Post Mortem | Beverly Hills 911

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1:35Welcome to Postmortem. I'm CBS News correspondent Tracy Smith filling in as host. And today we're discussing the death of 67-year-old Violet Yacobi. On October 10, 2017, Violet was found dead in her Beverly Hills home and responding officers initially suspected it might be a suicide. But when the autopsy report determined she died from asphyxia due to neck compression or strangulation, her case turned into a homicide investigation. Joining me today is 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty, who reported on this case. It's always great to talk with you, Erin, and I'm excited to get your take on this.

2:12Well, this is actually a case from your part of the country. And as you know well, there aren't a lot of murders in Beverly Hills. The investigators assigned to this case actually had more experience investigating robberies and home invasions than homicides. But as it turned out, that experience gave them the skills they needed to crack this case. So it's a very interesting one. I definitely want to dig into it. But first, a reminder to everyone, if you haven't watched or listened to this episode, Beverly Hills 911, go check it out now and then come back for our conversation. All right, let's get into it.

2:49On the evening of October 10th, 2017, Violet's son Daniel and daughter Dina arrived at their mother's home in Beverly Hills, California. They discovered Violet on the floor of her entryway beneath a large curving staircase, and Daniel called 911. Let's take a listen to some portions of that 911 call. Yeah, we're doing CPR. You're doing CPR right now? Yeah. Do you need me to walk you through it or does somebody know it? No, we're both doctors. You're both doctors? Okay. We have... Never mind. Okay, but you know CPR? Yes. Okay. How long ago did you last see her? Like how long has she been like that?

3:30Do you know? No, I have no... Okay, you're saying she's cold when you touch her? Yes. Okay. Our units are going there as fast as they can. Okay, hold on one second. Let me just get the paramedics going. Okay, thank you. Who's doing CPR? My sister. Your sister's doing CPR? Okay. That was so good to start with that because this is really important. Because as you can hear, Daniel tells the operator that his sister was performing CPR. But then later that day, it's odd. He told detectives that he did CPR, too. He said he did the compressions. Then when detectives talked to Dina, his sister, she said, no, she was the one who did CPR.

4:19And why does that matter? Because to investigators, why from the very beginning is he changing his story? And they wondered if Daniel wanted to provide an explanation if, in fact, his DNA was found on his mother. On the other hand, Daniel was very willing to talk to detectives on the very day that they found Violet dead. And he told them why he and his sister had gone over. According to Daniel, his uncle had called him that day asking if he had heard from his mother. His uncle said he hadn't heard from her all day, which Daniel and just about everybody else said was unusual. Daniel said then he called his sister Dina.

4:59And here's an important issue. He says they arrived at their mother's house at the very same time. He said finding their mother was like a blur, which makes sense. But he says he remembered doing CPR right away and then his sister doing CPR. What was interesting is although first responders wondered if it was a suicide, Daniel actually told investigators that he saw bruising and maybe Violet had been strangled. Wow. But initially, investigators believed Violet's death might have been a suicide. Why is that? Well, Tracy, this is what is called an unattended death, that this widow is found alone on the floor of her home.

5:45When Beverly Hills Police Detective Mark Schwartz first got any information, he said he was told that Violet was depressed and maybe fell over the railing of the staircase. It was true that she had just marked the one-year anniversary of her husband's death. Her dog had died. She had also canceled her cleaning lady. All those things make you think that maybe she didn't want anyone to be around her on that day. And then there was another early thought. Violet was part of a close-knit Jewish community where suicide can be considered shameful and taboo. Detective Schwartz is also Jewish. So he brought up the possibility that Violet had taken her life and that her kids covered it up.

6:32And as investigators dug deeper, what else did they learn about the Jacoby family? Well, from the outside, the Jacoby family seemed to be very close. And they also appeared to be living the American dream. Violet lived in a multimillion dollar house in Beverly Hills. And Daniel was living nearby with his wife and new baby. Violet and her husband were immigrants. Her husband had been a successful doctor. Daniel also appeared to be very successful. He pursued a medical profession as a dentist. And Dina worked in physical therapy. You know, it sounds like they're living the American dream. Murders don't happen very often in Beverly Hills.

7:15So how did investigators begin to suspect foul play? Well, Tracy, that's where that background in burglaries comes in, because these guys don't investigate a lot of homicides, but they do do burglaries. Detective George Elwell was one of the first detectives in the crime scene the night that Violet's body was found. And as he told us, he noticed dust still covered much of the staircase railing. And he didn't think that anything, including Violet, could have gone over the railing without disturbing that dust. Detective Elwell also said that when he looked down from the top of the railing, he couldn't see Violet's feet because they were under the staircase.

7:58He said he wasn't an expert in physics, but he said he didn't believe that her body could end up under the staircase from fall that she would have ended up further out. There was also no rope or obvious weapon beside her, which is why Mark Schwartz wondered if she had taken her life, if the kids had hidden it. And both detectives also felt that Daniel was acting peculiar when they met him. Detective Schwartz said he had a nervous energy. That's how he described it and seemed too eager to help with the investigation. But we still should note here, and I think you know this too, Tracy, that it's really hard to judge Daniel's behavior in his initial police interviews or even on the 911 call, because if in fact he's telling the truth, he had just found his mother at the bottom of the staircase and you never know how a grieving person is going to behave.

8:54Yeah, we've talked about this before. I mean, this is a stressful situation. So just because somebody's acting strangely doesn't necessarily mean they're guilty. All right, so on October 13th, nearly three days after Violet's body was found, the deputy medical examiner completed the autopsy and determined that Violet's official cause of death was asphyxia by neck compression. With the case now being investigated as a homicide, Detective Schwartz and Elwell asked Daniel to come back for another interview. And they asked point blank if he killed Violet. What did he say? I mean, he clearly became a person of interest early on, but denied killing his mother.

9:34In fact, he told detectives that he and his mother were close. He said he sent her baby photos all the time. But then when detectives look at his phone, actually, the last photo that he texted his mother was his bank account. Yeah, that was an incriminating moment. This isn't in the hour, but when police questioned him about his finances and business plans, Daniel mentions a business venture called Dental Dan in a Can that he was trying to launch with a neighbor. Dean Summers, who was a brother of that neighbor, described this venture as a subscription-based business for dental products. Let's take a listen to some portions of Daniel's police interview.

10:23It's fascinating. With the detectives asking him about his finances.

10:50Did you ask her for any money? Yeah. When?

10:57Like, just a few months back. And you have the money for all these businesses? Yeah. Well, I mean...

11:11It's... No, I don't. Okay. But it's a work in progress.

11:20Who gets the house? I do. Is it paid off? Yes.

11:29How much is that house worth? A lot.

11:37So now I'm the number one suspect. It's not about number one suspects. It's the fact that, again, I'm still trying to figure out what happened. And I don't think you're being forthcoming. So many things here. Dental Dan in a can has a certain ring to it, but it's interesting how when they start asking about finances, he immediately goes, oh, I'm the number one suspect. What did you find out about his dental practice and Daniel's finances? This is what we know. He very briefly owned his own practice, but at this point was working for other dentists in their offices. He was planning on buying a practice in Inglewood with a partner and, as far as we know, was in the process of securing a million-dollar loan.

12:23So on the face of it, that doesn't sound like a person in serious financial straits. But at trial, Daniel's ex-wife later testified that she recalled witnessing an argument between Daniel and his mother about money about a month or two before Violet died. And that was the same time frame that Daniel was trying to purchase the new practice. And Daniel's uncle, who is Violet's brother, also testified that Violet said she would not give Daniel the money because she knew he was going to get a loan. So that seemed to contradict what he had told detectives. Investigators believed that Violet likely died 24 hours before Daniel's 911 call on October 10th.

13:09So Detectives Schwartz and Elwell questioned him about his whereabouts on October 9th. And Daniel said he'd been at his dental office all day and then drove straight home. But he couldn't give a clear account of his route, which, as someone living in Southern California, raises suspicions for me because we all know our routes. I would think so. And if you listen to the whole police interview, sadly, it's almost comical how convoluted his description of his route home is. I mean, I did think, like, maybe if you changed it every day, maybe you'd be confused. but detectives believed that he was lying but they couldn't quite prove he was not yet

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14:53The week after Violet Yacobi's body was discovered, detectives obtained Daniel Yacobi's cell phone records. And the data showed he was not in Inglewood at all that day of Violet's death, but he was in Beverly Hills. And not only that, police had obtained footage from Nest security cameras inside Daniel's house that show him arriving home around 8 p.m. that night. So when investigators looked at the footage from Daniel's home, that's when, and this is the oddest moment, they see a bald man typing at Daniel's computer. And that's the first time they realized that Daniel was actually bald. It was Daniel without a toupee.

15:38And what's important about that footage is that's also the computer, according to investigators, where Daniel did Internet searching that included, quote, latent fingerprints on human skin, how to restrain a woman, how to search Google in private, and a lot of searches about chokeholds. And once detectives had collected data from his computer, they had that. And from his phone, detectives felt they had enough evidence to arrest Daniel for the murder. And the motive, they say, that Daniel killed his mother to get an early inheritance. So on February 12th, 2018, Daniel Yacobi was arrested for his mother's murder.

16:26And of all the things that he could have said at that moment, Erin, can you talk about what he asked for? The first thing that Daniel asked the police for was to get his toupee. Detective Schwartz told us that it was telling to him that Daniel asked for his toupee during the arrest, that his appearance was important to him. and the fact that he has a child and wife, but the first thing he asked for is his toupee, that was tragic. Detectives towards also said that Daniel did not seem surprised to be arrested. I mean, he seemed low key to me through all of it. So I'm not, I'm not surprised he didn't appear surprised.

17:07And we also should note that investigators say that Daniel was arrested only after they first investigated and cleared Dina, the sister and other family members. And you're right. It's so telling about the toupee that that, you know, it says something about keeping up appearances. It's sad. It's incredibly sad. So detectives secured longitude and latitude coordinates from Daniel's Facebook account that they say place him at his mother's house at the time they believe that Violet was killed. And I have to say, this is one of those moments in the hour where I went, whoa, they could get all of that from Facebook.

17:45Well, in fact, when the detectives told me that, I actually actually removed my location from Facebook. I did that too when I watched your hour. Exactly. I, you know, I knew that they got information from us, but I didn't realize it was that specific. But this information became key for investigators because Beverly Hills has a lot of traffic and surveillance cameras. And once Detective Schwartz had those coordinates, then he could go to the city's closed circuit cameras and security cameras from Violet's neighbors and he could find Daniel's car. Otherwise, as you can imagine, going through all that video, it would have been impossible to find Daniel in his car because there's just so much footage.

18:35Detective Schwartz told us that the footage showed, and this really got to me, too. This is how he described it, that Daniel was circling his mother's house almost like a shark the day of the murder. That was a very visual description to me. Yeah, what a strong metaphor, like a shark. So Daniel Jacobi was denied bail, and he spent more than seven years in jail awaiting his trial. Now, I've covered trials that have taken years to actually happen, but how unusual is it to wait that long? Well, I think you're right. You are living in California. And as you know, it is not unusual in California, although I still think seven years seem very long.

19:19That delay was in part due to COVID, but it was also because Daniel switched legal teams a few times and that delayed it too. So when the case did go to trial in July 2025, it seemed like the prosecution had mostly a circumstantial case. So there wasn't a lot of DNA evidence they could use at trial. But what they did find was Daniel's DNA under Violet's fingernails. And that, according to the prosecutors, was significant because, of course, they're arguing she fought him. Daniel had said he had not seen his mother since Sunday, two days before she's found. So prosecutors thought that Daniel's DNA under his mother's fingernails was very incriminating.

20:05The theory of the prosecution of how it got there is that he put her in a chokehold and that she scratched at him trying to free herself. But I should point out her fingernails were not damaged. So that was troubling to me when I realized that. At the same time, he was searching chokeholds. Besides this evidence, what else did the prosecution present at trial? Well, there's not one piece of smoking gun evidence. The prosecution, and we hear this all the time, had to put together the puzzle, you know, the evidence to paint a picture. They pointed to Daniel's own timeline of where he said he was and where he really was and the conflicting stories.

20:51and one of the examples is according to the DA, Daniel kept telling detectives that he and his sister arrived at the house at the same time. But in fact, the video showed Daniel arriving six minutes before his sister arrived, sat and waited in his car for three to four minutes, drives away, and then comes back. Detectives believe it was all part of Daniel's plan to have his sister there so that they could discover the body together. The traffic and surveillance videos and Daniel's Facebook account coordinates also showed that he was lying about where he said he was. All right. So the prosecution makes their case.

21:36Now it's the defense's turn. The defense, on the other hand, argued that Violet Yacobi died of natural causes. Dr. Larry Sims, a forensic pathologist and former medical examiner, testified that he didn't believe that Violet was murdered. Now, this is a guy who's done thousands of autopsies. And, Erin, you spoke with him. What did you make of Dr. Sims' argument? I'm going to be honest. I walked away from my interview with Dr. Sims with real doubts about this case because he said to me when I asked him about this, he said this was not a murder. And he was very convincing. According to Dr. Sims, he found no evidence that Violet was strangled.

22:19Even though the prosecution says that there were marks on Violet's face that they call petechia, which are tiny little bright red hemorrhages that are common with strangulation, he says that those were actually sunspots. And he says that the line on her neck was actually skin folds. He pointed to a microscopic slide of Violet's brainstem to say that her death, and he pointed it out to me, was caused by a rare mass of blood vessels in her brainstem called, and I hope I say this properly, arteriovenous malformation, or what is called an AVM, which he believes hemorrhaged and then caused her to become disoriented and then fall over the staircase.

23:08Dr. Sims also pointed out to us that the deputy medical examiner who did the original autopsy actually missed injuries that pointed towards a fall. The violet actually had spinal and rib fractures that were not mentioned in the autopsy, although they were photographed and they were documented in imaging. We wanted to talk to that deputy medical examiner because he didn't testify at trial, but the LA County Medical Examiner's Office declined to be interviewed as part of our report. So we never heard him explain it, but it was an issue at trial. Yeah. I mean, that's a big, it sounds like a big thing to miss spinal fractures and rib fractures.

23:52And so they're bringing in more and more experts. So this trial became a battle of the experts. There are five doctors that testified at that trial about how and why Violet died. Yeah. And I always find that to be a problem in these cases. You might too, Tracy. We've seen this time and time again. You have people disagreeing. Some people see something. Some people see something else. And I fear that jurors don't know which medical expert to believe. And in the end, they could just dial it all out. Just tune it all out. Yeah, I get that. So they did deliberate for nearly five and a half hours over two days.

24:30But when the jury came back, they were unanimous, guilty of first degree murder for financial gain. And this is a judgment that carries a mandatory life sentence without a possibility of parole. He threw his life away for a few more dollars. He had so much, a wife, a new baby. is just very, very sad. And also when I did some research, I realized just how rare matricide is. It's just a very tragic trajectory. Tragic indeed. A fascinating case. And also a reminder that you may think that you're going around somewhere and no one is watching, but there are cameras everywhere. And if you have your cell phone with you, there's always some way to track you.