February 14, 2025 • 28 mins
On the morning of November 29, 2011, 44-year-old Dr. Thomas Kolman didn’t make it to work at his regular time, so his wife, Linda, went looking for him. She eventually found him reclined in his car, unresponsive, in the parking lot of Planet Fitness in Ulster, New York. After Tom was pronounced dead, an investigation into his death began and detectives soon uncovered an illicit affair and received a toxicology report that hinted at foul play. And as the case continued to unfold, the shocking reality of what happened to Dr. Thomas Kolman began to emerge.
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Episode Transcript
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Join us as we uncover the secrets, the suspects, and the chilling details of a case that remains
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unsolved. Listen now to this suspicious death of Tom Coleman, and since it's still unsolved,
you can make up your own conclusion. What really happened to Tom Coleman? The truth may be darker
than you think. Join us as we dive into the chilling details of Tom's unsolved death.
Who was he, and why does his story still haunt us? Unravel the chilling mystery of Tom's suspicious
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death. What secrets lie hidden in this unsolved case? Share your theories in the comments below,
and let's uncover the truth together. Tom was born on March 22, 1967, to his parents Marie and
Thomas Sr. in Queens, New York. He had two brothers, Kenneth and Robert, and one sister
named Wendy, and that he was a massive fan of the New York Giants. Tom got married to his first wife,
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Michelle Weber, and from the very beginning, it was always clear that Tom loved his children,
that he was meant to be a father, and cared more about his children than anything else in the world.
As they grew up, he volunteered as a little league coach. He was involved in that. He tried to be as
involved as possible in his children's lives while also maintaining his career as a physical
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therapist in Socrates, New York. But sometimes life just does not go as planned, and that was
the case for Tom and Michelle. The two decided to end things, but eventually, Tom's children went
and lived with Michelle in Colorado, and he stayed in Socrates. Tom did try to keep as much
of a relationship with his kids as possible. He would talk to them daily, if not every week at
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least. As the years went on, Tom began dating again, and eventually, he met a woman named Linda,
who was also divorced and had a child from her first marriage. It did not take long for the two
of them to fall in love, and eventually, they decided to elope in Las Vegas. They had a small,
yet romantic ceremony, and Tom and Linda's parents were both invited. In addition to both bringing
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kids into this new family, they also had a child together of their own. Linda says that she knew
Tom would be happy no matter what, but when they had their son, Tom cried tears of happiness.
He was just overjoyed. Of course, he was going to be happy no matter what, but he was stoked to have
a son. By no means did he walk away from the family that he had already created. His daughter,
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Jillian, says that it really did feel like they were just one big family rather than blending two
different ones. Even though they were half siblings, it never really felt like they were
half family, and a lot of that was because of Tom. He wanted to make sure that everyone felt included
and special, and he was just so dedicated to his family. This left little time for him to have his
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own hobbies and friends. Sure, he had friends and acquaintances, of course, but he was never that
close to anyone outside of his family. That is, until he met the local dentist, Gilberto Nunez.
Gilberto, or Gil, was also living in Ulster County. He had a wife and a kindergarten-age son,
and he was first introduced to the Coleman family at kindergarten orientation.
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Both of their sons were the same age. They did karate together, and they really liked each other.
Obviously, it is pretty common for parents to become friends with the parents of kids that
their kids are friends with. Tom and Gil had a lot in common, and they ended up becoming good
friends. Eventually, Gil was as close to the Coleman family as he could be. Seriously,
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not only was he Tom's best friend, but he became Linda's boyfriend. Yes, you heard that right.
That was a pretty big jump forward. So let me back up a little bit and explain how that all
unfolded. Gil and Linda did not start dating right away. The three of them met in 2009,
but it was not until late 2010 that Gil and Linda became more than friends.
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It all started at their children's karate class. Linda would always take her son, Ryan,
and Gil would always take his son. During their practice, they would spend time together and chat.
Eventually, they started hugging goodbye. That hug turned into a kiss on the cheek goodbye,
and eventually it turned into a kiss on the lips and moved forward from there.
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One day, Gil called up Linda and told her that he was crazy about her. Eventually,
she found herself spending time together at his dental practice and forming a relationship.
Gil's dental practice was the most important thing in his life. If you ask anyone who worked
for him, they will say the same. People who were close to Gil would describe him as an incredibly
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kind and generous person, especially when it came to his work. He would often do free dental work
for women from shelters and drive elderly patients to and from their appointments.
He always went out of his way for people, and he was just a very likeable person. These positive
descriptions and positive things about him have made people extremely confused about what would
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later be said. But in 2010, early 2011, all anyone knew about Gil was that he was Tom's best friend,
a kind dentist, and a good father. Tom and Gil spent a lot of time together. They loved watching
the New York Giants, and they spent a lot of time having deep talks with each other. They were close.
Meanwhile, Tom and Linda had hit a rough point in their relationship right before she started
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having this affair with Gil. They were having financial issues, just hitting that slump in
marriage. You know, raising their child, things just were not the same as they used to be.
I'm not sure if some of that played into Linda forming this romantic relationship with Gil.
At the time, Gil was also in the process of separating from his wife. Tom was fully there
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for his friend during that entire period. Meanwhile, Gil was sleeping with his wife,
and for many months, it seemed like Gil was completely fine with what he was doing.
It did not seem like it was bothering him or causing him any regret. He did not feel like he
had to do anything about it, until one day he must have felt he did. In July of 2011,
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Gil purchased a burner phone with the intention of anonymously telling Tom what was up.
Later, he said that he did this because if he were in Tom's shoes, he would want to know the truth.
Now, why he did not just man up and tell him himself. He gets this burner phone and decides
to pose as a woman named Samantha, who has inside knowledge that Tom's wife was sleeping with a
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dentist. Even though he did not directly say his name in these messages, Tom obviously knew who it
was. This is when it gets even weirder because Gil did not stop there. He starts texting Linda,
and tries to convince her that Tom is having an affair as well. That part was not true,
so I don't know what Gil's intention or purpose was in doing that, but it did lead to Tom and
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Linda having a discussion about these messages they got and possible affairs happening.
As soon as they did, Linda just completely came clean to Tom, told him everything, and told him
how she had been sleeping with his best friend, Gil. I am sure you will not be surprised to hear
that Tom was deeply hurt by this. This was his best buddy sleeping with his wife, so he was hurt by
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both of them. He spent the first couple of days being angry at Gil and ignoring him completely,
but eventually you will be surprised to hear that he forgave Gil. And I do not mean just like
forgive and then, say peace out, let us never speak again. He fully forgave him. Gil begged
and pleaded for his forgiveness on his hands and knees, and Tom decided to forgive him.
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Not only did he forgive him, but this is when it gets very strange he decided to let him continue
sleeping with his wife. He gave his blessing to their affair. According to Linda, it seems like
Tom was okay with continuing this relationship because he wanted her to sort out her own feelings
and make her own decision. They are adults. They can do whatever they want with their relationship.
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This continued for a while, and Tom would text Gil and say things like,
your girlfriend is baking, and Gil would respond and say, I love her so much. Interesting. But at
the end of the day, he was not going to force her to stay with him. He wanted her to see both and
come to her own decision about who she wanted to be with. It did not take Linda long to come to
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that decision. In October of 2011, about three months after the affair was exposed, Tom and the
kids went away on vacation to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Linda says that it was on
this trip that she realized how selfish she had been and how the only person she wanted to spend
her life with was Tom. So now she had to break this news to Gil and end the relationship.
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But for one specific reason, her and Tom decided that they would wait to tell him
until after the holidays. The reason they decided to do this was because of Gil's mental health.
Let me explain. Going back to that burner phone where Gil pretended he was a woman named Samantha,
he did not want to admit that he was faking his identity to expose his own affair.
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He was embarrassed, so he lied about it for a few weeks. Eventually, Gil found out that Tom was
planning to hire someone to figure out who this mystery Samantha person was. Gil decided to pivot
to a new, even dumber plan. Rather than just admitting the truth to Tom and Linda, he decides
to tell them that he is in the CIA and that he has a contact in the agency who could help figure out
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who was sending those texts. I am sure most of you know that impersonating a federal agent is a
serious crime and surprise, he was not in the CIA. His genius plan was to pay someone he knew $500
to pretend they were in the CIA and convince Tom and Linda that it was someone else sending these
text messages from Samantha. Now, the details on this whole CIA thing vary a little bit from
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source to source. The important thing to know is that it never happened and that Gil ended up
deciding to tell them the truth eventually. But here is where his mental health comes into the
picture. During all of this, Gil calls Tom and leaves him a very cryptic voicemail and it sounded
as if he was considering taking his own life. Of course, Tom was worried. He called the police and
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asked them to go check on him. When they did, Gil brushed the whole thing off as a moment of weakness.
Because of all of this, Tom and Linda were concerned that Gil might take his own life
if she were to break up with him. So they decided she would maintain the relationship,
at least until after the holidays. That was the plan. And then the unthinkable happened.
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Thanksgiving of 2011 was like any other holiday for the Coleman's. They ate, drank, watched football.
Everything was the same as it always was. Gil was around. He was under the impression that Linda was
deciding on their relationship but says he didn't know what she had decided yet. Linda was keeping
up the relationship with Gil and things were also better for her and Tom now. Many people say that
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it was obvious from Linda's body language that she had already made her decision and that Gil may
have possibly caught on that she was going to break up with him, but there is nothing to confirm this.
We have no idea if he knew. And that all becomes important soon because on Monday, November 29th,
2011, Tom Coleman was found unresponsive inside his car. That morning, Linda woke up to an empty
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bed, as she did most mornings on weekdays because Tom would go to the gym before heading to work.
This day was no different. But what was different was that this day Tom had not sent Linda any text
messages. This is something that he would do every morning. While he was getting ready for work,
or while he was at the gym, he would send his wife a few texts. When he did not, she began to wonder.
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She got even more concerned when someone called from Tom's work and said that he did not show up
that day. It was very unlike Tom to just not show up for work. She got so worried that she got in her
car and started to retrace his steps. That is when she found Tom's car on the far side of the Planet
Fitness parking lot in Kingston. When she looked inside, he did not appear to be moving. At first,
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she felt a little bit relieved because it looked like he had just fallen asleep. His seat was tipped
back into a horizontal position and his pants were unbuttoned. She opens the door, thinking she is
going to wake him up, they are going to laugh about it, and then he did not wake up. She knew
something terrible had happened. Linda frantically called 911. And when EMS arrived, unfortunately,
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there was nothing they could do. Tom was already gone. Right off the bat, there was little concern
that Tom's death was anything other than natural causes. I mean, he is in his mid-40s, he was a
little bit overweight, so it seemed more likely than not that he had suffered a heart attack.
There was no physical sign of trauma, and the only so-called strange thing they noted was the
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fact that his car was at the back of the parking lot, which was a little weird. I mean, you would
expect someone going to the gym in the early morning to just park right up front. But again,
that was the only thing that stood out at first. At the scene itself, Linda appeared like any
grieving wife. She was extremely distraught, and there was zero indication that she knew anything
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about his death prior to arriving at the parking lot. However, there was one person who seemed a
little overdramatic when he showed up, and I am sure you can guess who that was. When Gill got
there, investigators said that he broke down on his knees and was hysterical that his best friend
was gone, which seems like an understandable reaction to me. However, I was not there,
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and investigators say that his demeanor was a bit performative. A few hours later, Linda goes to
the station to answer a few questions about Tom's health because at first, this was an open and
shut case. She shared with officers that Tom had sleep apnea and high blood pressure, and this alone
confirmed what they already believed. But because his death was what they called an unattended death,
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meaning no one was there to corroborate what happened, they decided to perform a standard
autopsy and toxicology. While they awaited those results, some very shocking information became
known. Remember earlier how I mentioned how investigators thought it was strange that Tom
was parked at the back of Planet Fitness? Well, when they looked at surveillance cameras from the
area to get a sense of what may have happened, they noticed a car that was not Tom's pulling
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into the back of the lot around 4.30 a.m. Not long after that, 10 or 15 minutes, Tom's car pulls right
next to the original car. Keep in mind, this is a big parking lot with plenty of open spaces.
The only reason Tom would have pulled next to this vehicle is if he knew who was in it and why they
were there. Just take a guess who investigators believed was driving that first car, none other
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than Gill. Even though the footage taken was extremely far away and very grainy, they believed
that the car was a white SUV. Who did they see driving a white SUV into the parking lot the
morning that Tom's body was found? Gill. Three days after Tom's passing, Gill was also brought
into the station for what investigators called an information gathering. When he was speaking with
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detectives, Gill just offered up all this information about the affair he was having with Linda. He told
them the truth that not only did Tom know about the affair, but he was okay with it and allowed
the two of them to continue to date after the fact. He says he told them all that because he knew they
were going to eventually figure it out and he did not want to seem like he was hiding anything.
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In this conversation, Gill also mentioned that he was aware that Tom had sleep apnea and that
becomes an important detail later on. Now, as you can imagine, investigators were having trouble
believing that this affair was so drama-free and that Tom was just cool with it. Obviously,
it is not very common for a husband to find out that his wife is having an affair with his best
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friend and just accept it and let it continue. And yes, that is actually what happened. But to
investigators, that seemed super suspicious. The white SUV being a possibility made them concerned,
so they wanted to see if the two of them were still together. They decided to take a closer look.
Gill said that he still loved Linda, but if they were acting all lovey-dovey and happy in the wake
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of this horrible event, it seemed possible to investigators that he had something to do with it.
But all this really turned up nothing. Linda said that she and Gill were having an affair when she
was confronted about it and from everything the two of them were telling them, it seemed as if Tom
really was fine with it. They searched their phone records. Gill's car was even tracked and nothing
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suggested that the two of them were still dating. The phone records also seemed to indicate that
there really were no problems between Tom and Gill. Up until the day Tom died, the two of them
were texting like they were best friends. There was no animosity, no jealousy, no anger, nothing.
But even with nothing solid to go off of, investigators kept looking deep because they
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could not shake the idea that they could be persons of interest. By this point, there was
not even a definitive cause or manner of death because the medical examiner said everything was
undetermined pending toxicology reports. The investigators just had to wait. Finally, after
two months, the results came in and they were shocking. The report showed that Tom had trace
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amounts of midazolam in his system. If you do not know, midazolam is a medication commonly used by
doctors and dentists to help a patient relax or go to sleep before a medical procedure.
So, of course, alarm bells were now going off for investigators because Gill is a dentist.
Since there were no signs of a heart attack or an aneurysm, his cause of death was labeled
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acute midazolam poisoning. But the traces of it were small. So how could it have killed him?
Well, it turns out that even in small doses, midazolam can kill someone if they suffer from
a condition such as sleep apnea. And we know that Linda and Tom both knew that he suffered
from this condition. Linda worked at a hospital, so investigators looked into the possibility that
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she was the one who had gotten the midazolam. However, she was quickly cleared of any involvement
when it became clear that no midazolam was missing from the hospital where she worked.
And they also could not find any evidence that she obtained it elsewhere. They gave up on Linda,
but they weren't ready to give up on Gill. In February of 2012, he was brought back in
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for questioning and for seven hours, he was battered about his involvement in Tom's death.
But at no point did he waver from what he had been saying all along. He didn't do it. He was
confronted with the fact that midazolam was found in Tom's system, and he denied knowing
anything about it. He even was confused about what this drug was in the first place. But then he
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quickly acted as if he didn't know what it was. He was also asked about his car and if he was
at Planet Fitness that morning, and again he denied it. Investigators got pretty in his face
about everything, but without solid proof, they really couldn't do much. They were just waiting
around for the evidence to find them. While this interview was taking place, two search warrants
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were executed at his home and his office. The hope was to find midazolam or anything connecting
Gill to Tom's death. Investigators did find it, but the thing is, both bottles were in an emergency
kit that was completely untouched inside his office. Based on the information, it sounds to
me like what detectives were finding in this search was also being relayed to the person
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interviewing Gill in real time. I say this because during the interview, the two bottles of midazolam
that were found in his office were brought up in conversation by the detective, and Gill kind of
waivers on whether he had it. But finally, he says that yes, he had this drug in his office.
He also explains that his fingerprints are going to be found on the kit and on those bottles,
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because he is the one who fills the emergency kit. Now here is what's interesting. By saying that his
fingerprints were going to be on the vials, he suggests that he knew they would find them there.
If he said they would not be there, and then they were found, that would make him look really bad,
obviously. But the opposite happened. There were no fingerprints found on the vials.
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Even if we consider the possibility that he wore gloves when handling the vials, it does not matter
because neither vial was used. Not only that, but everything else they tested came up empty.
They really had nothing against him. None of his DNA was found at the scene. The surveillance
footage was fuzzy, and they could not confirm it was his car. All they really had was a hunch
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that he was involved. They decided to turn to Linda in hopes that she could tell them more about Gill.
At first, Linda did not seem to think that Gill had anything to do with her husband's death.
But little by little, as time went on, she began to wonder, and she eventually concluded
that he was responsible. First, there were those strange text messages from Samantha,
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and it just didn't sit right with her or investigators that Gill was trying to secretly
break them up. Then they learned that these text messages were not his only attempt at trying to
end their marriage. It turns out Gill once sent Linda an email posing as his own mother,
trying to convince her to stay with her son. Then there is what investigators found on
Gill's computer during the search executed at his home. Gill's computer was seized,
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and on it, they found a fraudulent CIA ID card and report. Linda told investigators that she
knew about it, but believed it at the time. She explained that Gill told her that he was in the
CIA and that he had a friend in the agency who could figure out who was sending those texts from
Samantha and could also prove to her that Tom was having an affair as well. Looking back,
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Linda says that she feels extremely foolish for believing him, but we know that manipulative
people can be extremely convincing. The CIA stuff is a crime, and they do eventually go after him
for that, but they wanted to get him on charges of murder, and at this point, it was obvious that the
only way they could make this happen was by connecting Gill to the car seen on surveillance.
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In the time since investigators found the first set of surveillance footage with the white SUV,
they went out looking for more. Obviously, the car had to come from somewhere. They pulled footage
from stores all around the surrounding area until they could find a cleaner image. They did find
several tapes, including this mysterious white SUV. Unfortunately, they did not find anything
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with much better clarity. They did not see a license plate or any defining characteristics
that would make it easy to say that this was for sure Gill's car. Gill's car also had emergency
lights inside because he was a volunteer firefighter. They hoped they would be able to see that on
surveillance footage, but again, they didn't. They decided to bring in a forensic video analyst in
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hopes that he could make the connection. This analyst ended up determining that the vehicle
is a Nissan Pathfinder, the same car that Gill drives. What it ultimately boils down to is the
car's headlights. The analyst noticed how the light beams coming out of the car's headlights
cast a specific shadow downward. It was not the shadow that all Nissan Pathfinders would have.
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It almost looked as if the light was damaged in some way to make it look like that. Investigators
tracked down Gill's old Nissan, which he had sold a few weeks after Tom's death, and it turns out it
has the same type of shadow. They drove it down the same street at the same time of night to make
sure all the variables were the same, and the light pattern was a match, which gave investigators
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their only semi-solid evidence against Gill. As investigators were compiling their findings and
gathering everything, they needed to make an arrest. Everyone was starting to move on with
their lives. Gill met a woman on Match.com and got married. Linda began dealing with the pain of this
loss, and Tom's children moved forward as well. Tom's first wife, Michelle, if you remember,
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had moved to Colorado with the kids. She had to tell them what happened to their father,
and neither of them were the same since. Jillian had a tough time grasping that her father was
killed, and Brad had some very serious mental health issues after this. Sadly, he ended up
taking his own life at just 18 years old. Time was moving forward, but nobody had forgotten Tom,
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especially not the investigators. Finally, in October of 2015, Gill was arrested and
charged with second-degree murder and felony forgery related to the fake CIA ID card.
Haley spent one month in jail before posting his million-dollar bail. Then, in May of 2016,
his trial began. Investigators did not have much to link Gill to Tom's murder. The best piece of
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evidence they had was that the forensic video analyst said Gill's car was a match to the car
seen on surveillance, but this was circumstantial at best. They had no DNA, no incriminating texts,
they had nothing. All the prosecution really had to go on was the idea that Gill was an obsessive,
jealous man who wanted Linda all to himself. Emails between the two were read in court that
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detailed how much Gill loved Linda, emails that made him look aggressive. One of them read,
I'm not leaving you, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. The prosecution argued that Gill realized
Linda was not going to choose him after the holidays were over, and rather than accept defeat,
he took out his competition. Of course, they pointed to the fact that he had posed as a woman
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named Samantha and as his own mother in an attempt to break Tom and Linda up. They suggested that
because these efforts did not work, Gill resorted to murder. They said that he knew about Tom's
sleep apnea and that midazolam, even in a small dose, could be fatal for him. The forensic video
analyst testified, and the hope was that everything combined was enough to convince the jury.
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Of course, the defense had plenty of reasonable doubt on their side. They argued that anything
Gill had tried to break Tom and Linda up was all just a joke and that he never would have resorted
to murder. Plus, if Tom, his best friend, was totally fine with him dating his wife, why would
he need to kill him? One of the biggest arguments for the defense was that a lot of potential
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evidence was ignored. Remember how I explained that Tom was found lying down in his car with
his pants unbuttoned? Well, data from his phone showed that he had recently received an email from
the website Be Naughty. The defense argued that the police never considered the possibility that
he met up with someone from that website and died because of that interaction. They argued that they
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zeroed in on Gill from the beginning and actively ignored evidence that went against their theory.
Now, the prosecution would refute that and say you'd be crazy to believe that Tom was killed with
midazolam by someone who happened to drive the same car as Gill, happened to know that he had
sleep apnea, and who happened to work for this Be Naughty website. It was also brought up in the
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trial that investigators found text messages between Tom and Gill that were deleted from Tom's phone.
Of course, that sounds suspicious, but it turns out these text messages were about football.
It is unclear why they were deleted or who deleted them, but there weren't anything incriminating.
In the end, after three weeks of testimony, the jury came back after just a few hours with their
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verdict and Gilberto Nunez was found not guilty on the charge of second-degree murder. He was,
however, found guilty on the charge of felony forgery related to the fake CIA ID badge. Now,
Linda was visibly upset leaving the courtroom and to this day believes that Gill is responsible for
her husband's murder. Many people believe that he is and many people believe that he is not.
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When it comes to my opinion, like I said in the beginning, I just do not know. I do not think
there is enough evidence either way. Gill was also later convicted on charges of insurance fraud and
perjury for two unrelated cases and sentenced to two and a half to seven years in prison.
He was released from prison on all charges in September of 2018 and is on parole until
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October of this year. The decision that the jury made that day haunts Tom's family, friends,
and supporters. They believe that Gill got away with murder. His license to practice dentistry was
revoked, but they do not feel that's enough. All we know for sure is that Tom was a loving father,
a good neighbor, and a kind person who did not deserve what happened to him,
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but we may never know what happened. Of course, I want to hear from you. Let me know your thoughts
on this one, guys. Tell me if you think Gill was involved and why and tell me if you think he was
not involved and why. My thoughts go out to Tom's whole family and Linda. I cannot imagine how hard
this has all been on them, especially not having answers or justice. That is going to be it for me
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today. I will be back next week to discuss another case, but until then, stay safe out there.
Join us as we uncover the secrets, the suspects, and the chilling details of a case that remains
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unsolved. Listen now to this suspicious death of Tom Coleman, and since it's still unsolved,
you can make up your own conclusion. What really happened to Tom Coleman? The truth may be darker
than you think. Join us as we dive into the chilling details of Tom's unsolved death.
Who was he, and why does his story still haunt us? Unravel the chilling mystery of Tom's suspicious
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death. What secrets lie hidden in this unsolved case? Share your theories in the comments below,
and let's uncover the truth together. Tom was born on March 22, 1967, to his parents Marie and
Thomas Sr. in Queens, New York. He had two brothers, Kenneth and Robert, and one sister
named Wendy, and that he was a massive fan of the New York Giants. Tom got married to his first wife,
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Michelle Weber, and from the very beginning, it was always clear that Tom loved his children,
that he was meant to be a father, and cared more about his children than anything else in the world.
As they grew up, he volunteered as a little league coach. He was involved in that. He tried to be as
involved as possible in his children's lives while also maintaining his career as a physical
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therapist in Socrates, New York. But sometimes life just does not go as planned, and that was
the case for Tom and Michelle. The two decided to end things, but eventually, Tom's children went
and lived with Michelle in Colorado, and he stayed in Socrates. Tom did try to keep as much
of a relationship with his kids as possible. He would talk to them daily, if not every week at
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least. As the years went on, Tom began dating again, and eventually, he met a woman named Linda,
who was also divorced and had a child from her first marriage. It did not take long for the two
of them to fall in love, and eventually, they decided to elope in Las Vegas. They had a small,
yet romantic ceremony, and Tom and Linda's parents were both invited. In addition to both bringing
(01:59):
kids into this new family, they also had a child together of their own. Linda says that she knew
Tom would be happy no matter what, but when they had their son, Tom cried tears of happiness.
He was just overjoyed. Of course, he was going to be happy no matter what, but he was stoked to have
a son. By no means did he walk away from the family that he had already created. His daughter,
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Jillian, says that it really did feel like they were just one big family rather than blending two
different ones. Even though they were half siblings, it never really felt like they were
half family, and a lot of that was because of Tom. He wanted to make sure that everyone felt included
and special, and he was just so dedicated to his family. This left little time for him to have his
(02:43):
own hobbies and friends. Sure, he had friends and acquaintances, of course, but he was never that
close to anyone outside of his family. That is, until he met the local dentist, Gilberto Nunez.
Gilberto, or Gil, was also living in Ulster County. He had a wife and a kindergarten-age son,
and he was first introduced to the Coleman family at kindergarten orientation.
(03:06):
Both of their sons were the same age. They did karate together, and they really liked each other.
Obviously, it is pretty common for parents to become friends with the parents of kids that
their kids are friends with. Tom and Gil had a lot in common, and they ended up becoming good
friends. Eventually, Gil was as close to the Coleman family as he could be. Seriously,
(03:27):
not only was he Tom's best friend, but he became Linda's boyfriend. Yes, you heard that right.
That was a pretty big jump forward. So let me back up a little bit and explain how that all
unfolded. Gil and Linda did not start dating right away. The three of them met in 2009,
but it was not until late 2010 that Gil and Linda became more than friends.
(03:49):
It all started at their children's karate class. Linda would always take her son, Ryan,
and Gil would always take his son. During their practice, they would spend time together and chat.
Eventually, they started hugging goodbye. That hug turned into a kiss on the cheek goodbye,
and eventually it turned into a kiss on the lips and moved forward from there.
(04:10):
One day, Gil called up Linda and told her that he was crazy about her. Eventually,
she found herself spending time together at his dental practice and forming a relationship.
Gil's dental practice was the most important thing in his life. If you ask anyone who worked
for him, they will say the same. People who were close to Gil would describe him as an incredibly
(04:31):
kind and generous person, especially when it came to his work. He would often do free dental work
for women from shelters and drive elderly patients to and from their appointments.
He always went out of his way for people, and he was just a very likeable person. These positive
descriptions and positive things about him have made people extremely confused about what would
(04:52):
later be said. But in 2010, early 2011, all anyone knew about Gil was that he was Tom's best friend,
a kind dentist, and a good father. Tom and Gil spent a lot of time together. They loved watching
the New York Giants, and they spent a lot of time having deep talks with each other. They were close.
Meanwhile, Tom and Linda had hit a rough point in their relationship right before she started
(05:16):
having this affair with Gil. They were having financial issues, just hitting that slump in
marriage. You know, raising their child, things just were not the same as they used to be.
I'm not sure if some of that played into Linda forming this romantic relationship with Gil.
At the time, Gil was also in the process of separating from his wife. Tom was fully there
(05:36):
for his friend during that entire period. Meanwhile, Gil was sleeping with his wife,
and for many months, it seemed like Gil was completely fine with what he was doing.
It did not seem like it was bothering him or causing him any regret. He did not feel like he
had to do anything about it, until one day he must have felt he did. In July of 2011,
(05:57):
Gil purchased a burner phone with the intention of anonymously telling Tom what was up.
Later, he said that he did this because if he were in Tom's shoes, he would want to know the truth.
Now, why he did not just man up and tell him himself. He gets this burner phone and decides
to pose as a woman named Samantha, who has inside knowledge that Tom's wife was sleeping with a
(06:18):
dentist. Even though he did not directly say his name in these messages, Tom obviously knew who it
was. This is when it gets even weirder because Gil did not stop there. He starts texting Linda,
and tries to convince her that Tom is having an affair as well. That part was not true,
so I don't know what Gil's intention or purpose was in doing that, but it did lead to Tom and
(06:39):
Linda having a discussion about these messages they got and possible affairs happening.
As soon as they did, Linda just completely came clean to Tom, told him everything, and told him
how she had been sleeping with his best friend, Gil. I am sure you will not be surprised to hear
that Tom was deeply hurt by this. This was his best buddy sleeping with his wife, so he was hurt by
(07:02):
both of them. He spent the first couple of days being angry at Gil and ignoring him completely,
but eventually you will be surprised to hear that he forgave Gil. And I do not mean just like
forgive and then, say peace out, let us never speak again. He fully forgave him. Gil begged
and pleaded for his forgiveness on his hands and knees, and Tom decided to forgive him.
(07:24):
Not only did he forgive him, but this is when it gets very strange he decided to let him continue
sleeping with his wife. He gave his blessing to their affair. According to Linda, it seems like
Tom was okay with continuing this relationship because he wanted her to sort out her own feelings
and make her own decision. They are adults. They can do whatever they want with their relationship.
(07:46):
This continued for a while, and Tom would text Gil and say things like,
your girlfriend is baking, and Gil would respond and say, I love her so much. Interesting. But at
the end of the day, he was not going to force her to stay with him. He wanted her to see both and
come to her own decision about who she wanted to be with. It did not take Linda long to come to
(08:06):
that decision. In October of 2011, about three months after the affair was exposed, Tom and the
kids went away on vacation to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Linda says that it was on
this trip that she realized how selfish she had been and how the only person she wanted to spend
her life with was Tom. So now she had to break this news to Gil and end the relationship.
(08:28):
But for one specific reason, her and Tom decided that they would wait to tell him
until after the holidays. The reason they decided to do this was because of Gil's mental health.
Let me explain. Going back to that burner phone where Gil pretended he was a woman named Samantha,
he did not want to admit that he was faking his identity to expose his own affair.
(08:48):
He was embarrassed, so he lied about it for a few weeks. Eventually, Gil found out that Tom was
planning to hire someone to figure out who this mystery Samantha person was. Gil decided to pivot
to a new, even dumber plan. Rather than just admitting the truth to Tom and Linda, he decides
to tell them that he is in the CIA and that he has a contact in the agency who could help figure out
(09:11):
who was sending those texts. I am sure most of you know that impersonating a federal agent is a
serious crime and surprise, he was not in the CIA. His genius plan was to pay someone he knew $500
to pretend they were in the CIA and convince Tom and Linda that it was someone else sending these
text messages from Samantha. Now, the details on this whole CIA thing vary a little bit from
(09:34):
source to source. The important thing to know is that it never happened and that Gil ended up
deciding to tell them the truth eventually. But here is where his mental health comes into the
picture. During all of this, Gil calls Tom and leaves him a very cryptic voicemail and it sounded
as if he was considering taking his own life. Of course, Tom was worried. He called the police and
(09:56):
asked them to go check on him. When they did, Gil brushed the whole thing off as a moment of weakness.
Because of all of this, Tom and Linda were concerned that Gil might take his own life
if she were to break up with him. So they decided she would maintain the relationship,
at least until after the holidays. That was the plan. And then the unthinkable happened.
(10:16):
Thanksgiving of 2011 was like any other holiday for the Coleman's. They ate, drank, watched football.
Everything was the same as it always was. Gil was around. He was under the impression that Linda was
deciding on their relationship but says he didn't know what she had decided yet. Linda was keeping
up the relationship with Gil and things were also better for her and Tom now. Many people say that
(10:41):
it was obvious from Linda's body language that she had already made her decision and that Gil may
have possibly caught on that she was going to break up with him, but there is nothing to confirm this.
We have no idea if he knew. And that all becomes important soon because on Monday, November 29th,
2011, Tom Coleman was found unresponsive inside his car. That morning, Linda woke up to an empty
(11:03):
bed, as she did most mornings on weekdays because Tom would go to the gym before heading to work.
This day was no different. But what was different was that this day Tom had not sent Linda any text
messages. This is something that he would do every morning. While he was getting ready for work,
or while he was at the gym, he would send his wife a few texts. When he did not, she began to wonder.
(11:26):
She got even more concerned when someone called from Tom's work and said that he did not show up
that day. It was very unlike Tom to just not show up for work. She got so worried that she got in her
car and started to retrace his steps. That is when she found Tom's car on the far side of the Planet
Fitness parking lot in Kingston. When she looked inside, he did not appear to be moving. At first,
(11:49):
she felt a little bit relieved because it looked like he had just fallen asleep. His seat was tipped
back into a horizontal position and his pants were unbuttoned. She opens the door, thinking she is
going to wake him up, they are going to laugh about it, and then he did not wake up. She knew
something terrible had happened. Linda frantically called 911. And when EMS arrived, unfortunately,
(12:12):
there was nothing they could do. Tom was already gone. Right off the bat, there was little concern
that Tom's death was anything other than natural causes. I mean, he is in his mid-40s, he was a
little bit overweight, so it seemed more likely than not that he had suffered a heart attack.
There was no physical sign of trauma, and the only so-called strange thing they noted was the
(12:33):
fact that his car was at the back of the parking lot, which was a little weird. I mean, you would
expect someone going to the gym in the early morning to just park right up front. But again,
that was the only thing that stood out at first. At the scene itself, Linda appeared like any
grieving wife. She was extremely distraught, and there was zero indication that she knew anything
(12:54):
about his death prior to arriving at the parking lot. However, there was one person who seemed a
little overdramatic when he showed up, and I am sure you can guess who that was. When Gill got
there, investigators said that he broke down on his knees and was hysterical that his best friend
was gone, which seems like an understandable reaction to me. However, I was not there,
(13:14):
and investigators say that his demeanor was a bit performative. A few hours later, Linda goes to
the station to answer a few questions about Tom's health because at first, this was an open and
shut case. She shared with officers that Tom had sleep apnea and high blood pressure, and this alone
confirmed what they already believed. But because his death was what they called an unattended death,
(13:36):
meaning no one was there to corroborate what happened, they decided to perform a standard
autopsy and toxicology. While they awaited those results, some very shocking information became
known. Remember earlier how I mentioned how investigators thought it was strange that Tom
was parked at the back of Planet Fitness? Well, when they looked at surveillance cameras from the
area to get a sense of what may have happened, they noticed a car that was not Tom's pulling
(14:01):
into the back of the lot around 4.30 a.m. Not long after that, 10 or 15 minutes, Tom's car pulls right
next to the original car. Keep in mind, this is a big parking lot with plenty of open spaces.
The only reason Tom would have pulled next to this vehicle is if he knew who was in it and why they
were there. Just take a guess who investigators believed was driving that first car, none other
(14:24):
than Gill. Even though the footage taken was extremely far away and very grainy, they believed
that the car was a white SUV. Who did they see driving a white SUV into the parking lot the
morning that Tom's body was found? Gill. Three days after Tom's passing, Gill was also brought
into the station for what investigators called an information gathering. When he was speaking with
(14:46):
detectives, Gill just offered up all this information about the affair he was having with Linda. He told
them the truth that not only did Tom know about the affair, but he was okay with it and allowed
the two of them to continue to date after the fact. He says he told them all that because he knew they
were going to eventually figure it out and he did not want to seem like he was hiding anything.
(15:08):
In this conversation, Gill also mentioned that he was aware that Tom had sleep apnea and that
becomes an important detail later on. Now, as you can imagine, investigators were having trouble
believing that this affair was so drama-free and that Tom was just cool with it. Obviously,
it is not very common for a husband to find out that his wife is having an affair with his best
(15:29):
friend and just accept it and let it continue. And yes, that is actually what happened. But to
investigators, that seemed super suspicious. The white SUV being a possibility made them concerned,
so they wanted to see if the two of them were still together. They decided to take a closer look.
Gill said that he still loved Linda, but if they were acting all lovey-dovey and happy in the wake
(15:51):
of this horrible event, it seemed possible to investigators that he had something to do with it.
But all this really turned up nothing. Linda said that she and Gill were having an affair when she
was confronted about it and from everything the two of them were telling them, it seemed as if Tom
really was fine with it. They searched their phone records. Gill's car was even tracked and nothing
(16:12):
suggested that the two of them were still dating. The phone records also seemed to indicate that
there really were no problems between Tom and Gill. Up until the day Tom died, the two of them
were texting like they were best friends. There was no animosity, no jealousy, no anger, nothing.
But even with nothing solid to go off of, investigators kept looking deep because they
(16:35):
could not shake the idea that they could be persons of interest. By this point, there was
not even a definitive cause or manner of death because the medical examiner said everything was
undetermined pending toxicology reports. The investigators just had to wait. Finally, after
two months, the results came in and they were shocking. The report showed that Tom had trace
(16:57):
amounts of midazolam in his system. If you do not know, midazolam is a medication commonly used by
doctors and dentists to help a patient relax or go to sleep before a medical procedure.
So, of course, alarm bells were now going off for investigators because Gill is a dentist.
Since there were no signs of a heart attack or an aneurysm, his cause of death was labeled
(17:19):
acute midazolam poisoning. But the traces of it were small. So how could it have killed him?
Well, it turns out that even in small doses, midazolam can kill someone if they suffer from
a condition such as sleep apnea. And we know that Linda and Tom both knew that he suffered
from this condition. Linda worked at a hospital, so investigators looked into the possibility that
(17:40):
she was the one who had gotten the midazolam. However, she was quickly cleared of any involvement
when it became clear that no midazolam was missing from the hospital where she worked.
And they also could not find any evidence that she obtained it elsewhere. They gave up on Linda,
but they weren't ready to give up on Gill. In February of 2012, he was brought back in
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for questioning and for seven hours, he was battered about his involvement in Tom's death.
But at no point did he waver from what he had been saying all along. He didn't do it. He was
confronted with the fact that midazolam was found in Tom's system, and he denied knowing
anything about it. He even was confused about what this drug was in the first place. But then he
(18:22):
quickly acted as if he didn't know what it was. He was also asked about his car and if he was
at Planet Fitness that morning, and again he denied it. Investigators got pretty in his face
about everything, but without solid proof, they really couldn't do much. They were just waiting
around for the evidence to find them. While this interview was taking place, two search warrants
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were executed at his home and his office. The hope was to find midazolam or anything connecting
Gill to Tom's death. Investigators did find it, but the thing is, both bottles were in an emergency
kit that was completely untouched inside his office. Based on the information, it sounds to
me like what detectives were finding in this search was also being relayed to the person
(19:05):
interviewing Gill in real time. I say this because during the interview, the two bottles of midazolam
that were found in his office were brought up in conversation by the detective, and Gill kind of
waivers on whether he had it. But finally, he says that yes, he had this drug in his office.
He also explains that his fingerprints are going to be found on the kit and on those bottles,
(19:25):
because he is the one who fills the emergency kit. Now here is what's interesting. By saying that his
fingerprints were going to be on the vials, he suggests that he knew they would find them there.
If he said they would not be there, and then they were found, that would make him look really bad,
obviously. But the opposite happened. There were no fingerprints found on the vials.
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Even if we consider the possibility that he wore gloves when handling the vials, it does not matter
because neither vial was used. Not only that, but everything else they tested came up empty.
They really had nothing against him. None of his DNA was found at the scene. The surveillance
footage was fuzzy, and they could not confirm it was his car. All they really had was a hunch
(20:07):
that he was involved. They decided to turn to Linda in hopes that she could tell them more about Gill.
At first, Linda did not seem to think that Gill had anything to do with her husband's death.
But little by little, as time went on, she began to wonder, and she eventually concluded
that he was responsible. First, there were those strange text messages from Samantha,
(20:29):
and it just didn't sit right with her or investigators that Gill was trying to secretly
break them up. Then they learned that these text messages were not his only attempt at trying to
end their marriage. It turns out Gill once sent Linda an email posing as his own mother,
trying to convince her to stay with her son. Then there is what investigators found on
Gill's computer during the search executed at his home. Gill's computer was seized,
(20:53):
and on it, they found a fraudulent CIA ID card and report. Linda told investigators that she
knew about it, but believed it at the time. She explained that Gill told her that he was in the
CIA and that he had a friend in the agency who could figure out who was sending those texts from
Samantha and could also prove to her that Tom was having an affair as well. Looking back,
(21:14):
Linda says that she feels extremely foolish for believing him, but we know that manipulative
people can be extremely convincing. The CIA stuff is a crime, and they do eventually go after him
for that, but they wanted to get him on charges of murder, and at this point, it was obvious that the
only way they could make this happen was by connecting Gill to the car seen on surveillance.
(21:35):
In the time since investigators found the first set of surveillance footage with the white SUV,
they went out looking for more. Obviously, the car had to come from somewhere. They pulled footage
from stores all around the surrounding area until they could find a cleaner image. They did find
several tapes, including this mysterious white SUV. Unfortunately, they did not find anything
(21:58):
with much better clarity. They did not see a license plate or any defining characteristics
that would make it easy to say that this was for sure Gill's car. Gill's car also had emergency
lights inside because he was a volunteer firefighter. They hoped they would be able to see that on
surveillance footage, but again, they didn't. They decided to bring in a forensic video analyst in
(22:19):
hopes that he could make the connection. This analyst ended up determining that the vehicle
is a Nissan Pathfinder, the same car that Gill drives. What it ultimately boils down to is the
car's headlights. The analyst noticed how the light beams coming out of the car's headlights
cast a specific shadow downward. It was not the shadow that all Nissan Pathfinders would have.
(22:40):
It almost looked as if the light was damaged in some way to make it look like that. Investigators
tracked down Gill's old Nissan, which he had sold a few weeks after Tom's death, and it turns out it
has the same type of shadow. They drove it down the same street at the same time of night to make
sure all the variables were the same, and the light pattern was a match, which gave investigators
(23:01):
their only semi-solid evidence against Gill. As investigators were compiling their findings and
gathering everything, they needed to make an arrest. Everyone was starting to move on with
their lives. Gill met a woman on Match.com and got married. Linda began dealing with the pain of this
loss, and Tom's children moved forward as well. Tom's first wife, Michelle, if you remember,
(23:23):
had moved to Colorado with the kids. She had to tell them what happened to their father,
and neither of them were the same since. Jillian had a tough time grasping that her father was
killed, and Brad had some very serious mental health issues after this. Sadly, he ended up
taking his own life at just 18 years old. Time was moving forward, but nobody had forgotten Tom,
(23:46):
especially not the investigators. Finally, in October of 2015, Gill was arrested and
charged with second-degree murder and felony forgery related to the fake CIA ID card.
Haley spent one month in jail before posting his million-dollar bail. Then, in May of 2016,
his trial began. Investigators did not have much to link Gill to Tom's murder. The best piece of
(24:11):
evidence they had was that the forensic video analyst said Gill's car was a match to the car
seen on surveillance, but this was circumstantial at best. They had no DNA, no incriminating texts,
they had nothing. All the prosecution really had to go on was the idea that Gill was an obsessive,
jealous man who wanted Linda all to himself. Emails between the two were read in court that
(24:33):
detailed how much Gill loved Linda, emails that made him look aggressive. One of them read,
I'm not leaving you, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. The prosecution argued that Gill realized
Linda was not going to choose him after the holidays were over, and rather than accept defeat,
he took out his competition. Of course, they pointed to the fact that he had posed as a woman
(24:56):
named Samantha and as his own mother in an attempt to break Tom and Linda up. They suggested that
because these efforts did not work, Gill resorted to murder. They said that he knew about Tom's
sleep apnea and that midazolam, even in a small dose, could be fatal for him. The forensic video
analyst testified, and the hope was that everything combined was enough to convince the jury.
(25:18):
Of course, the defense had plenty of reasonable doubt on their side. They argued that anything
Gill had tried to break Tom and Linda up was all just a joke and that he never would have resorted
to murder. Plus, if Tom, his best friend, was totally fine with him dating his wife, why would
he need to kill him? One of the biggest arguments for the defense was that a lot of potential
(25:41):
evidence was ignored. Remember how I explained that Tom was found lying down in his car with
his pants unbuttoned? Well, data from his phone showed that he had recently received an email from
the website Be Naughty. The defense argued that the police never considered the possibility that
he met up with someone from that website and died because of that interaction. They argued that they
(26:02):
zeroed in on Gill from the beginning and actively ignored evidence that went against their theory.
Now, the prosecution would refute that and say you'd be crazy to believe that Tom was killed with
midazolam by someone who happened to drive the same car as Gill, happened to know that he had
sleep apnea, and who happened to work for this Be Naughty website. It was also brought up in the
(26:22):
trial that investigators found text messages between Tom and Gill that were deleted from Tom's phone.
Of course, that sounds suspicious, but it turns out these text messages were about football.
It is unclear why they were deleted or who deleted them, but there weren't anything incriminating.
In the end, after three weeks of testimony, the jury came back after just a few hours with their
(26:45):
verdict and Gilberto Nunez was found not guilty on the charge of second-degree murder. He was,
however, found guilty on the charge of felony forgery related to the fake CIA ID badge. Now,
Linda was visibly upset leaving the courtroom and to this day believes that Gill is responsible for
her husband's murder. Many people believe that he is and many people believe that he is not.
(27:08):
When it comes to my opinion, like I said in the beginning, I just do not know. I do not think
there is enough evidence either way. Gill was also later convicted on charges of insurance fraud and
perjury for two unrelated cases and sentenced to two and a half to seven years in prison.
He was released from prison on all charges in September of 2018 and is on parole until
(27:29):
October of this year. The decision that the jury made that day haunts Tom's family, friends,
and supporters. They believe that Gill got away with murder. His license to practice dentistry was
revoked, but they do not feel that's enough. All we know for sure is that Tom was a loving father,
a good neighbor, and a kind person who did not deserve what happened to him,
(27:50):
but we may never know what happened. Of course, I want to hear from you. Let me know your thoughts
on this one, guys. Tell me if you think Gill was involved and why and tell me if you think he was
not involved and why. My thoughts go out to Tom's whole family and Linda. I cannot imagine how hard
this has all been on them, especially not having answers or justice. That is going to be it for me
(28:12):
today. I will be back next week to discuss another case, but until then, stay safe out there.
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