Death by deception

Boston, Massachusettes, home to the Bean and the Cod, was also home to Julie and James Keown from Missouri and as of January 2004. After nearly 8 years of marriage it was almost as though they were starting over.

James would be throwing himself into studies at the elite of elites, Harvard Business School, while still telecommuting via laptop to his old job back in Kansas City. His employer thought it was a win-win situation.

Tammie Blossom, James Keown's boss: Things were clipping along and moving along. And we thought things were just fine.

The Keowns rented half of a two-family house in the Boston suburbs. Like James, Julie had a job that let her work out of the home by computer. Friends and family in Missouri were hearing only good things about the couple’s excellent adventure back East.

Dennis Murphy, Dateline correspondent: So he’s telling about attending lectures, going to courses, hitting the books, meeting lots of people.

Mike Webb, friend: Right.

Murphy: Everything is going up, up, up, up.

Webb:  It’s great. Everything’s great.

But a few months later, by June of 2004, it wasn’t so great. Julie was feeling unwell, chronically draggy. More disturbing: It wasn’t clear just what her problem was.

When James’ mother Betty Keown came out for a visit that July, Julie had taken to bed.

Betty Keown, James’ mother: She was not feeling well. As a matter of fact, when we were there, she was upstairs a lot laying down.

She rallied a bit after that, enough at least for James and Julie to take a vacation in North Carolina with their dear friends from college days, Mike and Stephany Webb. It was August and Julie had talked about her recent illness.

Stephany Webb:  And her electrolyte count was off. James had been pushing Gatorade to get her electrolytes back in balance.

Mike Webb:  Keep her rehydrated.

But the Webbs noticed that the glass half-full in all the months of a puzzling illness was that James and Julie seemed closer than ever.

Stephany Webb:  In fact we commented that he was very loving. He got her drinks, cuddled with her...

Mike Webb:  He was much more attentive to her needs minute by minute than I’d ever seen him.

But all of James’ TLC wasn’t making his wife well. A few weeks later, after the couple had returned to Boston, the nurturing husband placed another call back home to Missouri...  a disturbing one to his in-laws. Julie’s dad Jack Oldag picked up the phone.

Jack Oldag, Julie's mother: I got a call, I think it was a Friday night. And that Julie went to the hospital and her speech was slurred and her motor skills were out of whack.

Days later the doctors still weren’t sure why Julie had become so ill so suddenly. But this time doctors did diagnose something wrong with her. Tests revealed one of Julie’s kidneys was smaller and scarred. She had lost almost half of her normal kidney function.

Murphy: That’s shocking news for a young lady.

Nancy Oldag, Julie's mother: Yeah, she was very upset.

Murphy: Was she talking about having a family or planning a family and—

Nancy Oldag: They told us that they had been trying to have children. We weren’t aware of it before.

During that late August visit to Boston, Nancy was relieved to see the color coming back into her daughter’s cheeks and she was pleased to note her son-in-law James giving Julie so much tender attention.

James took his in-laws sightseeing, on a tour of Harvard Square and on a road trip to Maine. Julie recalled while they were driving how the doctors at the hospital had asked her just the most absurd question. Was her husband poisoning her? And the doctors were serious.

Nancy Oldag: And then she tapped James on the shoulder and said, “Isn’t that right, James?” And he says, “Yeah.” And he says, “I was really getting annoyed at them because they kept bringing that up.”

By the time they left at the end of August, the Oldags were feeling better about Julie. She was already searching the Internet for information on how to get pregnant while battling kidney disease. And she was e-mailing friends with nothing but praise for James for taking such good care of her while working and going to school full-time.

And then, a few days later, Saturday morning, September 4th, Julie Keown’s mysterious malady came roaring back. A kidney doctor later testified that James Keown had called her explaining Kulie’s latest symptoms: garbled speech, confusion, difficulty walking. The doctor advised Keown to get his wife to an emergency room right away. Roughly ten hours later, he walked with Julie into an ER. Two hours after that, she had lapsed into a coma.

Her parents in Missouri got the news, flew back to Boston and headed straight for the hospital. This time the doctors examining Julie came up with an even sharper diagnosis. Yes, they said, Julie did have a chronic kidney disease, but it wasn’t the reason the young woman was deathly ill. She’d been poisoned with ethylene glycol – otherwise known as antifreeze.

Nancy Oldag: How did this happen?

Murphy: A doctor is telling you she’s been poisoned.

Nancy Oldag: Yes.

Murphy: Whether she did it herself or by someone else you don’t know, but she’s been poisoned. That’s why she’s in desperate straits in the hospital.

Jack Oldag: And they suspected that she’d been getting this all along.

Nancy Oldag: Uh-huh (affirm), for over a long period of time.

Video   Death by antifreeze? WEB ONLY: Julie Keown's parents explain doctors' suggestion that Julie was poisoned with antifreeze, and when they started to distrust their son-in-law. Dateline NBC

The doctors explained that Julie’s kidneys were shutting down, being blocked by tiny crystals manufactured from the antifreeze. The diagnosis explained her months of illness, nausea, and slurred speech.

Doctors administered the antidote but it was too late to flush out her kidneys. She was going into irreversible decline, kept alive only by machines. James’ mother Betty Keown watched her daughter-in-law fading.

Betty Keown: I just thought she’d be okay. And then her body would jerk. And I thought, “Ah, she’s coming around. She’s gonna be okay.” And that wasn’t to be.

It was too late: The poison had taken her. As their 31-year-old daughter lay dying, the Oldags walked out of the hospital and hailed a cab to the local police station.

They wanted detectives there to help them answer two questions: How could a car additive like antifreeze wind up in their daughter’s system—and who on earth could have put it there?

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