Need to kill someone. Expert suggestions?

I've always heard you shouldn't mix bleach and ammonia because inhaling the fumes can be fatal. Maybe she had a stuborn stain in the sink and decided when one of those substances didn't work, that mixing the two might. Before she passed out, she pulled the plug and the evidence went down the drain.

Or maybe, she had a glass of water sitting on the sink. Beside it, in an identical glass, she had a toxic cleaning substance. She took a quick gulp.

Or maybe someone sent her a bouquet of helium balloons. Or she picked up a couple to give her kids/grandkids or she bought some to use as decoration. I read (somewhere on the Internet) that inhaling the helium from three average balloons causes death because it displaces the oxygen. She's heard that you can talk funny if you inhale helium, so she gives it a try. OK, maybe this one is a bit far-fetched.

A pathologist I used to know once told about a puzzling case of a young girl who died suddenly without a mark on her. When they removed her shoe, they found a wasp that had stung her on the bottom of her foot.

Gas leak on the stove?


By the way, I hope there aren't any killing experts here with personal experience...

What? Who, Me?

Mushrooms are my personal favorite. They're so versatile. You can put them on pizza, in spaghetti, on an omelet. So many choices! Even if a person doesn't like mushrooms, you can always dice them finely and put them in with, oh, say - nuts in cookies, herbs in soup....

Ok, I'll shut up now.

Injection of insulin if she is not diabetic can to lead to hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) coma and death. The injection would leave a mark, but it would not necessarily be obvious to non-professionals. Search on insulin overdose on the Web for some news stories and hypoglycemia for symptoms.



Botulism toxin, a type of food posioning. Takes 12-36 hours to work. Often fatal. Botulism toxin is also considered a potential biological weapon.

How about arsenic poison by pressure treated wood. This was a big deal a few years ago. When people had extended exposure to treated wood and didn't use gloves, they had very high levels of arsenic. They have changed the formula but she cold have had some old wood lying around, used it to build something she contacted everyday, or otherwise had the expose to this wood and died. There would be clinical signs, but nothing a lay person would be able to verify.

Castor beans.

I'm not sure how she would ingest them accidentally, though.

Foxglove, beautiful flower, but is used to make digitalis/ digoxin which is a powerful heart medicine and can kill you if you. She could make a nice tea, thinking it is another tea worthy plant...yummy.

Cross contamination and other stuff...

She could have severe allergies and from cross contamination of something she ingested could give her anaphalactic shock. The villian could cook something together and take out the one thing she was allergic to before it was served or left for her consumption. I have lots of severe allergies. I had a reaction once at a nice steak place from them cooking my vegetables with tomatoes and mushrooms on the grill but then they served it without those two things that I'm allergic to on my plate. After talking with the chef we found out what had happened. There doesn't have to be much outward swelling for the throat to close off. Little bits of allergen can cause spasms in just the throat that can be deadly. Somehow the villian can keep the epipens out of reach, or damaged, etc.
Or a rare disease such as Hereditary Angioedema. What makes this different from regular angiodedema (which is swelling from an allergic reaction) is this comes from unkown cause. It can be stress induced and the throat can just shut off without outward sign. Stress and fright could be triggers. Sobbing can trigger it also.
Also there is a theory about "Vocal Cord Dysfunction" which in theory can cause the vocal cord to shut irregularly and cause it to block air passage. After one passes out it is something that supposedly relaxes and and the person can regain normal breathing but in some rare cases it does not release. There are breathing exercises to help control this but the killer could see they aren't able to perform these.
Check online and you can find lots of info.

Cabinscribe said:

Castor beans.

I'm not sure how she would ingest them accidentally, though.

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I heard a tale of children dying from Castor beans. The beans were strung as beads for a necklace & the kids were 'chewing' on them. Remember those candy necklaces? These kids were just playing around, putting the necklaces in their mouths and they died from it.

(Don't ask me why the parents let the kids make necklaces out of them. It doesn't make sense to me; maybe it's a cultural thing. It happened overseas. In the Phillipines, I think.) ?

From the true urban legends on Snopes.com:

Dust-Off!
http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp

Foods that contain cyanide--cassava root seems likely
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/apples.asp

Had she been taking a cold remedy that caused a stroke?
http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/ppa.asp

"Any chemists in this list that can suggest a substance that reacts when mixed with another by accident? "

Yes actually, I am a chemist and doing research on a paper in college if you mix some formulations of vitamins together they react to form a toxic compound. If I remember correctly Vitamin D and E, but it has to be the correct formulation of the compound into its vitamin form. I could be wrong about the E but I know it had D in it. I am sure you can look it up.

Ara

Also White Oleander is a deadly poison and is can be made into a tea.

If she's a farm wife, or lives in the country in proximity to cattle, there's a very powerful cattle antibiotic called Mitoxin (I think) which is extremely deadly to humans. If it comes in contact with the skin, it will absorb into the body and kill the person. Your villain could dip into a neighboring barn, don some gloves, grab some of the medication, and put it on a convenient surface--car door, front door, kitchen table--where the woman would come into contact with it. You'd have to double check the name of the medication, and the physical symptoms of the poisoning, but I've always thought this would be a very neat way to kill someone (in a book, of course).

Perhaps you could have her try some of my cooking.

There is a fish that you can eat the oil from and it will give you a heart attack. I'm not sure on the name of the fish.

What about having her die of fright?

Cyanide seems to do the trick too

Maybe this one only works if you're a bit scared of heights, like me.

The kitchen's old. Tall ceilings. Woman wants something on the top shelf of pantry/cupboard. Climbs up stepladder, or the shelves themselves (did this as child). Reaches top shelf, screams, recoils, falls. Skull is thinner than normal. Cracks on landing. Dies.

Not a very efficient method of murder except that the murderer had actually laid a trap on the top shelf. If woman had lived long enough to reach for the weird spice/oil/cooking pan, her hand would have brushed against a needle coated with an obscure poison. It would have pricked her skin and she'd have died. Instead, woman saw the corpse of mouse that had already tasted poison, and hence the scream, recoil, death.

The scenario sounds pretty lame, but I'm fascinated by the idea of a character plotting murder, and then the murder not taking place because the intended victim dies. Would the would-be murderer still feel the guilt of actual murder since the victim died?

To actually answer the original question - electricity. There was an episode on CSI that showed it was possible for the person to not look like they'd been shocked to death.

The bite on the inside of the heel from a brown recluse spider.

Tri

Death by Java Joe

Deliberate caffeine poisoning?

[Yes, folks, you can overdose on caffeine and die --and it does happen.]

Perhaps slipping pure caffeine (or large amount of heavy-duty NoDoze) into the victim's coffee -- I am afraid I don't know what the lethal dosage would be, but it would be dependent on the sensitivity and body-weight of the victim, in any case.

smallthunder said:

Deliberate caffeine poisoning?

[Yes, folks, you can overdose on caffeine and die --and it does happen.]

Perhaps slipping pure caffeine (or large amount of heavy-duty NoDoze) into the victim's coffee -- I am afraid I don't know what the lethal dosage would be, but it would be dependent on the sensitivity and body-weight of the victim, in any case.

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"A high intake of caffeine at once can cause caffeine-induced mental disorder. The symptoms include restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, stomach upset, muscle twitching, incoherent speech, heart palpitations and excessive alertness.

In most cases an overdose of caffeine will not kill you. However, it can be fatal. A lethal dose is estimated at 10 grams. However, a toxic dose will vary from person to person." as found on http://www.medic8.com/healthguide/articles/caffeine.html.

Sounds very unpleasant!

The fish is the fugu fish. It's served in restaurants in Japan by expert chefs. Even so, an antidote is commonly kept available since it takes only a slight miscalculation to release the toxin.

You can lethally overdose on water and numerous other ordinary non-lethal ingestibles.

My own experience, however, is with rifles, guns, knives, grenades, tanks, and improvised explosives. Mostly within the military in combat, but you want stuff that doesn't leave a mark, so I doubt that I have much more I can offer.

Ara said:

"A high intake of caffeine at once can cause caffeine-induced mental disorder. The symptoms include restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, stomach upset, muscle twitching, incoherent speech, heart palpitations and excessive alertness.

In most cases an overdose of caffeine will not kill you. However, it can be fatal. A lethal dose is estimated at 10 grams. However, a toxic dose will vary from person to person." as found on http://www.medic8.com/healthguide/articles/caffeine.html.

Sounds very unpleasant!

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Thanks for providing the details on dosage -- one of the reasons why I think caffeine would make a good poison for a murder-without-a-trace is that it doesn't necessarily cause vomiting (please correct me if I'm wrong, Ara) and can appear to be a household accident (as opposed to, say, fugu poisoning outside of Japan).