Stacey Castor (Black Widow) Case Analysis | Homicide by Antifreeze Poisoning

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of stacy caster castor is one of the several criminals who has been referred to as the black widow just a reminder of not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel consider supporting me on patreon and check out my podcast on youtube bellagrande media i will put the relevant links for those items in the description for this video so first i'll look at the background and the timeline of the crime together in one section then i'll move to my analysis stacy caster was born in clay new york on july 24 1967 she grew up in nearby weedsport new york which is about 20 miles west of syracuse in 1985 when she was 17 she met a man named michael wallace they married in 1988 the couple would have two daughters ashley and brie michael was a mechanic he worked at night stacy worked a day shift for an ambulance company the couple didn't see each other too often because of those schedules money was tight even though they were both working the mayoral relationship started to break down there were rumors that both michael and stacy were having affairs in late 1999 michael started having mysterious physical health symptoms he was coughing swollen had no energy and was unsteady on his feet he reported feeling intoxicated even though he hadn't been drinking alcohol a few weeks later on january 11 2000 he was found unresponsive on a sofa in the family room of his house he was later pronounced dead when he died his 11-year-old daughter ashley was with him she would blame herself for his death physicians said that michael probably died from a myocardial infarction also known as a heart attack he was not in great health before his death which probably led to this theory michael's sister was not convinced about the cause of death but stacy refused to permit an autopsy on august 16 2003 stacy remarried this time to a man named david castor stacy worked as an office manager in a company that david owned which installed and repaired air conditioners on august 22 2005 stacy called the police and told him that david locked himself in their bedroom after having an argument with her he had been in there for a day and was not answering his phone she was concerned that he was depressed the police arrived and kicked the door in they would find david castor dead there was a bottle of antifreeze next to his body as well as a glass that appeared to be half full of antifreeze initially it seemed as though david had brought an end to his own life but the police started to become suspicious after a few discoveries including stacy's fingerprints on the glass david's fingerprints were not on the bottle of antifreeze and they were not on the glass and a turkey baster that had antifreeze and david's dna on it was found in the trash it was under a couple of pieces of paper it looked like somebody was trying to hide it it did not appear broken it actually looked brand new the police secured a court order to listen in on stacy's phone calls and position cameras in various places including on her house and on her husband's grave sites both her husbands were buried next to one another stacy never visited the graves the police exhumed michael wallace's body and found antifreeze crystals in his system as the investigation was underway the police went to talk to ashley they told her that her father had died from anti-freeze poisoning ashley called stacy and then went to have a drink in stacy's home after being invited the next day stacy once again invited ashley to have a drink and ashley went over and drank with her on september 14 2007 17 hours after the second round of drinking her younger sister brie discovered ashley unresponsive on her bed brie left her sister for a moment and upon returning discovered a note next to ashley bree picked it up and read it the note had been typed on a computer and printed out the content of the note indicated that ashley was admitting to killing both her father and stepfather stacy grabbed the note from brie and gave it to the paramedics ashley was taken to the hospital the staff there detected a large and potentially lethal dose of painkillers in her system if brie did not discover ashley when she did ashley would have been dead within 15 minutes the police asked ashley questions as soon as she woke up she said the last thing she remembered was her mother making a drink for her that contained alcohol this was something that was out of the ordinary for stacey ashley denied writing the note stacey was arrested and charged with second degree murder in connection with the death of david castor attempted murder in connection with drugging ashley wallace and forgery in connection with changes made to david castor's will stacy was not charged with murdering michael wallace although the circumstances of his death were used against her in court stacy was found guilty of all charges on february 5 2009 a month later she was sentenced to 25 years to life for the homicide of david castor 25 years in prison for attempting to kill ashley and one and a third to four years in prison for forgery stacy would have been eligible for parole on june 15 2055 at age 87 but she was found dead in her cell on june 11 2016 the cause of death was myocardial infarction no foul play was suspected stacy caster was 48 years old now moving to my analysis was stacy caster actually guilty let's look at the factors both for and against the idea that she was guilty starting with the inculpatory factors both husbands of stacy castor died from antifreeze poisoning statistically this would be very unlikely this suggests one person was responsible for both deaths a person that had contact with both men it really narrows down the number of possible suspects there were life insurance policies on both michael wallace and david castor fifty thousand dollars from michael wallace and forty two thousand dollars from david castor stacy forged david castor's will to exclude his son from a previous marriage stacy also received money from the estates like savings and retirement and things like that ashley testified that her mother convinced her to drink on the two nights before ashley was hospitalized as far as the note found next to ashley it was written on a computer anyone with access to the computer could have typed it this seems convenient given the circumstances many notes of that nature would be hand written an examination of the computer revealed that several drafts of the note had been written when ashley was in school ashley's fingerprints were not on the note however it did contain stacy's fingerprints in one of the phone conversations recorded by investigators stacy is on the phone with a friend typing sounds can be heard in the background the note was 700 words long and the content really didn't seem to match what a teenager would write the note was really about confessing to the crimes and apologizing to stacy ashley was excited to have a boyfriend but her boyfriend was only mentioned once in that note there were details about how the crimes were committed it just doesn't make sense for this type of note it seems somewhat obvious that this was written by stacy in an attempt to frame ashley on september 7 2007 stacy castor was questioned by the police during the conversation detective asked her do you remember which glass it was that you poured the cranberry juice in stacy responded well when i poured the anti-free i and then she stopped and said i mean i mean the cranberry juice interestingly the note found next to ashley contained the word anti-free four times not anti-freeze but anti-free it would appear as though stacy did not even know how to pronounce the murder weapon during her trial when stacy was on the witness stand she said that she stopped herself before finishing the word she was trying to say anti-freeze in addition to not knowing how to spell anti-freeze the note contained no commas and only two periods it was like a massive run-on sentence whoever wrote the note had no empathy for what somebody reading a note would have to go through dealing with that grammar now moving to the exculpatory factors michael walsh showed favoritism toward brie as opposed to ashley this created an environment where ashley was envious of her sister and not pleased with her father ashley didn't always get along with her stepfather either ashley had attempted to bring an end to her life on two occasions prior to september 14 2007. in theory michael and david could have technically brought an end to their own lives their deaths did not have to be homicides with all this in mind was stacy caster guilty i think that she was guilty in reality and guilty beyond a reasonable doubt there is some doubt in this case but it doesn't rise to level of reasonable to me the really convincing evidence is the fact that she was the only one that could have typed those drafts of the note and it seems clear that whoever wrote that note was responsible for the murder of david castor the case of stacey caster is particularly troubling because of the cold and callous nature of her crimes she was not being harmed by michael wallace or david castor this was not self-defense it wasn't like they were fighting all the time and things got out of control this was not a crime of passion stacey caster simply wanted their money she was able to get away with the first murder if she had never committed another crime no one would have ever questioned how mike wallace died there would have been no investigation for whatever reason she did not have his body cremated she was so confident that she would escape consequences she didn't even bother destroying the evidence of her crime furthermore after being with david castor for only about two years she decides to kill him using the same method this really shows a lack of empathy in many ways not only through her attitude toward the victim but her understanding of how others would perceive her she forgot about the human component she forgot that people would seriously question what happened she also made several mistakes in planning and executing the crime she was trying to be careful but she just wasn't good at executing the crime when stacey realized that the police were closing in she attempted to kill ashley with vodka and other drugs this really shows the level of stacy's coldness she was willing to kill her own daughter to frame her for two murders so she would trade her daughter's life for her own freedom to stacy caster people were simply objects it didn't matter how close they were to her didn't matter if they were her children people were just pieces that she would move around in a game they did not have any particular special value there was no genuine attachment many have speculated that stacy was psychopathic this seems likely but of course we don't know for sure she did appear to be cold manipulating deceptive she had no remorse and she was irresponsible one thing i find interesting about stacy castor is that she did not seem to have a number of other cluster b personality features psychopathy is related to antisocial personality disorder that disorder is in the same cluster as narcissistic borderline and histrionic personality disorders women who kill with poison tend to have characteristics from several of those categories not just one for example audrey marie hilly a killer who used arsenic appeared to have a number of histrionic personality features she was sexually seductive wanted to be the center of attention and was dramatic and theatrical jessica wongso a killer who used cyanide appeared to be narcissistic she was envious of her victim and disrespectful to the court stacey caster was described as not having normal emotions like under-reacting to lethal situations but she wasn't considered particularly arrogant condescending attention seeking dramatic or anything like that it would appear that her level of psychopathy was high but that was the only characteristic in the cluster b personality features that was pronounced moving to my final thoughts it is ironic that someone so cold would select antifreeze as a murder weapon ultimately her mispronounced version anti-free would be an accurate portrayal of how stacy caster would spend her final years those are my thoughts in the case of stacy castor please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 21 2021