Dateline: Secrets Uncovered: What happened to Rosemarie Essa?

Rosemarie Essa's story will be uncovered in detail in the Dateline: Secrets Uncovered episode titled 'Bitter Pill'. It will air on 17 January 2023 at 8:00 PM ON OXYGEN 79.

On February 24, 2005, while en route to a movie theater, she fell unconscious behind the wheel and hit a moving van. After that, she was taken to the hospital, where she later passed away. The first person to be suspected in her death was her spouse.

After being interrogated by the police, her husband Yazeed Essa immediately left the country, traveling first to Cyprus and then to Lebanon. On October 7, 2006, he was detained in Cyprus and extradited to the USA, where he was given a life sentence.

Let's take a closer look at the life of Rosemarie Essa and how she was murdered.

Trigger warning: This article contains details of murder.

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Rosemarie Essa's husband killed her with potassium cyanide

Rosemarie Essa was born on October 21, 1966 to Rocco and Gee Gee DiPuccio. After becoming a nurse, she met Yazeed Essa, an ER doctor and businessman, in 1995. They fell in love and were married on September 11, 1999.

Their first son Armand was born a year later. Two years after that, their daughter, Lena, was born. The family was described to be happy and were planning on having a third child.

On February 24, 2005, Rosemarie was driving to a movie theater when began seizing, vomiting, and gasping for air behind the wheels of her car. She was rushed to the hospital. She was already driving at a very slow pace, which prompted bystanders to call for help.

She was pronounced dead within an hour after reaching Hillcrest Hospital for treatment. Authorities were in disbelief as there were no signs of physical injuries to her body. Two toxicology tests for drugs and common poisons were run on her and yet nothing was revealed.

Rosemarie Essa with her con (Image via Cleveland.com)

It was later discovered that there were traces of potassium cyanide in the woman's dried saliva and vomit which caused her to die. Potassium cyanide is a rare and lethal poison that leads to instant death after consumption.

Dominic DiPuccio told Dateline: Secrets Uncovered that he had received a call from one of Rosemarie's closest friends, Eva McGregor. She told him that her suspicion was on nobody but Rosemarie's own husband, Yazeed Essa.

He said:

"She proceeded to tell me that Rosie was talking to her on her way to the movie and she said Yaz had given her a calcium pill before she left the house and she started to feel queasy."

Eva McGregor asked Dominic to promise to get a full autopsy. He said:

She just kept insisting, ‘Promise me you’ll get a full autopsy, promise me you’ll get a toxicology report. Promise me, promise me, promise me."

Before leaving the house, Yazeed Essa gave Rosemarie Essa a calcium supplement. Additionally, relatives remembered Yazeed acting quite oddly after the passing of his wife. Instead of asking family members for assistance, he hired Marguerita Montenaz and Michele Madeline as nannies. He even engaged in extramarital affairs with both of them.

Yazeed was brought in for questioning on March 17, 2005, where he revealed that he had insisted Rosie take the calcium pills after overhearing his mother talking about osteoporosis. He even took the officers home and handed over the bottle of calcium pills and other medication that his wife took.

Police tested the bottle of calcium pills handed over by Yazeed to find the pills laced with cyanide. However, the suspect had fled the country by then.