Free Republic

BEIJING (AP) — Vinegar tainted with antifreeze is suspected of killing 11 people and sickening 120 after a communal Ramadan meal in China's far western region of Xinjiang.

Ashley Turton, a former Democratic aide whose death last month shocked friends and colleagues on Capitol Hill, was under the influence of alcohol when she crashed her car into the family garage early on the morning of Jan. 10, an autopsy found. According to a statement released Friday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia, Turton died from the “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal burns” caused by a fire after her car crashed into the garage of the Turton’s Capitol Hill home. Turton, a mother of three, was also under the influence...

Ashley Turton, a former senior aide to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), was intoxicated when she died in an accident last month, according to an autopsy report. Turton, who was working as an energy lobbyist at the time of the accident, died from the “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal burns,” according to Beverly Fields of the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner’s office. “Acute alcohol intoxication” was a contributing factor in her death, Fields said. Turton was found dead inside of her burned SUV, which apparently caught fire in the early morning hours inside of her garage on Capitol Hill. Turton...

<p>Several sources familiar with the ongoing investigation tell WTOP fire and police investigators believe the radiator in Turton's 2008 BMW X5 was punctured when it rolled into a workbench. The halogen headlights, which emit a bluish light and illuminate the road better than conventional headlights, stayed on after the radiator was punctured.</p>

Evanston police are investigating an early morning explosion that left one man dead Tuesday and led to the evacuation of residents and the closure of a middle school. Police secured the area around the Nichols Middle School and Fitzsimmons Park, where the decapitated body of an unidentified male and an explosive device were found shortly before 6 a.m. At Tuesday afternoon news conference, Evanston Police Commander Tom Guenther said authorities were taking the explosion “extremely seriously’’ but did not yet understand what the bomber’s intentions were. Police refused to identify the man who died and said they had not determined...

Scientists in the US have discovered a new class of biological antifreeze molecules - the first that do not contain proteins. The antifreeze, extracted from an Alaskan beetle capable of surviving at -60°C, consists of linked mannopyranose and xylopyranose sugars, termed xylomannan, associated with a lipid. Large molecules that cause thermal hysteresis - a difference between the melting and freezing points of a solution - have been identified in many organisms that survive in the cold, from Antarctic fish to plants and bacteria. In all cases identified so far, thermal hysteresis appears to be caused by proteins, known as antifreeze proteins or...

A SERIAL cat killer is feared to have launched a new murder spree - just miles from where eight pets were poisoned two months ago. This time four treasured moggies from the same street died in agony within one week. Tests show they had all swallowed a toxin believed to be anti-freeze. Cops are still hunting the maniac who used the same method to kill eight cats in one road in Bridgend, South Wales, over three weeks in July and August. The latest killings took place in Caldy Close, Barry - just ten miles away. Two neighbouring households in the...

PORT PERRY, ONT. and TORONTO -- An hour and a half after walking Cally at the nearby park Monday evening, Kim Reeves noticed her poodle was shaking. She jumped in the car and drove Cally to the emergency veterinary clinic in Whitby. "She kept getting worse and worse. It was horrible," Ms. Reeves said. "She was getting non-responsive almost. Her eyes were closed. She was curled up. ... She was just lying there. Her head kept kind of flopping around. She couldn't stand any more." Six-year-old Cally was one of three dogs poisoned by tainted chocolate cupcakes and brownies at...

Debt-ridden woman's 'death by anti-freeze plot' goes wrong after husband survivesLast updated at 16:44pm on 7th January 2008 A woman tried to kill her husband by poisoning him with anti-freeze after sinking into financial crisis, a court heard today. Kate Knight, 28, set out to murder her husband Lee to clear mounting debts, a jury was told. She considered a "number of methods", prosecutor Mr William Davis told the court, before settling on anti-freeze, which contains the potentially fatal chemical ethylene glycol. Mr Knight, a former JCB employee, became "gravely ill" after ingesting the poison. Mr Davis explained: "He...

DALTON, Ga. (AP) -- Jurors Tuesday spared the life of a former 911 dispatcher convicted of poisoning her boyfriend with antifreeze - the same way she had killed her husband six years earlier. Lynn Turner could have faced the death penalty for the 2001 murder of Randy Thompson, a Forsyth County firefighter and father of Turner's two children. Instead, the jury sentenced her to life in prison without parole. She was already serving a life term following her 2004 conviction in the antifreeze death of her police officer husband Glenn Turner in 1995. Lynn Turner had maintained her innocence in...

Passing a federal law to help prevent kids and animals from drinking deadly antifreeze could prove tougher than Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) expected. Wilson is trying to convince her House colleagues to approve a federal version of New Mexico's Scooby's Law, but she met with stiff resistance over environmental and liability concerns in a House subcommittee this week. Scooby's Law, named after a golden retriever who died in Bernalillo after drinking antifreeze in 2003, would force antifreeze manufacturers to add a bittering agent that discourages animals and young children from drinking the liquid. The federal bill Wilson has co-sponsored is...

Note to self: use anti-freeze when temperatures drop. Alrighty, sorry for the delay. Apparently it got kinda cold last night and my truck wasn't too cool with that.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - A Missouri radio talk show host was arrested on murder charges Monday for allegedly poisoning his wife by spiking her Gatorade with a chemical found in antifreeze. James Keown, 31, was arrested at the radio station where he worked in Jefferson City, Mo. He later made a court appearance via video and said he would not fight efforts to return him to Massachusetts. Prosecutors said he slowly poisoned Julie Keown, 31, with ethylene glycol while the couple were living in Massachusetts in 2004. District Attorney Martha Coakley said the motive may have been financial: Julie Keown...

Woman Charged in Fatal Antifreeze Poisoning of Brother-in-Law Associated Press SHAMONG TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - A woman was charged with killing her brother-in-law by poisoning his fruit drink with antifreeze, police said Sunday. Maryann Neabor, 53, turned herself in early Sunday at a diner parking lot, accompanied by her lawyer. She was charged with murder and jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail. Police accused Neabor of poisoning her brother-in-law with a drink she concocted that included pineapple juice, maraschino cherries and antifreeze. The victim, Jonathan Neabor, had been visiting his brother and sister-in-law at their home last week. Police said...

<p>LOS ANGELES - A 35-year-old woman was sentenced to death Monday for poisoning her husband with a combination of antifreeze and an oleander plant.</p> <p>Angelina Rodriguez, of Montebello, will become the 15th woman on California's death row unless her sentence is altered by the state Supreme Court on appeal. Death penalty cases are automatically appealed under state law.</p>

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-death13nov13,1,4759947.story Jury Calls for Poisoner's Death By Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writer A jury called Wednesday for the death of Angelina Rodriguez, a 35-year-old woman who poisoned her husband with a lethal combination of antifreeze and an oleander plant at their Montebello home. Rodriguez could become the 15th woman on California's death row, joining four others from Los Angeles County. Only four women have been executed in the state since 1893. [snip] Jurors found her guilty last month of murdering her schoolteacher husband, Frank, in September 2000 to get the $250,000 life insurance policy he had applied for two months...

United States National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) astronomers have discovered ethylene glycol, better known as the chemical commonly found in anti-freeze, in a massive interstellar dust cloud. NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre spokesperson Jan Hollis says the molecule was one of the five largest organic molecules discovered in space so far. "[The molecule] is associated with the formation of more complex sugar molecules that are necessary for life," Ms Hollis said. The discovery points to the fact that "more complex sugars, like ribose, may be occurring in interstellar clouds," she said. The molecules were found with the use of the...