Sunday, May 20, 2012

Ryan and Sarah Widmer, what the Prosecution doesn't want you to know.

Ryan and Sarah Widmer Ryan Widmer, a 27 year old man, was charged with murder just 2 days after he found his wife unresponsive in their bathtub, on August 11, 2008. Ryan was downstairs watching TV, when his wife of only 114 days kissed him goodnight and told him she was going upstairs to take a bath. This was part of Sarah Widmer’s regular routine as she loved to take long baths. Ryan went upstairs about ½ hour to 45 minutes later to walk into their bathroom and find Sarah unresponsive in the tub. Ryan tried as best he could to perform CPR. The 911 operator didn’t provide any help whatsoever.

Ryan and Sarah Widmer Wedding Dance

 

After 45 minutes to 1 hour of rigorous CPR and 5 intubation attempts they transported Sarah to the hospital and she was pronounced dead. There were no signs of struggle, no prior history of relationship issues, etc. However, Sarah had not been feeling well the entire day and had a bad headache. She was also known by family and friends to easily fall asleep and had actually fallen asleep in the tub numerous times, even before she met Ryan (as stated by Sarah’s brother). An expert at the trial spoke that in the U.S. every year about 300,000 people under the age of 35 die and that these people’s autopsies do not show any sign of what they died from - a staggering statistic.
Continue Reading Ryan and Sarah's Story

Different Testimony in 3 Trials...

Prosecution

Defense

1. Prosecutors claim Ryan held Sarah by the neck and forcibly drowned her during an altercation and cleaned up the scene before calling 911.

1. Neither Ryan nor Sarah had any marks or wounds on their bodies and there were no signs of a struggle. A search of the house showed no evidence of a cleanup. Sarah's French Manicure and Pedicure were still perfect.

2. Because of the two blood spots on the carpet, prosecutors said Ryan moved Sarah's body before calling 911.

2. Officer Bishop testified he might have helped Ryan move Sarah's body from the bathroom doorway into the bedroom. (1st Trial) He couldn't remember if he helped move Sarah. (2nd Trial) He "absolutely did not" help Ryan move her body. (3rd Trial).

3. Ryan allegedly confessed to Jennifer Crew that he punched Sarah in the chest during an argument and then blacked out. When he came to, she was laying dead on the bathroom floor. He said he forgot to clean up the spilled waste basket in the bathroom.

3. Jennifer Crew has a criminal record and is a recovering drug addict now on methadone, who saw Ryan's story on Dateline. Most of her testimony, word for word, was from the Dateline program. Officer Bishop dumped the bathroom trash can looking for illegal drugs. (1st & 2nd trial) He didn’t remember dumping it, but agreed that he's been blamed for it. (3rd Trial).

4. The lead detective (Braley) and the coroner's investigator were present during the autopsy and discussed with the coroner what the manner of death might be. Det. Braley gathered evidence and dusted the tub for fingerprints claiming streaks on the tub showed signs of Sarah trying to save herself.

4. The coroner was criticized in another trial for allowing investigating officers to name the manner of death. Braley was not a trained evidence technician and criminalist Wm. Hilliard said none of the fingerprints were of any value. He couldn't tell who they belonged to or when they were put on the tub. Braley was forced to resign when it was verified that he lied on his employment application and didn't have the training or experience that he claimed.

5. First responders testified that Sarah's body, the tub, towels, clothing, magazines, floor, etc. were all dry.

5. Officers and EMTs wore gloves when feeling for wetness. Signs of water in the tub included droplets on the drain and a small area of water pooled near the middle of the tub. Some officers admitted they didn't touch anything to feel for wetness. Magazines were crinkled, indicating they had been wet. Two EMTs testified that Sarah's body was moist or not overly wet. Officer Bishop noticed an Ionic Breeze fan knocked over near where Sarah was lying. (1st Trial) The dryer was cold, indicating that it had not been used.

6. Coroner Uptegrove declared Sarah's death a homicide before reading the EMT and ER reports, and without talking to Ryan or Sarah's mother about any health issues.

6. The coroner spoke briefly with Sarah's mother after Ryan had already been charged, arrested and arraigned. He never did speak to Ryan and was not told that she frequently fell asleep in the tub. Her mother and brother knew she fell asleep in the tub. There were numerous mistakes on the run report, as well as three different copies.

7. The coroner made his decision based on the bruising on the side and back of her neck. He said there was no evidence of any heart problem or seizure.

7. EMTs tried to intubate Sarah twice in the house, once while the ambulance was in the driveway and two more times while en route to the hospital. An EMT assisted twice by performing the Sellick maneuver. He held Sarah's head and neck firmly while applying pressure at the thyroid cartilage. EMTs worked on Sarah for almost 45 minutes before leaving for the hospital. Doctors testified that 5 intubations would cause neck bruising and in a drowning, the blood is thinner and bruising would spread farther. Forensic pathologist Dr. Balko testified coroner Uptegrove didn't take enough heart or brain tissue samples to verify there was no heart problem or seizure and didn't test for narcolepsy. Coroner Uptegrove has been criticized for taking short cuts and having a coroner's job in three counties.

8. Sarah's mother said Sarah was always healthy, had no history of heart problems and there was no history of heart problems or seizures in the family. She didn't recall Sarah ever falling asleep anywhere.

8. In the 3rd trial, she admitted that Sarah had surgery for a cleft palate and had a heart murmur as an infant. She took Sarah to a pediatric cardiologist but never followed up over the years.

9. In the 2nd trial Sarah's mother said, they're part of a younger generation and talk differently to each other. She said, "They would argue on certain things. They got in an argument on how to hang pictures so they called Sarah's brother to come and hang all the pictures in their house. In the 3rd trial she said they called each other "nasty names".

9. In previous trials she testified that Ryan and Sarah got along well together and they were very happy. They bought a house and moved in together and Ryan became part of their family even before they married. When asked what the "nasty names" were, she couldn't say.

Dreama Epperson, the juror that was using Social Media on Anti Ryan Widmer pages and vidoes, during the trial - still at it.

RWDI-Dreama

The News about the situation: WCPO.com

Defense Witness: Shirley Bonekemper
Written by Mike Mayleben   
Friday, 06 May 2011 18:34

Direct Exam: Jay Clark

She had several management positions with other companies but was the executive director for the Warren County Convention and Visitor's Bureau since 1999, retiring in 2009. The bureau was established to promote travel to Warren County. Clark asked if she recognized Ryan in the courtroom. She pointed him out at the defense table and replied, "It's Ryan, a lot thinner, but it's Ryan. He's lost about 40 lbs. since he worked with me."   She hired Ryan as an intern in 2004, to do research on what kind of events could be booked for the newly formed sports marketing department.   She never heard any complaints about Ryan but heard a lot of praise about him.

When the bureau decided to hire a full time person, Ryan approached her and asked if he would be qualified, so he was hired as Sports Marketing Manager. When they had events he helped with organizing them, promoting them and interacting with hotels to secure rooms. They brought in the Senior Olympics, AAU girls basketball events, martial arts events, baseball, soccer, etc., any youth events that would bring families to the area. "Ryan had great potential", she said, and she believed he would continue to move up in his career. Since this was his first full-time job, she wanted him to have some additional training so he signed up for a Dale Carnegie sales training course, which covered various topics related to sales. She attended his final class and he received a citation for "most improved" through the training process. He was promoted to Sales Manager of Sporting Events in Nov. 2007. This position had more responsibilities and he took on accounts and managed them on his own, researching accounts and making presentations.

She said his last day of work was Monday, Aug. 11, 2008, "the day Sarah died." Ryan was not fired, but was placed on unpaid administrative leave and has never returned to work, and she would rehire Ryan any time, she said, while John Arnold kept objecting.

She worked with him for four years and since the office was small, the employees ate lunch together every day and got to know each other very well. She also got to know him outside the office when they had various social events and employees would bring their spouses. Ryan brought Sarah to a Reds game, Christmas parties and a picnic. She never saw any hostile behavior between Ryan and Sarah and she never saw him drunk or intoxicated. "They were very loving toward each other", she said, and was never verbally abusive to Sarah.   " He was not that kind of person."

Clark asked about the times that Ryan took food to his sick grandmother in the middle of the day, but Arnold objected/sustained. She was allowed to say that he never was disciplined for leaving work. When Ryan's boss left the bureau ,Ryan asked if he would be qualified for the job but she told him she would consider him sometime in the future when he was more experienced. He was very understanding and she never had any personnel issues with him.

She never saw him lose his temper or be out of control. One time he brought a concern to her about someone else being promoted to a position he was interested in, but he was very professional. He just wanted to understand why he wasn't chosen.

He had health benefits and life insurance, which was $20,000. When he and Sarah were dating, he made her the beneficiary. She said there was a lot of joking and teasing in the office when Ryan told them he was learning the waltz for their wedding dance, but he laughed and handled it very well. He never got angry or yelled at anyone. Asked if anything ever changed her opinion of Ryan and how he treated Sarah she replied, "No, he was always very caring toward Sarah." She said the whole office went to the wedding and Ryan and Sarah were very cute when they did their dance. Clark put a photo of their dance on the screen and she identified it.

She said he worked on the Saturday and Sunday that Sarah went to St. Louis with her mother. It was a special event; she thought it could have been the Senior Olympics and the work was very physical involving setting up tents, tables, chairs, etc.

One or two police officers and Det. Braley came to the office about 7 to 10 days after Sarah died. Braley conducted interviews with her and all the staff. They came back several times and each time it was Braley and a couple other officers. The second time they came with a search warrant for Ryan's office. He interviewed her twice, but never asked if she was aware of Sarah's medical problems. She signed a receipt for the items they took from Ryan's office which included files and event booklets but she couldn't remember what else they took. Ryan had a laptop but she didn't remember if they took that. She thought it might have been at Ryan's house.

Clark clarified that according to Ryan's life insurance policy, if he died, the money would go to Sarah. Asked if Ryan had a policy through the company on Sarah as his wife, she replied no, the policy was only for company employees.   Nothing further.

Cross Exam: John Arnold

Arnold asked when Ryan changed his life insurance policy and she said she couldn't remember, but it was before he and Sarah were married. She agreed that she knew Ryan and Sarah bought a house together in 2007.

Referring to the Dale Carnegie course, she said she didn't know if the class included public speaking, but she knew it included how to present a sales presentation about the benefits of your product. It was a beginner's course. "And it included how to pitch your product?" Arnold asked, but she said it was about how to show the benefits of your product.

Asked if she ever heard Ryan call Sarah names, she said "no". When Arnold asked, "Names so bad that Sarah's mother couldn't repeat them in court", Clark objected/sustained.

Arnold asked if Sarah ever complained about medical problems anytime she saw her. Bonekemper replied she only saw Sarah in group settings;   she didn't have a one-on-one conversation with her. "So you didn't know Sarah very well, then?" Arnold asked, and she replied "No". Nothing further.
 

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