meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Murder in the Hollywood Hills

Dateline Presents: Trace of Suspicion

Murder in the Hollywood Hills

NBC News

Keith Morrison, True Crime, News, Society & Culture, Nbc News, Dateline Nbc, Murder In The Hollywood Hills, Dateline, Nbc, Dateline Nbc Podcast

4.6 • 759 Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2026

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hey Dateline fans! As a bonus, we’re giving you a special preview clip of our new podcast series, Trace of Suspicion. After seemingly healthy 23-year-old Marine Todd Sommer dies unexpectedly, his widow Cindy’s lavish spending, cosmetic surgery, and wild partying raise investigators’ suspicions. They accuse her of poisoning him with arsenic for his life insurance, setting off a criminal case that takes a stunning turn... Josh Mankiewicz sits down with the woman at the center of it all in Dateline’s newest podcast. If you like what you hear, just search Trace of Suspicion to listen to the first two episodes now, completely free. Or subscribe to Dateline Premium on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or DatelinePremium.com. Subscribers get early access to new episodes and can listen to all Dateline podcasts ad-free.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, it's Josh Mancowitz from Dateline with a special preview of my new podcast called Trace of Suspicion.

0:14.6

Death comes for us all eventually. We can never know exactly when, where, or how.

0:22.2

What is known is that the Grim Reaper is always out there, waiting, checking our names against

0:28.7

a list, like some bill collector on commission.

0:33.3

United States Marine Sergeant Todd Summer had every reason to think his appointment with death

0:39.3

was still decades away. After all, he was only 23. Except sometimes the years don't matter.

0:49.5

As he got ready for bed that night in February 2002, the Reaper was watching. Todd had been battling

0:57.6

some kind of bug for more than a week. Nausea, diarrhea, stomach pains, chills, fever,

1:05.5

the full menu of misery. The doctors at the Miramar Marine Base in San Diego thought this might be food poisoning.

1:14.4

Maybe that gas station egg roll he had eaten.

1:18.4

We do not know how much sleep Todd Summer actually got that night.

1:23.2

We do know that at about 1.30 in the morning, his wife Cindy was awakened by the sound of her

1:29.6

husband gasping for breath. He got up and he walked towards the bathroom and turned around

1:35.6

and just looked at me and like just couldn't catch his breath. Years later, the memory of that

1:42.7

night is still fresh for Cindy.

1:45.0

I went over to him, I'm like, what's the matter?

1:47.0

He just looked at me and he said, I'm all right, I'm okay, I'm fine, and then you just fall down

1:53.0

and I just kind of freaked out.

1:57.0

That is Cindy back in 2002, on the phone to 911.

2:07.5

911, do you have to class?

2:10.0

What happened?

2:10.8

What happened?

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NBC News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NBC News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.