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[Music] so many of us have routines things we do daily without thinking twice about it
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and while none of us like to think about how we might die one day I think there's
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something especially terrifying thinking about one of those routine things resulting in death which is what this
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story is about it's also about deceit which on the surface may make you think that it's a story like so many others
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where the person who is supposed to love you the most does the unthinkable but there's something about this story in
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particular that sets it apart in the most chilling way I'm Olivia Lavo the Creator and host of the case File
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presents podcast the Bakersfield 3 I've teamed up with Casey to bring you their stories in a new format Casey and I have
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picked some of case file's most memorable cases to be featured here where the storytelling will be a little
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bit different mainly you'll have photos and videos guiding you through the story
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today's story is based on case File case number 93 Susan snow and Bruce Nicholl at 40 years old Sue snow appeared to
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have a great life she and her family lived in a city outside of Seattle Auburn and Washington where Sue had a
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very successful career as a bank manager but there was something unpleasant Sue found herself dealing with on a regular
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basis headaches Sue dealt with her headaches by taking her pain reliever of choice Extra Strength etcin such was the
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case on the morning of June 11th 1986 Sue woke up with a pounding in her head and went to the kitchen and took her
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regular dose of a couple pills not long after Sue's teenage daughter heard a loud thump coming from her parents'
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bedroom she went to investigate and that's when she found her mother lying on the floor in the master bathroom eyes
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wide open with what was described as a frightened expression Frozen on her face Sue was still breathing but barely she
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was lifted to a nearby hospital where within hours doctors told Sue's husband and children she was brain dead and the
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painful decision was made to take her off of life support now from the time Sue snow was rushed to the hospital
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doctors were baffled at what caused her death The 40-Year-Old had no prior health issues and she had no signs of
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trauma anywhere on her body so going into the autopsy the pathologist had had no idea what to expect and this is where
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something remarkable happened the pathologist assistant Janet Miller noticed a faint yet distinct smell of
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bitter almonds during the postmortem examination which immediately made her suspicious see Janet Miller had had a
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colleague who had taken their life by ingesting the toxic salt and rapidly acting poison known as cyanide Miller
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had learned from that tragedy that cyanide often is described as smelling like bitter almonds according to the
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book bitter almonds by Greg Olen Janet Miller mentioned this to the pathologist but they apparently didn't smell what
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she was smelling and the pathologist didn't think there were any other signs consistent with Sue snow being poisoned
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the pathologist believed that Sue had essentially died from having an irregular heartbeat that resulted in
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heart failure but Janet Miller the pathologist assistant couldn't shake that feeling or rather that familiar
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smell of bitter almonds so she went to yet another doctor with her concern once again that doctor couldn't smell what
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Janet Miller could smell either but based on how strongly Miller felt the decision was made to test Sue Snow's
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blood which otherwise would not have been done that specialized testing revealed that the assistant was right
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cyanide was present in Sue's bloodstream and a fatal amount of it doctors concluded that Sue ingested the poison
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about 10 minutes before she died and here's a fascinating detail about the assistant suspecting the cyanide
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poisoning in the first place based on that bitter almond smell that the other two doctors did not pick up on in
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addition to the assistant having knowledge of it because of the death of her colleague there's also this research
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shows that not just anyone can smell cyanide only people who who carry a specific Gene can detect any scent of
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the poison approximately 20 to 40% of the population does not carry this Gene and therefore would not be able to smell
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that bitter almond scent so the bottom line is it was incredibly lucky that the assistant picked up on this in the first
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place otherwise Sous Snow's cause of death would have likely been ruled As Natural due to heart failure but now
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investigators believed Sue was murdered they began exploring several different theories and persons of interests
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including a past customer of Sue from the bank who she turned into authorities on suspicion of
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embezzlement and then there was a chilling note that Sue got at the bank years ago that read quote to the whr of
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the Puget Sound Bank the sender was never identified but all the leads eventually fizzled out except for one
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now before we get into that here's some important context Sue was an identical twin she and her
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twin sister Sarah were incredibly connected they shared just about everything including both having regular
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headaches after Sue's funeral her twin Sarah went to grab the exin that she knew Sue always kept in her kitchen
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cabinet but as soon as Sarah grabbed the bottle she noticed something was wrong inside there were capsules Sarah knew
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that Sue never bought capsules she only bought tablets this was apparently because of the Chicago Tylenol murders
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that took place four years earlier resulting in the deaths of seven people who had taken cyanide laced Tylenol
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capsules the Tylenol murders left many people across the nation including twins Sarah and Sue terrified of taking
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capsules tablets just appeared much safer as they're harder to tamper with so Sarah went to Sue's husband Paul with
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her concern that it would be very unlike her sister to take capsules as reported
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in the book bitter almonds by Greg Olen Sue's husband Paul told her twin Sarah that Sue had recently accidentally
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bought the capsules but ultimately decided to keep taking them because she apparently thought they were much easier
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to swallow but Sarah still felt uneasy about the whole thing and decided not to take any herself that day and this is a
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part of the story I find a bit strange even though days after her death the exedran was still in the cabinet where
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Sue always kept it and Sue's husband Paul brushed off comments from her twin that it seemed weird that Sue would take
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capsules apparently Sue's husband Paul had already told investigators that he suspected the exedran may have killed
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his wife essentially he was the first person to suggest that the exedran who took that morning may have been poisoned
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and when the bottle of of 60 pills was examined investigators found there were 56 pills left inside testing concluded
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that nine of those pills had cyanide in the capsule and then there was this Paul
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explained that on the morning of Sue's death he took two pills from the brand new bottle of Excedrin before he left
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for work before Sue had woken up presumably later that morning Sue then took her usual dose of two pills
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and soon after died this would explain why four pills were missing from the bottle hearing this investigators
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thought what are the odds that this brand new bottle was opened and Paul and Sue both took two pills from it a couple
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hours apart and only one of them ended up dead and on top of that investigators found it was just a little too
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convenient that Paul was the first person to suggest that the exedran could have been poisoned which of course
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turned out to be correct and the more they dug the more suspicious they felt Paul looked their marriage was now under
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a microscope and investigators found several things that frankly did not look good for Paul including a past Affair
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investigators also apparently just felt his behavior was off to put it bluntly they didn't feel he was acting like a
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grieving spouse should be but what really raised the alarm for them the most was his story that he took two of
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the acedan pills the morning of his wife's death detectives theorized that Paul had poisoned the pills and then
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threw out two of them so he could say that he took some himself thinking that that would make him look less suspicious
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to investigators of course that did the exact opposite to investigators this appeared to be an all too familiar story
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of a husband wanting to get rid of his wife story we've heard too many times but despite investigators strong belief
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that Sue's death was an isolated incident the manufacturers of Excedrin a company named Bristol Meyers decided not
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to take any chances and began a heavily publicized Nationwide recall this made Sous Snow's death a huge news story and
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8 days after she had taken the poisonous pills investigators got a call that changed everything it came from a woman
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who said her husband recently passed away and his death had strong similarities to what happened to sue
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snow her husband's name was Bruce nickel who like s Snow lived in Auburn Washington 52-year-old Bruce and his
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wife 43-year-old Stella lived a quiet life together they'd been married for 10 years after starting out their
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relationship in the party scene the two had become homebodies over the years after Stella helped Bruce recover from
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an alcohol addiction I they shared a quiet life together and often spent time at home tending to their saltwater
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aquarium and their Garden Bruce died about a week before Sue on what initially appeared to be an ordinary day
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Bruce came home from work where he greeted his wife and then took four etet capsules minutes later his wife called
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911 and described her husband is being unconscious with difficulty breathing he was rushed to the hospital where he died
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within hours Bruce's wife Stella reportedly found his autopsy report to be confusing and very upsetting when
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doctors explained that they believed the 52-year-old's heart went out due to issues in his lungs Stella struggled to
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accept that even though Bruce had been a longtime smoker she pointed out that before his death doctors didn't note him
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having any health issues and he had recently passed a physical with flying colors Stella felt the pathologist
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findings just couldn't be right soon after Sue Snow's death made national headlines and Stella nickel told police
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the similarities between the two cases could not be ignored investigators collected the bottle of Excedrin that
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Bruce had used the day he died the bottle was almost empty there were eight pills left Stella also gave them a
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second unopened bottle of acedan Stella said that the two bottles were bought about 2 weeks apart at two different
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supermarkets investigators found that of the remaining eight pills from the bottle Bruce had used two pills
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contained Cyanide and the unopened bottle contained four lethal capsules Now by this point Bruce had already been
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buried but fortunately the medical examiner's office kept a vial of his blood testing was performed that
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confirmed that like Sous snow Bruce had been poisoned from there the media storm
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was massive two strangers who died the same horrific death prompted a crippling fear Nationwide and it was disastrous
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for the eedan brand both Sue Snow's husband and Bruce Nichols wife filed wrongful death suits against the company
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Bristol Meyers who had already lost millions of dollars from the recall in total 15,000 bottles of exin were
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collected during the recall and examined of which only one bottle contained any cyanide wased pills that bottle also
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came from the same town where Sue and Bruce lived and then shortly after a manager at a local drugstore also in the
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same town where Bruce and Sue lived called 911 to say they were suspicious about a bottle of Anison 3 pain
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relievers that someone had misplaced in a random aisle upon testing the bottle had four poisonous pills inside now
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investigators realized someone in Auburn Washington was poisoning multiple different brands of over-the-counter
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pain relievers this prompted Washington State to put a 90-day ban on all over-the-counter medicine in capsule
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form various drug companies also came together and offered a $300,000 reward for information on the
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case meanwhile due to new laws enacted after the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders the case became a federal matter and the
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FBI began investigating they started digging into how someone was able to pull this off and concluded whoever
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contaminated these five bottles definitely wore gloves and that the box that the pills were put inside had been
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carefully opened along the seams and then put back together and then there's the safety seals which were implemented
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as a result of the Chicago Tylenol murders everyone wanted to know how did someone get through the safety seal FBI
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tchs concluded that if you were looking for it the naked eye could detect the seal had been cut but it wasn't so
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obvious that someone would likely notice it if they weren't suspecting anything now upon examination of the poison
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capsules forensics teams found that inside the Cy powder there appeared to be microscopic specks of green crystals
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mixed in extensive testing was done and it appeared these green crystals were made up of chemicals meant to prevent
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prent the growth of algae on a hunch an FBI chemist went to an aquarium store and found a product called algae
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Destroyer which contained the mix of chemicals in the green crystals mixed in with the cyanide now this is where the
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investigation turned up a notch back in Washington state special agents with the
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FBI visited 57 local pet stores showing each employee photos of both of their victims Bruce and Sue and photos of
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people close to them as asking if anyone in the photos had ever purchased this algae cleaner this may have seemed like
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a long shot at first but one young employee at a pet store did recognize someone in those photos Stella Bruce
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nicholl's wife and it's pretty incredible when you think about it just how lucky it is that this young man
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remembered Stella based off of one interaction he had with one customer that he had no way of knowing would have
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any significant ific an I find this detail fascinating essentially he said that Stell came into the store
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complaining that the liquid algae cleaner she had recently bought for her saltwater aquarium was not working and
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she wanted to use algae Destroyer tablets the pet store employee personally didn't think that algae
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Destroyer tablets were a good product so the store didn't carry them but per Stella's request he ordered them
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specially just for her and he remembered telling her her that the tablets were often very hard so she should crush them
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up before using them so this memorable encounter coupled with the fact that police knew Stella had an aquarium at
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home was pretty compelling their theory was that Stella had used the same Bowl to crush up the cyanide that she had
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used to crush up her algae Destroyer blocks and the evidence continued to stack up against her investigators found
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that Stella and Bruce had been in some serious debt and in the days before Bruce's death Stella sent a letter to
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her debt collectors telling them she was late on her payments because she had been having issues in her marriage but
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she said those issues were just about resolved and she added that her husband Bruce would no longer be involved a
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friend of Stella's told police she remembered being with Stella when she bought multiple bottles of eedan shortly
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before her husband Bruce's death and investigators found it odd that Stella had called out of work for a few days
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before her husband's death presumably to work on putting her plan into motion but
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there were still so many questions one of the biggest being why did Stella question her husband's autopsy remember
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no one was ever questioning Bruce Nichols death or autopsy results except for Stella the medical examiner's office
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felt it was a clear-cut case of his heart failing associated with with lung disease they attributed to years of him
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being a smoker Stella would have been free to go on living her life with zero suspicion yet she was the one who called
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police and insisted she thought her husband may have been poisoned the same way Sue snow had been which ultimately
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led to the investigation that turned into her being the prime suspect so if she had been the killer why would she
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ever do that well as it turned out authorities believed she had her reasons and as it often does it all boiled down
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to money see Stella was the sole beneficiary of Bruce's $76,000 life insurance policy and that
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policy had an additional payout of $100,000 if Bruce's death had been accidental but Stella wasn't going to
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get that extra $100,000 because the insurance company noted that Bruce autopsy said he died
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from natural causes as a consequence of a heart problem that stemmed from his smoking habit which if you can remember
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Stella had fought that finding from the gecko and soon after Su Snow's death hit
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the news Stella called the police and soon after she had a new death certificate for her husband that deemed
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his death accidental in the eyes of the insurance company and Stella Got Her extra 100 ,000 furthermore FBI
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handwriting analysts came to the conclusion that Bruce did not sign the documents for his own life insurance
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they believe of course that Stella forged his signature and let's not forget that out of the 15,000 bottles of
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Excedrin that were examined only four had cyanide laced pills and two of the four bottles were found inside Stella's
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home which investigators felt was pretty damn but there were also issues with the case
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as prosecutors still considered it to be very much circumstantial yes Stella had motive but
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there was no physical evidence found in her home they had nothing they felt was concrete enough to make charges stick
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and then the FBI got the call they had been waiting for though it came from an unexpected Source Stella's own daughter
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Cynthia Stella had Cynthia long before she ever met Bruce Stella was just 15 when her daughter was born Cynthia and
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her mom Stella had had a very Rocky up and down relationship pretty much Cynthia's entire life this part is
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really sad as reported by journalist and author Greg Olen Cynthia found out as a
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child that she was conceived when her mother Stella was raped as a young teenager and this Revelation put an
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immense strain on their relationship but in 1986 Cynthia who was now an adult was
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thankful that her mother Stella had helped her get a job at the Seattle Tacoma Airport where Stella worked
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herself and it was there working together that Stella began to confide to her daughter about her and Bruce's
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crippling debt and Cynthia says her mother then started mentioning topics like what's the easiest way to kill
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someone and how would one go about hiring a Hitman she also then let it slip to her
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daughter that her husband brw Bru was at the center of the murder for higher fantasies C Cynthia told detectives that
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Stella wouldn't consider divorcing Bruce despite her being very vocal about feeling done with their marriage because
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divorce would mean she'd lose half of everything she said she'd worked so hard to get and then Stella would fantasize
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to Cynthia about what she would do with all that life insurance money she'd receive saying that one of her dreams
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would to be to open up a tropical fish door but Stella's daughter would later tell detectives that she brushed off a
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lot of this is just talk thinking that her mother wouldn't actually ever act on these thoughts I always think it's weird
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when people say this but anyhow immediately after Bruce's death Cynthia said that her mom
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confronted her and said something along the lines of I know what you're thinking
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and the answer is no for Cynthia that coupled with the op autopsy ruling that Bruce died from natural causes Cynthia
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said she felt reassured but I have to point out that after Cynthia learned that Bruce had been poisoned when she
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was first questioned by detectives Cynthia still defended her mom but after Cynthia found out that her mom filled a
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polygraph exam she said that was the push that she needed to accept that her mom was most likely involved and she
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told detectives about her mom's comments that were made shortly before Bruce's death and yet reportedly detectives felt
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they still didn't have enough they wanted something more concrete which led Cynthia to tell them about an alleged
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failed plot to kill Bruce six months earlier Cynthia said that her mom had been spending a lot of time at the
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library researching poisonous plants and she ended up growing a poisonous plant in her yard that she supposedly put into
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capsules and gave to Bruce El Stella allegedly told her daughter that since Bruce was known to chew on wild grass
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she felt his death would be open and shut and no one would question that Bruce could have chewed a plant growing
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in his own yard not realizing it was poisonous but the poison from the plant didn't kill Bruce which Cynthia said was
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very upsetting for her mom so while Cynthia's stories against her mom were getting more and more damning it all
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still fell in that circumstantial evidence category but the mentions of Stella doing research at the library
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gave the feds a new lead and sure enough they found that Stella had checked out several books about various poisons
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during the time frame in question the final nail in Stella's coffin was yet another admission from her daughter
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Cynthia about a conversation they had had where Cynthia said her mom talked about how easy it would be to rep
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replicate the Chicago Tylenol murders and then Cynthia said days before Bruce's death she saw capsules and a
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container of white powder in her mom's Locker at work so investigators at this point finally felt they had enough
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evidence against Stella for the murder of her husband but they were still wondering how did Sue snow a woman she
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and her husband had never met fit into all of this why did Sue snow have to die ultimately investigators formed the
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theory that Stella assumed her husband's autopsy would reveal that he was poisoned it really threw a wrench in her
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plan when the pathologist missed that part and quickly closed the case as a natural death without the pathologist
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finding the poison Stella wasn't going to get that additional $100,000 payout for a death considered accidental by the
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life insurance company but investigators believed that Stella thought it would be
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too too risky to flat out demand that Bruce's death be re-examined that that could make her look
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suspicious so instead investigators theorized that Stella wanted to make it look like there was a pharmaceutical
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terrorist out there so she put a poison bottle of acetan back on the Shelf in a nearby drugstore and waited Su snow
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bought that planted bottle and soon afterwards she consumed the poisonous capsules and died which gave Stella her
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Inn to ask investigators that Bruce's death be re-examined which resulted in his death certificate being changed and
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her getting that payout now I want to take a moment to go back to the early days of the susn murder investigation
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when seemingly everyone was convinced that Sue's husband Paul was her killer not only did detectives come to believe
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that he did it Sue's family did as well and it destroyed a lot of relationships that were likely irreparable I think
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there's something really interesting about looking at something that looks so suspicious that can then turn out to be
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completely innocent like Sue's husband Paul telling her twin sister that despite Sue having this longtime fear of
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taking capsules shortly before her death she apparently accidentally bought them
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and then decided she liked them at that time coupled with Paul saying he also took acetan from from the same bottle
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the day of Sue's death really did not look good for him in the eyes of investigators or really anyone but in
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the end it was all true and furthermore what's terrifying about this case is if you remember it was incredibly lucky
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that the cyanide was detected during Su Snow's autopsy had it not been for the assistant there that had the past
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experience with knowing what cyani smelled like and had she also not had the gene necessary to smell it in the
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first place Sous Snow's death would have been presumed to be due to heart failure
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and then who knows how many more deaths there would have been so in 1988 Stella went on trial and was ultimately
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convicted of five counts of product tampering resulting in the death of her husband Bruce nickel and Sue snow Stella
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nickel was sentenced to 90 years in prison now just a little tidbit here that I think is interesting about this
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case a lot of inmates in Washington state who were originally given really lengthy sentences for homicide cases in
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the 70s and 80s including cases where there were numerous victims a lot of those inmates have been released so I
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thought there was a pretty good chance that Stella nickel had been released but she hasn't and the big difference
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between Stella's case and these other Washington State cases is Stella's case is federal so the things we're seeing in
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state cases here in Washington don't apply to her in fact in 2022 Stella filed a petition asking for
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something called compassionate release Stella was 78 years old at the time and she said her failing Health wasn't being
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treated adequately in the federal prison Stella mentioned in the petition how she
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has been a model inmate over the last 34 years but her request was denied in Fall
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2023 thank you so much for watching and don't forget if you want hear the original case File episode which
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includes much more detail you can find that wherever you get your podcasts and here on our YouTube channel case 93
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Susan snow and Bruce nickel if you enjoyed this video please be sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our
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Channel thank you