she was stopped for drunk driving. she had pleaded not guilty to the driving under the influence charge. but police say they found two open bottles of vodka in her car. she broke down, hospitalized. a terrible toll on her. i lived with it. all three of us are together and you could just feel her going deeper and deeper into this. but it seemed for every person that came out to support ryan widmer, there were those who believed just as strongly on the other side that he had deliberately drowned his wife. one of those people would soon change everything. ten days after the juror deadlocked, a phone rang in the prosecutors office. it was a woman with a hand grenade of a story. someone came forward and say this guy confessed to me. we want to find out more what she has to say and what she knows about this. the prosecutors came away convinced they had the long missing pieces of the puzzle.
that implicitly raised a question for the jury. is it possible that this young woman who drowned had never been in the tub in the first place? the bottom line is there would have been water everywhere. if there wasn t, it was cleaned up. if there was a cleanup, then there was something to hide. that was her murder. an expert witness for the prosecution spoke to the issue of whether a person can actually fall asleep and drown in a bathtub. her testimony was no, that can t happen. it would be virtually impossible for somebody without the influence of drugs or alcohol or something external to fall asleep and not wake up. so first, the sensation of water on your face would wake you up. two would be the gag reflex, water entering your airway, just choking. three, if for some reason, that didn t, the drop in oxygen would cause you to wake up. but maybe sarah hadn t fallen asleep. perhaps she had suffered a catastrophic but perfectly natural event. something to her heart, her brain. t
in fact, as ryan widmer got processed into the ohio prison system, his case was far, far from over. the day after defense attorney rickers filed his motion, his fax machine spit out some shocking information. the fax was a letter from the jury. he was having problems living with himself. he said it was a moral dilemma for him to allow it to go without bringing it up to somebody s attention. the juror claimed there had been forbidden monkey business during deliberations, monkey business over nothing less than the biggest issue in the trial, damp head, dry body. he said that two or three of the female jurors had done home experiments where they had showered and then air-dried. they were testing out this theory how quickly the body dries coming out of the tub or shower? yes. at home? at home. if the faxing juror was
room. said that two or three of the female jurors had done home experiments where they had showered and then air dried. home experiments. what was that all about? ryan widmer was about to get a break, when the bathtub mystery continues. (burke) parking splat. and we covered it. talk to farmers. we know a thing or two because we ve seen a thing or two. we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum heartburn and gas? fight both fast tums chewy bites with gas relief all in one relief of heartburn and gas tum tum tum tums tums chewy bites with gas relief
something was screaming to me, something s bad, wrong. could this death have been deliberate? she was murdered. i love sarah. i would never have hurt her. i started crying because i just felt so bad for him. there s just no chance he had anything to do with it. three trials, three juries. we re scared that the truth may not come out. the bathtub mystery. hello and welcome to dateline extra. i m craig melvin. sarah and ryan witmer were newlyweds. sarah stee sar sarah mysteriously drowned in the bathtub. ryan claimed it was an accident. to investigators their stories did not add up. was this a tragic mishap or was something more sinister at play?