Then he would say, okay, continue. so i continued doing chest compressions. medical examiners found several powerful drugs in her system, including valium, per percosen and ambien. the doctor who did the facelift told the court mcneal had great infruns on michelle s prescriptions and that the combination of drugs could be dangerous if taken together. was it your intention that michelle take all these drugs together? no. would you have prescribed this combination to her if martin was not a physician? no. reporter: for months leading up to his wife s death, mcneal was telling neighbors and members of his church that he had cancer and didn t have long to live. but prosecutors say it was all a ruse, one he continued at his then dead wife s funeral. prior to the funeral, the defendant was seen unloading boxes of michelle s memorabilia and walking around without any
Compressions. medical examiners found several powerful drugs in her system, including valium, per percoset and ambien. the doctor who did the facelift told the court mcneal had great influence on michelle s prescriptions and that the combination of drugs could be dangerous if taken together. was it your intention that michelle take all these drugs together? no. would you have prescribed this combination to her if martin was not a physician? no. reporter: for months leading up to his wife s death, mcneal was telling neighbors and members of his church that he had cancer and didn t have long to live. but prosecutors say it was all a ruse, one he continued at his then dead wife s funeral. prior to the funeral, the defendant was seen unloading boxes of michelle s memorabilia and walking around without any difficulty. however, when following the casket the defendant exhibited a
Crime and punishment tonight, medicine the mistress and possible murder. day two of a trial in utah where dr. martin mcneal is charged with murder and obstruction of justice in the 2007 death of his wife michelle. at the time he is her death was attributed to natural causes due to cardiovascular disease. some of her eight children didn t buy it. a few years later a new analysis reopened the case and the whole thing started to unravel. at the center of the case, prosecutors say dr. martin mcneal was living a double life and his motive for the alleged murder was a desire to be with his mistress, a woman named gypsy. today the mcneal s former neighbors were on the stand describing what they saw the day michelle was found dead. jean ca zaur exhas more. reporter: neighbor kristi daniels recounted the tragic moments after michelle mcneal was found unresponsive in her bathtub.
Frantic. they said he was instructive as all the neighbors tried to help with that cpr. they said though as he had his head buried on top of michelle s mouth, allegedly giving her cpr, he would then stop and raise his hands and say, why did you have that surgery? what about those medications. one witness the officer one of the first responders said that he was absolutely erratic and that he was concerned for his own safety thinking he had to defend himself at some point because dr. mcneal was so frantic. now, the other side to that is, this is a man that is losing his wife. and although he had that other life, he s still losing the mother of his eight children. were the witness accounts consistent with how they found michelle in the bathtub? reporter: they really were. all of the neighbors said that when they got there that michelle s face was next to the faucet in the bathtub and her feet were laid out to the end of the bathtub. but here s what could be
She had been called to the mcneal home by their youngest daughter, ada. i saw that michelle was in the tub and martin was over the tub. her head was right here, and her feet were or her legs were over here. was there water in it? no. okay. did you see any blood? no. reporter: no blood. but the prosecutor says definitely murder. prosecutor sam peed says michelle was dead because her husband of nearly 30 years, dr. martin mcneal, killed her and used his medical knowledge to pull it off. the motive? mcneal was carrying on an affair with gypsy willis, who moved into the mcneal home as a nanny shortly after michelle s death. mcneal, he says, was so determined to move forward with the murder plot that he forced his wife to have a facelift so he could kill her with a mix of drugs and blame it on the surgery. michelle went ahead with the surgery on april 3rd.