Arsenic Poisoning and Frank Hilley Essay

Submitted By andyma12
Words: 610
Pages: 3

Andy Ma
Toxicology-Forensics
Marie Hilley

It all started when Marie Hilley was a big spender. She had a loving family a husband named Frank Hilley, one daughter named Carol Hilley and a son. They were the perfect family that all the neighbors envied. Marie Hilley’s life was perfect until the day everything went wrong. The crime started when Frank Hilley got extremely sick and he had to go to the hospital. The hospital stated that Frank had liver malfunction and hepatitis which is inflammation of the stomach. He later died on May 25, 1975. The autopsy was performed and it revealed hepatitis, swelling of kidneys and lugs bilateral pneumonia, and inflammation of the stomach. Because that all these symptoms all resembled hepatitis no tests for poisons were conducted. The cause of death was still listed infectious hepatitis. Little did anyone know that Frank Hilley had a life insurance policy for $30,000. Marie Hilley remains innocent at the moment. 3 years after Frank’s death Marie Hilley had bought a life insurance policy for her daughter Carol for $25,000. One year after insuring her daughter Carol got really sick and went to the emergency room. Later Marie Hilley supposedly gave her daughter a injection that Marie said will stop the pain and nausea. However the symptoms continued and eventually got worse. Carol began to feel numbness in her extremities and was sent to the hospital for tests. Doctors unable to find out any disease. Carol’s doctor brought in a psychiatrist because the doctor feared the symptoms might be psychosomatic. While she was under going the test at the hospital, Carol received two more injections from her mother and the mother Marie told Carol not to tell anyone. A month after Carol was admitted to the hospital her doctor said she is suffering from malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies. He added that he suspected heavy metal poisoning was the cause. Later physicians discovered that Aldrich-Mee lines were present which mean that Carol was exposed to arsenic poisoning. Arsenic poisoning causes abnormal pains and destruction of red blood cells. Later tests were conducted on samples of Carol’s hair revealed that it had 50 times the normal arsenic level in human hair. The tests also revealed that Carol has