Bitter Almonds & Betrayal by PNW Haunts and Homicides

[00:00:00] Listener discretion is advised.

[00:00:02] Hello and welcome to True Crime, the podcast that helps you find new, emerging, and undiscovered True Crime podcasts.

[00:00:09] I'm Greg, the host and curator of True Crime. Today's episode is from P&W Haunts and Homicides.

[00:00:16] Caitlin and Cassie cover True Crime, Paranormal, and All Things Boopy in the Pacific Northwest.

[00:00:22] If you like today's episode, make sure to check out the episode description for links to subscribe.

[00:00:27] Alright, let's not quite right. I love it. Should we introduce the show? We didn't finish the intro yet.

[00:01:43] That's fine. It's a little unhinged with a weak pulse. Oh, Snows? I know.

[00:03:00] I love that.

[00:03:02] I know.

[00:03:03] Unless you're in the Hunger Games, I guess. That's a bad snow, right?

[00:03:06] Oh, yeah.'t think that he really understood the seriousness of the situation. Oh, yeah, which is kind of a, that's a tough blow. Yeah. At just 15, Hayley Snow had been listening to Liv Laff-Larsany's Thanksgiving episode and I was like, stop. What? Because I've read and listened to so much different

[00:05:40] source material and different podcasts and documentaries Harborview Hospital, the tables would be turned. Her husband Paul

[00:07:04] had an affair with his high school girlfriend Mary, though

[00:08:02] and things that people came into contact with. We will talk about a couple of things that it is or has been found in,

[00:08:12] but I'm gonna save it.

[00:08:13] Okay.

[00:08:14] For now, just picture like the cyanide capsules that the Nazis reportedly had.

[00:08:22] Oh, that's right. That's right.

[00:08:26] Mm-hmm.

[00:08:27] Ugh. Yeah, okay.

[00:08:29] Yeah. tampering murders in Chicago. What? He like remembered that? That's kind of an odd. This was only a handful of years later. Oh, OK. That's true. OK. Yeah, it was pretty fresh in the nation's consciousness, I would say. That sounds terrifying, though. I don't want to.

[00:09:40] Yes, it was.

[00:09:42] Though it had occurred on the one side of it it looks suspicious right? Because you're like well why are you bringing up this other... yeah. But it had just in the shocking aftermath of her mother's death, Hailey went to school the next day. Oh. While one would hope that she would be met by sympathetic peers, she faced whispered rumors for returning to school so soon after her mother's passing.

[00:12:22] Even as a grown woman, she would never forget how that made her feel.

[00:12:26] That's fucked up. line in that regard, I think we're going to talk about a little bit more because it does become significant. She's remained an active advocate to ensure justice for her mother's death all these years later. As the investigation into Sue's death progressed,

[00:13:40] her autopsy could not confirm the exact cause of death, but the tox screen did confirm a Later, it would come to light that in actuality, Sue was known, at least by the family's account, to have stereotypically purchased tablets. Paul would also later state that both he and Sue took Excedrin for headaches, as well as claiming they had both used it as a caffeine supplement.

[00:15:03] Oh.

[00:15:05] And I'm personally feeling attacked. normal things like I have a headache, I should take medicine or something. I get distracted. It's like ADHD and migraine come together, right? Yeah. I mean, depending on the purpose of the capsule and what's inside it, it can be fast acting. It can also be extended release. Oh, okay. So there's a number of way

[00:17:40] the capsules are used depending on the application and what medication goes in it.

[00:18:44] It was just after 5 p.m. the evening of June 5th in

[00:18:51] 1986 when an Auburn Washington man was rushed from his home on Southeast

[00:18:54] Lake Money Smith Road

[00:19:02] by helicopter to the Harborview Hospital in Seattle where he later sadly died.

[00:19:07] Wow, and I am so glad that I can see your face so that I know So, yeah, huh. Bruce's wife released his body for autopsy right after his death. Of course, if your loved one passed away unexpectedly, you would probably want answers as well. Yeah. As it turns out, his dutiful wife Stella was quite determined

[00:20:23] to get to the bottom of what had occurred. Yeah, no, that's weird. Yeah, I would agree. He wasn't the first man to new baby. I mean, these days I feel like it's something that gets talked about a lot where people,

[00:23:01] of course everybody wants a baby because it's like

[00:23:05] the clean slate of adoption, if you start drinking, people- They cap it up too. Yeah, absolutely. Not good for your liver. No.

[00:24:22] Still others in the Nichols' lives would need to be notified of Bruce's passing,

[00:24:26] like the Church family.

[00:25:29] every way. Which for both Stan and Lori's sake may have been a good thing. Not long after Bruce's death, Cindy, Stella's daughter, showed up to Kimmy's wedding with

[00:25:35] her boyfriend, but noticeably missing were Stella and Bruce. Stan and Lori were at a

[00:25:42] loss until Stella showed up at their home following the reception. Because they were I mean, I if their daughter's wedding was coming up, you can kind of see it, right? Yeah, like how do you think oh the like one of the happiest days of your life is in a couple of days. Let me just go ahead and kill that for you. Right, absolutely. Yeah, you can kind of see it.

[00:27:00] Yeah.

[00:27:01] It makes sense if that was the only thing.

[00:27:05] I'm stressed. a distinctive odor. Bitter almonds. Wait, so what are they smelling? This is pretty dark. When they open up the body for the autopsy, there is an odor roasted almonds when you said that. Yeah. Probably not that good. What a bitter almond smell like. Is it just like the almond skin? Cause that's really bitter. I don't know. I'm going to go sniffing almonds after this. Yeah. This does remind me of the Mel's whole episode though,

[00:29:42] when we were trying to figure out what ozone smelled like.

[00:29:46] Oh.

[00:29:47] Yeah.

[00:29:48] What does it's like Russian roulette. I fucking hate that. I'm just so nervous right now. Yeah. I don't like the odds, no matter what. I don't like it. No, I don't like any of it. I'm scrunching like you do when you're scared of my stories.

[00:31:02] I know.

[00:31:04] Oh my God, she got so scrunch.

[00:31:06] So small. green flecks were. JG-WG-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-WY-KZ-W way to throw someone off though if you don't. I mean yeah I guess you could just go and buy some of this stuff right? Right. Though honestly it's alarming the number of hobbyist pursuits that deal in handling cyanide in some former fashion.

[00:33:40] Does that not kill the fish? Right that doesn't not make sense. Yeah. We're gloves, right? These days, we might all be a bit want that kind of bad press. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So they were pretty quick. It was very proactive in this situation, I would say. It's scary, though, because like it's probably not like even coming from them. Right. It's probably people at the start.

[00:36:20] Well, you might get into it.

[00:36:21] OK. Well, I'm definitely going to get into it.

[00:36:24] OK. OK.

[00:37:26] dead at this point. Right? Okay. That's what I thought. I was like, huh, okay. Again, you don't know what to do. Maybe you're just, you know. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Now, you may

[00:37:33] recall that Bruce's autopsy stated that he had died of emphysema. In later questioning, What are you implying, Caitlin? I think I'm more than implying it. That is so fucked. Particularly in the instance where you'd forged his signature for good thing to be doing. No, and definitely not after the Tylenol poisonings. No, they're not going to let it go. This assertion was. When the FBI brought her in for the long-awaited polygraph, Stella failed in stunning fashion. In Stella fashion.

[00:41:40] Oh, it was in Stella fashion, yeah.

[00:41:44] Still, you're probably wondering about some a purely statistical standpoint. Seriously though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that would suck if like that was your luck. Yeah. But some people say you make your own luck. Uh-huh. Well, she made her own luck.

[00:44:02] heroin or cocaine, that's just expensive too. Yeah, probably, probably neither was a solid bet for her.

[00:44:07] She could do that to her next husband though,

[00:44:09] since she'll have all of this life insurance money.

[00:44:12] Oh yeah.

[00:44:13] But soon she came up with a more profitable solution

[00:44:17] that proved palatable to her.

[00:44:22] Once she had chosen her method,

[00:44:24] all she had to do Bruce, not in that context always, but she knew that Cindy had experimented with harder drugs like cocaine and heroin.

[00:45:45] So she asked her a these She crushed up The algae destroyer with the cyanide and she

[00:47:02] inserted it into the

[00:47:03] excetrin capsules

[00:48:02] like fucked up that they have to, but like, can you imagine going through those books

[00:48:04] and like getting the prints and you're like,

[00:48:06] oh my God, like look at what Paige is on.

[00:48:08] Yeah.

[00:48:10] And that's exactly what they did.

[00:48:12] Wow.

[00:48:13] It's wild.

[00:48:14] I'm nerding out over the prints.

[00:48:16] I know.

[00:48:17] I know.

[00:48:18] It's pretty cool because we don't typically think

[00:48:21] of the eighties as being like this super advanced

[00:48:26] like era for forensic technology. Stella be indicted and convicted. By then, she hardly seemed surprised by the turn of events. But something that came later did. When the daughter that she had raised to keep it off the map pretty much immediately. Yeah. And the only contact that at least the author of the book, and we'll talk about the book in a second, that he's aware of that she had had with the with it. I mean, even if her mom did tell her, like, what it what was she supposed to really do? I mean, if who has the power in this situation, you know? Yeah, I do think that's that's important to remember is this is her mother. And like

[00:52:20] I said, this isn't something that I went in Cindy. Yeah. There, it's so hard to trace this back because there's so much trauma in this family

[00:53:41] and it's really hard to separate

[00:53:45] that there are, you is her stepfather, but a man that's been in her life for quite a few years, she said, Bruce is dead. And I know what you're thinking, but no.

[00:55:02] Essentially. She was like,

[00:55:04] Yeah, I know you probably think I killed him, but I didn't.

[00:56:08] her mother bought and she didn't want the financial complications. They had debt on top of the fact that they're entangled now in this living situation and she didn't want

[00:56:15] to deal with it. So if you don't get married. That is a choice that you can make. She had been married before. You don't have to. That's not to say like if you're stuck, if you think you're stuck in a marriage,

[00:57:41] like definitely get a divorce. You can deal with it even in the 80s. It's not good. Wasn't there a story about, uh, like a parent who poisoned like some candy and... Pixie six.

[00:59:02] Pixie six, yeah, just to kill his child.

[00:59:04] I believe that was in Texas.

[01:00:20] Did they end up killing other children too, just to like get to theirs? Brian Sineid laced Pixie Stick that was ostensibly collected during a trick- over-the-counter pain reliever that was found and it contained cyanide And they looked at it and the store manager was like, we don't even have a skew for this. It wasn't even from that store. Weird. I wonder if she just like ditched it there because it didn't like quite work out or something.

[01:03:00] Like she wanted them to find tainted pain medication.

[01:04:01] I want that to be flagged. I want authorities to be aware of that.

[01:04:05] But if you don't want anyone else to die,

[01:04:09] maybe just don't poison other bottles.

[01:04:13] But if you don't poison other bottles,

[01:04:16] if nobody else dies,

[01:04:18] then it looks like just your husband and just your bottle.

[01:04:23] And they look a lot closer at that.

[01:04:26] Yeah.

[01:04:27] And they're gonna...

[01:04:28] Oh, God. And it was all for nothing. Yeah, you didn't even get what you wanted. No, I mean she can get away with it. Wow. Well, she never has to worry about money or where to live again. Yeah. She won't. Or is she dead now?

[01:05:48] Let's see, I checked it when Darn, and I have your poison jug

[01:07:03] Oh yeah!

[01:07:03] That says poison on it. Yeah, that would have been too obvious

[01:08:07] different plants that are poisonous. And she did a lot of that at the public library.

[01:08:15] And that's how they got the prints. What I found really interesting about that was

[01:08:24] she had told people and she testified to that she was doing that research can be put into capsules. Wow. Like wait, way to be more obvious. Could you be any more obvious? No. I know. Chandler. Chandler. I mean, if you think about it, he kind of poisoned as well.

[01:09:41] I don't know what happened.

[01:09:42] I haven't heard yet.

[01:09:43] Yeah, Chandler was kind of poisoned as well.

[01:09:47] What?

[01:10:49] 28th death, deemed an accident. Be careful everybody. So definitely yeah definitely don't

[01:11:01] just decide to get into like maybe the pool, maybe the pool, maybe swimming of any sort is not going to be the activity for the night when you're you know doing recreational drugs.

[01:12:05] So if no connection, that's the connection.

[01:12:07] This is my card.

[01:12:08] It is your card. And it's kind of your card because of the crow.

[01:12:11] It's definitely our card, but I'm a little possessive.

[01:12:17] I think it's more yours for sure.

[01:12:19] Yeah, yours is definitely the fool.

[01:12:21] Oh, yeah.

[01:12:24] You know what?

[01:12:25] I realized I didn't even mention in this case. world instead of focusing only on the material one. Hmm. Yeah. Okay, so maybe this is right on. Yeah. They know it. Oh my God. Yeah, she was really too much. If the reading is about your job, this card encourages you This card may represent a relationship that contains a strong spiritual or magical element. You and a partner may be on a spiritual path together, encouraging and inspiring one another, which is arguably what you were doing when you encouraged Bruce to go to rehab for his drinking.

[01:16:25] If you had continued on that path, that would have been great. holding two swords crossed over her chest. Oh, she killed two people. Two's generally signify balance or conflict as well as pairing, which you did entirely too much of. I think of the two of swords as the blind faith card, because it can represent courage and making decisions

[01:17:42] based on your own truth and in some cases spiritual guidance. You don't know what to do and can't trust anyone to help you. Or so you think. I... Yeah, exactly. The reverse two can indicate choosing between two unsatisfactory options. Wow. That's true. Damn.

[01:19:00] I... I can't.

[01:19:01] She chose the wrong one.

[01:19:02] Yeah. Yeah, she. I don't know why but I... Cause normally I'm like, let's just see what the card says and something about it being the magician, I was like, I remain skeptical.

[01:20:21] I just felt like, okay, I'm gonna turn this other piece over and I'm...

[01:20:24] That's perfect.

[01:20:26] Good job, witchy-bish.

[01:21:22] Patreon got holiday cards. They're getting another bonus from me

[01:21:25] and what Caitlin was talking about another bonus.

[01:21:28] So if you're interested,

[01:21:30] click little linky in the show notes.

[01:21:32] And if you can't support us monetarily, no worries,

[01:21:36] because the easiest ways to support are absolutely free.

[01:21:40] Free NANDINAN.

[01:21:42] Tell everyone and anyone that you come into contact with And a lot of backstage shenanigans, a lot of Krampus photos, a lot of us just, you know, having fun. Generally, shenanigans all over life. You can find our link tree and our website in the description of this episode to check out all of the fun that we have to offer.

[01:23:06] Have a creepy-In Network. If you would like to nominate a True Crime podcast to be featured, just send me a tweet at Indie Drop-In. I'd also love to hear if one of our featured podcasts is now your favorite show.

[01:24:21] Indie Drop-In survives off ad revenue and listener donations.

[01:24:26] If you would like to contribute, please consider buying me a coffee.