The Seattle Excedrin Poisonings

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Stella Maudine Nickell (born August 7, 1943) is an American woman who was sentenced to 90 years in prison for product tampering after she poisoned Excedrin capsules with lethal cyanide, resulting in the deaths of her husband Bruce Nickell and Sue ...

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Stella Maudine Nickell (born August 7, 1943) is an American woman who was sentenced to 90 years in prison for product tampering after she poisoned Excedrin capsules with lethal cyanide, resulting in the deaths of her husband Bruce Nickell and Sue Snow. Her May 1988 conviction and prison sentence were the first under federal product tampering laws instituted after the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders.

Early life

Stella Nickell was born Stella Maudine Stephenson in Colton, Oregon, to Alva Georgia "Jo" (née Duncan; later changed her name to Cora Lee) and George Stephenson, and grew up poor. By age 16, Nickell was pregnant with her daughter Cynthia Hamilton. Nickell then moved to Southern California, married, and had another daughter. She began to have various legal troubles, including a conviction for fraud in 1968, a charge the following year of beating Hamilton with a curtain rod, and a conviction for forgery in 1971. Nickell served six months in jail for the fraud charge, and was ordered into counseling after the abuse charge.

Nickell met Bruce Nickell in 1974. Bruce was a heavy equipment operator with a drinking habit, which suited her lifestyle, and the two were married in 1976. In the course of their ten-year marriage, he entered rehab and gave up drinking, which Nickell reportedly resented. When her bar visits were curtailed by Bruce's sobriety, Nickell began requesting evening shifts at her security screener job at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and cultivated a home aquarium as a new hobby.

Deaths

On June 5, 1986, the couple was living in Auburn, Washington, when Bruce, 52, came home from work with a headache. According to Nickell, Bruce took four extra-strength Excedrin capsules from a bottle in their home for his headache and collapsed minutes later. He died shortly thereafter at Harborview Medical Center, where treatment had failed to revive him. His death was initially ruled to be by natural causes, with attending physicians citing emphysema.

A second death, less than a week later, forced authorities to reconsider the cause of Bruce's death. On June 11, Sue Snow, a 40-year-old Auburn bank manager, took two Excedrin capsules for an early-morning headache. Snow's husband, Paul Webking, took two capsules from the same bottle for his arthritis and left the house for work. At 6:30 am, the Snows' fifteen-year-old daughter found Snow collapsed on the floor of her bathroom, unresponsive and with a faint pulse. Paramedics were called and transported Snow to Harborview Medical Center, but she died later that day without regaining consciousness.

Investigation

Initial investigation

During an autopsy on Snow, Assistant Medical Examiner Janet Miller detected the scent of bitter almonds, an odor distinctive to cyanide. Tests verified that Snow had died of acute cyanide poisoning. Investigators examined the contents of the Snow-Webking household and discovered the source of the cyanide: the bottle of Excedrin capsules that both Snow and Webking had used the morning of Snow's death. Three capsules out of those that remained in the 60-capsule bottle were found to be laced with cyanide in toxic quantities.

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