Spray Tan Defense
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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com/forensictales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. On November 7th, 2007, at 6:10 a.m., a chilling phone call shattered the peace in the tranquil suburbs of Aventura, Florida.

Adam Kaufman, desperate and stunned, discovered his wife's lifeless body on the bathroom floor. Pink foam oozed from her mouth. Mysterious marks covered her body. As time slipped away, a race against time unfolded. How can a perfectly healthy 33-year-old just die? This is Forensic Tales, episode number 185, The Spray Tan Defense.

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.

Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.

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On November 7th, 2007, at 6.10 a.m., a frantic 911 call came into the police department in Adventura, Florida, an upper-class suburban community outside of Miami. The caller, Adam Kaufman, told dispatchers that he had just woken up and discovered his wife, Eleonora Kaufman, slumped over the bathroom floor and she wasn't breathing. She was cold to the touch and pink foam was coming out of her nose and mouth.

He had no idea what happened to his wife, but he said that she had some strange marks on her neck and he had never seen that before and thought that she might already be dead. So he needed emergency help immediately. When police and EMTs raced to the Kaufman's house, the 911 dispatcher instructed Adam to start performing CPR on his wife.

So he took his wife's body out of the bathroom and into the bedroom, where he would move her to start performing CPR. As soon as the paramedics arrived, about 10 minutes later, they took over. But they were too late. About an hour after Adam called for help, his wife, Eleonora, died at the hospital. The 911 caller, 35-year-old Adam Kaufman, was well-known throughout this upper-middle-class suburban neighborhood of Aventura, Florida.

He and his wife, 33-year-old Eleonora, who went by Lena, had lived there for several years. Adam had a successful real estate business, and he was just the guy you went to if you were looking to purchase a home there. So it was only fitting for Adam and Lena to own a lovely upscale home in the area. In 1997, Adam and Lena met through mutual friends at a party and instantly hit it off.

The two started dating, and by early 2000, they were married and had two kids together, Haley and Jake. At the time of Lena's death in 2007, Haley was five and Jake was only two. Lena and Adam had only been married for seven years. By all accounts, Adam and Lena had an ideal life together, the kind of life that most people only dream about—

None of their family or friends ever recalled them fighting or not getting along. Adam had a successful real estate business, so the family was financially well cared for. They had a big and beautiful home in a nice neighborhood, and they had the dream family with two young kids. Everything was seemingly going perfectly for the Kaufmans, until it wasn't.

On November 7th, 2007, Adam discovered his 33-year-old wife slumped over and unresponsive on the bathroom floor. And despite EMT and emergency room doctors' best efforts, they couldn't do anything to save her. So the question quickly became, how does a 33-year-old woman suddenly drop dead inside her bathroom? Lena Kaufman didn't grow up like your typical kid.

Her childhood and upbringing could only be described as fortunate and adventurous. Lina, her brother and her parents, moved around a lot when Lina and her brother were young. Throughout their childhood, they lived in five different countries. So Lina and her brother learned to speak five different languages, English, Danish, Flemish, Hebrew, and some Italian.

Everyone that knew Lena, either as a kid or as an adult, described her as extremely intelligent. They also described her as hardworking and easy to get along with. Anyone who met Lena liked her from the get-go. She had a special spark that drew people toward her. So it was no wonder someone like Adam Kaufman would be attracted to Lena.

In November 2007, Lena was only 33 years old. She was in seemingly perfect health. Lena didn't have any known medical conditions. She always ate healthy and regularly exercised. She didn't drink alcohol. And besides smoking a few cigarettes every once in a while, she took really good care of herself.

So when she turned up dead on the bathroom floor, no one could explain why. Her death just didn't make any sense. A 33-year-old healthy woman can't suddenly die, or can she? The day before her death, November 6th, Lena left the house sometime in the afternoon to get a spray tan. Adam's twin brother, Seth, was getting married in a few days, and both Adam and Lena were in the wedding party.

Adam was his brother's best man, and Lena was a bridesmaid. So Lena left to get a spray tan in order to get some color before the wedding. And this was her first ever spray tan. After getting the spray tan, she went to a girlfriend's house for lunch. She spent the rest of the afternoon at her friend's house and returned home around 11 p.m. But her husband Adam was already asleep by the time she got home. He had been home all day watching the kids, and he was

So when Adam went to sleep that night, Lena was still at her friend's house. Sometime around 5 o'clock a.m. on November 7th, Adam said he woke up and noticed his wife wasn't lying next to him in bed. He said he laid there for a little bit, thinking that she might have gone to check on one of the kids. The kids were now two and five, so maybe one of them was up crying.

So Adam said he was lying in bed for a few minutes, waiting for his wife to come back, but she didn't. After lying in bed for about an hour, Adam decided to get up and look for her. After checking both of the kids' bedrooms, he decided to check the bathroom. That's when he said he discovered her lying on the floor with pink foam coming out of her mouth.

Adam said Lena's body was slumped over a leather magazine rack right beside the toilet. At first, he almost thought she was kneeling over the toilet like she had been throwing up. But when he knelt down to the ground and touched her back to see if she was okay, her skin was already cold to the touch. And when he tried turning her over, he said he saw strange marks on her neck. In total, there were four marks.

Two on the right side of her neck and two on the left. But before Adam dialed 911 to get help for his wife, he called his twin brother, Seth. Before EMTs and the police arrived at the Kaufman's house, Adam's twin brother, Seth, and his fiance were already there. They lived right down the street from Adam and Lena.

So when Adam called to tell them what happened, they threw on some clothes and drove straight to the house. And they even got there before the paramedics did. Immediately after Lena was transported to the hospital, the police started to gauge the scene. By all accounts, this seemed like Lena had some type of medical emergency. Although she seemed happy and healthy, 30 years old, a wife and mother.

Something medical must have caused her to suddenly drop dead, but they still needed to do their due diligence. As the investigators looked around the house, some details began sticking out to them. Michael Castro, one of the first responders, thought Adam's behavior seemed a little strange. He seemed totally fine and calm despite having just found his wife dead.

But then moments later, Adam would be hysterical. So one minute he was fine and the next he wasn't. And this behavior just seemed strange, according to first responder Michael Castro. Second was Adam's story about where exactly Lena's body was when he found her. According to paramedic Kimberly Burke, Adam told her that his wife was slumped over the toilet when he found her.

But he said she was slumped over the leather magazine rack beside the toilet when they were at the hospital. Maybe this was just a simple mistake, an innocent mistake, or he accidentally misspoke. Either way, Kimberly Burke thought it was odd that he would say he found her body in two different ways. Was it the toilet or was she on the magazine rack? The next suspicion was sparked by the car in the driveway.

When the police and paramedics got to the house, Adams' Mercedes-Benz car was parked in the driveway. When one of the police officers touched the car, the front hood of it was warm, like the engine had recently been turned on. The officer also said that he heard clicking sounds like the engine was turned off just minutes ago, a recently driven car that didn't align with Adams' story.

He said he was sleeping when he realized his wife wasn't lying beside him. He didn't mention anything about driving his Mercedes. Finally, there was a report about what Adam was wearing at the scene. According to two firefighters who responded to the house, Adam was fully dressed in regular clothes when they got there, and only one side of the bed appeared to have been slept in.

How could this be if Adam was supposedly sleeping before he dialed 911? Who sleeps fully dressed? Despite some early suspicions about Adam, there wasn't anything investigators could do about him. Yes, it seemed strange that a healthy woman suddenly died in the bathroom. Yes, it was weird. He was fully dressed and his car's hood was warm.

But that's not nearly enough evidence to arrest someone. And besides, one fundamental question remained. How did Lena Kaufman die? The pivotal answer to that very question is at the heart of this story. However, the truth concealed within her autopsy would take months. 18 months, to be exact. What did the autopsy reveal? Nothing.

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Over the next 18 months, Adam made repeated phone calls to the Dade County Medical Examiner's Office wanting to find out what happened to his wife. But each time he called, they kept saying they were waiting on test results. So they didn't have Lena's official cause of death yet. All Adam and his family could do was speculate about what killed her. And so the infamous spray tan theory emerged.

According to Adam, the day before his wife died, she got her first ever spray tan. Before November 6th, she had never gotten a spray tan before. She decided to do it because she wanted to be tan for her brother-in-law's upcoming wedding in a few days. Adam was the best man and she was a bridesmaid. Adam wondered if that spray tan could have had anything to do with her death.

She had never gotten one before, so maybe a chemical or a toxin in the spray tan mixture caused her to pass out and die in the bathroom. Now, it sounded bizarre and crazy, but that was the only thing Lena did differently the day before she died. Everything else was completely normal. After she got the spray tan, she had lunch at her girlfriend's house and stayed there until about 11 p.m.,

According to her friend, Lena seemed fine at her house. She didn't say that anything was wrong with her, and Lena never complained about not feeling well or anything else. The only difference was the spray tan.

While Adam waited for the medical examiner's results, he couldn't think of anything else. Lena was healthy. She regularly exercised. She even recently had gotten plastic surgery, and the surgeon who performed the procedure wrote in his medical notes that Lena appeared perfectly healthy. And besides plastic surgery, she had no other major medical history.

Lena's friends and family also felt the same. They weren't aware of any medical condition that would have caused her to die so suddenly. Lena's friends said that Lena's only concern was a little problem regarding the upcoming wedding.

According to her friends, Lena was a little bit upset that her husband, Adam, was walking down the aisle with a maid of honor, not her, despite Lena also being a bridesmaid. So that seemed to bother her a little bit, that someone else was walking down the aisle with her husband. But other than that, that small little detail, Lena's friends don't remember anything significant happening in the days leading up to her death.

But the spray tan and upcoming wedding weren't the only events going on in Lena and Adam's lives. Less than one month after Lena died, there was another woman in Adam's life. To many people's surprise, Adam had a new girlfriend. His wife of seven years hadn't been dead for even a month yet, and he was already dating someone new.

Over the next 18 months, Adam could only speculate about what happened to his wife. Could the spray tan really be responsible? For 18 long months, Adam kept calling the medical examiner's office wanting answers, but they didn't give him any. It wasn't until one fateful day in April 2009 that the long-awaited revelation came.

In April 2009, the Dade County Medical Examiner announced that they had ruled on Lena's cause of death, and the ruling shocked everyone. According to the medical examiner, Lena didn't have some type of freak medical emergency like everyone had thought. Based on her autopsy results, the experts believed she was murdered. Her official manner of death was ruled a homicide.

This announcement shocked the community. No one could believe it. And if that was true, Lena was murdered, then who did it? All eyes instantly focused on her husband, Adam Kaufman. After Lena's death, two autopsies were conducted. One was performed immediately and the second a few months later.

The first autopsy was inconclusive and her death was ruled undetermined. Although she had strange injuries to her upper back and abrasions were also found on her neck, chin, shoulders, and chest. But the second autopsy differed. The medical examiner was able to come to a conclusion about her death. Based on his examination of Lena's body, he believed she died from mechanical asphyxiation. In other words,

someone or something caused Lena to stop breathing. And if you asked the Dade County investigators what they believed caused her to stop breathing, it was her husband, Adam. Immediately following the April 2009 announcement that Lena's cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation and the manner of death was a homicide, Adam Kaufman was arrested and charged with murder.

Once he was arrested and thrown behind bars, he and Lena's two kids, Haley and Jake, went to stay with Adam's family. Fortunately for Adam, he had the financial resources to afford two excellent defense attorneys. One was a former police officer turned defense lawyer, and the other was a former prosecutor. So as far as defense lawyers go, he had a dream team.

Two months after he was arrested, Adam had a bond hearing before a judge. At the bond hearing, his attorneys argued that Lena had suffered from fainting spells and had recently gotten a spray tan for the upcoming wedding. So Adam's attorneys had come up with a theory about what caused Lena's death. She had an allergic reaction to the spray tan.

They also argued the bruises and abrasions they found on her body were caused by her falling and hitting the leather magazine rack next to the toilet in the bathroom. Miami-Dade County Prosecutor Kathleen Hogue laughed at this defense theory. But laughable or not, Adam was released on a $500,000 bond.

The judge in the case ordered him to wear a GPS tracking monitor around his ankle, and he was allowed to stay at home while he and his attorneys prepared for trial. It would take three years, but by May 2012, Adam's second-degree murder trial began. Prosecutors would allege Adam killed his wife by choking her to death in the bathroom that morning.

Adams' defense attorneys would argue she died from something medical, like a deadly reaction to the spray tan. But despite the prosecution and defense's different theories, the trial wouldn't be decided on theories alone. It would be decided on the forensic evidence. The forensic experts for each side would argue about what really happened to Lena.

The prosecution opened up by having first responders testify about what they observed in the house that morning in 2007. Most testified that they found Adam's behavior suspicious. First responder Michael Castro testified that Adam seemed calm one minute, but then he was hysterical the next. His emotions, according to him, seemed forced, like he was trying to hide something.

Paramedic Kimberly Burke testified about Adam's differing story about where he found Lena's body. She testified that Adam said that Lena was slumped over the toilet at the house. But then later on, he changed his story and said that she was slumped over the magazine rack. Dr. John Stollard, the emergency room doctor who worked on Lena, also testified that

He said that he found strange marks and injuries on Lena's neck. And when he asked Adam about them, he said she probably got them from the magazine rack. All of this was the prosecution's way of trying to show that Adam was acting erratic when first responders arrived, including changing his story about what happened. Prosecutors also discussed what Adam wore when they showed up at the house.

They called two firefighters to the stand, and both of them testified that they recalled that Adam was fully dressed that morning. And they thought this was odd because it was a little after 6 o'clock in the morning, and Adam had said that he was in bed just a couple minutes ago. The firefighters also testified to the jury that only one side of the couple's bed appeared to have been slept in.

Prosecutors also had the police officer who touched Adam's Mercedes-Benz parked in the driveway to testify. He told the jury that the car's hood was warm when he got there and the engine was ticking like it had been recently driven. Another troubling moment because Adam never mentioned anything about driving or using his car that morning.

None of this looked good for Adam. His car might have recently been driven. He was fully dressed, not in pajamas. He changed his story about where his wife's body was. He had a bizarre theory about a possible allergic reaction to a spray tan. And he started dating another woman less than four weeks after Lena died.

Prosecutors referenced Adam's case to Casey Anthony getting a tattoo because he moved on from his wife so quickly. The prosecution said this, quote, End quote.

But according to Adam himself, this relationship was just to help him get out of the house after Lena died. He even said that his twin brother Seth was the one who encouraged him to get out of the house and to start dating someone. He said he met the woman at a graduation party, and shortly after that, they went on a first date together. But what about a motive? What did the prosecution present, and why?

According to the prosecution, Lena and Adam had been fighting and arguing that night. Maybe they were fighting about Adam possibly having an affair or cheating on her. Then the argument turns physical and Adam choked her to death. Adam's defense lawyers immediately objected to the prosecution's story about what happened. They tried to get this theory thrown out entirely.

According to Adams' defense, there was absolutely no evidence he was having an affair before Lena died. And without evidence proving an affair, that theory should be thrown out and not used as evidence against him. Adams' lawyer asked the judge for a mistrial. But instead of dismissing the case altogether, the judge ordered the jury to forget about the prosecution's theory about an affair.

They were argued to ignore that piece of evidence. So furthermore, the prosecution wasn't allowed to bring up a possible affair before Lena's death any time again during the trial. Different forensic experts were called to the stand to testify throughout the trial, and both sides had their own respective experts testify.

Each of them had their own opinion about how Lena died, and not all of them agreed how she got the injuries. Dr. Bruce Hyma, Miami-Dade's chief medical examiner, testified for the prosecution. He was the one who ruled Lena's death a homicide based on mechanical asphyxiation.

Dr. Hima told the jury that based on the autopsy results, Lena was murdered by someone or something cutting off her airway. He also explained that the only way she could have gotten the marks and bruises on her neck, shoulders, and chest was if someone was strangling her. In other words, this type of manual asphyxiation could have only happened at the hands of someone else.

Dr. Bruce Hyma's testimony was also backed up by his former associate medical examiner who supervised the original autopsy, Dr. Satish Shantoo. He testified that he also agreed with Dr. Hyma's findings of a homicide. He attributed her death to strangulation and thought that the injuries to her neck were consistent with someone putting their hands around her neck.

He couldn't come up with any other possible explanation for her death or her injuries. So the only plausible explanation, in their opinions, was a homicide. But Adams' defense had its own medical witnesses, and they argued something completely different. One of the expert witnesses who testified for the defense was Dr. John Marasini.

Dr. Marasini is a pathologist from South Miami, Florida, with over 20 years of experience. And he's also a graduate of Harvard Medical School. He testified to the jury that he didn't believe Lena's injuries supported a homicide finding. Simply put, he said there was no evidence of a homicide. And according to Dr. Marasini, he had his own theory about what might have killed Lena.

He said it was an undiagnosed heart condition. He testified that when he looked over Lena's autopsy results, he discovered a rather large and noticeable scar on her heart. He claimed that the scar was so big that he wondered why the original medical examiner didn't examine the heart deeper. Dr. Marasini believes that some type of disease occurred in Lena's heart.

The disease explains the scar. He also said that she had myocarditis or inflammation of the heart. So based on these findings, he believes Lena had unknowingly developed an irregular heartbeat. And that morning in November 2007, she collapsed and died in the bathroom from this undiagnosed heart condition. But the defense's expert wasn't alone in this finding.

The defense had a second forensic expert who supported this theory. Dr. Michael Bodden also testified on behalf of Adams Defense. Dr. Bodden is a famous board-certified forensic pathologist who has testified in several high-profile cases, including the O.J. Simpson double murder trial and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.,

During Adam's trial, Dr. Bodden agreed with Dr. Marasini. He told the jury that he thought Lena died from a pre-existing natural acute and chronic myocarditis. But what exactly is myocarditis? According to the American Heart Association's website, chronic myocarditis can weaken the heart and its electrical system.

As a result, the heart's ability to pump blood is affected. The condition worsens if it's left untreated. Although myocarditis is considered a rare heart condition, it does occur in seemingly otherwise healthy adults. So Adam's expert forensic witnesses argued that that's probably what happened to Lena.

She had a scar on her heart that resembled myocarditis. And that's what killed her. Her heart simply failed. The prosecution and defense also had contrasting theories about the strange marks on Lena's neck. The prosecution's experts alleged that the marks on her neck came from being strangled. But the defense argued the marks had nothing to do with strangulation.

Instead, the marks could have come from the leather magazine rack found beside the toilet, the rack where Adam said his wife's body was slumped over. According to the defense, if Lena had suffered a heart attack from her undiagnosed myocarditis, she might have collapsed and landed on the magazine rack. If that was the case, the rack could have caused the strange injuries on her neck.

Unfortunately, for both the prosecution and the defense, only the magazine rack itself was collected and retained in evidence. None of the magazines were collected. So nothing was found when the rack was tested for DNA or other evidence. And without the magazines themselves, it's impossible to say whether Lena hit the rack before she fell to the ground.

It's impossible to state conclusively that the marks on her neck came from the rack, like Adams' defense alleged. Besides expert testimony, the witness stand was also filled with emotional testimony.

Frida Eisman, Lena's mom, testified at trial. But her testimony was surprising because what she said on the stand didn't seem to align with the prosecutors. Instead, her testimony seemed to support the defense's theory. Frida testified that her daughter would often become dizzy and suffered what she described as fainting spells.

She claimed that her daughter fainted several times as a child and as an adult, and she would often become so dizzy while standing up that she had to sit down to feel better. In one particular incident, Lena was grocery shopping with her husband Adam when she suddenly fainted. Adam had to pick her up, and when she finally came to, she had no idea what happened. She didn't even remember fainting.

But when it came time for the prosecution to confront Frida's testimony about the fainting spells, they said nothing in her medical history proved that this ever happened. The prosecution alleged that Lena never visited the doctor's office for fainting spells or dizziness. So there was no record of it ever happening. The prosecution alleged that Frida was simply making this up in order to save her son-in-law.

But why would she make that up? In an unexpected twist, Lena's mother's shocking testimony stuns the courtroom. Brace yourself for this gripping conclusion. You won't want to miss a single moment of this compelling case. Well, the prosecution had a theory for this, too. They said Frida had to support Adam, her son-in-law.

Because if she didn't, she would probably never see her grandchildren again. If Frida testified against Adam, he would probably never let her see Haley or Jake again, Lena and Adam's two kids and her grandkids. So prosecutors speculated that Frida, Lena's own mother, was only making things up about the feigning incidents so that she wouldn't destroy her relationship with her grandchildren.

In one part of the trial, the prosecution said this, quote, What do you think would happen if she didn't support him? Do you think for a second she would be seeing her grandchildren with her husband in Italy and her son in Denmark? She's alone here. This is her tie, the joy of her life. Do you think she's going to go against him? End quote. Two of Lena's closest friends also took the stand to testify.

One of them was Melissa Fedowitz. When Melissa took the stand, she told the jury all about Lena's perfect health. She said her friend never complained about feeling dizzy or fainting. In her own words, quote, Lena was a one in a million strong, happy, vibrant friend, end quote.

So this testimony seemed to contradict the defense's theory that maybe a heart condition or some other strange medical condition was to blame for her death. Lena had never complained to one of her closest friends, Melissa, about not feeling well. But a second friend remembered something else. According to another one of Lena's friends, Larissa Adamian-Murray,

Lena did suffer from fainting spells. She recalled that at least one occasion when Lena called her over the phone and said that she was sitting on the floor because she was so dizzy. So this testimony seemed to support the defense's argument that maybe Lena did have some undiagnosed heart condition and maybe this heart condition was causing her to become dizzy and sometimes faint.

Evidence collected from the bathroom was also heavily scrutinized. Most of that evidence favored the defense. Starting with the bathroom itself, there was no signs of a struggle when the first responding officers arrived. Although the bathroom was relatively small and there wasn't much in there besides the sink, toilet, and magazine rack, there wasn't any signs of a struggle.

If Adam had strangled Lena to death like the prosecution alleged, you'd expect to see some signs of a struggle or altercation. But according to all of the police reports, none existed. The bathroom in their reports looked neat and perfect.

There also wasn't any evidence of a cleanup. The bathroom didn't smell like bleach or any other type of cleaner might have been used to maybe clean up blood or anything else. And up next for analysis was Lena's fingernails. When Lena's body was sent for the autopsy, swabs were taken from underneath her fingernails and tested.

When the test results returned, all of the DNA and tissue found underneath her nails belonged to herself. None of the DNA belonged to Adam. So this evidence also seemed to back up the defense's theory. If Lena and Adam were involved in some type of physical altercation, you'd probably expect to find his DNA or maybe some skin cells underneath her fingernails.

If Adam strangled her, you'd think that she would fight back. She would scratch him, claw at him. She would do whatever she needed to do to break free from him if she was being strangled. But when the DNA and tissue from underneath her fingernails was tested, it all belonged to one person, Lena. Lena.

The trial was full of surprises, but the biggest surprise didn't come from Adam or any of Lena's family members or friends. The biggest shock from the trial came from one of the first responding officers, Anna Howell. Anna Howell was one of the first detectives from the department's crime scene investigation unit to arrive at the Kaufman house. She was the person in charge of collecting evidence at the scene.

So she played a huge role in the early part of the investigation. Well, before the trial began, it was discovered that Detective Anna Howell was rumored to be romantically involved with another detective who worked on the case, Detective Anthony Angala. Detective Anthony Angala was the lead detective assigned to Adam's case.

But it wasn't merely the fact that they were rumored to be dating. Anna Howell was married with two children during this alleged affair. When Adams' defense lawyers cross-examined Detective Howell about this affair, she initially denied it. She said that the two detectives were simply friends and that nothing else happened. But when the prosecution questioned her on the stand, she then changed her story and

She essentially perjured herself and then basically admitted to the affair. So you've got the detective in charge of collecting evidence of having an affair with the case's lead detective. So Adams' defense argued, what other lies could be possible if Detective Howell lied about this affair? What else could she have lied about?

When it came time for closing arguments, the prosecution and defense presented vastly different theories about what killed Lena. The prosecution alleged Adam killed his wife by strangling her to death. They said the two got into a fight that night. The fight turned violent and he strangled her in the bathroom. According to the prosecution, this theory is supported by the forensic evidence.

At Lena's autopsy, the medical examiner found several bruises and marks on her body, specifically around her neck. The examiner believed the cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation. Someone or something caused Lena's airway to be shut off. And that someone is Adam Kaufman.

When Lena was at her girlfriend's house the day before she died, that particular friend never recalled seeing strange marks on her neck. So the prosecution alleged that the marks could have only happened later that night when she got home. Although they couldn't pinpoint a specific motive, they highlighted Adam's bizarre behavior after his wife's death.

They reminded the jury time and time again during the trial that Adam had a brand new girlfriend within just a couple weeks after Lena died. Before he even knew what killed his wife, he was already dating another woman. They also reminded the jury about his strange behavior when the cops showed up. One minute, he was cool, calm, and collected. But then the next moment, he was hysterical.

Adding to the mounting evidence was the Mercedes-Benz that had recently been driven. When the cops showed up at the house that morning, one of the officers touched Adam's hood and said that it was warm, like someone had recently driven it. Although prosecutors didn't explain where they thought he might have gone, they suggested this evidence points to one fact, that Adam is lying about something.

Adams' defense had a completely different story to tell the jury during closing arguments. Initially, they thought Lena's spray tan could have caused a deadly allergic reaction. But then they changed their story again. Their forensic experts argued that an undiagnosed heart condition was to blame. They alleged Lena might have suffered from a heart attack and collapsed in the bathroom.

Before hitting the bathroom floor, she hit her neck on the leather magazine rack, causing bruises. According to the defense, Lena Kaufman's death was caused by a tragic and undiagnosed heart condition. She didn't die at the hands of her husband of over seven years. The defense argued that Adam only started dating someone because his family insisted on it.

They said that he was just moping at home and getting out of the house would start to make him feel better. He said he wasn't trying to find a new girlfriend. It just sort of happened. Now, regarding the evidence about the Mercedes-Benz, the car, the defense argued that it wasn't even Adam's car. They said it was Adam's twin brother's Seth's car.

Remember, Seth and his fiancee showed up at the house even before the cops and paramedics got there that morning. Adam had allegedly called his brother first before calling 911.

So his defense team alleged that the police officer who showed up at the house that morning didn't touch Adam's car, but instead he touched Seth's car, who was already parked in the driveway before they got there. And the cop thought it was Adam's car, but in reality, it was Seth's car. And that's why the engine was warm, because Seth just showed up.

The entire trial lasted over four weeks. The case was handed over to the jury when both sides finished presenting their arguments. If convicted of second-degree murder, Adam Kaufman looked at spending life behind bars. The jury deliberated the case for eight hours. It was an agonizing eight hours for Adam, not knowing how the jury would decide his fate.

And it was just as long for the prosecution. What would it be? Whose forensic experts would convince the jury? Was it the prosecution's experts who said that Lena was strangled? Or was it the defense's experts who said she had a heart condition? Or maybe it was, in fact, a deadly spray tan.

The jury also had to consider how Lena got her injuries, the abrasions and bruises on her neck, chest, and shoulders. Did it come from a violent altercation with her husband? Or did it come from CPR and maybe other life-saving procedures that EMTs and first responders did to her that morning? The fate of those burning questions hung in the balance left at the hands of the jury.

On July 4th, 2012, the jury returned a verdict. With Adam Kaufman standing next to his defense attorneys in the courtroom, the jury foreman read the verdict. Not guilty. They found him not guilty of all charges, including second-degree murder. As soon as Adam heard the verdict, he turned to his attorneys, who assured him that this five-year ordeal was finally over.

After waiting 18 months for the autopsy results and three years before going to trial, everything was over and done. Adam Kaufman was officially acquitted of his wife's strange death. But the end of the criminal trial didn't put an end to all the questions in everyone's minds, including the biggest question of all, what happened to Lena Kaufman?

How does a healthy, 30-something-year-old mother of two suddenly collapse and die in her own bathroom? And despite the acquittal, not everyone believed in Adam's innocence. Even after the jury found him innocent in the eyes of the court, many people still believe he might have had something to do with her death.

But since he was officially acquitted, prosecutors in the case won't be allowed to bring any additional criminal charges against him under double jeopardy laws. Today, Adam Kaufman is a free man. And immediately after the trial, he returned home to be with his two kids. And to this day, he's maintained his innocence in his wife's death. Like everyone else, he has no idea what happened to Lena.

Maybe it was the spray tan. Maybe it was a heart condition. Or maybe it was something else. The circumstances surrounding Lena Kaufman's death remains a mystery. It's a mystery that not even forensic experts can explain or agree on. Some experts say that she was murdered, while others say this was a natural death. Even after every expert reviewed the same evidence,

None of them can agree on what the evidence actually means. The passing of Lena Kaufman is truly heartbreaking and continues to perplex even the most knowledgeable in forensic science, a difficult and tragic situation that not even forensic science can explain. To share your thoughts on the story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook.

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