stella nicholls cyanide

Stella, who stood to lose $100,000 if his death wasnt ruled an accident, decided to alter her plan. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Historical Records* 3.9 BILLION RECORDS. Paramedics found her unconscious and gasping for breath. To fill the now empty hours at home, she began keeping a home aquarium. She bought nine more bottles of Excedrin and cut through the protective film with a razor blade. After the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-6), Ulysses S. Grants Army of the Potomac marched south in the drive to take Richmond. And she is completely capable of murdering again at 78 yrs old. The company was incorporated in California eighteen years ago and is no longer active. Klein told them that her mom, who was a bank manager in Auburn, Washington, was "popular and had a big personality.". Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Nickell says her husband walked out on the deck to watch the birds, and suddenly collapsed. Stella Maudine Stephenson was a native of Colton, Oregon. Stella Nicholls was presumably born in the early 1950s, and when Stella was young, her mother would leave her for an unknown reason. She said she had a bottle of Excedrin in her home with the same lot number as the bottle that had killed Sue Snow. A year later, Stella put cyanide in an Excedrin capsule that Bruce later took for a headache. In early 1974, when she was 32, she met Bruce Nickell. Snows suspicious death triggered an autopsy. Investigators speculated she had used the same container to crush algae killer and store cyanide. When Cindy was 9, Stella was charged with hitting her with a curtain rod, bruising her legs. Under her husband's insurance policy, which paid out more for accidental death, she stood to receive an extra $100,000. After searching for months, they found her in Southern California. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Both were found to contain cyanide-laced capsules. Estella May McILMOYLE (born NICHOLLS) was born on month day 1898, to Joseph NICHOLLS and Elizabeth Ann NICHOLLS (born McILMOYL). Stay up to date with what you want to know. Now 27, Hamilton had been in and out of Stella's life for years. [6] Concrete evidence proving that she had ever purchased or used cyanide was lacking, and despite their relative certainty that she had orchestrated the poisonings as either an elaborate cover-up for an insurance-motivated murder of her husband or a desperate attempt to force her husband's death to be ruled an accident to increase her insurance payout, they were unable to build a strong case supporting arrest. But the plot backfired. The doctors said it was emphysema, but Stella says that never made sense, because he didn't have that disease. [20] Her release date is given as July 10, 2040, when she will be 96 years old. Three capsules out of those that remained in the 60-capsule bottle were found to be laced with cyanide in toxic quantities. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter, Cynthia. In the next 12 years, there would be a failed marriage and a second daughter. She wanted to stay home. "I started reading books to find out what plants I might have on the property that would be a danger to kids and pets," Stella says. Search for profiles by email and username. A year and half after Bruce Nickell died, Stella Nickell was arrested and stood trial in federal court. Two more insurance policies on Bruce's life now came to light. Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle, Washington, jury. See Photos. [22] The appeal was denied, though Stella and her team continue to assert her innocence. In all the tainted capsules, the cyanide was flecked with small green crystals, determined to by an algae killer used to clean the water in aquariums. ", Klein has watched all three of Nickell's parole hearings, where she's petitioned for release on "compassionate grounds." Sue Snows husband, Paul Webking, agreed to undergo a polygraph examination and passed. At 6:30 a.m., Snows 15-year-old daughter, Hayley, found her lying on the bathroom floor, unresponsive and with only a faint pulse. [15][16], Stella's legal team sought a mistrial on grounds of jury tampering and judicial misconduct. She is evil. Paramedics found her unconscious and gasping for breath. The Seattle cyanide poisonings are the subject of several true-crime television episodes and at least one book Gregg Olsens Bitter Almonds, published in 2013. Stella Nickell grew up poor in the Pacific Northwest. ER 2002-12, 2014-16 Milford Haven, Dyfed, SA73. Stella had two of them. .component--type-recirculation .item:nth-child(5) { "Mom's eyes were open and her fingers were bent and locked up," Klein said. But Tom Noonan, who managed the local fish store at the time, says she did buy algae destroyer. She is portrayed by Zoe Colletti . Nickell poisoned Bruce so she could pocket his life insurance, and Snow died the same way in a foiled effort to cover her tracks, Olsen said. Although the defense challenged her credibility, the jury believed her and convicted Stella of fatally poisoning her husband and Sue Snow. Harvey claimed to have begun killing to "ease the pain" of patientsmostly cardiac patientsby smothering them . The crime was chillingly similar to the Chicago Tylenol murders four years earlier. For one thing, authorities found only five contaminated bottles of painkillers in all of King County. [5] Tests verified that Snow had died of acute cyanide poisoning. [2] The former was marked as overdue in library records, indicating that she had borrowed but never returned it. During the autopsy, an assistant medical examiner noticed the odor of bitter almonds, a tell-tale indicator of cyanide. He died in the hospital, but doctors did not detect the cyanide and ascribed the death to emphysema. Find your friends on Facebook. Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. She was the first person to be found guilty of violating the Federal Anti-Tampering Act after putting cyanide in Excedrin capsules in an effort to kill her husband. She lived with the Nickells months before Bruce died. They asked the family if Snow had any enemies. A year and half after Bruce Nickell died, Stella Nickell was arrested and stood trial in federal court. [5], In response to the publicity, Stella came forward on June 19. Cindy subsequently received $250,000 of the $300,000 drug industry award. President Nixon, at a news conference, defends the U.S. troop movement into Cambodia, saying the operation would provide six to eight months of time for training South Vietnamese forces and thus would shorten the war for Americans. Stella Chen has been associated with one company, according to public records. Rider was never called to testify. But Tom Noonan, manager of the local fish store, says she did buy algae destroyer. Hamilton went on to testify against Nickell at her trial two years later. 48 Hours reports on the search. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Stella resented Bruces newfound sobriety because it deprived her of their visits to bars. Ramn Morales : If you're serious about being a writer, it's not going to happen here. Stella and Steven have lived together in a single family house in Philadelphia, PA. View more. The reward is the second paid by the pharmaceutical group. In 1985, Stella took out a life insurance policy on Bruce that included a substantial indemnity payment for accidental death. She'd told the staff that she needed it to kill ants. Nickell was convicted and sentenced to 90 years in jail. She told them that she thought that he'd been poisoned, too. "All she wanted was a tropical-fish store.". Cindy said that her mother had talked of killing Bruce Nickell, at one point discussing hiring a hit man. As Stella told it, he took four extra-strength Excedrin capsules before collapsing minutes later. Four years later, the scenario seemed to be playing itself out again in King County Washington. When she saw a news report about a woman dying from Excedrin capsules filled with cyanide, she called the police. Hayley Klein was transfixed by the woman who fatally poisoned her mother, Sue Snow. "My belief is that the polygraph was a ruse to try and coerce a confession out of her," says Stella's new lawyer, Carl Colbert. Explore historical records and family tree profiles about Stella Nicholls on MyHeritage, the world's family history network. The police searched the family home and found an open bottle of Excedrin, a brand that Snow often used, in the kitchen cabinet. [5], During an autopsy on Snow, Assistant Medical Examiner Janet Miller detected the scent of bitter almonds, an odor distinctive to cyanide. She maintains her innocence, claiming her daughter lied for the reward money. One June evening in 1986, he came home with a headache and four Excedrins. The FBI laboratory determined that the contaminated capsules contained small particles of an algicide called Algae Destroyer. [1] In the course of their ten-year marriage, Bruce entered a drug rehab and gave up drinking, which Stella reportedly resented as she later felt he had "turned into a boring man". This seemed unlikely, because out of thousands of bottles checked in the entire region, authorities found only five with tainted capsules, and Stella had two of them. In 1986, her biggest one came true when her husband died during a seizure, making her the beneficiary of a $175,000-plus insurance payoff until authorities discovered Bruce Nickell's headache capsules had been laced with cyanide. Investigators found it remarkable that of only five tainted bottles out of the 15,000 that had been screened, Stella Nickell had turned in two of them, saying she had purchased them two weeks apart at separate locations. But, the author said, the poisoner has never cared about the attention. On June 5, Bruce came home from work with a headache. America immediately thought of the unsolved 1982 Chicago Tylenol product-tampering murders in which seven people died. Ramn Morales : Hospitals have records. At the end of the movie, she won the prize for the scariest story ever. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. The doctors said it was emphysema, but Stella says that never made sense, because he didnt have that disease. [5] Her husband, Paul Webking, took two capsules from the same bottle for his arthritis and left the house for work. This, in turn, brought in the FBI. Suspicious investigators, noting that $100,000 of that would only be paid out because the cause of death was now known to be cyanide, wondered if Stella had randomly killed Sue Snow by planting the bottle that killed her on the Pay-N-Save shelf, simply to bring attention to the fact Bruce had been poisoned and increase her take. "She thought, 'If that murderer got away with it, I can, too,'" Olsen said of Nickell. Stella denies abusing her children: "(Hamilton) wasn't feeling good. She told the FBI that her mother had talked for years about killing her husband, and went to the library to research poisonous plants and cyanide. The Bureau of Prisons could ask for Nickells release, the judge said, but has not done so. She stands by her testimony that her mother had talked about killing Bruce, though she never said Stella confessed. After all, it had been less than four years since the unsolved Tylenol poisonings in the Chicago area. On May 8, 1864, Yankee troops arrive at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, to find the Rebels already there. #inline-recirc-item--id-a607eb04-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d, #right-rail-recirc-item--id-a607eb04-8c88-11e2-b06b-024c619f5c3d { Six days later, Susan Snow took one of these capsules and died instantly. Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle, Washington, jury. Investigators in Seattle say her plan was foiled when Bruce's death was attributed to emphysema - a natural cause. A subsequent test of the deceased Bruce Nickell's blood sample showed that he, like Sue Snow, had died of cyanide poisoning. Although the defense challenged her credibility, the jury believed her and convicted Stella of fatally poisoning her husband and Sue Snow. Stella Nickell grew up poor in the Pacific Northwest. Stella Nickell by Michael Thomas Barry O n May 8, 1988, Stella Nickell is convicted on two counts of murder by a Seattle, Washington, jury. So she put poisoned painkillers in stores, they say, hoping someone else would die and the tainted capsules would be discovered. Gregg Olsen, whose book "Bitter Almonds" chronicles the case, says that is why the FBI zeroed in on her. [6][note 1] Bruce died shortly thereafter at Harborview Medical Center, where treatment had failed to revive him. But why would she bring the poisoning to police attention in the first place? Nickell was given two 90-year sentences for the murders of her husband and Susan Snow. FBI working to identify unknown victims of serial killer [1], A second death, less than a week later, forced authorities to reconsider the cause of Bruce's death. She also planted other bottles of cyanide-tainted Excedrin in local stores to. "I am not guilty," says Nickell. 44 year old Stella Nickell, of Auburn, Washington, had been absolutely miserable with her life. Then there was the insurance. When police arrived, Stella handed over two bottles of Excedrin. Farr and Ciolino talked to other people who were also rewarded for their role in the case. Stella had taken out $76,000 of life insurance on Bruce. Prosecutors said Stella Nickell put cyanide in capsules of Extra-Strength Excedrin and gave them to her husband. [7], Both Stella and Webking were asked to take polygraph examinations. Later, however, he entered rehab and gave up the bottle. Her May 1988 conviction and prison sentence were the first . Stella Nicholls : I can't leave my dad. People named Stella Nicholl. [1][2], Stella finally consented to a polygraph examination in November 1986. It was found among a thousand pages never turned over to the defense. "Why in the world would she have a second bottle of contaminated capsules just sitting there waiting to hand over to law enforcement," asks Farr. [6] Bruce had taken them to no effect save for complaining of sudden drowsiness. May 9, 1988, U.S. Marshall Merry Moore leads Stella Nickell from the federal courthouse after a jury convicts her on five counts of product tampering. Stella Nickell has spent more than a decade in prison for poisoning her husband. Includes Age, Location, Address History for Stella Chen; Arrest, Criminal, & Driving Records . The media was riveted because of its similarity to the notorious Chicago "Tylenol murders," less than four years earlier, when seven people died in fall 1982 after taking cyanide-tainted Tylenol pills. Olsen said that Nickell's crimes have been the focus of a number of TV documentaries and books, including his own. Nickell took advantage of the panic created by Snow's death and asked police to consider Bruce's case as part of their investigation. But he took a polygraph, passed, and was eliminated as a suspect. [13], On December 9, 1987, Stella was indicted by a federal grand jury on five counts of product tampering, including two which resulted in the deaths of Bruce and Snow,[6][14] and arrested the same day. She continues to maintain her innocence, saying that Cindy lied to get the $300,000 reward money (she received $250,000). [9] Investigators' suspicions began to turn to Stella when they discovered that she claimed that the two contaminated Excedrin bottles that she had turned over to police had been purchased at different times and different locations. She said she had a bottle of Excedrin in her home with the same lot number as the bottle that had killed Sue Snow. Stella Nickell was found guilty in federal court not of murder but of product tampering on May 9, 1988, and was sentenced to 90 years. She even searched Stella's home for algae destroyer. [2] She was also known to have, even before Snow's death, repeatedly disputed doctors' ruling that her husband had died of natural causes. "But more importantly, I know who didn't do it and that's Stella Nickell. She is played by Zoe Colletti. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider Detective Mike Dunbar, who worked on the case, says she wanted insurance money. Then there was the insurance. 2011 Update: New book presents compelling case that the murderous capsules were prepared within the manufacturer's facilities, not at the retail level. Bruce Nickell was rushed by helicopter to Harborview Hospital in Seattle, where he soon died. She found none, something the jury never heard. by Scott McCabe. They learned she had purchased the algae killer found in the cyanide, and that she had been told by the clerk to crush it before using. "I think that she probably killed Bruce and expected them to find out that he died from cyanide poisoning," he says. For 19 months, Farr and Ciolino have been traveling the country without pay, interviewing witnesses and friends, talking to anyone who may help them re-open this case. She claimed Stella admitted to researching poisons and told her of an unsuccessful attempt to poison Bruce with foxglove. Sign Up. [1][2] Stella soon found herself in various legal issues, including a conviction for fraud in 1968, a charge of spousal abuse for beating Hamilton with a curtain rod in 1969, and a conviction for forgery in 1971. She asked for compassionate release due to bad health, but where was her compassion when she murdered her own husband and another women? Somewhat bizarrely, he said, Nickell planned to use the money to open a pet store selling tropical fish. "She didn't want notoriety," Olsen said. Some cite $71,000, some $75,000, and some $76,000. Police arrested her the same day, and she went on trial in April 1988. Investigators exhumed Bruce Nickells body and found evidence of cyanide. In inorganic cyanides, the cyanide group is present as the cyanide anion CN.This anion is extremely poisonous.Soluble salts such as sodium cyanide (NaCN) and potassium . The next day, Bruce Nickell's widow Stella, a 42-year old raven-haired security screener at Seattle-Tacoma International airport, characterized by a neighbor as "a washed-up honky-tonk girl," called police. He was taken by helicopter to a Seattle hospital. "Rock star" reptile breeder murdered; Coroner: "Not a random act" Snow died a few days later, after also taking Excedrin pills laced with cyanide. had offered the rewards for information leading to an arrest in the June, 1986, killings, which led to the nations first trial in a product-tampering death. Stella Nicholls : No, Sarah, now it's your turn to hear a story. Bruce's insurance paid an extra hundred thousand dollars if he died by accident, including poisoning. This California farm kingdom holds a key, Six people, including mother and baby, killed in Tulare County; drug cartel suspected, These are the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles, New Bay Area maps show hidden flood risk from sea level rise and groundwater. The Food and drug administration and the manufacturer, Bristol - Meyers, moved quickly to remove all Extra - Strength Excedrin bottles from the shelves across the, The victims had taken it as a regular pill and did not realized it had Cyanide. Olsen told Insider that Snow was a random victim who "paid for Stella's greed with her life." In a panic, Stella Nickell, 43, called police and said that her husband, Bruce, 52, had died on June 5, soon after taking an Excedrin capsule from the same lot as the ones that killed Snow.. Officers broke open the capsules and found the powdered toxin inside. The case was also featured in episodes of Autopsy, Forensic Files,[26] The New Detectives,[27] Mysteries at the Museum, and Snapped,[28] as well as two episodes of Deadly Women. Stella and Bruce Nickell married in 1976, shortly after seven people were killed in Chicago, Illinois, from poisoned Tylenol pills. She is a citizen of Mill Valley and the daughter of Roy Nicholls. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Nearly two weeks later, she heard about Sue Snow. [23], After the 1982 Chicago Tylenol murders, new FDA regulations went into effect which made it a federal crimerather than just a state or local crimeto tamper with consumer products. 4 Stella J Nicholls. [32][33], Sources vary as to the exact amount. They were married two years later. "American Mother: The True Story of a Troubled Family, Motherhood and the Cyanide Murders That Shook the World.". Name Stella Nicholls Occupation Student Gender Female Species Human Age 15-17 Status Alive Birth date c. 1951-1953 Appearances Film (s) Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Actors/Actresses Portrayed by Zoe Colletti Stella Nicholls is a fictional character appearing in the 2019 film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. She told police, and doctors realized that Bruce Nickell had also been poisoned. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter, Cynthia. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Im afraid for her life: Riverside CC womens coach harassed after Title IX suit, Want to solve climate change? [2] Further tests showed that the substance was an algaecide used in home aquariums, sold under the brand name Algae Destroyer. Additionally, network executives feared the film would inspire copycat crimes. Johnson & Johnson warned the public not to buy its product, stopped making and advertising it, and recalled more than 30 million bottles worth more than 100 million dollars. She added that "as negative as it is, I have chosen to learn from it and not become bitter.