Parents Of Accused Toxicologist Speak Out

SAN DIEGO -- While Kristin Rossum stands accused of poisoning her husband with drugs she took from her job as a chemist for the County Medical Examiner's Office, her parents spoke of their belief in her innocence.

The 24-year-old former child model (pictured, left), who graduated summa cum laude and had a promising career in chemistry, is now charged with murder.

Rossum's husband, Greg de Villers, died in the couple's bedroom with his head resting on a photo from their wedding. Nearby lay a love letter to his wife from another man. And reminiscent of a fantasy scene from one of her favorite movies (American Beauty), rose petals were found scattered around his body.

"My reading on that is, this was Greg telling Kristin, not in a letter but symbolically, that the romance, that could be embodied in a single rose, was now over," Kristin's father, Ralph Rossum, told 10News.

Rossum's parents believe that de Villers committed suicide. At first, police thought so too, but the Sheriff's crime lab found an overdose of fentanyl, a strong painkiller sometimes given to cancer patients.

A supply of that drug is missing from the medical examiner's lab where Kristin Rossum worked, and she was in charge of the log kept on the drugs.

Prosecutors say that Rossum wanted her husband dead because he was about to inform on her methamphetamine abuse and the affair she was carrying on with her boss at the medical examiner's office.

Rossum was fired from her job for allegedly using drugs. Her boss and boyfriend was fired too, for not reporting her. Michael Robertson, an expert on "knock-out" drugs, left the United States for his native Australia.

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Ralph Rossum Defends His Daughter

Rossum's parents (pictured, right) say that their daughter's affair with Robertson is no motive for murder.

"Kristin made very bad moral judgments there. On the other hand, in this day and age, one doesn't engage in homicide to keep an event of that sort quiet, given how rampant and widespread it is in our society," Ralph Rossum said.

As for the fentanyl missing from the medical examiner's lab, Rossum's parents say that still does not mean that she killed her husband.

"Who knows how long that fentanyl may have been missing?" Ralph Rossum said.

The Rossums say that de Villers knew about fentanyl and that he had taken it when his wisdom teeth were pulled. They say that it makes sense that he would use it kill himself.

Prosecutors counter that Kristen Rossum's story does not make sense. The autopsy on de Villers' body showed that he slipped into a coma six to 12 hours before he died, though Rossum said that he was fine when she came home that day for lunch.

When she returned home again later in the evening, Rossum claims not to have noticed the rose petals scattered around her husband who lay unconscious on the bed.

Constance Rossum said that her daughter did not notice the rose petals, "because they were under the covers."

Greg de Villers' family and friends were immediately suspicious of the story and became more so after hearing that Rossum planned to donate her husband's eyes and vital organs, and have his body cremated.

DeVillers' former boss, Dr. Stephan Gruenwald, said that the examination of eye fluid is critical to a poisoning investigation.

Attorney James Porcorney says that he got a judge to block the cremation.

The sheriff's crime lab report came back with a finding of massive amounts of fentanyl, and Kristin Rossum was charged with murder.

A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Oct. 9.