Hey, everybody. Welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband.

I'm Payton Moreland. I'm Garrett Moreland.

He's the husband.

I'm.

The husband. Well, we just want everyone to know that we did our live show and it went well.

Thank you to everyone who came and supported us and all the messages. It was actually really fun.

Oh, it was a blast. I might have cried on stage a little bit, a reminder. Couple of times. If you want to watch our first-ever live show, you can do that over on patron. You can also listen on Instagram and Apple subscriptions.

It was crazy to see everyone there live. Again, thank you to everyone who supported us and came.

What an overwhelming, surreal feeling it was to walk out on stage and see people who've come as a part of this community to talk true crime with you. It was just, I couldn't even believe it.

It was crazy. It was a crazy experience. I don't know. I mean, it's hard. It was awesome. It's fun. We had a good time, so thank you to everyone. We hope to see everyone soon.

Maybe coming to a city near you. All right, Gear, it's time for your 10 seconds.

Well, I've always had this issue. Sometimes issues are just built into your DNA and there's nothing you can do.

What's the issue?

I leave my credit card always at places when we go eat. I mean, okay, it's not that big of an issue. It's not like I do it every time we go eat, but I just did it again and now we got to go back to the place, get the credit card, come back, blah, blah, blah. But I would say I do it once a month.

Yeah.

It used to be worse. I used to lose my wallet everywhere I went. Do you remember that when we first started dating?

Now it's his wedding rings or his credit card, but it used to be the wallet. Sometimes it's the keys.

I don't know. I'm always putting it down places or just not paying attention to it. Anyways, left my credit card. I have to go get that tomorrow. We're recording this episode a little earlier than we normally do. Tomorrow is Halloween. Pete and I are going to be sitting inside handing out some candy. I'm going to be scaring little kids, making them cry to the moms. Just kidding, not going to do that.

All I know is one of our neighbors had a freaking big party the other day, and they did not.

Invite us. Oh, my gosh. Listen, our neighbors had the biggest party ever, and I was thinking, Why can't they be us? I realized, Payton and I only have one friend and it's each other, so that's why it's not us. Between the big party that we didn't get invited to, my credit card is at the restaurant. That sucks, but looking forward to scaring some kids. That's what we got going for us. Let's hop into today's episode.

Our sources for this episode are Toxic Love by Thomas Gideon, The New Yorker, Forensicfiles. Com, The Washington Post, Sort and Scale Court Documents from casetext. Com, and Justice US Law. Trigger warning. This episode features discussions of suicidal ideation, so please listen with care. When you think of a murder weapon, you imagine your choices are pretty limited, right? We think guns, knives, poison, maybe a rope, or as we heard recently, even the occasional garden hose, especially if a murder is premeditated. Someone usually goes in pretty well prepared. But today's killer plotted out his murder for months, and he used one technique that no one would have ever considered. His weapon of choice was to give his victim cancer.

I did not know you could do that.

Now, Garrett has his biggest fear. And while his wrath was focused on the woman he loved and lost, his method was so quick, so effective that it didn't just ruin her life. It ruined the lives of nearly everyone she loved. To start today's journey, I want to travel back to 1961 to the city of Omaha, Nebraska.

Good old Nebraska.

It's a warm April afternoon. It's one of the small neighborhoods along the Missouri River. A brave and inquisitive nine-year-old boy named Stephen Roy Harper is playing with his brother and a few friends out in a junkyard across from their home. It's there that the kids spot a snake, and boys will be boys, right? What do they do? They start tormenting it, poking it with sticks, daring each other to pick the snake up until one of them comes up with an idea. What if we just light the snake on fire? Steven's unsure of whether this is a good idea. After all, he really likes animals. He wants to become a vet one day. But with the older kids peer pressuring him, he keeps his mouth shut, especially when one of them comes up with the idiotic idea to pour kerosene on the fire to make it bigger. It's with that decision that Stephen Roy Harper's life changes forever. Without time to dodge the growing flames, Stephen himself gets caught in the blaze. His entire body lights up like a human torch as he remembers what he was taught in school: stop, drop, and roll. Stephen's mother heard the commotion and came running out in time to rush her son to the hospital.

There they learned that over 65% of Stephen's body had been covered in burns. They didn't think he would survive his wounds, but Stephen did. He pushed through the constant pain, which was especially worse when they changed his bandages. Even swallowing food and water created an agony like no other. But the worst part might have been Stephen Roy Harper no longer recognized his young self in the mirror. Over the course of that summer, Stephen underwent a dozen operations and skin grafts, procedures that he would continue to endure well into his adult life. But the nine-year-old Stephen worried most about one thing, going back to school in the fall, which is such a valid worry at.

That age. Man, we just started off just Sorry. -nice and sad and sad.

What would the other kids think of how he looked now? Surely they would whisper behind his back, be afraid to look in his direction. That was exactly what happened, which was why Stephen then put up a wall. While he focused intently on his studies, he kept a distance from the other kids, refusing to socialize with anyone outside of his immediate family. But the other parents, well, they thought highly of Stephen. He was a survivor, they said. For a nine-year-old boy, he had persevere and had gone through so much and still managed to come back to school and focus on his education. He was admired in the community, trusted by other adults to take on responsibilities as he got older. Things like paying him to watch their car while they were away on vacation. One family even hired him to help care for their daughter who lived with an intellectual disability. This little community in Omaha saw Stephen Roy Harper as a kind and gentle soul, a boy who only wanted to help, who had dreams of becoming a veterinarian and cared tirelessly for the family's menagerie of animals from turkeys to sheep to cats and dogs.

Well, in due time, nine-year-old Stephen Roy Harper would grow up and go on to prove all of them wrong. In 1971, the now 18-year-old Stephen began college at Omaha's Creighton University. But his relationship with other people, particularly girls, hadn't changed. Sure, Stephen wanted to have a romantic partnership. He wanted to court women just like other guys his age were doing, but the insecurities about his scars still lingered. This was despite the fact that Stephen had healed rather well and had grown into a pretty handsome young man. But the problem was Stephen never knew how to approach women. He had no experience in the matter. He'd never even gone on a date, had his first kiss, anything. However, that all changed in 1973 when Stephen received an unexpected phone call from someone he'd gone to high school with. It was June when a guy named Ron Beton gave Stephen a ring. He mentioned that his sister, Sandra, had been asking about him. She'd recently gotten divorced and was hoping to get back into the dating game. When Ron reminded her of Stephen, she perked up and asked if he would give him a call to see if he was still single.

Of course, Stephen was. Ron gave Stephen Sandra's number and suggested he give her a call sometime, maybe take her out on the town. Stephen remembered Sandra almost immediately. She was the petite blonde with blue eyes and wavy hair that sat near him in history class. Okay. But what Stephen didn't know was Sandy had a complicated history of her own. Sandy had always been a bit shy and soft-spoken. Much of her free time was spent cleaning and cooking for their large family, acting as the matriarch while her mother spent late hours working. But Sandy, while seemingly reserved, also liked the attention she got from other boys her age. In 1968, Sandra met a 17-year-old guy named Jim Murphy at a school dance, and the two felt madly for one another. The following year, when Jim graduated from high school, he asked the now 17-year-old Sandra if she would be interested in dropping out of school and playing the role of wife. Sandra was elated, but their marriage quickly soured, usually over unmarried jealousy. I mean, that's pretty insane that he graduates and it's like, Why don't you drop out and be my wife? Puppy love turned into ugly arguments, which led to domestic violence.

When you say dropped out of school, do you mean in college or high school?

High school. She's 17.

She dropped out at 17, got married to him.

Then it quickly soured and turned violent. Okay. The final straw came when Jim punched Sandy in the face and then called her mother to come pick her up. When her mother and brothers got there, they found an unconscious Sandy still lying on the floor. Sandy filed for divorce in June of 1973, but only a few days later, Sandy complained of being lonely. She was ready for the attention of another man and asked her brother Ron if there was anyone from high school who wasn't yet married. That's when the name Stephen Roy Harper came up. Of course, Stephen's parents were ecstatic to hear he'd be going on his first date with a real woman. But even though the dating experience was entirely new for Stephen, he must have done his research because after their first date, the 20-year-old asked Sandy if she'd be interested in coming back to his parents' house. They were out of town on vacation, and they'd have the place all to themselves.

Oh, man.

According to Steve, Sandy was the one who made the first move that evening. She taught him how to kiss, how to be intimate with a woman. She was patient and empathetic. The experience for Stephen, well, was unlike any other.

Yeah. Sorry. It's not funny. It's almost a little cringey. I don't know. You know what I'm saying? From that moment- Good for Stephen, man. It's what I'm talking about.

From that moment on, he was obsessed with Sandra, which.

I.

Think is, I mean, he had not even had his first kiss. Now he goes on his first date.

Got his first kiss, first date, first a lot of stuff. Home run. Yeah.

The feelings actually seemed to be mutual. The two met up multiple times a week. Very quickly, Sandy started throwing around those three little words, I love you. Of course, Stephen tossed them right back. The summer romance was a complete whirlwind. But when the fall came, Steven knew it was time to focus back on his studies. He told Sandy that he was worried if they continued at this pace, their relationship would be a distraction. But Sandy, who had dropped out of high school to make her last relationship work, couldn't sympathize. Stephen told her that this would only be temporary, that he just wanted to make sure he could juggle both school and the relationship. But Sandy gave him an ultimatum: marry her or she was walking away.

Oh, man, Sandy.

After consulting with both his mother and his pastor, Stephen decided to follow their advice, let Sandy go, focus on school, and if things were meant to be, they'd work out in the end. The plan worked. Sort of. By the following summer, Sandy and Stephen were back together. She focused on getting her GED as Stephen resumed his studies in the fall. This time, he agreed to try and juggle both their relationship and his final semesters. But that resulted in petty fights between the two, usually over the fact that Sandy wanted to go out and have fun, but Stephen had to stay in and study. Then one evening, when Sandy compared him to her ex-husband, Jim, Stephen completely lost it. A blind rage washed over Stephen as he turned to Sandy and placed his hands around her neck.

Oh, wait. What?

He began squeezing tighter and tighter as Sandy's face turned blue. Finally, Stephen snapped out of it and released his hands from Sandy's neck as she began coughing and sucking up air.

Okay, first of all, what are the chances that Sandy is now in two domestic, violent relationships?

Yeah.

That sucks.

It sucks. After that night, the couple didn't speak for two straight months.

They shouldn't have spoke ever again.

Eventually, Stephen called her to apologize, hoping she would find it in her heart to forgive him, to take him back. But when she answered his call, she told him, Nah, it's over. She had already met someone new. His name was Duane Johnson. Not The Rock, unfortunately.

Okay.

She and Duane were already talking about getting married. He wanted to buy her a rock.

If you know what I mean. I know what you mean, babe.

But she didn't stop there. She told Stephen that she never really loved him, that she just needed a warm body, a rebound from her first marriage.

Plus, Duane was taller.

Than him. I know what's going to happen.

Stephen began to seethe. He couldn't imagine her just throwing away everything they were working towards. Despite his childhood accident, Stephen had never felt pain quite like this. He spent the next several days calling Sandy, relentlessly begging for her to change her mind about Duane. He sent her gifts and flowers at work. When she didn't accept, he began showing up at her office, trying to get her to talk to him. Some nights, he'd wait outside till she left and follow her to her car. But Sandy wanted nothing to do with Stephen. In her eyes, it was completely done. In January 1975, Dwayne and Sandy tied the knot, and Stephen had no choice but to focus back on his studies. He managed to graduate from Creighton in June of 1975 with an honors degree in biology. But once he was out of school, there wasn't much left to distract him. After all, this was the time Stephen had planned to marry Sandy once he was done getting his degree. It should have been him standing up there on the altar with her, him taking her on a honeymoon to a tropical destination. Stephen, uncertain of what else to do, began drinking and spiraling into a deep depression.

It's hard because I can't feel bad for Stephen because he laid his hands on her. But I'm also thinking about all the psychology behind what happened to him when he was young. Obviously, there's triggers or stuff going on. I'm not excusing it, laid his hands on her. Don't do that.

They.

Shouldn't be together. Simple as that.

But a part of you is acknowledging that he also went through something hard. It's not an excuse, just an acknowledgment.

Exactly. I'm acknowledging he went through something hard. Does that mean you should be able to do X and X? No way.

Just O and O. That was funny.

Okay, ohan.

Then on the evening of June 20th, Stephen exploded. After a violent fight with his father, he drove off into the night with a shotgun, prepared to take his own life. At around 1:00 AM, he parked his car on a hill with a clear view of Sandy and Duane's new home, wanting to get one final glance at the woman he loved. He sat there and waited for their car to arrive back in the driveway. He figured it must only be a matter of time. About 10 minutes later, he spotted their blue Chevy coming down the road. It was then that Steven altered his original plan. As Duane, Sandy, her sister, her brother, and two friends piled out of the Chevy, Steven peeled to a stop in front of the driveway. Sandy approached the rolled-down window of the car and began asking Stephen what he wanted. He grabbed Sandy's arm through the window, but Duane interfered. He came over to the car and told Stephen to keep his hands off his new bride. That's when Stephen pointed the shotgun towards Duane's head. Acting fast, Duane grabbed the barrel of the gun and forced it downward as Stephen fired the first shot, nearly hitting Duane in the foot.

But then Stephen got out of the car. He started pursuing Duane as well as Sandy and her other family members. Sandra's brother stepped forward to try and negotiate with Stephen, but instead, Stephen fired at him twice. Sandy's mother, who was living across the street from them, yelled from her window as Sandy's brother hit the ground. Stephen then turned and fired a shot right through the house, managing to hit Sandy's mother just below.

The eye. Trying to figure out what shotgun he has because now he's fired four times.

He then tosses his gun in the bed of his pickup truck and flood the scene. Sandy's mother and brother were both rushed to the hospital and surprisingly, both survived their injuries. The following day, police found Stephen's pickup truck abandoned at a Creighton University parking lot. But Stephen was missing in action. For the next several weeks, police tried desperately to track him down, but it was like Steven had disappeared into thin air. By July, Sandy and Dwayne hoped that Steven would keep his head down and stay out of their lives for good. After all, he was now wanted for attempted murder. If he did show his face again, he was certain to get arrested and spend time behind bars. But that wasn't exactly the case. About a month after the shooting, Sandy began receiving letters in the mail. They hadn't been postmarked, which meant someone had hand delivered them to her mailbox. Each time they offered the same threatening message, Dwayne will never have Sandy. At one point, one of those envelopes was void of a message. Instead, it included a few cutouts from a witchcraft magazine. The truth was, Stephen had been watching them, and he wasn't very far away.

He'd been staying at a friend's house near the university, but in August, he hopped a bus for Tulsa, Oklahoma, to stay with a relative.

And the police still haven't caught him, obviously, at this point?

It wasn't until July 10th of 1976, the following year, that Steven was finally tracked down by police and pulled over on his motorcycle. He was arrested and charged with shooting with intent to kill, wound, or maim. Stephen pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 1-5 years in a Nebraska prison.

Man, this whole conversation, I feel like I say it over and over and over again. You try to kill someone and you don't kill them. You get this and you get 1-5 years.

Then they get out and.

Try to kill them again. Then they get out and actually kill them. It's like, How do we... Come on, we got to figure something else out.

With Stephen behind bars, Sandy and Duane felt like they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. They moved into their dream home, a three-bedroom, A-frame house in the north end of Omaha, just a few miles from downtown. By 1978, the couple had two kids: a three-month-old son named Michael and a two-year-old daughter named Cherie. Sandy's pregnant sister, Susan, was also living with the couple. On the evening of September ninth, Duane and Sandy took the kids over to her parents' house, where they often spent Saturday evenings playing cards. They came home around 1:00 AM and tucked the sleeping kids into their beds. But the following day, things took a bizarre turn. That morning, around 9:00 AM, Sandy woke up and got Cherie breakfast cereal with milk. Dwayne came in shortly after, poured himself a glass of milk and joined them. He complained to Sandy that the milk tasted funny and might have turned sour. She poured the rest down the sink and then got ready to run a few errands. Oh, no. Around 10:30, as Sandy and Cherie were headed to Kmart, Cherie began complaining of a stomach ache. When Cherie started throwing up, Sandy realized it was time to take her home.

Meanwhile, back home, Dwayne spent the afternoon painting the exterior of the house when Sandy's father, Harold, and stepmother, Elaine, stopped by to return their lawnmower. Duane invited them inside and offered them some lemonade. They declined, but watched as Duane chugged some himself. A few minutes later, they left, but Elaine couldn't help but ask Harold, Did Duane seem a little off to you? She noticed he was slurring his speech a bit. Shortly after they left, Dwayne found himself hovering over the toilet as well. When Sandy came home, she realized Dwayne and Cherie must have come down with the same stomach bug. She let them both sleep it off upstairs while her sister, Sally Selton, kept her plans to swing by in the afternoon. It was about 2:00 PM when Sally, her husband, Bruce, and their 11-month-old baby, Chad, came by the house after a day of shopping. I think just needless to say, Sandy got along with her family well as they just seemed to be stopping by. Sandy offered them some lemonade and they chatted for about an hour before heading to their home. By the time Sally had returned to her house, she was feeling queasy as well.

Before the end of the night, her baby, Chad, was also unwell. They figured they must have caught whatever was going around the Johnson household. For the next two days, both the Johnson's and the Sheltons were in a living hell.

I'm trying to figure out, is he putting in the lemonade?

How did he get in?

What's he putting it in? What is going on?

Duane and his daughter, Cherie, were so lethargic they could hardly get out of bed and they couldn't keep any food down. By Tuesday, September 12th, Duane was also suffering from constant nosebleeds.

All right, it's time to go to the doctor.

Well, that same morning, Sally realized her 11th-month-old son, Chad, wasn't improving either. He could hardly lift his head from the pillow. Sally, who still wasn't feeling 100% herself, told her husband, Bruce, to take Chad to Emmanuelel Hospital. There, Chad's condition began to deteriorate further. Oh, no. His eyes and skin looked jaundiced, which indicated there was something more serious than food poisoning or the flu. It appeared he was suffering from liver damage. Doctors ran tests for everything. By the end of the day, doctors moved Chad to a nearby children's hospital for more specialized care. That's when Chad's condition really deteriorated. Disease. He began having seizures. Shortly after receiving a blood transfusion, he coughed up blood, indicating to doctors that he was bleeding internally. Remember, he's 11 months old.

He's also killing the kids? Yeah. What is up with that? That's insane.

Over at the Johnson household, Dwayne and Cherie had gotten much worse. The following morning on September 13th, Duane woke to find his eyes blood red with clots. Plus, he had blood leaking from his gums. By that point, Sally had contacted Sandy about Chad's condition, and this is strange, but both families think the illnesses are unrelated. Maybe because Chad's doctor have eliminated the possibility of food poisoning or the flu and his symptoms are presenting differently than.

Dwayne's and Cherie's. Dwayne's, the symptoms that he has? That's crazy. Get to the doctor.

For the most part, the families feel confident this is just a coincidence that they both have very sick family members at the same time. Still around 3:00 PM that day, Sandy took Dwayne and Cherie to the doctor to get them checked out, but he dismissed their conditions as minor infections. Instead, he told Duane to come back if the bleeding continued for another two days.

Oh, no way. This is giving me anxiety.

Well, I knew it would.

Get to the doctor. What happens next? Is everyone safe? Let me know.

He has a bit of health anxiety.

Well, I just want to know if they're safe or not.

Well, by that evening, Dwayne was bleeding from the nose and gums so much that Sandy was like, Okay, screw that doctor. We're going to the emergency room.

Okay.

Good. What's even wilder is that same night, the other sister who was living with the Johnson, the pregnant one, Susan, goes into labor and needs to be driven to the hospital too. Now there's three different families, technically all one family, but three separate families at the hospital. It's just absolute chaos for this family. Knowing that, I guess it makes sense that this just feels like the perfect storm. Completely unrelated events, all happening at once. In the middle of the night on September 14th, Baby Chad is still over at the Children's Hospital. And around 4:00 AM, his vitals go haywire. His heart rate drops and doctors call out a code blue. And by 4:30 AM, the 11th-month-old Chad was pronounced dead.

What the freak, man.

This is just three days shy of his first birthday.

Oh, it's just heartbreaking.

But no one had any idea why. By noon that day, Dwayne was also fighting for his life at Emmanuel Hospital, where Chad was originally being cared for. Now, his symptoms were starting to resemble Chad's; swelling in the brain was causing him to have seizures. His internal bleeding was irreparable, and his heart rate was declining. It wasn't until that afternoon when nurses began comparing notes that they realized Chad and Duane had to be suffering from the same mysterious condition. Now, hospital staff are wondering the worst. If this isn't flu or food poisoning, are we dealing with some deadly infectious disease? Well, by the morning of the 15th, this mysterious condition, whatever it was, finally claimed the life of Duane Johnson as well. At 10:25 AM that morning, the 24-year-old was declared dead. Autopsies performed on both Baby Chad and Dwayne reflected the same horrible fate. Something had devoured their brain and liver so badly that large portions of each organ were literally missing.

I don't like this. I do not like this.

The pathologist had never seen anything quite like it before. Luckily, Sally, Sheldon, and Cherie Johnson were able to recover. However, Cherie required multiple blood transfusions to get her back on track.

I am confused how obviously whatever is going on, Sandy is not contracting any of it. Sandy's fine. There's no issues with Sandy. Mama saying she's a suspect. It's just that's a little crazy. Right.

And both of them lived with chronic liver issues for the rest of their lives. But now authorities were faced with a new challenge, getting to the bottom of this bizarre medical mystery. On Monday, September 18th, a group of 30 doctors and public health officials gathered to review the case. They realized that all of the victims had been in the Johnson household the day their symptoms began. After analyzing those symptoms, they figured the most likely cause was some toxic substance. A team of investigators and HAZMAT suits were dispatched to the Johnson's home to comb for evidence. They checked everything, from the air conditioner to the plumbing to the cabinets and the refrigerator, taking samples every step along the way, but nothing jumped out at them. So detectives questioned the family members about what they had eaten that day. Chances were the toxin was ingested since it targeted the stomach and the digestive system first. But there were only two things in that fridge that every victim had touched: the lemonade and the milk, both of which had since been poured down the sink, meaning any additional evidence had been destroyed. But toxins this deadly don't just appear in liquids like that.

They have to be put there intentionally, which got investigators thinking, Maybe this is some poisoning. After tissue samples from the victims were sent to the CDC, their report came back with one big conclusive finding: Chad and Duane both had high levels of DMN in their bodies. Dmn is a carcinogen often seen in research labs. It is used to create cancer of the liver so that scientists can test for cures.

How did he get that?

Suddenly, the Omaha police department is certain. They definitely have a homicide on their hands. The police start by questioning Sandy. The night she and Duane were out late playing cards, did they notice anything strange when they returned? Smashed windows, unlocked doors? Could someone have broken in while they were out? Sandy doesn't think so. When they ask if she has any stalkers or old boyfriends that could be a threat, Sandy oddly says no. Even though she had an ex-boyfriend who shot her brother and her mother.

Who tried to kill her, yeah.

Which is extremely odd. When Sandy's mom comes in for questioning, she tells the police that Steven was a problem in the past, but he's in jail now. This couldn't have been him doing it, right?

He's in no way he's in jail.

Well, Stephen Roy Harper had been released on parole back in November 1977, almost a year prior. Afterwards, he went back to live with his parents in Omaha and applied for a veterinary school while also landing a job as a research assistant at the Epile Research Institute. There we go. A place that studied the effects of cancer on rats, which meant, surprise, surprise, Stephen Roy Harper had access to carcinogenic drugs like DMN. What's even more disgusting was Stephen supposedly tested these methods out on his family pets back in August of 1978. I don't want to get into the details, but they had a new puppy and their cat. They both had to take him to the vet on the same day, both suffering from the same symptoms and they died a day later. Then about a week later, Stephen just up and quit his position at Epley, like abruptly. After hearing this, police focus their attention solely on Stephen Roy Harper. They obtain a search warrant and raid his Omaha home on October third, 1978.

It's 100% him.

Inside, they find a bunch of empty animal cages similar to the ones used at Epley. They discover empty vials. When those vials are tested back at the lab, they come up positive for traces of DMN and arsenic. Yeah, they definitely have enough now to arrest Stephen Roy Harper. Shortly after, the FBI tracks him down in an airport in Texas and places him in cuffs. But police are still wondering, how in the world did he pull this off?

Well, how in the world is Sandy not sick, but everyone else is?

Well, luckily for them, Stephen answers these questions in a full confession shortly after his arrest. Stephen claimed that the summer leading up to the crime, he was having vivid dreams and hallucinations about Sandy. Even though she was in his past, visions of her clouded his mind, consuming every second of his existence. Whether he was working, socializing, sleeping, Sandy was there. The more he thought about her, the more humiliated he felt about her rejection. Stephen turned to drinking and drugs, but it didn't help. The thought of suicide also crossed his mind. Until one day while working at the lab, he found something that suited him better. Why not slip her the same drug that they gave the lab rats? He thought it would offer her a slow, tortuous death, one that would kill her years later and leave Stephen free of any suspicion. He slipped a vial of the drug into his pocket and took it home to conduct his first experiments on his family pets. When he realized how quick and effective the drug was, he figured he could dilute the dose for Sandy, make the process even slower. Then he put his plan in motion.

He quit his job so he could spend his days following Sandy and Duane, learning their routines when they came and went. By the end of August, he knew what time they woke up and when they went to bed, what they ate for every meal. He knew that every Saturday night, they'd go to her parents' house to play cards, and they typically didn't return until around 1:00 AM. On the night of September ninth, while the family was away, Stephen went to their bedroom window with a vial in hand. With the window unlocked, he snuck in and slipped into the kitchen, opened to the fridge, and analyzed what was inside. He spotted the lemonade and poured most of the vials contents inside. Then for safekeeping, dumped a little extra into the carton of milk.

So obviously, the whole diluting thing went out the window. I assume if he dumped the whole vial into lemonade.

I think he thought that by mixing it with another substance, it would dilute it. It would dilute it?

Yeah. Got it. That's disgusting.

After Stephen left their house that evening, he said he felt elated. It was the cure he needed. All of the visions of Sandy stopped. He no longer had thoughts of suicide and stopped drinking and doing drugs. In due time, Sandy would no longer be a problem. But clearly things weren't going as Stephen had planned. Sandy did not drink enough of the milk or lemonade to get sick.

After.

His confession, Stephen was charged with two counts of murder in the first degree and three counts of poisoning with the intent to kill, wound, or harm. Stephen's trial began a year after the murders in September 1979. And at first, the story of an aspiring vet slipping into his girlfriend's home and poisoning her family's seemed almost farsicle, like a scene out of a bad movie. But there was one witness who turned that all around, a man who stole the show and put the final nail in Stephen Roy Harper's coffin. His name was William Trout, a former fellow inmate of Stevens, from when he served time for his attempted murder charge. According to William, all Stevens seemed to think about during his years behind bars was how much he wanted to get revenge on Sandy. The first thing he was going to do when he was released from prison was find Sandy and make her pay. After they were both released, William and Stephen met up in Omaha, where Stephen proceeded to tell him that he'd discovered the perfect murder weapon. Stephen even pitched the idea of selling DMN on the street for anyone seeking a creative way to kill.

William claimed he had no idea that Stephen actually went through with the plot to try and kill Sandy until October.

Oh, man. All I know is I don't know I'm worried about what I'm drinking.

Once Stephen realized the police were on to him, he reached out to William to find a way out of the country. After hearing William's testimony, the jury was completely swayed. His story plugged a lot of the holes in the narrative and made the entire plot seem a lot more credible. It was enough to send Stephen Roy Harper away for good. Good. Stephen was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to die by the electric chair in February of 1980. Instead, Stephen spent the next twelve years behind bars filing appeal after appeal. Most of the time, his mind was hazy with antipsychotic medications. But in 1990, Stephen began secretly stashing his meds instead of taking them. On December sixth of that year, Steven woke clear-minded. He spent the afternoon in the yard with his fellow inmates, taking in the fresh air, something he hadn't done in years. At 8:00 PM that evening, he went down for his medication, pretended to swallow it, and went back to his cell. He wrote a quick Christmas note to his parents, placed it in a red envelope, and turned off the lights. Then he located all of the pills he'd been storing up over the last several months, swallowed them down at once, got under the covers, and drifted off to sleep.

Okay, and Stephen Roy Harper never woke up again. That is the story of Stephen Roy Harper and how he poisoned almost an entire family.

We killed the nephew and Sandy's husband.

Yep. Then...

It's messed up.

That's insane. -gave lasting-problems to both Duane's daughter and Chad's mom.

That's actually scary how easy of access he had to this drug and that maybe other people have.

Yeah.

That's worrying. I'm not going to lie.

I also think over on bingeed, we did an entire set about poisoning that you can actually go binge now. It was one of the first ones, and it's eerie. Poisoning to death is eerie. People just slowly trying to watch you die in agonizing, painful ways.

How easy it is? Yes.

Just slipping it.

Into your drink. It's so scary. It's so sad that... Oh, man. I can't believe they couldn't find... I get frustrated because I can't believe he only got a few years for trying to shoot people. I know. They knew he was going to come back and try to kill him. It was obvious. That sucks.

All right, you guys. Well, that was our episode for this week, and we will see you next with another episode and a bonus episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.