9WTK: investigation opened into death of murdered detective’s first wife

The case involves the shotgun ambush of Pueblo Narcotics Detective Dennis Yaklich in December of 1985. Yaklich's wife Donna was ultimately arrested for hiring two teenagers to kill her husband. It was a sensational murder and trial. The case became a made-for-TV movie. Donna Yaklich claimed domestic violence in an era when domestic violence was not a common court defense. The district attorney's office said Yaklich killed her husband for $250,000 in insurance money. The current task force has been formed to investigate the death of Dennis Yaklich's first wife, Barbara, who died on February 14th, 1977. The autopsysays Barbara Yaklich fainted from natural causesand assumes she was catastrophically injured during CPR. The autopsy notes: "Energetic resuscitative procedures resulted in the liver injury which, in turn, caused death through the extensive loss of blood." 9News asked two forensic pathologists to examine the autopsy report on Barbara Yaklich. One is the Chief Coroner in Arapahoe County, Dr. Michael Doberson. The other is the Chief Coroner in Denver County, Dr. Tom Henry. Forensic pathologists are trained to investigate sudden and unexpected deaths. Both pathologists rejected the 1977 certificate of death in Barbara Yaklich's case as natural causes. "This is a very unusual case," says Dr. Michael Doberson. "It's a relatively young woman who is 36 years old, in apparent good health and she dies rather suddenly. One of the things that jumps right out at you is the injury that she apparently sustained. Her liver was lacerated. She had a very large amount of blood that was in her abdominal cavity.It's later described as 2,000 milliliters. If someone is doing CPR, you will find a little bit of hemorrhage created with those efforts.....probably a tenth of this volume," Dr. Doberson concludes.Dr. Tom Henry adds,"Most of the time there is no blood from compression from CPR."Dr. Henry tells 9News if he was performing an autopsy and found two liters of blood, "probably the first thing we would do is if the police were not already there, we would ask them to come join us and make sure we both evaluated the case together." Dr. Henry says, "If I had to sign it (cause of death) out on what I have now, I'd certify it as blunt trauma to the abdomen." Dr. Doberson calls the death "suspicious." And in his opinion, the death is more likely a "blow to the stomach."There are other problems with the autopsy results, the pathologists conclude. The coroner who performed the autopsy on Barbara YaklichwasDr. Neill McGrath, a hospital pathologist who is now dead. His expertise was in diagnosis of disease, but not of sudden death. Dr. McGrath wrote Barbara Yaklich suffered "circulatory collapse" caused from "hypokalemia"(a potassium imbalance)from "diuretic(diet pill)abuse."Dr. Dobersonsays he finds "very little evidence thatBarbara Yaklich was taking a diuretic over a period of time." He adds, "I don't see any indication that Lasix (a diuretic) was ever picked up in the laboratory toxicology of the autopsy, so I just think it again calls into question the cause of death in the case."Dr. Doberson questions the conclusions of "fainting" and "CPR" in the autopsy.Using CPR in this casewould beunusual because CPR is used "when there is no heart-beat, not when someone has fainted," says Doberson.As a police officer, Dennis Yaklich was required to be trained in CPR.There is no proof, only assumption, about whether Barbara Yaklich fainted. There is no interview with Dennis Yaklich in sheriff department files. He was the only adult in the house with Barbara Yaklich at the time,Barbara Yaklich's daughter told 9News. Daughter Kimwas 12 at the time and when she left for school, she says her mother was fine. Barbara Yaklich's death was pronounced at 9:10 a.m. at Parkview Hospital.Dr. Doberson tells us from the type of injury Barbara Yaklich suffered, "She would have bled out in 10 to 20 minutes."Barbara Yaklich could not have inflicted the injury on herself, according toboth pathologists. Dennis Yaklich was born and raised in Avondale near Pueblo. He was well-known before he became a police officer because of his competition in weight-lifting. He won several competitions including Mr. Denver and Mr. Colorado. Yaklich used steroids and had a temper according to former District Attorney Gus Sandstrom and court testimony from the Donna Yaklich murder trial. Donna Yaklich got 40 years in prison for her role in the Dennis Yaklich killing, even though the jury and a parole officer asked for leniency. She has served 17 years and is eligible for parole to community corrections.Yaklich has applied for community corrections at least twice, but has been rejected by a community service parole board. Her next possible consideration date is in late October. The Pueblo County Coroner is considering calling a coroner's inquest to determine whether the original manner of death for Barbara Yaklich was accurate. The current Pueblo County coroner, district attorney and sheriff were not in office when Barbara Yaklich died.