all, and he understood what was necessary to help them sort out what happened. i can t even start to imagine what you re going through, okay? just, you know, it s a death investigation, and we have to do this. happy to help, he said. whatever would get him back home to comfort his daughters as quickly as possible. we re all so close. chris told investigators what happened. how, as courtney slept, he and cristi were in the spa bathing. she got out, went in, went to the bathroom, got some more coffee, tried to wake up courtney. courtney didn t wake up, apparently. she came back out. as cristi returned to the spa, said chris, they passed each other on the patio. he went in the house, stopped by courtney s room to make sure she was awake, then went right back outside and saw his wife floating face down in the spa.
the love of his life? and the answer was right next door. when chris and cristi hall took their outdoor bath that morning in june, someone was watching. her. i got up at 6:00. got my coffee. lindsay patterson was on leave from her i.t. job in the navy, visiting her mom who lives just over the backyard wall from the hall house. lindsay was inside, in the bathroom that faced away from the hall house and out onto the street, when she heard a noise. it was a horrible scream. it was just, something was wrong kind of scream. a woman s, she thought. she went outside to tell her mom. i said, did you hear that scream? she said, yeah, but i think it s just kids playing in the playing in the pool. kids, at six something in the morning? lindsay walked over to the six-foot brick wall between their yard and the halls . she stepped on the planter, she said, and looked over the wall.
and this was a special situation. these are attorneys who would eventually defend him, although at first they only heard about the case. steve harmon and paul gretch. you ve said two things. special man, special situation. i think both of us can say this is a man that we like and we know. we don t feel he could have done anything like this. chris hall and his daughters prepared for a trial which they hoped would make clear to everybody, the police, the neighbor, the world, that chris would not, could not, did not harm the love of his life. there was never, in 30 years of marriage, never one moment of violence. there was no motive for this man to kill his wife. they had a look at the neighbor s eyewitness account and suggested it was really not conclusive at all. it was tragically incomplete. she saw three snapshots. what is missed by everyone is the wife getting into the jacuzzi, slipping, falling into
they re not touching but they re in position where they could be. but that s different than actually touching. again, the hall daughters were there every minute. their father s enduring champions. and this time, more family members came to court. two of cristi s own siblings testified for chris. and said the same thing. we have not a doubt in our minds that this was not a moment of violence. this was not a murder. the victim s own center and own brother. that s an amazing thing to see. perhaps it was. but listen to this. the defense had one more very significant witness. a witness who oozed credibility. the sitting medical examiner for neighboring san bernardino county, who stuck his neck way out to disagree publicly, in a court of law, with the medical examiner from riverside. he found this to be an accidental death, not a
home right away. it was courtney who eventually broke the news to ashton and brianna. their mother, their father s wife of close to 30 years, was dead. but neither courtney nor countries waited at the house to tell them what happened or to comfort them. nor did they linger over the body at the hospital. they couldn t. because father and daughter were escorted to several squad cars and driven to the police station to talk about the accident. what was that ride like? quiet. i remember crying the whole time. i couldn t comfort had i father. he couldn t comfort me. we got to the station and they said that my dad would be a few more minutes. chris, so frenzied at the scene, had calmed down by then. he was a cop among cops, after all, and he understood what was necessary to sort out what happened. i can t even start to imagine what you re going through, okay?