same interests. They're both married and willing to have an affair. Like, they have stuff in common. She looks up to him. And before long, what started as professional admiration turned into something physical and serious very, very quickly, because within just a few months, the two began talking about a future together. All while Kristen is celebrating one year of marriage with Greg. But behind Greg's back, Kristen told her brother that she basically was just hanging in there with Greg, sending Dr. Michael messages like, I love you. Everything I ever imagine wanting in a lifelong companion, husband, best friend is present in you. When I see you, I see my future.

[Heath]

Poor fucking Greg.

[Daphne]

Poor fucking Greg. Because Greg, of course, had no idea. He believed his marriage was fine because Kristen is putting on a face. But she reported that she found him, Greg, unromantic. And her life had become this constant search for passion and intensity, as we know.

[Heath]

There was this really interesting line that I read that Kristen said something along the lines of, oh, yeah, Greg never bought me roses because he thought that they were too expensive. So I thought that was kind of an interesting thing to note.

[Daphne]

What, because of the sea of roses around his body?

[Heath]

Yeah, because of what's to come.

[Daphne]

Well, even more about roses. She and Michael would exchange different colored roses as, like, a symbol of their affair and their love for each other. So she's getting. She's with this guy again, who she admires, who is successful in his career. That is the same shared passion as hers. He gives her roses. So she's like, she's comparing Greg to this other man.

[Heath]

I mean, do I really have to say it? People get a divorce.

[Daphne]

Get a divorce, get married. Like, come on, just.

[Heath]

Yeah, but she's already married, so get a divorce, right?

[Daphne]

No, literally, get a divorce. Well, Michael Robertson was also seeing other women on the side, so his wife, Kristen, and some other women, though Kristen didn't know this yet. And still, while she had promised that she would stay away from drugs because Michael was not into that, she couldn't. The access from her job was far too easy. So by fall of 2000, soon before Greg's death, she was spiraling and started stockpiling substances from the medical examiner's office and using methods daily, even smoking first thing in the morning before work, which doing meth before work at a medical examiner's office, where the investigation into other people's Deaths is your responsibility is crazy work.

[Heath]

Yeah. You're literally investigating people who died of overdoses of what you're taking. Yeah, exactly.

[Daphne]

But also like her. Her job is very like. She has a lot of responsibility and she's doing hard drugs. But before undertaking those responsibilities.

[Heath]

Absolutely wild. Well, then came November 2, 2000, the day everything cracked wide open when Greg found the to a beautiful girl letter from Michael. Well, the reason Greg was so adamant about seeing what she was holding wasn't because he thought she was cheating. It's because he thought that she had relapsed, which, to be fair, she had. But then he found the letter instead. Kristen later said, he wrestled me to the ground to get the letter. He almost struck me. But didn't. He read the letter and was infuriated by it and was storming around.

[Daphne]

Just had to add that detail. He almost struck me. But he didn't.

[Heath]

Right. Yeah. Almost trying to make Greg the bad guy. So while they were separated, Kristen was on edge about Greg's threat to expose her affair because she didn't want to lose her precious job that she loved that connected her to Michael and that also gave her access to drugs. Well, let's fast forward because we obviously know that Kristen was arrested and she was charged in 2002. Kristen's trial began with the prosecution alleging that she purposefully poisoned Greg with fentanyl in order to be with the real love of her life, Dr. Michael Robertson. They also alleged that Greg's threats of exposing her was even more motive. Her drug addiction and history was heavily examined and discussed with coworkers testifying against her, revealing the favoritism that Dr. Robertson showed Kristen and their suspicions of the affair. The defense tried to poke holes in the prosecution, you know, alleging that the forensic investigation failed to test certain liquids or search trash cans in the home for potential drug sources, like those water glasses, which, in my opinion, may have contained traces of the drug that Kristen used to poison Greg. You know, of course, the defense is using this, as in, like, oh, well, they didn't test it, so how do we really know that she poisoned him?

[Daphne]

Right. But he had fentanyl, like a crazy, massive amount of fentanyl in his body that he did not have access to.

[Heath]

Yeah, because clearly she had been attempting his murder all weekend, making him suspiciously strong cocktails. You know, calling Dr. Robertson in what many believe was an attempt at planning Greg's murder. And by the way, I do want to mention that Dr. Robertson was not charged with co conspiring the murder because he cooperated and told the police about Kristen's drug use. And although she spoke with him multiple times in the days leading up to and on the day of Greg's death, and she also saw him in person, they couldn't really prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he helped her plan all of this. Ralph Rossum, of course, stood by his daughter and admitted that she had struggled with drug addiction in the past, but argued that she was a high achieving individual who graduated summa cum laude.

[Daphne]

Who gives a shit?

[Heath]

Yeah, like nobody cares. You can be an intelligent person, you can be a successful person. That doesn't automatically make you a good person.

[Daphne]

Especially because she was actively on drugs at the time and she had a motive. So maybe she wasn't acting the way that he knew her to act when she was a younger teen before she started taking meth. But girl had been like messing up stuff for a while.

[Heath]

Yeah, I want to say this is really. It kind of feels similar to like Cruel Intentions if you've seen that film. It's like people like this, these kids, they grow up with an abundance of wealth. They have all these different opportunities. I mean, she was a model, she was in ballet, she was highly intelligent. She had all the smarts in the world because her father taught her really well. And she just basically just misused it. Like you had everything and you gave it up just so you could do meth. Like it's crazy to me.

[Daphne]

Exactly. But remember, she's also the person that, that stole $200 from her boyfriend, went missing for a week, ran off to Mexico by herself, and then lied about being enslaved by people in Mexico. Yeah. So like, again, she's been acting up for a long time due to her drug addiction, unfortunately. Well, here is what the investigation uncovered. The day of Greg's murder, Monday, November 6 at 7am Greg was already believed to be unconscious, going into a coma from a drug cocktail given to him by Kristen. Forensic experts speculate that Kristin had first sedated Greg the night before on Sunday, November 5, with clonazepam, which is a date rape drug, along with oxycodone, which of course is a powerful painkiller. Then Kristen woke up and began administering fentanyl to him, either in patch form or as a liquid, both of, which, remember, were missing from her work. And this is happening while he is unconscious.

[Heath]

Yeah, it's kind of crazy that the night before she's just like, okay, I'm gonna get him a little bit loopy, then he's not really gonna notice that I'm giving him fentanyl the next morning. Because he'll still be loopy, which is.

[Daphne]

Why you were saying that probably started even the night before that, on Saturday night, when she made him those suspiciously strong gin cocktails. She's, like, testing it out.

[Heath]

Yeah, right. And then, you know, he called Bert that day and the next day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Bert basically explained, hey, he seemed, like, really slow, like, sluggish.

[Daphne]

Well, after administering these drugs, Kristin called her drug dealer. This is before she goes into work. And although he didn't answer, she called him over and over, desperate to purchase some meth because her stash at home was nearly depleted. Then at 7:42am Christ. Suspiciously and stupidly, she called Greg's work to let them know that he wouldn't be coming in that day. She actually left a message. She said, quote, this is Kristen, Greg's wife, calling. He's not feeling well at all today, so he's most likely going to be taking the whole day off. Hopefully someone else will get this message and it won't be a problem. Okay, bye. Thank you. What a freaking dummy.

[Heath]

Yeah, she's such a dumbass.

[Daphne]

Like, how would she explain this later? Oh, yeah, he was sick, and I came home and he was dead. Anyway. At 8am Kristen arrived to work, and colleagues noticed that she appeared distressed and on the verge of tears. At 9:30am Dr. Robertson arrived and pulled Kristen into a private room, with Kristen later explaining that he was scolding her about her use of meth. But many people believe that they were actually discussing something much more nefarious.

[Heath]

Yeah, like Greg's upcoming death.

[Daphne]

Exactly. Kristen then left the office and drove home, explaining that she wanted to check in on Greg, who she claimed was sick. So she is telling everybody that he is sick. Remember, as we know, she bought soup, red roses, and medicine that day. So this is her, you know, playing up that narrative even more that he is under the weather.

[Heath]

Yeah, she's trying to plant the seed. Seeds.

[Daphne]

But forensics suggests that instead she went home to administer fentanyl to Greg to slowly kill him.

[Heath]

Yeah, she's kind of like, in the morning, she gave him some fentanyl, then she went to work, and now she's coming back and she's saying, oh, I'm just gonna go check on him. And she's giving him more fentanyl because he's not dead yet.

[Daphne]

Which, like, to be fair, you know, if you're sick. Heath, you're my husband. I care about your health. If you're sick and I have to go to work, I make sure, you have everything that you need. And then I go to work. But she. Not only did she come back this one time, she went back to work after that. And then midday, because we're not even to midday yet, she leaves and goes home again. Like, this feels really excessive for him to, like, have a little cold, you know? Exactly. He's a man. He's a grown adult.

[Heath]

Yeah. There's no reason for you to leave work twice in one day to go home and check on your. Your sick husband.

[Daphne]

Which is why forensics believes that this was her going home to dose him further with fentanyl. When she arrived at her complex again, this time, the apartment manager noticed Kristen park her car in a hurry at a 45 degree angle and run inside her apartment, which seemed really odd to him. About 10 minutes later, Kristin placed a call on a new cell phone that she had purchased like a week earlier to, you guessed it, Dr. Robertson. And actually she bought this phone on October 30th alongside a crack pipe from a smoke shop. But she didn't use the phone until that very day.

[Heath]

Which, you know, is why it's easy to believe that he was a co conspirator if, you know, she's calling him on this secret new phone. It's like the first time you ever use it, you make a. A short phone call to Dr. Robertson.

[Daphne]

Yeah. Why wouldn't you just do that on your regular phone that you already have? But, yeah, you bought a phone a week in advance. Hmm. Well, at 3:00pm that day, Dr. Robertson met Kristen at a location near her home. And they spent the next few hours together chatting and probably possibly discussing Greg's murder. This is while they really should be at work. That's what I believe happened around 6:30pm that day. Kristen returned to the office for the last time. And 90 minutes later, she went home. And that is when she says that she found her husband dead. But remember, she bought the roses that day. She went back and forth a ton. So this sudden discovery does not make any sense that he suddenly overdosed on fentanyl that night, but he was unconscious all day. So if you kept going to check on him and he's sick and he's not responding because he's unconscious, as the medical examiner determined he would have been, you would have done something about it you wouldn't like.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Daphne]

Why are you going home if not to treat him?

[Heath]

I don't think that she accounted for the medical examiner exposing. I think in her mind, she was hoping that somebody from her office was gonna do the Autopsy, of course. Right. So that this could all be covered up. But she didn't account for that not happening.

[Daphne]

Well, also, let's not forget I had said, you're my husband, Heath. If you were sick, I'd take care of you. But Greg dying comes days after she herself said that she wanted a separation. And she even admitted to police that the night before he died, they got into an argument and she told him she really wanted to separate and split and that he couldn't handle it. So then this doesn't make sense that then the next day, even though you're not together really anymore, you're leaving work multiple times to take care of him.

[Heath]

Yeah. Yeah, I don't. I don't know about that. And especially we know that the days leading up to Greg's death, they weren't really talking that. That often.

[Daphne]

Exactly. So for her. Also remember the note that was by the bed where she's kind of saying, oh, I went.

[Heath]

I'm going shopping for Barb's wedding presents.

[Daphne]

Leftovers for you in the fridge.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Daphne]

Like, none of it's clicking.

[Heath]

Yeah. And on top of this, to kind of set up the scene here, those rose petals being left around Greg's body, I think first and foremost, it obviously had something to do with the film American Beauty, because she had mentioned that that was one of her favorite, favorite movies of all time. But on top of that, I think this was in some way her saying, like, oh, you know, he really didn't want our marriage to end. But in one last kind of almost romantic gesture, he's putting these rose petals around his body. He's got our framed wedding photo next to his head, and then he takes his own life.

[Daphne]

Right. But roses that you bought, which. Why would you buy him roses anyway? And he takes some de. Stems them and tosses the petals around himself. And, like, it's just. Come on.

[Heath]

Yeah.

[Daphne]

It's not real.

[Heath]

I honestly don't think that she expected the police to find that receipt that had the soup and the roses on it.

[Daphne]

I think she's not thinking.

[Heath]

She's really not thinking. She is not in her right mind.

[Daphne]

Well, I do want to add kind of the interesting discrepancy about that rose. As we know, she and Dr. Robertson exchange roses on a regular basis of different colors, like we said. Now, during the trial, Kristen claimed that she bought a single yellow rose the day that Greg died. This was early on that afternoon. So she's not saying, I didn't buy a rose. She's saying, I bought a rose, but it was actually for Michael Robertson. And it was yellow, it was not red, like what was found at the scene. And the prosecution is like, we don't believe you. Or the argument was also that, you know, a couple weeks before this, in the end of October was Kristen's birthday. So the prosecution wondered, did she still have the roses that Greg got her? And like, those were the ones used, you know, they would have been kind of dried. I. We actually couldn't figure out the state of the petals, the ones that were around his body. But these are the conversations that are being had. We actually don't really know for sure.

[Heath]

Yeah, I don't think that it was ever confirmed. And they can't confirm whether that yellow rose that she bought was actually given to Dr. Robertson.

[Daphne]

No, that's the problem is this was a big conversation in trial because obviously, as we know as well, she was arrested seven months later. So they can't look back and say, where's that yellow rose that you gave him then? And show us the dozen long stem red roses that you say he got you for your birthday 10ish days earlier. Like, she doesn't have them. Of course they couldn't figure this out. So. So to this day, they don't concretely know the source of the roses around his body, but they just, they have their guesses.

[Heath]

Well, on November 12th of 2002, a unanimous guilty verdict was reached by a jury for the first degree murder of Greg de Vieille. One month later, Kristin Rossum was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[Daphne]

I think it's really interesting the way that she was portrayed in the media. You know, she's this beautiful blonde woman, so. And there's all these photos of her, like, kind of doing a pouty lip and crying. And she's, you know, just like her dad, trying to paint herself as this respectable, intelligent, beautiful woman who could never do something like this.

[Heath]

And the annoying part about all of this is that's exactly who she could have been. Yeah, she was smart, she had a good job, she had every opportunity in the world to succeed, and she. She just chose to be an evil piece of shit.

[Daphne]

And she threw her life away all on her own, despite so many amazing people around her helping her, I. E. Her parents paying for her apartment, even though she has a great job, her husband supporting her despite her addiction.

[Heath]

Well, I will say that Kristin did try to appeal her conviction in 2005, but that petition was denied. She then tried to challenge her conviction in 2007 on the grounds of ineffective assistant of counsel for failing to test fentanyl metabolite samples in Greg's body. But again, she was denied. Shortly after the trial ended In December of 2002, Greg's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Kristen Dr. Michael Robertson, as well as San Diego county, and they were awarded $14.5 million.

[Daphne]

Damn.

[Heath]

Yeah, so. And it's very clear that there was a lot of negligence going on within that medical examiner's office at that time. To this day, Kristen remains imprisoned at the Central California Women's facility in Chowchilla, California. Dr. Michael Robertson, on the other hand, moved back to his native Australia, where he resides today, and he was never charged for anything. There is this incredibly detailed book on this case written by author John Glatt called Deadly American Beauty, A story of passion, adultery, and murder. So check that out for 300 pages of information on this absolutely wild story, if you guys are interested in that. The story known widely as the American Beauty murder will forever be an infamous stain on the city of San Diego. But Greg de Vieille's memory lives on, and thankfully, justice was served. Especially since had Greg's autopsy been conducted by Dr. Michael Robertson, Kristen Rossum may very well have gotten away with murder.

[Daphne]

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West.

[Heath]

Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this very frustrating, frustrating episode of Going West. I mean, I can't. I just can't believe the amount of betrayal in this case.

[Daphne]

You know, in cases like this of, like, spousal murder, we usually see a life insurance policy or children involved. And that's why it's so frustrating that you killed Greg, because you were worried that he might go to your job and tell them about your affair. Like, it's just. It's not that that's not enough and another motive is stronger, but it's just, it wasn't thought out. It was a horrifically stupid and senseless thing to do, and she didn't get away with it.

[Heath]

Well, if you guys want to see photos from this case, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram @goingwest podcast. We are also on Facebook and recently we've been a lot more on TikTok. So go check that out. Give us a follow over there as well.

[Daphne]

Yes, thank you guys so much. And of course, we will see you on Friday with an all new episode.

[Heath]

All right, guys, so for everybody out.

[Daphne]

There in the world, don't be a stranger.

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