Smoke and Mirrors

Summary

Trace of Suspicion — “Smoke and Mirrors” (March 19, 2026)

Podcast: Trace of Suspicion (Dateline / NBC News)
Host: Josh Mankiewicz
Episode Theme:
This episode covers the intense investigation and criminal trial of Cindy Sommer, the widow of 23-year-old Marine Todd Sommer, who died suddenly and mysteriously. As Cindy’s post-widowhood spending, partying, and plastic surgery spark suspicion, prosecutors accuse her of poisoning Todd for life insurance money, leading to a dramatic trial hinging on circumstantial evidence, scientific ambiguities, and a battle of narratives.

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Overview

The episode centers on the suspicion, investigation, and eventual prosecution of Cindy Sommer, accused of murdering her husband Todd Sommer with arsenic poisoning. The prosecution frames Cindy’s lifestyle changes and financial motives as evidence against her, while the defense challenges the scientific validity of the lab results and probes the weaknesses in the circumstantial case. The episode features interviews with Cindy, her legal team, law enforcement, and prosecutor Laura Gunn, digging into the tangled facts, holes in the investigation, and the highly publicized trial that follows.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Cindy Sommer’s Infamy and Pre-Trial Experience

• Prison Notoriety:
  • Cindy’s profile as an accused “husband killer” made her notorious among fellow inmates and even deputies at the detention center.
    • “Even like the homeless girls that came in from the street, knew who I was. All the deputies knew who I was.” — Cindy Sommer [01:13]
• Coping with Isolation:
  • On advice from a Florida deputy, Cindy kept her composure and avoided emotional reactions in jail for ten months, waiting for her day in court.
    • “I compartmentalized… I focused on my case. I read books. I did Sudoku.” — Cindy Sommer [02:16, paraphrased]

The “Evidence” Against Cindy

• Physical Evidence:
  • The prosecution’s case was circumstantial; NCIS did not find physical evidence directly linking Cindy to the arsenic.
    • “There was no evidence against me. There was nothing there.” — Cindy Sommer [02:41]
  • Prosecution claims Todd Sommer's organs had lethal levels of arsenic.
    • “There are lethal levels of arsenic in Todd Sommer's tissues.” — NCIS Agent Terwilliger [02:57]
• Ignored Expert Advice:
  • Defense notes that a top arsenic expert told authorities their scientific conclusions were wrong.
    • “The premier expert in this country on arsenic told the government, take a walk, you got it wrong.” — Defense Attorney Bob Udell [03:04]

The Investigation’s Twists and Weaknesses

• NCIS Turnover:
  • Shortly after Cindy’s arrest, lead agent Rob Terwilliger is reassigned. Case is picked up by Rick Rendone, who brings continuity but faces a “cold” file.
    • “You’re telling me this is not like the TV show?” — Josh Mankiewicz | “No, no. You don’t stay in one place for very long.” — NCIS Agent Terwilliger [03:51-03:54]
• TV-Inspired Motive?
  • Investigators briefly consider whether Cindy copied murder methods from TV but dismiss the idea after finding no relevant inspiration.
    • “We do an internet query… two poisoning episodes [on Melrose Place]. In the end, those TV episodes had little in common with the case.” — NCIS Agent Rendone [05:14-05:32]

The 911 Call Timeline Controversy

• Sequence of Calls:
  • A key witness, Susan Beach, claims Cindy called her to watch the kids before calling 911, potentially delaying help.
    • “She should not have beat the first responders, but she did… no police cars, no ambulance, no fire trucks.” — NCIS Agent Rendone [06:45-06:48]
  • First responders didn’t recall seeing Susan Beach at the scene, raising doubts about her timeline.
    • “None of the emergency responders… reported seeing another woman minding the kids.” — Josh Mankiewicz [09:47]
  • Defensively, the team suggests she could plausibly have been unnoticed.
    • “They’re not milling around… It’s very possible… you’re not even gonna see anyone in there.” — NCIS Agent Rendone [10:14]

Prosecution’s Strategy and Evidence

• Motive & Behavior:

  • Prosecutor Laura Gunn frames Cindy’s immediate focus on finances as suspicious.
    • “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.’” — Laura Gunn [14:16]
    • Cindy inquired about her late husband’s bonuses at the hospital, reinforcing financial motive.
  • Prosecutor’s challenge: Lifestyle evidence of Cindy’s “carousing” is restricted by the judge but becomes relevant when the defense “opens the door” later.

• Financial Problems:

  • Family had fully depleted Todd’s $30,000 trust just two weeks before his death.
    • “We felt like we had strong motive evidence… whose nest egg had just run out, who knew divorce was not going to pay her well for her four kids, who stood to gain financially…” — Laura Gunn [16:59]

• Implants & Secrecy:

  • Cindy planned expensive breast augmentation before Todd’s sickness; lied about Todd’s support and presence at consultations.
    • “He was all for it. He came with me…” — Cindy Sommer, as questioned by NCIS [19:46]
    • Investigators prove Todd was away at the time of the consultation [20:10]
    • Cindy ultimately paid for surgery with life insurance money.

• The Science:

  • Prosecution presents lab data: Todd’s kidneys and liver had arsenic levels “more than 200…” and “a thousand times” the normal.
    • “He suffered from vomiting, nausea, diarrhea—all consistent with arsenic poisoning.” — Laura Gunn [21:59]
  • The purchase and source of arsenic is never demonstrated.
    • “There are so many places where she could have gotten arsenic… Arsenic is gettable on the Internet… anything is possible.” — Laura Gunn [24:17, 24:51]

The Defense’s Case

• Cindy Takes the Stand:

  • Cindy recounts the night of Todd’s death, and her loyalty and grief; highlights include tattoo memorial and calls to Todd’s cell.
    • “When Cindy grew up, her goal in life was to be the wife of a marine… and she didn’t all of a sudden decide to kill that marine.” — Bob Udell [28:00]
  • Cindy admits to over-spending but says this is normal among military families.
    • “Every military family does.” — Cindy Sommer [29:50]
  • She defends her breast implants as something Todd supported, claims she visited multiple doctors.

• Door Opens to Character Attacks:

  • Testimony from Cindy’s mother about her deep grief is deemed to “open the door.” Prosecutor introduces evidence of Cindy’s partying, affairs, and credit card use for dating sites just before Todd’s death.
    • “If the defense was going to present Cindy as a grieving widow, then the prosecution had an opportunity to rebut.” — Josh Mankiewicz [31:31]
    • “Breast implants, parties, sex. Must be guilty.” — Bob Udell [32:26]

• Timeline Rebuttal:

  • Defense challenges the Susan Beach timeline using phone records, arguing Cindy could not have delayed the 911 call.
    • “According to those phone logs, Cindy called Susan at 1:43—that would be minutes after paramedics arrived.” — Josh Mankiewicz [33:16]
    • “In that phone call, EMS has already been there, correct? Correct.” — Udell & Gunn [33:44]

• Science on Trial:

  • Defense’s star expert, Dr. Alphonse Poklis, a top arsenic toxicologist, criticizes the lab results as inconsistent with arsenic poisoning, noting the odd distribution and Todd’s activity before death.
    • “Those tests did not make sense… That’s not the way arsenic is processed in the human body.” — Dr. Poklis [34:44-34:59]
    • “It makes absolutely no sense that that’s acute arsenic.” — Dr. Poklis [35:23]
  • Suggests tissue samples may have been contaminated; “if there’s no arsenic, there’s no murder.” — Bob Udell [36:51]

Closing Arguments & Jury Deliberations

• Prosecution’s Final Point:
  • Cindy was the only adult with motive and opportunity.
    • “It’s a fact that nobody else had access to Todd Sommer at the time he first started to get sick.” — Laura Gunn [37:12]
• Defense’s Final Point:
  • Lab evidence is unreliable—no arsenic, no crime.
• Jury’s Challenge & Fallout:
  • Jury deliberates after 18 days of testimony; some jurors allegedly discussed the case prematurely.
    • “They commented upon my granny glasses and faces that I make. Jury hated me.” — Bob Udell [37:40]
    • “Everybody was, you know, like, they couldn’t believe our verdict. And I mean, I was like, what?” — Laura Gunn [37:53]
  • After the verdict, public controversy and divided opinion—NCIS agent receives letters urging both upholding and reversing the verdict.
    • “I’ve received probably 50 letters and emails—these are encouraging me to do one thing or the other with regard to the verdict…” — NCIS Agent Terwilliger [38:12]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote / Moment | |------------|----------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:13 | Cindy Sommer (via Gunn) | “Even like the homeless girls that came in from the street, knew who I was...” | | 03:04 | Bob Udell | “The premier expert in this country on arsenic told the government, take a walk, you got it wrong.” | | 06:48 | NCIS Agent Rendone | “She should not have beat the first responders, but she did.” | | 14:16 | Laura Gunn | “‘We joked about his SGLI policy, but I never thought I’d actually see it.’” | | 17:28 | Laura Gunn | “We felt like we had strong motive evidence… who stood to gain a great deal financially…” | | 20:12 | NCIS Agent Terwilliger | “According to the Marines… they were with him, and he did not get home until late in the evening.” | | 21:45 | Laura Gunn | “I knew that when we got to that part of the case, it was going to get difficult…” | | 24:51 | Laura Gunn | “Arsenic is gettable on the Internet. It’s gettable from various other sources…” | | 28:00 | Bob Udell | “When Cindy grew up, her goal in life was to be the wife of a marine… she cries.” | | 29:50 | Cindy Sommer | “Every military family does.” (live above means) | | 31:31 | Bob Udell | “The judge ruled that, no, I had opened the door to it. And that’s the sin I confess to today…” | | 32:26 | Bob Udell | “Breast implants, parties, sex. Must be guilty.” | | 33:44 | Udell and Gunn | “In that phone call, EMS has already been there, correct? Correct.” | | 34:44 | Dr. Poklis | “Those tests did not make sense… That’s not the way arsenic is processed in the human body.” | | 36:51 | Bob Udell | “If there’s no arsenic, there’s no murder, and that’s that. There isn’t even any arsenic.” | | 37:12 | Laura Gunn | “It’s a fact that nobody else had access to Todd Sommer at the time that he first started to get sick…” | | 38:12 | NCIS Agent Terwilliger | “I’ve received probably 50 letters and emails—these are encouraging me to do one thing or the other with regard to the verdict…” |

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Useful Timestamps for Key Segments

• Prison Notoriety: 00:37–02:32
• Case against Cindy (circumstantial, scientific challenges): 02:41–04:35; 21:18–25:04
• 911 call and timeline controversy: 06:07–11:11, 33:12–33:48
• Prosecutor’s case, financial motive, and medical evidence: 13:25–25:34
• Breast augmentation and lies: 19:16–21:08
• Defense opens the door to Cindy’s character: 31:12–33:42
• Scientific rebuttal, Dr. Poklis testimony: 34:03–36:51
• Closing arguments and jury: 36:58–38:20

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Tone and Style

The episode weaves its narrative with Dateline’s signature suspense, balancing clinical analysis and human emotion. Josh Mankiewicz offers dry, occasionally sardonic asides, while prosecutor Laura Gunn is precise, and the defense’s Bob Udell is candid—even rueful—about legal missteps and optics.

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Conclusion

“Smoke and Mirrors” illustrates not only the difficulties of prosecuting (or defending) a murder with primarily circumstantial evidence, but also the uncontrollable impact of presentation, personality, and public perception—both in the media and in the courtroom. The episode ends noting the lingering doubts, ongoing controversy, and the unanswered question at the heart of the case: Was it murder, or a tragic medical and investigative mix-up?

Transcript

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[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

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 last Colinas Women's Detention center in San Diego were unrelenting.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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, even like the homeless

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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. 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.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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 there aren't lethal

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

levels of arsenic in Todzummer's 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 Dayline. Episode four, 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 are things, 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 rendone, 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 Rendone]

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. Rendone wondered if there might be something there that would make their circumstantial case that much stronger.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

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

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

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

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

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 Rendone]

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 Rendone 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 Rendone]

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 Rendone]

She said Cindy called paramedics. 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 Rendone]

Susan says she gathers up the kids, they get in the car, they drive to Cindy's house. It took her five to 10 minutes to get there.

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

Not that far away.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

She should not have beat the first

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

responders, but she did.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

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 911?

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

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? Nine one one, do you have a mercy? Yeah, my husband is correct. 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 Rendone]

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

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

The parameters are on the way right now. Okay, okay, okay, they're on.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

There's other parts of the tape where it sounds like a routine call. And some of the. And 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)]

Are you at CPR now, man? Yes. You are? Yes.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

Do you know how?

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

Yes. Okay.

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

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 just wanted to stay with my kids if I didn't go to 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 Rendone]

She gets there and Cindy's not there. She says she. 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 Rendone]

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 arrive.

[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 Rendone]

Nobody said that they saw her. However, they went 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 Rendone]

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 gonna 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 Rendone]

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 Rob Terwilliger]

Not at all.

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

And you believe she was there?

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

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, unquote. 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. Foreign.

[Willie Geist]

Hey, guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast on this week's episode I Get together with Lea Michele, talking about her lead role in the hit Broadway musical Chess, some of the Tony talk around it and her road from the stage to Glee and now back again. You can get our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts.

[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 Summer, 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.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Cindy Summers faked 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 suspicious 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 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 Sommer died. The prosecution also called Susan beach who told her story about arriving before first responders did. She was not challeng by the defense. On cross.

[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.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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? That's correct. Did you look at credit reports? 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 accountant started with Todd's trust fund account, the Eaton

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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 account 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 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 Summer 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 Summer 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 Summers 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 Summers tissues.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

The tissue is digested in nitric acid,

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

and the resulting solution is analyzed by

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to get

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

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 say. 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 use.

[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. 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.

[Willie Geist]

Hey, guys, Willie Geist here. We're celebrating 10 years of Sunday today by hosting a very special Sunday sit down live event. And our guest is one of the biggest stars on the planet, Ryan Reynolds. We're taking our conversation to the stage in front of an audience of you for one night only at City Winery in New York on April 7th. An intimate, in person evening I promise you won't want to miss. Tickets are limited, so grab yours [e-mail].

[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 tell where their beard stopped and their hairline began. He kept a pair of granny glasses perpetually perched on the end of his nose. She dale just be the first one to put on any evidence.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Yes, sir.

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

You know, Adele'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 gonna 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.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Correct.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

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

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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 he were calling you back here?

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

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

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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?

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

Every military family does. Yes.

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

And she defended her decision to use part of Todd's life insurance 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.

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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. 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,

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

and she

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

was in bed,

[NCIS Special Agent Rick Rendone]

and she was curled

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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 opening. 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.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

And it 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?

[Prosecutor Laura Gunn]

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.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Please tell the jury your present occupation.

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

I'm a forensic toxicologist and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Pochless, 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. Poklas 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? It concerned me whether it was poison.

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

It concerned me what in the world was going on and who did this test.

[Defense Attorney Bob Udell]

Did you tell them that?

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

Yes. According to Dr. Pokless, the problem was the test results showed very high concentration in some tissues and normal levels in others. That, he said, is not the way arsenic is processed in the human body. Whatever you want to analyze, arsenic's carried everywhere through the body and goes into all the tissues. Furthermore, Dr. Pokla 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. I've come to understand that after that visit to the hospital Tuesday, he went to work Wednesday, he went to work Thursday, went to work Friday, that 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. Dr. Popla 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 samples 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 arsenic.

[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 grand 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 sits without burning this case.

[NCIS Special Agent Rob Terwilliger]

I've received probably 50 letters and emails. These are encouraging me to do one

[Narrator (Josh Mankiewicz)]

thing or the other with regard to the verdict. Either hold the verdict or reverse the verdict. 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 Foreign.

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