He beat and strangled her into unconsciousness which caused brain damage that could have been partially overcome with the right treatment. He then launched himself on a mission to end her life through legal maneuvers paid for at her expense. She did not have a heart attack.
It took him awhile, but he eventually succeeded in murdering her legally.
Does that answer your question?
If he had succeeded, he would have inherited $one million+.
Your statement best fits the facts.
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... I don't believe he tried to kill her. I believe he came home steaming mad and meant to punish her. They'd had a ferocious argument that day. He was still fuming and meant to continue the fight.
As best I can reconstruct it, he dragged her out of bed when he got home. She would have been asleep, and could have offered no resistance in any case -- he's twice her size and he had her from behind. He wrestled her down a few feet away in the hallway, outside the bedroom door, and got on her back. His knees pinned her down. He had one knee in the small of her back (which caused a compression fracture at L1 plus fractures at rear of ribs -- both of which are very unusual injuries) and the other knee on her right leg (leaving a bone bruise on right femur; another odd injury). Her head was sideways. His weight was so great she couldn't breathe. Neither could she speak, to beg him to stop. She did struggle -- that was shown by a condition called lactic acidosis in her blood tests = violent exertion in the absence of oxygen. She tried desperately to draw a breath but could not. The struggle could not have lasted long, though. Unconsciousness comes within seconds, death soon after if this position is not relieved. It is called "positional asphyxia" and it shows up mostly in police restraint cases where the police get too heavy holding a criminal down. It kills. Michael stayed atop her too long. Then he panicked and went to pieces. When the medics finally did get there, Terri was in full cardiac arrest and needed seven defibs. Incidentally, the famous acute hypokalemia that showed up in Terri's blood testing is characteristic of trauma, not of bulimia.
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One little afterword, if I may. We have visitors who haven't come to grips with the fact that domestic violence is the #1 cause of injury and death in young women. That makes it the first thing to suspect when trying to explain how a healthy young woman, age 26, probably asleep, ended up face down on the hallway floor, in cardiac arrest and near death, right after her husband came home late one Saturday night.
Nobody has ever explained how this happened, and medical testing found no natural causes. The autopsy report ruled out bulimia and that was Michael's only alibi. I ask our visitors for their assistance solving this mystery, but only one has even replied and that poster had no facts at all.
I also put my own reconstruction out for comment and nobody has yet refuted any point on it. The injuries I mention and the abnormal blood tests are all from evidentiary medical records. The fight between Terri and Michael was conceded by both sides of the family and was known to friends, one of whom urged Terri to spend the night with her for safety sake. Terri might be alive and well today, had she accepted. (Btw, Michael lied about the fight to the police when they arrived. He told them that everything was untroubled and rosy between him and Terri.)
It's theory, no more, no less. I'll amend the thing if someone can show me better, and I'll scrap it if someone can disprove it. If you find any holes in it, fire away. But for the moment, it's the only theory out there that fits ALL the known medical facts. That's extremely difficult to do. In fact, nobody offers any other theory at all any more.
So, visitors, refute it if you can. Suggest something better if you can. Whatever did happen that night must color our view of everything else that occurred. If it turns out that Michael himself caused Terri's injuries, one cannot still sympathize with his efforts later to finish her off. After you know Michael injured her in the first place, you cannot go on believing his whopper that he's only killing Terri because she wants to die. Neither can one go on applauding "due process" when you realize it covering up a murder.
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