Man, 54, Charged With Wife's 1994 Poisoning Murder
SANTA ANA (CBS) — Officials have charged a 54-year-old Kansas man, a former Orange County resident, with the fatal poisoning of his wife in 1994.
Orange County prosecutors say his motive was clear: to collect on a $400,000 insurance policy.
Paul Marshal Curry, who lives in Salina, Kan., was charged with special circumstances murder for financial gain with a sentencing enhancement formurder by poisoning.
Curry was arrested Tuesday on an arrest warrant out of Orange County, according to published reports.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 1995 that Curry's wife of two years, Linda Curry, died of nicotine poisoning. Paul Curry was quoted in the article saying the two went to a dozen doctors for a year to find out why she suffered from frequent fatigue and dizziness.
"They came up with a lot of false leads and went down different paths," Paul Curry was quoted as saying. "But every diagnosis led back to where they started. Nobody could tell us why she kept getting sick."
Curry in 1995 doubted the coroner's cause of death as nicotine poisoning, according to The Times.
"She was a nonsmoker," Curry told The Times. "I'm not convinced that she died from nicotine poisoning. I'm not convinced that this diagnosis is any different from the long list of others that we got before she died. They were all wrong."
Orange County prosecutors allege Curry poisoned his wife and called 911 late June 9, 1994, saying his wife was in bed not breathing.
Orange County sheriff's investigators considered him a suspect at the time, but did not arrest him, according to the District Attorney's Office. The case was re-opened in 2007 and investigators developed new evidence that was not available in 1994, according to prosecutors.
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