48 Hours - The Eye Drop Homicide - Encore

Episode Date: May 15, 2022

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ConstantContact.ca We are floating along Lake Wylie, South Carolina, which is a roughly 20-mile long lake. As we've been cruising along here, it has looked like an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. A lot of wealth. It certainly is. There are million-dollar homes. If you look at this one here, this is the Clay and famous. A lot of wealth. It certainly is. There are million-dollar homes. If you look at this one here, this is the Clayton estate. Stephen and Lana moved into it in 2015,

and it's actually modeled after President George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. Stephen Clayton was a very well-liked person, had lots of friends, very sociable. Lana worked as a nurse in several different Veterans Affairs hospitals. Stephen Clayton was found dead at the bottom of a staircase. At the outset, this appeared to be a natural death.

It looked like a man who had fallen down a flight of stairs. Yes, who had been ill, according to his wife, and then she found him unresponsive. She was crying, and she was upset. Is it allowable to have somebody pray over you? Oh, yes, ma'am. So if there's someone you want to call? I pulled into the driveway right over here. My main goal at that point was to try and help Lana, to console her. When did you start to see things that troubled you?

Right away. He didn't show any signs of any sort of medical issues. She made no mention of attempting to revive him. We decided to call the coroner and see if we could get either an autopsy or a toxicology report. I am the coroner for York County, South Carolina. Luckily, family started picking up on some red flags. My name is Demi Garvin. I am a forensic toxicologist. When Demi's toxicology report came across my fax machine,

I was like, hmm, what is tetrahydrosine? And then immediately Demi and I were on the phone together. I was like, whoa, wait. Tetrahydrosine is the common ingredient in Visine. The eye drop. The eye drop. When it is given orally via the mouth, it is very toxic and can render someone into a coma within 15 to 30 minutes.

Can it create a heart attack? It can. It has a devastating effect on your body. Somebody one time told me, well, the vising would help him go to the bathroom and he'd put like two drops in his coffee. Can't imagine him doing that. Can't imagine anyone doing that.

So who then becomes the suspect? Lana Clayton. She reported on her own that Stephen Clayton liked to place a few drops of Visine in his coffee each morning. And I did not kill my husband. There was another death that appeared to be of natural causes related to a cardiac arrest of Stacey Hunsucker. They found the high levels of tetrahydrosaline in her system.

It's very possible that was a copycat situation. The suspect in that case heard about our case down here, saw it on the news. So what you're saying is that this little bottle could be a murder weapon. Absolutely. Thank you. I'm a Vietnam veteran, so I've seen things, done things. But James Blackledge wasn't ready for what was about to happen as he rode by the home of Steve and Lana Clayton on the morning of July 21, 2018. I was out riding my motorcycle, coming down this road, and all of a sudden I see a woman running across this yard,

and she was waving me down. It was Lana Clayton, who apparently had just run out of her house. She flagged me down, stopped me, and first thing she said was, call 911. Is this 911? It is. I was just riding by, and a woman came running out and said her husband fell down the steps and she thinks he's dead. As Blackledge stayed on the phone with the dispatcher, he watched Lana run across the street to a neighbor's house. All of a sudden I heard this loud knock on the screen.

It almost sounded like somebody was going to bust the glass out. It was Lana. Terry Floyd is a close friend of Lana and Steve. And I asked her, of course, what was wrong. And she just kept saying, it's Steve, it's Steve. The two jumped into Terry's golf cart and dashed over to the Clayton's front door. And I said, well, where is he? And she said, he's at the base of the stairs there in the foyer.

And what were you thinking as all this is unfolding? I just thought it was an accident, a strange accident. Then what I really thought was strange was she sat on the front steps. The man went inside the house. I tried to get a pulse. I couldn't get a pulse. I couldn't get a pulse. And, you know, I just knew he was dead. According to Lana, Steve had come down with a bout of vertigo three days prior.

News reporter Christy O'Connor of WBTV covered the story. He was nauseated and dizzy and bedridden. Their bedroom was on the second floor of this house, right? That's exactly correct. Lana said she checked on him around 11 that morning and found him sound asleep. So she went outside to mow the lawn. She made sure he had his water. She had his medications and things next to his bed.

Made sure he had everything he needed. Lana was a nurse, a calling that made Steve's sister Rosie very happy. I felt, wow, she'll be there for him. God forbid something should happen. He should fall ill. The couple met online in 2010. Three years later, they married in nearby Charlotte, North Carolina. I sensed that my brother loved her very much, that she loved him very much. It was Lana's second marriage. Steve's family had lost count on the number of times he'd been down the aisle.

I think the number is somewhere around six or seven. Steve loved being in love. You know, it didn't always work out well for him. Steve's nephew, Chris Fagan, says his uncle was an accountant by trade who in the 1980s created a highly successful physical therapy business targeting sports injuries. And he made millions off of this, correct? He did. He then fully retired at the age of 40. From all outside appearances, what was their life like? I would say, dare to say, that they had it all.

But on July 21st, 2018, when Lana came in after a couple hours of yard work, she discovered her 64-year-old husband was dead. Myself and a few of the other neighbors, we consoled and hurt. All the neighbors were behind her 110%. When York County Sheriff's deputies arrived, they found Lana in distress over her husband's apparent fall down the stairs. She's kind of having guilt for it for not checking on him. Just take a look to see if you see any signs of him falling or anything.

Pretty much, pretty much there. The officer on the scene and a friend comforted her. You can't blame yourself for any of this. Oh, no, not at all. As word spread about Steve's sudden death, his nephew, Nick French, who's a police officer in a nearby town, rushed to the mansion. That's Nick inside the house. She gave me a big hug, started crying.

Right after that, I walked in where Steve was and saw him. It was very much a shock. I love Steve, and to see him in a vulnerable position like that was very difficult for me. And to see him in a vulnerable position like that was very difficult for me. Shortly after 1 p.m., Coroner Sabrina Gast received a call that Steve had died. I have a deputy coroner, and she responded to the home. Gast says her deputy saw nothing suspicious and believed the cause of death was most likely due to a heart attack. She concluded at that point in time that it appeared to be a natural death. But being an experienced cop and investigator, Nick French couldn't help noticing some red flags about Lana's actions immediately after she found Steve.

There were at least two phones in that house, and she's a nurse. Why wouldn't she have called from one of those phones? And and also why wasn't she doing CPR when they arrived on scene? That's when he began to make mental notes. Steve always had his phone on him, always. It was his lifeline. We were not able to find Steve's phone anywhere. Nick also noted Lana's reaction when the deputy coroner asked about funeral arrangements. Lana said it's just too much right now. She had her head in her hands and she said, I have no idea. So the deputy coroner offered to take Steve's body to the morgue and run some tests.

And she looked up from her hands and said, that funeral home, the one that's right down the street, let's take him there and have him cremated. And it was just that quick she went from, I have no idea what I'm going to do, to let's have him cremated. Nick wanted to call Chris and let him know their beloved uncle had died.

He says Lana insisted she didn't want Chris to see his uncle in that state. Chris is an adult. He's a big boy. That should be Chris's choice. I started thinking, you know, something's going on. So when she told me no the third time and yelled at me, I walked upstairs and called Chris. Why would you be excluded? That I couldn't tell you. It still puzzles me to this day. Chris then called Steve's sister, Rosie, in Florida. I still hear him crying.

I couldn't speak. It wasn't real. It didn't seem real. For three days prior to his death, Rosie had been worried she couldn't reach her brother on the phone. Suddenly, there were no replies. And that was not like him. So just completely cut off. I thought it was very odd. Also odd was what Nick would later discover in Steve's upstairs bedroom.

The state of the bedroom indicated to me that Steve had been in that bed multiple days and he wasn't able to get out of the bed. Just a culmination of everything we saw out there. It was highly suspicious. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park.

They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror. But did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? I was struck by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was.

Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. I try not to go into the house a whole lot. That's where the bad memories are, really. For Steve's nephew, Chris Fagan, visiting his uncle's home brings back mixed emotions. But out here is where we enjoyed parties. In the best of times at this house, what was it like? A lot of fun. Yeah, the dogs running around, the kids chasing him,

Steve telling jokes, music going. One favorite memory, the July 4th party Lana and Steve threw just weeks before his death. Steve was always big on July 4th. He had huge celebrations out here. We'd have a dance floor right here, fireworks out there. To most outsiders,

the couple appeared happy and in love. I thought it was a good relationship. She always kissed Steve on the forehead there and said, I love you. But Dr. Nan Say, a veterinarian who took care of their dogs at the Clayton mansion, claims

it was all a facade. When you saw the two of them together, were they a loving couple? No. No. I wondered why they got married. It was strange. The simplest thing was that she did not speak when he was in the room. Then there was a bizarre incident in the bedroom just two years before Steve's death. Lana said she accidentally shot her husband in the head

with a crossbow while he slept. Steven himself said it was an accident. Lana said it was an accident. Miraculously, Steve's injury was minor and police never filed charges. I don't know how many crossbows you have in your bedroom, but that seemed kind of strange, right? Yes.

Lana and Steve moved on from that incident, but two months before his death, Steve confided to Chris that their marriage of five years was in trouble. He had mentioned that he wasn't as happy as he thought he was going to be. When Chris got to the house that day, he comforted Lana. She told him she needed his help in organizing Steve's affairs. And I said, well, the first thing we need to do is find the will, and that'll tell us what Steve's wishes were in terms of whether he should be buried or cremated.

Chris was startled by Lana's response. She said, well, there is no will. And I said, no, there's a will. I know that there is. I've seen it. Steve had asked me to be his executor. And at that point, she stood up and said, I said, there is no will.

And she went into the house. My aha moment came about the same time. Nick was gobsmacked when he heard Lana bad-mouthing Steve. She was in the kitchen and she was telling these lurid stories of all Steve's illicit drug abuse. She used the words he was a hardcore drug abuser. And she's telling these stories and she's laughing. And you guys had known him forever. Did you ever see him high on illicit drugs?

Never. Never. She basically said that she didn't want an autopsy done because she was worried about what the toxicology would show. And, you know, for me, it was jarring when I heard it. Nick would soon be jarred again. He went upstairs where Lana had said Steve was bedridden for three days. The bed was the worst part of the upstairs. Just drenched with urine. And I asked Lana, and she said, oh, Steve does that when he has vertigo.

That happens. Really made me think he was there suffering and could reach no one for help. A short time later, Chris says Lana demanded that everyone leave. When we got in the car, my wife and I, I said something is wrong. Nick was having a similar conversation with his wife. We were both of the opinion that she had a hand in his death.

We didn't know how. Meanwhile, Rosie was trying to reconcile how Steve's vertigo may have led to a heart attack. It seemed too weird to attribute what was happening to him to what we already knew were his very benign light symptoms. On Sunday, the day after Steve's death, Chris and his wife had planned to help Lana find his will. Lana said, do not come here. This is my house. He was my husband.

I will handle everything. And she hung up. That's when Nick and his wife drove to Chris's house. We looked at each other. We went through the small talk. And I said, something's wrong. I said, thank God, because we feel the exact same way. And we went to work.

And we knew one of the first things that we had to do was get in touch with the coroner's office. It was a race against the clock. Lana had scheduled a cremation for the very next day. Steve was at the funeral home, and they can move forward. With whatever Lana says. Exactly. Nick and Chris demanded the coroner order an autopsy and a toxicology test. She agreed. We were relieved at that point, but we also knew that Lana didn't know. When the autopsy was done, the family's suspicions were confirmed.

Steve had not succumbed to a heart attack. They looked at the chest, they looked at the heart, the lungs. Nothing really suspicious with the autopsy. But the toxicology results revealed something sinister. Not hardcore drug use, but the presence of poison, a chemical found in eyedrops. And in an instant, Steve's death became highly suspicious. Forensic toxicologist Demi Garvin. So suddenly this could be a poisoning. Yes. It was without question the cause of death. Was it an accidental overdose? We didn't know that. Was it a homicidal overdose? His mobility is limited. He's incapacitated. It will cause respiratory depression, which then causes death.

What do you make of the Crossbow incident? when coroner sabrina gast first reviewed steve clayton's toxicology report there was a chemical found in his blood that she had never heard of before what is tetrahydrosolene i don't know what that is so i had Hmm, what is tetrahydrosaline? I don't know what that is. So I had to look up what tetrahydrosaline was. I was like, whoa, wait. And what is it? What is this drug?

Tetrahydrosaline is the common ingredient in visine. The eye drop. The eye drop. Get the red out. Exactly. And Steve's results revealed a large amount of the chemical, which is found in a number of brands of eye drops. In fact, at a concentration of 68 nanograms per mil in the blood sample.

And in English, that means? In English, that means I'm very worried. It's a lot. It's a lot. Forensic toxicologist Demi Garvin was aware of the many ways tetrahydrozoline, also known as THZ, could be abused. We refer to this drug as a modern-day Mickey Finn, where a substance is introduced into a beverage without the consent of the individual who's going to consume it for purposes of incapacitating them. That could be

for robbery, it could be for sexual assault. It could be for both. In the movie Wedding Crashers, a character squirts eyedrops into the drink of his rival, causing trouble. Oh, no. Nausea, vomiting, reduced heart rate, dizziness, confusion. But if a poisoner empties an entire bottle in someone's drink, it can attack the respiratory system. And if breathing slows sufficiently, it will cause respiratory depression, which then causes death. Poisoning with eye drops is also the plot line of an episode of the CBS drama CSI. There was tetrahydrosoline in the victim's drink. She killed him with eye drops.

Well, it's not that far-fetched. It's colorless, odorless, and tasteless. So, like, I have a water bottle here. If it was in there, I wouldn't know it. Correct. The results of Steve Clayton's toxicology were a potential game-changer. The initial assessment at the scene

is this appeared to be a natural death. What are you thinking now? I'm thinking, wow, we've got some work to do. The next phone call was to the sheriff's office. Well, now, of course, there are a whole series of questions that have been raised. Solicitor Kevin Brackett accessed the prosecutor in York and Union counties in South Carolina. First and foremost, how did the Visine get in his system? We didn't know if he had intentionally taken the tetrahydrosaline

with the intent of harming himself. To find out, the coroner called Lana in for an interview. Describe the woman that was sitting across from you. I would describe her as confident. By now, Lana knew that an autopsy had been performed on Steve. What she didn't know was that investigators from the sheriff's office and the FBI were in the next room listening in. We had set up microphones in the office so that they could hear the questions and her responses. We were trying to get information from her about how he used the product, how often did he use the product. He would put it in his coffee every morning so that he would have a bowel movement. It would not be something that you would ever want to do. What that comment did tell us is that she was aware that we were going to find Visine in his system because she had put it there.

Immediately, she knew exactly what tetrahydroxylene was. You saw it on her face? She said, oh, yes, that's Visine. That was where it clicked for me of, oh, okay, this is kind of, this is really odd. That's when those investigators nearby entered the room, surprising Lana. I'm a detective with the North County Sheriff's Office. I'm just overwhelmed, I'm sure. Yes, ma'am.

Now listen, you are by no means in any trouble. Do you want to ask me some questions? We have to read our maracas right to everybody, okay? You have the right to make silence. Lana Clayton began turning on her husband. I wondered if he was trying to commit suicide. He had a mood disorder. I always watched on the eggshells.

I didn't know what Stephen I was going to come home to. We never saw any evidence of that. Never. Did you ever see it? I never saw it. And not only did we never see it, but there was no record of anything like that. I feel I'm painting a bad picture of him. He wasn't, you know, a monster. The two investigators pressed her.

Right now, the death is suspicious in nature. Did you make this coffee for him? No, he made his coffee. Everybody keeps asking me, you know, about the coffee, and I know they're wanting to know about the bison. Yeah, there's only two people in the house. It was you and him. I know. Did he have any? He always had the bison. Did he have any that day? I don't know. You're in the nursing business, though. Wouldn't you know the effects of it? Sure.

I didn't think vising was anything that would be serious to your health. With the tough questioning, Brackett says Lana got defensive. I feel like you guys are, you know, doing your job and you're, you know, wondering if I killed my husband and I did not kill my husband. Lana then stopped the interview and returned to the mansion. Investigators followed her home where she continued talking. They recorded the conversation. After that conversation, the situation changes significantly. What Lana Clayton told investigators was nothing short of a confession. You know, I had his little table set up next to the bed with his tissues, his urinal, his, you know, medications, his Visine. And I just thought, just, I was just so angry. And

I just took and squirted it. I think I put the whole thing in. That amount of THC would have caused Steve to stop breathing. See, the whole bottle? I think I did. Okay. I squeezed it hard. Okay, so where was he when you did this?

He was sleeping. I don't know. I just saw it there and I just did it. I don't have an excuse. I don't have... I just did it. When don't have an excuse. I don't have... I just did it. When Nick learned of Lana's confession,

he called Chris. He said, she did it. And I knew immediately what he was talking about. And I had a few choice words and screamed. Started crying as well. This was murder. Correct. started crying as well this was murder correct in the Pacific Ocean halfway between Peru and New Zealand lies a tiny

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Listen to Informants Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. After admitting she emptied a bottle of eye drops into her husband's water, Lana kept talking to the investigators

back at the mansion. Just what if I didn't kill him? What if I caused his death? Lana kept talking to the investigators back at the mansion. She quickly transformed from a grieving widow into an embittered wife. I just wanted him to just, I just wanted him to suffer. Suffer because Lana claimed she was fed up with Steve's constant demands. I was just, I was just angry. He was just constantly, Lana, come here. Lana, come here, you know. Help me to the bathroom.

Do this, do that, and everything. And I don't know. It all just built up. It just all, all, all just built up and I just. Lana tried to convince investigators that she never wanted to kill Steve. No, I just wanted him to have diarrhea. To just suffer. To just be miserable.

She's admitted that she's poisoned him. Solicitor Kevin Brackett. She's trying to think of her story that keeps her out of, you know, the trick bag. As Lana's story evolved, it now included allegations of physical abuse. He was verbally and physically abusive. He had hit me several times. Is there any evidence that he was physically abusing her? No, no. Steve's sister, Rosie. The way she portrayed

him, I don't know that person. Nobody that knows Steve knows that person. The unflattering portrait of Steve does not ring true for those who loved him. Ileana Ivanova was Steve's girlfriend for almost three years before meeting Lana. Was he ever abusive toward you verbally? Never. Or physically? Never. He was nothing close to being abusive. This is completely made up.

Everybody who knew him knew how generous and loving and kind he is. His former partners shared similar sentiments about the abuse claims. They did not believe them. Some of them still considered him to be the love of their life. And what about that bizarre crossbow shooting incident back in 2016? Lana changed her story, admitting it was no accident. I was trying to protect myself from him because he was coming at me. And I had picked up the crossbow and turned and I just shot it at him. Nick French and Chris Fagan didn't learn of the crossbow story until after Steve's death. They don't believe Lana was defending herself.

Nick, what do you think of that story? Unofficially, whore. Do you think that was an attempted murder? Absolutely, I think it was. Yeah, we think that was her first attempt at doing this. After Lana's devastating interrogation, investigators left her at the mansion to prepare an arrest warrant. That's when she attempted suicide.

She took some pills and turned the gas on. She left notes indicating that she felt bad about poisoning her husband and that she couldn't live with herself. A neighbor went to the house that morning and called for help. She was treated briefly at the hospital and taken into custody at that point. She was treated briefly at the hospital and taken into custody at that point. Brackett had developed a drip-by-drip theory of this eyedrop crime. She incapacitated him with a smaller amount and then gradually ramped it up until the fatal dose. That would explain why Steve was bedridden for three days prior to his death.

That would explain why Steve was bedridden for three days prior to his death. Brackett theorizes that Steve may have somehow attempted an escape. He might have gotten a surge of adrenaline, realizing that he was very, very sick and he needed help. And he tried to go for help and made it as far as the bottom of the stairs where he died. He couldn't call for help. His phone could not be found after he died. On August 31st, 2018, more than a month after Steve's death, Lana Clayton was formally charged with murder.

I think Lana Clayton had several million reasons why she wanted her husband dead. You're talking about millions of dollars. Yes, exactly right. Steve's family speculates Lana started planning Steve's death back in 2016 when Lana convinced him to move from North Carolina to the mansion in South Carolina. It was important for her to be in South Carolina. And I think I was able to put some puzzle

pieces together after the fact. She was married to a very wealthy man, and if that man were to die in the absence of will, then he would die intestate, which under South Carolina law leaves her inheriting the entire estate. And remember, Lana insisted there was no will. the entire estate. And remember, Lana insisted there was no will. Chris recalls she became agitated when he asked her about it the day Steve died. She stands up, she turns, looks me right in the eye and says, there is no will. Just like that. Chris is certain Lana destroyed the will in a fire the neighbors saw her start the day after Steve's death. My personal opinion is that's the first thing that she burned. This is the fire pit, Peter. His whole life in paper was burned right here. About three weeks after Lana's arrest, there was another suspicious death just 12 miles away in Mount Holly, North Carolina.

The method of killing in that case was the same as ours, a poisoning with THC. With eye drops. With eye drops, yes. For investigators, it seemed like deja vu. Our office was consulted on that because it happened in such close proximity. It's very possible that the suspect in that case heard about our case down here, saw it on the news. 32-year-old Stacey Hunsucker, a mother of two young children, was found dead by her husband Joshua Hunsucker. Just like in the Clayton case,

her cause of death was initially ruled a heart attack. Shortly after Stacey died, he collected almost $250,000 from two life insurance policies taken out on her behalf. And that apparently didn't sit right with Stacey's mother. We got involved because Stacey's mother contacted us with the possible insurance fraud. Who would ever guess that an insurance fraud investigation could lead to a full-blown murder investigation? Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly?

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So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. They were high school sweethearts. They had two children together. Stacey and Josh Hunsucker had been married for eight years before her tragic death from an apparent heart attack. Stacey had suffered from heart problems and had a pacemaker.

Stacey was a paralegal at one time and then was a preschool teacher. He was a paramedic, a flight medic, actually, at Atrium Health, the major hospital system in the Charlotte area. Reporter Christy O'Connor says Josh's actions after Stacey's passing raised eyebrows. I never saw him sad, ever. In fact, babysitter Kaylin McDonald, who looked after the couple's children after Stacey's death, says Josh was dating a co-worker, Jennifer Elkins. He was happy with his new girlfriend, very happy, and it was always about Jen. For Stacey's mother, Susie Robinson, that was a red flag. Another one was when she learned just 48 hours after Stacey's death, Josh started the process of collecting $250,000 in two life insurance policies. Susie called the North

Carolina Department of Insurance to investigate. Had it not been for Susie, we may not have any of this murder investigation. Mike Causey is the commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Insurance. His agents got involved in Stacey's case in May 2019. It was referred to our criminal investigations division. Initial reports from the local police department had it a natural death, heart attack. But Stacey's body had been cremated at the request of her husband. No autopsy. No autopsy. Joshua actually did not want an autopsy done because he didn't want her cut up. But the agents got a huge break when they discovered Stacey was an organ donor and a vial of blood had been collected and stored before she

was cremated. That blood was sent out for a toxicology screening. There was traces of some poison, specifically THZ, a common chemical that's used in eye drops to get the red out. In the Hunsucker case, have you given authorities there some advice based on your experience here? Yes, that the presence of the tetrahydrozoline in the concentration that was reported warranted further investigation. They ended up accusing him of poisoning her with tetrahydrosaline. On December 19th, 2019, 15 months after Stacey's death, Hansucker was charged with her murder. His attorney says the allegations will be strenuously opposed. He is free on bail.

$100,000 secure. Experts fear homicidal poisonings have been going undetected because their symptoms can mimic natural illness and labs don't routinely screen for them. Do you think that this drug should be part of a basic screen in a toxicology test? Yes. Do you feel the same way? Yes. Because it is so innocuous. It's odorless. It's tasteless. Anybody can buy it. In a statement, Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Vizine, said they are, quote, devastated that anyone would use our product for such an abhorrent act. And, quote, In Lana Clayton's case, she decided to plead guilty to tampering with food and drugs and voluntary manslaughter.

We'd like to apologize to Stephen's family. She continued to insist she never meant to kill him. I did impulsively put the Visine in Stephen's drink, and I did it with the intent to make him sick and uncomfortable. Her defense team painted Lana as a victim who suffered from PTSD stemming from sexual abuse in her past. So their claims were that she was sexually assaulted throughout her youth and that went unreported to authorities. Then when she went into the U.S. Air Force, her defense team says that she was raped by three

servicemen. But that alleged assault also wasn't reported. Lana told the court it was Steve's treatment of her that made her snap. I was upset about the abuse and just wanted him to leave me alone. I never thought it would kill him. I had never heard of Isaac being deadly. I told the judge I knew it had to be very difficult to see someone who looks so frail, so gentle, so quiet and meek, and think that that person could be a cold-blooded murderer. What a tangled web we weave. Ms. Clayton, you sure have tangled us one up. You sure have tangled this one up.

On January 16th, 2020, Judge Birch sentenced Lana Clayton to 25 years in prison. I didn't think it was enough. My brother was my world. He was the center of my world. She stole an amazing man from a lot of people that loved him. There's a huge hole in everyone that knew Steve, and I think that that hole will be there for the rest of our lives. Lana Clayton declined our request for an interview, writing in an email, It's been a long journey for me, and it hasn't been easy coming to terms with Stephen's death. I'm now at peace. And as for Steve's loved ones, they are struggling with their loss.

None of us can ever be made whole because Stephen is gone. Rosie prays the mother of Stacey Hunsucker may find peace. We have a saying in Spanish that says, La sangre llama, which means the blood cries out for justice. I would like to one day meet the mother of that precious girl that was killed using the same method, because I do believe her daughter's blood was crying out for justice, too. A rock star of the snake-breathing world found dead. I assumed it was a snake. It wasn't a snake, but the killer was cold-blooded.

Who would want to kill Ben Renick? He couldn't have imagined anything like that. 48 Hours, next on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.