} In June 1986, two Auburn residents were killed by painkillers laced with cyanide. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stella Nickell was sentenced to. One June evening in 1986, he came home with a headache and four Excedrins. [2] A total of five bottles had been found to have been contaminated in the entire country, and it was regarded as suspicious that Stella would happen to have acquired two of them purely by chance. (Note: Polygraph tests are not evidence and failing or refusing to take one is not evidence of guilt). Bruce's insurance paid an extra $100,000 if he died by accident, including poisoning. Stella had an aquarium, but says she never bought algae destroyer. } She showed them the bottle. She had a history of abusing drugs. read more. The money was an attempt by the company to limit damages, because scared consumers had boycotted their products. Stella is not perfect: She once served four months in jail for check fraud. In early 1974, when she was 32, she met Bruce Nickell. 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. [18] She was denied parole in 2017.[19]. Authorities became suspicious because she told them she had bought two bottles of Excedrin at different times, probably in different places. Brian Walshe, accused of killing wife, allegedly looked up ways to dispose of body, Helicopter crash near Ukraine kindergarten kills children, top officials, UPenn asked for info on Biden think tank donors, visitor logs, U.S. lawyer who died in Mexico was "victim of a brutal crime," family says, Matt Schlapp sued by former Herschel Walker aide alleging sexual battery, 200 millionaires say inequality is "eating the world alive". 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. display: block; DARLING (born NICHOLLS) and 3 other siblings. Stella Nickell, 78, has served 34 years of her sentence and last month filed a petition arguing that her failing health and nearly spotless record should qualify her for early release. Estella May McILMOYLE (born NICHOLLS) was born on month day 1898, to Joseph NICHOLLS and Elizabeth Ann NICHOLLS (born McILMOYL). He died, as did Auburn woman Sue Snow, who apparently picked up a bottle of the tainted tablets from a grocery store, according to news reports and court records. At age 16, following the birth of her first daughter, Cynthia Hamilton, Stella moved to Southern California, where she married and had another daughter. Includes Age, Location, Address History for Stella Chen; Arrest, Criminal, & Driving Records . She told authorities that her husband had died suddenly after taking Excedrin. Her husband, Bruce Nickell, collapsed at home in 1986 at the age of 42 after taking several Excedrin tablets for a headache, according to news accounts. They asked the family if Snow had any enemies. They then looked toward Nickell. Farr and Ciolino say that is not true. She deserves no compassion. Cindy told the FBI that her mother had wanted to kill recovering alcoholic Bruce because after he had gone through rehab and sobered up, he had become a bore. Joanna R Nicholls. Nickell took a lie detector test and failed. On June 5, 1986 at 5:02 p.m., Stella Nickell called an emergency volunteer fire department on the Kent-Black Diamond Road. Her fate was sealed when Hamilton told the FBI that her mother had repeatedly talked about killing Bruce in different ways. [2] The possibility of state charges for the actual murders of Bruce and Snow continues to exist. At 16, she gave birth to a daughter, Cynthia. The police say Stella told them she bought them at different times, probably at different stores. But they found Cyanide in the pills. A second autopsy proved her right. Prosecutors said Stella Nickell put cyanide in capsules of Extra-Strength Excedrin and gave them to her husband. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Strength Excedrin is a safe medication. She refused to help the defense team. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. Your email address will not be published. This time it was a bottle of Maximum Strength Anacin-3 at the Pay 'n Save store where Sue Snow was thought to have bought her fatal Excedrin. "It's entirely possible that the real killer is walking around somewhere out there," says Farr. [9] On June 24, a cyanide-contaminated bottle of Anacin-3 was found at the same store where Snow had bought her contaminated Excedrin. This information would spread across the town she lived and cause her to start getting bullied because . Farr and Ciolino have been traveling the country without pay, interviewing witnesses and friends, talking to anyone who may help them. Detectives later found traces of algaecide a chemical used to clean fish tanks in the Excedrin pills. 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. Elizabeth was born on July 31 1868. The Chicago Tylenol incident (which was never solved) had a lasting impact on Stella, who decided that cyanide would be a good method of murder. They are not sure where the dialogue will lead. The Food and Drug Administration soon announced that Extra Strength Excedrin capsules found at Snow's home contained cyanide. Sue Snow collapsed in her bathroom of her home in the Seattle, Washington, suburb of Auburn. After her death was reported in the news, Stella called police to tell them that she thought her husband had also been poisoned. Stella and Bruce Nickell married in 1976, shortly after seven people were killed in Chicago, Illinois, from poisoned Tylenol pills. The company followed this on June 20 with a recall of all their non-prescription capsule products. After an autopsy, the cause of death was declared to be emphysema. But by the time of the trial, Rider says, the FBI had convinced her that her friend was the killer. Paramedics rushed her to Harborview, but she died without regaining consciousness. When investigators came to Nickells home to pick up the Excedrin bottle, she told them that there were two bottles and that she had purchased them on different days at different places. She became eligible for parole in 2018 but remains in prison. Snow's daughter, Hayley Klein, told Insider about her years of heartache following the crime. Other occupants: Joanna R Nicholls. She is evil. as well as other partner offers and accept our. View more. She later moved to Southern California where she married and had another daughter. ", If you have information regarding this case, please contact Al Farr at, The Tylenol Mafia: Marketing, Murder and Johnson & Johnson. However, the motion was denied. Dont miss out! In return, the prosecution agreed not to reveal that Cindy said she came forward when she heard her mother failed a polygraph. "I think that she probably killed Bruce and expected them to find out that he died from cyanide poisoning," he says. Stella Maudine Nickell (ne Stephenson; born August 7, 1943) is an American woman who was sentenced to ninety 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. Log In. Stella Nickell, then 75, had been sentenced to 90 years in prison in 1988, after she was found guilty of product tampering. The FBI began an investigation into possible product tampering having been the source of the poison. These included convictions for fraud and forgery and a charge of beating Cindy with a curtain rod. [21] A second appeal, beginning in 2001, was filed by her new attorney, Carl Park Colbert, based on evidence obtained by private detectives Al Farr and Paul Ciolino, requesting a new trial on the basis of new evidence having been discovered that the FBI may have withheld documents from the defense. In these documents, there are reports about other possible suspects and mysterious fingerprints on Sue Snows bottle. They arrested me and I was only in jail overnight.". She also planted other bottles of cyanide-tainted Excedrin in local stores to divert suspicion, authorities said. Records show agents found five contaminated bottles of medicine during a search of Auburn-area grocery stores and pharmacies, prompting widespread recalls of over-the-counter analgesics in the Northwest and elsewhere as health officials and the FBI sought to uncover the source of the poison. Stella Nicholls is the main protagonist in the 2019 film based on the book Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The same amount is offered in the 1982 Chicago-area deaths of seven people, who also were killed with tainted Tylenol capsules, he said. "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. Written by Gregg Olsen, the book includes interviews with Klein and Nickell's daughter, Cindy Hamilton. Detective Mike Dunbar, who worked on the case, says she wanted insurance money. Required fields are marked *. Stella had taken out $76,000 of life insurance on Bruce. [6] She went on trial in April 1988 and was found guilty of all charges on May 9, after five days of jury deliberation. That case moved Congress to enact tough tampering laws. Nickell was convicted after police and FBI agents, following months of investigation, concluded she had laced her husbands Excedrin painkillers with cyanide to collect on his insurance, then planted poisoned pills in stores to throw off investigators. Then Stella Nickell's daughter, Cindy Hamilton, began talking to police. But Tom Noonan, who managed the local fish store at the time, says she did buy algae destroyer. Then there was the insurance. "Mom's eyes were open and her fingers were bent and locked up," Klein said. Nickell took advantage of the panic created by Snow's death and asked police to consider Bruce's case as part of their investigation. After searching for months, they found her in Southern California. [3] The FDA inspected the Morrisville, North Carolina, plant where the tainted lot had been packaged, but found no traces of cyanide to explain its presence in the Washington bottles. [5] According to Stella, he took four extra-strength Excedrin capsules from a bottle in their home for his headache and collapsed minutes later. That case moved Congress to enact tough tampering laws. The crime was chillingly similar to the Chicago Tylenol murders four years earlier. [7] His death initially was ruled to be by natural causes, with attending physicians citing emphysema. Stella Nickell grew up poor in the Pacific Northwest. Cindy said that her mother had talked of killing Bruce Nickell, at one point discussing hiring a hit man. The son of a farmer, Truman could not afford to go to college. 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