A fertility doctor from San Clemente, California, was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison for the murder of his wife in an incident authorities said was made to look like an accident.
Eric Scott Sills, 58, who founded an infertility clinic in Carlsbad, was sentenced for one count of second-degree murder in the death of his wife, Susann, 45, the Orange County District Attorney’s office said.
Authorities say Sills called 911 in November 2016 and said he found his wife's body after she apparently fell down the stairs in their home in San Clemente, which is about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego.
But evidence showed she died from strangulation and blood stains were found in the room where she had been sleeping, the district attorney's office said in a statement.
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One year later, in November 2017, after what the OCSD called “an extensive investigation,” officials determined that Susann Sill’s death was not an accident but rather a homicide.
The investigation into the homicide continued for another year-and-a-half before an arrest warrant was issued for Eric Sills as the suspect in the victim’s killing.
Sills was arrested in 2019 and found guilty by a jury in December. A message seeking comment was sent to his attorney, Jack Earley.
U.S. & World
Eric Sills serves as the medical director at the Center for Advanced Genetics, an infertility clinic in San Diego’s North County. An obituary for Susann Sills published in the Los Angeles Times in December 2016 said she served as managing partner and co-founder of the clinic.
