Tracking A Killer: Virus - Or Murder?

In 27 years on the job, Raleigh, N.C., police lieutenant Chris Morgan has solved a lot of mysteries, but he's never seen anything like the death of Eric Miller.

"The Eric Miller case has caused me some sleepless nights," he says. "It's gotten under my skin."

The case began Nov. 15, 2000, when Miller, his wife, and several of her friends, met for an evening of bowling. Thirty minutes after he arrived, Eric became violently ill. Two weeks later, Miller, a healthy 30-year-old, and a promising AIDS researcher, was dead.

Eric's mother, Doris, and father, Verus, still struggle with their loss. Growing up in Indiana, Eric was a star. In high school, it was tennis; in college and graduate school, it was academics, where he earned a PhD. He married his college sweetheart, Ann Brier, and settled in Raleigh.

Ann was with a research chemist with a big drug company. They volunteered as marriage counselors at their church and had a baby, Claire.

"Eric Miller came in, had a beer and hot dog," Morgan says. "he and his companions bowled a few frames. During the bowling Eric becomes violently ill according to all the reports."

The next day Eric felt so sick, his wife took him to the hospital.

Morgan says everybody assumed it was the flu. By the time Doris and Verus arrived at the hospital, Eric was in serious condition and doctors were talking about a mysterious virus.

After a week in the hospital, Eric improved dramatically and went home. But a week later Eric got sick again. He was rushed to the hospital but this time the stay was short. By the time his parents arrived from Indiana, Eric was dead.

His wife was devastated. "She was completely destroyed, I mean, she was in tears, she was a mess, and we all were, we were all in shock," says Eric's sister, Leann.

But several hours before Eric Miller died, doctors made a startling discovery: Eric had arsenic in his blood.

"It's generally not detectable, unless you are looking for it," Dr. Larry Kobilinsky, a forensic scientist at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "It is so complicated because there are so many different symptoms and there's no particular hallmark that says: 'Look for arsenic.'"

"The only time you get somebody really doing a test for arsenic is if there's some reason to believe that someone has been poisoned," Kobilinsky adds.

Now police had to figure out whether Eric's death was an accident, or something more sinister. "Based on the fact he worked in a laboratory," Morgan says, "we looked very closely at the the possibility of some environmental exposure at work. We've been able to dismiss it."

Police decided he was murdered. But by whom?

"Arsenic poisoning is usually committed by someone very close to the victim," says Morgan. "And we believe this to be the case here."

Detectives quickly discovered records that showed dozens of calls between Eric's wife and co-worker Derril Willard. Police say they were having an affair.

What's more, Morgan discovered that Derill Willard handed Eric the beer at the bowling alley just before he became violently ill. According to the medical examiner's report, several doses of arsenic were administered to Eric several over a period of months.

At first, Eric's sisters and parents resisted police efforts to interview Eric's wife, Ann. As police began focusing on the relationship between Ann Miller and her coworker, they discovered that "She's calling Derril Willard well after midnight on the night her husband dies," says Morgan.

Leann remembers Ann and her father were late to the funeral home because they were visiting lawyers. Eric's body was cremated at Ann's insistence, even though his parents wanted to bury him in Indiana.

Police searched the lab where Ann Miller and Derril Willard worked. Among the chemicals used at the lab was arsenic.

After denying to police that she had anything to do with Eric's death, Ann hired two top North Carolina criminal defense attorneys, and now refuses to talk further with the police or the family about it.

Police were hoping that Willard might have some answers, but after one brief meeting with detectives, Willard also went to an attorney.

A day later, Willard committed suicide. He left behind a note denying he killed Eric.

With Ann Miller refusing to cooperate and Williard dead, the investigation into who killed Eric Miller was at a standstill.

"The evidence at this point has not been sufficient that we felt it was appropriate to charge someone," says District Attorney Colon Willoughby.

The critical piece of evidence may be that confidential conversation that Wilard had with his attorney just before he killed himself.

North Carolina's highest court is being asked to force Willard's lawyer to forgo attorney-client privilege and tell police what Willard told him about Eric's murder.

This information, says Morgan, "coul be very, very valuable, could be the small piece of the puzzle, that puts it all together"

Derril's widow Yvette wants her husband's attorney to talk.

"I look at it as the only opportunity that he has to speak up on his behalf," she says. "Regardless of what he told his attorney, I don't believe he killed anybody. I know he didn't, he told me he didn't."

The North Carolina Supreme Court could rule in the next few weeks.

Morgan is counting on getting information that could lead to an arrest.

"In the end," he says, "justice will be upheld. And that's all that we know, that we really see is justice. Justice for Eric Miller, justice for his family, justice for everyone involved."