. >> reporter: lois klein is autumn's mom. >> we knew that she was putting her mind on her studies, and we were giving her the best education we could possibly give her, and she was taking advantage of it. >> reporter: med school was a certainty. autumn announced she was heading to boston. her mother worried the city's crime rate was too high. >> she said, i'm going to boston university medical school. and i said, no, you're not. and she said, yes, i am. and i said, no, you're not. and she said, yes, i am. and she went to boston university medical school. she had a mind of her own. >> reporter: in medical school autumn developed a romantic thing for a research colleague and he for her. robert ferrante, bob to his friends, held a ph.d. in neuroscience and was hunting for cures to devastating brain illnesses like lou gehrig's and huntington's diseases. he was also more than 20 years her senior, divorced with two 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. >> reporter: but two days before graduation from med schoo