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Did this woman kill her husband for a boob job?

May 01 08:46pm

When authorities were alerted to Cynthia Sommer's unconventional style of grieving, they began to investigate - and charged her with murder. Helena de Bertodano reports on the case that has divided America.

It was just after midnight, but Cynthia Sommer was finding it hard to sleep. Lying in the bed next to her, Todd, a 23-year-old United States marine, was mumbling incoherently. She nudged him and he got up, making his way toward the bathroom. Knowing that he hadn't been feeling well for over a week now, Cynthia shadowed her husband of three years, gently turning him around. "Are you OK?" she asked, flicking on the light. "What's the matter?"

"I'm OK, I'm fine," he replied simply.

And then Todd collapsed.

Thinking he'd passed out momentarily, Cynthia tried shaking him awake. But as the seconds passed with no sign of life, she became more frantic, calling for her 10-year-old daughter, Jenna, to bring her the phone. Todd was still breathing when Cynthia made her desperate call to 911, but he was otherwise unresponsive. Gripped by panic and now overcome by tears, she struggled to elucidate the horror engulfing her. Meanwhile, her husband had started turning blue.

"Todd? Honey? Todd? Should I do CPR?" she asked down the phone. "Is he breathing?" the operator asked. "No... I love you. Don't do this to me. What am I gonna do without you?" came her plaintive cry. Within minutes, Todd was rushed to the emergency department of the local Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, California, as Cynthia followed closely behind with a military police escort.

Efforts to save Todd continued, but he was pronounced dead that same morning on February 18, 2002. Later, a coroner ruled he'd died from a heart attack, leaving his family to grieve for a young man who died too soon.

And that's where the story should have ended. Five years later, however, in January this year, Cynthia Sommer was convicted of killing her husband. The verdict caused an uproar. While the prosecution found evidence of arsenic poisoning, allegedly derived from the bait used in ant traps, the most damning testimony against Sommer was entirely circumstantial - the prosecution drawing to the jury's attention to her behaviour in the months and years after Todd's death.

Did Cynthia Sommer murder her husband for a boob job? Read this month's marie claire, then tell us below whether you think she really did it!

14 Comments Report Abuse

1. lulu_aotearoa - May 04 10:46pm

What a frightening story. Unfortunately I have seen many similar stories from America where women are convicted on feeble and irrelevant evidence. It makes me glad I come from this side of the world!

2. ai_am_da_best - May 06 04:29pm

dats sad readin this storii.

3. wizozkansas@sbcglobal.net - May 13 03:42pm

Todd Sommer was not murdered.

Despite: claims by investigators that the tape recorder used in the initial interview with Cindy “broke” and they reconstructed the interview from memory; babysitter testimony that conflicts with that of first responders and telephone records; and countless lab discrepancies including breaks in chain of custody, no Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s), no quality controls, and defense expert testimony that the results of the AFIP heavy metals testing were

4. dm_pascoe - May 15 08:06pm

Only in America... this story reeks of all the hallmarks of another American 'botch-up'. You only need to watch similar stories broadcast on American television to realise the main object is to charge a person with murder with somewhat circumstantial evidence.

5. blackbrrrd - May 18 03:54pm

I wasn't satisfied with the story so I read the court transcripts and other background online.

I believe she did it.

6. chaslol - Jun 04 08:57am

No one killed Todd he died of heart failer. Cindy is innocent.

7. gapeachcs - Jun 04 11:32am

I believe Cindy is 100% innocent. If any of you that read the article in the magazine feel the same way.Please come to Cindy's website. www.freecynthia.com there is alot of information posted there ,as well as a message board.

8. augpia - Jun 05 07:42am

blackbrrd,
I'm curious...where did you find those court transcripts? Did you also read the motions that her attorneys have filed? Especially where jury misconduct is alleged?
Did you read anything where it tells us that the science evidence doesn’t make sense? How about the broken chain of custody issue?
If you read the trial transcripts then you must also know now that the defense is not the ones who opened the door for the “bad behavior” to come into testimony.
If you read the scienc

9. justpourthecoffee - Aug 01 11:25am

This is a case of a botched autopsy!

Wagner was baffled by the results, so he contacted Centeno. Centeno admitted that he initially had reservations about the test results and considered whether the tissues had been contaminated.

Centeno said, "I had never seen such high levels of arsenic."

In the e-mail he sent to Wagner, he said he was "surprised" by the high levels of arsenic found in the liver and kidney, which were inconsistent with the negative results in the blood and urine.

10. justpourthecoffee - Aug 01 11:26am

cont'd:

He said he had considered, and then rejected the possibility, that the samples could have been contaminated upon collection.

WHY did he reject that possibility?
WHY was the Death Certificate Amended?

This should have never been labeled a murder in the first place; and therefore, should have never made it to a jury!