The Fall That Wasn't: The Murder of Susann Sills

[00:00:00] Three men, three murders, one killer, who simply vanished. Thirty years later, Crime Adjacent host Chase Patrick returns to Ridgewood to uncover how the nation's most prolific serial killer went undiscovered, and why he started killing again in 2023. Crime Adjacent is the never-ending true crime story told weekly. Listen to Crime Adjacent wherever you listen to podcasts.

[00:00:30] The case featured in this episode has been researched using police records, court documents, witness statements, and the news. Listener discretion is advised. All parties mentioned are innocent until proven guilty, and all opinions are my own.

[00:01:03] Hey everyone, my name is Nikki Young, and this is Serial Napper, the true crime podcast for naps. I'm back with another true crime story to lull you to sleep, or perhaps to give you nightmares. Tonight, we're heading to sunny California, where the weather was perfect, the couple was picture perfect, and the crime scene, well, not so much.

[00:01:29] Let's rewind to November 13th, 2016. It was a quiet morning in San Clemente when Dr. Eric Scott Sills, a respected fertility doctor with a sparkling reputation, called 911. He said he found his wife Suzanne lying unresponsive at the bottom of their staircase.

[00:01:49] According to him, it was a tragic accident. She'd been feeling drowsy from migraine meds, maybe tripped and fell. That's it. End of story. But when investigators stepped inside the house, things didn't quite line up with that version of events. Blood spatter on the curtains, a clump of hair found in their daughter's bedroom, bruising on Suzanne's face and neck.

[00:02:15] No signs of a struggle, but also no signs of a fall. At first glance, it looked like a freak accident. But the deeper they dug, the more the story started to unravel. And what they would eventually uncover, let's just say, it wasn't in the medical textbooks. So, dim the lights, put your phone down, and listen as I unravel the case of Suzanne Sills.

[00:02:40] A beautiful life, brutal end, and a cautionary reminder that, sometimes, the biggest monsters are the ones wearing lab coats. So, let's jump right in. Born in Philadelphia, Suzanne was a captivating presence. She was a cheerleader, class vice president, the one everyone remembers from high school for all the right reasons.

[00:03:04] She graduated from South Fork High in Florida back in 1989 and went on to study at George Mason University. But she didn't stop there. Suzanne was ambitious, like seriously driven. She earned an MBA in international studies from the University of Miami in 2000. Brains, beauty, charisma, the whole deal. Chris, a friend who met her during business school, remembers her clearly.

[00:03:33] His words? Suzanne was smart, witty, sarcastic, but not in a mean way. Just enough to dig at you. Incredibly driven, a loyal friend. The kind of person you just don't forget. But underneath all that sparkle, Suzanne was carrying a quiet pain. At the time they met, she was married and going through fertility treatments, desperate to start a family. According to Chris, quote,

[00:04:01] Having kids was everything to Suzanne. She'd cry about it. It was so important to her. And guess who her fertility doctor was? Yep, Dr. Eric Scott Sills. The man she was seeing professionally would soon become the man that she was dating. After her marriage ended, she told Chris that she and Dr. Sills were a couple now. That he was brilliant. That they just clicked. He was also coming out of a divorce.

[00:04:31] And on paper, it looked like two smart, successful people finding love in the middle of personal storms. Suzanne? She was described as classy, beautiful. The kind of woman who could hold a room with her presence alone. And for a while, it seemed like she had found her match. To understand the full picture, we've got to talk about the man behind the title. Dr. Eric Scott Sills. To his friends, he was known as Scott.

[00:05:00] And he was kind of a legend. Sandy Roberts and Jamie Akins have known him since high school. And they say that he stood out in all the best ways. Quote, In high school, I thought that this must be what genius means, Sandy said. His humor, his quick wit. He was something that we had never seen before. And Jamie, he remembers Scott showing up to class in a three-piece suit. Not for a presentation. Not for dress-up day. Just because.

[00:05:30] He was flamboyant. Bigger than life. Smart as hell. And according to them, genuinely kind. Jamie even recalls times when he didn't have lunch money. And without hesitation, Scott would pick up the tab. The kid had range. He got accepted into both law school and medical school. People were kind of just sitting around watching like, What's this guy gonna do next? Eventually, he became a renowned fertility specialist.

[00:06:00] Helping couples struggling with infertility. That's what brought him into Suzanne's life. Not as a boyfriend. Not as a business partner. But as her doctor. The one guiding her through fertility treatment while she was desperately trying to have a baby with her first husband. But then, things shifted. After her divorce, Suzanne and Scott became a couple. And for a while, it was like their lives were syncing up perfectly. He was coming out of his own marriage.

[00:06:30] They were both incredibly smart, ambitious, and totally locked in on building a future. Together. They got married and eventually welcomed twins Mary Catherine and Eric through IVF, adding to Scott's two children from his previous marriage. A blended family. Growing. Thriving. But Suzanne didn't just take on the role of wife and mother. She brought her sharp business mind into the mix.

[00:06:58] In April 2015, just a year prior to her death, the couple launched their own fertility clinic. A dream business built on helping others start their own families. By 2015, Suzanne and Scott weren't just husband and wife. They were business partners, building something big together. And when I say together, I mean mostly Suzanne, honestly. Because while Dr. Sills may have been the one with a medical degree,

[00:07:27] Suzanne was the brains behind the operation. She started the business. She built it. She ran it. That's how those who knew her put it. She pretty much handled everything except, you know, actually implanting embryos. But from the branding to the scheduling to patient relations, Suzanne was the one keeping things running smoothly. And it worked. The clinic took off. Patients loved them.

[00:07:55] Dr. Sills became a regular face on the doctors. Yep, that daytime medical talk show on CBS. He had this calm, polished demeanor. And he was out there being presented as this fertility miracle worker. A saint, even. A guy helping people build their dream families. But it wasn't just him. Suzanne was right there, too. Fierce, compassionate. A total advocate for the women walking through their doors.

[00:08:22] She got it because she had been one of them once. The woman crying in a waiting room, unsure if she'd ever be called mom. To the outside world, they were that couple. Beautiful, brilliant, and building something meaningful together. They weren't just married. They were a team. A power duo with matching ambition and a shared mission.

[00:08:47] But behind that carefully curated facade of the polished doctor, the loyal wife, the thriving business, there were cracks. Small ones at first. But you know what they say. Cracks always grow. And one day, everything shattered. It was just another Sunday morning in San Clemente on November 13, 2016. Dr. Scott Sills called 911 from inside his home.

[00:09:15] Calm, composed, and clear. He said that he'd just found his wife, Suzanne, unresponsive at the bottom of their stairs. His wife, his business partner, the mother of his twins. According to Scott, Suzanne had been suffering from a migraine that weekend. Nothing out of the ordinary. She had a history of debilitating headaches, the kind that demanded total darkness, silence, and bed rest.

[00:09:42] Sometimes, just in case, she kept a bull nearby, just in case the nausea hit her in the middle of the night. Scott told the dispatcher that it must have been an accident. She wasn't feeling well, maybe disoriented. Maybe she missed a step and fell. The staircase in the Sills' home was about 13 and a half feet tall from the floor to the top. Not Everest by any means, but enough of a drop that if you fell wrong, it could be dangerous.

[00:10:11] When first responders arrived, it didn't look like a typical fall. Suzanne had injuries to just about every part of her body. Her face was badly bruised. Her back, arms, and legs all showed signs of trauma, abrasions, and contusions. And around her body, there was stuff. Random stuff. A stainless steel soup pot. Her purse. An empty pill bottle. A scarf off to the side.

[00:10:40] One detective described it like this. Quote, It almost looked like it was placed there. Especially that steel pot. It wasn't tipped over. It wasn't knocked askew like it had tumbled down with her. It was just there, sitting next to her body, almost neatly. Still, at first glance, there wasn't panic from Scott. No freakout. No resistance to questioning. In fact, he was surprisingly cooperative. He didn't ask for a lawyer.

[00:11:09] He didn't freak out when the homicide team arrived. He signed a consent form, giving investigators permission to search the entire house. He had nothing to hide, right? Detectives also spoke to the couple's 12-year-old twins, Mary Catherine and Eric. Both of them had told a similar story to their dad. Their mom hadn't been feeling well. She had gone to bed early with a migraine, and it wasn't unusual.

[00:11:35] The kids said that their parents loved each other. They never fought, at least not in front of them. No violence. No red flags. Just a regular night. So on paper, it was a tragic accident. A sick woman. A late night fall. A grieving husband. And kids who didn't know anything different. Now that we know what investigators found that morning, let's back it up a little bit.

[00:12:02] Because to understand how Suzanne Sills ended up at the bottom of the stairs, we need to walk through the final hours of her life. Saturday night, November 12th, 2016. Suzanne wasn't feeling well. Her migraines had flared up again. Bad ones that left her sensitive to sound, light, everything. So, she curled up on the couch downstairs to rest. At some point that night, her son, Eric, came downstairs to check on her.

[00:12:30] Just a quick visit, according to him. She was sick, and he was concerned. By midnight, Eric and Suzanne both headed upstairs to get some sleep, with Suzanne first putting the dogs in their crate for the night, which was what they typically did each night. But daughter Mary Catherine had already tucked herself into her parents' bed, and Suzanne was planning to spend the night in Mary Catherine's room. Why? Because it was the quietest. The cleanest. The most peaceful.

[00:13:00] Mary Catherine had actually suggested it. Like a little private retreat to help her mom recover, which is really sweet. She had even prepped the room, making it feel cozy and calm, like a hotel suite. Before going to bed, Mary Catherine left a note on her bedroom door for her mom. Just a few words. Her last to her. It said, quote, I know that you are tired, but you need to know that I love you.

[00:13:26] Sometime around 3.40 or 4 a.m., things started to shift. Eric, the Sills' son, had been sleeping in his bedroom when he said he woke up to the sound of loud voices, his parents arguing downstairs. Not screaming, no crashing, just raised voices. He said it lasted maybe 5 minutes, and then he decided to go lie down in the main bedroom with his sister.

[00:13:53] According to Mary Catherine, he told her that their parents were arguing over, of all things, a work email. In the hours leading up to her death, Suzanne had reportedly been working late on her laptop in bed, surrounded by the silence of a sleeping house. According to Scott, that's what sparked their final argument. He claimed he was frustrated that she was pushing through her migraine to answer work emails, potentially worsening her condition.

[00:14:22] But others saw it differently. Suzanne was the engine behind their fertility practice. She handled the business side, the logistics, the branding, the grind. And as their clinic grew, so did the pressure. Friends said that the lines between home and work were blurring, and Suzanne was carrying most of the weight. Maybe Scott resented her ambition. Maybe he felt she was outshining him.

[00:14:50] What is clear is that her drive, something she was so proud of, was becoming a flashpoint in their increasingly tense relationship. Neither Eric nor Mary Catherine heard their father return to the bedroom after that argument. No footsteps, no door, just silence. Then came the morning. Around 6.30 a.m., the twins and their father woke up. Scott asked if they wanted to head to the pool and grab some donuts.

[00:15:17] Very Sunday morning in SoCal vibes. But when Mary Catherine stepped out of the room and looked over the upstairs banister, the mood shifted instantly. She saw her mother lying at the bottom of the stairs. Suzanne wasn't moving. She was wearing a long red and white scarf. According to Mary Catherine, she immediately ran down and took it off, afraid it might be interfering with her mother's breathing. But Suzanne wasn't breathing.

[00:15:48] It's a heartbreaking timeline. On paper, it seems like a slow descent into tragedy. A sick woman, a late-night argument, and a final fall. But to detectives, it just wasn't adding up. Too many details felt off. Too much damage to her body. Too many unanswered questions. What really happened between the time that argument ended and the moment Suzanne's body was found?

[00:16:15] On the surface, it did still look like it could be a tragic accident. A woman with a long history of migraines takes a fall in the middle of the night and dies. Case closed, right? Well, not so fast. It's time for a quick break and a word from tonight's sponsors. Hang on. I'll be back before you know it. Let me tell you about the online cannabis company that's revolutionizing how we deal with life's little chaos goblins.

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[00:18:39] the deputy coroner spotted something kind of off. Sure, there were injuries that could be chalked up to a fall, but there was one detail that they couldn't ignore. A ligature mark across her neck. It didn't look like something caused by tumbling downstairs. It looked like something caused by force. Tight, deliberate pressure around her throat. The kind of thing that you'd expect to see in strangulation.

[00:19:08] Not an accidental fall. So, the coroner ordered a full autopsy. When the forensic pathologist completed their report, the red flags only got louder. Suzanne had bruises and abrasions all over her body. Her arms, her legs, her back, her face. And okay, fine, those could happen in a fall. But then came the real clinchers. A fractured C3 vertebra near the base of her neck.

[00:19:37] An injury that can absolutely be fatal. Hemorrhaging in the blood vessels of her eyes. A telltale sign of strangulation. And of course, the now confirmed ligature mark. This was no ordinary accident. But it would take months before the official cause of death would be released. In the meantime, detectives started digging. And what they found in the Sills home would completely upend the narrative.

[00:20:06] Let's start with the scene of the crime. The home. No one, not Scott, not the kids, reported hearing a fall. No loud crash. No body tumbling down the stairs. And let's not forget about that stainless steel soup pot found beside Suzanne's body. If she had been carrying it, shouldn't someone have heard it clanging down the stairs? That tile floor wasn't exactly soft. Detectives also noticed something else strange.

[00:20:36] There was blood in the bedroom where Suzanne had been staying that night. Mary Catherine's room. On the curtains. On the wall. Even on the nightstand. And we're not talking about small traces of blood. If you've seen the crime scene photos, it looks substantial. Something that would have been noticed and cleaned up if it had happened at an earlier date. And when they asked Scott about it, well, he said he didn't know where it came from.

[00:21:05] He claimed he had no idea that it was even there. Mary Catherine told a somewhat different story. That there was no blood there previously. She had made that room perfect for her mom. Fluffed the pillows. Turned down the bed. A little sanctuary. But when investigators showed her photos from the morning after, the bed was made like no one had even slept in it. So if Suzanne didn't sleep there, then where was she that night?

[00:21:34] Then there was Scott himself. During interviews, detectives noticed that he was wearing a beanie, a hat, indoors, saying that he was cold. Strange choice unless you've got something to hide. Underneath the hat, a cut on his head. He also had a bruise on his forearm. Scott told them that he'd hurt himself working on the car with his son, Eric. Totally innocent explanation.

[00:22:00] Except when they asked Eric, he didn't remember that happening at all. So now we've got unexplained injuries on Scott. Blood in a room that shouldn't have had any. A bed mysteriously made. And a woman with evidence of a possible strangulation. All signs were beginning to point away from an accident and directly towards something much darker.

[00:22:24] It would take months, a full year actually, before the autopsy report officially changed everything. In November 2017, the Orange County Coroner's Office released their ruling. Cause of death? Ligature strangulation. Manner of death? Homicide. And just like that, the fall down the stair story was officially dead. And Dr. Eric Scott Stills? Very much alive.

[00:22:52] And now the prime suspect. But the investigation didn't stop there. Detectives had been quietly testing the blood evidence from Mary Catherine's bedroom. And the DNA results were damning. One smudge on the wall showed a mixture of both Scott and Suzanne's DNA. And it wasn't just physical evidence painting a different picture. Forensic analysis of Suzanne's phone revealed text messages from just weeks before her death.

[00:23:21] Messages that spoke volumes. Saying, I am trapped. You are killing me. I just want out. We just aren't right for each other. Not exactly the words of a woman in a happy marriage. The couple that everyone thought was this power duo, dream doctor and savvy businesswoman, they were actually unraveling behind the scenes. And it seemed Suzanne had finally reached a breaking point.

[00:23:51] Then came August 2018, almost two years after Suzanne's death. Investigators brought Scott Stills in for another interview. And let's just say, something had kind of changed. Scott didn't just look different. He was acting different. Gone was the balding, mild-mannered doctor. In his place, a whole new persona. He was dressing like a movie star.

[00:24:17] Blazers, sunglasses, the whole casual rich guy aesthetic. And his hair, full, thick, styled. Where it came from, we don't know, but it was giving midlife crisis meets Instagram influencer. Detectives noticed his new online vibe too. Selfies at the gym, photos in Porsches, date nights with a new woman, just casually splashed across social media like nothing had ever happened.

[00:24:45] It was a full-blown rebrand and it was a lot. But even then, when pressed, Scott denied having anything to do with Suzanne's death. For the first time, he gave an explanation for the blood in the bedroom. He claimed he had cut himself while changing a window screen. Totally normal. Just slicing yourself open while doing some casual DIY at midnight while your wife is dying down the hall. Sure, Scott. But the evidence? It was stacking up.

[00:25:14] The blood, the text messages, the sudden lifestyle glow-up, the scarf, the missing chunk of memory. And investigators knew that it was time. They weren't dealing with an accident. They were building a case for murder. Even with the death rule to homicide and mounting physical evidence, investigators still had one major hurdle left. Why? Why would Dr. Eric Sills, renowned fertility doctor,

[00:25:44] father of twins, husband and business partner, murder Suzanne? While a motive isn't completely necessary to secure conviction, it certainly does help in setting the scene for why a man like this, a man with everything to lose, might do something like kill his wife. So they kept digging. And as with most modern murder investigations, the clues weren't hiding in the shadows. They were in her phone.

[00:26:13] Text messages between Suzanne and close friends hinted at rising tension in the marriage. But one thread in particular caught detectives' attention. And it was unconventional, to say the least. Apparently, Suzanne had been active in an online political forum called Patrick.net. Mostly men. Mostly opinionated. Very few women. But Suzanne, she held her own. Sharp, sarcastic, a little spicy.

[00:26:41] And at some point during a heated political conversation, she made a bet. If Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, she'd post a topless photo of herself. Well, as we know, he won. And she held up her end of the deal. She posted a topless photo online under the handle Turtledove. Now, to her, it was kind of a joke. A dare fulfilled.

[00:27:08] A cheeky move in an online world that she didn't take too seriously. But to her husband, maybe not so funny. Patrick.net wasn't just some harmless internet hangout. It was a politically charged, male-dominated forum where edgy banter and extreme opinions weren't just tolerated, but they were kind of expected. Suzanne, under the handle Turtledove, was one of the few women who actively participated. Her presence there likely ruffled feathers.

[00:27:37] Maybe even at home. Her topless post, made as part of a political bet, wasn't just provocative, it was now public. For someone like Scott, whose image as a respected doctor and TV personality was carefully curated, this kind of bold, defiant move by his wife in such a male-centric space, it might have felt humiliating. Emasculating even. It wasn't just a photo, it was power, attention,

[00:28:06] and autonomy that he couldn't control. On the day of her death, detectives found a printout of a forum conversation in Scott's home office. A thread between Suzanne and another user named 10-pound Bass, dated August 30th, 2016. The guy wrote, quote, All I've gotta say is you must have a super cool husband. To which Suzanne replied, He's exhausted, actually. It isn't easy being married to a woman who is partially naked

[00:28:35] and posing alluringly all the time. When detectives asked Scott about it, he denied printing the thread, claimed that he didn't know about it. But when they checked his phone, there it was. A screenshot of the exact same exchange. Coincidence? Or something that he just couldn't let go of? Finally, nearly two and a half years after Suzanne's death, investigators made their move. On April 25th, 2019,

[00:29:05] Dr. Eric Scott Sills was arrested for her murder. And get this, he was on his way to perform a surgery when they stopped him. He quickly posted a $1 million bond because of course he did. Then came the trial. In late 2023, the case against him went to court. His defense attorney, Jack Earley, argued that there was no clear motive. That, yeah, things were rocky, but nothing violent. And as for the topless photo

[00:29:34] that had raised some eyebrows, Earley shrugged it off, saying, quote, it wasn't a big deal. But to investigators, and maybe to Scott, it was a big deal. It was public. It was personal. It was out of his control. And for a man used to controlling everything, his image, his business, his marriage, that might have been enough to make him snap. The trial of Dr. Eric Scott Sills began in late 2023, nearly seven years

[00:30:03] after Suzanne Sills was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home in San Clemente. The prosecution came in hard. They argued that Scott beat and then strangled his wife with a scarf, staging the scene to look like a tragic tumble down the stairs. The motive? A crumbling marriage, public embarrassment, and a man desperate to maintain control. Their case leaned heavily on the autopsy, ligature marks,

[00:30:32] broken vertebrae, petechial hemorrhaging. None of it screamed accident. But Scott's defense attorney, Jack Earley, had a very different story and buckle up because it's wild. According to Earley, Suzanne did fall, either up or down the stairs. It was never made quite clear. But here's the twist. He claimed it was the family dogs that tugged on the scarf wrapped around her neck, accidentally strangling her. Yes,

[00:31:01] you heard that right. The defense blamed the dogs, saying that they had strangled her. To back it up, they pointed out Suzanne had a fractured C3 vertebra, which can be fatal and would have left her incapacitated. Their theory? After she fell and was unable to move, one or both of the dogs pulled on her scarf in a deadly game of tug-of-war. And here's the thing. There was dog DNA on that scarf. In fact, Mary Catherine,

[00:31:31] the couple's daughter, testified that she saw the dogs pulling at her mom's scarf that morning. Although, strangely, none of that was mentioned during her initial interview back in 2016. The defense leaned into Suzanne's toxology report, too. She had muscle relaxants and pain meds in her system. The defense claimed that she suffered from a fainting disorder and that vertigo often accompanied her migraines. All of this, he argued, could have contributed

[00:32:01] to that disoriented fall. But the prosecution? They weren't buying it. They told the jury strangulation is a silent killer. You know what isn't silent? A woman falling down a hardwood staircase, hitting her head, shoulders, back, arms, and legs, every single stare like a real-life pinball machine, and then somehow getting strangled by her own dogs? I mean, that's not reasonable. They also asked a very simple question. Why would Suzanne

[00:32:31] be wearing a scarf at 6 a.m. inside her own house? The defense said that it wasn't unusual, that Suzanne often wore scarves when she wasn't feeling well. She'd use them to wipe her mouth if she were nauseous. But the prosecution had a better theory. Scott used the scarf to strangle her and then left it on to hide the marks. And there was more. Remember the blood in Mary Catherine's room? Forensic experts testified that

[00:32:59] that blood on the nightstand and the curtains matched Scott's DNA. One stain on the wall contained a mixture, Scott and Suzanne's DNA both present. They believed that Suzanne was actually killed in another part of the house, perhaps even Mary Catherine's bedroom where the blood had been found, and then staged to look like she had fallen down the stairs. The defense didn't deny that Scott's blood was in the room. They just claimed that he had cut himself weeks earlier

[00:33:29] while changing a window screen. Totally innocent explanation. Except, that same forensic scientist testified that there was also clumps of Suzanne's hair in the room. And the blood on her clothing, that was consistent with Scott's DNA too. Then there was Scott's own injury. Remember, the cut on his head and the bruise on his arm. He told investigators that he hurt himself while working on a car with his son, Eric. But Eric initially said

[00:33:58] that he didn't recall any such injury. However, on the stand, Eric slightly shifted his stance. He said he didn't see it happen, not that it didn't happen, just that he couldn't confirm it either way. Which helped the defense a little at least. Eric also testified that a loud argument between his parents woke him up on the night of his mother's death. But the defense tried to wave it off, saying their marriage wasn't volatile. Quote,

[00:34:28] they were loving, they worked well together, they said. Scott Sills, for his part, didn't testify in his own defense. The trial lasted three weeks. And then, finally, it was up to the jury. After three weeks of emotional testimony, DNA debates, and a defense that literally blamed the dogs, it was time. The jury received the case, they left the courtroom, and just three hours later, they were back.

[00:34:58] The decision? Guilty. Eric Scott Sills, 58 years old, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his wife and business partner, Suzanne Sills, who was just 45 years old when she was killed. The courtroom was quiet, stunned, but not surprised. The jurors later said that not a single one of them bought the theory that Suzanne was killed by a tragic mix of bad timing, prescription meds, and a scarf-hungry dog.

[00:35:28] It just didn't add up. One juror said that the blood evidence in Mary Catherine's room sealed it for them, especially the mixture of Scott and Suzanne's DNA on the wall and the clumps of Suzanne's hair. Another pointed to the ligature marks across her neck, saying, quote, that wasn't from a fall. That was deliberate. To them, the case wasn't even close. The prosecution's timeline made sense. The injuries made sense. The motive

[00:35:58] made sense. The dog story? Not so much. But the most heartbreaking moment came during sentencing when Mary Catherine, the Sills' daughter, stood up to speak. This teenage girl had already endured more loss than most of us could even imagine. She had lost her mother violently. She had lost her father to the justice system. And after their father's arrest, she and her twin brother were taken in by a family friend, who then died

[00:36:27] suddenly of a health condition right near the end of the trial. Mary Catherine addressed the court with a kind of strength no child should have to summon. And despite everything, she asked the judge to show her father mercy. Her words were powerful, painful, heart-wrenching, but the court still had a job to do. On March 15th, Dr. Eric Scott Sills was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison. Orange County District Attorney

[00:36:56] Todd Spitzer didn't hold back. He said, Mr. Sills not only killed his wife, but he went one step further and tried to cover up his horrific crime. His actions have irreparably torn apart his family. This was the ultimate betrayal by their father and now he will spend his remaining days in state prison. Suzanne Sills spent her life helping others build families only to have her own ripped apart by the person she trusted the most. In the end,

[00:37:26] it wasn't the fall that killed her. It was control, silence, a calculated cover-up. And while justice came slowly, it came. But for her children and for everyone who loved her, there's no sentence long enough to undo this loss. And in the end, her story reminds us that even those who seem to have it all, a beautiful family, a thriving business, a fairy tale story, they can still find themselves trapped in something dangerous.

[00:37:55] If Suzanne's words, I feel trapped, I want out, resonated with you, you are not alone. Emotional and psychological abuse often hides behind closed doors and polished appearances. It doesn't always leave bruises, but it can be just as dangerous. If you or someone you know is in an unsafe relationship, please know that help is available. In Canada, you can contact the ShelterSafe network at sheltersafe.ca.

[00:38:26] In the U.S., call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org. You deserve to feel safe, heard, and free. Always. That's it for me tonight. If you want to reach out, you can find me on Facebook at Serial Napper. You can find my audio on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. I post all of my episodes in video format over on YouTube,

[00:38:55] so go check it out. And if you're watching on YouTube, I'd love if you can give me a thumbs up and subscribe. I'm also on Patreon. If you'd like to get your Serial Napper episodes early and ad-free, hop on over and check out all the details at patreon.com slash Serial Napper. Until next time, stay safe, stay skeptical, and don't trust anyone who says they just fell. Bye.