Prominent Doctor Claims Late Wife Fell in Shower But Strange Injuries Cast Doubt

The corpse of Leslie Neulander confounded investigators. The wealthy philanthropist who had bouts of vertigo suffered a brutal slip-and-fall while taking a shower, said her husband, Dr. Robert Neulander, a prominent OBGYN in Dewitt, New York.

But Leslie’s head wound was so deep it cracked the bone to the base of her skull, exposing her brain, and she had strange wounds on her face and hand. Police could find no motive for killing this “vibrant” 61-year-old mom and no explanation for the sheer amount of blood in the bedroom and bathroom. Bent on getting to the bottom of the mystery, the district attorney turned to Leslie’s friend, Dr. Mary Jumbelic, a retired medical examiner, who helped police crack the case.

“They say that dead men tell no tales. Well, that’s not true. Dead men tell remarkable tales if you just look carefully enough,” said William Fitzpatrick, Onondaga County D.A., on Accident, Suicide, or Murder, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.

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The Morning of September 17, 2012

“Oh my God, there’s blood everywhere! Dad put her down! Her neck might be broken!” screamed Leslie’s 23-year-old daughter Jenna in a disturbing 911 call replayed on Accident, Suicide, or Murder.

Friend Megan Coleman, a news anchor with NBC3 in Syracuse, described Leslie as a “pillar of the community. She served on numerous boards… they were a power couple.”

Neulander told police that he hadn’t seen Leslie that morning until he found her crumpled on the shower floor, bleeding from the head. He explained they slept in separate bedrooms in their sprawling home because he was often summoned to the hospital at all hours.

After returning from his morning jog, Neulander placed a cup of coffee on his wife’s bedside table while she was in the shower, just like usual. It was Rosh Hashana, and they had plans to go to Temple later that day. It wasn’t until he checked on her a second time that he found her still in the shower, severely wounded. According to his police report, he rushed to Jenna’s room and urged his daughter to call 911, after which he returned to the shower and attempted CPR, but it was just too slippery. Neulander then moved Leslie’s body from the bathroom, down a short flight of steps, and to the bedroom, where he administered “vigorous” CPR to revive her.

“In the bathroom, the shower was still running when I got there,” stated Sgt. Michael Kurgen, one of the first patrol officers to arrive. “I knew Dr. Neulander. He was one of the rare OBGYNs in the county. He was my wife’s doctor at one point.”

The Mysterious Death of Leslie London Neulander

While the EMTs tried to save Leslie, Kurgen couldn’t help but notice the blood. There were stains on the bedroom carpet and splatter all over the nightstand, on the tiled floor, and in the bathroom. Leslie was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Any evidence in the shower could be washing away. I took a photograph… and then I shut the water off.” The officer also took samples from water bottles and the cup of coffee on the nightstand. “You never know if it could be something she ingested. At this point, we’re asking, is this an actual accident, or do we have a homicide?”

The question was quickly answered when the medical examiner ruled the death an accident and said her injuries were consistent with a "slip and fall" in the shower.

It’s not that uncommon to die in a bathroom, Fitzpatrick told show producers. “The one estimate I’ve seen from the Centers for Disease Control has it at about 2,500 a year who have suffered some type of catastrophic event, such as a heart attack or stroke, and then they fall and…there can be catastrophic injuries that accompany the fall.”

Dr. Mary Jumbelic “helped blow the case wide open”

While the community rallied around the Neulander family — having traditional Shiva at their house — rumors were swirling behind the scenes. Jumbelic, Leslie’s close friend, was the retired chief medical examiner of Onondaga County. She took all the talk of murder and marriage troubles with a grain of salt. Even when a mutual friend told her that she was at the house and saw an incredible amount of blood, Mary brushed her off initially. “I’ve heard people say, ‘That’s so much,’ and there’s a quarter-size drop of blood,” she told ASM.

But when she learned that Neulander was heading to Israel shortly after his wife's death, alarm bells went off. Jumbelic contacted her old colleague, “Fitz,” the D.A., with concerns that Neulander was leaving the U.S. for good.

Though the case was officially closed, Fitzpatrick couldn’t shake his suspicions and asked Jumbelic to come out of retirement to help. It was “a very jarring moment,” she recalled.

The crime scene photos provided to Jumbelic shocked, and she felt she must be looking at the wrong case. “It was so disparate with what had been concluded. The head wound was much more complicated than just falling in the shower.” Additionally, she noted wounds to the arm, face, neck, and nose, “all in locations that wouldn’t be involved from a simple fall,” and hand bruises that looked like defensive wounds.

“I realized that all my years of forensic experience and all my education were bringing me to a moment to stand up and witness for her," she said, adding her professional assessment was unequivocally homicide. 

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“A lot of little pieces of information slowly dripping in”

Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, had received an anonymous tip about the couple’s marriage and financial troubles. He discovered Neulander had been unfaithful, and they were getting a divorce. He was also embroiled in litigation with an insurance company over billing practices that had cost him millions. New York is a no-fault state, and their assets would be split in half. “That was another hit he was about to take,” quipped Fitzpatrick.

Many things were not sitting right. “You see someone in the shower. It appears she slipped and fell. The water is running. You love that person more than anything in the world. You turn the water off,” he said, adding, “There’s a four-inch step you have to walk down to get into the shower. Her head was below that step, she could have drowned.”

One EMT was skeptical of Neulander's claim that he had performed CPR on Leslie. What’s more, there was a working phone right outside the shower. He questioned, “Why do you need your daughter to call 911? What in the name of God would possess you in the first place to involve your daughter in this?”

Police put Neulander under the microscope

After interviewing Neulander’s employees, police discovered he had a volatile temper. Months before his wife’s death, his behavior changed at work, and he would allegedly scream at his employees. Police also turned up a mysterious 30-something man named Nevin Robi, who had been trading intimate texts with Leslie. Though many texts were sexual in nature, Robi maintained that he and Leslie were never physical.

But things took a turn when Neulander discovered his wife’s flirtation. “It enraged him,” recalled Coleman, who wondered, “Was that a potential motive for Bob Neulander to kill his wife?” According to police, Leslie had confided to Robi that her husband wasn’t handling the divorce well, and his behavior was scaring her.

Then, the couple's longtime housekeeper noticed a small but important detail when looking at police photos. The sheets that were on Leslie’s bed on Monday, the day she died, were not the sheets the housekeeper had put on the bed on Friday. They looked sloppy and haphazardly put on, and a pillow was missing.

It gave detectives enough pause to inspect the bedroom one last time. As luck would have it, Neulander had sold the house, and the new owners had yet to move in or renovate. When they lifted up the carpet, it was a horror show with blood pooled on the subflooring. “There was a massive blood stain at least three feet down from where her head would have been. The only explanation is that she was resting there for a period of time,” said Fitzpatrick.

Robert Neulander. Photo: Oxygen

“Dead bodies don’t bleed,” added Kurgen. “You have to have a working vascular system, the heart pumping circulating blood to keep bleeding.” Sgt. Lucas Byron noticed blood stains on the headboard, and told Accident, Suicide, or Murder the evidence strongly suggested Leslie was murdered in the bedroom.

Eighteen months after Leslie’s death, the medical examiner revised his ruling to homicide, telling the D.A., “I got this one wrong.”

Neulander was indicted on charges of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence (replacing the sheets, among other things) and stood trial in March 2015. His children and Leslie’s siblings came with him to court every day, noted Coleman. “His children and his extended family supported him unconditionally,” and he maintained his innocence through the trial. Despite a lack of a murder weapon or solid motive, he was found guilty.

Juror misconduct and a second trial

In an unexpected development, a juror was charged with misconduct after receiving thousands of texts during the trial, including one from her father that read, “Make sure he’s guilty.” The defense claimed juror misconduct, and the trial was thrown out.

In July 2018, Neulander’s son bailed him out of jail for $1 million, and he was suddenly a free man. Due to Covid-related delays, the second trial did not begin until February 28, 2022 — nearly a decade after Leslie’s death.

Advancements in forensic technology made the case against Neulander even stronger. The “bombshell,” as Coleman put it, was “a piece of fatty tissue found on the headboard,” which could have only come from Leslie’s head wound. It seemed clear that her deadly injury had happened in the bed and not in the shower. Advanced blood analysis turned up multiple droplets on the nightstand, including on the tissue box, the lamp shade, and the water bottles, “but there wasn’t a drop of blood on that pristine ivory cup of coffee. It was as clean as the driven snow, and that’s where he screwed up,” said Fitzpatrick. Investigators surmised that he placed the cup after murdering Leslie to stage the scene.

The jury unanimously found Neulander guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to 20 years to life.

After Leslie’s death, The Jewish Community Center of Syracuse named an award in her honor, which is given to someone who embodies her qualities of service and commitment to the community.

See new episodes of Accident, Suicide, or Murder, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.