While She Slept: A Husband, a Wife, a Brutal Murder

Jill Cahill joked to her sister that if her husband Jeff killed her, her sister could have her belongings. Days later, Jill was in a coma at a Syracuse hospital with a shattered skull from a severe beating by her 37-year-old husband. She died six months later. Jeff and Jill appeared to have a stable life with two children, a dog, and a house. However, their marriage was troubled by serious financial problems and pending divorce. Though legally separated, they continued living in the same house until Jill could afford to move out. On April 21, 1996, they had a heated argument while their children slept upstairs. Jeff claimed his wife attacked him with a kitchen knife, prompting him to strike her with a Louisville slugger. After nearly six months in a coma, as Jill began showing signs of recovery, she received a visitor. On October 27th, staff at University Hospital in Syracuse noticed a suspicious man in the hallway wearing a wig and outdoor boots. When Jill's nurse checked on her, she found the patient gasping for air with bruises around her mouth and white powder—later identified as cyanide—on her chest. While She Slept examines a case in which a man committed acts to prevent his wife from testifying against him.