The Crime Scene
In April 2004, Deputy General Director of Engineering of a company called «Cartorus Mechanism», 34-year-old Samuel Collins, was admitted to one of the Denver hospitals. Three other employees of the company were admitted after him. All four had the same symptoms of severe poisoning. The examination confirmed that they had been poisoned with ricin. Ricin is a toxic substance of natural origin, which is found in castor beans. According to Kaszeta (2018), ricin is a by-product of the manufacture of the beans, and its high content can be found in the mash leftover after their processing. Bioterrorism Agent Fact Sheet points out that ricin poisoning can kill – however, it not always does. Symptoms and signs of poisoning vary in accordance with the dose and the route of exposure. The digestion of ricin through food or water can affect liver and kidneys and cause vomiting alongside with diarrhea. If the dose is high enough, death can occur within three days. Having one milligram of ingested ricin can be fatal to an adult.
The Crime & Crime Investigation
Forensics showed ricin in the biological samples provided. All four patients were reported to have it, and the results were sent to law enforcement. Samuel Collins was, curiously enough, hit by poison more severely than his colleagues. After having contemplated several inferences of non-criminal nature, which were not confirmed, the Prosecutor’s Office launched a criminal case under the «attempted murder» article. Various versions of events were being put forward: some type of conflict within the group of colleagues, competitors’ schemings, a criminal gangs’ ordering. After all, «Cartorus Mechanism» was a successful company and anything could have happened. Nevertheless, after examining the case file and analyzing the developments, law enforcement officials determined that Collins was the primary goal — he had been targeted twice. It was also revealed that the mass poisoning occurred during Samuel’s little birthday luncheon at the company’s office: someone mixed poison into sugar. All things considered, the poisoner could only have been one of his colleagues. The person who might have had the reasoning behind getting rid of Collins was yet to be found.
The circumstances of Collins’ first poisoning with identical symptoms started being examined – four months before this incident, he had already been admitted to hospital with an unidentified infection. This occurred after his return from vacation in South America. One of his colleagues, Jared Hansen, was most disturbed by the General Deputy Director’s condition, as they had a friendly relationship. He often visited Samuel in the hospital, sat beside him and spoke about his wellbeing at the office. In one of these conversations, he shared with others a tragic story that had occurred in his life several years earlier: his wife Joanna, also returning from a trip abroad, suddenly came down with the same symptoms as Collins, and died a few days later. Luckily, Samuel was able to recover, but the diagnosis was not made either. Everyone assumed it was just a food poisoning on a vacation, albeit an unconventional one. Collins himself allowed it.
At this moment the investigators began to look more closely, and they discovered that just after the trip, Collins invited two colleagues to his place to tell them some stories and show the memorabilia he had brought from abroad. Jared Hansen was one of the guests. Earlier, he was sharing at the office how good of a cook he was, and upon learning of Samuel’s addiction to pasta carbonara, he promised to surprise his friend with brilliant cooking skills. Jared kept his promise that day and brought pasta to the gathering at Collins’ place. The next day, Collins ended up in the hospital. This is where special attention started being paid to Hansen.
The Criminal and His Psyche
During a survey of «Cartorus Mechanism» employees, one of them recalled Jared telling about the death of his wife. The investigators decided to look into this as well. Joanna Hansen’s medical history was pulled from the hospital where she was being treated; it described the same symptoms that Collins had: severe vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea. Mrs. Hansen died in 2001, but no autopsy was conducted: it was her husband’s wish.
After a thorough discussion, the police decided to exhume the body and examine it. The procedure was conducted in secret in order not to frighten off the alleged perpetrator and prevent him from taking any action. Tissue samples from the corpse were taken, alongside with the ground on all sides of the grave and below – to rule out a source of substance from outside, which could have entered the coffin. Everything was packed and sent for analysis along with the body. The suspicions were corroborated by an expert opinion: the woman had traces of ricin in her system. According to the lab, the amount of toxin in the deceased Mrs. Hansen’s body was 100 times the lethal dose. She had no chance of surviving.
There were no more doubts of Mr. Hansen’s guilt. He was decided to be detained and a permit to search his house was to be issued. The accused vehemently denied involvement in the crimes with which he was charged. During the searches of Jared Hansen’s apartment, the investigators came across documents on movable and immovable property, which had previously belonged entirely to the deceased wife – and now to her widower. The police reasonably considered it to be the motive. Additionally, they knew that there was supposed to be a large amount of gold jewelry belonging to Joanna. However, nothing was found in Hansen’s apartment, which he explained by having put all the gold in the coffin of his beloved wife. Granted, he did not know the body had been exhumed, and of course there was nothing but a little chain with a cross around the wife’s neck and a cheap ring.
Besides, a diary of Mr. Hansen’s new young wife, Irene Watson, was found. There she retells presenting Jared with a challenge: Hansen, who was still married at the time, had to choose between Joanna and Irene. On the next pages she describes Joanna’s mysterious death. Irene probably had her suspicions, but was too scared to ask her husband about anything. The main goal, however, was to find ricin. The police had no idea what it looked like – it could have been powder, liquid, or something else. There were not even any samples and they did not know where so start.
Meanwhile, a closer look was being taken at the identity and biography of Jared Hansen. Possessing two degrees, high intelligence, and charisma, he was very ambitious and narcissistic. Money was a priority for him. Wherever he worked, conflicts with colleagues over finances would arise. He began an affair with young Irene Watson when he was still married to Joanna. Hansen arranged for the young woman to be his personal secretary at the previous job so that she would always be there. From that moment on, the lovers could not be separated. However, the man took his time to divorce his wife – until Watson claimed that she would wait no more. Johanna Hansen died shortly after, and then Jared’s mistress moved into a new apartment in an elite building. Soon after, the couple got married and the apartment became Hansen’s property, passing to him from his late wife by inheritance.
The newlyweds spent their honeymoon in Hawaii, and upon his return Hansen immediately took up employment in «Cartorus Mechanism». He was a fascinating person – communicative and sincere, so he immediately found an approach to the other employees at the office. And he got close to Samuel Collins. Hansen told a new friend that he had a firm abroad with a very promising future and offered to become a co-founder. To do this, Collins had to invest an impressive amount of money – $700,000. Collins decided to take a risk by lending it to a new business partner.
Obviously, Hansen wasn’t going to pay Collins back. After a while, Samuel started asking Jared how the business was going – how their firm was developing. Apparently, he felt that he was being deceived and started demanding money. And that’s when the first poisoning happened. Luckily, Collins pulled through. Upon returning to work, he started asking Hansen questions again. The investigators thought it to be the motive – but it was no hard evidence yet. They started collecting data on everyone who has ever been considered even so much as an acquaintance of Hansen’s. A particularly interesting witness was found – one of Jared’s subordinates told a rather peculiar story. They were drinking together once, when his boss bragged that he had some pills in his pocket that could solve certain problems. He allegedly indicated that there was an easy way to become one of the principals of the company – all with the help of some “magic potion”. Both men were drunk, but the Hansen’s interlocutor remembered it nevertheless, though it seemed to him nothing more than alcohol-induced nonsense at the time.
Evidence was being gathered bit by bit. It looked like all the pieces of the puzzle were present – the motive, the suspect, the victims – but there was no weapon. Hansen’s apartment was thoroughly searched again, and this time – successfully: in a briefcase, with which Hansen never parted, and in the inside pocket of his jacket, the policemen found traces of some powder. Forensics showed that it contained ricin.
The Resolution of the Crime
The murderer’s life was being looked at again in detail: his hobbies, his kinship ties, his previous jobs. The police found out he used to work as a foreman at a chemical plant. Although Hansen had spent there several years before the events took place, he was remembered and described by his ex-colleagues as a literate, intelligent, capable, hard-working professional. It has been figured out that a knowledgeable person would have no trouble synthesizing ricin in a laboratory.
The riddle was solved. It became clear that Hansen, after killing his wife and getting away with it, decided to eliminate those who stood in his way in the same manner. Without leaving a trace. Without arousing suspicion. He might have succeeded, since these cases are not the only crimes Jared Hansen was suspected of. As it was later found out, he happened to have had a troubled story with a business partner from Mexico. Mexicans came to Denver to build some sort of an establishment – Hansen and them had this common project in mind, but, apparently, at some point Jared thought he was being deceived financially. After some time, when Mexicans returned back home, one of them exhibited the same symptoms as the deceased Joanna Hansen and Samuel Collins – and a few days later he died. However, when the police approached their Mexican colleagues in order to find out more, they were told that the body was cremated and there was nothing that could be done to help.
It turned out that Hansen has also had acquaintances with whom he had a tense relationship or quarreled a lot. They too at one point developed the same exact symptoms: extreme vomiting and diarrhea, and were hospitalized but survived. Perhaps, the dose was small enough – or, perhaps, it was just luck. This was the way that Hansen took revenge on rivals and enemies. Despite the reinforced concrete evidence base, Jared Hansen did not plead guilty neither to the murder of his wife, nor to the double attempted murder of Samuel Collins, nor to the infliction of grievous bodily harm on the employees of «Cartorus Mechanism». The court sentenced him to the maximum penalty for these crimes – 40 years’ imprisonment in a high-security labor camp.
References
Bioterrorism agent fact sheet: Ricin. (n.d.).
Kaszeta, D. (2018). Use of ricin: Is this amateur hour?Bellingcat.