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.
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
Prosecution |
Defense |
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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. |
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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). |
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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). |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |

| Prosecution Witness: Don Sebastianelli |
| Written by Mike Mayleben |
| Friday, 06 May 2011 18:45 |
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Telecommunications Dept. of Warren County. He works as an application analyst. Direct Exam – Travis Vieux He keeps records for emergency services department. He kept records for Ryan’s 911 call and prepared copies of the recording. As Vieux shows him print out of the CAD system, Sebansianelli says they are stored on the computer from 2-3 yrs back. The CAD records do not include seconds, only hours and minutes. They have another computer system that holds all the records of the CAD system. They include status changes for police, law, and fire and he pulled these DSS reports to get the seconds as well as the hours and minutes. Vieux put the report up on the screen and points out the address, callers name and type of call. Sebastianelli looks at the TV screen to explain the dates and times on the records. Vieux questions the witness about what each line means in the records and about time of response by officers. Sebansianelli says the system records in military time and the dispatcher initiated the call at 22:48. During the first minute, the CAD shows the units that were recommended to respond and also shows all units that DID respond. A comment from the dispatcher is noted on the report; “water still in the tub”, The report says that the deputy was on scene [OS] at 22:52 and the medics responded at 22:53. [On scene doesn’t mean that responders are in the house, up in the bedroom. They have a touch screen in their vehicles that they use when they are nearing the location.] Vieux presents a CD copy of the 911 call. Sebastianelli says the 911 recording system is all digital and recordings begin by either a phone call or other activity on the channel. If nothing is heard, nothing is recorded. Vieux then pulls up a file, which he opens, showing three audio (WAV) files making up the 911 call. Sebastianelli explains that these are not three separate calls, but all part of one call. He also explains that if the call drops below a certain threshold of volume, it will stop recording to save space on the servers, but be ready to record again if the volume level increases beyond the threshold. If there are 10 seconds of silence of sound below -50 dbm, it stops recording. If there is 32 milliseconds of sound above -48dbm, the recording picks up again. In regards to Ryan’s 911 call, there are some pauses that did not fall below the dbm threshold to shut off the recording, but the recording did shut off twice during the complete call. The system continues to record until either the caller hangs up or there is no sound level to pick up. The time marks show 22:49:53 when the first recording began, 22:54:31 was when the recording picked up again, and 22:56:11 was the third time the recording picked up. By looking at the end time of one call and the start time of the second, you can determine how long the silence was. The date is placed on the file, once it is logged into the system. The system automatically creates that name. The create time was 10:48:35; the incident time on the 911 call shows 10:49:53. There is a difference in time because they are two different computer systems and each has their own time source so they don't necessarily match. The length of time between the end of the first recording segment and beginning of the second, was 14 seconds of silence. The silence between the end of the second recording segment and beginning of the third, was 51 seconds. The total time of the call was six minutes, 21 seconds. The 911 call is played for the jury and begins with Ryan frantically telling the operator "My wife fell asleep in the bath tub, I think she's dead." Ryan’s dog, CJ is barking excitedly in the background. He tells the dispatcher that the water is draining out of the tub and that she was in the tub 15 to 30 minutes. He also tells the dispatcher that she falls asleep in the tub all the time. He can be heard crying as he tells the dispatcher that she’s still in the tub. The dispatcher tells him to get Sarah out of the tub and onto a flat surface. Ryan is also told to unlock his front door for EMTs. The dispatcher then tells him to try CPR [ but the dispatcher doesn’t explain to Ryan, what to do] . Ryan can be heard saying, “come on Sarah, come on baby….”. [Ryan is crying in court as the 911 call is being played] Gutierrez begins her cross-examination. Sebastianelli says the clarification of times was not available at the last trial; that he prepared this report on his own. She verifies with him that as soon as the 911 operator picks up the phone, the time is denoted. The recording started at 10:49:53, according to the computer that records the audio. Gutierrez questions the differences between the two computer systems that record times. Gutierrez shows him a document which shows the call came in at 10:48 almost a full minute ("50 seconds") before an officer was dispatched. Sebastianelli explains that the CAD computer and audio recording is supposed to be synced, but that is not his responsibility to keep them synced. He says there was about a 1:15 discrepancy. The dispatcher who took the call was Ron Kronenberger and he made notes in the CAD that the water was drained but Sarah was still in the tub, according to Ryan. The record shows Bishop was on the scene at 22:52. Sebastianelli says that it doesn't mean he's actually in the house and in the bedroom. Officers may use "OS" (on scene) when they get nearby, and don't have to be at the scene getting out of the car. Sebastianelli says that in a police cruiser the officer can touch their screen to respond, or their radio to update their status to the call, such as, they are at the scene. When an officer is dispatched their name will show up on the records. The reason is for officer safety, to know where they are at all times. Gutierrez approaches the witness, handing him the CAD report. She asks him if there was a deputy Chris Wong responding? The witness says he does not see him listed. Nor does he find Tim Rector. Nothing further... No redirect. |