Pure nicotine in a form of liquid is sold by various online vaping stores worldwide [Courtesy of Hiliq]
In what was seen as South Korea's first murder case, a 47-year-old woman has been arrested for killing her husband with nicotine, a highly unusual weapon that's difficult to detect in a dead body.
Police concluded nicotine was used as a lethal weapon but they still face a difficult legal battle in court as the wife surnamed Song denies she has nothing to do with the death of her 53-year-old husband. The arrest was announced on Sunday by a police station in Seoul's northeastern satellite city of Namyangju, four months after the man was found dead at his home.
With no external injuries or evidence of murder, the case was initially seen as a perfect crime, leading Song to take legal steps and inherit assets worth about one billion won (847,460 US dollars) from her husband and an insurance payment of about 80 million won.
Police, however, got suspicious because they could not find a clear reason for the sudden death, calling for an autopsy that revealed a high amount of nicotine from the husband who had never smoked, as well as zolpidem, a sedative primarily used for the treatment of insomnia.
In an investigation, police found that Song has maintained an extramarital relationship with a jobless person who purchased a crude liquid of nicotine through a Chinese online shopping mall and received 100 million won from the woman.
Song was stopped and detained at an airport on August 17 when she tried to run away, and her lover was arrested a day later. The woman was accused of poisoning her husband with nicotine, a plant alkaloid which works quickly when used with a sedative.
While nicotine is a lethal poison and easily obtained, it has rarely been used as a reliable weapon. Lethal amounts of nicotine need to be ingested, absorbed or injected. And it's not easy to disguise nicotine in food.
If a person did ingest a large amount of nicotine, he would most likely vomit much of it out. A smaller amount of nicotine absorbed over time will cause obvious symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea, and sweating that the victim is likely to seek treatment.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
