Name: ______________________________
Pd: ________
Deadly Chemistry Video Questions
CASE 1
1) Poisoners are among the most _____________________________________________________ killers.
2) Josephine Thomas was admitted to the hospital with ________________________________________
________________________________________.
3) Why was Josephine’s death troubling for staff?
4) Two nurses suspect Josephine Thomas did not die of natural causes. An hour and a half later, these
nurses found a package of ___________________________________________________ was missing.
5) Lidocaine is a drug given to stabilize _____________________________________________________.
In large concentrations, it can be ______________________________________________.
6) Whenever a death seems unusual or suspicious, medical and law enforcement personnel are required
to contact the __________________________________________________________________ office.
7) Throughout the United States, and _____________________________________________________ is
performed when the cause of death is unknown.
8) Where can arsenic accumulate?
9) Poisoning is not automatically suspected. It depends on the circumstances, or lack of other
________________________________________________________________.
10) For what type of victim are suspicions of drug involvement or poisoning increased?
11) What is used to detect toxins?
12) _________________________________________________________________________ is used to
break apart or separate a molecule.
13) _________________________________________________________________________ is used to
identify ion patterns.
14) How many deaths were attributed to lidocaine poisoning at St. Petersburg’s Hospital?
15) How are poisoning homicides different from normal homicides?
16) Poison offers the opportunity of _________________________________________________ homicide.
17) Within _________________________________________________ of administering the drug,
lidocaine will affect the rhythms of the heart and result in a fatal seizure.
18) What does the nurse believe Hargrave’s motive to be for killing the six St. Petersburg Hospital
patients?
CASE 2
19) What city in Washington did Sue Snow collapse in?
20) Which medication did Sue Snow ingest, as part of her daily routine?
21) The smell of bitter ___________________________________________ is a tell-tale sign of cyanide
poisoning.
22) Cyanide displaces ______________________________________________ in the energy transport
train, the cells collapse and die, slowly asphyxiating.
23) What are the two types of victims that poisoners target?
24) Of the thousands of Excedrin bottles that were screened, only ___________________________ were
found to contain cyanide.
25) How many bottles did Stella Nickell have?
26) What was believed to be Stella’s motive?
27) What piece of evidence established Stella’s motive?
28) What was the source of the cyanide Stella used?
29) A polygraph records physiological changes like blood rate and _________________________________
_____________________, which may change when an individual ______________________________.
30) Who did Stella talk to about how to fin different drugs, what lethal doses were, a hitman and poison?
31) Boxes of books were sent to the FBI Lab in Washington, D.C. to be tested for Stella’s
______________________________________________________________.
32) On one of the books, ____________________ of Stella’s fingerprints and 3 palm prints were found in
one of the books.
33) _________________________ may be a characteristic of poisoners, ____________________________
may be another.
CASE 3
34) The case inspired from Stella’s case happened on Feb. 2 1991, in ___________________________, WA.
35) What medication did Joe Meling remind his wife to take?
36) What did Joe ask the medical staff to consider when treating his wife at the hospital?
37) Does cyanide show up on routine screening tests?
38) Before 1991 how long did it take to determine the results of a cyanide test take?
39) What needed to be tested separately?
40) What is a simpler procedure to detecting cyanide?
41) What color does the litmus strip turn if hydrogen cyanide is present?
42) On March 1, how many deaths were related to the Sudafed cyanide pattern?
43) What did FBI agents find to be different about the break of foil in untampered Sudafed packages
compared to the break in the tampered Sudafed packages?
44) What was Joe polishing one day when Jennifer came home?
45) What was the total amount Joe could gain from Jennifer’s life insurance policy?
46) Because there are so many samples sent to the FBI Headquarters in Washington or testing each day, it
has been given its own ____________________________________________________.
47) What is one of the most important clues to find at a crime scene? How many are on file?
48) What is one of the most effective ways of detecting fingerprints?
49) How many stores in the area had tampered Sudafed product?
50) When investigators examined the poison register for the day Joe visited the building, whose signature
did they find for cyanide?
51) How much poison did Joe purchase that day?
52) How long was the Joe Meling investigation?
53) What was a final piece of evidence incriminating Joe?
54) What is one way to help protect unsuspecting people from being poisoned by a health product?
55) What four components are necessary to convict a poisoner?