Transcription by CastingWords Transcription by CastingWords There were still plenty of the red gelatin shell capsules inside. After shaking out a couple into her hand, Susan swallowed them, then returned the bottle back to the cabinet. Extra-strength Excedrin boasted of relief from headaches within 15 minutes. Fifteen-year-old Hayley Snow greeted her mother with a hug.
It was just the two of them home at the time. Susan's husband, 45-year-old Paul Webb King, was a long-haul trucker. He left for work earlier that morning. Susan's eldest daughter, 23-year-old Exa, spent the night before out on the town, and had yet to come home.
Shortly before 6.30am, Susan headed down the hallway leading to the master bedroom to get ready for work. On the way, she gave Hayley a quick kiss, and told her she loved her. Hayley went to take a shower before school. Whilst in the bathroom, she could hear the muffled sound of running water through the walls.
It was coming from the master bedroom's ensuite where her mother was completing her morning routine. During her shower, Hayley was startled by a loud thump, as though something heavy dropped somewhere in the house. She worried her mother might have been the source of the noise. Perhaps she tripped or fallen.
After waiting, listening, and hearing nothing else, Hayley dismissed her concern, convinced she was just being overdramatic. After her shower, Hayley stood before the mirror to apply makeup. Her attention was once again drawn to the faint sound of running water. Familiar with her mother's morning routine, Hayley knew Susan should have been out of the ensuite by now.
Yet, the water from the ensuite continued to flow, uninterrupted, for an unusually long time. Sensing something wasn't right, Hayley went to check on her mother. Her parents' bedroom was empty. The sound of flowing water continued from behind the ensuite door.
Hayley couldn't hear her mother moving about in there, and calling out was met with no response. So she looked inside. The vanity sink was near overflowing, as the tap above flooded it with water. Lying on the floor at its base was Susan, in her verbal bathrobe.
Susan was on her back, her head resting awkwardly on the door frame of the shower. Her eyes were wide open, fixed, and dilated. Her body was pale and unnaturally stiff. A frightened expression was frozen across her face.
Hayley had never seen her mother in such a state. She rushed in and attempted to rouse her, but Susan didn't react. At 6.43am, an emergency call came through to 911. Hayley Snow struggled to get the words out.
I think my mother fell while I was in the shower. She's breathing and everything. There's something wrong with her. When asked by the dispatcher if her mother could talk, Hayley responded, I don't know.
It's like she's sleeping with her eyes open. By 7.00am, paramedics had arrived to the house. Susan's state appeared consistent with a head injury. It was assumed she slipped whilst getting into the shower.
Hayley quickly dismissed this explanation, clarifying that her mother only took showers in the evening. Furthermore, Susan didn't have any noticeable wounds, fractures, bumps, or bruises. Located by the vanity sink was Susan's curling iron used to style her hair. Yet, the possibility Susan was electrocuted didn't seem likely.
There were no visible burn marks on her body, and the power in the bathroom was still on. Had she suffered an electric shock powerful enough to render her unconscious, it seemed probable the power would have shorted and shut down. Bottles of medication were shaken to determine if Susan overdosed, but all were reasonably full. Questions raised about Susan's mental health were quickly clarified by Hayley, who insisted her mother was neither depressed nor suicidal.
When the words recreational drugs were mentioned, Hayley responded defensively, My mother's not a druggy. Hayley informed the medics that her mother woke up with one of her usual headaches and took some pain relief medication for it. She retrieved the bottle of extra strength Excedrin from the kitchen. The 60-pill bottle looked to be missing only a few capsules, doubting any suspicion Susan took an excessive amount.
It didn't seem likely she was having a reaction to the Excedrin either. It was her preferred brand. She had taken it many times before without issue. Susan's breathing pattern was abnormal.
Every few minutes she would give a labored, ineffective gasp for air, as though she was suffocating. A bag mask was placed over her nose and mouth and squeezed to facilitate breathing, but it didn't relieve her condition. More desperate measures were applied. A tube was put down Susan's trachea to serve as an airway, but that didn't help either.
Struggling to breathe and pulse fading, Susan was flown by helicopter 30 miles north to Harborview Medical Center in the city of Seattle. Prior to her collapse, Susan was in good health, with no pre-existing illnesses or conditions that would render her unconscious. Doctors considered if her headaches indicated a serious undiagnosed health problem, perhaps a tumor, stroke, or aneurysm, but it was hard to tell. Collectively, her symptoms didn't line up perfectly with any suggested diagnosis.
Doctors were baffled, finding it difficult to treat her. Making matters worse was the sheer speed Susan was deteriorating. News of Susan's hospitalization reached her family. Husband Paul, Elvis' daughter Exa, and ex-husband Connie Snow, whom she maintained a friendly relationship, arrived to the hospital.
From what they understood, Susan fell or fainted. Knowing she was otherwise healthy, their concerns were easily brushed off. But arriving one by one, each were shocked to discover just how dire Susan's condition really was. She was in a coma and on life support.
Doctors pronounced her brain dead and concluded there was absolutely no hope for her to recover. By midday, Susan Snow had died. Her loss of one's twin is a profound grief said to be unlike any other. Sarah would attest to that.
After receiving the call that her identical twin Susan was in a coma, she was rushing to the airport, flying from her home in Denver, Colorado, to Seattle. By the time Sarah arrived, Susan had already passed. Sarah was born 15 minutes before Susan on April 13, 1946. From that day onwards, the twins were inseparable.
Throughout their lives, the pair always remained close, despite being polar opposites. Sarah was the logical and careful twin. She followed her head. Susan, on the other hand, followed her heart.
She was the adventurous, spontaneous risk-taker. By age 16, Susan was pregnant. In preparation for motherhood, she dropped out of high school, married her baby's father, and moved into his farmhouse. She gave birth on June 30, 1963, to a girl, Exa.
Susan took well to being a mother and doted on her baby girl. But she longed to do more with her life than settling straight into marriage and living a simple, quiet farm life. Susan's brother-in-law was a man named Connie Snow. Connie was 11 years Susan Sr., an oil-fueled worker who spent his career in and around the Texas panhandle.
19-year-old Susan found herself drawn to the older man, and as she always did, Susan followed her heart. She divorced her husband and began a relationship with Connie. Not wanting Susan to rush into yet another marriage, her parents told her to wait a year first. After that, if she still loved Connie and wanted to wed him, then they would not see it in her way.
This was a big ask for the impulsive Susan, but both her and Connie respected her parents' request. Susan's life for Connie strengthened over the following year, and on the final day of her parents' deadline, 20-year-old Susan and 4-year-old Exa went to live with him. They settled in a mobile home park in Sumner, a small town close to Auburn, where Connie worked at the time. The couple married the following year.
In 1969, Susan started work at Puget Sound National Bank as a teller. Colleagues believed she was too smart to stay behind the teller's window, and she proved them right, hastily climbing the corporate ladder. She spent time in credit, and moved on to her least enjoyable role in repossessions. Stealing property from the community for the bank didn't sit well with kind-hearted Sue.
On April 24, 1971, Susan and Connie had a daughter, Hayley. For Connie, his relationship with Susan was truly wedded bliss. She treated him like a king, and he fell on top of the world with her. Yet, Susan's feelings for Connie waned over the years.
As he got older, he slowed down, becoming a homebody who would fall asleep on the couch after work. Susan, on the other hand, was in the prime of her life. She was outgoing, clever, and popular, making leaps and bounds through a successful career with the bank. She outgrew Connie, and their marriage fell apart.
Susan then moved with her daughters to New Mexico to look after her ailing father. The separation was hard for Connie. He felt he couldn't love anyone else as much as he loved Susan. Around a year and a half after they split, he sent her money to return to Washington in hopes they would rekindle their relationship.
Susan did return to the state, and the pair remained close over the years, mainly for the children, but they never officially got back together. Eventually, they filed for divorce. Susan settled with her girls in an apartment in nearby Puyallup, and it was there she was introduced to Paul Webb King. By the time he met Susan Snow, Paul had been married and divorced three times.
He was a romer. He switched homes, relationships, and jobs constantly. He dug ditches, worked customer service, did bar work, and eventually became a long-haul trucker. The day he met Susan, Paul took her out to get pizza.
Not long after that, they became a couple. Others weren't fully convinced at the pairing. Susan herself was a successful career woman who typically dated doctors and lawyers. Paul was a shy, blue-collar type who was unapologetically apathetic.
He often aired his annoyance at the human race, which he considered lazy and selfish. Although Susan was seen as Paul's opposite, with a not-the-mystic and outgoing nature, Paul's attitude actually settled well with her. In a way, Paul's indifference and cynicism allowed her to finally relax. Susan used up a lot of energy maintaining her cheerful facade, and struggled to say no to demanding requests.
With laid-back Paul, she could just be herself and be honest. It was therapeutic for Susan to come home from work and vent to her husband. Paul took on a domestic role in the relationship as Susan focused more on her career. He got along well enough with Susan's youngest daughter, Hayley, who aimed to please.
But eldest daughter, Exa, was more free-spirited and independent. She didn't respond well to strict parenting. At times, she butted heads with both Paul and her mother. Susan's strictness manifested from her own experiences.
She didn't want her daughters to take the same life path as she did and become young mothers. She encouraged them to find their full potential, to study and earn career success. Exa followed her mother's advice. After graduating high school, she moved into state to attend university and study tax law.
It had an added bonus for everyone. Exa's move eased the tension in the household and gave her the full autonomy she desired. Throughout her life and all her ups and downs, Susan always sought advice from her twin, Sarah. Even though the sisters had gone their separate ways, they spoke on the phone almost daily and visited each other whenever they could.
They traded stories, secrets, and advice. Their bond was near unbreakable, and they were each other's pillars of support. What exactly caused Susan Snow's sudden death remained a medical mystery. Seeking answers, her family agreed for the medical examiner's office to conduct an autopsy.
Assistant medical examiner for King County, Dr. Corinne Fligner, led the procedure, assisted by pathologist Janet Miller. As an incision was made to open the chest cavity, Janet Miller detected a distinct odor emanate from Susan's body. Years prior, a colleague of Miller's committed suicide by ingesting cyanide, a highly toxic salt and rapidly acting poison.
Cyanide stopped cells of the body from absorbing oxygen, giving the sensation of suffocation. Fable quantities resulting cardiac arrest. Depending on the dosage, cyanide can take hours or just minutes to kill. Janet Miller was aware cyanide was often described as having a smell like a bitter almonds.
She noticed the unique scent, faint as it was, during Susan Snow's autopsy. Miller informed Dr. Fligner of the odor and its implication. However, Fligner failed to detect the odor herself.
Furthermore, Susan's flesh was glaringly pale. Victims of cyanide poisoning tend to have a naturally pink to bright red skin tone. Uncertain of herself, Miller didn't push the matter. Later, a doctor entered the room asking if anything turned up explaining Susan's death.
Dr. Fligner was under the impression Susan died from natural causes, specifically cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat that in serious cases can result in stroke or heart failure. But Dr. Fligner's assistant Janet Miller was unable to shake the scent of almonds lingering in the air.
She spoke up about its presence once more. But still, no one else could smell it. Prompted by Miller's assertions, a sample of Susan's blood was sent to the lab to receive a specific toxicology assessment, one not routinely performed in standard autopsies. Susan's blood was mixed with an acid solution that separated blood from any possible cyanide molecules.
After this, a special reactive paper was sealed in a tube with the blood and acid solution mixture. As the tube was heated, the reactive paper inside turned blue. The blue coloring indicated Miller's instincts were correct. There was cyanide present in Susan's bloodstream.
Additional tests revealed Susan consumed a fatal amount of cyanide. The amount of poison in her bloodstream would have taken effect approximately 10 minutes after ingestion. In hindsight, her symptoms lined up perfectly with those associated with cyanide poisoning. Susan experienced the rapid onset of dizziness leading to her collapse, struggled to breathe, and eventually fell into a coma.
All of this occurring within a short time frame. Susan's skin was not unnaturally pink or bright red, but this characteristic was not present in all cases. Examiners knew how lucky they were. The ability to smell cyanide is genetic.
Between 20 and 40% of the population don't carry the gene required to detect the odor of cyanide. To those people, it has no odor at all. This was the case during Susan Snow's autopsy. No one except for pathologist Janet Miller picked up the almond-like odor of the cyanide, as she was the only one with the genetic ability to do so.
Had Miller not been present during Susan Snow's autopsy, the cyanide that killed her would have gone undetected. Cyanide toxicity is considered to be a rare form of poisoning. In most cases, it occurs from smoke inhalation during house or industrial fires, but this clearly wasn't the case in Susan Snow's death. Cyanide is used in the metal trades, mining, jewellery manufacturing, photography, agriculture, and pest control, none of which were relevant activities or interests to Susan.
It is also present in certain fruit seeds and stones, though the average adult would need to consume anywhere from hundreds to thousands of them to be at risk of cyanide poisoning. With that in mind, it seemed highly unlikely Susan accidentally poisoned herself. Examiners wondered if Susan intentionally poisoned herself. Suicide by cyanide is very uncommon.
It typically involves healthcare or laboratory workers, persons who have access to cyanide salts. Susan's behavior prior was not alike someone anticipating their death. The morning she collapsed, Susan began preparing herself for work. It was clear she intended to go into the office that day.
The medical examiner's office contacted Susan's family through a cord on the results of her autopsy. Her cause of death was listed as acute cyanide poisoning. At the same time, the medical examiner's office contacted Orban police. Hundreds of Orban residents attended the memorial service held for Susan Snow.
During the service, a long-time friend of Susan's recalled with admiration her frankness and sense of humor. A song written by Connie Snow called Darling Sue was played along with music by the band of the Judds, Susan's favorite musicians. A papacy feeling lingered over the event, different from the expected grief and sorrow. There was suspicion.
Susan's family were aware she had been poisoned. Not only were they having to come terms with her death, but also her murder. Like her twin, Sarah also suffered from semi-frequent headaches. Susan's death ushered in a grief-induced headache Sarah couldn't shake.
Having visited Susan often, she knew her sister kept painkillers in a kitchen cupboard above the sink. When Sarah found the open bottle of extra strength Excedrin in there, she was immediately suspect. The issue wasn't the missing lid. She was aware her sister threw those away for ease of access.
It was the capsules inside. Sarah knew her twin better than anybody. Susan never took capsules. She preferred tablets.
It was a preference the sisters shared. Ever since the Chicago Tylenol murders four years earlier, where seven people died after consuming cyanide-laced pain-relief capsules, the sisters had developed a mistrust of capsules. Capsules consist of a medicinal powder or jelly encased in a dissolvable gelatin shell. As in the case of the Chicago Tylenol murders, these shells can be easily opened and tampered with.
Tablets, on the other hand, are compressed medicinal powder in a solid form, far harder to interfere with. As such, Susan and Sarah only ever took tablets. Sarah raised the point with her brother-in-law, Susan's husband, Paul Webb King. According to Paul, Susan purchased the capsule variety of Excedrin by mistake, but came to realize she preferred them over tablets, as they were easier to swallow.
A sense of uneasiness compelled Sarah not to take any of the Excedrin capsules that day. Instead, she put the bottle on the cupboard's highest shelf, hiding it behind some spice jars. Detective Mike Dunbar and his partner arrived to the Snow Webb King residence in the late morning of June 16. He would have arrived sooner that Susan Snow's family were at Mountain View Cemetery overseeing her burial.
The house was full of people, all friends and family of Susan's. The detectives recalled the atmosphere within was bizarre. It seemed like a party, even pizzas were being ordered. The detectives met Susan's husband, Paul Webb King.
He permitted them to search the home in an attempt to find the source of the cyanide that killed his wife. Only Susan, Paul and Hayley lived in the house at the time of Susan's death, and they were occasionally visited by Susan's oldest daughter, Exa, who happened to be in town at the time. Detectives spoke with Susan's family to determine her actions, behavior, and state of mind leading up to the fateful morning. The night before Susan's death on June 10, Paul cooked up a barbecue dinner for the family, and afterwards they climbed into the hot tub to relax.
The mood was pleasant and there were no disturbances. This was confirmed by Exa, who briefly visited the house that night to collect some belongings. She didn't sense any animosity, and said her mother was her same old self. The morning of, Paul left for work before Susan got up.
He drove 25 miles north from Auburn to Safeways distribution center in Bellevue, where he began loading up his truck for his next hall. During the morning, word reached him of Susan's hospitalization. He knew Susan was otherwise in good health, but was overworked and overstressed. He presumed she suffered an anxiety attack or something similar, harmless and recoverable.
He hitched the ride to the hospital with his boss. If Paul harbored any worry about his wife, he hid it well. The trick was leisurely, and the conversation between the pair lighthearted. When Paul finally arrived to the emergency department, Hayley noted her stepfather's demeanor was casual.
It wasn't until doctors informed him of Susan's critical condition when Paul appeared rattled. The color drained from his face. When asked about his marriage with Susan, Paul insisted the couple were getting along well, and hadn't argued since September 1985. He recalled the date specifically, as it was the moment he confessed his infidelity.
Whilst away on a work trip, Paul had an affair with an ex-girlfriend named Mary. Paul maintained that after seeing a counselor, he and Susan were back on track. So much so, in the following months, they surprised everyone by announcing their engagement. They exchanged vows on Thanksgiving Day 1985, around seven months before Susan's death.
Even though Paul insisted he and Susan were better off, others saw things differently. Susan was elated about her marriage to Paul, but his affair with Mary was all she talked about. She even told her daughters about it. They knew she kept the photograph of Mary in a kitchen drawer.
Hayley remembers her mother showing it to her once and saying, Look at this bitch. Susan also wanted to phone Mary and have it out. A notebook belonging to Susan featured a message she strolled that read, Fuck Paul, I hate Mary, I hate Paul. Hayley revealed her mother and stepfather were prone to heated arguments.
During one, Paul threw a phone in anger. Susan once contemplated tossing Paul's belongings on the front lawn and throwing him out of the house, but never went through with it. As she always did, Susan confided in her sister. She admitted wanting to hate Paul, but couldn't.
The thought of losing him devastated her. She still loved him, and didn't want to leave him. Sarah considered Paul a master manipulator, who had full control over her sister. With information gathered so far, it wasn't a stretch for Detective Dunbar to look at Paul Webb King with great suspicion.
In his opinion, Paul's personality lacked positive traits, and he spoke of his dead wife with little emotion. He had geared uptight and nervous, and even made crude jokes, making others uncomfortable given the situation. The only time he showed emotion was when his face turned red with anger after realizing he was being viewed as a suspect in Susan's death. But the detective wasn't the only one who drew issue with the man.
Paul wasn't popular. Those who knew him considered him a possessive and jealous type, who seemed bothered his wife earned more than him. Others noted Paul had a tendency to bottle up his emotions and implode in anger when it all became too much. Then, there was his odd behavior in the days following Susan's death.
Paul seemed perfectly fine and unfazed. He walked around into wine shirts and shorts as though on holiday, looking and behaving as anything but a grieving husband. K-Spire will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors.
Life isn't one size fits all, and your home shouldn't be either. Cozy makes furnishing easy with pieces you customize to fit any space or lifestyle. From sofas and shelves to rugs, tables, beds, and dining sets, everything is modular and made to suit you. You don't even have to stick to one look.
Then modular pieces can change and grow with you, and the removable washable covers make it easy to switch colors and keep things fresh. Plus, every product can be adjusted or reconfigured. Your home reflects who you are, and your furniture should too. Cozy lets you personalize your space to create a home that feels unmistakably yours.
Transform your living space today with Cozy. Visit Cozy.ca, spelled C-O-Z-E-Y, the home of possibilities made easy. Mother's Day can start to feel a bit predictable. Flowers, brunch, maybe a gift card.
It's all nice, but it doesn't always last much beyond the day. Aura Frames is a simple way to switch things up with something more meaningful. It's a digital photo frame you can preload with favorite memories before it even arrives so it feels personal from the moment it's opened. You can keep adding photos and videos anytime, from anywhere, with no limit on storage, so it's something that grows over time.
It also comes packaged in a premium gift box ready to go. It's thoughtful, personal, and something they can enjoy every day, well beyond Mother's Day. Named number one by Wirecutter, you can save on the gifts mum's love by visiting AuraFrames.ca. For a limited time, listeners can get $25 off their best-selling carbon map frame with code CASEFILE.
That's A-U-R-A frames.ca, promo code CASEFILE. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads.
By supporting our sponsors, you support CASEFILE to continue to deliver quality content. Detectives found out the household garbage was on the curb and collected the day Susan died. Ideal timing for anyone wanting to dispose of evidence. Nevertheless, they took from the house anything that might contain cyanide, including chemicals and incesticides.
Of particular interest was the open bottle of extra-strength Excedrin in the kitchen cabinet. Timing-wise, the painkillers lined up as a feasible murder weapon, and detectives knew from past experiences that capsules could be used to kill. Analysis of the Excedrin bottle was completed by 8 o'clock that night. Of the 60-pill bottle, 56 remained.
Nine of those capsules were found to contain four times the lethal dose of cyanide. The capsules as well as the bottle were tested for fingerprints. None were found on the capsules themselves, but there was a clear one on the bottle that belonged to Sarah, Susan's sister. This wasn't surprising, as she already admitted to finding the bottle in the cupboard, handling it, then hiding it up on a top shelf.
The test results confirmed what was widely suspected, not just for examiners and investigators, but for Paul Webb King. Apparently, the Excedrin already raised his suspicions. During Susan's autopsy, the medical examiner's office phoned Paul. They discussed possible causes of death, but Paul rejected all.
He then asked Dr. Flitner if Susan could have died of capsule poisoning. The question baffled Flitner. It was an unusually specific suggestion she hadn't and probably would never have considered.
Paul explained a freshly opened bottle of capsules was found in a kitchen cupboard, and it was known Susan took some prior to her death. Flitner dismissed the suggestion at the time, stating it was far-fetched. With the revelation Susan had in fact been poisoned via the Excedrin capsules, Paul was proven right. When Paul was informed of the poisoned capsules, he was not surprised, stating it was exactly as he suspected.
Paul gave detectives his own incredible story about the Excedrin. In the days before Susan's death, he took two painkillers to relieve his arthritis. The bottle was near empty, and he mentioned it to Susan, who added the medicine to her shopping list. During the following days, Susan purchased the new bottle of Excedrin.
On the morning of her death, before he left for work, Paul went to the kitchen cupboard. The new bottle was in there and the cap already missing. He took two capsules and headed off. A short time later, Susan took pills from the same bottle, resulting in her death.
No one saw Paul take the capsules, but there were enough missing from the bottle to imply he had taken some. So whether Paul was the luckiest person alive, and somehow avoided the poisoned ones, or he knew the capsules were tainted. Detectives considered the possibility Paul removed a couple and trashed them, to bolster his story later. As the investigation shifted the one involving a homicide, police combed through Susan's wife looking for all possible suspects.
This included an angry bank customer Susan turned in for embezzlement some six months before her death. Then there were the circumstances surrounding a note left for Susan at her work years ago that read, To the Whore of Puget-Seum Bank. The author was never identified. Detective Dunbar questioned all of her previous admirers, partners, and lovers, but all liaisons ended amicably long ago.
No potential suspects caught the attention of Detective Dunbar quite like Paul Webb King. He was convinced the man killed his wife. Tensions within Susan's family rose, boiled by the suspicion someone amongst them was her killer. Susan was the glue that held her family together.
With her gone, the family split in two. On one side stood Paul Webb King, and on the other, everyone else. Detectives searched Paul's work truck, but failed to find anything of note. After this search, Paul admitted to both Sarah and his brother that he kept Excedrin in the truck, but police didn't find it.
He retrieved the meds, and Sarah recalled the bottle was gone, he just had the capsules. Obviously sensing their suspicions, Paul offered for the others to take the pills to the police if they felt they were important. But neither took him up on the offer, giving Paul the benefit of the doubt. Afterward, Paul hurried into the bathroom, locked the door, and Sarah heard the toilet flush.
Thinking Paul just disposed of evidence, she called the authorities to report it. When police questioned Paul about it, he denied flushing the pills down the toilet. Instead, he admitted he ground them up in the garbage disposal. When asked why, Paul answered he knew possessing the same type of pill that killed his wife made him out to look guilty, so he destroyed them.
Although he strongly denied any involvement in Susan's death, Paul's strange statements and behavior were perceived as signs of a guilty man. At one stage, he tried to dissipate the suspicion on him by spreading it amongst others. He warned his teenage stepdaughter Hayley to get ready, being the only one home at the time of Susan's death. She was the prime suspect.
Hayley wasn't the only stepdaughter to feel the heat. Exa was in town at the time, but opted to stay at the Pony Soldier Inn with a friend, George Sanchez. The night before Susan's death, Exa said she went to Seattle City with Sanchez, and they returned to the hotel in the early hours. The following morning, Exa attempted to contact her mother at the bank as the pair had made plans to meet up for lunch.
But by then, Susan was already in a coma. There was no sacred Exa and Susan clashed in the past. I was just a guy. I'm feeling so cold because it's just cold.
So let's see. When I'm feeling so cold, it's the last one. Susan worried about Exa and wanted her daughter to exercise better judgment. Exa's friendship with George Sanchez was one example.
Susan took issue with Sanchez. He was in the midst of a drug treatment program, and Exa barely knew the guy. Exa, like everyone else in Susan's immediate circle, supplied police with a statement, but when asked to come to the station for a second interview, she arrived with an attorney. After waiting around for just a minute, she abruptly left and never took part in the interview.
Detectives understood every member of Susan's family had opportunity. All had access to the house in the days leading up to the murder, and a nun would raise suspicion rummaging around the kitchen to point at the poison of drugs. Motive was less clear-cut, but only one stood to profit from Susan's death. At the time of her death, Susan had a $20,000 life insurance policy, and her very basic will left everything to Paul.
Paul maintained he was going to use the money to pay off some credit card bills, and the rest would go to Susan's daughters. Yet Hayley and Exa didn't receive a dime. When they confronted him about it, Paul said money was tight. The girls also noticed several pieces of Susan's jewelry had disappeared.
Meanwhile, Paul changed before them. He swapped her wine shirts for more professional expensive clothing, and even purchased a new car. Then he started seeing another woman. News of the cyanide-laced capsules was relayed to Bristol Myers, the manufacturers of Excedrin.
Internal discussions revolved around the similarities between Susan Snow's death and the Chicago Tylenol murders, right down to the use of cyanide in capsules, raising concerns of a potential copycat. Police were confident Susan's murder was an isolated incident, committed by someone she knew. But not wanting to take any risks, Bristol Myers released a heavily publicized nationwide recall of all their extra-strength Excedrin products, a decision costing the company millions. The recall became sensational news, thrusting Susan Snow's murder into the public eye.
Pharmacies and supermarkets were busier than usual, as nervous customers returned previously purchased Excedrin, and staff quickly pulled the product from store shelves. Investigators assisted in the recall, collecting the mass amount of product and sending it away for testing. Yet, they were certain Susan Snow was not a victim of a pharmaceutical terrorist. But then, on June 19, police received a call.
The female caller was frantic, hysterical, and in-ear unintelligible. As publicity surrounding Susan Snow's death hit headlines in primetimes, the woman caller claimed to have noticed strong similarities between the bank manager's death and the death of her husband a week earlier. It was six days before Susan's death, June 5, 1986. 52-year-old Bruce Nichols spent the day at work, where he labored as a heavy equipment operator for the State Department of Transportation.
By the time he clocked out, drove home, and walked through the front door, it was 4.10pm. He greeted his wife, 43-year-old Stella, who was in the midst of preparing dinner. Bruce complained of a headache. Given he toiled and strained all day around loud machinery, it was an unusual vegan to feel rough by the end of it.
He hoped having a shower would clear his head. When that didn't work, he decided to take painkillers. Bruce took extra-strength Excedrin exclusively for his age and pains. Two capsules was the recommended dosage, but Bruce theorized the meds would work quicker and be more effective if he doubled that.
So he took four. All he had to do now was wait. Bruce wandered out onto the back patio, where he took in the fresh air and peaceful surrounds of his five-acre countryside property, all the while eagerly awaiting for the capsule's contents to kick in. Minutes later, Stella Nichol was startled by her husband calling out for her.
She found Bruce leaning in the frame of the patio door, light-headed, and feeling as though he was about to faint. Stella guided him towards the nearby couch. Bruce reached out to brace himself, but as he went to sit, his legs buckled, and he crumpled to the floor. At 5.02pm, an emergency call came through to 911.
Stella Nichol attempted to explain what was happening. My husband's gone into some kind of fit. He's breathing extremely hard. His eyes are rolled back.
He told me he was going to pass out. I tried to get him on the couch, and he hit the floor. When the dispatcher asked if her husband was conscious, Stella replied, I don't think so. His breathing has slowed down.
Paramedics rushed to the scene. They found Bruce sprawled on the living room floor, unresponsive to stimuli. Every 20 seconds or so, he'd gasp awkwardly for air. It was Bruce's skin tone that perplexed first responders.
His body was ghostly pale, except that his head, which was bright red. Having never seen such a symptom exhibited before, the paramedics had no idea what it signified. As they attempted to resuscitate Bruce, Stella rattled off her husband's medical history. Bruce was a recovering alcoholic and a chain smoker, but with that considered, he was in relatively good health.
He wasn't prone to anxiety attacks, fainting, or seizures. Every so often he'd get a mild headache, including the one he had that afternoon. Stella retrieved the bottle of Excedrin from the kitchen. The medics were quick to inspect and discount the pills as the cause of Bruce's critical state.
It was just an over-the-counter product, one that Bruce took regularly without issue. There was little time to consider the possible causes of his collapse. Bruce's blood pressure was plummeting, and attempts to stabilize him were failing. A helicopter airlifted Bruce to Harbourview Medical Center.
By midnight, Bruce Nickel had died. In June 1934, after 14 emotional years of trying to conceive, Walter and Ruth Nickel visited a Seattle maternity home. They left with their newly adopted son, a weak-old baby they named Bruce. Walter and Ruth were finally parents.
It didn't matter to them how Bruce came into their world. He was very much their son. When Bruce was 16 years old, he overheard his father talking about his adoption. The revelation came as a shock.
Although Bruce loved his adoptive parents and appreciated the life they afforded him, he felt resentment towards his biological mother for giving him up in the first place. These feelings manifested into abandonment issues that impacted his future relationships, resulting in three failed marriages. In helping numb his sorrows, Bruce became heavily reliant on alcohol, and soon developed an addiction that led to many missteps throughout his life. While he was late 40s, Bruce was a barfly who'd hopped from bar to bar drinking long into the night until he passed out or was kicked out, whichever came first.
Though he could be rowdy and stubborn, between Bruce's rough edges was gentleness, humor, and intelligence, available for anyone willing to look. One afternoon during the early 70s, Bruce entered a tavern in Kent not far from where he was living at the time. His attention was immediately drawn to a woman sitting at the bar, a dark-haired, elegant beauty he'd never seen in town before. Stella didn't seem the type of woman who'd be drawn to a blue-collar, rough-round-the-edges kind of guy like Bruce Nichol.
Yet, like Bruce, Stella carried her own scars, both emotional and physical. Stella held very few memories of her childhood in Oregon. By the time she was born in 1943, her working-class family had spiraled into abuse and neglect, helmed by a violent and alcoholic patriarch. Stories had since been passed on to her by older siblings, including the one where their father chased them out of the house whilst firing a shotgun.
No one was hit, but the event became the catalyst for her mother to leave, taking the children and resettling in Colorado. Then, there were the two horrific fire accidents. The first resulted in Stella requiring skin grafts. The second caused the death of her baby brother.
At age 15, Stella fell pregnant, confiding in others that it was the outcome of a rape. On October 23, 1959, she gave birth to the child, a girl she named Cynthia. Another pregnancy occurred at age 18, which ended in Stella giving the newborn up for adoption. Her life was one spent transitioning between relationships, homes, and jobs.
By the time she reached Kent, Stella was living out of her car. Throughout the years, Stella surrounded herself in a tough emotional shell. Those outside of it found Stella to be cold, distant, and incredibly hard to get to know. But to those who broke through, such as Bruce Nichol, they found warmth, humor, and passion.
Their first meeting left little impression on Stella. A week later, she ran into Bruce on the street and saw the man in a different light. His rough edges softened, and she found him to be intelligent and handsome. She later remarked to a friend that she was going to marry him.
Bruce's endless capacity for heavy drinking didn't initially dissuade Stella. She embraced it. Their romance blossomed in bars where long nights and early mornings were spent playing pool and drinking, and every weekend was a wild party. The relationship was not without problems.
There were complicated periods of being off and on again, but the pair would soon reconcile. They married in September 1976, and eventually settled down in a mobile home on the rural casp of East Auburn. By 1977, their marriage was straining under financial pressures, including Bruce's $250 a week drinking habit. Despite enjoying the liberating fun of their alcohol-fueled weekends, Stella pushed Bruce to cut back on alcohol, or at the very least, drink at home where it would be safer and cheaper.
But Bruce struggled to change his ways. In 1979, he went on a two-week bender, skipping work and rarely going home. When Stella confronted him at the bar, it was like a switchflip in Bruce's mind. In a snap decision, he signed up as an inpatient for a program for alcoholics.
Over the following ten days, Bruce participated in cancelling and aversion therapy. On the tenth day, he walked out of the program, and from that day on, Bruce Nichol never drank alcohol again. Bruce Nichol's autopsy report ruled his cause of death as hypertension due to cardiorespiratory collapse, a consequence of pulmonary emphysema. Bruce was a habitual cigarette smoker, so death arising from an associated lung disease wasn't an absurd finding.
But Stella Nichol had a hard time accepting it. Her husband was healthy. Only recently, Bruce passed a physical examination. Doctors warned Bruce was at risk of developing emphysema in the future, but didn't display signs of it yet.
Stella read her confusion at his autopsy report, questioning if the lung disease would have such a rapid and fatal onset. Nevertheless, from a medical standpoint, the case was closed, and Bruce Nichol was late to rest at Sullivan Cemetery. One week later, Susan's nose murder made to national news. Shortly after 6 p.m.
on June 17, police officer Edward Sexton turned his vehicle into a crushed gravel driveway off Lake Money Smith Road in Auburn's east. He came to a stop out the front of the Nichol's mobile home. Stella Nichol appeared at the spring door. The recent widow looked worth for wear.
Since her husband's death, Stella hit the bottle hard. Friends worried she was drinking herself to death. Doctors prescribed her Valium to settle her overwhelming emotional grief. Her home had since become a mess.
Even her striking and colorful tropical fish aquariums, which Stella once maintained with pride, were showing signs of neglect. Stella worked as the Concourse security supervisor at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport, overseeing the x-ray machines She earned her leadership position based on the seriousness in which she took her work. Stella was direct with travelers, rarely engaged in small talk, and reprimanded colleagues' incompetence. But ever since Bruce's death, Stella spent work nights out on the town.
She'd wander into work the following morning in yesterday's clothes and makeup, reeking of liquor. Stella apologized to Officer Edward Sexton for her frantic phone call to police earlier. She explained her reasoning for it, the circumstances surrounding her husband's death, the subsequent autopsy findings, and similarities she'd drawn between Bruce's death and the murder of Susan Snow. Officer Sexton asked to see the Excedrin Bruce took prior to his collapse.
The bottle was near empty, only eight capsules remained. Stella also handed the officer box packaging. She bought that one recently to replace the first bottle once it ran out. The two bottles were purchased about two weeks apart.
Unable to recall the exact details, Stella believes she bought the first bottle somewhere in Auburn in one of two stores she frequented, either Albertson's North or Johnny's Market. Being the more recent purchase, she had a clearer memory of buying the second bottle from Johnny's Market in Kent. The bottles were sent for testing. In the meantime, Officer Edward Sexton contacted Harbourview Medical Center and inquired if Bruce Nichol was tested for cyanide poisoning.
The answer was no. At the time, doctors didn't have reason to suspect the man was poisoned. Bruce's remains had since been buried. However, Officer Sexton discovered a tube of Bruce's blood taken during his autopsy was still stored at the King County Medical Examiner's Office.
It was quickly put through the same toxicology assessment that found the cyanide in Susan Snow's bloodstream. The reactive paper turned blue. Bruce Nichol had also died from cyanide poisoning. Hours later, lab tests on the two Excedrin bottles taken from the Nichol home were in.
Of the first 40-pill bottle, only eight remained. Two of those capsules were found to contain cyanide. The second unopened 40-pill bottle only had 35 capsules inside. Four contained cyanide.
No foreign fingerprints were found. The cyanide used in the Snow and Nichol murders were compared. It was determined to have come from the same source. Bruce Nichol and Susan Snow were completely unknown to one another.
There was no way the two could be connected, other than both being residents of Auburn. News of a second poison victim hit airwaves, sweeping terror through the small, otherwise peaceful community. Authorities were once again forced to shift the focus of their investigation, this time to one imposing a potential mass murderer. So far, two victims were known, but authorities worried there could be more yet to be identified.
The recall of Excedrin brand products continued, and for Bristol Myers, the damage was immeasurable. Both Paul Weckking and Stella Nichol filed wrongful death suits against the company. Paul fronted the media, demanding all pain medication in capsule form be banned. He also expressed anger in the way Bruce Nichol's death and autopsy were handled, believing if examined correctly, Susan might still be alive.
He aired frustration at still being considered a suspect in his wife's murder. To Paul, investigators were wasting time looking into him when they should have been outfinding the real killer. Surprisingly, Paul was defended by his trio of ex-wives. They insisted he wasn't the type to murder his wives, just divorce them.
It was Paul's eventual participation in a polygraph test that put an end to it all. The test concluded Paul was not being deceptive, and investigators were satisfied he didn't kill his wife. Whatever people thought of the man personally didn't matter. Paul Weckking was officially cleared as a suspect.
In total, 15,000 bottles of Excedrin were collected and put through an x-ray machine. Compared to the medicinal powder in the capsules, cyanide powder was more dense. Therefore, the cyanide-laced pills would appear darker in x-ray imagery. Of the 15,000 bottles examined, only one more was found to contain cyanide-laced capsules.
The 60-pill bottle only had 56 capsules. Four contained cyanide. It originated from Johnny's Market in Kent. The same store Stella Nickel purchased one of her tempered bottles.
Investigators narrowed in on the store, questioning staff about disgruntled former employees or customers seem behaving suspiciously. Meanwhile, Bristol Myers' manufacturing plants were... thoroughly examined. No evidence was found indicating the cyanide was added to the capsules during assembly.
Additionally, tampered bottles had so far only surfaced within Washington's King County, but batches were spread nationwide. So if the tampering occurred during manufacturing, more poisoner bottles would appear elsewhere. On June 24, in an northern pain-save pharmacy, a store manager noticed something out of place. A bottle of maximum strength Anacin-3-Ran pain relief was sitting on a can of peanuts, two rows away from the medicine aisle.
Finding items in aisles that didn't belong wasn't particularly unusual. They were often left behind by customers who changed their minds mid-shot. But the store manager was immediately suspect. Although this bottle wasn't excedrin, the focus of the current recall, he handed the Anacin-3 to the FBI.
It too was tested. The 50-pill bottle only had 45 capsules, and four of those contained cyanide. It was the first non-excedrin-brand product to contain the poison. This discovery confirmed the tampering occurred within the King County community and knocking the production chain of either Excedrin or Anacin-3, because the two products were from completely different manufacturing plants.
Investigators believed the offender lived locally and planted the poisoned products in regional stores where it was easier and less suspicious for them to do so. The FBI put together a psychological profile of the unknown perpetrator. They speculated the killer may have attended the memorial services of their victims to further avoid suspicion, revel in the chaos they caused, or to mock the police. Realizing the poisoning encompassed different pain relief brands, Washington State affected a 90-day ban on the sale of all non-prescription medication in capsule form.
Drug companies impacted by the ban came together and offered a $300,000 reward for the capture of the person responsible. Casefile will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads.
By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. A total of five poisoned bottles had so far been located. Susan Snow had one, Bruce Nichol had two, and two others were found on store shelves in Auburn and nearby Kent. The bottles were sent to the FBI in Washington, D.C.
for further analysis. None of the capsules inside held fingerprints. The offender likely wore gloves. Even though the bottles were in various states, examiners observed them collectively and were able to piece together how the offender inclined to poison.
The box packaging was carefully opened along seams. Then the safety seal around the neck of the bottles were cut to gain access. A visible alteration, but not immediately obvious to unsuspecting persons. The capsules were opened and their contents poured out.
They were refilled with approximately 700 milligrams of cyanide. The casings were then sealed back together. Poisoned capsules were mixed in with the dozens of clean pills. It was impossible to tell the difference between the two.
Both the medicinal powder and cyanide were white, and when placed in a transparent red casing, they all looked the same to the human eye. The bottles were placed back in the box packaging, which was glued back together to look as though it had never been opened. The cyanide was extensively examined. Found within the white powder were traces of tiny green crystals, not something usually found in cyanide.
Examiners had no idea what it would be. The green crystals were analyzed using a mass spectrometer, a device that can identify the exact chemical components of an unknown sample. The green crystals were determined to be made up of four common chemicals, atrazine, cymozine, dichlone, and demoneuron. Together, these four chemicals were known to be components of algaecide, a biocybe used for clearing and preventing the growth of algae.
Following this discovery, the ingredient lists of hundreds of commercially produced algaecide products were inspected, to find any specifically containing atrazine, cymozine, dichlone, and demoneuron. An FBI chemist scanning the shelves of an aquarium fish store found an exact match. The four chemicals were the ingredients of a brand of algaecide called AlgaeDestroyer. It came in a blister pack of 18 tablets.
Following instructions, the tablets were meant to be dropped straight into aquarium water, where they'd dissolve. The chemicals would distribute and clear the algae. Each round tablet was green. When crushed into a powder, the tablets became tiny green flecks that were an exact match to those found in the cyanide.
FBI Special Agent John Sylvester visited a variety of pet stores throughout King County. He carried a folder of photographs of people well known to Susan Snow and Bruce Nichol. At each store, he questioned staff if they recognized any person's picture as customers who'd purchased the AlgaeDestroyer. He entered a store called Fish Gallery and Pets.
The store's manager, 24-year-old Tom Noonan, confirmed the store stocked the AlgaeDestroyer, but not often, as he wasn't a fan of the product. Moisture would seep into the pack and harden the tablets, making them near insoluble, essentially useless. He preferred stocking liquid algaecides, but would order in the AlgaeDestroyer if requested by a customer. Special Agent Sylvester showed Tom his folder of photographs, asking if anyone looked familiar.
One photo caught Tom's attention. It was of a woman with long, wavy, dark hair. He couldn't remember her name, but knew her as a frequent, sometimes weekly, customer. She was a hobbyist fishkeeper, with several home aquariums stocked with tropical varieties.
She spoke to him of her dream to one day open her own tropical fish store. The photo Tom pointed out to Special Agent Sylvester was of Stella Nichol. Tom explained Stella purchased liquid algaecide, but didn't care for it, complaining it didn't work. So she requested AlgaeDestroyer tablets.
Not wanting to lose a loyal customer, Tom put aside his dislike of the product, and ordered it in. When Stella bought the AlgaeDestroyer, Tom warned her of the product's tendency to harden and become insoluble. To ensure the algaecide dissolved in her tank, Tom advised Stella to crush the tablets first. Evidence pointed towards Stella Nichol.
She'd purchased the AlgaeDestroyer, the product whose traces were found in a cyanide that killed both her husband and Susan Snow. It appeared a cyanide salt was ground up in the same container that was previously used to crush the AlgaeDestroyer tablets. Yet, Stella Nichol as the killer, didn't make any sense. If she did murder Bruce, she got away with her at the completion of his initial autopsy, when his cause of death was ruled as natural causes.
The case was closed. All she had to do from that day onwards was to play the part of a grieving widow and stay quiet. Why would she instead call authorities a week later, bring attention to herself, and to let investigators determine Bruce was murdered? And where did Susan Snow fit into the plot?
A thorough investigation into Stella Nichol began. It immediately led to some intriguing discoveries. The Nichols were in deep financial debt. Days before Bruce's death, North Pacific Bank sent the couple a final delinquency notice on their mortgage.
Stella Nichol responded in a letter to her creditors. Quote, Stella Nichol was the sole beneficiary of about $76,000 in insurance on her husband's life, with an additional payout of $100,000 if his death was ruled accidental. Bruce Nichol's original autopsy report concluded he died as a consequence of emphysema. Therefore, his death was not considered an accident, but as a result of a pre-existing condition caused by his smoking habit.
Stella disputed the report from the moment it was handed down. When the news of Susan Snow's murder by cyanide was publicized a week later, Stella was quick to profess her husband had died under similar circumstances. Her claims were soon confirmed. Afterwards, she was handed her husband's new death certificate.
This one stated Bruce died of acute cyanide poisoning. As it was being investigated as a homicide, insurance-wise, that was considered an accidental death. Stella was set to collect the $100,000 accident payout. Bruce Nichol signed off on his accidental death policy just six months before his death.
However, an FBI handwriting expert concluded Bruce's name was signed by someone else. There were noticeable differences between the application signature and his other known samples, the N and K specifically. They were not consistent with the way Bruce usually signed his name, but they were consistent with the way Stella signed hers. Stella had a history of falsifying documents.
In 1971, she was convicted of a single count of forgery, spending six months in prison before being released for good behavior. A life insurance payout was a well-established motive for murder, but it didn't prove Stella killed Bruce. A search of her home and workplace found no traces of cyanide. She didn't even have algae destroyer amongst her aquarium suppliers.
Yep, investigators were aware that right after Bruce's death, Stella took a near three-hour drive east from Auburn to Wenatchee. She claimed he was made the trip to visit Bruce's parents and personally informed them of their son's death, but she never met with them. It was possible Stella used this trip as an opportunity to discard evidence. What investigators did find in the nickel home was yet another bottle of Excedrin.
This one was located in a cupboard underneath the bathroom sink. Curiously, the bottle came from batch number 5H102, the same light Susan Snow's dampered bottle came from. Tests concluded the bottle found in the nickel's bathroom did not contain cyanide-laced capsules. Stella insisted she had no idea how the bottle got there.
But there was also the matter of the two bottles of Excedrin Stella did know about and had given investigators previously. Out of the 15,000 bottles of Excedrin examined since the death of Susan Snow, only four were found to contain cyanide. Stella nickel had two out of the four. She claimed she purchased her two bottles at different stores two weeks apart.
Mathematically, the chance of this happening was beyond rare. Investigators considered if anyone could be so unlucky. Holograph testing had done a huge favor for Paul Webb King in eliminating him as a suspect. Yet, Stella nickel was less inclined to participate in her own.
Her lawyer for her wrongful death suit against Bristol Myers advised her not to. The same lawyer told reporters Stella was too shaken up to be subjected to the intrusive examination, and that the accuracy of the test could be influenced by the prescription tranquilizers Stella was taking at the time. Yet, Stella did agree to be formally interviewed, just not while strapped to a light detector. Her answers were direct and responsive.
She stuck to her seemingly unbelievable story of having purchased two of the poisoned Excedrin bottles. Regarding her husband's life insurance, Stella claimed Bruce had one policy valued between $25,000 and $35,000. She didn't mention the extra $100,000 she was set to receive over the accidental death cause. She didn't deny forging Bruce's signature on the documents either.
According to Stella, Bruce was fully aware and consenting of it. As she took responsibility of the paperwork in the relationship, he gave her permission to sign off on things on his behalf. Investigators then asked Stella if her fish tanks had algae problems. The question elicited a bizarre reaction.
Stella blurted out that she didn't use that product. Confused investigators asked, What product? Rattled, Stella skirted around the question and wouldn't say anything more about it. Stella insisted she was willing to help with further investigations, but when asked again to participate in a polygraph test, she started to cry and questioned why they were doing this to her, adding, She loved her husband and didn't want to go through such an ordeal.
Upon realizing she was the prime suspect in her husband's murder, Stella relented and finally agreed to the polygraph test. Things had dragged on far too long, Stella said, and she had nothing to hide. Throughout the examination, Stella denied any involvement in her husband's death. The lie detector results determined she was being deceptive.
Motive and opportunity were abundant, but evidence was still very much circumstantial. The lie detector results were not indisputable, as the machine's accuracy had always been debatable. Investigators knew the test results wouldn't hold up in court. They needed something more conclusive.
And there was still the matter of Susan Snow's murder, a woman Stella Nichol had never met and didn't know. With no evidence to arrest her, Stella Nichol was free to go. But as word spread of Stella Nichol's failed polygraph test, the FBI received a phone call. 26-year-old Cynthia had a strained love-hate relationship with her mother, Stella Nichol.
In many ways the pair were very alike, in appearance and personality. Both were wild in spirit and fiscally independent. Cynthia inherited her mother's love for nightlife and rebellious streak. However, from the moment Cynthia was conceived, their relationship was destined to be rocky.
During her childhood, Cynthia found out she was a child of rape. As a mother, Stella was a tough disciplinarian. There were talks of abuse, including an incident in 1969 resulting in Stella's arrest for beating Cynthia, who would have been around 10 years old at the time. After a night spent in jail, Stella was released.
As Cynthia grew older, their tumultuous relationship amplified, and the two lived very separate lives. Occasionally they'd weep back together, but very quickly snap apart. In 1978, 19-year-old Cynthia fell pregnant. Hope her baby would bring the pair closer together faded when Stella responded to the announcement, I'm not ready to be a grandmother.
Cynthia did value her mother in some ways. Whenever she needed work, Stella would help her find it. Like in 1986, Stella got her a job at her own workplace, the Seattle Tacoma International Airport. During this period, Stella confided in her daughter about her crippling financial debt.
When Stella inquired about drugs, Cynthia thought her mother was so desperate for cash she was considering becoming a dealer. Stella was most curious about cocaine, specifically, how much was needed to cause an overdose. She raised the query without further explanation. Cynthia felt probing for information would be pointless, having learned long ago not to question her mother.
In another conversation, Stella mused about hiring a hitman. She pondered optimal assassination techniques, from hit-and-runs to cutting car brakes, remaining elusive about who the target of her fantasy murder for higher plot was. Eventually she let it slip. It was her husband, Bruce.
Cynthia was aware the relationship between her mother and stepfather was rocky. Stella regretted Bruce's sobriety as it brought an abrupt end to the couple's fun, social nights of drunken bar-hopping. Nowadays, Bruce was a homebody who preferred spending nights settled in front of the TV. To Stella, their new lifestyle was stale and boring.
No matter her efforts, Bruce was strong-willed. He refused to give in to temptation and fall back into unhealthy drinking habits. Seeking fun, Stella would disappear for days at a time, pursuing fleeting hook-ups until Bruce tracked her down. Ending their relationship wasn't an option for Bruce.
He loved Stella and couldn't bring himself to leave her, hoping in time she'd readjust for the new... dead. So him but she didn't stella aired frustrations about her marriage at work telling co-workers she loved being on late shift because she didn't have to see much of bruce colleagues listened but offered little advice they found stella intimidating she had a menacing glare that ensured things were always done her way that told others never to challenge or question her to stella divorcing bruce wasn't an option she'd lose half of everything and she didn't have much to begin with she often fantasized aloud what she would do with a life insurance payer if and when bruce died opening her own tropical fish store was at the forefront of these fantasies cynthia refused to believe her mother was seriously contemplating murder convincing herself it was all in her head her mom was just joking and venting she agonized over telling bruce but her mother's heavy intimidation compelled her to stay quiet cynthia hoped if it really came down to ending the relationship stella would just initiate a divorce when bruce died stella sensed her daughter's suspicion stella told cynthia i know what you're thinking and it's no trusting her mother cynthia latched on to the autopsy ruling of emphysema that silenced her nagging concerns a medical professional reached a conclusion therefore i must be correct when she later found out bruce was poisoned she again sensed her mother's involvement but cynthia couldn't be sure of it when questioned by authorities she defended stella and said nothing negative about her mother and stepfather's relationship it wasn't until cynthia found out stella failed her polygraph test when her perception changed it confirmed her suspicions and erased lingering doubt that's when she decided to contact the fbi and tell them the truth about her mother agents were wary to act suddenly on cynthia's statements questions were raised regarding cynthia's credibility given her tumultuous relationship with stella and the fact she hadn't come forward sooner her statements boiled down to hearsay and only added to the pile of circumstantial evidence they had already amassed cynthia's stories were compelling but investigators needed evidence nevertheless the fbi maintained communications with cynthia over time her stories became more damning she spoke of her mother's study at poison during visits to the library stella researched poisonous plants and learned about foxglove a tubular flower that blooms on a tall spike the entire plant is toxic including its roots and seeds foxglove grew abundantly in the wooded area adjacent to the nickel's rural property approximately six months before bruce died stella told cynthia she harvested foxglove seeds and put them into a capsule casing two weeks later she fed it to her unsuspecting husband her plan was clever stella knew bruce chewed on wild grass he picked outside if he died from her foxglove seed pill authorities would be easily fooled into thinking bruce accidentally poisoned himself by munching on the toxic plant bruce was sluggish for a couple of days and reports from his workplace detailed he complained of stomach pains but he survived cynthia recalled her mother was visibly disappointed this plan didn't work through her mention of poisoned plants cynthia had given investigators a lead the fbi subpoenaed stella nickel's library card records showed stella checked out numerous books from the organ public library prior to her husband's death one book she borrowed was titled deadly harvest a guide to common poisonous plants the book was sent for testing more than 80 finger and palm prints matching stella's were discovered throughout pages 66 and 67 detail toxic seeds seven of stella's prints were found on these two pages pages 88 and 89 featuring passages of cyanide contained eight prints in another book mcgraw hill's encyclopedia of science and technology nine of stella's fingerprints and a palm print were found on pages detailing cyanide five more of stella's fingerprints and a palm print were found in the cyanide section of the merit students encyclopedia according to stella's library records a book titled human poisonings from native and cultivated plants was marked as overdue indicating stella borrowed but never returned it cynthia had one last piece of information to provide authorities as the mother and daughter carpooled into work one day stella brought up the chicago tylenol murders remarking how easy it would be to reenact the poisonings at work the pair shared a locker for their belongings in the days before bruce's death cynthia saw capsules and a tupperware container stored in the locker the container held white powder which cynthia assumed was sugar or salt but found it odd her mother never used it on nails upon reflection she now believed it was cyanide after bruce's death the container and capsules vanished from the locker as investigators pieced together evidence implicating stella nickel for the murder of her husband discussions commenced about where exactly susan snow fit into the plot at a cursory glance she didn't fit anywhere yet on deeper inspection susan's role was pivotal after stella poisoned her husband his death was incorrectly labeled natural causes this was not the result stella anticipated the cyanide needed to be discovered so his death would be ruled an accident allowing stella to obtain bruce's 100 000 accidental death life insurance payout demanding his death be re-examined was risky questions would be raised suspicions would be felt mimicking the chicago tylenol murders stella tampered with additional excedrin bottles and a single bottle of anacent tree inserting several cyanide waste capsules in each wanting to create the illusion it was the work of a pharmaceutical terrorist stella planted these bottles on local store shelves then waited sometime between june 8 and 10 1986 susan snow entered her local general store halbertson's north to collect items on her shopping list from a shelf in the medicine aisle she grabbed a 60 pill bottle of extra strength excedrin on june 11 susan woke with one of her usual headaches and took the excedrin to relieve it minutes later susan collapsed suffocated and died upon susan's death stella nickel had the reason she needed to ask for her husband's death to be re-examined without drawing attention to herself as a suspect creating the illusion there was an unknown mass murderer in town poisoning locals indiscriminately stella stood amongst the ensuing chaos acting the grieving widow all the while aware the remaining tampered boxes were still sitting on store shelves waiting to kill another innocent victim investigators understood how fortunate they were when the cyanide was picked up during susan snow's autopsy leading to the product recalls who knows how many other people would have died if that had not been the case stella's confidence in her plan was not misplaced it was an otherwise flawless scheme because of its simplicity and anonymity if stella's motivation was simply to kill her husband she had committed the perfect murder but she was motivated by greed and brought attention to herself over time her plan came unstuck by the small mistakes she carelessly made along the way she spoke of killing bruce to her daughter she signed his life away on insurance documents she researched poison in library books planting her prints across relevant pages and she crushed the cyanide salt in the same bowl she used to crush her algae destroyer tablets on december 9 1987 stella nickel was indicted by a federal grand jury on five counts of product tampering including two which resulted in the deaths of susan snow and bruce nickel product tampering was a recently enacted federal charge introduced in the wake of the chicago tylenol murders stella nickel's trial began in april 1988 her daughter cynthia appeared as the prosecution's star witness in response to her daughter's testimony stella nickel took the stand and rebutted every claim she was quick to establish her love for bruce and how she helped him stop drinking boredom was an issue in their relationship stella maintained she was happy her husband was home more often she denied discussions of hit men overdoses and poison according to stella the thought of getting rid of bruce never crossed her mind speaking of her aquariums stella admitted to shopping at fish gallery and pets and to knowing the store's manager tom noonan she can see that algae destroyer might have been a topic of conversations they had but denied ever purchasing it when confronted with the evidence of her finger and palm prints scattered throughout library books on poison stella didn't deny reading them it was for research purposes she insisted as she did a lot of babysitting she wanted to identify the types of plants around her property and determined which ones were poisonous prosecutors put forth stella did more than simply read up on plant types her palm prints were pressed on pages relating to cyanide suggesting she didn't just thumb through out of interest but held the pages open likely as she was taking notes having since come to realize how unbelievable her story was of having purchased two of the four tainted et cetera bottles at different stores and times stella now claimed she didn't remember where or when she purchased them she denied shopping at the pay and save pharmacy where one of the tampered bottles was found however seven checks signed by stella were recovered all made out to that specific store in closing arguments assistant united states attorney joanne mater stated quote two people died because stella nickel with cool chilling deliberation set out to eliminate them because it behooved her interests to do so her acts reflect a human being without social or moral conscience a hard icy human being who was willing to adopt a horrendous course of action as it was convenient to accomplishing her purposes she had attempted to explain away all of her words and conduct just as she has attempted to explain away every shred of physical evidence in this case presented against her but she attempts to deny and she attempts to explain away too much stella nickel attempts to escape accountability for decisions which she made which had irrevocable consequences to sue snow and to bruce nickel after five days deliberation on may 9 the jury returned to court with a verdict stella nickel was found guilty of all charges during sentencing stella's defense team asked for mercy they argued for a sentence that would allow some hope the judge citing stella's crimes as being of exceptional callousness and cruelty sentenced her to two 90-year terms for the two product tampering charges relating to the deaths of susan snow and bruce nickel three ten-year terms for the remaining product tampering charges were also handed down stella nickel was also ordered to pay a fine and forfeit her remaining assets to the families of the victims stella nickel was convicted of the federal crime of product tampering causing death no one has ever been convicted for the actual murders of bruce nickel or susan snow stella maintained her innocence after her trial she attempted to appeal her conviction twice but was rejected both times by the court of appeal stella nickel claimed her daughter cynthia lied about the case in order to reap the three hundred thousand dollar reward offered by pharmaceutical companies for the capture of the person responsible others who knew cynthia noted she was no fool adding she had no interest in giving up her mother until she heard of the reward money it's a claim cynthia has since denied she maintains she didn't know about the reward until after she was working with the fbi after stella's conviction cynthia collected two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of the offered reward money the remainder went to various other witnesses whose information helped obtain a conviction including tom noonan the fish store manager the fbi maintained cynthia's motivation was irrelevant all that mattered was her information led to the discovery of evidence that proved stella nickel was responsible for the deaths of bruce nick snickle and susan snow