The “Ivy League killer” gets the “48 Hours” treatment when Saturday’s episode takes on the case of Jason Bohn, a Columbia-educated lawyer who beat to death his live-in girlfriend Danielle Thomas, a Weight Watchers executive, in a fit of rage in June 2012.
The murder was heavily covered by the tabloids. Both the victim and suspect were highly educated professionals. The suspect’s mother was a wealthy New York publishing executive. And the defense was claiming mental illness, specifically Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED), stemming from Bohn being abandoned by his mother at age 9.
“As the story unveiled itself, the whole issue of domestic violence, of the back story of this lawyer and the fact that his mother was an established executive was one that was really interesting,” says “48 Hours” senior executive producer Susan Zirinsky. “Here was a guy who was claiming Intermittent Explosive Disorder, the mother was a CFO, the records of social service were extraordinary . . . was he mentally ill? Did he snap at that moment?”
In “48 Hours: A Raging Son,” airing at 10 p.m. on CBS, correspondent Troy Roberts interviews Thomas’ mother and grandmother, as well as prosecutors and detectives who describe an abusive relationship. A month before her death, Thomas reported Bohn’s abuse to the police, but then stayed with him, even telling her mother she’d say yes if Bohn proposed.
One of those cops would later find Thomas murdered in the bathtub of the Astoria apartment she shared with Bohn, with ice bags surrounding her body and a fan near the window to remove the scent. The case was so brutal, it prompted NYPD Det. Dennis Frawley to retire.
“He just couldn’t take it. It’s the sight of this young girl, it just put him over the edge,” Zirinsky says. “Here’s somebody who had come to him, they really wanted her to cooperate so that charges could be really pursued. It just was so profoundly sad that it broke his heart.”
Roberts also interviews the forensic psychiatrist and defense attorney, who detail Bohn’s childhood trauma as an argument for the lesser charge of manslaughter (he was ultimately sentenced to life without parole). The episode also delves into the key piece of evidence — an accidental cell phone call that captured Thomas’ final minutes begging for her life (“48 Hours” excerpts a short portion of the audio in the broadcast).
Zirinsky says she hopes the tragic story can serve as a wake-up call for others who may be trapped in abusive relationships.
“When we [as] a law and justice show can take on an issue like domestic violence, like mental illness . . . That enables us to feel like we’re messaging something interesting and important to an audience.”