Forensic Files - Season 10, Episode 27 - Summer Obsession - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: A young mother mysteriously died just hours after dining in an upscale restaurant.
The search for clues revealed secrets hidden in an attic, an upscale gentleman's club,
and underneath the young woman's skin. [theme music] NARRATOR: Shortly after midnight,
police in a wealthy Philadelphia suburb received a frantic 911 call. 34-year-old Craig Rabinowitz said
he had just found his wife, Stephanie, in the bathtub. When police arrived, they found Rabinowitz in the bathroom
holding his wife's head above the water. They performed CPR, and rushed her to the hospital.
Unfortunately, there was nothing doctors could do. When Craig learned of his wife's death, he collapsed in grief.
Doctors had no explanation. CHARLES CRAIG: I asked the doctor, you know, help me out here.
What do you think happened? And he said, he really didn't know. He told me, some time people die for unexplained reasons.
Could have been an aneurysm, a heart attack, whatever. But on first glance, there wasn't any sign of trauma.
NARRATOR: Rabinowitz told police that he and his wife, Stephanie, had dinner at a Thai restaurant,
came home, had a drink. Then Stephanie took a bath while Craig said he watched television.
CHARLES CRAIG: And while he was watching the hockey game, he heard a thump, which he attributed to the shampoo
bottle falling on the floor in the bathroom. He didn't think much of it. He watched the hockey game for approximately 20 to 30 minutes,
and realized, hey, his wife hasn't come back to the bedroom from the bath. So he went into the bathroom, and found
her unconscious in the bathtub. NARRATOR: Detective Charles Craig had investigated many unusual deaths before.
And a spouse with something to hide would usually act suspiciously, but not Craig Rabinowitz.
-Generally when we interview people, witnesses, victims, suspects, we look to see if they have eye contact with us,
see if they're shaking, or they're very nervous, or if they're perspiring. And he didn't exhibit any of those signs.
NARRATOR: And police found nothing suspicious or out of place in the couple's home after Stephanie's death.
CHARLES CRAIG: TV was on. The shampoo bottle was in the bathroom. There was water in the bathtub.
We checked all the doors and windows, and found that the house was secure. We went through the master bedroom.
Didn't appear to have any signs of a struggle. We didn't find blood, or anything of that nature.
NARRATOR: Craig and Stephanie were a classic love story. They had been together since they first met in summer camp
as teenagers. JIM NOLAN: The Rabinowitzes were the perfect couple, in love, with good jobs.
They had a beautiful young daughter, a year old. He had a business of his own, selling
latex gloves and supplies. They had been married since 1990. She was a lawyer, Bryn Mawr and Temple University educated.
NARRATOR: Craig was proud of his wife, and worked hard to put her through law school.
-Stephanie spoke about her marriage in very idyllic terms. I mean, she thought she had a wonderful relationship, almost
a perfect relationship in that, and she was extremely happy. NARRATOR: Between her law practice and his business,
they were very affluent, and lived in the exclusive mainline section of Philadelphia.
But even wealth and privilege can't prevent unfortunate incidents like the one that befell Stephanie Rabinowitz.
MITCHELL BACH: I came to the office Wednesday morning. I walked in and everyone was crying,
and I was shocked to hear that Stephanie had died Tuesday night. I heard that she had an accident,
that she drowned in a bathtub. That's all we were told. NARRATOR: But why had Stephanie drowned?
Was it caused by something she ate, medication, was she depressed? Forensic investigators needed to find out more.
The cause of Stephanie Rabinowitz's death was a mystery. JIM NOLAN: Stephanie Rabinowitz may have slipped,
hit her head in the tub, subsequently drowned. It was a real tragedy. A mother of a one-year-old child,
devoted husband, happy family life. -I mean, I was at a loss as to how she could have died.
I didn't see any type of drama, any cuts, any abrasions, any of that type of thing.
NARRATOR: Stephanie came from a religious Jewish family. In accordance with her religion, Stephanie's parents
and her husband Craig wanted to bury her before the next sundown. -There was a push to have Stephanie Rabinowitz
buried quickly under Jewish custom. NARRATOR: But the coroner overruled the family's wishes,
saying he wanted to perform a complete autopsy. His action was prompted in part by something
Craig Rabinowitz told police. He said Stephanie was having trouble adjusting to the demands of caring for their new baby
and her work as a lawyer, and she occasionally took a prescription sleep medication.
In the meantime, a tipster called police, suggesting they investigate Craig's involvement
in a gentleman's club named Delilah's Den. -Delilah's Den is the upscale strip club in Philadelphia.
It's a place where it's not uncommon to see a lot of professional athletes or entertainers,
or people who visit Philadelphia from out of town, businesspeople, and just groups of guys out to have a beer
or for a bachelor party to show up at the Delilah's Den. NARRATOR: When detectives visited the club,
they discovered Craig was a regular customer, and that his interest was primarily in only one dancer,
named Summer. Employees said this wasn't unusual. MISS BUNNY: Well, Summer didn't come
dance at clubs to make friends. Like, she was definitely there to make money. And she was sort of known as something of a shark,
like she was always a big moneymaker, she always went after the like customers that appeared to have the most money.
You can either be entertaining on stage, and make it real clear to the customers that we're going
to have a good time while you're here, but the fun ends at the door. Or you can sort of draw the customers
into this like longer, drawn out fantasy, and develop regular customers. NARRATOR: When interviewed, Summer
admitted that Craig was a good customer-- but strictly that, a customer, and not even her best one.
CHARLES CRAIG: They would each have two or three good customers who would spend a lot of money
on them, even buying them furnishings for their house, or paying repair bills, or doing dental work,
that type of thing. -She said there was no sexual relationship between the two of them, that they weren't dating,
or anything of that nature. We were always suspicious of that, of course. MISS BUNNY: I know dancers who have gotten cars
from their customers, other elaborate gifts of jewelry, um, you know, apartments, et cetera.
NARRATOR: Delilah's customers who want something a little cozier can get private dances in the champagne room.
They use Delilah's Dollars, house money bought with credit cards. Club records indicated Craig was spending as much as $3,000
a week at Delilah's-- a lot of money, perhaps, but certainly not illegal. -In fact, Craig's visits too Delilah's were not
unknown to Stephanie Rabinowitz. I think he had really told her that he did business there.
And that is not an uncommon thing to see in any city with people who are doing business,
especially something like sales. NARRATOR: Whether Craig's interest in Delilah's was
professional or personal, it certainly didn't explain Stephanie's death. That would have to come from the forensic accountants.
In the 12 months before his wife's death, Craig Rabinowitz spent almost $100,000
in Delilah's Den, an upscale gentleman's club in Philadelphia. Investigators searched the Rabinowitzs' home
for financial records, interested to know how Rabinowitz could afford this kind of spending.
-He was a latex glove salesman, but nobody could really find a lot of latex gloves.
NARRATOR: But detectives did find a hidden crawl space in the bedroom closet. -So basically I just lifted up the board covering
the crawl space, looked around, didn't see anything, but felt around the top of the crawl space,
and found this bag. And it turned out to be a shopping bag filled with a lot of paperwork.
NARRATOR: The paperwork included credit card receipts for Delilah's Den, hotel receipts, and gifts
he had purchased for his favorite stripper. There was also pornography. -Basically, Craig Rabinowitz's double life
was squirreled away in the crawl space of the top of his home. NARRATOR: The bag contained pawn shop tickets
proving Craig pawned Stephanie's heirloom jewelry just after she died. The bag also contained an accounting ledger, possibly
for Craig's surgical gloves business. But investigators weren't sure. -They brought a forensic accountant,
which I'd never been involved with before. And he uh, very thoroughly and systematically went
through every bill that Rabinowitz had. NARRATOR: Ric Zayas is an expert at finding the real cost
or value in accounting records that have been written in a way to hide their true meaning.
RICARDO ZAYAS: He was describing importing containers of these latex gloves from overseas,
that the cost of a container would be $20,000 or $22,000 per container, that he was then going to be able to sell
those containers for twice that amount. That was the pitch. Sounds too good to be true.
NARRATOR: It was too good to be true. Zayas discovered that Craig's latex glove distribution
company had never bought or sold a single glove. The only money coming into the company
was funds from investors, Craig's family and friends whom he was scamming with a Ponzi or pyramid scheme.
-So the money from investor two was now going back repay investor one, and just keeping that cycle running.
NARRATOR: And Zayas learned that Craig paid no office or warehouse rent anywhere in Philadelphia.
The closest thing Craig had to an office was his seat at Delilah's strip club. JIM NOLAN: When his family, when his wife, when
his friends, when his in-laws thought he was out making sales calls for his latex glove business, at least one, two,
three days a week, Craig Rabinowitz was in dark, air conditioned strip club in a back room,
getting couch dances and lap dances by a 24-year-old stripper. NARRATOR: Zayas estimated Craig was
in debt to the tune of $800,000. He owed most of it to his shareholders, who had invested in his non-existent business,
and who wanted their money back at some point with a profit. Apparently, not even Stephanie knew what was going on.
-Of all the people that Craig conned, quite clearly uh, he-- he conned Stephanie the most.
NARRATOR: And the forensic accounting identified a possible motive for murder. On the In side of the handwritten ledger,
were amounts that corresponded to the life insurance policies on Stephanie, including $1.5 million worth,
which Craig had just purchased. The Out side of the ledger listed the amount owed to each of Craig's investors.
He made small, token payments to pacify them, and through a series of financial calculations,
Zayas was able to tell when they were made. -They were only accurate for a limited period of time
during the middle part of April of 1997, leading to an inference that the document was prepared about two
weeks before Stephanie Rabinowitz was murdered. JIM NOLAN: Craig Rabinowitz, it was
very apparent to the investigators at that time, had literally done an accounting of the value
of killing his wife. NARRATOR: The insurance payout not only would have eliminated
Craig's debt, but also allowed him to continue his extravagant relationship with Summer,
and still not have to work for a living. All of this showed motive, but if the medical examiner didn't
rule Stephanie's death a homicide, it was salacious, but little else. After Stephanie Rabinowitz's death,
her family wanted a quick burial, in accordance with their religious customs. But it was Dr. Ian Hood who overruled that request,
in order to perform a full autopsy. And almost immediately, that decision paid big dividends.
The first clue was the food found in Stephanie's stomach. IAN HOOD: We know she very recently ingested a meal.
In this case, shrimp and bean sprouts were quite clearly seen with very little digestion having occurred in the stomach
contents. So she obviously died probably within an hour or two of ingesting that meal.
NARRATOR: That meant Stephanie died around 10:30 PM. But Craig didn't call 911 until after midnight.
Dr. Hood also discovered small bruises on Stephanie's right elbow and knee. And he saw tiny red marks on her forehead and around her eyes.
These petechial hemorrhages form when tiny blood vessels burst because the blood flow is constricted.
Dr. Hood then examined and dissected the neck muscles. IAN HOOD: She had some more subtle bruises and abrasions,
very hard to see, on her neck, where there'd been clearly as I found out from looking at beneath the skin,
hard gripping of the upper neck. NARRATOR: Toxicology tests showed Stephanie had taken
a higher than normal dose of a prescription sleep medication. A check of local pharmacies revealed
the drug had been prescribed for Craig, not Stephanie. Dr. Hood concluded that Stephanie
had been drugged, and then strangled to death. Stephanie was finally laid to rest in her family plot.
Immediately after the burial, police brought Craig Rabinowitz in for questioning.
During the interview, Craig told the same story as he did on the night of Stephanie's death--
that he had been watching a hockey game on TV when Stephanie went in to take a bath,
and no one else had been in the house. That's when police revealed the evidence that proved Stephanie
was dead for two hours before he called 911, and that the autopsy proved she had been strangled.
Prosecutors concluded that the motive was money. BRUCE CASTOR: He had dug himself into this deep hole
financially. Now part of it is lavishing money on the stripper. But that he needed to have that cash so that he could get out
of debt, because clearly he could have divorced his wife, and run off with the stripper if she would have had him.
But I don't think she'd have him if she found out that he was broke. NARRATOR: Craig had stretched his business
scam as far as it could go. His investors wanted their money back, and were putting pressure on him.
BRUCE CASTOR: We had evidence in the case that indicated the they were expecting to get their money
at the end of April. Well the murder was in the last week in April. NARRATOR: And despite Craig's denials,
his credit card receipts told investigators that he was visiting local hotels, possibly with Summer.
-On some of those receipts, there was room service for two people. So we assumed that he was going there with her.
NARRATOR: Prosecutors believe Craig set his plan in motion after they returned home from dinner in the Thai restaurant.
Before going to bed, Craig spiked Stephanie's drink with his prescription sleep medication,
more than enough to knock her out. He carried Stephanie upstairs, removed her clothes,
and placed her in the bathtub to drown her. But the bath water revived her. Her bruised elbows and knees showed Stephanie struggled,
but she had no chance. The forensic evidence shows he gripped her around the neck,
and held her under water. Frightened by what he had done, Craig waited two hours to call 911.
-The gamble that Craig Rabinowitz engaged in was that we would not conduct an autopsy.
JIM NOLAN: I think the autopsy decision was a very critical decision. I think because when it first came across,
the outward appearances of it was that a horrible accident had taken place. There were sensitivities, I think,
in trying to be sensitive to the family's wishes to bury Stephanie under Jewish custom,
and to bury her within a day of her death. NARRATOR: But the autopsy found the petechial hemorrhages,
the neck bruising, and the two hour delay between her death and the 911 call. The forensic accounting uncovered the motive.
When he was charged with first degree murder, Craig Rabinowitz pleaded not guilty.
But on his first day in court, he had a change of heart. He said his wife appeared to him in a dream
and convinced him to end the trial and confess to what he had done. IAN HOOD: I think that's complete nonsense.
I think he plead guilty for selfish reasons. He knew that we would spend several weeks just completely
annihilating his character in front of the whole world, including his mother and friends and whatnot.
JIM NOLAN: Craig Rabinowitz, if this proved anything, was a selfish, self-absorbed, weak person.
And I think the prosecutor saw his plea not just as a heartfelt act of contrition to help the families, but as
a self-serving, cowardly act, that allowed him to avoid truly confronting and articulating in public the detail
and the exact nature of he had done. NARRATOR: Craig Rabinowitz was sentenced to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. MITCHELL BACH: I had no doubt that this would work out,
and Craig would be convicted. What this was doing to Stephanie's family had a much more immediate impact on me.
And I think they really needed closure. They needed a full understanding of what had occurred.
And to me, that's what the forensic evidence did. [theme music]

In an affluent suburb of Philadelphia, police were called to the scene of what appeared to be an accidental drowning. The investigation gradually focused on one person, a suspect who had more than a million reasons to want the victim dead.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

Craig Rabinowitz murdered his wife Stephanie to cover financial troubles and maintain a double life.

Key points

Mysterious Death of Stephanie Rabinowitz. A young mother dies mysteriously after dinner, leaving behind a grieving husband and child.
The Investigation Begins. Police receive a frantic 911 call from Craig Rabinowitz, leading to a tragic discovery.
Uncovering Secrets. Detectives find evidence of Craig's double life and financial troubles linked to Stephanie's death.
The Shocking Autopsy Results. An autopsy reveals that Stephanie was drugged and strangled, contradicting Craig's story.
Craig's Confession. In a surprising turn, Craig pleads guilty, claiming his wife's spirit urged him to confess.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Some time people die for unexplained reasons.

Doctor's explanation of Stephanie's death.

1:39WatchJan 14, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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