>> then suddenly, she was gone. a mystery illness that baffled even her doctors. >> she shook like someone with the start of parkinson's. >> what had killed her? something at home? something at work? >> household items? that's a possibility. >> listen carefully. in this case, the most important clue of all just might come from the victim herself. >> this just seems like there is some suspicion things that have occurred. >> could this be murder? >> do you think that someone might be trying to poison you? >> that's an unpleasant way to die. >> yes. >> and could she help solve it? >> your disk are griping kind of a murder and should slow motion. >> yes, rather diabolical. it's a mind-boggling. >> hello, and welcome to dateline. linda curry was thriving with a dream job and a dreamy new husband. then she got sick and doctors were stumped. but was started as a medical mystery soon took a sinister turn. a lab test result veal that one piece of the puzzle, but it would take investigators years to put all the pieces together. here's josh mankiewicz with toxic relations. >> what was wrong with linda curry? >> something is happening with you lynda, you're ingesting something in your body that shouldn't be there. >> she went to the doctor. a lot of doctors. >> and it wouldn't go away. and it will get worse. nausea, vomiting >> dizziness, confusion. >> medicine didn't seem to help her. >> you could have respiratory failure within a number of minutes. >> those who knew lynda watched something unfold. but what exactly did they see? it would take 20 years to unravel this mystery. linda curry, born linda kilgore, with six years younger than her sister path. linda grew up to be a southern california beauty. she loved the sunshine, horses and family. pat's daughter ricky looked up to her aunt linda. >> she would call me over to her house to go read her closets and i would leave with my backseat loaded from the floor to the roof with clothes. >> she sounds like a lot of fun. >> she was a lot of fun. she was a blast. >> linda worked from the power company, southern california edison, that's where she met mary segel. >> where we really met was on the fourth floor where we would go for lunch. she ate like a horse and never gained an inch. >> she -- >> and it drew me to her. and we became the best buds ever. >> but looks, generosity and brains don't guarantee happiness in love. linda was married twice and divorced twice. >> she did choose guys that didn't seem to be a nice fit for the long term. >> so she got her heart broken a couple of times? >> she got her heartbroken i think more than a couple of times. >> but if her personal life wasn't going well, her professional life was. she climbed the ranks at edison, becoming the trading coordinator at the nuclear power plant. and it was there that linda a man named paul curry. he was 13 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 that's not such an easy qualification to find. >> and just a few months before linda and paul started dating, he'd won $24,000 on jeopardy. >> so is this younger guy -- >> younger guy. >> gourmet cook. >> gourmet cook, a pianists. >> he's in mensa. >> men's a member? >> nuclear physicists. >> nuclear physicists, all the right things. >> paul moved into linda's home in the picture perfect city of san clemente. they send 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. mary came to see her. >> she looked like a little girl in a big bed. she just looks so weak and not vibrant, like linda >> frightening to see her like that? >> yes, you bet you. >> her newly minted husband paul was sick to, with many of the same strange symptoms. both were weak, vomiting, like a bad food poisoning. or the worst summer stomach flu imaginable. paul recovered quickly. linda did not. >> we knew that she was very sick. and that they couldn't identify what was causing the problem. >> 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 don't think it will really matter what the name of the problem was. i think we can all live with a mystery. as long as linda is around to be mystified with us. how was paul when linda was sick? >> very concerned. >> worried? >> yes. >> eventually linda recovered enough to go home. paul fixed her gourmet meals. drew her a hot bath every night. and soon linda bet went back to work at the nuclear plant. but months later, she was in the hospital again. seem 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 specialist who might be able to help. on june ninth, 1994, paul emailed mary. >> it was, mary i'm worried about linda. she is wobbly and weak. >> paul wrote that she was mumbling incomprehensible stuff in her sleep about work and projects and meetings. >> and she's working all these hours. and she's working too many -- and maybe mary, she'll listen to you. >> 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 and he said mr. flowers, this is the chaplain. and he said, can you come to paul and lynda curry's house? >> mike rushed over and found his friend paul, who told an awful story. how he woke up to an odd sound and found linda not breathing. he called 9-1-1. 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. >> grief, shock and at the bottom of it all a question. what killed linda curry? >> coming up. linda's loved ones would wait years for an answer. an answer that would come. >> what's your full name? >> linda lee curry. >> from linda curry herself. when dateline continues. more active. shingles doesn't care. i go to spin classes with my coworkers. good for you, shingles doesn't care. because no matter how healthy you feel, your risk of shingles sharply increases after age 50. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. shingles doesn't care but, shingrix protects. shingrix is now zero dollars for almost everyone. ask your doctor about shingrix today. 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[screams] dangit. for a great low rate, go with the general. when i first learned about my dupuytren's contracture, my physician referred me to a hand specialist. and i'm glad he did, because when i took the tabletop test, i couldn't lay my hand flat anymore. the first hand specialist i saw only offered surgery. so, i went to a second hand specialist who also offered nonsurgical options - which felt more right for me. so, what i'd say to other people with dupuytren's contracture is this: don't wait —find a hand specialist trained in nonsurgical options, today. i found mine at findahandspecialist.com. every day, businesses everywhere are asking: is it possible? with comcast business... it is. is it possible to use predictive monitoring to address operations issues? we can help with that. can we provide health care virtually anywhere? we can help with that, too. is it possible to survey foot traffic across all of our locations? yeah! absolutely. with the advanced connectivity and intelligence of global secure networking from comcast business. >> everyone who knew paul and it's not just possible. it's happening. lynda curry knew that linda had been sick for months. and a list for doctors could never explain. and paul had been sick to. now suddenly, lindo was dead. paul's friends steve wiggly. >> everybody was in such shock, i don't think the reason mattered. it was just okay, we have to take care of our friend. >> how was paul? >> grief stricken. >> so was linda's family. her niece ricky remember how paul changed the funeral arrangements to help them deal with linda's sudden death. >> he allowed the casket to be open so that my mom could see her sister. wrap her mind around her sister being gone. >> linda was now only a memory. but she had 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 wouldn't go away? >> it wouldn't go away. >> after linda's death, they discovered a medical chronology on her computer at work. she kept careful notes about her symptoms, from the very beginning. it went back a year to june 28th, 1993. she wrote, felt fine all day. worked late. had a solid for dinner -- woke up in the middle of the night vomiting. a month later, july 24th, 1993, approximately one hour after eating i began vomiting. i became extremely weak and sweaty. linda's best friend. >> she worked at the nuclear plant? >> she did. >> could it have been something she picked up there? >> it's not something that happens. >> and she never did that? >> no, not at all. >> they considered a third darker possibilities. you know there are people who make themselves sick because they want to be the center of attention? >> sure, but she wasn't of that personality. >> possible that she was depressed? >> she loved her job, she had friends. >> she had the perfect husband? >> perfect husband, lots of nice high heels. what could you be depressed about? >> linda's autopsy was inconclusive. her death certificate listed the cause as, pending investigation. and, sheriffs detectives did investigate. >> the interviews taking place at mr. curry's residents. >> six months after linda's death, the interviewed paul. >> did you ever questioned them, why they never -- >> sure, we were making ourselves hysterical trying to figure out what was going on. >> like everyone else in london 's life, paul said he was puzzled and frustrated. >> i've been a problem solver all my life and for the last couple of years, that was a problem that i couldn't solve. and it's extremely taxing. >> and, like everyone else, he wondered if postmortem tests would finally solve the mystery. >> you understand that they're doing, toxicological -- >> to try to determine -- >> yet they haven't sent me any information. >> she has a forensic toxicologist at the boston university school of medicine. she didn't work on linda's 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, what does that sound like? >> it definitely sounds like the nausea and vomiting is persistent, that's suggesting that the body is ingested something that the body can't handle. >> that's what linda's friend had thought all along. she said she shared her concerns with lynda. >> let's have someone go into the house and check it, let's see if there's anything foreign in their. >> but she said linda never took that advice, never had her home tested. now they all waited for the toxicology test on linda's body. and sure enough, the lab that examined linda sample did detect and identifies something quite curious. linda curries body contained lethal levels of nicotine. it 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? >> i've 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 someone's body? >> it's not unusual. we are exposed to nicotine either as a smoker or as a nonsmoker. >> there are more sources of nicotine and you think, besides cigarettes they're actually small levels of nicotine in eggplant and potatoes. it also used to be an ingredient in insecticides. >> if you're working in your garden and your using an old insecticide that that contain nicotine could possibly get absorbed to your skin. >> enough to kill you? >> yes. >> in sufficient quantity she said nicotine is a deadly poison. >> in the beginning the individual may experience some nausea, vomiting, that's going to be followed with tremors, leading to convulsions and then complete respiratory depression leading to the death of the individual. >> you stop breathing? >> you stop rethink. >> that is an unpleasant way to dine? >> yes. >> linda didn't garden either. and the coroner didn't 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? >> yes. >> it never did? >> never. did >> detectives could not determine where the nicotine came from or how it got into linda's system. months passed, the new years. linda's niece nikki spoke often with the lead detective, and one day hurt something that shocked her. >> he seemed to be inclined to think that she had committed suicide. >> that might have been the end of the story were it not for this man at the time it determined student, he never met linda curry, but one day he did know everything about her. coming up. we went back through every interview with every witness. >> a new team makes a new discovery. when dateline continues. one the surgery to remove all the toes that it really hit me. you see the commercials. you never put yourself in that person's shoes until you're there. 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(sniff) still fresh. still fresh! mmm, still fresh! get 6x longer-lasting freshness, plus odor protection with downy unstopables. >> in 2006, when the name linda curry caught the eye of an orange county prosecutor the case was about 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. >> nevertheless, a sheriff's investigator decided to take another crack at solving the mystery. more than a decade after linda 's death. >> we went back through every interview that was conducted, with every witness. >> they also went deep into linda's 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. >> after the discovery, linda became seriously ill. ending up in the icu. eventually, she got better and went home. but then for months later she was sick again. back in the hospital. and again, something odd occurred. >> at that hospital, the iv port was broken. >> this is a different hospital? >> different hospital, different staff. >> had someone tampered with those bags? could it have been poison? that was never clear. >> they tested everything. they couldn't tell. >> normal toxicology tests, normal hospital testing, wont pick up nicotine unless you're testing for? >> unless you're testing for it, correct. >> 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 beautiful husband? >> paul, the dutiful, doting husband. as they reviewed all their interviews and conducted nuance, they picked up on a theme. linda's friends and family didn't much like him. her niece, rickie. >> there was this was this arrogance about him. >> remember, paul was a physicist. a member of mensa. a jeopardy winner. and apparently he didn't keep any of that a secret. >> he was on some other social level than we were. so, i felt he looked down his nose at us. >> he thought he was better than you are? >> yes, definitely that. >> but linda of course loved paul's intelligence, and the way he spoiled her. but when linda got sick, her friend mary got suspicious. >> she was telling me, or paul is now making me the salads and he's making this new dressing. and you know what he's doing, mary? he's such a good guy, he's drawing a hot bat for me right after i eat. and he's making me so -- and she's getting sick. >> and you think that this salads and the homemade dressing and hot bath all had something to do with it? >> i think he's a nuclear physicists, right? yes he's mensa, he's a smart guy. i think he was trying different things. >> things like nicotine? was that even possible? well, not impossible. according to toxicologist -- jones. so you could serve somebody a spicy or savory enough this that they would not know there is a significant enough amount nicotine. if you introduce it to someone 's bathwater and put in some perfume or send itself of some kind -- >> it may be able to mask any order it may produce. so there is a lot of ways that you can get nicotine in your system without noticing it? >> possible. >> it's worth remembering that paul got sick at the same time linda did. so whatever affected her, seem to affect him too. but as friends and family watched poll get well, and linda get sicker, their suspicions hardened. >> you always immediately suspected paul having done something? >> yes, from the first phone call. >> i thought he definitely was trying to kill. >> other people thought the same thing? >> absolutely. >> nobody called the police? >> there was no proof. >> still, mary says, she tried to warn linda. i told her she had to leave. >> and she said what? you're seeing things? >> she, mary, she's a good he's good husband. he wouldn't hurt me. >> those worries from friends and family, and mystery illness. and questions about the iv. a lot of suspicions. but no evidence. and certainly no witnesses. except one. >> what's your full name? >> linda lee curry curry. >> linda curry herself. and what she had to say was breathtaking. >> coming up. >> how have you've been feeling? since she left the hospital? >> linda's powerful words from the past. >> if somebody were trying to do something to you -- if they were trying to poison you -- any idea who would try to do that? >> when dateline continues. honest. sure do. that's why at progressive, we show you rates from other companies, even if they're lower than ours, so you can choose what's best for your family. comparing rates used to be a hard day's work, but not with autoquote explorer. -need me to help again? -no. so join us and taste why progressive is the name people trust. sorry, are we talking about apples now or insurance? 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>> oh you know i feel great. >> now investigator put her headphones on and listen to linda curry's voice. >> i'm hard on a lot of things, i'm hard on my man, i'm hard on my cars, i was not easy on my iv bag. >> she seemed to be joking about the apparent damage to the ivy, but detectives weren't laughing. they knew linda's friends and family suspected paul. >> i'm going on the assumption, right now, that paul is doing this, we can't prove something -- >> 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. >> but, she did not suspect her husband. >> i don't really believe that paul tried to do anything. >> she described a loving partner, who nursed her through her illness. >> i've got to say that, overall, our relationships wonderful. he's a wonderful man. i love him. >> 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 the motive to do it would be paul. and -- and the only motive i can think of his money. >> for investigators shoal this was a revelation, she says it's why she stuck with this case for so many years. >> it's very rare to find a motive in a homicide, atul, and in this case i had a motive. >> handed to you by the victim. >> yes. when i listen to that interview, i thought this is unsolvable case. >> you thought she laid it out for us, we should finish it. >> from the grave, we have to find justice. >> they began to follow the money, it turned out linda was worth a lot of it. she had a retirement account at 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 -- according to the prosecution, paul only found that out after linda's death, and he wasn't happy. >> he had letters that he sent to the insurance company saying that we paid for the premium from our marriage money, i am entitled to it. >> he also find out that paul had filed an insurance claim for a ladies rolex wall watch and some jewelry that had gone missing after linda's funeral. he received a 9000 dollar payout. but investigator knew that linda had wanted the rolex to go to her sister. >> and i called her and said there is a report that the watch was stolen, she says no i have to watch on right now. >> in fact, the watch had never been stolen. paul curry, it seemed, had filed a phony insurance claim. >> who does that? if somebody is an innocent spouse, grieving the death of his beloved wife, who decides, within days after that to fake the theft of her rolex and file a claim to collect the money? >> paul, apparently. but it turned out that he needed bother, linda's 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 eventually received after her death. but by then, paul had other troubles. within a year of linda's death, paul's boss mike flower, discovered that his storm ploy was not a nuclear physicist. as he had claimed publicly and on his resume for so long. >> he didn't have a degree at all, paul ended up submitting his resignation. >> and if he had not, he would've been fired? >> yes. >> to lie about something that could be so easily checked, that says to me that the person doing that has an unbelievably large ego. >> it was very disappointing. >> so would, he thinks he can get away with everything? >> it was very disappointing. >> all of it added up to a deeply unflattering portrait of paul curry, but did it add up to a case for murder? this prosecutor knew that it did not. he and the detective face the same problem that the detectives face in 1994, lots of suspicion, but no direct evidence that paul killed linda. and they felt that the current suspect, a self proclaimed genius knew that. >> he was smart enough to realize that any police officer, the minute after she was murdered is going to expect the husband to be the suspect. he was one step ahead. >> his 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 both -- we both got sick, maybe we both got something. >> you think that's him thinking ahead? >> sure that's his mo. he 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. >> i remember the case, nobody ever followed up with me. i go would you kindly, please, be willing to write a report about your interpretation of the results? >> it turned out to be the breakthrough they needed. the amount of nicotine in her blood was extraordinarily high, nearly 100 times would you would find in a regular smoker. forensic toxicologist. >> for the amount that was found in those specimens it could take a matter of minutes to reach death. >> and remember, paul had always maintained he was alone with lynda four hours before she died. >> that report allowed us to say look, it is absolutely categorical no other human being that had the opportunity to do what he did. >> prosecutor and the investigator knew it was now time for some show intel with paul curry. coming up. paul curry had something to reveal. >> i have -- i have been less than honest about that. >> when dateline continues. cuddles. but, you also can't leave covered in hair. with bounce pet, you can cuddle and brush that hair off. bounce. it's the sheet. [sneeze] (♪♪) astepro allergy, steroid free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. with astepro's unbeatably fast allergy relief you can astepro and go! >> after linda curry's death, paul curry lost his job at the nuclear power plant. in large part because it turned out he lied about being new nuclear physicists. he left california, move to las vegas and began his life over. he eventually remarried, adopted a son. and by 2010, he was living in the small town of salina, kansas. back then, jason gauge was the city manager. >> when we met paul, one of the things that we notice initially was that he seemed to be very, very smart. >> paul was hired as the line is building official, dealing with permits and inspections. 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. >> even, by this time a sergeant with the orange county sheriff department, had done her homework to. 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 her at the salina police department. he came in without an attorney and agreed to answer questions. >> okay, i. >> paul curry. >> a camera was recording as paul talked about his long ago marriage to linda. >> we were very observed with one another. it was a wonderful -- many years. >> and he spoke of the night she died. >> i will come in the middle of the night and she was not breathing. and i called 9-1-1. and performed cpr and they came and there is nothing they could do. >> after 40 minutes or so, even started with the hard questions. >> you let pat have the rolex, right? >> first she confronted paul with the phony insurance key clean on linda's watch. >> i have been less than honest about that and his -- quite frankly, it was just a poor decision. >> right there in that room, he's basically copping to insurance fraud? >> yes. >> which is way less and serious and murder, but -- >> but it's still a crime. >> but when it came to linda's 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 hospitals rooms and someone explain to me exactly what occurred. be shull wanted an explanation to, before she wanted a reaction. >> she played linda's 1993 interview with detectives for paul. >> i was the only person i can think of who would have a motive would be paul >> do you have any comments? >> very unusual to hear a voice. >> unusual to hear her voice? >> yes. >> it's nostalgic. >> it was nostalgic to hear her voice? >> yes. >> he's a cool customer. >> yes. >> but now it was time to ask the biggest question of all. >> did you kill linda? >> absolutely not. i loved her dearly. >> did you have a reason to kill linda? >> absolutely not. it's an open mystery. i mean, it's an unsolved death but -- >> but right but part of its not unsolved. we know what killed linda. we know that it was the nicotine intoxication. >> right. >> and now you show him the report saying that she died within two hours of getting the nicotine. >> right. >> i don't know how to respond to that. >> a man who had always had all the answers suddenly had none. >> i'm kind of taken by surprise. you are dredging up memories that are uncomfortable. >> he still thinks he's going to walk out of that interview. >> at that point, yes he does. >> paul had finally miscalculated. but shull knew that if paul didn't 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 report. two hours in, even left the room to call the prosecutor back in orange county to let him know how things were going. listen to what paul says to the other detective as he wait for -- to come back. >> should i presume that i'm not going to make my 4:00 meeting today? >> and he wasn't joking, he was serious. because in his mind he's thinking, maybe they're suspicious of me. but they don't have enough to charge me. that was his mistake. >> because he never made that meeting. >> oh, he never made that meeting. >> 16 years after linda curry died -- >> i'm placing you under arrest for the murder of linda curry. >> yvonne shull handcuffed paul curry. the man linda had loved, married and trusted. linda's best friend merry seabold heard the news back in california. >> and i'm sitting there and all a sudden i see paul curries mugshot and i'm going, oh my gosh, look, there's paul! >> what this mandate is, for about eight, nine months, he was poisoning her, 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, i'm here for you. honey >> you're describing an elaborate con. that ended up being a murder in slow motion. >> yes, elaborate, diabolical. >> paul curry entered a plea of not guilty. prosecutor knew it would be a tough case. there was no physical evidence tying paul to linda's death. and, paul's defense attorney had a very different theory. about how that nicotine got into linda's system. >> a theory that hinged on a stunning question. could linda have poisoned herself? coming up. >> she was very, very desperate to find a cure. >> what other secrets would tumble out in court? >> i go upstairs to the extra bedroom and i'm going, oh my gosh? >> when dateline continues. and she has neuroblastoma. she really didn't have any symptoms until one day she just stopped using her arm. andrew: by the time we realized that she was sick, it had grown into about a softball sized tumor and spread through her bone marrow, her lymph nodes. so it's a very fast, aggressive cancer. nicole: so we came to st. jude and learned how much hope there was and learned how much they could do for natalie here. [soft horn music playing] narrator: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. families never receive a bill from st. jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. andrew: money wasn't even an issue. we just did the best treatment for natalie. nicole: it's the donors who have already taken on that burden on their backs and said, all right, we've got this. we're going to pay this bill and make sure this family is taken care of. i can say, for sure, that that money is being put to incredible use. and our family is forever grateful for donations, big and small, because it's completely changed our lives and it's given us a second chance. narrator: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt you can wear to show your support to help st. jude save the lives of these children. nicole: we thought we were losing our daughter. and then when we came to st. jude, everything changed. andrew: hope changes everything. narrator: there's still so much more that needs to be done. and st. jude won't stop until no child dies from cancer. become a partner in hope today. [soft piano music playing] loving this pay bump on our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck? or maybe they switched to xfinity mobile - the fastest mobile service. save hundreds a year over t-mobile, at&t and verizon. now i can buy that electric scooter. i'm starting a private equity fund that specializes in midcap. you do you. switch to xfinity mobile today. every day, businesses everywhere are asking: is it possible? with comcast business... it is. is it possible to use predictive monitoring to address operations issues? we can help with that. can we provide health care virtually anywhere? we can help with that, too. is it possible to survey foot traffic across all of our locations? yeah! absolutely. with the advanced connectivity and intelligence of global secure networking from comcast business. >> september 2014, 20 years it's not just possible. it's happening. after linda's death, and four years after paul's arrest. it was finally time for him to face a jury. his defense attorney argued that the prosecution's case was all a cauldron of suspicion, stirred by lynda's friends. >> they tell the doctors their suspicions, they talk to be such other about the suspicions over the year. so everything tart starts getting interpreted in suspicious ways. >> suspicion without evidence? there was no evidence that paul had ever bought nicotine or any other poison, nothing to tie him directly to linda's death. on the contrary, according to her, paul was a loving, caring husband. she called paul's friend stephen to testify. >> she wasn't in a harmful environment. >> it never occurred to you that paul might have had any evil intention towards her? >> no. i just didn't see it. >> so how did lindell get and leak lethal dose of nicotine. the defense had a bombshell theory, that linda herself was responsible. >> because she had been very very sick and it was very desperate to find a cure. >> she explained to the jury that nicotine was sometimes used as a homeopathic cure to treat illnesses with symptoms similar to linda's. >> when we go to mexico, they would sometimes pick up herbs. >> steve said he couldn't remember with 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 non-traditional medicine, it is very reasonable to think that -- and this is not a drastic step. >> maybe it was only accidentally drastic, and inadvertent overdose that caused an unintentional suicide. so the defense argued. prosecutor ebrahim baytieh said it was no accident, it was a premeditated plot by paul curry. >> he married her, planning on collecting the life insurance, he murdered her by poisoning her and he collected on the life insurance. >> the jury heard from linda's best friend merry seabold. >> i go upstairs to the extra bedroom and they're laying out on the bureau are all of her documents, her 401(k), her life insurance. >> so somebody is looking through her insurance, her 401(k), all of the stuff that you would go through if somebody was dead. >> exactly. >> that somebody was paul, said the prosecutor. and remember that email that paul sent mary the morning of linda's death, the one asking for mayors help. >> he says i'm worried about linda, i'm worried something bad is going to happen to her. >> this is how many hours before she died? >> 16 hours before. >> you think paul is laying the groundwork there? >> absolutely. >> he revealed to the jury how he believes paul introduce that fatal dose of nicotine into linda system. during the off top c, the medical examiner found an injection mark behind linda's ear. >> you think he stuck a needle in her? >> it's not out of my mind, that is exactly what he did. >> and you think he's getting frustrated? >> yes, that's it, it's time to catch the paycheck. >> and while there is no evidence paul ever bought nicotine, baytieh said, he didn't have to. he could've distilled it from cigarettes? >> right. >> he would've known how? >> it is very easy. >> the prosecutor had one more surprising revelation for the jury. he called leslie curry to testify, she was paul's 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. after that, leslie said, two things happened, paul left her and she got a better. >> you think paul poisoned leslie? >> i think he was poisoning her, yes. and i think if she would've gotten the life insurance policy, then he would've killed her. >> the prosecutor had one last opportunity to convince the jury to convict paul curry, the men some member and former jeopardy contestant of murder. and in his closing argument, he channeled alex trebek. >> human criminality, book smart, greedy, arrogant, insatiable appetite for money, sneaky and manipulative. got away with murder for 16 years. who is paul marshall curry? >> after three weeks and more than 30 witnesses, the jury had the case and the next day, they reached a verdict. >> with a jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, paul curry, guilty of the crime of felony. >> guilty of first degree murder, sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. the jury had reached a verdict on how linda died. but there is still one lingering question. she was smart, she was educated, she had a good job, she could've walked out of the door at any time if she thought her life was in danger. >> that was his hook on linda. he gave her which he needed, which is somebody to say i love you, i will be here for you, i will hold your hand. that's what he prayed on. >> look, we all want somebody in our live loves us and cares about us and tells us how great we are. linda curry is 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 linda's case, for the rest of her life. >> that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. ♪♪ this sunday sunday, fall risks. house republicans are threatening a government shutdown and an impeachment inquiry against president biden. >> it is a norway step forward that you have to go to an impeachment inquiry. >> as the 2024 campaign heats up, some republicans are looking to counterprogram donald trump's legal drama in the courtroom. will this republican strategy work? i'll ask republican governor chris sununu of new hampshire. and aging issues. the 81-year-old senate republican leader mi

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