Stacey Castor

Stacey Castor was born Stacey Daniels in Clay, New York, on July 24, 1967. Her parents were Jerry Daniels and Judie Eaton. Castor met her first husband, Michael Wallace, in 1984 when she was 17. The couple married and had their first daughter, Ashley, in 1987. A second daughter, Bree, was born in 1991. Castor was employed by an ambulance dispatch company, while Wallace worked nights as a mechanic, but the family had little money. According to Castor, Wallace was very close to Bree, showing a favoritism that Castor made up for by becoming "best friends" with elder daughter Ashley. Despite their closeness with their children, the couple grew apart, and it was rumored that each was having extramarital affairs. ==Murders==

In late 1999, Wallace began feeling intermittently ill. Family members variously remember him as acting unsteady, coughing and seeming swollen. As his inexplicable sickness persisted over the holiday season, his family encouraged him to seek medical care, but he died in early 2000 before he could do so. Physicians told Castor that her husband had died of a heart attack. Although Wallace's sister was skeptical and requested an autopsy, Castor refused, saying she believed the doctors were correct. In 2003, Stacey married David Castor, whose surname she used from that point forward. Upon visiting the house for a wellness check, Sergeant Robert Willoughby kicked in the door of the bedroom and found David dead. Among the items near his body were a container of antifreeze and a half-full glass of bright green liquid. Willoughby says he remembers that Castor screamed, "He's not dead, he's not dead." A toxicology screen ruled that Wallace had also been killed through antifreeze poisoning. On Ashley's first day of college, investigators came to her school to question her about Wallace's death and to inform her that he had been poisoned. An upset Ashley called Castor. Castor quickly took the note and later gave it to paramedics. Tests revealed that potentially fatal painkillers had been found in Ashley's system, and that she most likely would have died if she had been taken to the hospital just a few minutes later. When Ashley woke up, police questioned her about the murders and the suicide note; she said the last thing she remembered was her mother making her an alcoholic drink, something she had never done before. She told the officers that she did not write the note and was confused about their questions. ==Arrest and trial==

For two years, investigators had collected evidence against Castor for the deaths of her husbands. In 2007, she was arrested for second-degree murder in David's death and for attempting to murder and frame Ashley. Prosecutors argued that Ashley's computer-written "suicide note" had actually been written by Castor. argued that David's "suicide" had never made sense given the lack of his fingerprints on the glass or container tainted with ethylene glycol, a toxic substance found in antifreeze, and the turkey baster found in the kitchen garbage bearing both ethylene glycol and his DNA. She had said that her husband got the idea to kill himself with antifreeze while both were watching a news report about Lynn Turner, who murdered two past lovers by using the poison. and had changed David's will to exclude his son by a previous marriage from the money left to him by David. Fitzpatrick pointed out that Castor had never sought therapy for Ashley and that Ashley had never exhibited signs of mental illness. Fitzpatrick asserted that Castor's behavior during David's and Ashley's illnesses made no sense, given the years she had worked for an ambulance company. She did not seek care for Ashley for seventeen hours and indicated that David, who was staggering and vomiting and unable to stand, "looked OK". Fitzpatrick claimed this was the day Castor wrote the note, which had her fingerprints but not Ashley's, to frame her daughter. On February 5, 2009, Castor was found guilty of second-degree murder in the poisoning death of David and of attempted second degree murder for overdosing Ashley. Keller announced that she would appeal the verdict, including challenging the inclusion of evidence regarding the death of Wallace, for which Castor had not been charged. Further, she criticized how Castor had "partied in her backyard with friends like nothing was happening" as Ashley was comatose in her room. For forging David's will, he ordered Castor to serve an additional 1 to four years in prison. The trial had lasted for four weeks. An emotional Ashley told the judge she hated her mother "for ruining so many people's lives", but still loved her for the bond she had originally had with her. Fitzpatrick said that under New York sentencing guidelines, Castor would have to serve just over 51 years before she became eligible for parole—at her age, effectively a life sentence. ==Aftermath==

Castor, New York Department of Corrections inmate number 09G0209, was placed in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Bedford Hills, New York. Even with credit for time served, her earliest possible release date was June 15, 2055—slightly over a month shy of her 88th birthday. On April 24, 2009, ABC News aired a two-hour 20/20 special about Castor's trial. During the trial, Castor had been dubbed "The Black Widow" by media outlets, Ashley said that she does not know how her mother, or any mother, could try to kill her own child, He stated that while most suicide notes focus on themes of remorse and the person not being able to go on with life, the note supposedly written by Ashley was focused on taking the blame off Castor. In 2002, a man was convicted for the 1998 murder of his wife by antifreeze. A letter she had written before her death incriminated him as the murderer if she were to die eventually; the letter led to his prosecution. Series Sex Lies and Murder, series 2 episode 3, in addition to describing the events leading to the trial, included an interview with the district attorney in the case. The DA pointed out that Castor may have murdered her own father, Jerry Daniels, who died February 22, 2002, shortly after his daughter visited him in the hospital where he had a minor lung complaint. Castor's first husband's family believes Castor may have killed her father by bringing in an open can of soda for her father to drink. She was the executor of his estate. ==Death==

Castor was found dead in her cell on the morning of June 11, 2016. It was not immediately apparent how she died and the manner of her death was listed as undetermined; it was later determined by the D.A.'s office that she died of a heart attack, with no evidence of suicide or foul play. ==Television film==

Stacey Castor's story was adapted into the Lifetime film, Poisoned Love: The Stacey Castor Story, as part of its "Ripped from the Headlines" feature-film series; this made-for-television film was first transmitted on February 1, 2020. The film starred Nia Vardalos as Castor. == References ==