In the early morning hours of Sept. 22, 2020, a dramatic scene unfolded in a home on Canyon Oak Drive in Laredo, Texas. Police officer Gregorio De La Cruz entered the house, his body camera capturing the emergency before him.

Inside, at the top of the stairs near the main bedroom, Joel Pellot, dressed in teal surgical scrubs, was performing CPR on his wife Maria Muñoz. De La Cruz quickly took over.

Erin Moriarty: What condition was she in when you started giving her CPR?

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: She was warm. She was still warm to the touch.

As De La Cruz desperately tried to revive Maria, he questioned her husband about the drugs. Pellot had informed the 911 operator that his wife might have taken some pills.

Officer Gregorio De la Cruz: He stands up, he goes to the restroom. ... He opens a medicine cabinet. I can — I can tell all this because I hear it.

JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): I'm not really sure if she took them or she dropped them ...

Upon his return, he hands De La Cruz a pill container.

JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): It's clonazepam.

Clonazepam, a medication commonly prescribed for anxiety, had been given to Pellot, not his wife Maria.

In the midst of performing CPR, De La Cruz quickly discarded the pill container and continued with the life-saving procedure.

Pellot informed De la Cruz that Maria had been struggling with her mental health recently.

JOEL PELLOT (police bodycam video): Yeah, she's been super depressed.

Pellot mentioned to the officers that their two young sons were still asleep in separate bedrooms, seemingly unaware of their mother's situation.

OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (performing CPR on Maria): They are asleep?

JOEL PELLOT: Yeah.

According to Yazmin Martinez, Maria's friend, she was a devoted mother to her two boys, Alejandro (5 years old) and Valentino (turning 2).

Yazmin Martinez: Maria loved taking her children to the park and reading to them before bedtime. She was a truly dedicated mother.

Maria found fulfillment in being a stay-at-home mom. She was also learning to play the piano and had plans to restart her career.

Yazmin Martinez: I asked her if she had gone to school, and she said yes, that she was a nurse in Puerto Rico and was currently studying to take her test to work here.

Maria and Joel Pellot met in Puerto Rico, where Joel was a nursing student and 11 years older than Maria.

A few years after they married, the couple moved to Laredo, Texas. Pellot had landed a lucrative job as a nurse anesthetist, known in the medical profession as a CRNA.

Tina Dores: A nurse anesthetist, or a CRNA, certified registered nurse anesthetist and a physician anesthesiologist use the same medication, same techniques to provide anesthesia for people of all ages.

Tina Dores, also a CRNA, worked with Joel Pellot at Doctors Hospital in Laredo.

Erin Moriarty: Did he seem dedicated to his work?

Tina Dores: Yes, very much so. … he always wanted to be better.

Tina Dores: When I first met him … he was very family orientated … a hard worker, smart guy … he would always talk about … Maria and Alejandro … and showing pictures of his son and just talking about family life in general.

And now at the Pellot home, paramedics and police were struggling to save the life of the young wife and mother.

When more help arrived, De La Cruz sent Pellot downstairs to the kitchen. And that's when De La Cruz realized that the pill container he had tossed to the side earlier was now missing.

OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (police bodycam video): He had a prescription drug, where is it?

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: I was curious if he had them. So I inquired, "Hey, does he possess pills?" He approaches the first landing of the stairs and throws them to me.

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: So, he indeed had taken them. Consequently, I began to suspect that he was attempting to conceal something.

At 3:58 a.m., less than three hours after Joel Pellot had dialed 911, his wife, Maria Muñoz, aged 31, was pronounced deceased inside their residence.

The police initiated an inquiry into what had transpired with Joel's wife.

JOEL PELLOT (bodycam video): We engaged in sexual intercourse, I took a shower. Then I believed she was unconscious... And when I returned upstairs, she was just... oh God (covers his face with his hand and starts crying).

By this point, the investigators sensed that something was amiss. Additionally, there was something suspicious about Pellot's appearance.

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: He was excessively sweaty... I am wearing a vest, carrying a firearm, and almost 20 pounds of equipment, yet I am not perspiring as profusely as he was.

Erin Moriarty: So, what thoughts crossed your mind when you observed his level of perspiration?

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: He must be using drugs. It is possible that he is under the influence of drugs.

SGT. MATA (to the couple's sons): Do you want to see a fire truck? Come on, let's go outside.

The couple's children, now in the care of law enforcement, were escorted outside. Authorities immediately launched a death investigation.

Sgt. Luis Mata: When I get there, I meet with Officer De La Cruz. … He runs the information by me.

Lead investigator Sergeant Luis Mata didn't know if Maria had died by suicide, an accidental overdose, or if her husband was somehow involved. Mata knew he needed to search the house, but to do it he would have to get Pellot's permission.

Sgt. Luis Mata: And he said, "Well, I don't want you going through my stuff because I'm a very private man." … Then I said, "look Joel, I'm not going to force you to, this is your right, but … I'm going to have to go and get with my DA and apply for a search warrant.

Pellot eventually gave consent for the search. Still, Mata had a lot of questions. To get some answers, he directed authorities to put Pellot in a police cruiser to take him to the station.

Erin Moriarty: Could you see him before you went in?

Sgt. Luis Mata: I could see him … through my camera.

Sergeant Luis Mata: All the sounds were captured on tape … he was banging against walls, moving furniture … It was so loud that it scared some of the people in the dispatch room down the hall.

Sergeant Mata (to Joel Pellot): Are you holding up okay, man?

Around 4 a.m., Mata begins his interview with Pellot, who claims he had given Maria the container of clonazepam that was prescribed to him.

Sergeant Mata: Is it possible that she swallowed all of them?

Joel Pellot: I don't know, man, I don't know.

Sergeant Mata: How many pills were there before?

Joel Pellot: I don't know.

Sergeant Mata: Mas o menos? (More or less?)

Joel Pellot: I really don't know.

Sergeant Luis Mata: He couldn't remember even the smallest details … I don't know how many times I asked him – "retrace your steps from the moment you arrived – what did you do?" … and he kept saying, "What did I do? What did I do? What did I do?" … Well, you know what, if you remember the truth, you don't have to think about it.

ANOTHER WOMAN

Sergeant Mata (during police interview): How much time passed from when you got out of the shower … until you noticed she wasn't responding anymore?

Joel Pellot: Uh, 10 minutes? … I'm not 100 percent sure.

The sudden death of a healthy 31-year-old woman like Maria Muñoz didn't make sense to Mata. And neither did her husband's explanation.

Sgt. Luis Mata: According to his initial statement, he entered and took a shower, believing that she was asleep. However, after 10 minutes, he realized that she was unresponsive.

Sgt. Luis Mata: When an average person showers, what would you expect to find in the bathroom? Steam, condensation, the smell of soap or shampoo. However, the master bedroom shower, which he claimed to have used, was completely dry.

Investigators also discovered a syringe wrapper on the floor and a needle catheter on the stairs. Syringes and IV equipment were found inside the home.

SGT. MATA (police interview): Why would there be syringes in the home?

JOEL PELLOT: So, like, I don't know.

Then, Pellot makes a hand gesture and taps his bicep.

SGT. MATA: Steroids?

JOEL PELLOT: Yeah, for, that's me.

• Inside the Maria Muñoz case: A look at the evidence
  

With Pellot at the police station, Maria's close friend Angela Montoya and her husband Luis Ayala rushed over to the house to take care of the kids. Ayala, a coworker of Pellot, says he had begun to see changes in Pellot's physique and personality two years before Maria's death.

Luis Ayala: He lost a lot of weight and then started gaining muscle.

Erin Moriarty: Did you suspect that maybe he was taking steroids?

Luis Ayala: Maybe, but … I mean he was changing like … more friendly with girls …

Erin Moriarty: Flirting more.

Luis Ayala: Yeah.

The family man who once had bragged to friends and colleagues about his wife and kids began changing his social media posts, too.

Angela Montoya: He deleted the pictures of Maria, or he just started posting … everything by himself … not with his kids.

Pellot, in demand as a nurse anesthetist, was making a lot of money, and according to Montoya, he enjoyed showing off his wealth.

Angela Montoya: He has this new sporty car … "I bought Maria that one and I bought myself this one," bragging about it.

But friends say the changes they saw in Pellot went much deeper. In 2018, around the same time Maria gave birth to the couple's second son, Joel began pursuing a woman named Janet Arredondo, a surgical nurse, he met at work.

Angela Montoya: Joel took Janet to like a vacation spree in Europe. I don't recall which countries … he told me.

Erin Moriarty: Well, there was one trip—  there was Spain, and the next trip was France and Greece.

Angela Montoya: There you go. There you go. So, Maria found out about that while he was there with Janet.

According to a recent revelation by Maria, she discovered her husband's affair when she stumbled upon a plane ticket for one of his trips to Europe. This confirmation of her suspicion left her devastated and plunged her into a deep depression, leading to her being prescribed medication.

However, Maria found solace in her daily journals, which were discovered by investigators in her home:

I no longer want to be consumed by sadness.

I no longer want my heart to ache.

I no longer want my mind to be tormented.

Despite her pain, Maria held onto hope, believing that her faith could heal her 10-year marriage:

Lord, this burden is overwhelming,

All I desire is to witness change in him.

And it seemed like her faith was working. Just a few months after her husband's extravagant European vacations with his mistress, Pellot surprised Maria with a luxurious getaway in Las Vegas.

Angela Montoya: She even showed me some Louis Vuitton items that he had bought for her.

However, this second chance at their marriage was short-lived. Pellot could never fully detach himself from Janet.

SGT. MATA (during a police interview): How long have you been involved with Janet?

JOEL PELLOT: About two years.

SGT. MATA: And out of those two years, how long has Maria been aware of it?

JOEL PELLOT: (sighs) For a while. For a long while.

Sgt. Luis Mata revealed that Maria's cause of death was not due to an overdose of the drug clonazepam, as initially suspected. The autopsy conducted eight hours after Maria's death showed no pill residue in her stomach. However, investigators and the medical examiner discovered a small mark on Maria's right arm, which raised questions.

Sgt. Luis Mata described the mark as a tiny prick, similar to when a person has their blood checked at the doctor's office. This finding has added to the mystery surrounding Maria's death.

SUSPICIONS CONTINUE TO GROW AGAINST JOEL PELLOT

On a Sunday afternoon at the First Baptist Church in Laredo, a large crowd of family and friends came to mourn Maria Muñoz, including her estranged husband, Joel Pellot.

CHURCH SERVICE: The victorious life is — is also a life of service. … All of our lives were impacted by the precious life of Maria.

Yazmin Martinez: Her funeral was really sad … Joel was there and he was crying. He seemed very upset, very sad.

To Maria's friend Yazmin Martinez, he seemed a little too upset, too sad.

Yazmin Martinez: What made me feel angry … was him near the casket … crying over her, giving her kisses. Like why now? You have made her suffer and cry so much and you're doing this now?

Joel Pellot's display of grief did nothing to deter the investigation into his wife's death.

Sergeant Luis Mata and Officer Gregorio De La Cruz say that footage captured by the bodycam on the morning Maria died shows something curious. Remember the pills in a container that Pellot said his wife had taken? De La Cruz tossed it aside when he was giving Maria CPR.

OFFICER DE LA CRUZ (bodycam video): He had a prescription drug, where is it?

At some point it disappeared.

Erin Moriarty (watching the bodycam video): I see it's still here right now.

Sgt. Luis Mata: It's still there exactly.

Here's the sequence of events. According to witnesses, Pellot discreetly takes the pill container and conceals it in his pocket.

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz (observing the bodycam footage): He simply reached over and … slipped it right back into his shirt.

Officer Gregorio De La Cruz: If that's really what she took, why would you want to hide it?

There were also suspicions surrounding the needle catheter found at the scene, typically used for IVs. It is worth noting that Maria had a small mark on her right arm. Mata expressed his concerns to the Webb County District Attorney's Office.

Marisela Jacaman: We have a 24/7 hotline … and law enforcement can reach out to us with any inquiries.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Marisela Jacaman and District Attorney Isidro Alaniz were aware that proving the case would be challenging, especially since even the medical examiner was uncertain about the exact cause of Maria's death.

Erin Moriarty: The medical examiner is stating that they cannot definitively declare this as a homicide.

Conversation with the Medical Examiner

I recall a conversation I had with the medical examiner early on in the investigation. She made it clear that neither of us were present when the incident occurred. All we know is that the victim had a dangerous combination of drugs in her system. We cannot determine who gave her the drugs, if she already had them in her system, or if she took them later on.

Erin Moriarty: So, it could have been an accident or murder?

Isidro Alaniz: Yes, it could have been either an accident or murder.

The investigators began questioning Maria's friends and uncovered an incident that took place at Janet Arredondo's house on the Saturday before Maria's death. Maria had seen Pellot's car at the house, which led to a confrontation.

Angela Montoya: That's when Maria got out of the car and rang the doorbell.

According to Montoya, Maria was captured on Janet's doorbell camera and gave Pellot an ultimatum.

Angela Montoya: "Do you choose her, or do you choose me?" And then he says, "I choose Janet."

Police Involvement

Arredondo called the police, and when an officer arrived at her home, he contacted Maria who had already left with Pellot. The officer's body camera recorded Joel berating Maria in the background during the phone call:

JOEL PELLOT (cellphone video with Maria in the car): Hey, I'm f------ talking to you right now. Hang up the f------ phone.

RESPONDING POLICE OFFICER: I guess that's your boyfriend.

JANET ARREDONDO: Yeah.

According to Montoya, Maria informed her that Pellot became violent.

Angela Montoya: And he got so frustrated with everything that he punched the windshield.

Erin Moriarty: He broke it, didn't he?

Violent Outburst

Angela Montoya: Yes, he broke it. He punched the windshield in frustration.

On Sunday morning, Maria sent a message to her husband expressing her intention to hire a divorce lawyer. In response, he replied:

We can handle this without involving lawyers too much. It's too expensive.

However, it seems that Pellot had a change of heart and later sent Maria an email saying:

I feel so sad, it's hurting me inside... I want to sit down with you and have a peaceful conversation, without arguing. A heart-to-heart talk.

They agreed to meet on Monday night. Before Pellot arrived, Maria reached out to her friend Yazmin Martinez and asked her to pray for her:

... I just ask if you can pray for me... tonight we are going to talk...

Yazmin Martinez: And then I replied... I told her that I would pray for her.

Maria's request for prayers that night would be her final message to Martinez. Tragically, Maria passed away early Tuesday morning.

Nearly four months after Maria's death, Sergeant Mata and Officer De La Cruz finally received the results of the toxicology test they had been waiting for.

Sgt. Luis Mata: Zero clonazepam.

Sgt. Luis Mata: So, the test came back positive for morphine, Demerol, Versed, propofol, ketamine, lidocaine, and Narcan.

SGT. MATA (second police interview): Did Joel ever bring home any medical drugs?

JANET ARREDONDO: Yes.

Arredondo told police that Pellot had often brought drugs to her home – some for his own recreational use — including ketamine, morphine, lidocaine, fentanyl and more.

JANET ARREDONDO: Versed

LUIS MATA: OK.

JANET ARREDONDO: Propofol.

SGT. MATA: Propofol?

Arredondo's information about propofol kicked the case into high gear. District Attorney Isidro Alaniz selected a team of attorneys – Katrina Rios, Ana Karen Garza, Cristal Calderon and led by Marisela Jacaman.

Marisela Jacaman: We are Maria's team.

So, they got a search warrant for her home. Then, they offered her a deal. In exchange for more information, Arredondo would get immunity from prosecution.

All four prosecutors were convinced that Maria's husband had methodically planned her murder, and that the devoted mother and wife had suffered in the months before her death.

Marisela Jacaman: I've heard of emotional abuse, I've seen it, I've worked around it …

Marisela Jacaman: … but I never realized how prevalent it is even in our lives where you can relate to some of the things that Maria was experiencing.

Erin Moriarty: On the face of it, this is a couple having problems, he's having an affair, but to you, this is domestic violence, how?

Prosecutors: Well, I think … it goes so much further than just being a spouse … you could see the power struggle that existed or the — the lack thereof.

Assistant District Attorney.

Prosecutors: Maria had no power in this relationship.

And the evidence of that, prosecutors say, is found in Maria's own journals. Prosecutor read one of those entries:

Life is so unfair.

My husband the man I love so much is causing me so much pain

Maria also left evidence on her cellphone that she secretly recorded approximately four months before her death:

MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video in the car with Joel Pellot): I want to know, what is it that you want me to do?

MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video in the car with Joel Pellot): What are the expectations you have on this -- this marriage?

Prosecutors: She gave us this very powerful video.

MARIA MUÑOZ (cellphone video in the car with Joel Pellot): You walk out that door, we're getting a divorce.

JOEL PELLOT: Alright fine, you got it (slams car door)

Prosecutors: She was having a discussion … with him … and that was so painful to watch.

But prosecutors would need much more than that video and Maria's journal entries. How did they believe that Joel Pellot dosed his wife with all those drugs?

Anonymous Writer: That was the million-dollar question. We kept saying, how did he get her to submit to this?

During Janet Arredondo's second police interview, she said Pellot had told her about the night Maria died: he had gone there, he said, to have that heart-to-heart talk and then injected her — not to kill her, Pellot said, but to calm her down.

SGT. LUIS MATA (second police interview): Why did he tell you that he injected her? Because she was erratic?

JANET ARREDONDO: Right, he wanted to uh, just calm her down, so he did it with medication.

But Investigators believe the sedatives were part of Pellot's plan to kill Maria — that before Pellot put an IV needle in Maria's arm, he could have slipped several sedative drugs into her favorite drink: coffee.

Anonymous Writer: Ketamine, Versed, morphine and Demerol. Those four could have been put in her coffee, she then passes out.

After that, they say, Pellot injected Maria with a deadly dose of propofol. Then-Chief Assistant District Attorney Ana Karen Garza Gutierrez says Pellot deliberately waited to call for help.

Ana Karen Garza: I believe he waited until she was dead to call 911 to make sure that no one can bring her back.

SGT MATA (second police interview): Did you play any role in Maria's death at all? You?

JANET ARREDONDO: No.

Arredondo said Pellot did admit to her that he got rid of some of the medical equipment he used to inject Maria before first responders arrived.

JANET ARREDONDO: He just told me he got rid of them.

Pellot was out on bail, so prosecutors had him rearrested and along with murder, he was charged with tampering with evidence. Again, he made bail and would wear an ankle monitor.

In March 2023, two-and-a-half years after Maria Muñoz's death, her husband went on trial for her murder.

"48 Hours" made several interview requests to Joel Pellot's defense team, but never received a response. Joel Pellot declined our request for an interview.

MARISELA JACAMAN (opening statement in court): The evidence will show that Joel Pellot had the motive, he had the intent, and he had the means to kill Maria.

Prosecutors presented 15 witnesses to prove to a jury that Pellot had carefully and intentionally selected the drugs to kill Maria. Their star witness, Janet Arredondo, told the jury what she had shared with police.

MARISELA JACAMAN (in court): Did Mr. Pellot indicate to you that he dumped or discarded the IV catheter and the vials?

JANET ARREDONDO: Yes.

ACCIDENT OR MURDER?

Joel Pellot, wearing a blue suit and a dark grey tie, listened carefully as his defense team presented his case.

Defense attorney Roberto Balli claims Maria was terribly depressed and had been drinking and abusing drugs for months.

When Joel arrived Maria was already on something...

Someone tried to bring her back to life, and it wasn't the paramedics, it wasn't the police. It was Joel. So he did not want her dead. This was a terrible accident.

A terrible accident, the defense argues, that was caused by a combination of whatever Maria had taken and the medication Pellot used to inject her.

Erin Moriarty: How do you know that Narcan wasn't there because he tried to save her, that he went too far, realized that he had gone too far.

Ana Karen Garza Guiterrez: Narcan is not a reversal agent for Propofol and Propofol was what stopped her heart at the end.

The defense never explained to the jury how the propofol got into Maria's system, but prosecutors say that the level of drugs discovered in Maria's body could not have been accidental.

Marisela Jacaman: It was enough medication to survive two major surgeries. It was so much.

Erin Moriarty: And why do you think he gave her so much?

Marisela Jacaman: To be sure.

While Pellot himself didn't testify, his emotional mother did. Miriam Carrasquillo told prosecutors, during cross examination, that Maria had talked about how sad she was about her marriage.

MARISELA JACAMAN (in court): Were you aware that Joel Pellot was seeing Janet, weren't you?

MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: Yes, she told me.

MARISELA JACAMAN: Who told you?

MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: Maria.

MARISELA JACAMAN: And did you encourage her to stay in the marriage?

MIRIAM CARRASQUILLO: I told her that everybody have a limit and she have a limit. When she decide that she don't want to be no more with him I have a house open for her.

But prosecutors insist as sad as Maria may have been about her marriage, there is no evidence that she abused either drugs or alcohol.

They believe Pellot's motive was money and that he murdered Maria because he didn't want to pay for a divorce and split his assets.

After eight days of testimony, the jury got the case. It took them less than an hour to decide Joel Pellot's fate: guilty of murdering his wife Maria and tampering with the evidence.

Many members of the medical community attended the trial, including Pellot's former colleague, Tina Dores.

Tina Dores: He's not dumb, I mean he's a smart guy … so I don't know if he just got caught up with his God complex that he thought he was smarter than everyone and that he was going to outsmart them.

Just hours after the guilty verdict, Pellot was sentenced to life in prison, cuffed and escorted out of the courtroom.

Maria's friend Angela Montoya.

Angela Montoya: She loved him, and she adored him. She just loved him too much.

Prosecutors got justice for Maria, but it's a tragic ending for the family she loved and fought so hard to keep together.

Recreated News:

Despite not leaving any visible marks, Maria suffered deep emotional and mental injuries in her previous relationship, according to Karina Rios. Maria's team reveals that her own journals served as crucial evidence in the trial, demonstrating the healing process of these scars.

Ana Karen Garza describes Maria as a wonderful soul, while Marisela Jacaman highlights her exceptional motherhood and the positive energy she radiated.

The couple's children are currently residing with Joel Pellot's mother.

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Produced by Marcelena Spencer. Iris Carreras is the field producer. Marlon Disla, Michael Vele and Phil Tangel are the editors. Elizabeth Caholo is the development producer. Lourdes Aguiar is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.