An Invisible Enemy

The NCIS Investigates The Death Of A Young Marine

(CBS)  It was in February 2002 when Cynthia Sommer and her husband Todd, a Marine, were coming home from a family weekend at an amusement park. With their four children, Cynthia and Todd were the very picture of happiness.

But as Bill Lagattuta reports, no one could have predicted the rollercoaster ride was just beginning.

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"Came back home on Sunday, got the kids to bed. And he said that his heart felt like it had fluttered. I said, 'Should we go to the hospital?' He said 'No, I'm fine. I'm just gonna go to bed,'" Cynthia remembers.

Hours later, she made a panicked 911 call, when Todd collapsed in the middle of the night in their home. When Todd was pronounced dead a couple of hours later at the hospital, it seemed his heart had just given out.

"They explained it the same as - hear of kids playing baseball and just falling over, that there's no symptoms, there's no warning sign, there's nothing,'" Cynthia remembers.

But there was something: Todd had started feeling sick ten days before he died. His symptoms had started on Friday, Feb. 8.

Cynthia says the next day, Saturday, her husband exhibited signs of food poisoning. She says Todd had told her he had eaten egg rolls.

On Sunday, Todd went to the base clinic, where a doctor thought it might be food poisoning and told him to wait it out. But when his symptoms got worse, Cynthia appeared frustrated.

"The conversation would be, 'Mom, Todd’s fever is up to 102. What should I do?' And, 'I just can’t stop him from throwing up,' and, 'What else can I give him?'" Cynthia's mother Jan Lippert remembers. "I'd tell her the usual mother’s remedies."

Desperate for an answer to what was wrong, Todd went back to the doctor two days later. Cynthia says they gave Todd IV fluids and prescription medications.

And by that Saturday, Feb. 16, he seemed to make a miraculous recovery, well enough for that family outing to the amusement park.

But 48 hours later he would be dead.

Cynthia's mother rushed to be by her daughter's side. "It was a scene that I will never in my entire life forget. She was upstairs in their bed and she had one of Todd's shirts," Jan recalls. "She was just clinging onto his shirt, and saying how it smelled like Todd and this is all she had left of him, that he was gone."

The couple had met three years earlier when Todd was just 19, and Cynthia was a 25-year-old divorced mother of three.

Within six months, Todd and Cynthia were married in the Florida Keys, where Todd grew up. They set out for the West Coast, where Todd was assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. The newlyweds soon added another member to their family.

After Todd's death, Cynthia's life would never be the same. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service opened an investigation into the death, something they do whenever someone in the military dies. As the investigation began, NCIS agents found nothing unusual. The official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia -- Todd's heart had simply stopped beating.

A year later, as the shock of Todd's death wore off, Cynthia had moved on. She and the children had begun a new life in Florida with a new boyfriend. Almost everyone had accepted the explanation that a healthy young Marine had suddenly collapsed and died at the age of 23.

Almost everyone accepted it, but not NCIS special agent Mark Ridley. "There were some odd things goin’ on with the investigation that I thought needed additional work," he says.

Ridley was the man in charge of Todd's death review panel, an NCIS process of making sure all leads are pursued in military deaths, especially when someone so young dies unexpectedly. "They were lookin' at the case as being a natural death from the beginning," Ridley says.

Ridley felt the autopsy had overlooked important clues -- those symptoms Todd was suffering in the days before he died. "When you look through the medical record it showed that he had vomited several times, maybe 12 to 15 times in the space of a short period of time," he says.

Ridley suspected that Todd's symptoms and sudden death were related. It reminded him of a 1986 poisoning case in North Carolina that he learned about during his training days. "It just so happens that Todd Sommer was exhibiting some of the same things that were found in the victims associated with the Blanche Taylor Moore case," Ridley explains. "It resonated with me and when I read that case file it just made me a little bit uncomfortable."

Rather than close the investigation, Ridley ordered a rare heavy metals test on Todd's tissue samples, which had been removed during the autopsy. If Todd had been poisoned, NCIS investigators had a lot of questions.

[dudedudley]

By the way. As it turned out her husband was not murdered. Later test at an independent lab in Canada proved there wasn't arsenic in his blood. He died of a heart attack. Here we have a murder conviction without a murder. What next?

[dudedudley]

Cynthia was convicted without evidence. She was convicted although a state forensic expert testified the test for arsenic was flawed. Cynthia and her family are bankrupt from legal fees. Her conviction was the result of her character and show boating common to legal professionals. She should be compensated by the ones responsible, not the public. You could be the next innocent person convicted. Think about it. Convictions of the innocent is far too common.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by dommino02 at 03:28 PM

You seem to be questioning that this poor fellow was killed by arsenic. Well question no more, because he did and that is a fact. It is also a fact that the only person who could have done it was his so-called wife. Now argue about that, but not that he didn''t die from arsenic. It has been proven that he did.

[rudy654-2009]

I am also convinced that she is guilty. Notice the sudden disappearance of the computer. Who loses a computer and just uh, doesn''t know it? Then there is the fake nonsense of doing CPR. As a CPR instructor, I can say that there is no way she could be talking on the phone and doing CPR at the same time. It is exhausting and anyone doing it knows that you don''t stop doing it until the ambulance arrives. So, I believe she did it. I want to feel sorry for her, but just can''t. I wish there was more evidence and I think they could have found it had they tried a little more. However, I honestly believe that they had less evidence in the Scott Peterson case than they do in this case.

[dommino02]

learn your medicine when you posin someone with arsenic it is found in all the organs and also destories or damages them his organs where in excellent condition after he died i know i can''t spell very well but i listen to the facts and then make my judgements i know a lot abt medince i have gone through a liver transplant and varius other medical problems and have done a lot of reasearch just to stay alive because of what i have been through rember eistein could not tie his own shoes and he his consider a genius

[dommino02]

the missing computer was reformated for her daughter by one of the mps that was a friend of hers on the base and todds also get your facts straight

[dommino02]

i see alll heatheans got there 2cents worth in they are not looking at the evidence they are just judge what they saw on 48 hrs which i once though presented both sides of an issue and let it up to the person to come to there own conclussions if the judge was comfortable with the verdict she would be on the way upstate ca. and he had to listen to both sides of this and saw all the evidence he evidently thinks it is a weak case he also mentioned the defense not challangeing that they could not connect her to the arsenic in any way i feel the judge knows the facts better than 48 hrs and the heathens out there i abde by his judgement i do not go to church i belive in a superior power than human intellenge in the universe we gve it the name god because noby knows what controlls the unverise i feel she is innocent until PROVEN guilty which the judge evidently feels the smae way or there would be no re-trial if you look up his record he is pro proscution which gives this decison by him all the more power of having his doubts

[nathan8804-2009]

This girl was a *** before Todd hooked up with her. She had three kids and divorced by 25. Tell me what a 25 year old women wants with a 19 yr old kid? In her case a daddy and stable paycheck. She admits to having *** with several Marine friends of Todd shortly after his death. And in the grieving process attending wet t-shirt/thong contest in Mexico. Sounds like she was really heart broken.

[opedanderson]

You people seem to want to give this woman a break because she is a woman. If a man had his wife die under similar circumstances and behaved that way after her death, he would be waiting to get a needle in his arm.....

[zootallures2]

A..... Pictures of Matchstick Women and You? Sell your soul for new t-ts...LOL! You gonna burn b*tch...for a long lnog long long long ...time.

[jshiver2]

To cepe10, although I do believe Cynthia is innocent, and I agree about the evidence, I would never speak poorly of Mr. or Mrs. Sommer. She did not do anything to sabotage the trial. She answered the questions she was asked, honestly and openly in my opinion. They have been through more than any parent should be. Please don''t trash her.

To rtclifford, you are just a very rude person.

[aggiekat2004]

Uh...who was watching the kids while she was out competing in wet t-shirt and thong contests?

[daniel808-2009]

she killed him end of story i hope her implants boobs sag to her knees

[rtclifford]

dommino02
you are an idiot. maybe you should rethink school and spelling. i make light of your education because if you had one, you would know wny arsenic is one of the most popular poisons . . . because it is very hard to detect if you are not looking for it. mothers who suffer from munschhausen by proxy use it to put forth their "sick" children who they wait on hand and foot. it is after the child dies, regretably, that it is discovered that they had ingested arsenic over long periods of time. as for the defendant and that judge . . . ineffective counsel does not mean because you have an ineffective defense STRATEGY that you should get a second bite of the apple . . . that is just plain bu****it. i have known wives like that in my 23 investigative years in the military and guess what, if the ncis looked hard enough they would find out she was "partying hard" when he was deployed and chances might be good that "his" child ain''t (''scuse the english) his. ''nuff said.

[dumbfounded5]

I feel like the same thing happened to my brother Todd a couple years ago. I feel his wife poisoned him because he was the picture of health and the next day he was dying. After he died she had him cremated before his body was cold. We as his family had no say in anything after that. We will never know.

[dommino02]

i have followed this fromm trial until now i do not see proof of a murder or any evidence of one 1st if you die by arsenic posing it would be in large leves in all his organs and his blood and urine as well we all have arsenic in our system but the tests were flawed and not accepted by the medical community pepole who jude cindy by her behavior are just moral nuts that dress up to go to church on sunday then sin all week long behind closed doors you judge pepole in court on evidence not charter there are a ot of heatheans telling us all how to live how we live is our own choice so just look at the evidence ther is none that is reiable enough to be used in a court of law in this case do not judge this case by what 48 hrs just glossed over the facts do the research and then make up your mind but only look at he evidence if you can find any that is reailable

[cepe10-2009]

Sounds like Yvonne Sommer the guy''s mother had a grudge to settle and did it by sabotaging the trial during her testimony.... The defense would not have called her.

The evidence is completely underwhelming and inconclusive.

Maybe he knew too much about something...

[luvtrucrime]

as far as the missing computer? yes, it does sound fishy but anyone who''s moved, i''m sure, can attest to the fact that things just go missing. i lost a tv when i moved cross country 4 yrs. ago. what happened to it? i have absolutely no idea.
ok, so this partying widow? well, it just doesn''t spell out murder. she had just lost her husband. she was lonely and ***** - and probably very scared about her future and what she was going to do with 4 kids all alone. perhaps she was just seeking some quick companionship or escaping from the reality of her life. anyone who''s had a 1-night stand knows what those emotions are about.
breast implants? - being an insecure woman with body issues doesn''t make her a killer. obviously there was some feelings of lack in her life and - like most people these days - she was seeking some kind of external solution. she''s only in her 20''s, which makes clear, mature thinking almost an impossibility. i say give this girl a break. as someone else said in thier posting - she has been tried solely on her behaviour after the death of her husband.

[pelostilaho]

At Luke Air Force Base in Arizona lives a widow. She''s the wife of the Air Force Wing Commander whose F-16 crashed in Iraq this time last year.

Instead of partying, painting the town, or purchasing a boob job, she prays, raises her kids, is supported NOT by a bunch of bedmates but by her Church and Military Community.

She misses her husband too - much more sincerely than this honey does.

Granted, there are different ways to express grief. But partying and spending new - blood - money isn''t one of them. This Judge Deddeh has the brains of a gnat. If this babe didn''t kill Todd, then who did? Her new boyfriend? Wonder if there was an investigation of him? At any rate, Cynthia deserves to remain locked in jail.

[al812-2009]

I agree with pcaves in a lot of ways,as a vet myself dealing with the va now for health problems.
The ammount of hands that the evidence had passed through is enough to screw anyone up,keep in mind that sometimes the simplest mistake can ruin a good sample of anything for testing or sway the outcome.There are many ways that arsnic or arsnic traits can show up in a persons body for some unknown reason.If he was on meds and drinking there are certin things that make arsnic in your body,just like carbon monoxide.Bleach and amonia are fine by themselves with in reason.But you mix them to together without knowledge of the outcome will find yourself dead as a rock.When you pass your body creates things that are''nt normally in your system until that point anyway.Why is it always easier to accuss than to go the route and see what happened for sure? The milatary has some good att. granted but as like most people when they think something is a certain way then thats all there is to it.It sounds to me like the prosacuter or the military att. may have influenced the witness''s to say what they felt was a correct way of thinking.Anyone thats been in the military knows that with enough pressure they can get anyone to do or say what they feel needs to be said.The misplacement of a single simple word can make anything seem what it''s not when there is alot of evidence against anyone for any reason.Why would anyone do this well look at it as maybe she rubbed someone wrong in the investigation