Naman Shrestha
In October 2017, a recently widowed mother and grandmother, Violet Yacobi, was found dead in her home in Beverly Hills, California. The tragedy sent shockwaves across the entire community. The detectives delved deeper into the case and came across incriminating forensic evidence that led them to the shocking perpetrator. All the intricate details of the case and the investigation that ensued are explored in CBS’ ’48 Hours: Beverly Hills 911,’ which features exclusive interviews with Violet’s loved ones and the officials who solved the case.
Violet Yacobi Was Found Deceased in Her Lavish Beverly Hills Home
Born on January 8, 1950, Violet Dzhanashvili Yacobi was the beloved daughter of Ruben and Eteri Dzhanashvili. Raised in the Soviet Union and Israel, she relocated to the States in the 1980s with her husband, Solomon Yacobi, who was a general practitioner, and their two children, Dina and Daniel Simon Yacobi. Apart from being a devoted wife and doting mother, Violet also loved teaching piano and shopping with her friends. In 2016, she became engulfed with grief after her soulmate and husband passed away. For the following months, the widowed mother of two and grandmother of one mourned her loss. After about a year of grieving, Violet began to resume her social life and planned to visit her family in Israel. Just when her life began looking up once again, fate intervened and shattered her dreams of the future.
On October 10, 2017, when her brother called her and she didn’t pick up, he and other members of her family became worried about her well-being. Her brother asked Dina and Daniel to visit their mother at her Beverly Hills mansion that evening and check if she was alright. When her two grown-up children entered the house, they found Violet lying unconscious near the foot of the staircase. They notified the authorities about the same, and they arrived at the scene to find the 67-year-old dead. Initially, they suspected that she had died from an accident or suicide as the scene was devoid of any forced entry or signs of foul play. However, when the autopsy revealed that she died of asphyxiation the day before, a homicide investigation was immediately launched.
Violet Yacobi’s Killer Was Motivated by Greed and Hatred Towards Her
As part of the investigation, the detectives spoke with multiple witnesses, including Violet Yacobi’s friends and family members. With the help of a high-tech crime task force, they searched computers and electronic devices to uncover critical evidence. Upon talking to her son, Daniel, the investigators noticed several inconsistencies in his story that contradicted what they found at the crime scene. He also posted on social media after the tragedy, calling Violet an amazing mother and saying he missed her every day. As they dug deeper into his life, they learned that the Boston University graduate worked as a dentist in offices around the Los Angeles area and had opened a practice in Simi Valley, too. By 2015, Daniel was reportedly struggling to keep his business afloat and get by. According to one of his neighbors, he had started to despise his mother, whom he claimed was very controlling.
The neighbor also claimed Daniel told him that his parents pushed him into dentistry, something he had no interest in. While interviewing a family friend, the authorities learned that Daniel, who was considered a person of interest, allegedly asked him about inheritance tax, just a few weeks prior to Violet’s murder. Upon going through a list of Daniel’s internet searches, the detectives noticed that he had searched “does the choke hold create a bruise?” online. Moreover, surveillance footage showed that his car was parked in the alley behind his mother’s house around 4 pm on the fateful day, placing him at the crime scene. The investigators theorized that he then went inside the house and strangled his mother to death. Armed with enough evidence against him, the authorities arrested Daniel Yacobi on February 12, 2018.
Two days later, he was officially charged with one count of murder. After several years of delay, his homicide trial finally began on July 21, 2025. The prosecution told the jury that Daniel was motivated by greed, as he stood to inherit half of his mother’s $12 million estate. Besides presenting the evidence against the defendant, they also called several witnesses to testify against him. The defense attorney argued that a forensic pathologist concluded that Violet died from blunt force trauma consistent with a fall from a second-story balcony. They also highlighted that the defendant had secured a $1 million loan for a dental practice in Inglewood, California, indicating that he didn’t need money. Ultimately, on August 22, 2025, the jury found Daniel guilty of first-degree murder, and on October 3, he received a life imprisonment sentence without the possibility of parole.
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