In December 1994, Lowell and Roberta Amos attended a company executive party at the Atheneum Hotel in Detroit. The Amoses went to their suite at 4:30 am. Four hours later, Lowell called Bert Crabtree, another executive from the party, and seemed to be in a panic. Crabtree and another hotel guest named Daniel Porcasi went to the room, and Lowell told them that Roberta had died in an accident. Lowell said he needed to clean up before calling police, and he asked Porcasi to take his sport coat for him. Porcasi, while driving home that morning, looked inside the breast pocket of the coat, and found a small black leather case with a syringe without a needle, and a foul-smelling washcloth inside. Amos later reclaimed the coat, and its contents disappeared.