Jill Abraham (Marsha Thomason) is the villainess of "The Business of Miracles", episode 2.03 of Life (airdate October 6, 2008). She was a scientist and the assistant of Dr. Dan Auerbach, a scientist who was working to develop a cure for cancer. In the episode's beginning, Dr. Auerbach was found dead in his lab, frozen solid from inhaling pure liquid nitrogen.
Over the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Auerbach was planning to discontinue their study after realizing that drug was only effective to rare cancers and thus, wouldn't make a large enough profit. Jill, however, was furious at Auerbach for (in her mind) disregarding her hard work and killed him to prevent him from calling off the study, switching out the oxygen tank he used to stay alert with a tank of liquid nitrogen. She also killed the test subject rats they were using to make her drug appear more effective than it really was.
To cover her tracks, Jill painted "animal testing is murder" on the wall in an effort to frame Auerbach's former assistant (and current lover) Deborah Leigh as his killer. When she was ultimately able to provide an alibi, the evil Jill arranged for Abel Bustamante (a janitor at Auerbach's lab) to take the fall, as he was secretly stealing Jill's drug to help treat his cancer-stricken son and she promised to keep giving the medication to him in exchange for him confessing to her crime. Ultimately, though, Charlie and Dani deduced that Abel was covering for someone and informed Abel that if he went to prison, the lab would be shut down and his son wouldn't continue receiving treatment.
At that, Abel provided the detectives with the evidence to prove Jill's guilt: a shredded paper that contained the calculations Jill made to determine how much liquid nitrogen she needed to kill Auerbach. After Deborah was able to decipher the shredded document, Jill was brought in and confronted with the evidence against her. The evil Jill confessed to killing Auerbach, angrily denouncing her boss for trying to stop her study and for destroying her career, with Charlie deducing that Jill took his decision as a personal insult. Jill was subsequently placed under arrest (offscreen).
Quotes[]
- "Auerbach was a thief! He stole seven years of my life. And then, what? The study's no good? The drug is no good?" (Jill revealing her resentment for Dr. Auerbach)
- "He was throwing me away! He was still Auerbach, and all I was, was a failed study. My career was over. No one was calling off that study. No one." (Jill confessing to murdering Dr. Auerbach)