Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 24 - Metal Business - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] just after opening a vintage car restoration business phil rouse became seriously ill
doctors had difficulty finding the cause but to forensic scientists it looked like foul play
[Music] [Music] [Music] from the day he found an abandoned model a ford in an old cotton warehouse phil
rouse knew that vintage automobiles would be his life for most of his career phil was a
salesman in 1997 he quit to finally pursue his dream of starting an antique car restoration business
he called it top quality and it was housed in a garage near his home in bartlett tennessee
phil was real excited about going into business he had that was his dream to no one's surprise
the shop was successful from the day it opened and with that success came the need to
expand for capital phil turned to his best friend and next door neighbor steve white
who was anxious to invest in the business in exchange for part ownership bill's good friend kimo coelho also
joined the company as a matter of fact uh everybody was happy with the with the way things were going everybody was
happy we got off to a good start it was phil's knowledge talent and experience that made the company so
on them since i successful 15 years old i guess i bought my first antique car when i was i think i was 16.
when phil rouse became ill just two months after the shop opened it was a serious blow
i got to where i didn't have any energy and my stomach gave me a lot of trouble i had trouble with digestion
i had severe chest pains my hands and feet began to get numb and to make matters worse
medical tests couldn't find the cause i had an ultrasound done a cat scan and an ultra ultrasound
and all those tests came up negative inexplicably bill's condition continued to get worse
he lost 30 pounds and had difficulty walking and his cognitive abilities were also affected
he came home and he says joe i think i've got alzheimer's i'm getting alzheimer's
and i said why phil he said i've i forgot my way to the shop to protect his investment while phil was
ill steve white ran the day-to-day operations of the business by december phil was convinced
he was going to die i was so sick that night i was in such bad pain that i actually took my shirt off and
laid on the kitchen floor on the linoleum i thought maybe that cold floor would take the pain and burning out of
my stomach restoring automobiles sometimes involves chemicals and solvents that can cause
illness if the workplace isn't properly ventilated phil wondered whether this had been his problem
but his doctors were doubtful since no one else in the shop became ill [Music] then phil became convinced
that someone was trying to kill him [Music] so he went to police headquarters with
an unusual request he said if he died he wanted the police to perform an autopsy because
he thought someone was poisoning him the police were skeptical i noticed that the other detectives were
walking around and in fact one of them was kind of doing this and i got upset i got i got i got very
aggravated with that phil's family thought he was exaggerating i wanted proof that something was being done to him
and uh i always said you should have waited nothing in the world could have convinced me that i was wrong that night
or i'd have never gone to the police station if you didn't think it took some cajones to go on the police station
you're wrong phil was desperate he was afraid that nothing would be able to save his life
just months after opening his vintage car restoration business phil rouse was so sick he could no
longer run the business on a day-to-day basis his best friend next door neighbor and
business partner steve white was now running the business my business partner told me not to worry
about it he said if you're sick you stay home stay home and get well while sitting home phil rouse heard
rumors that his company wasn't paying its bills we were taking money in but money was never
distributed back to our suppliers to pay their bills rouse went to the bank and discovered
the 10 company checks written by his partner had bounced because of insufficient funds
and he also learned why the company had no money and when i got copies of the checks i
can be honest with you i was not happy with what i saw he was paying for his personal cell
phone bill 70 80 a month he was paying for his own military insurance he was making checks to this local wine and
spirits company somewhere close a store buying booze and phil noticed that steve white had
written a check to a company called american national for twenty seven dollars when he didn't recognize the company
rouse decided to call she said it's life insurance i says can you tell me more about it she
said well it's for a hundred thousand dollars and uh the beneficiary and owner of the
policy is steve allen white but the life insurance policy wasn't on steve white's life
it was on phil rouses and there was no reciprocal policy on steve white's life naming rouse as the
beneficiary leona white says her husband did nothing wrong that they were only trying to
protect their investment in the event of phil's death steve wasn't into auto restoring his involvement in the
business had been more from a business management standpoint we kept trying to have business meetings
so we could see the checkbook which we have never seen and every time we go to have a meeting steve
would get up and get angry and storm out of the house so we were getting a little bit
suspicious the final straw came when steve white closed the company's bank accounts without telling phil
who found out through the bank teller she said well mr white came in two days ago
walked out of the bank with uh 2 943 dollars and closed the account and she said the reason i mentioned to
you mr rouse is because there were checks outstanding and he said he didn't care he just wanted the money rouse
believed that as 50 owner of the business he had the power to halt all such transactions
but he was wrong when phil's lawyer reviewed the partnership agreement he discovered that
phil only owned two percent of the business steve white owned the remaining 98 well i signed a lot of things in 1997.
if steve came over and said you need to sign this because this is whatever we signed it
he was completely duped into signing this contract phil now began to suspect his partner
and decided to visit dr kevin marigian one of the top forensic toxicologists in the united states
he was one of the worst cases that i had seen so i mean it's very very sick and i said well i think i'm being
murdered i don't know how i don't know how i don't know what's being used on me dr morigian analyzed phil's urine tests
which had been done earlier and he also performed a physical examination but before the results were in
phil had more bad news all of the business assets he brought with him to the company which included
the building and real estate had been transferred to his partner steve white and put up for sale
phil rouse was not only dying he was now penniless phil rouse began to suspect that the improprieties in his business
and his suspicions of being poisoned might somehow be related mr rouse wasn't very functional if you would say
cognitively he had a lot of the he had inability to concentrate focus he was very anxious
define the cause of the illness phil's urine was sent for a heavy metals test the test revealed
phil had arsenic in his system a level of 63 is in the high range but far from lethal
normally there is no arsenic in one system unless the person has consumed large amounts of seafood which phil had
not he said mr ass do you know of anybody that wants you that might want you dead
i said what are you telling me dr morigian suspected phil was being poisoned the poisoned cells
do not continue to exhibit arsenic in them arsenic does the damage and then it's
excreted from the body or it's sequestered in the bone so by any measure you're not going to be
able to identify the actual compound itself even though the damage is there phil tried to recall anything suspicious
about the time he spent with his partner steve white and then he remembered every time he and steve had a meal or a
drink together bill's health deteriorated i noticed that several times we ate together i'd get sick afterwards the
next day or two and i just kept getting sick every time we eat together i'd get sick
even more alarming steve white was a chemist by training and taught chemistry at the local high
school as a final forensic test dr morigian gave bill rouse very specific instructions
i told him don't cut your hair and then i would be able to clip it and send it to a laboratory
for analysis when someone is exposed to poison it goes through the body and is usually
excreted but it also gets deposited in the hair root at the time of exposure when the hair grows out the shaft
becomes an historic record of when the exposure took place when phil's hair grew longer
a strand was sent for an icp test which tests for 22 different metal components at the same time
hair grows at a pretty regulated rate and someone could take the a shaft of hair divide it into
segments and determine you know what was present a month ago what was present two months ago
depending on that piece placement on the original shaft the hair was cut into quarter inch
pieces marked then each piece was placed in a separate vial mixed with acidified water
and boiled for seven hours this cocktail was then put through the icp the test results
were startling [Music] when phil was in the hospital his hair showed no exposure to poison
but prior to that when phil was living at home dr morigian found traces of another
poison mercury i believe that he was ingesting it i didn't know who or why it would be delivered to him
but i had no doubt that he was poisoned with heavy metals state law requires that police be
notified when any poison is found in someone's system when the bartlett police department
learned of the poisoning and the financial dispute between phil and his partner they took out a search warrant
to search steve white's home i thought that at that time well now we have something to look into
and we were going to investigate it as a criminal matter [Music] in white's backyard in a storage shed
they found a laboratory it kind of looked like a little mini science lab like a chemistry lab
makeshift lab you know there were several different jars of unusual looking powders
strange looking like burners and things like that that you would see in a science lab
leona white says the reason her husband had the lab was for their children as a way to interest them in science
he would do things like mix baking powder and vinegar to make a volcano but investigators soon discovered items
in the shed that were anything but child's play in a glass jar labeled baking powder
forensic scientists found traces of mercury and arsenic the arsenic was a special formulation
which won't be identified here except to say it was odorless and tasteless detective bailey confronted white with
the lab results and he had told me that was crazy absurd and ridiculous he said there's no way there's arsenic
in that i tell you what bring it to me and i'll drink every bit of it a few minutes later he had said if i was
going to kill this guy i sure wouldn't use arsenic i'd do it with something much quicker and legal
everything in his statement that he gave to the police a 21-page rambling statement
was false and i'm not even sure if steve white is his real name a search of the car restoration office
produced an envelope found hidden behind the electrical panel analysis of the materials inside
revealed arsenic antimony mercury and lead each a highly toxic metal a forensic document examiner compared
the handwriting on the envelope to known samples of steve white's and concluded they were both similar
steve white was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of phil rouse but important questions remained
how did the poisons get into phil rouse's body [Music] forensic toxicology proved phil rouse
had been poisoned by heavy metals and similar poisons were found in the home of his business partner steve white
but prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to show how phil rouse was poisoned we were never able to prove conclusively
how he got these compounds into mr rouse's system we were able to prove that he had ample
opportunity phil rouse recalled a number of incidents with steve white marked by
unusual behavior prior to his illness phil and steve were having dinner at a local restaurant
not long after placing their order white complained about the poor service he got up and went into the kitchen
and came back with phil's entree but not his own there was another incident involving a
bottle of wine mr white made a bottle of wine brought it to mr rouse insisting that he drink
all of it and insisting that he get the the bottle back because he wanted to give mr ralph
some more and white would often visit phil at home to share a cup of coffee and talk about
work but phil says steve would frequently ask phil to get something from another room
leaving steve alone with the coffee phil and kimo coelho both recalled a time when white offered to get them
hamburgers for lunch after eating these they became they both became very ill and they actually made a joke about how
they're never going to send steve white after food again because it's going to make us sick again
when confronted with the evidence steve white denied any involvement with phil's illness
his lawyer claimed that the accusations were circumstantial and that there was no proof white was in any way involved
the defense also pointed out that the lab results showed only trace amounts of the various heavy metals in rousey's
body but never a lethal amount the prosecution claimed this was intentional that mr white wanted phil to
die slowly after a prolonged illness so there would be no suspicions i hate to say ideal but it actually is
the ideal way of trying to harm someone because if you're not focused or you're not suspicious of it
the physician won't see it the fact that there were poisons found the amount of these poisons that it
would take to kill mr rouse was irrelevant the mere fact that the defendant had arsenic
antimony lead mercury at his disposal was the relevant fact the prosecution says
the motive was money that phil rouse's death would have enabled white to get out of debt
white had over 90 thousand dollars in credit card debt a substantial amount for a public school teacher
the prosecution subpoenaed several waitresses from the bartlett area all attractive women with the same story
they said steve white was a very generous tipper in one instance for a fifteen dollar
check white tipped the waitress sixty dollars a hundred thousand dollar life insurance
policy could pay his way out of debt if mr rouse had died he would also had inherited a hundred percent of a
of a small business after a week-long trial the jury found steve white guilty of
first degree attempted murder theft and sales tax violations he was sentenced to 31 years in prison
if it hadn't been for the heavy metals test and dr morgan running all the tests on my husband he would have been
dead his antique automobile restoration business is now closed to this day white maintains his
innocence these people were our friends for 14 years i mean we thought they were our
friends i i couldn't believe that he had made that that charge against steve i know steve didn't do it
phil still has numbness in his extremities and is unable to walk due to nerve damage
this guy that i know he was my business partner he's going to jail i don't know for how long
i don't know i may be crippled the rest of my life i said two families are devastated
who won today you tell me tell me you won here today [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Doctors cannot pinpoint the source of a businessman's illness.

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

Phil Rouse suspects his partner poisoned him for financial gain, leading to a dramatic investigation and attempted murder charges against Steve White.

Key points

Suspicion of Foul Play. Doctors struggled to find the cause of Phil's illness, leading to suspicions of foul play.
Phil Rouse's Illness. Phil Rouse became seriously ill just months after opening his vintage car restoration business.
Discovery of Poisoning. Tests revealed Phil had arsenic and mercury in his system, raising alarms about poisoning.
Steve White's Arrest. Steve White was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Phil Rouse.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I think I've got Alzheimer's.

3:00WatchDec 10, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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