The following description, published on the CBS News website and on the well-known investigative program '48 Hours', tells the incredible story of a scientist named Uta Schwedler, who was only brought to justice many years after her death.
The year is 2011, September.
Uta Schwedler, a scientist by profession from Salt Lake City, Utah, was on the verge of making real progress in her research on leukemia.
At the same time, she was also engaged in a lengthy legal battle with her ex-husband, Johnny, a pediatrician by profession, for custody of her children. Johnny, who was considered a respected and beloved doctor, had meanwhile remarried and divorced again. Ota was also facing the second chapter of her life.
Pelle, Otto's son, remembers that these were particularly happy days: "We would go on trips a lot, camping on mountaintops. Mother really loved nature. She would also play with us at the arcade, she was very thorough.".
But then, a few days later, or rather on September 27, Ota was found dead at the bottom of her bathtub. Investigators examined the findings and concluded that it was a suicide.
""When I found out that Mom had died, I was shocked, it was so out of character for her. I was sure it was a hoax," says Pele, who was a young boy at the time.
That same day, the police arrived at Johnny's house, the divorced man, and told him about his ex-wife's death.
Johnny didn't stop crying and wailing: "I remember Dad lying in a fetal position in bed, and he wouldn't stop talking about Mom.".
The police, who were convinced that it was a suicide, concluded that Johnny had nothing to do with Ota's death.
But Ben Pela had a hard time accepting this: How could a healthy, 49-year-old woman, for no reason, take her life into her own hands?
Pela noticed something that the police had missed: there was a small scratch on his father's forehead, near his eye. He never stopped suspecting his father of being behind the supposed suicide, and as a doctor, he managed to cover up his actions.
Several more years passed, and Pele reached the age of 18 – the age at which he was allowed to file a lawsuit.
He decided to use his mother's inheritance money, hired a lawyer, and filed a lawsuit against his father.
In the fascinating trial that attracted much attention, Johnny was asked by the prosecutor: Is it true that a few hours before her death, Ota appeared at your house?
Johnny was confused and didn't know what to answer.
During the trial, additional, very disturbing questions suddenly arose: Why was there a high concentration of an anti-depressant called Conex in the deceased Ota's blood, when it is not known that she had ever taken this type of pill?
Along with dozens of other questions about his actions that day, Johnny began to lose his confidence, and his stammering answers led the court to declare: he was guilty.
Johnny was sent to 15 years in prison, and Pella, who lost all his money in a lawsuit against his father, felt that justice had, at least, been done.
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