Seattle: More Capsule Casualties

“This probably isn’t important,” Paul Webking told the medical examiner’s office after his wife died unexpectedly June 11, “but Sue opened a new bottle of Excedrin capsules this morning and took two.” Tragically, it was important. The bottle opened by Sue Snow, a 40-year-old banker from the Seattle suburb of Auburn, was found to contain three capsules laced with cyanide. When county officials released the bottle’s lot number, Auburn Neighbor Stella Nickell, whose husband died June 5, called police with more bad news. Bruce Nickell’s death, linked originally to natural causes, was reattributed to cyanide poisoning. In response, Bristol-Myers, Excedrin’s manufacturer, withdrew all its nonprescription capsule products from the market.