Kristin Margrethe Rossum (born October 25, 1976)[1] is an American former toxicologist who was convicted of the murder of her husband Gregory T. de Villers,[2] who died from a lethal dose of fentanyl on November 6, 2000.
[6] In 1991, after her father accepted the position of President of Hampden–Sydney College, the family moved to Virginia and Kristin enrolled at the all-girls St. Catherine's School in Richmond.
After overcoming her addiction and beginning her relationship with Greg de Villers, Rossum enrolled at San Diego State University and graduated with honors in 1998.
[citation needed] In late 2000, de Villers had learned about both the affair and her resumption of her meth habit, threatening to expose both to the medical examiner if she did not quit her job.
Paramedics found him lying unresponsive on the couple's bed, which was sprinkled with red rose petals; he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
[10] Due to potential conflicts of interest, the San Diego medical examiner outsourced de Villers' autopsy to an outside lab in Los Angeles.
As the investigation continued, police learned about Rossum's relapse, and about a phone call she made to de Villers's employer telling them he would not be coming in to work the day of his murder.
[12] At trial, the prosecution contended that Rossum murdered her husband to keep him from telling her bosses about both her affair and her use of meth stolen from the drug lab.
Rossum's account of the day of death was that she went to work in the morning, then returned in the early afternoon to check on her husband and serve him a bowl of soup.
[18] Following his termination by the San Diego medical examiner's office, Robertson returned to his home in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, ostensibly to care for his ailing mother.
In September 2013, the San Diego Reader reported that, in 2006, prosecutors secretly filed a criminal complaint charging Robertson – who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator at Rossum's trial[19] – with one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.