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. he called courtney, he said, and they began a frantic effort to revive her. in your gut, tell me what happened. she slipped or something. i don t know. that s the only thing i can think of. but chris apparently hadn t noticed the nasty three-inch laceration on cristi s head. and here the point of the police interview is revealed. she s got a huge gash on her head, okay? something like that is not consistent with just falling
and thus the question at the heart of the whole puzzle. is this woman right? i know what i saw. and i know the conclusion of my story. of course she does. of course she does. so why does this other woman think this? she doesn t know for sure what she saw. a question, we say, on which all the rest will turn. why don t we begin here. calimesa, california, riverside county. historic missions. suburbs creeping around the rim of mountains on the eastern flank of los angeles. here is why chris and cristi hall had come to live out their golden years, though they were far from old when it happened. just experienced, with life and each other. as far back as i can remember, it s always been chris and cristi.
chris was a great, great con man. former los angeles police officer jerry winkel is a county commissioner in idaho now. but once upon a time he was chris hall s friend, that is, before a night of poker and booze when he said paul made a disturbing revelation, that he had shot himself in the leg in order to get retirement benefits. chris had been drinking beer. he came out and told me that he had shot himself. but there was more. d.a. investigator tom dove discovered a secret. not in chris s past but in cristi s. there had been infidelity in the past. but listen to this. the defense had one more very significant witness. a witness who oozed credibility.
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 the victim s own sister 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 homicide. this was not some ordinary hired gun. this was a public official who said straight out that cristi s
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. he called courtney, he said, and they began a frantic effort to revive her. in your gut, tell me what happened. she slipped or something. i don t know.