A North Carolina restauranteur was arrested Friday for two counts of murder — one for the death of her own daughter who she allegedly poisoned at Thanksgiving dinner and the other for the death of a man who was killed in a house fire nearly 20 years ago.
And investigators revealed the alleged murderous mom may be linked to more mysterious deaths at her bond hearing Tuesday.
Gudrun Casper-Leinenkugel, 52, killed one daughter and sickened her other and the woman’s boyfriend with poisoned wine in November, prosecutors alleged during the hearing, according to Fox Carolina.
Victim Leela Livis split the tainted bottle of wine with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend during the family’s 12-person Thanksgiving feast. The other nine people at the celebration, including Casper-Leinenkugel, strayed away from the wine, the outlet reported.
All three fell ill shortly after dinner, and Livis died on Dec. 1, according to prosecutors and her obituary.
The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office quietly launched an investigation with backing from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation probing Casper-Leinenkugel after Livis’ peculiar demise.
Police determined that the wine the three victims drank was spiked with acetonitrile, a colorless liquid commonly found in lithium batteries that converts into cyanide over time, prosecutors testified.
Before Thanksgiving, Casper-Leinenkugel had Googled “What happens if I accidentally ingest acetonitrile,” according to her search history.
During their months-long probe into the mother over her daughter’s death, deputies also unearthed evidence they say connected Casper-Leinenkugel to the cold case killing death of Michael Schmidt, who died in a house fire in 2007.
State prosecutors noted that Casper-Leinenkugel was also tied to other unspecified deaths that are still under investigation, according to the local station. Details about the cases were not revealed.
Casper-Leinenkugel, a Hendersonville local, owned and operated a since-shuttered restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina that she styled after the public houses she grew up around in Germany.
In a 2016 profile with the local outlet Mountain Xpress, Casper-Leinenkugel claimed that she had opened six restaurants and bars across the US, plus a laundromat. She told the publication that her extended family also operates the Wisconsin’s Leinenkugel Brewing Company
The former restaurant owner was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and three counts of distribution of certain food and beverage prohibited, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.
She was denied bond during her hearing on Tuesday, Fox Carolina reported. The state warned that she could face the death penalty.
North Carolina officials are currently pushing to resume capital punishment through “Iryna’s Law,” named after the Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to death by a schizophrenic repeat offender.
The law specifically seeks to expand the methods the state can use, including death by firing squad and the electric chair. Under the current laws, death row inmates can only be killed by lethal injection.
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