Shivangi Sinha
On the morning of November 13, 2016, Eric Scott Sills contacted 911, reporting that he discovered his wife, Susann Sills, unresponsive at the bottom of the stairs. Despite emergency aid efforts, Susann was pronounced deceased upon the arrival of medical and law enforcement personnel. Following the incident, a coroner’s report classified Susan’s death as a homicide. NBC’s ‘Dateline’ episode ‘If These Walls Could Talk’ delves into the evidence collected by the police, which implicated Eric, shedding light on the potential motive behind the crime.
Eric Scott Sills Told The Police His Wife Had Fallen Down The Stairs
After graduating from Harriman High School in 1983, Eric Scott Sills attended Vanderbilt University from 1985 to 1987 before enrolling at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he remained from 1988 to 1992. Despite the lengthy path to becoming a doctor, Sills remained steadfast in his commitment to his chosen profession. In 1992, he began his Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at NYU Downtown Hospital and finished it by 1996. Subsequently, he enrolled in the reproductive endocrinology fellowship at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical College until 1998.
After a busy week of surgery & procedures, time now to study the CAG datasets #crunchthenumbers pic.twitter.com/eY6bNoeEEF
— Dr. E. Scott Sills (@DrEScottSills) October 7, 2017
By 2016, Eric Scott Sills had established a settled life. He and Susann Sills had been married for over a decade and were raising twins, a daughter and a son named Mary-Katherine Estelle Sills and Eric Scott Sills II. In addition to their twins, Eric had two children from a previous relationship, Charles Alton Carmack Sills and Ann-Marie Carter Sills. The family had roots in Carlsbad, California, where the couple jointly founded a fertility clinic called the Center for Advanced Genetics in 2011. Eric served as the clinic’s managing director, while Susann took on the role of managing partner and co-founder of the business.
On the morning of November 13, 2016, Eric dialed 911 to report that Susann was unresponsive at the foot of the stairs and appeared to be deceased. Upon arriving at the residence, the police confirmed Susann’s condition. Eric informed them that she may have fallen down the stairs during the night due to a migraine and the medications she had taken, which could have caused drowsiness. However, the police harbored suspicions regarding Eric’s account of events.
In the daughter’s bedroom, where Susann had been sleeping the previous night, the police discovered blood splatters on the wall and curtains, along with a clump of hair. The couple’s 12-year-old children were home that night, and their son recounted hearing his parents arguing. Following Susann’s death, the authorities conducted a postmortem examination, and in 2017, it was concluded that she had died from strangulation, indicating that her death was not accidental but a homicide. As a result, suspicions quickly turned toward Eric.
Over the year that followed the report, the police gathered substantial evidence. Besides the blood found at the house, suspicious marks were observed on Susann’s neck and face. Additionally, investigators noted inconsistencies, such as the fact that the 911 dispatcher instructed Eric to lay his wife flat on her back and perform CPR until help arrived, yet upon police arrival, Susann’s leg was still positioned atop a staircase. This led authorities to suspect that the crime scene had been manipulated, with Eric attempting to create a connection between the stairs and his wife to assert his innocence.
The motive behind the crime remained murky to the police. Text exchanges between the couple revealed disagreements, with Susann expressing a need for space. Furthermore, investigators discovered that Susann had posted a topless picture of herself, which had sparked contention between the pair, leading authorities to speculate whether it played a role in Eric’s tipping point. The presence of a clump of hair and blood suggested a struggle had occurred. In 2019, Eric was formally indicted and charged with his wife’s murder.
Eric Scott Sills Has Been Convicted of Murder
Eric Scott Sills promptly posted bail following his arrest, sparing him from imprisonment. However, in 2022, his medical license was revoked, tarnishing his reputation as a renowned fertility doctor, physician, and researcher. The pre-trial hearing commenced in October 2022, with the trial officially beginning in December 2023. Throughout the proceedings, Eric maintained his defense that his wife’s demise resulted from a fall down the stairs induced by her medications and migraine.
Nonetheless, the evidence presented by the prosecutors proved to be overwhelmingly incriminating. Eric was convicted of second-degree murder in the case of Susann Sills and received a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. Presently 59 years old, he has been incarcerated at the Wasco State Prison in California since March 2024. He will become eligible for parole in 2033.
