Criminal Investigations
... were dead, they were struck throughout the body be their offenders. Jose and Kitty Menendez were the victims of this cruel and unusual act. Their killers were their two sons, Erik and Lyle. After the crime was completely commited, Lyle called 911 emergency line and stated that he came home and found that both of his parents had been murdered. It was just a minute or so before Officers Butkus and Czarnocki arrived at the house. Detective Les Zoeller was notified almost immediately. Upon Detective Zoeller’s arrival he observed that nothing had been stolen from the house. With no signs of robbery, Detective Zoeller believed that the killers were linked to the victims in some way. After Erik Menedez interviewed with the Detectives, he made efforts to contact someone he could confide in. He finally made contact with his psychotherapist, Dr. Jerome Oziel. During a session that the two held, Erik leaned onto a pole and confessed to Dr. Oziel that he and his brother committed the murder. However, with strict patient-doctor confidentiality laws in California, Dr. Oziel was not allowed to tell police what Erik had told him. Although Erik confessed the crime to his doctor, he failed to keep it as just the doctor knowing about the crime. Craig Cignarelli, a friend of Erik, told detectives that he visited Erik some time shortly after the murders. He also said that in this visit, Erik asked if he wanted to know how “it” happened. This questioned was followed by another detailed confession from Erik. Although the police had two testimonies stated the Erik confessed that he and his brother committed the crime, it was still a breakthrough when they finally had some hard evidence. This much desired hard evidence came forward on March 5, 1990. On this day, Judalon Smith, the owner of a audiotape duplicating business, came forward with tapes of the sessions between Dr. Oziel and Erik. Ms. Smith and Dr. Oziel were friends and Dr. Oziel asked his friend to tape the sessions. Although he only wanted to keep the tapes for his own records, he decided that he and Ms. Smith should turn them in when he was confronted by the Menendez brothers. During the confrentation, Erik and Lyle told Dr. Oziel that they would kill him if he spoke to anyone about the murder. Even though the tapes were in the custody of the polic...