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there was no fear of anything, like what happened i don't know if somethin snapped. i was shocked. and i couldn't save my friend. >> a doctor comes home, but no for long >> i think that my wife is having a stroke. >> an hour later, she was back at the hospital that she jus left >> he had this blank stare i her eyes >> three days later? she was dead >> i said, she is my child i give birth to her, i want to know what happened to her. >> at first, it was just a medical missionary >> healthy, white female for all intensive person's i she would be alive >> for them, they couldn't mak any sense of it. >> but soon it became a murder mystery. >> i had to be sitting down. >> because once they finally discovered what killed her, th next question was who? >> if he could not have her, nobody was going to have her >> i still have a sense of it,

i still have not made sense of it ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello, and welcome to dateline dr. cline was in the busines of saving lives, but the docto became a patient went out of the blue she collapsed, and wa rushed to the e.r. now, the young, successful seemingly healthy woman in the prime of her life. was fighting for her life. it was a medical mystery, or was it was this the case for doctors, or the police? here is dennis murphy. with lethal weapon >> the emergency room trauma team was losing her. she had been wheeled in glassy eyed and gasping for breath. >> her heart stopped we had to restart her heart. >> within minutes, machine were doing the breathing and blood circulation for 41 -year-old autumn klein wife, mother, medical doctor

and a rising star in the field of women's neurology a star whose light was dimming even as they try desperately t keep her going >> these are doctors who are treating trauma patients everyday this one had totally puzzled them >> the woman failing in the er doctor klein, was in many ways but modern pittsburgh was al about. the gleaming downtown towers didn't need to worry anymore about grimey soot from the steel mill smokestacks along the river. the steel industry here ha mostly died by the early 80s and moved overseas universities, technology medicine, and finance. that was the foundation of the new pittsburgh they called,the renaissance. robert ferrante, and his wif dr., autumn klein, relocated from boston. they were just the kinds o renaissance minds the city was trying to attract. autumn's colleague, dr. kare

rouse. >> she said that she loved pittsburgh, she loved he patients the people of pittsburgh the were wonderful, and she was so happy to be there. autumn, had always intended to be a caregiver >> her cousin, closest sisters sharon king, remembers tha even as a younger girl she administered playtime tlc. >> we had a doctor's office an our patients where our stuffed animals. >> and doctor autumn klein was holding clinic hours >> she was the doctor. >> it was an interest that too root early for autumn and neve left always a top of the clas student in the baltimore area. she later got her undergraduat degree in, neuroscience from amherst. >> helping people was the main thing. she was just so, smart, so intelligent, so thoughtful, an so caring. >> you and your husband must have been very, very proud o her. >> we were >> lois klein is autumn's mom. >> we knew she was putting her mind on her studies and we are giving her the best educatio

we could possibly give her she was taking advantage of it >> med school was a certainty. autumn announced she was heading to boston. her mother worried the city' crime it was too high. >> she said, i'm going t boston university medica school and i said no you're not she said yes i am and i said n you're not she said, yes i am, and sh went to boston universit medical school she had a mind of her own. >> in medical school, autumn developed a romantic thing for her research colleague, and he for her. robert ferrante, bob to hi friend, held a ph. d. in neuroscience she was hunting for cures to devastating brain illnesse like lou gehrig's an huntington's disease he was also more than 20 years for senior, divorced with tw grown kids >> i simply told her that that was a little bit too old for her. i didn't think that that was the right age. >> but two days before graduation from med school, determined autumn wasting no time was walking down the aisl with her much olde bride-groom. what was your impression of hi

sharon >> nice guy, charming guy, a bit heady. >> egghead nerdy? >> and she kind of was and she kind of wasn't >> the couple made a home just outside boston in a few years a baby girl arrived in their hectic lives. autumn took in stride. a two am diaper change was nothing for her. a 2 am call from the hospital, you have to come in and take care of this patient you know, she was used to that >> the new mother was becoming a sought after specialist in neurological ailments in women because of her expertise, sh was interviewed for an educational video distribute by the discovery channel >> people with epilepsy really need to be started on seizur medication in advance of pregnancy. >> but, autumn was growing frustrated with boston professionally, she felt as if she had crested there. that's when pittsburgh loome into view. in 2011, the university of pittsburgh and it's renounce sister medical center offere an ideal career move for bob, a new research lab fo autumn a chance to head her ow department autumn was not just a rising star, she was a shooting star. she was nationally recognize as a leader in the field at

very young age but still, something was gnawing at her a kind of emotional vacuum she wanted to have another child. by now in her early 40s, she was taking fertility treatments, hormone injections but, nothing was happening was it really eating at he that she wasn't gettin pregnant and that time was going by >> yes just speaking from experience, fertility treatments are the loneliest place a woman will ever go. >> looking back, her mom, lois recognizes now some worrisom signs. changes in her daughter. i kind of saw that she wasn' herself too much anymore that she was kind of a little, what do you call it? kind of a little down, maybe here and there >> then in early 2013, the couple tried a new approach to the baby problem

a fertility doctor thought the bodybuilding supplement know as creatine, just might help autumn get pregnant. as it turned out, her husban bob had been using the stuff i his research so on april 17th, autumn klein seemed ready to give creating try. she texted her husband tha day. i ovulate tomorrow >> he answered perfect timing, creatine, smiley face. these are hospital securit camera pictures that sho autumn throughout the day an leaving work late that night ten minutes later she was home and minutes after that, he husband bob ferrante, was on the phone to 9-1-1 >> his wife, slumped on th kitchen floor, gasping for breath the dispatcher asked the husband what he was seeing >> i think my wife is having a stroke >> paramedic steve mason and his partner arrived at the

ferrante home to find a woma in very bad shape. she was lying on her back on the kitchen floor, her eye were open and she wa unresponsive >> an hour after walking hom from the medical center wher she worked, dr. autumn klein seen here in hospita surveillance footage, was back as a gravely ill patient in it emergency room and whatever was happening t her was a medical mystery to the team trying to keep he alive. then they saw the blood. so neon red, so out of their experience >> autumn is surrounded by som of the best doctors in the country. but no doctor can work miracles >> coming up >> to them this was out of this world just could not make any sens of it. >> maybe someone else could? when dateline continues! (screaming) defeat allergy headaches fast with new flonase headache and allergy relief! two pills relieve allergy headache pain?

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rushed by ambulance to the e of the university of pittsburg medical center after slumpin to the kitchen floor of he home >> we thought that there was definitely a possibility of stroke we knew that she was i critical condition >> now the trauma team surrounding her was trying desperately to keep her vita signs going. allen jennings, at the tim reporter with nbc's pittsburgh affiliate wpxi, covered th story. he recounted what doctors late said about that night. >> she had this blank stare in

her eyes barely a pulse >> and they didn't know what had happened to her? >> no they didn't. >> autumn was struggling t breathe. >> then in comes the ventilator >> the ventilator, the machines? >> the machines taking over to keep her alive until they ca determine what in the world wa going on >> at some point, allen, did they realize that this was one of their own that this was a brilliant youn doctor that works in the women neurology unit >> they did at one point i don't know if they would'v treated anyone any differently but she was one of them, one o the team >> when autumn's husband medical researcher bob ferrante, arrived in the trauma room he tried to give the team some of his wife's medical history. he explained that she had been on fertility hormones. >> she had headaches, fainting spells, and that she generally was expressing that she hadn't been feeling well. >> he told the er doctors that he thought his wife ha suffered a stroke. though diagnostic test sai otherwise.

by then, bob ferrante, had already called his father an mother in law at their home in baltimore with the bad news. autumn's mother, lois klein, said they got in the car immediately to drive through the night to pittsburgh. she was counting out the exits >> and i said, please, let m get to frederick then please let me get to hagerstown please let me get to hancock and then please let me get the pittsburgh >> back in the er, a residen trying to rally autumn's failing body stuck an iv int her and noticed something quit odd. her blood in his tube showed shocking red >> the observation of that doc at the bedside was that th blood is too red, why am i seeing blood this brilliantl red saturation to them this was out of this world. they just couldn't make an sense out of it. >> eventually autumn went into cardiac arrest doctors, managed to bring he

back, barely >> they actually took turn doing chest compressions to tr to get some reaction from he and to try and get her heart moving and pumping again >> another doctor reviewed autumn's symptoms and ordere up a test. he wanted a toxicology scree of her blood hours passed, her blood wa being pumped into a machin that was doing the oxygenate work of her heart and lungs. at some point, word had reache her cousin, sharon, now living in washington state. sharon talked by phone t autumn's frantic husband, bob. and was grateful for his medical background >> he was calling hi colleagues, he knows thi neurologist, or this person. great, use your resources. i had no idea what was going on >> eventually though, autumn lossed brain function, by th time her parents finally mad it to the hospital they coul see there was little hope fo their daughter >> they had a lot of tubes and things hooked up to her. and i held her hand and

talked to her. and i told her, you heal everybody else's brain why can't you heal your own? >> sharon wanted desperately t fly out from washington stat to see autumn, but her aun lois told her to wait. >> that's my other half in tha hospital bed, i need to be there. >> doctors managed to keep autumn alive for two full days at some point sharon could tel autumn's grieving husband ha run out of hope. >> he did say to me, i'm going to spend the last night with the love of my life. at the time, i thought, it's not over yet >> but in the er suite everyone knew it was autumn's little girl was brought to her bedside >> she made some comment t someone about i don't thin mommy's ever going to come home >> on the third day after sh had been wheeled into the er

autumn's exhausted colleague pronounced her dead, and turne off the machines keeping her alive. >> a lot of my life feels like it doesn't make sense, without her. she was there for everything >> autumn's husband and family now had funeral plans to make. and darker days to get through but, one person wasn't don with the mysterious case o autumn klein his work was just gettin started. doctor todd luckasevic associate medical professor fo alegandy county, perform the autopsy on autumn. >> it was regarded as a sudden unexpected death >> which meant, the county needed to figure out why thi otherwise healthy woman wa dead there was no reason to suspect fertility hormones, vitamins or supplements like creatine could have led to her collapse their brains showed no signs o a stroke, though an examinatio of the heart did reveal an abnormally shaped heart valve. >> it's a congenital anomaly founded approximately 2% of th population >> does it lead to early death

>> not in your 40s, you need t be symptomatic >> at the conclusion of autumn klein's autopsy, the medical examiner was perplexed as to what killed this woman >> i'm not seeing anything, i' seeing a healthy white female. for all intents and purposes she should be alive. >> on the form that called for a cause of death the docto wrote, pending no definitive answer but in a few days time he woul have more information. the blood work was back from the lab. autumn has suffered a very unnatural death. >> coming up, what exactly killed autumn and who? when dateline continues. called td, tardive dyskinesia. td can be caused by some mental health meds. and it's unlikely to improve without treatment.

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county's associate medical examiner performed his autopsy on autumn klein, the phone rang the voice on the other end was from the hospital. autumn's blood test were back. dr. todd luckasevic wa startled to hear what the la found. >> lethal, deadly amount o cyanide. >> what did that tell you? >> that told me that i have cause of death now >> cyanide the poison of the nazi death camps and the jonestow massacre of the 70s.

lethal, fast killing stuff not a common cause of death. >> i have done approximately 3500 cases in my career an this is my first case of cyanide poisoning. >> the lab's toxicology work found cynadine levels of 3. 35 milligrams per liter in autumn 's blood so this is a lot of cyanide? >> that is correct >> still, he needed to confirm the results with his own test. he wanted to re-examine autumn 's remains to see if he coul find cyanide in other parts of her body but by then, he had released i to the funeral home. so, here's an easy solution yo go back to the body you take a second look. >> would love to when we got the phone call o tuesday that she had a letha level of cyanide in her blood, i called immediately the funeral home and she had already been cremated. >> but the m.e still had samples of autumn's blood. its toxicology unit report tha its own test for cyanide analyst alicia smith added a simple solution to the blood

if cyanide was present in th sample it will turn the center well of this disk purple she and luckasevic demonstrate what they found. >> this example we used toda is very representative of th bottom line samples. it's almost identical. >> sure enough, the sample change color >> her color change was a deep kind of dark purplish, pink, and it was obviously positiv for cyanide. >> does the saturation of colo tell you got a lethal amount >> oh yes, definitely. even the light pink colo change means they're cyanide there is, significant toxic, i not lethal amount of cyanide present. >> autumn klein had died o cyanide poisoning. no question about it, he said. he grew even more confiden when he reviewed the details o how she had collapsed an suffered cyanide, once ingested can quickly starve the body of oxygen >> so, oxygen is on the blood, but it's not being utilized by the body >> it was the trapped oxygen that turned the blood in autum 's veins that vivid red.

he also considered the 9-1-1 call as her husband is begging fo help, autumn can be hear moaning in the background. >> now she's like having a seizure -- jesus christmas sweetheart >> luckasevic says that wa likely autumn struggling t breathe. another important sign tha cyanide was in her system. he knew he had a bizarre death on his hands and he mediatel contacted the police >> i called the detectives and i let them know cause of death is cyanide poisoning you need to help them with the manner of death. >> he wanted to know if autumn had committed suicide, or ha been poisoned. in other words, murdered >> there's a note on my desk saying that the coroner' office had a woman come in who had a lethal level of cyanid in her system. >> cyanide poisoning >> how many of those have yo seen in your career? >> this is my first one. >> soon, autumn's mom was give the news about the blood results. she then called her niece, sharon king, out in washington >> she said, are you sitting

down i said, okay and then she said it was cyanide. >> just like that? >> and i was shocked and i couldn't say anything. i couldn't catch my breath >> when autumn's colleague, dr karen rouse, heard about it, she knew right away that her friend had suffered an agonizing death. >> as a medical professional, know about how people die of cyanide poisoning. i couldn't dwell on that >> and just as in an old agath christy cozy murder myster about a cyanide poisoning in the village, the inspector was about to call. pittsburgh's senio investigators were on route to talk to robert ferrante. did he have any idea how cyanide found its way into the bloodstream of his late wife >> coming up a husband's very of how hi wife died. >> but he's? and >> why would you do this yourself >> what was he suggesting?

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our top stories. the supreme court has put hold on abortion pil restrictions following two contradictory relays by judges this order maintain the status quo for the fda approved drug, that the press down. state is set to expire wednesday. calls for justice clarence thompson to resign or be investigated for failing t disclose financial dealings he had with billionaire conservative donor our report from holland crow five property, following the house where thomas's mother wa living now, back to dateline. >> five days after doctors turned off the machines on doctor autumn klein, pittsburg

police detectives made their way to the three story brick house where she made a hom with her daughter and husban medical researcher, robert ferrante veteran detective jim mcge took the lead. ferrante greeted him, and hi partner. >> we start talking to him and about what happened to his wif at that point. >> ferrante told the detective how his wife had arrived hom that night a little before midnight >> and how she came through th door and collapsed on th floor. >> he then recounte what he told 9-1-1 >> i think my wife was having stroke >> he thought his wife was having a stroke. the detectives informed him he was wrong about that >> we asked him if he knew tha his wife had died of cyanide poisoning. >> he gasped and said why woul she do this to herself >> why would she do that t herself? >> that was correct. >> to the cops the man looke visibly shaken, it seemed he was suggesting that his wife had committed suicide. ferrante then told the story about autumn trying and failin to get pregnant. he said she recently had bee

taking the supplement called creatine in the hopes it would help with fertility. veteran detective, harry lotun understood the late wife's emotional agony. >> she wa trying to have another child and that's a lot of stress on woman. when they're trying to hav children and they can't have children >> could autumns distresse state of mind have led t suicide. detectives had to consider tha as a theory. but cyanide is an unusual wa to kill yourself and it is a hard to get poison how could autumn have gotten her hands on it. >> well, we looked into th labs where she worked, she didn't work in the lab, sh worked with patients >> she was a clinic doctor right? working hands on >> yes >> but, there are other labs a the medical complex. laps stocked with poisons, including cyanide. maybe autumn wandered into one of those detectives pulle hospitalsecurity cam footage from that last day, and here's what they saw. that's autumn as she is gettin

ready to leave work. she goes up a set of escalators, disappears for roughly six minutes, before coming bac down and heading home. question, in those minutes missing from the cameras eye had she found her way into a lab with toxins? >> and maybe this is where she goes to get her hands on cyanide to inexplicably kill herself? >> that is correct >> yet there was a problem wit that scenario, a big one the investigators learned that to get into any of those labs, autumn would've had needed a special access card. >> is there any sign that sh had a card swipe that put he in area where anothe researcher might have ha cyanide? >> no. there's no card swipes at th time that she left work. >> the more they dug, the less detectives believe thi unexpected death was a suicide true, autumn was frustrated by her infertility, but disappointment was all it was, thinks her cousin, sharon. suicide was never on her radar

>> that was not autumn that was just not autumn family, friends, and colleague agree. autumn was a woman with plan to live, not die she had a daughter she adore and was scheduling vacations and new research products just before her death >> if she didn't take it, an your theory is that she hadn't killed herself, the only place to go was homicide >> that is correct >> who would want to murder, autumn klein the spouse is almost always suspect, until they're not but the husband here, bo ferrante, was a renowned medical researcher he didn't seem to fit the bill >> professional guy, wel regarded, there don't seem t be any money issues in the household. >> in fact, the marriage o farrente and klein appeared to outsiders to be a good one still detectives had t consider the husband's line of research he worked routinely with toxin in his lab, but not with cyanide. more than a week after the first interviewed the husband.

detectives began talking to hi lab associates >> the people that we talked to, said there was no research wit cyanide. >> yet, detectives were just getting started with their investigation. they combed through labs, an laptops, interviewed friends and colleagues reanalyzed hospital footage. >> i think once we got all tha together, and got all th pieces of that puzzle together we had our picture >> a picture, he said, tha revealed only one person had the motive and the means t kill autumn klein. her husband, bob ferrante. though the evidence was largel circumstantial, three months after autumn's death, the cops were ready to make an arrest at the time, bob ferrante, was visiting his sister in florida pittsburgh pd detective lutton headed south to make the arrest but, when he got there, th sister said ferrante was gone. >> she said that he got a phon call from an attorney, and h got in the car and said i go to go, and then he left. >> did you think docto ferrante was doing a runner on you? do you think he was trying t

get away >> yes yes, we were told he was going to his attorney, but he wa running from us he knew we wer coming >> on your books he was a fugitive >> but not for long. as it turned out, he was on hi way back to pittsburgh to turn himself in when he was pulled over by state police in west virgini and later handed over th pittsburgh authorities police had their man now they and the commonwealt of pennsylvania, had to prov to 12 men and women that he wa the right one. >> they heard a clean case a very clean case. >> to jeffrey a. maning th judge that will preside over i all, the case against bo ferrante far from a sure thing could well leave juror scratching their head. >> i'm not one for predictin verdicts, but i would not have predicted one here >> it could've gone either way and you wouldn't have been surprised? that would be correct. >> coming up was jealousy a possible motive

for murder what bob friday discovered about his wife >> if this was someone who i remotely interested in, sh would have told me >> when dateline continues s, a bump is in order. okay, let's see. oh, hey... what's this? lord of the lease! i'm not a hat-person. yeah, no. emperor of the rentalverse. that's funny. no. rentaur the trusted. ...i don't like it. oh. ok. master of the rentalsphere. wow! oh, is it too much? apartments.com the place to find a place. nicorette knows quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like... just stop. go for a run. go for ten runs. run a marathon. instead, start small with nicorette, which will lead to something big. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance instead, start small with nicorette, through the colonial penn program.

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did you think they were good couple >> yeah. yeah, i did. >> and then, it all went s wrong. >> autumn, dead from apparen cyanide poisoning. her husband now, a year and half later, standing trial for her murder even to the presiding judge, with years on the bench, thi was a first. >> you had a very intelligen man who's accused of poisoning his wife you have experts who argue wit one another. >> and tip-top, good lawye going on >> very good lawyer, very good experts. >> it was up to be prosecuto lisa pelagrini to explai what's brought an otherwis mild mannered scientist to kil the wife he supposedly loved and in such a cruel manner she opened by describing a man infuriated, one losing control over his more successful wife, who are in turn, had grown tired of him

>> reporter alan jennings wa in the courthouse. >> prosecutor say he was obsessed, jealous, his marriage, he realized he was going to be dumped by his wife >> the prosecutor asserted tha the marriage was in freefall a the time of her death. autumn believed her husband ha emotionally checked out, especially when it came to the issue of having another child. she more or less told he cousin, sharon, he was a col fish >> my husband is a psychologis and she said, i need you to as him if there's such a gene has for compassion, because if there is, then bob is lackin it >> wow, that just describe acres of sadness, doesn't it >> yeah. >> the prosecutor showed a email, autumn had sent her husband in the months before her death. she wrote, i realize now i hav been alone in this entir emotional journey. i can't even speak to withou getting angry. did she ever say, sharon, i' going to leave him. this isn't working? >> yes, she said that to me. >> and he was positively rattled to the court said th prosecutors, when he found out he was texting and emailing male colleague she was spendin time with at a conference in san francisco.

bob ferrante, said the prosecutor, suspected his wife was having an affair autumn's cousin was certai that wasn't true >> if this was someone that sh was remotely interested in, sh would've told me >> so you don't think anything fiscal was happening, certainly? >> no. >> but as the prosecutors told it, the defendant believed otherwise. rather than shoreing up crumbling marriage the embittered scientist, his, wife then you are young star came up with a cold bloode solution he poisoned her. >> the motivation, jus jealousy if he couldn't have her, no on was going to have her. >> ferrante, the prosecuto said, he thought he can get ri of his wife quickly by slippin her cyanide. when she didn't die quickly, h have to come up with a plan b, to mislead the prosecutors and scientists >> prosecutors played the 9-1- call >> the prosecution was establishing doctor for on thi attempt to lead everybody that

he encountered, starting wit the 9-1-1 operator he said, well, i think she's having a stroke. >> so steering it? >> steering it >> then, when autumn finally died, according to the prosecutor feranti say something that he thought woul keep the cause of death secret lois klein testified that he son-in-law said flatly that he said he didn't want an autopsy >> i said i'm her mother and i want in the top soft >> because you want to know th cause of death >> because you're the mother i said you can't believe i sai i'm her mother and i wante autopsy. because you wanted to know the cause of death i said i can't believe you don't want to know wha happened to her. his response was that, peopl do that, they do opposite tops and then the people don't want to know the results of it. so, that was that. >> the prosecution had described a man who'd lost control of his wife, killed her, and then tried desperately t cover it up. defense attorneys bill and wendy williams you get this picture of jealous guy of his wife of his

course been eclipse by his wife, thanks to god lover, and the bank she's dead. >> that's the spin the commonwealth put on this thing and we think the reality i that's not the case. they said the prosecutor alleged motive made for grea melodrama but it was miles awa from the truth >> bob was very successful huntington's disease, als, o the verge of some bi breakthroughs. bob ferrante, they countered was a brilliant researcher and the loving man, devoted to helping his wife, are hurtin her. and to sell the image they flabbergasted courtroom by calling defended himself to th stand. >> so in this case the defendant made that choice i've often said that it's risk at best, the minute th defendant takes the stand we now have the governments proof forces defend its credibility. >> a gamble the defense team said frontally was wanted to make

he want to see jurors to see him for the man he was one who loved his bright complicated wife >> he wanted to help the jur understand what was going on i their marriage he wanted to tell them how badly his wife wanted to have child. >> yes he--, he had been a jelous husband. >> and saw the how bad his wife want to have child. >> yes he conceded >> the going to trip to puerto rico with their daughter, ha the neighbors described thei going there and love their holding hands. those actions speak 1000 words >> in the moments after hi wife collapse he said he honestly thought she was havin a stroke when she died, he wanted simpl to honor her wishes and donate her organs and that's why he didn't wan an autopsy >> he was aware that if an autopsy was done, a full autopsy, he would destroy th ability to donate the organs which was his wife's request >> a loving and loyal husban to the end, according to the defense. not a mad science treating his wife like a lab rat, killing her with cyanide speaking of which, they said the prosecution's claim of how

autumn died was all wrong. >> there was not evidence that my client had anything to do with her death let alone her death caused b cyanide. >> an age-old poison, it connection to a medica researcher and his doctor wife were about to be analyze beneath a very different kin of microscope. the unforgiving eye of the law >> coming up, with someone a smart as robert really use something as obvious, and is easy to trace as cyanide >> that is like me buying shotgun, telling everybody, he i just bought a shotgun. and two hours might later my wife is deceased from th shotgun. i would be the youngest guy in the universe >> and dateline continues! kyle? and while romeo over here is trying to look cool, things are about to heat up. uh-oh. darn it, kyle!

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i am natalie morales the prosecution made the argument that bob ferrante certainly had the means to kil his wife now, it was the defenses turn. and their goal was to dismantl the largely circumstantial cas presented. questioning the motive and whether she even died from the poison at all. now, with the conclusion o lethal weapon, here is denni murphy >> the commonwealth of pennsylvania had tried to pain robert ferrante as a jealous husband, driven by a rage to points in his wife

how did he do it prosecutors believed he slippe the cyanide inside of a drink. give it to her shortly after she came home that night a theory, said judge manning that was tough to prove. >> no one stood there with their two eyes and said, i saw him put the cyanide in the drink and give it to her no one said that >> that is a weak point to the prosecution, of course, at which point they had it. >> of course they did. but keep in mind circumstantial evidence, peopl don't believe when it really i is very powerful >> prosecutor, lisa pell agree need told the court that ferrante used his wife vulnerability to trick or into taking cyanide that night. earlier in the day, autumn had sent him this text, i ovulat tomorrow he texted back, perfect timing creatine, smiley face. >> creatine. >> creatine. >> this is the solution. >> this is it. >> prosecutors allege that creatine could help or get pregnant

he whipped up a poisoned drink knowing she take it as soon as she came home. the poisoned drink theory wa collaborated by something they told - a ferrante >> doctor ferrante told him, i don't know, she came home, i gave her a creatine drink, she drink it and she passed out on the floor. >> and no one may have been th wiser for it if it hadn't been for a la tests that's on the sky high amount of cyanide in autumn' blood. subsequent tests, th prosecutor at, it was possible for the poison associate medical examiner todd, underscored up for the dirty. >> what caused that woman' death was? >> cyanide poison. period >> no doubt. >> nor was there any doubt said the prosecutor as to wh poisoned autumn. police discovered th defendants laptop hidden in an office safe. inside, it a wealth of information that told them bob ferrante had indeed been a ver busy researcher in the month before his wife's death. >> doctor ferrante was googlin searches concerning cyanide.

where to purchase, it how to purchase it, the effects o people,. >> and, he didn't stop there the prosecutors said bob ferrante then made i interesting request to his lab associated something that the later relat to detectives. >> he goes to the presiden person in the laboratory and h tells this person that he want to order a bottle sign night >> has he ever done that before, detective? >> never >> better yet, the detective explained, the doctor axed for the cyanide to be delivere overnight. >> and when is all of this i relation to autumn's slumpin to the floor in her home >> two days prior. >> two days prior? >> yes >> he said he even left hi fingerprint of the container which interestingly to them ha 8. 3 points of cyanide missing >> keeping a teaspoon of cyanide? >> i think about a teaspoon, about a grant. >> is that a lethal amount o cyanide? >> yes >> prosecutor lisa pell agre niece at the defended though he was so smart.

fooling his wife and everyon else by using a poisoned, he assumed, was untraceable >> standing and looking at the jury points to ferrante that man, right there was on blood tests away from th perfect murder >> murder responded the defense? what murder. >> robert ferrante, had said h did not commit a crime because there was no crime >> i said this forcefully as i could. we don't believe and we will never believe that autumn klei died from cyanide. >> the defense was attacking the cornerstone of the commonwealth case, that looked at with the little reading o cyanide could never be trusted it said. >> there is no way that that result is -- >> thrown up >> yes >> because, he said, the lab initially screwed up with th three point 35 calculation it only caught its air month later. correcting the level to 2. 2 a still, lethal amount o cyanide in autumn's blood. >> it certainly raises a rea

issue of credibility >> it gives the defens something to work with >> it absolutely gave th defense a lot to work. with >> far more reliable ar ferrante's attorneys was another test done the week after autumn's death. it two found cyanide in he blood. but a very low levels. nowhere near lethal. >> and, at this case, that alone was sure eloquentl particulate was more tha reasonable doubt for this jury to report my client. >> the reports are highl conflicting. >> doctor, did the defendant introduced in the mix, o announced internationall recognized pathologist of many here's the doctor had been i on cages from the jf assassination to the death o elvis presley and john lindsey ramsey he told the court that the conflicting test demanded a ti breaker. >> what you do is you have t

send it to them again fo laboratory testing preferably to a third highly respected toxicology left. that was not done. >> more compelling, he said, was evidence of scoring around autumn's heart which could've triggered a electrical malfunction stoppin the organ cord only, on the spot cpr could've saved her. >> and, in the absence o somebody hitting you in th chest, somebody knowing what they're doing with training an cardin airy pulmonar resuscitation, you, probably will die >> in other words, the defense said autumn could've died of natural causes >> they added that crime scene techs process the house an never did find so much as trace of the poison. and their client sign a google searches, done for researc purposes not murder >> i mean, here he is in january, asking questions of google of the nature cyanide this looks very bad. >> in april, he is asking abou cyanide, potassium, cyanide fo a neuroscience researc project. >> the defended for th

expunges action from the stand he ordered the poison for work and even took it out of the bo when it arrived. that is why his fingerprint wa on the container besides his lawyer, added, the men as smartest bob would neve used a weapon that could s easily be traceable back t him. >> that's like me buying a shotgun, telling everybody, hey, i just bought a shotgun and tw hours later my life is decease from a shotgun >> - >> it would be the dumbest guide the universe >> in closing, the defense begged the jurors to use their common sense which they later said is exactly what they did. their common sense and the science presented told them, autumn klein had died of cyanide poisoning because th defendant had given it to her. they found him guilty of first degree murder. >> crushing, right especially in this case. absolutely crushing. >> yeah. >> good description. >> robert ferrante was sentenced to life in prison.

at the time of our interview autumn's family felt they ha gotten justice their anger towards thei husband had been overshadowe by all those what ifs. >> not only do i grieve autumn and the loss that she is to me and to us as a family and to our community and our friends. but also her patience. you know, my heart breaks fo her patients >> it was all doctor autum klein had ever wanted to do. help others. now, that chance is gone swept away, way too soon >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin thank you for watching >> hello, i'm craig melvin and hello, i'm craig melvin, and this is "dateline." this is dateline >>