Murder Probe Turns Inward

They met on an outing in Tijuana and soon were inseparable. Both were young, bright and devoted to careers in science, the children of successful and prominent fathers.

But within a few months of their marriage in June 1999, her use of crystal methamphetamine and her love affair with a co-worker was destroying their relationship, authorities say.

And now Kristin Rossum is accused of poisoning her husband with a powerful painkiller stolen from the county medical examiner--and of using her specialized knowledge as a toxicologist in that office to cover up the murder.

Rossum, 24, the daughter of two university professors, will be arraigned today in San Diego Superior Court on charges of killing Gregory DeVillers, 26, the son of a plastic surgeon and liposuction expert who jets between Thousand Oaks and Monaco.

Authorities allege that Rossum, who graduated summa cum laude with a degree in biochemistry from San Diego State, used her knowledge of drugs and chemistry to plan her husband’s death and an attempted cover-up by tricking him into taking drugs that would make it more difficult to detect the painkiller that killed him.

Rossum’s alleged lover--her former boss--is also a suspect in the case, although he has not been arrested, said San Diego Police Lt. Ray Sigwalt.

Rossum and Michael Robertson, 30, were fired from their jobs as toxicologists at the San Diego County medical examiner’s office soon after the murder investigation began in mid-November. Rossum was fired for stealing methamphetamines and Robertson was fired for knowing about the thefts but keeping silent, according to an affidavit that police filed in support of a request for a search warrant served on Rossum’s apartment.

Robertson, who headed the toxicology laboratory where Rossum was a junior toxicologist, immediately returned to his native Australia. Rossum worked as a chemist at a biotech firm after being fired from the medical examiner’s office.

Authorities say that Rossum killed her husband Nov. 6 after he threatened to tell officials at the medical examiner’s office that she was having an affair with her boss and stealing methamphetamines from the office to feed her growing habit.

DeVillers was found dead in their apartment at UC San Diego, where the couple lived though neither was enrolled. Rose petals were spread around their bed. The couple’s wedding picture was beneath his lifeless head.

On a table near the body was his wife’s journal, expressing her belief that she had “made a mistake” in marrying DeVillers. Also near the body was a crumpled love letter from Robertson to Rossum.

The letter may have been an attempt, authorities said, to give the appearance that DeVillers killed himself after learning that his wife was having an affair.

Although campus police initially suspected that DeVillers had committed suicide by taking an overdose of his wife’s anti-anxiety medicine, county medical examiner Dr. Brian Blackbourne opted to send toxicology tests to a laboratory in Los Angeles for review.

The work of pinpointing the cause of death was made more difficult because Rossum had authorized the removal of the major organs from DeVillers’ body for use in transplants.

The lab found that DeVillers had died of an overdose of fentanyl, a powerful but specialized painkiller sometimes prescribed for terminal cancer patients or heart-bypass patients who are suffering excruciating pain. A quantity of the drug was later found to be missing from the medical examiner’s storeroom.

Experts who examined the tests on DeVillers’ blood disagreed about whether the lethal amount of fentanyl was the result of an injection or a adhesive patch. Several such patches were missing from the medical examiner’s office.

Rossum was arrested Monday afternoon and taken in tears to Las Colinas Women’s Detention Facility. Prosecutors will ask the arraignment judge to hold Rossum without bail.

Rossum’s attorney, Michael Pancer, was notified Tuesday that the district attorney may add a special circumstance allegation to the murder charge, which could mean a request for the death penalty. Among such circumstances are murder by lying in wait or murder by torture.

Robertson initially denied having an affair with Rossum but later, when confronted with a letter he had written to a co-worker, admitted “his love for Rossum” and his pain at the thought she would be spending Thanksgiving with her husband instead of him, according to the search warrant affidavit.

Authorities have seized copies of computer messages between Rossum and DeVillers giving indications of marital strife.

DeVillers, a graduate of UC San Diego with a degree in biology, worked at a biotechnology firm in Sorrento Valley.

Co-workers have told investigators that he gave no signs of being upset or depressed in the days before his death.

One e-mail from Rossum to DeVillers read, “You’ve hurt me beyond repair.” The e-mail was sent in early October while Rossum and Robertson were attending a professional conference in Milwaukee.

Rossum has told police that she came home from work and found her husband in the bedroom, apparently asleep, recuperating from a bad cold. Only hours later did she discover he was dead, she told investigators.

Among other clues, the rose petals around the body made city police suspicious, once they entered the case at the behest of DeVillers’ father. Lt. Sigwalt noted that he had never seen a male suicide victim spread flower petals around before killing himself.

Sigwalt noted that Rossum told investigators her favorite movie is “American Beauty,” in which Kevin Spacey, playing a husband who is later shot to death, is depicted covered in rose petals.

Reached at his home in Monte Carlo, Dr. Yves DeVillers said the family rejected the explanation of suicide from the start.

“From the first minute we learned [of the death], we knew he didn’t take his own life,” he said. “A kid like that was not going to take his own life.”

He added, “He didn’t want to recognize his wife was a drug addict. He wanted to put her on the right track. He was blinded by his love for her.”

Rossum is the daughter of Ralph Rossum, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, director of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government on campus, and a former Department of Justice official in the Reagan administration. He is an expert on juvenile justice. Rossum’s mother, Constance, is an associate professor of marketing and management at Azusa Pacific University.

“We love and support our daughter,” the Rossum family said in a statement issued Tuesday. “We know she is innocent.”

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Times staff writers Margaret Talev and Tipton Blish contributed to this story.