A Wealthy Man Is Accused of Killing His Wife While His Children Stand via Him — Is This Another 'Staircase'?

May 20 2022, Published 5:14 p.m. ET

Stop us if you've heard this one sooner than. A rich guy stumbles upon the bloody body of his spouse in the house they share. He attempts to restore her whilst their daughter frantically dials 911. Unfortunately, it is too late and the spouse dies. The husband is shocked whilst the circle of relatives tries to move on, however issues just do not sit down right with native regulation enforcement.

Soon the husband is accused of murdering his spouse, regardless that all right through the trial, their four children (two from the husband's previous marriage) remain dependable and supportive. This appears like one thing that may be ripped from the pages of The Staircase.

The accused murderer is Dr. Robert Neulander and his wife, Leslie Neulander, was once brutally murdered on September 17, 2012. Where is Robert Neulander now? A brand new Dateline particular has answers.

Where is Robert Neulander now?

Robert Neulander is sitting in Elmira Correctional Facility in New York State, serving a 20-year sentence for 2d-degree murder as well as tampering with physical evidence. He shall be eligible for parole in December 2038.

This is not the first time Neulander has been convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty years in jail. How did a distinguished doctor who was once liked in his group find himself in jail?

"I guess that can happen, even to a 61-year-old very healthy, athletic person," longtime buddy of the Neulanders, Mary Jumbelic, instructed CBS News. What happened precisely? On the morning of September 17, 2012, Neulander used to be out for a jog via an prosperous neighborhood outdoor of Syracuse, where he lived together with his wife Leslie.

When he were given house from his run, Neulander found Leslie unresponsive, on the floor of their bedroom bathroom. He screamed for his or her daughter Jenna, who called 911. When police arrived, they were below the affect the sufferer had fallen within the shower, however Leslie's frame was once of their bedroom.

A path of blood led from the bathroom, to the bedroom. Neulander's rationalization was once that he carried to the bed room with a purpose to administer CPR properly. During the 911 call, Jenna will also be heard screaming, "Dad put her down! Her neck might be broken!

The medical examiner determined that Neulander's story matched the pattern of blood found between the bathroom and bedroom, and ruled Leslie's death an accident. Combine that with Jenna's account of what happened, and authorities reluctantly agreed to go along with the medical examiner's decision. Still, something felt off for them.

Why would Robert Neulander murder his wife?

Neulander was a well-respected OB/GYN and both he and Leslie were very active in their community. No one had a bad thing to say about either of them. Their children also felt similarly, always making it very clear how much they loved their parents. Remember their good friend Mary Jumbelic? Well, for 11 years Mary was the chief medical examiner for Onondaga County until she retired in 2009. Three months after Leslie's death, friends began calling with concerns about what happened.

Mary was also privy to rumors about Neulander's financial troubles. Evidently, he was embroiled in a battle with his insurance company and was getting less work than usual. Mary thought it was prudent to at least look into what she heard, so she called her friend D.A. Bill Fitzpatrick, who also heard similar rumblings.

Mary was given access to Leslie's file, and what she saw shocked her. The injuries Leslie sustained were more consistent with "[c]ar injuries, falls from 20-story structures. Beatings," she said. This is not what would happen from a fall in the shower. Mary told her friend Bill that this was a homicide, not an accident.

Six months after her murder, police returned to the Neulander home to gather more evidence. It had since been sold but clearly bloodied items were left behind because authorities found blood on the headboard of their bed, as well as on the blinds that were behind the bed. During this time, Neulander retained a crackerjack defense attorney and even agreed to sit down with police for an interview, where he openly admitted to having marital problems.

After hearing Neulander's story again, Bill developed his own theory. He believed that Neulander murdered Leslie on the couple's bed, then dragged her body into the bathroom in order to stage the "fell within the bathe" scene. The trail of blood would look the same going to the bathroom, as it did coming from the bathroom (which is part of Neulander's story).

The only hiccup was when cops got to the Neulander house, they saw the sheets were in perfect condition. However, their housekeeper claimed the sheets on the bed were not the same sheets from the night before. After all this, the cause of death was changed to homicide, and two years after she died, Neulander was charged with her murder.

What was the verdict in Robert Neulander's trial?

The prosecution had a tough road ahead of them as there was no obvious motive and no murder weapon to be found. They chose to focus on all of the inconsistent blood-spatter patterns found in the bedroom. "The prosecution contends that the spatter was once basically one thing referred to as have an effect on spatter — created when Leslie used to be attacked in the bedroom," reported CBS News.

The defense suggested that the unusual blood spatter happened when Neulander removed his blood-soaked shirt after trying to resuscitate his wife. When Jenna testified, she said she was with her mother until 2 a.m., the morning of her death, and she remembered the sheets on the bed were the same sheets found later that morning after Leslie died.

The 911 call Jenna makes is crucial to the prosecution who claims that when Jenna says there is blood everywhere, she is looking at an empty room (the bedroom) that is covered in blood. Then as her father appears with her mother's body in hand (from the bathroom), Jenna suddenly screams, "Oh my god, oh my god, my mom! My mommy!"

Essentially they are suggesting that Jenna was in the bedroom at the time of the call, because she states she was on the house phone, and described the room as bloody, without mentioning her mother. She then suddenly starts screaming about her mom, as if that is the first time she is seeing her.

Jenna also testified that at some point she did see her father remove his bloody shirt and toss it to the side, but that shirt was never found. After three days the jury returned a guilty verdict. At his first sentencing, Neulander was given 20 years to life in prison, but that wouldn't be the end of it.

According to The New York Times, an alternate juror contacted Neulander's attorney the day of his verdict. Per the outlet, "That ended in the revelation that some of the jurors who had voted to convict him of murder had exchanged 7,000 text messages with family and friends right through the three-week trial." Because of this, Neulander used to be given a retrial.

Once once more he was found responsible and sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Dateline airs Fridays at 9:00 pm EST on NBC.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXSramam6Ses7p6wqikaKhfp7yjsdGtZKedpaGur7DEq2Snp6c%3D