Transcripts For KNTV Dateline NBC 20141213

Thats a possibility. Reporter listen carefully. In this case, the most important clue of all just might come from the victim herself. There seems like theres some suspicious things that have occurred. Reporter could this be murder . Do you think that someone might be trying to poison you . Sounds like a very unpleasant way to die. Yes. Reporter and could she help solve it . Youre describing kind of a murder in slow motion. Yeah, elaborate, diabolical. Its mind boggling. Reporter im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres Josh Mankiewicz with poison. Reporter what was wrong with linda curry . Somethings happening to you, linda. Youre ingesting something thats in your body that shouldnt be there. Reporter she went to the doctor. A lot of doctors. And it wouldnt go away. And it would get worse. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness, confusion. Reporter medicine didnt seem to help her. You could have respiratory failure within a number of minutes. Reporter those who knew linda watched something unfold. But what exactly did they see . It would take 20 years to unravel this mystery. Linda curry, born linda kilgore, was six years younger than her sister pat. Linda grew up to be a Southern California beauty. She loved the sunshine, horses and family. Pats daughter, ricki rycraft, looked up to her aunt linda. She would call me over to her house to go raid her closets, and i would leave with my backseat loaded from the floor to the roof with clothes. She sounds like a lotta fun. She was a lotta fun. She was a blast. Reporter linda worked for the power company, Southern California edison. Thats where she met merry seabold. Where we really met was on the fourth floor, where we would go for break or for lunch. She ate like a horse and never gained an inch. It really yes. Dont you hate people like that . Totally. And it drew me to her. And then we came the best buds ever. Reporter but looks, generosity and brains dont guarantee happiness in love. Linda was married twice and divorced twice. She did choose guys that didnt seem to be a nice fit for the long term. And so she got her heartbroken a couple of times . She got her heart broken i think more than a couple of times, yeah. Reporter but if her personal life wasnt going well, her professional life was. She climbed the ranks at edison, becoming the training coordinator at the San Onofre Nuclear power plant. And it was there that linda met a man named paul curry. He was thirteen years younger than linda and worked as a nuclear physicist. Pauls boss, mike flower. Paul had an impressive resume . Yes, he did and a good reputation. He had a senior reactor operator license, and thats not such an easy qualification to to find. Reporter and just a few months before linda and paul started dating, he had won 24,000 on jeopardy. So, hes this younger guy younger guy. Hes a gourmet cook. Gourmet cook. A pianist. Hes in mensa. Mensa member. And hes a nuclear physicist. Nuclear physicist. All the right things. Reporter paul moved into lindas home in the picture perfect city of san clemente. They said their marriage vows in 1992. That part about in sickness and in health would be tested less than a year later. In the spring of 1993, linda came down with an illness that put her in the local hospital. Merry came to see her. She looked like a little girl in a big bed. She just looked so weak and not vibrant like linda. Frightening to see her like that . Yeah. You betcha, you betcha. Reporter her newly minted husband paul was sick too, with many of the same strange symptoms. Both were weak, vomiting, like bad Food Poisoning or the worst stomach flu imaginable. Paul recovered quickly. Linda did not. We knew that she was very sick and that they couldnt identify what was causing the problem. Reporter paul kept a vigil by her bedside and kept their edison colleagues updated with daily emails like this there still is not much clue as to the original infection, but if she continues to improve and gets well soon, i dont think it will really matter what the name of the problem was. I think we all can live with a mystery as long as lindas around to be mystified with us. How was paul when linda was sick . Very concerned. Worried . Yes. Reporter eventually, linda recovered enough to go home. Paul fixed her gourmet meals. Drew her a hot bath every night. And soon, linda went back to work at the San Onofre Nuclear plant. But months later, she was in the hospital again. Same strange symptoms. Linda, again, recovered enough to go home and back to work, but she worried about a relapse. She and paul planned to meet with some specialists who might be able to help. On june 9th, 1994, paul emailed merry. It was gee, merry, im really worried about linda. Shes wobbly and weak. Reporter paul wrote that she was mumbling incomprehensible stuff in her sleep about work and projects and meetings. And shes working all these hours. And shes working too many. And maybe, merry, shell listen to you. Reporter when linda came home from work that day, she was tired and went to bed without eating dinner. A few hours later, the phone rang at mike flowers house. I answer it. He said, mr. Flower, this is the chaplain. And he said, can you come to paul and linda currys house . Reporter mike rushed over and found his friend paul, who told an awful story. How he woke up to an odd sound. Found linda not breathing. He called 911 but by the time paramedics got there, it was too late. Paul was extremely upset. For hours, i was basically holding him up and he was crying on my shoulder. Reporter grief, shock and at the bottom of it all, a question. What killed linda curry . When we come back, a medical mystery. This is really detective work, isnt it . It is, it is. Her strange symptoms, her sudden death, lindas loved ones would wait years for an answer, an answer that would come from linda curry herself. Some serious infections require hospitalization. Before starting stelara®. Your doctor should test for tuberculosis. Stelara® may increase your risk of cancer. Always tell your doctor if you have any sign of infection, have had cancer, or if you develop any new skin growths. Do not take stelara® if you are allergic to stelara® or any of its ingredients. Alert your doctor of new or worsening problems including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. Serious allergic reactions can occur. Tell your doctor if you or anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. In a medical study, most stelara® patients saw at least 75 clearer skin. And the majority were rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. Stelara® helps keep my skin clearer. 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Walmart reporter everyone who knew paul and linda curry, knew that linda had been sick for months. An illness her doctors could never explain. And paul had been sick too. Now, suddenly linda was dead. Pauls friend, Steve Whitley everybody was in such shock that i dont think the reason mattered. It was just, okay, we got to take care of our friend. How was paul . Griefstricken. Reporter so was lindas family. Her niece, ricki remembers how paul changed the funeral arrangements to help them deal with lindas sudden death. He allowed the casket to be open so my mom could see her sister, wrap her mind around her sister being gone. Reporter linda was now only a memory. But shed left behind a perplexing medical mystery. What caused the Mysterious Illness that took her life . What were her symptoms . Diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, fatigue. And it wouldnt go away . And it wouldnt go away. Reporter after lindas death, they discovered a medical chronology on her computer at work. Shed kept careful notes about her symptoms from the very beginning. It went back a year to june 28, 1993. She wrote, felt fine all day. Worked late. Had a salad for dinner. Woke up in the middle of the night vomiting. A month later, july 24, 1993 approximately one hour after eating, i began vomiting. I became extremely weak and sweaty. Lindas best friend, merry seabold she worked at a nuclear plant. She did. Conceivable that maybe something she picked up there had something to do with that . No, thats not what happens. Not unless youre in the reactor. And she never did that. No, no, not at all. Reporter they considered other, darker possibilities. You know there are people who make themselves sick because they wanna be the center of attention. Sure. She wasnt of that personality. Possible that she was depressed . She loved her job. She had friends. Had the perfect husband . Perfect husband, a lotta nice high heels. What could she be depressed about . Reporter lindas autopsy was inconclusive. Her death certificate listed the cause as pending investigation. And sheriffs detectives did investigate. The interview is taking place at mr. Currys residence. Reporter in december 1994, six months after lindas death, they interviewed paul. Did you ever question them why they never found what was wrong with her . Sure. Well, both of us. We were making ourselves hysterical trying to figure out what was going on. Reporter like everyone else in lindas life, paul said he was puzzled and frustrated. Ive been a Problem Solver all my life and for the last couple years there was a problem that i couldnt solve and its extremely taxing. Reporter and, like everyone else, he wondered if postmortem tests would finally solve the mystery. You understand that theyre doing toxicological testing to find out yeah. Try to determine the exact cause of death. And they havent sent me any information. This is really detective work, isnt it . It is, it is. Reporter sabra botchjones is a forensic toxicologist at the Boston University school of medicine. She didnt work on lindas case, but in her lab, she often deals with the same challenges when finding out how someone died. Linda suffered from dizziness, weakness, vomiting after eating. Whats that sound like . Definitely the nausea and vomiting thats persistent suggests something thats actually being ingested that the body cannot handle. Reporter something ingested that the body cant handle . Thats what lindas friend merry seabold had thought all along. She says she shared her concerns with linda. Lets have someone go into the house. And just check it. Lets see if theres anything foreign in here. Lets see if theres something in your lipstick, maybe something in your cream that you use every night. Reporter but she says linda never took that advice, never had her home tested. Now, they all waited for the toxicology tests on lindas body. And sure enough, the lab that examined lindas samples did detective detect and identify something quite curious. Linda currys body contained lethal levels of nicotine, which only deepened the mystery. Because, according to everyone who knew her, linda curry did not Smoke Cigarettes or anything else. Never had. Never never. Did that make sense to you, nicotine poisoning . Id never heard of it. She never smoked. How could this happen . How could this be . No, i was shocked. I was shocked. Is it unusual to find nicotine in someones body . Its not unusual. We are exposed to nicotine either as a smoker or as a nonsmoker. Reporter there are more sources of nicotine than you think. Besides cigarettes, there are actually small levels of nicotine in eggplant and potatoes. It also used to be an ingredient in insecticides. If youre working in your garden and you were using an an old insecticide that did contain nicotine you could possibly get it through absorption through the skin. Enough to kill you . Yes. Reporter in sufficient quantities, she says, nicotine is a deadly poison. In the beginning the individual may experience some nausea, vomiting. Thats gonna be followed with tremors leading to convulsions and then complete respiratory depression, leading to the death of the individual. You stop breathing . You stop breathing. That sounds like a very unpleasant way to die. Yes. Reporter linda didnt garden either. And the coroner didnt believe that amount of nicotine got into her body by accident. So, he classified her death as a homicide. You kept waiting for that investigation to go somewhere. Exactly. Never did. Never did. Reporter detectives could not determine where the nicotine came from or how it got into lindas system. Months passed, then years. Lindas niece ricki rycraft spoke often with the lead detective and one day heard something that shocked her. He seemed to be inclined to think that she had committed suicide. Reporter that might have been the end of the story. Were it not for this man, at the time a determined student. He never met linda curry. But one day, hed know everything about her. Coming up we went back through every interview with every witness. A new team makes a new discovery. The nurse came back to the room and found the iv bag had a discolored fluid in it. When dateline continues. At the corner of happy and healthy. Plus get up to 20 in jingle cash on next weeks purchase of 30 or more. Even if its your last one, always share the softness of kleenex tissues. Use chase freedom at amazon. Com and get 5 cash back this quarter. So you can find the perfect gift for everyone. Including you. Activate your 5 cash back at chase. Com freedom chase. So you can. Reporter in 2006, when the name linda curry caught the eye of an Orange County prosecutor named Ebrahim Baytieh, the case was as cold as it could be. Linda curry was already dead by the time you even came to work here. Linda curry was dead when i was in law school. Reporter nevertheless, baytieh and sheriffs investigator yvonne shull decided to take another crack at solving the mystery, more than a decade after lindas death. We went back through every interview that was conducted with every witness. Reporter they also went deep into lindas medical records and found out something very strange had happened during her first hospital stay. The nurse came back to the room and found the iv bag had a discolored fluid in it and changed it out. Reporter after that discovery, shull learned linda became seriously ill, ending up in the icu. Eventually, she got better and went home. But then, four months later, she was sick again, back in the hospital. And again, something odd occurred. At that hospital, the iv, the port on the iv which is where they do injections into an iv was broken. This is a different hospital. Different hospital, different staff. Reporter had someone tampered with those bags . Could it have been poison . That was never clear. They tested everything. They couldnt tell. Normal toxicology tests, normal hospital testing wont pick up nicotine unless youre looking for it . Unless youre testing for it, correct. Reporter the incidents were as troubling as they were mysterious. No Surveillance Video or security tape showing anybody doing it . No, the only common denominator is linda and paul. So, linda was getting the treatment and paul was right there by her side as a dutiful husband. Yes. Reporter paul, the dutiful, doting husband. As they reviewed old interviews and conducted new ones, baytieh and shull quickly picked up on a theme lindas friends and family didnt much like him. Her niece, ricki there was this arrogance about him. Reporter remember, paul was a physicist, a member of mensa, a jeopardy winner. And apparently he didnt keep any of that a secret. He was on some other social level than we were. And so, i felt he looked down his nose at us. He thought he was better than you were. Yeah, definitely that. Reporter linda, of course, loved pauls intelligence. And the way he spoiled her. But when linda got sick, her friend merry got suspicious. She was telling me that, oh, paul is now making me these salads and hes making me this new dressing. And you know what hes doing, merry . Hes such a good guy. Hes drawing a hot bath for me right after i eat. And hes making me soak. And shes getting sick. And you think that the salads and the homemade dressing and the hot bath all has something to do with this . I think hes a nuclear physicist, right . Yeah, hes mensa. Hes a smart guy. I think he was trying different things. Reporter things like nicotine . Was that even possible . Well, not impossible, according to toxicologist sabra botchjones. Conceivable that if you serve somebody a spicy or savory enough dish that they might not notice that there was a significant amount of nicotine in there . It could be possible. If you introduced it somehow in someones bathwater and put in some perfume or scented soap of some kind may be able to mask the any odor that it may produce. So, theres a lot of ways that you can get nicotine into your system without noticing it . Possible. Reporter its worth remembering that paul got sick at the same time linda did. So, whatever affected her seemed to affect him too. But as friends and family watched paul get well and linda get sicker, their suspicions hardened. You always immediately suspected paul of having done something . From the first phone call. I thought he definitely was trying to kill her. Other people thought the same thing. Absolutely. Nobody called the police. There was no proof. Reporter still, merry says, she tried to warn linda. I told her she had to leave. And shed say, what, youre seeing things . Shed say, merry, hes a good husband. He wouldnt hurt me. Reporter those worries from friends and family, the mystery illness, the questions about the ivs. A lot of suspicions, but no evidence. And certainly no witnesses. Except one. Whats your full name . Linda lee curry. Reporter linda curry herself. And what she had to say was breathtaking. Coming up how have you been feeling since you went to the hospital . Exactly what was on those interview tapes. If somebody were trying to do something to you, if they were trying to poison, you idea who would try to do that . Lindas powerful words from the past. In 1919, my ancestor, marcel tolkowsky. Invented the ideal cut diamond, unlocking the true beauty of the diamond. For over 90 years. We have continued to perfect this diamond. Now kay jewelers brings you tolkowsky ideal cut diamonds from the family that invented the ideal cut. At kay, the number one Jewelry Store in america. From our family. To the beginning of yours. Yes every kiss begins with kay. I was pretty stunned myself. 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Reporter now, investigator shull put her headphones on and listened to linda currys voice. Im hard on a lot of things. Im hard on my men. Im hard on my cars. Im hard on my shoes. I was not easy on my iv bag. Reporter she seemed to be joking about the apparent damage to the iv. But detectives werent laughing. They knew lindas friends and family suspected paul. Im going on the assumption right now that paul is doing this, if something is being done. Uhhuh. We cant even prove somethings being done. Uhhuh. Reporter linda did acknowledge the suspicions of others. All my friends, a lot of my friends are saying that paul is guilty. Get out of the house. Reporter but, she said, she did not suspect her husband. I dont really believe that pauls trying to do anything. Reporter she described a loving partner who nursed her through her illness. I have to say that overall our relationship is wonderful. Hes a wonderful man. I love him. Reporter and she seemed to mean it in that interview. But in another one, she said something entirely different. So different it makes you sit up a little straighter. If somebody were trying to do something to you, if they were trying to poison you, any idea who would try to do that . Well, the only person i could think of that would have a motive to do it would be paul and the only motive i can think of is money. Reporter for investigator shull, this was a revelation. She says its why she stuck with this case for so many years. Its very rare to find out motive in a homicide at all. And in this case i had a motive. Handed to you by the victim. Yes. When i listened to that interview, i thought, this is a solvable case. You thought, she laid it out for us. We should finish it. She laid it out. From the grave. We have to find justice. Reporter they began to follow the money. It turned out linda was worth a lot of it. She had retirement accounts at Southern California edison, and almost 700,000 in Life Insurance. And, despite her reluctance to believe that paul was trying to poison her, she had changed those insurance policies, making her sister pat, not paul, the beneficiary. According to prosecutor baytieh, paul only found that out after lindas death and he wasnt happy. He had letters that he sent to all these Insurance Companies saying, we paid for the premium of these Insurance Companies from our marriage money. Im entitled to it. Reporter shull also found out that paul had filed an Insurance Claim for a ladies rolex watch and some jewelry that had gone missing after lindas funeral. He received a 9,000 payout. But investigator shull knew that linda had wanted the rolex to go to her sister. And i called her and said, theres a report that the watch was stolen. She goes, no, i have the watch on right now. Reporter in fact, the watch had never been stolen. Paul curry, it seemed, had filed a phony Insurance Claim. Who does that . Who if somebodys an innocent spouse, grieving the death of his beloved wife, who decides to fake the theft of her rolex and file a claim to collect money . Reporter paul, apparently. But it turned out he neednt have bothered. Shull and baytieh learned that lindas conflicted feelings about paul ran deep. Five months after taking him off her insurance policies, she wrote her sister pat a letter, a will, and left paul 400,000 which he eventually received after her death. But by then paul had other troubles. Within a year of lindas death, pauls boss mike flower discovered that his star employee was not a nuclear physicist, as he had claimed publicly and on his resume for so long. He didnt have a degree at all. Paul ended up submitting his resignation. And if he had not, he would have been fired. Yes. To lie about something that can be so easily checked, that sounds to me that the person doing that, has an unbelievably large ego. It was very disappointing. Somebody who thinks they can get way with anything. It was very disappointing. Reporter all of it added up to a deeply unflattering portrait of paul curry. But did it add up to a case for murder . Prosecutor baytieh knew it did not. He and shull faced exactly the same problem detectives had in 1994. Lots of suspicion, but no direct evidence that paul killed linda. And, baytieh felt, their prime suspect a selfproclaimed genius knew that. He was smart enough to realize that any police officer, a minute after shes murdered, is going to expect the husband to be a suspect. He was one step ahead. Reporter baytiehs theory . Paul tested different poisons, carefully picked an obscure one, then poisoned himself to cover his tracks. The first time linda got sick, he had the exact same symptoms. Because that allows him to say, hey, look. We both got sick. Maybe we both caught something. You think thats him thinking ahead. Sure, thats his m. O. Reporter baytieh went back to the night linda died and the nicotine that killed her. He consulted a nicotine expert who had looked into the case back in 1994. He goes, yeah, i remember the case. Nobody ever followed up with me. I go, would you kindly please be willing to write a report to us about your interpretation of the result . Reporter it turned out to be the breakthrough baytieh needed. The amount of nicotine in lindas blood was extraordinarily high, nearly 100 times what youd find in a regular smoker. Forensic toxicologist, sabra botchjones for the amount that was found in those specimens, it could take a matter of minutes to reach death. Reporter and remember, paul had always maintained he was alone with linda for hours before she died. That report allowed us to say, look. There is absolutely, categorically, no other human being that had the opportunity to do what he did. Reporter prosecutor baytieh and investigator shull knew it was now time for some show and tell with paul curry. Coming up kind of taken by surprise. Investigators would be in for a surprise too because paul curry had something to reveal. Ive been less than honest about that. When dateline continues. No. How much are you spending per month . 110 bucks 120 bucks 330 yeeeah. What if sprint could cut your rate plan in half . And give you unlimited talk and text in the u. S. , and match your data. Goodbye verizon. I am done with at t. Bring in your verizon or at t bill, turn in your old phone, and well cut your rate plan in half. Visit us online or visit a sprint store today. Fella who gets his salsa from new york city. New york city . Uhhuh. [ male announcer ] pace has that big, bold kick. Anything else just aint right. Pace. Grab the southwest by the bottle. Anything else just aint right. Acidity was in my diet. Much that it was damaging the enamel. I wanted to fix it right away. My dentist recommended pronamel. He said pronamel can make my teeth stronger. Pronamel is helping me lead the life that i want to live. Best foods and holiday leftovers become irresistibly creamy turkey casserole. Real delicious best foods. Bring out the best foods. Bring out the best. Oh, yeah. R heidi . Est foods. Oh, no. Shes gonna love it, right . No. She will not. Four words he. Went. To. Jared. Jared . Jared. Trust us. Now, step away from the jersey and nobody gets hurt. Jared the galleria of jewelry has a large selection of tag heuer swiss timepieces including the new aquaracer, sophisticated, thin and elegant. The perfect gift. I love it from an almostperfect guy. Thats why he went to jared. Reporter after linda currys death, paul curry lost his job at the Nuclear Power plant in large part because hed lied about being a nuclear physicist. He left california, moved to las vegas, and started his life over. He eventually remarried, adopted a son, and by 2010, he was living in the small town of salina, kansas. Jason gage is the city manager. When we met paul, one of the things that we noticed initially was that he seemed to be very, very smart. Reporter paul was hired as salinas building official, dealing with permits and inspections. Mr. Curry. Thank you, mr. Mayor and commissioners reporter he kept city commissioners updated about his projects. He was softspoken, really, but very much to the point. And it was easy to tell he did his homework. He knew what he was doing. Reporter yvonne shull by this time a sergeant with the Orange County Sheriffs Department had done her homework too. And on november 9th, 2010, she was more than ready to speak with paul curry about the death of his wife, more than 16 years earlier. Paul met shull at the Salina Police department. He came in without an attorney and agreed to answer questions. Hi. Hi. Hi. Reporter the camera was recording as paul talked about his longago marriage to linda. We were very absorbed with one another. I it was a wonderful many years. Reporter and he spoke of the night she died. I woke up in the middle of the night and she was not breathing and called 911 and, uh, performed cpr and they came and there was nothing they could do. Reporter after 40 minutes or so, yvonne shull started with the hard questions. You let pat have the rolex, right . Uhhuh. Reporter first, she confronted paul with the phony Insurance Claim on lindas watch. I have been less than honest about that and, quite frankly, it just was a poor decision. So, right there in that room, hes basically copping to Insurance Fraud . Yes. Which is way less serious than murder, but but its still a crime. Reporter but when it came to lindas death, paul seemed like a man with nothing to hide. In fact, he was the one who brought up the incidents with the ivs. There was something that went on in one of her hospital rooms and it was never really explained to me exactly what occurred. Reporter shull wanted an explanation too. But first she wanted a reaction. She played lindas 1993 interview with detectives for paul. Well, the only person i could think of that would have a motive to do it would be paul. Paul, do you have any comments . Its very unusual to hear her voice. Unusual to hear her voice . Yes, its nostalgic. It was nostalgic to hear her voice. Yes. Hes a cool customer. Yes. Reporter but now it was time to ask the biggest question of all. Did you kill linda . Absolutely not. I loved her dearly. Would you have a reason to kill linda . Absolutely not. Its an open mystery, i mean, its an unsolved death. But right. But part of its not unsolved. We know what killed linda. Okay. We know that it was the nicotine intoxication. Right. And now you show him the report saying she had to die within two hours of getting the nicotine . Right. Um, i dont know how to respond to that. Reporter the man whod always had all the answers, suddenly had none. Im kind of taken by surprise. I youre drudging up memories that are uncomfortable. He still thinks hes gonna walk out of that interview. At that point, yes, he does. Reporter paul had finally miscalculated. Shull knew that if paul didnt change his story about being alone with linda the night she died, he was essentially admitting that he and no one else had the opportunity to kill her, based on that experts report. Two hours in, yvonne left the room to call Ebrahim Baytieh back in Orange County to let him how things were going. Listen to what paul says to the other detective as he waits for yvonne to come back. Should i presume that im not going to make my 4 00 meeting today . And he wasnt joking. He was serious because in his mind, hes thinking, maybe theyre suspicious of me. They dont have enough to charge me. And that was his mistake. Because he never made that meeting. Oh, he never made that meeting. Reporter sixteen years after linda curry died i am placing you under arrest for the murder of linda curry. Reporter yvonne shull handcuffed paul curry. Am i allowed to call anybody . Not right now. Reporter the man linda had loved, married and trusted. Lindas best friend merry seabold heard the news back in california. And im sitting there and all of a sudden, i see paul currys mug shot. And im going, oh my gosh. I mean, look theres paul. What this man did is, for about eight, nine months, he was poisoning her. He was watching the impact of what he was doing on her every day while at the same time, holding her hand and saying, i love you, honey, im here for you, honey. Youre describing an elaborate con that ended up being kind of a murder in slow motion. Yeah, elaborate, diabolical. Reporter paul curry entered a plea of not guilty. Prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh knew it would be a tough case. There was no physical evidence tying paul to lindas death. And pauls defense attorney had a very different theory about how that nicotine got into lindas system. Coming up a stunning question. Could linda have poisoned herself . She was very, very desperate to find a cure. And what other secrets would tumble out in court. I go upstairs to the extra bedroom and im going, oh, my gosh. Walmart has top gifts like the hp stream 11 laptop, with an intel processor for great performance. Yeah, im using it to video chat with santa. No way yeah. Hes naughty. Get the top 100 gifts at unbeatable prices. Like the hp stream laptop with intel inside. Walmart. Try new always discreet, a revolution in bladder leak protection from always, the experts in feminine protection. New always discreet, for sensitive bladders. Up to 40 thinner, for superior comfort. 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Looking good collin. Feeling good. Hurry. This weekend, walmart has hundreds of great gifts at new lower prices. Online and in store. Septiembre de 2014, 20 anos it was finally time for him to face a jury. His defense attorney, lisa kopelman, argued that the prosecutions case was all a cauldron of suspicion, stirred by lindas friends. They tell the doctors their suspicions. They talked to each other about the suspicions over the years. So, everything starts getting interpreted in suspicious ways. Reporter suspicion without evidence, said kopelman. There was no evidence that paul had ever bought nicotine or any other poison. Nothing to tie him directly to lindas death. On the contrary, according to kopelman, paul was a loving, caring husband. She called pauls friend Steve Whitley to testify. She wasnt in a harmful environment to my knowledge in anything i saw. And it never occurred to you that paul might have had any evil intention toward his wife . No, no, i just didnt see it. Reporter so, how did linda get a lethal dose of nicotine . The defense had a bombshell theory that linda herself was responsible. Because she had been very, very sick and was very, very desperate to find a cure. Reporter kopelman explained to the jury that nicotine was sometimes used as a homeopathic cure to treat illnesses with symptoms similar to lindas. When we go to mexico they would, you know, sometimes pick up herbs. Reporter steve said he couldnt remember what the herbs were but to the defense, it meant that linda was willing to try anything. Maybe even nicotine. And in light of the type of illness that she had, and her tendency to use herbal medicine and nontraditional medicine, its very reasonable to think that she took steps and this is not a drastic step. Reporter maybe it was only accidentally drastic. An inadvertent overdose that caused an unintentional suicide, so the defense argued. Prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh said this was no accident. It was a premeditated plot by paul curry. He married her, planning on collecting on all the Life Insurance. He murdered her by poisoning her. And he collected on the Life Insurance. Reporter the jury heard from lindas best friend merry seabold, who stayed at their san clemente home while linda was in the hospital. I go upstairs to the extra bedroom. And there, laying out on the bureau, are all of her documents her 401k, her Life Insurance. So, somebodys looking through her all of her insurance. Thats right. And her 401k. Right. All the stuff. Right. That you would go through thats right. If somebody was dead. Exactly. Reporter that somebody was paul, said the prosecutor. And remember that email that paul sent merry the morning of lindas death . The one asking for merrys help. He says, im worried about linda. Im worried something bads gonna really happen to her. This is how many hours before linda died . 16 hours before. You think pauls layin the ground work there. Absolutely, thats what it is. Reporter baytieh revealed to the jury how he believed paul introduced that fatal dose of nicotine into lindas system. During the autopsy, the medical examiner found an injection mark behind lindas ear. You think he stuck a needle in her . No doubt in my mind. Thats exactly what he did. And you think hes getting, what, frustrated . Thats it, yeah. Its time to cash this paycheck. Reporter and while there is no evidence paul ever bought nicotine, baytieh said he didnt have to. He could have distilled it from cigarettes. Right. He would have known how. Its very easy. Reporter the prosecutor had one more surprising revelation for the jury. He called leslie curry to testify. She was pauls wife prior to his marriage to linda. Leslie told the jury that over the course of several months during her marriage to paul, she became very weak and sick. When paul told her to get Life Insurance, she took the required blood test. But the Insurance Company declined coverage. And after that, leslie said, two things happened. Paul left her and she got better. You think paul poisoned leslie . I think he was poisoning her, yes. And i think if she wouldve got the Life Insurance policy, that he wouldve killed her. Reporter the prosecutor had one last opportunity to convince the jury to convict paul curry the mensa member and former jeopardy contestant of murder. And in his closing argument, he channeled alex trebek. Category human criminality. Booksmarts, greedy, arrogant, insatiable appetite for money, sneaky and manipulative. Got away with murder for 16 years. Who is Paul Marshall curry . Reporter after three weeks and more than 30 witnesses, the jury had the case. And the next day, they reached a verdict. We the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant paul curry guilty of the crime of felony. Reporter guilty of firstdegree murder, sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. The jury had reached a verdict on how linda died, but there was still one lingering question. She was smart, she was educated, she had a good job. She couldve walked out the door at any time if she thought her life was in danger. That was his hook on linda. He gave her what she needed, which is somebody to say, i love you. I will be here for you. I will hold your hand. Thats what he preyed on. Look, we all want someone in our lives who loves us and cares about us and tells us how great we are. Linda curry, not alone in that. But how long are you willing to stick around for what turns out to be your eventual murder, after you already suspect your husband . In lindas case, for the rest of her life. Thats all for now. Im lester holt. Previously grimm. What i saw felt real. Nobody sees the world the same way. What is it . A wolfsangel. Why . The secundum naturae ordinem wesen. To them, intermarriage is a crime against man and nature. [groans] whats wrong . I still have a little bit of nausea. Its not a big deal. Its just happened a couple times. Are you possibly pregnant . [thermometer beeps] fevers down, less achy. She should be okay in a couple of days. Make sure she stays in bed and hydrated