[Forensic Life] A Wife's Secret Meeting with a Man Abroad... The Full Story of a Nicotine Death Case

On a Friday evening in the spring of 2016, a call came into a funeral service company. The woman spoke calmly. "My husband has passed away. How should I proceed with the funeral arrangements?" When the funeral director arrived, the deceased husband was lying at home. There were no 119 paramedics or police officers present. The funeral director advised that they should first report to 112. Only then did the woman make the report, and police officers and forensic investigators arrived. The husband was a person who did not smoke for health reasons. There were no signs of trauma. The woman refused an autopsy, stating she did not want to disturb her husband's body and wished for a quiet funeral, but the police emphasized that an autopsy was mandatory in such cases. Reluctantly, the wife agreed to the autopsy. The forensic pathologist found that the husband's coronary arteries were about 75% blocked due to arteriosclerosis and stated that if toxicology tests showed no abnormalities, it was highly likely that he died from ischemic heart disease caused by blocked coronary arteries. The body was handed over to the family, and the wife cremated her husband without any special funeral procedures and reported the death four days later.

The woman had met her husband through a marriage information agency and started cohabiting. Using her husband's money, she sent their eldest daughter abroad for language training and provided rehabilitation treatment for their second daughter, who had a disability. The husband generously opened his wallet for the two daughters, who were not his biological children. During the winter when the eldest daughter was studying overseas, the wife persuaded her husband and went on a solo trip abroad. There, she met the man of her destiny. After returning home, she used the fact that they were a weekend couple to enjoy secret meetings with the man.

Fifteen days after the autopsy, the cause of death was revealed to be nicotine poisoning. From the beginning, the police found the wife suspicious. It was unusual for anyone to call the funeral company immediately after the husband's death. The rapid inheritance process and receipt of insurance and retirement benefits were also atypical. Through investigations, the police identified the wife's lover. They discovered that the person who signed as a witness when the couple registered their marriage two months before the death was the lover, and that this lover had purchased nicotine liquid overseas about a week before the husband's death. While waiting for the autopsy report, the police arrested the wife and her lover.

This was the first prosecution for a murder case caused by nicotine in South Korea. The nicotine concentration detected in the husband's blood was about 2 mg/L. Besides nicotine, zolpidem, a sleeping pill, was also detected in the husband's blood. This concentration was excessive enough to cause an adult male to fall into a deep sleep and be unable to wake for a considerable time. In court, the defense argued that the nicotine concentration detected in the husband's blood was not lethal. Nicotine causes toxic symptoms such as vomiting when blood levels exceed 0.2 mg/L, but textbooks state that the lethal concentration is above 3 mg/L.

Deaths caused by nicotine are very rare even abroad. After reviewing all international papers, there were cases of death at blood nicotine concentrations as low as 1.4 mg/L. Considering recent reports, the husband's case was judged to have a sufficient lethal concentration. With permission from the animal experiment committee, animal experiments were conducted to prove this and were cited in court. The concentration of zolpidem in the husband's blood was high enough to induce deep sleep and was higher than the blood concentration typically caused by prescribed doses. It was reasonable to conclude that after an overdose of zolpidem caused toxic levels and a deep sleep state, nicotine was administered. Both the first and second trial courts sentenced the wife and her lover to life imprisonment. Finally, justice was served.

Yoo Sung-ho, Forensic Scientist