After his birth in Vinita, Oklahoma, Phil McGraw was raised among the oil fields of northern Texas, where his father was an equipment supplier who harbored dreams of becoming a psychologist. By the time Phil had graduated from college, he had the same goal and began conducting self-help seminars, alongside his father, who’d now established a practice in Wichita Falls, Texas. In 1998, Dr. Phil—as he branded himself—started appearing weekly, as a relationship counselor, on Oprah Winfrey’s show. Four years later—after publishing four best-selling psychology books—he became the star of his own syndicated show, Dr. Phil, produced by Winfrey’s Harpo Studios.
On February 5, 2013, he invited Rachel Buffett on to the program to address the question of whether she was yet another innocent victim of Dan Wozniak’s treachery or a co-conspirator who had helped her fiancé cover up the murders.
The show began with McGraw confronting Rachel in a forthright manner. “If you were falsely accused here, and [were] pulled into this cover-up, then, a lot of people are going to owe you an apology for accusing you of it, and trampling on your reputation,” he said. “If you were, then that was a mistake and you need to own it and move on with your life. At this point, there’s a lot of open wounds here.” He motioned at Steve Herr, who was also in the studio. “And you need to understand why this man here is hurting.”
Rachel’s features dropped in an apparent show of sympathy. “I do,” she said.
“He hasn’t gotten justice for his son.” Dr. Phil crossed his arms. “How do you feel about what happened to his son?”
It appeared that Rachel was ready to answer. But before she could, Dr. Phil cut her off to continue his monologue: “It breaks my heart and I didn’t know him, and wasn’t even close to him.” McGraw raised his hand to gesture. When he did, his sleeve slipped down, revealing a large, gold watch. “And I watch you … and you seem to have no reaction at all.”
The actress was quick to defend herself: “It’s absolutely horrific. But I think, I know I’m not the main victim. Sam and Julie were the main victims. And then, I think even secondary would be their families. I’m after all of that. I realize that. And that’s why I didn’t come out in the limelight.… I tried to keep it to myself and work through it, and tried to do my little healing process or whatever. But because of how much these people are hurting, and they think I had anything to do with that, it’s bringing up a lot of pain for me, and I guess that’s why I don’t want to wait for it to go through court. I’m so happy that it will, so they can see that I had nothing to do with it. But I want”—she moved her head slightly from side to side—“some sort of healing.” She looked down and blinked quickly. “Or at least for them to know that I didn’t have anything to do with their pain.”
As she had in the past, Rachel insisted that she was misled by Dan and knew nothing of the crimes he committed. When the host brought up her report that she’d seen Sam with a man in a black baseball cap, she steered the question back at Dr. Phil.
“You have a wife, right?” she asked him.
“I do. A beautiful wife. Thank you.”
Attempting to draw a parallel between the TV host’s life and her current circumstances, Rachel continued, “If your wife told you she just made a pot of coffee and it was in the kitchen, then, you didn’t see it, but later on, somehow, it became really important, whether or not it was there, and a cop asked you, ‘Um, what was in your kitchen?’” She moved her head theatrically from side to side and peered down. “‘Oh, a spatula, fork, and’”—she looked directly at Dr. Phil—“‘a pot of coffee.’ I trusted him and I trusted what he said was true. And, especially, before I thought it really mattered, I didn’t question him. And later on in questioning, when the police asked me, ‘Well, did you actually see him?’ And I said”—she looked down, as if to ponder—“‘Well, no. I didn’t.’”
In a voice filled with cynicism, McGraw told Rachel, “I’ve got to tell you, that sounded like a really coached response. I want to know what you have to say about it, not what you worked out in a conference room with your lawyer to say about it. And it’s my understanding you didn’t say you inferred that there was a third party, but you told authorities that you saw a third party. Is that correct?”
Rachel shook her head from side to side. “I don’t recall telling that specifically to them.”
Looking out into the studio audience, Dr. Phil asked a member of the investigative team, “Did she say she saw a third party? Is that in the record?”
“Yes, that’s her statement.”
Dr. Phil directed his attention back at his interview subject. “Your statement was that you saw a third party,” he stated.
She nodded slightly. “Uh-hmm,” she responded uncertainly.
Dr. Phil focused on an uncomfortable Rachel. “I’m watching you close because you’re an actress.”
She smiled nervously.
“You’re a good one.”
From the audience, her lawyer, Ajna Sharma-Wilson, piped in, “I have not coached my client at all. I have not told her anything other than, ‘Tell the truth, Rachel.’”
Concentrating on Rachel again, Dr. Phil asked, “Did you say that you saw somebody, or did you just say there was a third party, and that was just an inference based on what Dan told you?”
“That’s how I remember it.”
Sharma-Wilson intervened. “Dan told her that that was accurate, and she implicitly believed the man that she was going to marry.”
Dr. Phil looked back at Sharma-Wilson. “So I guess the interpretation could be that that could help, that maybe Dan wasn’t the last person to see Sam alive—”
“In my mind,” Rachel cut in, “I was thinking that it would help them find Sam, who I thought was just missing. And Dan wasn’t under suspicion, as far as I knew, at that point.”
Likewise, she contended that she told police that she’d gone to sleep after arriving home on the night that Juri was killed because that was what she normally did after a performance. “I was speaking in [general]…, trying to tell them probably what happened because I didn’t remember at first,” she explained.
But McGraw quoted authorities who said that Rachel had sent Juri a Facebook message—perhaps to establish that she was unaware of Dan’s plan—when she was supposed to be sleeping.
Despite the host’s pessimism, Rachel reiterated that Dan never told her about his scheme. When she did find out, she stressed, she did nothing to help him cover up his alleged crimes. It was only at the Costa Mesa Police Department that Rachel grasped the full horror of the situation, she said, when Dan confessed to her in front of detectives.
“Did he tell you how” he executed the murders? McGraw asked.
“I don’t recall if he told me how.”
To Dr. Phil, it appeared inconceivable that Rachel would forget this kind of detail. “Wow,” he said. “You don’t recall?”
“At a certain point, you reach your shock level, and I think you just turn off your intake button because you can’t handle any more.”
But the producers were not about to accept these types of justifications. Steve Herr was invited onto the stage to sit beside Rachel and express the scorn that he’d grown to feel for the actress. “I absolutely believe she’s guilty of what she’s being tried for,” he told the audience, reminding them how Sam was shot and dismembered. He turned toward Rachel. “For you to come on here, to go on the TV stations and ‘poor me,’ that offends me.”
“Do you believe she belongs in prison?” McGraw asked.
Steve placed a finger over his chin and contemplated. “Yes,” he retorted. His body suddenly jerked, and in a louder voice he declared, “Yes.” He leaned back and nodded. “I do. And if she truly feels for the family, I would appreciate her stopping trying to get other…” He hesitated, reconfiguring the words in his head. “I appreciate if she doesn’t give any more interviews until the [trial].…”
Rachel looked forward, not meeting Steve’s gaze but nodding as if she felt some form of solidarity with her accuser.
“In my estimation,” he continued, “my belief is, ‘You’re lying and covering it up,’ but we’ll find out in court.”