Question

Case History:

On Monday, February 26, 2001, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lost Hills Station responded to a 911 emergency call at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Valentini near the end of Wagon Road in Agoura Hills at 23:15. When police arrived on scene they found Mrs. Christine Valentini face down in the backyard swimming pool of the Valentini’s home. First responders noted that a few bubbles were coming from Mrs. Valentini’s mouth. CPR was performed and Mrs. Valentini was transported to Los Robles and Medical Center located in Thousand Oaks Hospital.

Christine Valentini was pronounced DOA at 01:32 on February 27, 2001. The police initially treated this as an accidental death pending autopsy report.

Upon further investigation, the police learned that the victim had four life insurance policies, two of which previously named Patrick Valentini as the beneficiary. The policies totaled $1 million dollars. The other two policies previously named Joshua Rojas as the beneficiary which totaled $1.5 million. On February 26, 2001 at 21:00 the beneficiaries of all the policies had been changed Mrs. Grace Stevenson. All of the policies had a suicide clause and paid no money in the event of a suicide.

Interview with Patrick Valentini, male, 32 years old:

Mr. Valentini reported returning home from work at 21:45. He stated that he had talked to his wife about the Koi fish in the pond that the family had built in the backyard. He then fed the cat and went upstairs to take a shower. Mr. Valentini stated that their marriage of two years was extremely stable, and that his wife enjoyed her job as a personal nutritionist and fitness expert. He stated that his wife had been injured at work several weeks ago. He also noted she had several well-known celebrity clients and was an avid world traveler.

Mr. Valeniti admitted that his wife had been in an abusive relationship a few years prior to their marriage. He also shared that he was suspicious that his wife had started seeing her ex-boyfriend again. He stated that her behavior and mental health seemed to decline in the weeks prior to her death. Mr. Valentini disclosed that he did have two life insurance policies on his wife that totaled $200,000 in the event of her death. Mr. Valentini was adamant that his wife had been alive when he returned home from work and that their relationship was secure.

Interview with Consuela Suarez, female, 56 years old:

Ms. Suarez is the Valentini’s housekeeper. She had just returned to the Valentini home the day before, and therefore was in Mexico when Mrs. Valentini died.

She is very nervous talking to the police. She finally states that Mr. Valentini often had women over to the house when Mrs. Valentini was out. When asked if she had ever seen Mr. Valentini act in a violent way, she states Mr. Valentini once hit Mrs. Valentini and sometimes kicked the family’s black cat, Sooty. She states Mr. Valentini was a good boss though and gave her the time off to go visit her family in Mexico.

Interview with Grace Stevenson, female, 57 years old:

Mrs. Grace Stevenson, victim’s mother, reported that her daughter was attempting to leave her husband, Patrick Valentini. Mrs. Stevenson phoned the victim’s home at 22:04 and hung up when the answering machine picked up the call. Mrs. Stevenson indicated that her daughter had left twice due to the physical abuse she was sustaining at the hands of Mr. Valentini. However, the victim was determined to make her marriage work because she was in love with her husband and returned home both times at the encouragement of her brother-in-law Peter Valentini. Mrs. Stevenson revealed that her daughter was officially leaving her husband and had planned on returning to her parent’s home on February 27, 2001. Mrs. Stevenson stated that Mr. Valentini was fully aware of his wife’s plan to divorce him. Mrs. Stevenson also stated that her daughter was independently wealthy and had a net worth of $2.5 million. She informed police that her daughter’s husband struggled with money and had lost his family business. Due to strains in the marriage Christine Valentini did not share any of her income with her husband and put it into a separate account to which only Christine and her parents had access.

Interview with Rose Stevenson, female, 24 years old:

Miss Rose Stevenson, victim’s younger sister, revealed that she and her sister were extremely close. Rose divulged that her sister had recently been in contact with her ex-boyfriend and was planning on getting back together with him once she divorced her husband. Rose also stated that Christine had discovered that Patrick had been cheating on her with various women, one of which was stalking Christine and had threatened to kill her. The last time she had lunch with Christine, she said she seemed paranoid and kept looking around. Unfortunately, Christine never told Rose the woman’s name - only that she was a dog walker.    

Interview with Joshua Rojas, male, 29 years old:

Mr. Joshua Rojas, victim’s ex-boyfriend, indicated that he had last talked to the victim at 20:02 on February 26, 2001. He indicated that he and the victim were in the process of reconciling their relationship. He indicated that Christine was terribly regretful for marrying Patrick. He stated that Christine had told him of how Patrick had physically abused her while trying to get money out of her. He also indicated that Christine ’s mental state was perfectly normal in the weeks prior to her death, however she was seeing a psychologist to help deal with the stress of her failing marriage.

Interview with Sam Kang, male, 42 years old:

Mr. Kang was the Valentini’s closest neighbor. On the night of her death, he reports that he let his dog out and it began barking along the Valentini’s fence insistently at about 2200. He had hard time getting the dog back in and heard loud music coming from the Valentini’s. He stated this was not normal and he was about to call the Valentini’s to complain when the ambulance arrived. He also complained that a lot of cars seemed to come and go from the Valentini’s home, sometimes at speed and it was dangerous for pedestrians. He also reported that he had seen Mrs. Valentini in a verbal altercation with another woman in a white BMW near the end the Valentini’s driveway about two weeks prior to her death. He was unable to remember what the woman looked like, only that she wore sunglasses and had a large dog in her backseat.

Interview with Sandra Amaya, female, 31 years old:

Ms. Amaya is an avid triathlete and the sole owner and employee of a pet sitting and dog walking service. She has several clients in the neighborhood of the Valentini’s and in August of 2000 had pet sit for the Valentini’s while they vacationed in Aruba. She denied having an affair or relationship at all with Patrick Valentini. She stated that she had offered to walk the Valentini’s dog for free while Mrs. Valentini was recovering from her foot injury, but Mrs. Valentini declined her offer. Several neighbors mentioned that they often saw Ms. Amaya walking dogs in the neighborhood.

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Autopsy Report - Christina Valentini

Report of Investigation by County Medical Examiner

Decedent: Christine Valentini

Date of Birth: January 11, 1973

Height: 5'11

Weight: 125 lbs

Pronounced Dead at: 01:32, 2/27/2001

External Examination

The victim appeared to be dressed for bed. The clothing included a bathrobe, a night shirt and matching pants, underwear, and a single slipper. The victim was reportedly in a work accident three weeks prior to her death in which her right foot had been broken. There were elevated levels of amylase in the saliva.

The body appeared to have multiple contusions on the torso in various stages of healing. The victim's body showed slight signs of rigor mortis in the fingers and jaw. Liver mortis was present at the time of autopsy examination, however there was evidence of blanching. The x-rays of the victim's right foot showed healing consistent with an injury that occurred two weeks prior to death.

Internal Examination

The victim's body showed multiple rib fractures in various stages of healing. The victim's body showed recent signs of consensual sexual activity. The victim's hyoid bone was fractured and trauma to the throat indicated recent trauma. Fluids were found in the victim's lungs. Samples of the victim's lung contents were collected.

Questions

For this assignment, you will need to refer back to the case file and to the autopsy report above.

1. Draw a character web showing how the victim is related to the individuals interviewed in the case file.
2. Create a timeline of the important events leading up to the victim’s death.
3. Based on the autopsy (you may wish to go back to the Softchalk and/or do some Googling):
   • Were any abnormalities noted in the autopsy? If so, describe them and research what may have caused them.
   • What was the cause of death? What evidence supports this conclusion?
4. Who is your prime suspect at this point? What was his/her motive?

Answer 1

First of all thank you for this question. It has been a pleasure solving this one.
second, here is a character web below connecting people involved with Mrs. Valentini.

the time line of important events on 26th February is given below.

The things that felt abnormal in the autopsy report were-

-the victim had only one slipper which means that there was some rush or something sudden happened.
- elevated levels of saliva indicated that the victim had pancreatic problems

- contusions on torso, multiples broken ribs and trauma to the throat indicates violence .

The cause of death was drowning in the pool. As there were fluids in the lungs of the victim.

The prime suspect is Mr.Valentini. This is more of a spur of the moment rage then pre mediated murder. Mr. Valentini came home at 21:45 and Mrs. Valentini must have told her about the change of name in her policy and about her leaving him for her ex boyfriend. Mr. Valentini has hit his wife in the past as multiple rib fracture and contusions indicate that. H