Widow Found Dead in Mansion DID HER SON KILL HER FOR MONEY?

VIOLET YACOBI WAS UNRESPONSIVE NEAR THE FOOT OF A STAIRCASE. HOW SHE GOT THERE BECAME THE FOCUS OF A MURDER TRIAL

- CHRISTINE PELISEK

It was unusual for Violet Yacobi to be out of touch with her family. The 67-year-old—a recently widowed mother of two grown children and grandmother of one—was nearing the end of a yearlong period of mourning for her husband, Solomon, a physician who died in 2016, and was preparing to resume her active social life and making plans to visit family in Israel. A day rarely passed without Violet, who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980s after living in the Soviet Union and Israel, calling one of her kids—daughter Dina, now 56, and son Daniel, 43—or her mother, who also lived in the area. So on Oct. 10, 2017, when she didn’t respond to a call from her brother about driving her to the mechanic for her car, the family grew concerned.

Alerted by their uncle, Dina and Daniel met at the family’s $8 million home in Beverly Hills just after 7 p.m. that evening to check on their mother and made a horrifying discovery: Violet was dead, lying on the marble floor near the foot of the grand staircase. Police found no sign of forced entry and initially didn’t suspect foul play, suggesting that she had died from an accident or suicide. On what would have been Violet’s 68th birthday, Jan. 8, 2018, Daniel, a dentist who practiced at multiple offices, wrote on Facebook: “I know you and Dad are up there smiling down on us.”