Robert Keller - Murder Most Vile Volume 40: 18 Shocking True Crime Murder Cases

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced in any format, electronic or otherwise, without the prior, written consent of the copyright holder and publisher. This book is for informational and entertainment purposes only and the author and publisher will not be held responsible for the misuse of information contained herein, whether deliberate or incidental.

Much research, from a variety of sources, has gone into the compilation of this material. To the best knowledge of the author and publisher, the material contained herein is factually correct. Neither the publisher, nor the author will be held responsible for any inaccuracies.

No one should die from a common cold. No one. Not ever. But for 40-year-old Kathleen Daneker, the sniffle she picked up in the winter of 1991 would end up being a death sentence. Kathleen was the mother of three teenage boys from Tacoma, Washington. She and her husband, Ken, had divorced a year earlier but theyd since patched up their differences and had just remarried. On the morning of February 9, 1991, Kathleen got out of bed with everything to live for. Before heading downstairs, she stopped at the bathroom cabinet to fetch a Sudafed, to clear her blocked nose. Moments after swallowing the capsule, she collapsed to the floor and started gasping for breath. Then she started convulsing and foaming at the mouth.

Rushed to a nearby hospital, Kathleen was taken directly to the ER, where emergency medical staff immediately got to work. But even these highly experienced doctors were mystified as to her symptoms. Kathleen appeared to be having a seizure and nothing they tried seemed to help. Soon, she lapsed into a coma. Within two days, she would be dead. An autopsy revealed elevated levels of acid in the bloodstream, elevated blood sugar levels, and evidence of high blood pressure. The thing is, Kathleen had been a healthy and health-conscious woman, with none of these problems prior to her sudden death. So what did it all mean? To the medical examiner, the suspicious symptoms brought to mind a case hed worked on five years earlier, the case of Stella Nickell.

Nickell was the woman at the center of one of Americas most infamous product tampering cases. Shed killed her husband, Bruce, with Excedrin capsules tainted with cyanide. Shed also claimed another victim, Sue Snow, whod swallowed one of the cyanide-laced pills that Nickell had placed on a supermarket shelf to deflect attention. Convicted of two counts of murder, Nickell was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Now, looking at the bloodwork of Kathleen Daneker, the M.E. was reminded of that case. Was it possible that Kathleen had been poisoned?

The answer to that question was yes. Analyzed for cyanide, Kathleen Danekers blood returned a positive result. Soon Kathleens family would receive news that served only to compound their grief. Their beloved Kathleen had been murdered. The family was stunned by the revelation. Kathleen did not have an enemy in the world. They could not think of a single person who might mean her harm.

Ken Daneker, of course, was a suspect. The spouse always is in circumstances like this. But was it really likely that a man would spend a year wooing his former wife back, only to kill her the day after they were remarried? No, that did not seem likely at all. Then detectives learned of the Sudafed Kathleen had taken and the investigation veered off in a whole new direction. What if Kathleen wasnt a targeted victim? What if shed just been unlucky enough to pick a tainted product off a supermarket shelf? What if there was a Stella Nickell copycat out there?

This idea was a terrifying prospect for the authorities. Seattle-Tacoma is a massive metropole, home to nearly four million people. Depending on the extent of the product tampering, they might be looking at dozens of deaths. Time was of the essence and so the Food and Drug Administration moved swiftly, putting out warnings to the public via the media. Burroughs-Wellcome, the manufacturers of Sudafed, also issued a statewide recall. This would later be expanded nationally, costing the company nearly $17 million.

But for two unfortunate individuals, the warnings were already too late. As the police continued working the case, they learned of Stan McWhorter, a 40-year-old husband and father whod died on February 18, one week after Kathleen Daneker. McWhorter had collapsed after taking a Sudafed to clear a stuffy nose. Doctors had been perplexed as to the cause of death. Now they knew. Stan McWhorter had been poisoned with cyanide.

And then there was the case of Jennifer Meling, the first victim of the poisoning spree and its only survivor. Unlike the other victims, Jennifer had not been suffering from a cold. She'd taken the Sudafed at the insistence of her husband, Joe, whod been complaining that her snoring was keeping him awake at night. Just moments after swallowing the capsule, Jennifer felt her lungs constrict. She was sucking in huge mouthfuls of air but somehow still suffocating, not getting any oxygen. By the time Joe found her, she was convulsing on the bedroom floor.