Authorities in North Carolina have announced the arrest of a woman for a murder last year — and another one 18 years ago.
Gudrun Casper-Leinenkugel was charged with murder for the deaths of Leela Lavis last year and Michael Schmidt in 2007, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office said. She has also been charged with two counts of attempted murder for the attempts on the lives of Richard Pegg and Mia Lacey last year.
Additionally, the sheriff’s office said, she is charged with three counts of distribution of prohibited food of beverages.
The sheriff’s office declined to release any further information, but Law&Crime reported that an arrest warrant did provide more details about the 2025 incidents.
“[T]he defendant unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did knowingly distributed or otherwise caused to be placed in a position of human accessibility or ingestion a beverage which contained a poisonous chemical, acetonitrile, which might cause death or serious physical injury,” the warrant said.
Acetonitrile is a solvent that has multiple uses, including in pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and batteries, and, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the chemical “forms cyanide in the body,” frequently resulting in “delayed toxicity.”
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[Featured image: Gudrun Casper-Leinenkugel/Henderson County Sheriff’s Office]
