“48 HOURS” INVESTIGATES IN “SHADOW OF DEATH”Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015 (10:00 PM, ET/PT)
Troy Roberts and 48 HOURS investigate the case against a young man who police say snuck into his family’s upscale California home and shot dead his parents and paralyzed a younger brother in “Shadow of Death,” to be broadcast Saturday, Oct. 10 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Andra and Brad Sachs were gunned down in their San Juan Capistrano home on Feb. 9, 2014. The intruder also shot their young son, shot at and missed another daughter, and left a third sibling untouched.
Police initially thought the wealthy couple was killed after a business deal went bad. However, a month after the shooting, the couple’s then-19-year-old son, Ashton, was charged with murder. It was a twist that no one saw coming, but it seems there were signs along the way.
What would cause a son to kill? And could this be the same person who delivered a loving eulogy for his parents at their funeral?
“There may be mental illness,” his aunt, Stephanie Garber, tells 48 HOURS.
According to family members, Ashton Sachs was an avid player of violent video games and had been fascinated with the sensational 1989 murders of an entertainment executive and his wife, who were killed by their sons, Lyle and Erik Menendez. Indeed, Sachs wrote a college term paper about the Menendez case.
“He called his parents and told them he got an A on it,” Garber tells 48 HOURS. “He gets A’s all the time. So why that particular paper? He was notifying them that he was particularly interested in the Menendez story.”
Ashton had also admitted to his aunt, Lesley Summers, he had bought a gun. “What do you need a gun for?” Summers recalls asking Ashton. “He goes, ‘For protection.’ And then Audra called me later and I said, ‘Why is Ashton shopping for a gun?’ And she goes, ‘What?’ She goes, ‘Oh, that’s not good.’”
There were signals that something was amiss with Ashton Sachs, suggests Ali Mattu, a highly respected child psychologist at Columbia University Medical Center, who reviewed the Sachs case for 48 HOURS. “I think what we have is an individual where there were a lot of warning signs of something that could happen,” Mattu says.
“He blamed his parents,” Los Angeles Times reporter and 48 HOURS consultant Jack Leonard, says of what Sachs told investigators. “He said he felt his parents didn’t trust him and that he was the least-favorite child out of the family.”
Ashton Sachs is scheduled to go on trial for the murders in March 2016. For now, Sachs remains in a California jail. His aunts say they’re the only family members who still talk to him.
“I told him to his face, ‘I hate what you did. It was a terrible thing, but we love you, you know? And we always will,’” Summers says.
“We always loved Ashton,” adds Garber. “How could you not have pity for somebody that’s locked up in a cell like that?”
Roberts and 48 HOURS report on the Sachs’ murders through interviews with forensic, medical and psychological experts, and with Leonard, Burghardt, Garber, Summers, attorney Mary Fulginiti, and others. 48 HOURS: “Shadow of Death” is produced by Chuck Stevenson and Judy Rybak. Greg Fisher, Michelle Fannucci and Avi Cohen are the development producers. George Baluzy and Michael Baluzy are the editors. Al Briganti is the executive editor. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.
AMERICAN CHEF & FOOD WRITER RUTH REICHL TALK ABOUT HER NEW COOKBOOK: MY KITCHEN YEAR
In the fall of 2009, the food world was rocked when Gourmet magazine was abruptly shuttered by its parent company. No one was more stunned by this unexpected turn of events than its beloved editor in chief, Ruth Reichl, who suddenly faced an uncertain professional future. As she struggled to process what had seemed unthinkable, Reichl turned to the one place that had always provided sanctuary. “I did what I always do when I’m confused, lonely, or frightened,” she writes. “I disappeared into the kitchen.”
ABOUT RUTH REICHL:
She was Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine from 1999 to 2009. Before that she was the restaurant critic of both The New York Times (1993-1999) and the Los Angeles Times (1984-1993), where she was also named food editor. As co-owner of The Swallow Restaurant from 1974 to 1977, she played a part in the culinary revolution that took place in Berkeley, California. In the years that followed, she served as restaurant critic for New Westand California magazines.
Ms. Reichl began writing about food in 1972, when she published Mmmmm: A Feastiary. Since then, she has authored the critically acclaimed, best-selling memoirs Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, Garlic and Sapphires, and For You Mom, Finally, which have been translated into 18 languages. In 2014 she published her first novel: Delicious!
Ms. Reichl hosted Eating Out Loud, three specials on Food Network, covering New York (2002), San Francisco (2003), and Miami (2003). She is the executive producer of Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, public television’s 30-episode series, which debuted in October 2006 and Executive Producer and host of Gourmet’sAdventures with Ruth, a 10-episode public television (2009.) She was also a judge on Top Chef Masters.
Ms. Reichl has been honored with 6 James Beard Awards (one for magazine feature writing and one for multimedia food journalism in 2009; two for restaurant criticism, in 1996 and 1998; one for journalism, in 1994; and Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America, 1984. In 2007, she was named Adweek’sEditor of the Year. She received the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, presented by the Missouri School of Journalism, in October 2007. Ms. Reichl received the 2008 Matrix Award for Magazines from New York Women in Communications, Inc., in April 2008. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in the History of Art from the University of Michigan and lives in Upstate New York with her husband, Michael Singer, a television news producer.
RUTHREICHL.COM
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