Viewer discretion is advised. Some may find this content disturbing. This is a documentary I found interesting.<br /><br />Investigators suspect Eric Miller, a scientist at UNC's Lineberger Cancer Center, may have died in a rare case of arsenic poisoning.Arsenic used to be found in some pesticides and herbicides. It can still be found in rat poison.<br /><br />"In small amounts, you wouldn't know you were being poisoned, you're chronically ill," Stopford says. "Often you have symptoms of a cold, sneezing, swelling around your eyelids. It lingers on and on and on. You just don't get better."<br /><br />After a period of time, arsenic can destroy the body's vital organs and cause death.<br /><br />"As you get at higher and higher levels, it acts as a poison. It poisons all tissues in the body," he says.<br /><br />The Millers met in a biology class at Purdue University. Both were accepted into graduate programs at N.C. State University, relocated to the Triangle and married in 1993. Eric was a postdoctoral fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, while Ann worked at GlaxoSmithKline in Research Triangle Park.<br /><br />By 2000, the young couple owned their own home, had two cars and a boat, and had a baby girl. They even organized retreats for engaged couples at their church.<br /><br />However, their marital bliss might have been a mirage.<br /><br />In search warrants and affidavits, investigators said Kontz was having an affair with a co-worker, Derril H. Willard Jr., 37, who lived with his wife and daughter in North Raleigh. Investigators said the two had access to an arsenic compound in their laboratory.<br /><br />On Nov. 15, 2000, Eric Miller, Willard and two of Willard's co-workers went bowling at the AMF Pleasant Valley Lanes off Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh. Miller fell ill with flulike symptoms about an hour after drinking a beer that he complained was bitter; it had been bought and poured for him by Willard, investigators say.<br /><br />Miller ended up in the hospital that night and stayed for a week, investigators said. He was so weak after he was released from the hospital that he had to use a cane to walk, according to neighbors. Doctors failed to diagnose the poisoning and thought their patient was suffering from some mysterious virus.<br /><br />On Nov. 30, Eric Miller again became violently ill after eating a meal prepared by his wife. This time, doctors detected high levels of arsenic in his system.<br /><br />Miller, 30, died after suffering for 2 weeks with a mysterious illness that stumped doctors until arsenic was discovered in his system shortly before he died.<br /><br />4 years after her husband died, Ann Miller moved to Wilmington and married a Christian rock musician, Paul Martin Kontz.<br /><br />After nearly 5 years of denials, Ann Miller Kontz pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the poisoning death of her first husband, Eric Miller. She was sentenced to between 25 years and 31 1/2 years in prison -- the maximum allowed for a person with no prior convictions.
