282. The Nicotine Poisoner

In this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the baffling death of Linda Curry, a case that began with quiet tragedy but spiraled into one of Orange County’s most perplexing investigations. Links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/charmed-to-death/crime-news/paul-curry-poisoned-wife-linda-kinkade-cold-case-solved Unilad.com - https://www.unilad.com/news/crime/jeopardy-paul-curry-linda-kinkade-murder-124276-20240419 CJOnline.com - https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/local/2010/11/09/salina-official-arrested-for-murder/16483870007/ TheSun.com - https://www.the-sun.com/news/8575383/jeopardy-champion-paul-curry-murder-wife-linda-kinkade/ CrimeOnline.com - https://www.crimeonline.com/tag/paul-curry-and-linda-kinkade/ TheCinemaholic.com - https://thecinemaholic.com/paul-curry-where-is-linda-currys-ex-husband-now/ Grunge.com - https://www.grunge.com/493987/the-truth-about-the-jeopardy-winner-who-murdered-his-wife/ Cracked.com - https://www.cracked.com/article_37594_four-notorious-killers-who-were-contestants-on-game-shows.html CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/timeline-investigating-the-death-of-linda-curry/ Express. Co. Uk - https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/2028586/killers-who-found-fame-game-show ABCNews.go.com - https://abcnews.go.com/US/greed-motivated-man-poison-wife-nicotine-prosecutor/story?id=25401598 ABC7.com - https://abc7.com/man-accused-of-poisoning-wife-husband-poisons-nicotine-paul-curry/395659/ CaseLaw. FindLaw.com - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/1636690.html World Health Organization - https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco#:~:text=Key%20facts,%2D%20and%20middle%2Dincome%20countries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Whoever says saving money is hard doesn't know that new customers who bundle and save with Progressive save hundreds because switching your home and auto insurance is better than cutting down on the things you love, like those ice lattes that help you get ready to face the day. So switch your home and auto to Progressive and see if you could save and keep sipping away. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers, not available in all states.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  This year, set up your holiday gifting with a little extra magic. The perfect shoes from Designer Shoe Warehouse. DSW's got holiday gifts and stocking stuffers for everyone on your list. And tis the season for a little self gifting, too. Whether you bake all day, dance all night, carol all over town, or tiptoe under the mistletoe, DSW is your Designer Shoe Wonderland for comfy slippers, joyful party shoes, statement boots, and more. Shop in store or visit DSW.com. DSW, let us surprise you.

• 0:57Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland.

• 1:04Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 1:05Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 1:06Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband.

• 1:08Payton Moreland?

  Are we ever gonna do that and then not have a break after?

• 1:12Garrett Moreland?

  What if we said, and I'm the husband, and this is the last episode of Murder with My Husband we are doing?

• 1:18Payton Moreland?

  Because we won the lottery!

• 1:20Garrett Moreland?

  We won the lottery. I won, and I am sharing with all of you. Send me an email, send me a DM on Instagram, and I will share with you. Unless you've been mean, I will look up to make sure you've never said anything mean to me my entire life. But if you've been nice, you are all getting $10,000. What, is that too much?

• 1:39Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 1:40Garrett Moreland?

  Nah, I like, I love my listeners.

• 1:42Payton Moreland?

  Okay.

• 1:42Garrett Moreland?

  10 grand.

• 1:43Payton Moreland?

  Of Garrett's portion.

• 1:45Garrett Moreland?

  Of my portion? That's insane.

• 1:49Payton Moreland?

  It's a dog-eat-dog world.

• 1:51Garrett Moreland?

  Reminder, I got a lot of DMs and emails and questions recently about our bonus content. You can subscribe on Apple, you can subscribe on Patreon or Spotify. If you subscribe on Spotify, it's not Spotify premium. That's out of our control. So I'm sorry. Those are two different things, but if you subscribe on Spotify, you get our bonus episodes and all of our ad free content, same thing on Apple subscriptions. Just wanted to remind everyone, if you have any questions, shoot us an email or shoot me a DM and I can help you out. That's, I think, all we have as far as announcements.

• 2:30Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 2:31Garrett Moreland?

  Thank you to everyone who was concerned about my head. I've, I thought I mentioned it, but maybe I was being confusing. I did do an MRA and a MRI and an MRA and they did.

• 2:49Garrett Moreland?

  They've already told me what's there. They said it's fine, that everything's okay. The cyst is good to go. I'm actually getting, actually I was supposed to do another MRI today and I forgot and I went to pickleball instead. So I need to reschedule and probably going to reschedule for Monday, the day this episode comes out. I'm going to do another MRI just to make sure nothing's growing. Everything's good to go, but I honestly appreciate everyone's messages and advice and thoughts and concerns. I love it. So thank you. That can kind of be my 10 seconds. I don't really have anything new besides that. I, yes, I do. Pause. If you are a bagel chef or you know how to make bagels and you think your bagels are the best bagels ever,

• 3:33Garrett Moreland?

  or if you're looking to help me with making the best bagel ever, please shoot me a message. My dream is to open a bagel shop. I've been getting a little more serious about it. I've been doing a lot of research. I've made bagels before. I love bagels. I'm obsessed, but all the bagels in Utah, they suck. I've heard there's a couple of places, maybe up north, way too far for me. All the places close to us, the bagels suck. I'm looking to open the best bagel shop in all of Utah. In all the world, to be honest, I know it's gonna be hard to compete with New York

• 4:07Garrett Moreland?

  or anywhere on the East Coast in general. But please message me. I'm looking to pay someone to help me with recipes to, if you live in Utah and you make bagels, even better. That's it. That's all I got. Don't want to make this too long. So let's hop into this week's episode.

• 4:24Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are oxygen.com, unilad.com, CJonline.com, thesun.com, crimeonline.com, thecinemaholic.com, grunge.com, cracked.com, cbsnews.com, express.co.uk, abcnews.co.com, abc7.com, caselaw.findlaw.com, and World Health Organization. All right, guys, trends come and go. Bell bottom jeans, Pokemon, flip phones. But if there's one trend that I'm happy about disappearing and never coming back, it's probably smoking cigarettes. Now thankfully, we're no longer being told that smoking is sexy and cool and for the bad, boys and girls. Cause the truth is out there.

• 5:05Payton Moreland?

  Cigarettes kill both users and those who live in close proximity to one. But that doesn't mean that cigarette smokers have gone extinct completely. Eight million people still die each year from smoking and secondhand smoke. And the reason some people just can't kick the habit is because of a little stimulant added to cigarettes called nicotine. That poisonous little chemical on its own isn't enough to kill someone, but it definitely keeps them coming back for more. Unless you have it in extremely high doses, which honestly is why if you want to get

• 5:50Payton Moreland?

  rid of someone bad enough and you're looking for a way to get away with it, nicotine can actually make for the perfect murder weapon. Let's head now to San Clemente, California, where in the late 80s, a 45-year-old woman named Linda Kincaid is working at a Southern California Edison power plant. Now Linda has been working at this power plant for years. She started at the bottom as a secretary and worked her way up to a manager position, before becoming the top training coordinator at the plant.

• 6:29Payton Moreland?

  And according to everyone, she was easily the most fashionable, kindest go-getter that worked there. Linda always showed up for work dressed in the trendiest outfits. She worked hard for her money and she liked to spend it on nice, expensive things. She was always planning her next big vacation and seemed to always be partnered up with a new attractive man.

• 6:57Payton Moreland?

  Now throughout her time working at the power plant, Linda had been married and divorced twice and then dating an on-again, off-again boyfriend named Bill. This is before meeting another coworker in March of 1989. And this coworker is one she fell head over heels for. A 32-year-old nuclear engineer named Paul Curry.

• 7:24Garrett Moreland?

  Fun fact, um, majority of affairs actually start at,

• 7:31Garrett Moreland?

  like your work. Just thought I'd throw that in. I don't know if we're going, I don't know if going towards an affair. I'm just saying.

• 7:38Payton Moreland?

  Well, she was kind of on and off dating Bill. So I think then moving on to Paul, I don't know if she's considering it an affair or if there was overlapping time. But either way, Linda really had it figured out at this point. She had been working at the plant for 27 years. She had been single for some time. She bought herself a big, beautiful house in the San Clemente area, but there was something about Paul Curry, despite him being 13 years younger than her, that Linda just couldn't resist. He was charming. He had a pretty good reputation around the office. The only real complaint anyone had about Paul

• 8:19Payton Moreland?

  was that he was maybe a little too smart for his own good. So smart that Paul had actually been on Jeopardy not once, but three times.

• 8:29Garrett Moreland?

  Whoa, that's amazing.

• 8:30Payton Moreland?

  Before meeting Linda. Now, over the first two episodes, he won a total of $24,000. But on his third appearance, Paul was stuck on one of the final questions I'm gonna ask you.

• 8:45Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, yeah, yeah. This is good. I want to hear this.

• 8:47Payton Moreland?

  Though his second administration was scandal ridden, he was almost nominated for a third term four years later.

• 8:57Garrett Moreland?

  Say the question again. Repeat, please.

• 8:59Payton Moreland?

  Though his second administration was scandal ridden, he was almost nominated for a third term four years later.

• 9:07Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 9:12Garrett Moreland?

  Wait, give me a second.

• 9:13Payton Moreland?

  It has nothing to do with Monica Lewinsky.

• 9:16Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, thank you. I know that.

• 9:18Payton Moreland?

  You're welcome.

• 9:19Garrett Moreland?

  Who is, this is probably wrong, Ronald Reagan?

• 9:25Payton Moreland?

  No.

• 9:27Garrett Moreland?

  I don't know.

• 9:27Payton Moreland?

  Why did you act like you knew this?

• 9:30Garrett Moreland?

  What do you mean? I'm on Jeopardy. I gotta be a little confident. Wait, wait, can I get one more guess?

• 9:36Payton Moreland?

  Do you want me to tell you what Paul wrote down?

• 9:39Garrett Moreland?

  Yes.

• 9:39Payton Moreland?

  He wrote down Andrew Jackson, and that is wrong.

• 9:43Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, well, I guess I'm a little confused because the third term thing's confusing me because I said Ronald Reagan, but that wasn't even, that wasn't possible as well. So honestly, I have no idea.

• 9:52Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, I think you're gonna get a little bit of crap for that answer.

• 9:56Garrett Moreland?

  Well, I know, but I'm explaining why I said it because I didn't know what else to say, and you can't do three terms. So I honestly have no.

• 10:04Payton Moreland?

  I mean. Yeah, well, he died.

• 10:08Garrett Moreland?

  Well, yes. Yeah, thank you. I mean, this is obviously a long time ago.

• 10:11Payton Moreland?

  He literally couldn't do three terms.

• 10:13Garrett Moreland?

  So I don't know who it could have been.

• 10:16Payton Moreland?

  Okay, the correct answer was Ulysses S. Grant.

• 10:19Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, yeah. See, I that was gonna be my next guess.

• 10:21Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, therefore ending Paul's reign on Jeopardy. Now, what Paul did win that episode was a color TV and a lot of bragging rights. In fact, it might have been those bragging rights that had a few people almost turned off by Paul. Some said he was prone to talk over people, to be a little bit condescending at times, maybe even a bit full of himself. But if Linda saw that side of him, she wasn't put off by it. Instead, it seemed to draw her closer to Paul. Because on September 12, 1992, three years after they started dating, Paul and Linda actually ran off to Las Vegas to tie the knot.

• 11:02Payton Moreland?

  He moved into Linda's beautiful, big home, and even though the couple lived together, worked together, and were now married to one another, they still seemed to spend all of their free time together, too. And a lot of people who knew Paul said he was a really great doting husband. The kind of guy who would cook his wife dinner, creating his own salad dressings with herbs and vegetables from their own garden. There was just one little thing that made people question the type of marriage Paul and Linda had. And that was the fact that Linda and Paul were actually never having sex. Their marriage seemed to be a purely platonic relationship.

• 11:46Garrett Moreland?

  How did they know this? Like, did they go around parading that they didn't have sex?

• 11:50Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 11:50Garrett Moreland?

  That seems a little weird.

• 11:51Payton Moreland?

  Linda told her friends that Paul was never even interested in consummating their marriage.

• 11:55Garrett Moreland?

  Oh.

• 11:56Payton Moreland?

  But for Linda-

• 11:57Garrett Moreland?

  Wait, so they've never had sex?

• 11:59Payton Moreland?

  Yes. But for Linda, it seemed that mental stimulation was enough. She liked being intellectually challenged by Paul. They had deep, meaningful conversations that were seemingly more important to her than any sort of sex. And it's because of that that the relationship worked for both of them. Like, the intimacy was still there in ways. Paul would tell Linda he loved her. He would take care of her when she was sick. He would draw these big, lavish bubble baths for her, pamper her in ways she'd never been pampered. One time, after an argument between the two, he even booked them a three-day cruise as an apology. But what was supposed to be this, you know, apologetic getaway ended up being the beginning of a pretty complicated year.

• 12:43Garrett Moreland?

  Interesting, okay.

• 12:44Payton Moreland?

  So it was around the end of June 1993, when the couple boarded that cruise ship for their adventure. But that trip went sideways quickly when a bunch of passengers came down with something called Hantavirus. It's a condition that comes from rats and can lead to flu-like symptoms that can be deadly. Now, unfortunately for Paul and Linda, they were two of the passengers on the ship who got sick. Now thankfully, days after that trip, Paul and Linda's health improved. But then, just a few days after that, Linda found herself back in the hospital in July. It seemed like the condition had come back with a vengeance.

• 13:27Payton Moreland?

  When Linda's friends went to visit her in the hospital, they said it looked like Linda was near death, that she had appeared to age 40 years. She had lost 25 pounds, doctors said her organs were failing. The problem was, they couldn't find any sign of the virus in her blood work anymore.

• 13:46Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 13:47Payton Moreland?

  They were pretty baffled about what could have been making Linda feel worse than before. So they began considering whether it was radiation poisoning from Linda's time at the power plant, but they ended up ruling that out too. Then, they started to wonder if all of this was just psychiatric. Was Linda suffering from some kind of Munchausen syndrome?

• 14:10Speaker 04

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• 14:37Payton Moreland?

  All right, guys, we are jumping into an ad. And if you are like me, protecting the people inside your home is a top priority. I have Daisy at home, I'm about to have a baby at home, and Garrett and me. And there are a lot of times where I've thought about our safety, but that is where Simply Safe comes in and has had my back honestly for years. Unlike traditional security systems that only alert you after a break in is already underway, Simply Safe is built to stop it before it starts, which is exactly what I'm looking for. I don't even want someone in my home. I want it stopped before the alarm has even gone off. Smart AI-powered cameras watch for potential threats and alert a live US-based

• 15:22Payton Moreland?

  security specialist, ready to intervene. The agent intervenes in under 30 seconds, speaking through the camera to stop an intruder in their tracks, calling for urgent 911 dispatch when it's needed most. And we've partnered with Simply Safe to offer our listeners their biggest savings of the year. 70% off your new system with professional monitoring. If you've been thinking about a security system, it is now 70% off, guys, when you visit simplysafe.com/husband. That is simplysafe.com/husband. And when you order, just write in murder with my husband at checkout. Tells them we sent you, really helps the show. Simply Safe, ahead of crime in real time. Nothing was really making sense to them.

• 16:05Payton Moreland?

  Linda was in the hospital for 21 days at this point.

• 16:08Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh, that is a really long time to be in the hospital.

• 16:11Payton Moreland?

  She was kind of hovering the line of life and death. She had suffered a stroke in the hospital. Then slowly but surely, Linda started to bounce back. Her symptoms died down and she was eventually discharged to go home. Now friends said that's when Paul really stepped it up. He appeared to be doting on her more than ever. Really doing whatever Linda needed was kind of at her beck and call. The illness actually seemed to bring the two of them closer together. That is until December of that year, when Linda's illness mysteriously returned.

• 16:48Payton Moreland?

  It was New Year's Eve, 1993, when Linda became violently ill again. Noticing that it was the same symptoms she had felt over the summer, severe vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, Linda wasted no time asking Paul to just rush her back to the hospital. And once again, her doctors were totally baffled. Nothing was coming up in her blood work. None of their theories made sense. Even Paul himself seemed totally rattled and confused by her illness. He spent countless hours at her bedside, taking care of her, tending to her every need. And he actually did seem really devastated over the fact that his wife, of only just a year, seemed to be at death's door again.

• 17:32Payton Moreland?

  But again, after several days, Linda bounced back. She slowly began to recover and was dispatched and told she could go home. Now, for the next six months, Linda resumed her life, though never really feeling back to 100%. Instead, this time, the condition seemed to be gradually taking a toll on her body. And on the morning of June 9th, 1994, Paul sent an email to one of Linda's friends. It was a woman named Mary Sebold. Now, Mary found it strange to be getting that email from Paul that day. She had never gotten an email from him before in her life. But the content of that message was even more worrisome.

• 18:16Payton Moreland?

  Paul emailed Linda's friend, Mary, and said that Linda was feeling worse than ever, that she was wobbly and incoherent, and he wanted to know if Mary would be able to come over and help. Now, apparently, Linda was feeling well enough to go to work that day, though, but she came home and went to bed almost immediately at 6:00 PM. However, around midnight that evening, Paul said he woke up to the sound of their cat in their bedroom. And when he looked over at Linda asleep in their bed, he realized she was no longer breathing. So Paul dialed 911 and paramedics rushed to the house right away, but it was already too late.

• 18:58Payton Moreland?

  Linda was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead in the very early hours of June 10th, 1994 at just 50 years old.

• 19:08Garrett Moreland?

  Man, I already know where this is going just because of what you explained at the beginning of the case. I won't say much, but I'm curious to see how this unfolds.

• 19:19Payton Moreland?

  So at the hospital, the doctors are like, so she finally just come to this illness. But there was one person at the hospital that felt there was something off about Linda's illness. A nurse named Sherry Bundy. Sherry had been treating Linda a lot through her many hospitalizations. And when she heard about Linda's death the following morning, her first thought was Paul finally did it. This nurse believed that Paul was the one who had been making Linda sick. And it turns out she wasn't the only one who thought this. Linda's friend, Mary Sebold, went and stayed at the couple's home for a bit after Linda first got sick back in 1993.

• 20:05Payton Moreland?

  She had a sneaking suspicion that Paul might have been mysteriously causing her friend's illness. And when she got a peek of what was hiding in their home, that suspicion only grew.

• 20:16Garrett Moreland?

  I wonder if anyone ever said anything to her as well.

• 20:18Payton Moreland?

  We'll get there.

• 20:19Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 20:19Payton Moreland?

  So Mary uncovered paperwork that showed Paul had been made the beneficiary in almost all of Linda's finances, which wasn't a total shock to Mary. Only a month after Linda and Paul tied the knot back in 1992, Linda called Mary to say that Paul had been pressuring her to make those changes on all of her paperwork right after getting married. The mortgage, the 401k, you name it. Paul even encouraged her to take out a new $1 million life insurance policy on herself. And then insisted that he didn't actually need one because he was 13 years younger than her. Remember, she was only in her mid 40s at this time. She was healthy when she married Paul. Luckily.

• 21:02Garrett Moreland?

  That's funny because you're actually supposed to get it as young as possible because that's when it's the cheapest.

• 21:06Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, like his would have even been cheaper.

• 21:07Garrett Moreland?

  Exactly.

• 21:08Payton Moreland?

  Luckily, Linda didn't listen. She didn't take out another life insurance policy. But that's because she already had a few totaling close to $1 million. And Paul did successfully convince her to make him the beneficiary on those accounts. But this was not the only red flag Mary found out regarding Linda and Paul's marriage. Remember how I mentioned Paul and Linda had gotten into an argument about something and that's why he even booked that three day cruise? But then they both got the virus on it. Well, the reason the two of them were even fighting was because a woman had called Linda's house looking for Paul.

• 21:48Payton Moreland?

  She was trying to find out when he would be sending his next child support treatment.

• 21:54Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 21:55Payton Moreland?

  That's when Linda learned Paul had been married not once, but twice before and had never told her. Imagine just like discovering this one day.

• 22:06Garrett Moreland?

  And we're also in a time period where you could, you could hide that stuff. It was a lot easier to hide that you were married. I mean, now with social media and I honestly even just searching people on the internet.

• 22:17Payton Moreland?

  It is harder.

• 22:18Garrett Moreland?

  You can't do that, but back then you totally could have.

• 22:22Payton Moreland?

  And not only did he not mention these two former marriages, he also didn't mention that he had three children.

• 22:28Garrett Moreland?

  Holy crap.

• 22:30Payton Moreland?

  From these former marriages.

• 22:32Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 22:33Payton Moreland?

  Of course, obviously, as we know, his solution was to just whisk Linda away on a three day vacation to make it better. But then, as we know, after that Linda began getting sicker and sicker and Mary just did not find the timing all that coincidental. In fact, once Linda was well enough, she encouraged her to move out of the home with Paul. Mary outright told Linda, honestly, I think he's doing this to you and I'm afraid Paul might actually kill you if you continue living with him.

• 23:05Garrett Moreland?

  Oh no, and I'm guessing she, I mean, I don't blame her because. Obviously it's not her fault and it's you never think your significant other is going to kill you. So I'm sure she was like, oh, it's okay and so forth.

• 23:17Payton Moreland?

  Here's the thing, Mary couldn't tell Linda why or how Paul was doing it. So that's the thing. She also didn't have like evidence, but she was certain the day would come when it would be too late to fix all of this. And she was right because Linda was so in love with Paul. She never took her friend's advice. Instead, she died at home in bed with Paul on June 9th, 1994.

• 23:39Garrett Moreland?

  That's so sad.

• 23:40Payton Moreland?

  And perhaps the most heartbreaking part of all of this, Linda might have been fully aware what was happening to her and that Paul was responsible and she still chose to forgive him and stay by his side. I say that because early on during one of Linda's hospital stays back in July, 1993, that nurse I mentioned before, Nurse Sherri Bundy, who had been treating Linda, this is when she first noticed something odd while checking her IV drip at the hospital. She saw the medication looked a little more cloudy than usual. So Sherri did the right thing and reported it to the hospital higher ups. They immediately switched out the bag

• 24:21Payton Moreland?

  and sent the cloudy one out for testing. And they found that a numbing agent had been infused in her IV drip and it was something called lidocaine. So they reported it to the police and detectives actually came to the hospital to speak with Linda around August, 1993 about what's going on. Now during this interview detectives flat out asked her, if somebody was trying to do something to you, they were trying to poison you, do you have any idea who that would be? This is what she says, quote, "Well, the only person I could think of that would even have a motive to do it would be Paul, my husband, and the only motive I can think of is money, but..."

• 25:04Payton Moreland?

  I don't want to really even believe that or think that. She tells them all about the life insurance policies, the pressure to change her financial paperwork, the secret past wives and children. She tells the police all of this very early on.

• 25:18Garrett Moreland?

  This is so interesting. It's like she knew, but didn't want to, I mean, like anyone, you don't want to admit it.

• 25:23Payton Moreland?

  Right. She tells the police, but I'm, I'm very much in love with Paul. I don't think he would do this.

• 25:28Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 25:29Payton Moreland?

  She doesn't press charges. She doesn't like insist the investigation go on. She starts to recover. She goes home, back to her life with Paul and the investigation kind of ends there. At least until New Year's Eve, when Linda finds herself back in the hospital. Now during that stay, a different nurse named Nancy Rowe was on duty tending to Linda. One afternoon, Paul was spending some time at her bedside, but moments after he left, Linda's alarm went off. Now, when Nancy went in to check on Linda, she found her IV port had been broken in a weird way that she felt looked intentional and not by Linda herself. So she reports it to the police.

• 26:10Payton Moreland?

  So she reports it and once again, police come back and get involved in Linda's health again.

• 26:18Garrett Moreland?

  It's interesting because hospitals also usually are pretty strict, you know, about like, getting into someone's room. Who are you? There's a lot of nurses, people are usually asking questions. Exactly. So even more, like the only person it could be is him.

• 26:32Payton Moreland?

  Right. So the police file this under potential tampering, but they don't do anything. The only real change was that the hospital staff actually decided to ban Paul Curry from going into the room because they were like, listen, like someone tampered with her stuff. So you're not allowed in. So Linda recovers and then goes back home with Paul. So it's safe to say that Linda has had plenty of warnings that there's a chance that Paul was trying to hurt her, but like Garrett has said, could not get herself to admit it. And it is understandable.

• 27:06Garrett Moreland?

  A hundred percent understandable. It's not her fault at all.

• 27:08Payton Moreland?

  So she goes home and that's when things turn deadly. While she didn't have any prolonged hospital visits, Linda wasn't recovering in the way she should have for a 49-year-old woman. And six months later, she was dead. So the medical examiner at this time said they couldn't find any proof that Linda was poisoned, which meant Paul was never investigated as a suspect in her death, despite the reports that had come out of the hospital. That also meant he was able to collect on Linda's already established life insurance policies and her 401k, which

• 27:43Payton Moreland?

  listed him as a beneficiary. He gained a total of $419,000 plus $564 a month from her retirement benefit. But something else was revealed about Paul shortly after Linda's death. Paul was transferred from the power plant he worked at with Linda to a new facility. And during a routine background check, which I guess the previous power plant just didn't do, the new employers found something interesting. They discover Paul was actually never a qualified engineer. He had never even gotten a college degree. He had faked it. He was a total fraud.

• 28:28Garrett Moreland?

  That's interesting you say that because I just saw a video of a cop that went to a home, pulled over a nurse, and she'd been a nurse for like multiple years.

• 28:41Payton Moreland?

  Oh, I saw this.

• 28:42Garrett Moreland?

  And she didn't even have a nursing license, nothing. She used someone else's.

• 28:47Payton Moreland?

  And had just been like literally working.

• 28:49Garrett Moreland?

  Yes.

• 28:50Payton Moreland?

  Yes, it's crazy. Hey guys, we are getting into an ad and if you're a pet parent like me, you know about Chewy. And when they say they have everything you need to keep your pet happy and healthy, they are not messing around. To keep them happy, Chewy has over 100,000 products from all the brands our pet loves at prices that I love. Food, treats, beds, you name it, they have it and it gets shipped directly to your door in one to two days, which is honestly just the best part. And also, it's not just for dogs and cats, birds, fish, reptiles and more. And to keep them healthy, Chewy offers pet prescriptions, pet insurance, telehealth vet visits, and is even rolling out vet clinics across the country.

• 29:33Payton Moreland?

  The other night Daisy had a little scare. This was a while ago, but Garrett actually got on Chewy and talked to someone who could help us determine whether we needed to bring her in or what our next steps was going to be, and it was so helpful. So for life with pets, there's Chewy. And right now, you can save $20 on your first order and get free shipping by going to chewpanions.chewy.com/murderwithmyhusband. Again, guys, money off. That's chewpanions.chewy.com/murderwithmyhusband to save $20 on your first order with free shipping. Chewpanions.chewy.com/murderwithmyhusband.

• 30:17Payton Moreland?

  Minimum purchase required. New customers only. Terms and conditions apply. See site for complete details. Alright guys, we are jumping into an ad and it is one of my favorites, Quince. If you've listened to the show at all, you know how much I love Quince. Quince is not just a clothing store, okay guys? They have quality everything at this point. I actually just ordered some skincare from Quince because here's the one thing about Quince. I love that they have kind of just excluded the middlemen and so they pass those savings on to you. So you're getting really good quality luxury pieces at a more affordable price. Again, like I just said, they have so much on there.

• 30:58Payton Moreland?

  I have shoes, I have bags, I have luggage, I have scarves. I just ordered skincare. I ordered some baby onesies and baby products from them. Honestly, They have everything. It's one of my favorite places to online shop. So if you like to browse like I do, go to Quince right now. Look around, check it out. I am promising you amazing quality. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com, get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And then guys, when Quince asks after checkout where you heard about them,

• 31:40Payton Moreland?

  please just let them know it was murder with my husband that sent you. Please don't skip that survey. Let them know. It's the best way to support the show. So um, the new employer is like, hey, you don't actually have a degree and he's like, yeah, you're right. I don't. Here's my resignation letter. Bye. He doesn't even try to fight it.

• 31:57Garrett Moreland?

  Cause he got all this money.

• 31:58Payton Moreland?

  Right. He's rich. He doesn't need a job. Instead, he let the house go into foreclosure. He bought himself a Cadillac and six months after her death, he started over with a new life in Nevada. With that, Linda's death went uninvestigated for years. It wasn't until 2002 that Sergeant Yvonne Shoal with the Orange County Sheriff's Department's Cold Case Unit started looking back and she realized, oh guys, I'm pretty sure we let a murderer walk free on this case. So Sergeant Shoal began by digging into Paul's background and saw there were a lot of things about this guy that were

• 32:39Payton Moreland?

  secrets and lies. For starters, she found that mere days after Linda had passed, Paul was busy calling their insurance company to say someone had actually stolen Linda's 18 karat gold Rolex and some other jewelry. She dies. He calls insurance and says, hey, someone stole this and he walks away from that with $9,000.

• 33:01Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 33:02Payton Moreland?

  It's just a completely unrelated thing, but that the motive was still money for and a lie.

• 33:07Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I think about that sometimes, which is funny. You brought that up because I literally was just thinking, not in a weird way, but I was like, if Peyton died, like if your significant other

• 33:17Payton Moreland?

  Please don't bury me.

• 33:18Garrett Moreland?

  No, listen, if your significant other dies, at what point do most people try to get insurance money? I guess is what I'm trying to say, right?

• 33:25Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, cuz if you notice, like, media outlets, and it's even what I report cuz I'm

• 33:30Garrett Moreland?

  Like, are you just not supposed, you just ignore it for as long as possible?

• 33:32Payton Moreland?

  They like always point it out. It's like, everyone immediately goes in to see how fast they collected life insurance.

• 33:38Garrett Moreland?

  So like, do you just now be like, okay, I'm gonna wait 60 days? Like, at what point do you actually collect on it?

• 33:43Payton Moreland?

  Obviously, him lying about the Rolex has nothing to do with, like, life insurance policy, but it just goes into the fact that, like, he got all this money from her and then lied after she died? Like, yeah, anyways, it is a good question.

• 33:58Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I don't know.

• 33:59Payton Moreland?

  I've heard people who literally wait

• 34:01Garrett Moreland?

  I hope I don't have to deal with it, so.

• 34:02Payton Moreland?

  I've heard of people who wait years because collecting it makes it feel final.

• 34:06Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that would make sense.

• 34:08Payton Moreland?

  And so they just, they can't get themselves to do it.

• 34:10Garrett Moreland?

  I was like, I feel like I'd be so sick to my stomach, it wouldn't even be on top of my mind.

• 34:14Payton Moreland?

  Right. But maybe other people need it to survive. You know what I mean?

• 34:17Garrett Moreland?

  True, that's a good point, yeah.

• 34:19Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, I can't, okay, I'm not even gonna think about that. But Shoal obviously found this a strange thing to do, especially before his wife's body had basically even run cold. This was just the tip of the iceberg, though. When Shoal tracked down those two mysterious ex-wives Paul Curry had, one of them had a pretty similar story to tell. Paul's second wife said there was a point in their marriage when she started to get sick too. That it began by her feeling dizzy, and then she lost all of her energy to the point where she couldn't even get out of bed. She also claimed that doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She said she felt like this for over a year of their marriage, and like Linda,

• 34:59Payton Moreland?

  Paul had also encouraged her to take out a life insurance policy. Luckily, this ex-wife refused to do so, but when she did, Paul just up and left her for Linda. Shol also went back and spoke to witnesses, friends and family who knew and interacted with Paul during his marriage to Linda, and one of them had something very interesting to say. They had overheard Paul talking to someone at a barbecue where he claimed that he thought he could kill someone without ever getting caught. This reminds me of Josh Powell because he talked to people about the best way to hide a body and then his wife went missing.

• 35:37Garrett Moreland?

  Peyton and I do a true crime podcast for our jobs and we never talk to people about this. That's just weird. If that ever comes up in a random conversation, we'll stay as far away as you can.

• 35:49Payton Moreland?

  Well, low key, you're kind of dumb because

• 35:51Garrett Moreland?

  insane.

• 35:51Payton Moreland?

  How it's, it's almost impossible to get away with it. Like, yes, it happens all the time, but if it's like someone you know, like your wife, it's gonna be pretty freaking hard to get away with it.

• 36:03Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 36:03Payton Moreland?

  He basically admitted at this barbecue, and this is where it gets even worse. He admits, oh, um, I could actually make a deadly poison in my garage. And then, um, if I administered to that someone, it would be really hard to detect. So when Sergeant Shol figures all of this out and looks back at Linda's autopsy, she notices that Linda's postmortem toxicology report came back positive for something that was a little interesting. Nicotine. But as Sergeant Shol discovers, Linda wasn't a smoker. Now, remember, the autopsy was done in 1994 and at this point it's 2002, 2003.

• 36:46Payton Moreland?

  So the technology of toxicology reports is a lot more advanced even now than it was nine years ago. And this time when Shol has Linda's samples reanalyzed, she finds that Linda had 50 to 100 times more nicotine in her system when she died than the average smoker would.

• 37:08Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 37:08Payton Moreland?

  And she also had a toxic amount of Ambien in her system as well. Here's the thing nicotine poisoning like this is really hard to pull off as a murder weapon. It needs to be ingested or injected and absorbed into the bloodstream. But Sho began to wonder, hearing how doting of a husband Paul was, cooking Linda these meals and homemade salad dressing.

• 37:33Garrett Moreland?

  You just slip it into some dressing and

• 37:35Payton Moreland?

  Very slowly over time. But when she consulted an expert, he's like, listen, there's no way something like this could kill her slowly. Sure, it would create symptoms like pain, nausea, and sweating, but in order for this to be a murder weapon, it had to be a huge dose and administered swiftly. So that's when Sho noticed something else on the autopsy report that seemed to be overlooked. There was a small mark behind Linda's ear that looked like a needle puncture. So she develops a theory. Paul had been experimenting with different poisons for some time. After the two got sick on the cruise, he was like, hey, I can kind of take advantage of this. And his first poison of choice was lidocaine, which is what he slipped into Linda's

• 38:19Payton Moreland?

  IV at the hospital. Now, when that didn't work and Linda recovered, he began slowly poisoning her with nicotine in her food. It was making her sick, but not sick enough to kill her. So on the night of June 9, he gave Linda a strong dose of Ambien, and then he injected her with a massive dose of nicotine, killing her within a half hour of administering it.

• 38:41Garrett Moreland?

  That's so sad.

• 38:43Payton Moreland?

  But where do you get all this nicotine? After consulting again with experts, Sho learned he only needed one pack of cigarettes to get the amount he needed. So I have no idea how you turn a pack of cigarettes into an injectable form, but police are pretty confident that this is what he did. So I will say, though, building this case against Paul happens really slowly. Sho knows her theory is nothing more than that, a theory. What she really needs is to get Paul Curry to confess. So finally, around 2010, she finds a way to get to this guy. She goes to Kansas where Paul's now living with a new wife, a new son, and a brand new job as a building inspector. She shows up at his house pretending to be a

• 39:27Payton Moreland?

  local police officer with questions. Alongside two actual local detectives, Shoal tells Paul that they are there to close out the final details of a death investigation regarding Linda Kincaid, his ex. I guess Shoal thought if she pretended to be from Kansas, Paul wouldn't think he was getting arrested, and seemingly she's right, because Paul admits to them, "Yeah, Linda is my ex-wife," and Shoal says to him, quote, "The night Linda passed away, you and Linda were alone, correct?" And Paul's like, "Yeah, that's right." So she goes on asking, "So there was no one else in the house with you that night?" And he's like, "Yes." Now, this might not sound like a smoking gun, but to Shoal, this admission is actually

• 40:09Payton Moreland?

  pretty strong, because it proves that he's admitting he was the only one who could have poisoned Linda, and because we know that poisoning in order to be fatal would have to happen pretty quickly, there's only one person with her that night, and he himself admits it, Paul Curry. So she confronts him about it right there. She says, "Did you poison your wife?" He's like, "No." Shoal now has what she needs, though, to finally arrest Paul Curry 16 years after Linda's murder. An admission that he was home alone with her when she died of fatal nicotine poisoning is enough. And when Paul's new wife, Teresa, visits him in jail the following day, he admits to her that the case against him isn't looking good. Unfortunately, it would take another four years to get him into court.

• 40:54Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh, it's annoying.

• 40:55Payton Moreland?

  Paul was charged with insurance fraud and murder in the first degree with special circumstances. And on September 11th, 2014, his trial begins, but it's not really an easy case to try. There were no syringes found in the home, no receipt for the nicotine or cigarettes purchased to kill Linda. I mean, this case is pretty circumstantial.

• 41:13Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, it's been so old, how are you gonna find all that?

• 41:15Payton Moreland?

  Paul's defense team argued that Linda was sick long before she met Paul, and she gave herself a nicotine enema, which is sometimes used to treat ulcerative colitis. But there was no evidence Linda had ever done this. Instead, everything pointed to Paul, the hospital staff testimony, the IV bags that had been tampered with, the injection site found behind Linda Curry's ear.

• 41:35Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I think there's enough circumstantial evidence that I think he gets charged.

• 41:41Payton Moreland?

  In 2014, Paul is found guilty of insurance fraud and murder in the first degree with special circumstances. But now, at 58 years old, Paul Curry was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

• 41:52Garrett Moreland?

  Good, good.

• 41:53Payton Moreland?

  But that still doesn't answer one huge question people had about the case, which was... If Lynda knew this was happening to her, why would she stay in the house with Paul? But I think the truth is, we never really know what's going on behind closed doors. Perhaps Lynda was loving and generous. She was blinded by that. And the fact that not everyone we let into our lives has pure motives. Sometimes the most evil people can be the ones living right beside us.

• 42:22Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, and I also don't think it's any different than sadly, any different than, you know, I mean, abuse victims, abuse victims, right? People who are in a relationship that's domestic violence. I mean, sometimes in relationships for five, 10, 20 years before they get out. I think it's, I mean, he could have been a very manipulative person. I think there's so much that could have happened that we just have no idea.

• 42:44Payton Moreland?

  Well, and I think it's also important to note that every source, every friend claims that Paul was a very doting husband. He was very loving. When she was sick, he was at her beck and call, like feeding her, taking care of her.

• 42:58Garrett Moreland?

  That can be very manipulative.

• 42:59Payton Moreland?

  Like, yeah, how do you look at him and feel this love from him and feel this like, I wouldn't be able to survive without you?

• 43:05Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, he's killing me.

• 43:06Payton Moreland?

  And then be like, but he's killing me.

• 43:07Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that's.

• 43:08Payton Moreland?

  That's really hard for your head.

• 43:09Garrett Moreland?

  Agreed.

• 43:10Payton Moreland?

  All right, you guys, that was our case this week, the case of Lynda Kincaid, and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 43:17Garrett Moreland?

  And I hate it.

• 43:18Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

• 43:28Speaker 05

  Great meeting. Who took notes? Anyone?

• 43:32Speaker 06

  With Monday Note Taker, the meeting ends and the plan already exists. Action items, owners, deadlines. Go to monday.com, the AI workspace platform.