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. [1] By the summer of 1987, even Stella's attorneys acknowledged that she was the prime suspect in the case. Stella appealed her conviction but none of her appeals succeeded. Cynthia Hamilton, Stellas daughter, came forward (possibly in order to obtain reward money) with her account of Stellas plan to kill her husband. Stella Nicholls : No, Sarah, now it's your turn to hear a story. Bruce worked as a heavy equipment operator and had a fondness for alcohol. The poisonings resulted in widespread public anxiety, as they came just five years after seven people died in Chicago from poisoned Tylenol capsules, leading to the product-tampering law under which Nickell was convicted. 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. 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. Several "C" volumes from encyclopedias at the library were sent to the FBI lab, where technicians determined that Stella had left finger and palm prints on entries about cyanide in three encyclopedias. The police say Stella told them she bought them at different times, probably at different stores. After building flatboats, de Soto and his 400 ragged troops crossed the great river under the cover of read more, On the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, armed members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) surrender to federal authorities, ending their 71-day siege of Wounded Knee, site of the infamous massacre of 300 Sioux by the U.S. 7th Cavalry in 1890. Although investigators were sure they had the right person, they had very little to take to a jury: No fingerprints, nor any way to prove that Stella Nickell ever bought or possessed cyanide. Never-before-seen photos and details about accused Idaho killer And she is completely capable of murdering again at 78 yrs old. Stella met Bruce Nickell in 1974. Stella Nickell laced painkillers with cyanide, murdering her husband and a random woman, Sue Snow. Sue Snow collapsed in her bathroom of her home in the Seattle, Washington, suburb of Auburn. The crime was chillingly similar to the Chicago Tylenol murders four years earlier. win all terms to run concurrently. Stella also alleges that the evidence actually points to another person as the killer, and that the testimony about various smaller details in the case, such as the store owner who testified about her having purchased Algae Destroyer, was influenced by promises of payment. DARLING (born NICHOLLS) and 3 other siblings. They had thought it was drug overdose, but she was not a known user, and had taken only a couple of Extra - Strength Excedrin. Both were found to contain cyanide-laced capsules. During the autopsy, an assistant medical examiner noticed the odor of bitter almonds, a tell-tale indicator of cyanide. Olsen says Hamilton and her mother had a combative relationship. Stella handed two bottles of Excedrin over to police -- supposedly bought at two different times from two different stores. So she put poisoned painkillers in stores, they say, hoping someone else would die and the tainted capsules would be discovered. Farr and Ciolino talked to other people who were also rewarded for their role in the case. [2] Further tests showed that the substance was an algaecide used in home aquariums, sold under the brand name Algae Destroyer. Investigators in Seattle say her plan was foiled when Bruce's death was attributed to emphysema - a natural cause. Around the time Stella failed a FBI polygraph, her daughter from a previous marriage, Cindy Hamilton, 27, came forward. She said she had a bottle of Excedrin in her home with the same lot number as the bottle that had killed Sue Snow. When she saw a news report about a woman dying from Excedrin capsules filled with cyanide, she called the police. The case. Estella May McILMOYLE (born NICHOLLS) was born on month day 1898, to Joseph NICHOLLS and Elizabeth Ann NICHOLLS (born McILMOYL). [10], With investigatory focus turned to Stella, detectives uncovered more circumstantial evidence pointing to her as the culprit. A $250,000 reward will be paid to a Garden Grove woman whose testimony helped convict her mother in two killings with cyanide-laced Excedrin, a spokesman for a pharmaceutical group said Friday. In 1986, the Nickells lived in Auburn, Washington, a suburb south of Seattle not far from SEA-TAC airport. "And I won't quit fighting until I prove it.". "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. Prosecutors: Security video discredits cosplay model's story of self-defense [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". Police arrested her the same day, and she went on trial in April 1988. A subsequent test of the deceased Bruce Nickell's blood sample showed that he, like Sue Snow, had died of cyanide poisoning. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine during World War II. But Tom Noonan, manager of the local fish store, says she did buy algae destroyer. [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. He died shortly after arriving. 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. Stella Nickell grew up poor in the Pacific Northwest. "Stella was desperate because she murdered her husband and got nothing out of it," Olsen said. Police initially focused on Snows husband Paul Webking. She found none, something the jury never heard. [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. Dont miss out! [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. "48 Hours": Brooke Skylar Richardson case Hamilton went on to testify against Nickell at her trial two years later. Rushed to Harborview Medical Center, Bruce did not respond to doctors efforts to revive him. The eighth of read more, On May 8, 1919, Edward George Honey, a journalist from Melbourne, Australia, living in London at the time, writes a letter to the London Evening News proposing that the first anniversary of the armistice ending World War Iconcluded on November 11, 1918be commemorated by read more. They say she was desperate to establish an accidental cause of death. Search for profiles by email and username. Coryn I. Nicholls (Mayerson) is a Physician Assistant in Walnut Creek, CA. The deaths sparked a nationwide tampering scare and prompted Excedrin manufacturer Bristol-Myers Co. to recall its over-the-counter capsule medications. Hayley Klein was transfixed by the woman who fatally poisoned her mother, Sue Snow. That case moved Congress to enact tough tampering laws. 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. Sign Up. Stella Nichols. But why would she bring the poisoning to police attention in the first place? Because of product tampering legislation passed in response to the Chicago killings, these murders became a federal case. [25], Seattle author Gregg Olsen wrote about the Nickell case in his 1993 book Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters and the Seattle Cyanide Murders. A total of five bottles containing cyanide-laced capsules were recovered: the bottle Sue Snow had purchased, the two bottles Stella Nickell had turned in, the Excedrin found on the shelves at Johnny's Market in Kent, and the Anacin capsules discovered at Pay-n-Save in Auburn. In early 1974, when she was 32, she met Bruce Nickell. Klein told them that her mom, who was a bank manager in Auburn, Washington, was "popular and had a big personality.". Farr and Ciolino have been traveling the country without pay, interviewing witnesses and friends, talking to anyone who may help them. [5] Tests verified that Snow had died of acute cyanide poisoning. Stella Nickell about the time of the poisonings. Stella says she researched cyanide after her husband died. 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. Judge wont release WA woman serving 90 years for planting poisoned pills, Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. 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. Search for birth, death, marriage, divorce, US Census, and military records. Find Nicholls's address, hospital affiliations and more. According to Olsen, the police theory is that Stella Nickell crushed the algae tablets in a bowl, and then later, when she mixed the cyanide, used that same bowl without cleaning it. On June 5, 1986 at 5:02 p.m., Stella Nickell called an emergency volunteer fire department on the Kent-Black Diamond Road. By age 16 she was pregnant with her first daughter, Cindy Hamilton. "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. Bruce's insurance paid an extra hundred thousand dollars if he died by accident, including poisoning. By CYNTHIA FLASH. 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. According to Olsen, the police theory is that Stella Nickell crushed the algae tablets in a bowl, and then later, when she mixed the cyanide, used that same bowl without cleaning it. Then Stella Nickell's daughter, Cindy Hamilton, began talking to police. Additionally, network executives feared the film would inspire copycat crimes. The odds of her selecting two contaminated bottles by random chance were astronomical. Explore historical records and family tree profiles about Stella Nicholls on MyHeritage, the world's family history network. She belongs in prison until she is dead. Stella and Steven have lived together in a single family house in Philadelphia, PA. View more. The crime was chillingly similar to the Chicago Tylenol murders four years earlier. Stella Nickell grew up poor in the Pacific Northwest. At age 16, following the birth of her first daughter, Cynthia Hamilton, Stella moved to Southern California, where she married and had another daughter. He was taken by helicopter to a Seattle hospital. 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