via phone records, computer records, or something like that. andrea canning: for melvin's family, only partial justice has been served. ronnie roberts: i will not give up until we know everybody that was involved. and what that son of a bitch needs to understand is it's going to be a lot easier on them if they come forward instead of the police having to find them. david roberts: i always say, tick tock, clock's ticking. andrea canning: you're coming? we're coming. ronnie roberts: we sure is. david roberts: and we ain't giving up. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. . i'm craig melvin. and i'm natalie morales. and this is "dateline." thin a number of minutes. dizziness, confusion, weakness.

those are your clues. you're looking for anything that could possibly contribute to the person's death. one dose, a high enough dose, could do all of that. craig melvin: she found love at last with husband number three, the charming "jeopardy" champ. he belonged to mensa. mary siebold: younger guy, gourmet cook, nuclear physicist. i was impressed. craig melvin: then suddenly, she was gone, a mystery illness that baffled even her doctors. she shook like someone with the start of parkinson's. craig melvin: what had killed her? something at work? something at home? household items. that's a possibility. craig melvin: listen carefully. in this case, the most important clue of all just might come from the victim herself. could this be murder? that sounds like a very unpleasant way to die.

yes. craig melvin: and could she help solve it? you're describing kind of a murder in slow motion. yeah. elaborate, diabolical. it's mind-boggling. [theme music] hello, and welcome to "dateline." linda curry was thriving with a dream job and a dreamy new husband. then, she got sick, and doctors were stumped. but what started as a medical mystery soon took a sinister turn. a lab test revealed one piece of the puzzle, but it would take investigators years to put all the pieces together. here's josh mankiewicz with "toxic relations." [ominous music] josh mankiewicz: what was wrong with linda curry?

something's happening to you, linda. you're ingesting something that's in your body that shouldn't be there. josh mankiewicz: she went to the doctor. a lot of doctors. and it wouldn't go away. and it would get worse. nausea, vomiting, dizziness, confusion. josh mankiewicz: medicine didn't seem to help her. sabra botch-jones: you could have respiratory failure within a number of minutes. josh mankiewicz: those who knew linda watched something unfold. but what exactly did they see? it would take 20 years to unravel this mystery. linda curry, born linda kilgore, was six years younger than her sister, pat. linda grew up to be a southern california beauty. she loved the sunshine, horses, and family. pat's daughter, ricki rycraft, looked up to her aunt linda. ricki rycraft: she would call me over to her house to go raid her closets, and i would leave with my backseat loaded from the floor to the roof with clothes.

she sounds like a lot of fun. she was a lot of fun. she was a blast. josh mankiewicz: linda worked for the power company, southern california edison. that's where she met mary siebold. mary siebold: where we really met was on the fourth floor, where we would go for break or for lunch. she ate like a horse, and never gained an inch. [interposing voices] don't you hate people like that? totally. and it drew me to her. and then we became the best buds ever. josh mankiewicz: but looks, generosity, and brains don't guarantee happiness in love. linda was married twice, and divorced twice. ricki rycraft: she did choose guys that didn't seem to be a nice fit for the long term. and so she got her heart broken a couple of times. she got her heart broken i think more than a couple of times, yeah. josh mankiewicz: but if her personal life wasn't going well, her professional life was. she climbed the ranks at edison, becoming the training coordinator at the san onofre nuclear power plant.

and it was there that linda met a man named paul curry. he was 13 years younger than linda, and worked as a nuclear physicist. paul's boss, mike flower. paul had an impressive resume. yes, he did. and a good reputation. he had a senior reactor operator license. and that's not such an easy qualification to find. josh mankiewicz: and just a few months before linda and paul started dating, he'd won $24,000 on "jeopardy." so he's this younger guy. younger guy. he's a gourmet cook. gourmet cook. a pianist. he's in mensa. mensa member. josh mankiewicz: and he's a nuclear physicist. nuclear physicist. all the right things. josh mankiewicz: paul moved into linda's home in the picture-perfect city of san clemente. they said their marriage vows in 1992. that part about in sickness and in health

would be tested less than a year later. in the spring of 1993, linda came down with an illness that put her in the local hospital. mary came to see her. she looked like a little girl in a big bed. she just looked so weak, and not vibrant, like linda. frightening to see her like that? yeah, you betcha. you betcha. josh mankiewicz: her newly minted husband, paul, was sick, too, with many of the same strange symptoms. both were weak, vomiting, like bad food poisoning or the worst stomach flu imaginable. paul recovered quickly. linda did not. we knew that she was very sick, and that they couldn't identify what was causing the problem josh mankiewicz: paul kept a vigil by her bedside, and kept their edison colleagues updated with daily emails like this. "there still is not much clue as to the original infection. but if she continues to improve and gets well soon,

i don't think it will really matter what the name of the problem was. i think we can all live with a mystery, as long as linda's around to be mystified with us." how was paul when linda was sick? very concerned. worried. yes. josh mankiewicz: eventually, linda recovered enough to go home. paul fixed her gourmet meals, drew her a hot bath every night, and soon, linda went back to work at the san onofre nuclear plant. but months later, she was in the hospital again. same strange symptoms. linda again recovered enough to go home and back to work, but she worried about a relapse. she and paul planned to meet with some specialists who might be able to help. on june 9th, 1994, paul emailed mary. it was, "gee, mary, i'm really worried about linda. she's wobbly and weak." josh mankiewicz: paul wrote that she was mumbling incomprehensible stuff in her sleep about work

and projects and meetings. "and she's working all these hours, and she's working too many. and maybe, mary, she'll listen to you." josh mankiewicz: when linda came home from work that day, she was tired, and went to bed without eating dinner. a few hours later, the phone rang at mike flower's house. i answer it. said, "mr. flower, this is the chaplain." and he said, "can you come to paul and linda curry's house?" josh mankiewicz: mike rushed over and found his friend, paul, who told an awful story how he woke up to an odd sound, found linda not breathing. he called 9-1-1, but by the time paramedics got there, it was too late. paul was extremely upset. for hours, i was basically holding him up, and he was crying on my shoulder. josh mankiewicz: grief, shock, and at the bottom of it all, a question--

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that linda had been sick for months, an illness her doctors could never explain. and paul had been sick, too. now, suddenly, linda was dead. paul's friend, steve whitley. steve whitley: everybody was in such shock that i don't think the reason mattered. it was just, ok, we gotta take care of our friend. how was paul? grief-stricken. josh mankiewicz: so was linda's family. her niece ricki remembers how paul changed the funeral arrangements to help them deal with linda's sudden death. ricki rycraft: he allowed the casket to be open so my mom could see her sister, wrap her mind around her sister being gone. josh mankiewicz: linda was now only a memory, but she'd left behind a perplexing medical mystery. what caused the mysterious illness that took her life? what were her symptoms?

diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, fatigue. and it wouldn't go away? and it wouldn't go away. josh mankiewicz: after linda's death, they discovered a medical chronology on her computer at work. she'd kept careful notes about her symptoms from the very beginning. it went back a year, to june 28, 1993. she wrote, "felt fine all day. worked late. had a salad for dinner. woke up in the middle of the night vomiting." a month later, july 24, 1993. "approximately one hour after eating, i began vomiting. i became extremely weak and sweaty." linda's best friend, mary siebold. she worked at a nuclear plant. she did. conceivable that maybe something she picked up there had something to do with it? no. that's not what happens, not unless you're in the reactor. and she never did that. no, not at all. josh mankiewicz: they considered other, darker possibilities.

you know there are people who make themselves sick because they want to be the center of attention. sure. she wasn't of that personality. possible that she was depressed? she loved her job. she had friends. she had the perfect husband? perfect husband, a lot of nice high heels. what could she be depressed about? josh mankiewicz: linda's autopsy was inconclusive. her death certificate listed the cause as "pending investigation." and sheriff's detectives did investigate. in december 1994, six months after linda's death, they interviewed paul. like everyone else in linda's life, paul said he was puzzled and frustrated.

and like everyone else, he wondered if post-mortem tests would finally solve the mystery. sabra botch-jones is a forensic toxicologist at the boston university school of medicine. she didn't work on linda's case, but in her lab, she often deals with the same challenges when finding out how someone died. linda suffered from dizziness, weakness, vomiting after eating. what's that sound like? definitely the nausea and vomiting that's persistent suggests something that's actually being ingested that the body cannot handle. josh mankiewicz: something ingested that the body can't handle? that's what linda's friend, mary siebold, had thought all along.

she says she shared her concerns with linda. mary siebold: let's have someone go into the house and just check it. let's see if there's anything foreign in here. josh mankiewicz: but, she says, linda never took that advice, never had her home tested. now, they all waited for the toxicology tests on linda's body. and sure enough, the lab that examined linda's samples did detect and identify something quite curious. linda curry's body contained lethal levels of nicotine, which only deepened the mystery because, according to everyone who knew her, linda curry did not smoke cigarettes or anything else. never had. never. never. did that make sense to you, nicotine poisoning? i'd never heard of it. she never smoked. how could this happen? how could this be? no, i was shocked. i was shocked. is it unusual to find nicotine in someone's body? it's not unusual.

we are exposed to nicotine either as a smoker or as a non-smoker. josh mankiewicz: there are more sources of nicotine than you think. besides cigarettes, there are actually small levels of nicotine in eggplant and potatoes. it also used to be an ingredient in insecticide. sabra botch-jones: if you were working in your garden and you were using an old insecticide that did contain nicotine, you could possibly get it through absorption through the skin. enough to kill you? yes. josh mankiewicz: in sufficient quantities, she says, nicotine is a deadly poison. in the beginning, the individual may experience some nausea, vomiting. that's going to be followed with tremors, leading to convulsions and then complete respiratory depression, leading to the death of the individual. you stop breathing. you stop breathing. that sounds like a very unpleasant way to die. yes. josh mankiewicz: linda didn't garden, either, and the coroner didn't believe that amount of nicotine got into her body by accident. so he classified her death as a homicide.

you kept waiting for that investigation to go somewhere. - exactly. - never did. never did. josh mankiewicz: detectives could not determine where the nicotine came from or how it got into linda's system. months passed, then years. linda's niece, ricki rycraft, spoke often with the lead detective, and one day heard something that shocked her. ricki rycraft: he seemed to be inclined to think that she had committed suicide. josh mankiewicz: that might have been the d the sto were it not for this man, at the time a determined student. he never met linda curry, but one day, he'd know everything about her. craig melvin: coming up. we went back through every interview with every witness. craig melvin: a new team makes a new discovery. when "dateline" continues.

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month. >> call 1-833-735-4495 or visit homeserve. >> com each week on my podcast, i'm joined by uniquely qualified guests who helped me take a big picture look at the issues, like representative jasmine crockett, late night host seth meyers, former attorney general eric holder, and many more. why is this happening? listen now, msnbc premium gives you early access and ad free listening to rachel maddow chart topping series, msnbc original podcasts, exclusive bonus content, and all of your favorite msnbc shows now of your favorite msnbc shows now ad josh mankiewicz: in 2006, when the name linda curry caught the eye of an orange county prosecutor named brahim baytieh, the case was as cold as it could be. linda curry was already dead by the time you even came to work here. linda curry was dead when i was in law school. josh mankiewicz: nevertheless, baytieh and yvonne shull, then a sheriff's investigator, decided to take another crack

at solving the mystery, more than a decade after linda's death. we went back through every interview that was conducted with every witness. josh mankiewicz: they also went deep into linda's medical records, and found out something very strange had happened during her first hospital stay. the nurse came back to the room and found the iv bag had a discolored fluid in it, and changed it out. josh mankiewicz: after that discovery, shull learned, linda became seriously ill, ending up in the icu. eventually, she got better and went home. but then four months later, she was sick again, back in the hospital. and again, something odd occurred. at that hospital, the iv, the port on the iv, which is where they do injections into an iv, was broken. this is a different hospital. different hospital, different staff. josh mankiewicz: had someone tampered with those bags? could it have been poison?

that was never clear. they tested everything. they couldn't tell. normal toxicology tests, normal hospital testing won't pick up nicotine unless you're looking for it? unless you're testing for it, correct. josh mankiewicz: the incidents were as troubling as they were mysterious. no surveillance video or security tape showing anybody doing it. no. the only common denominator is linda and paul. so linda was getting the treatment, and paul was right there by her side as a dutiful husband. yes. josh mankiewicz: paul, the dutiful, doting husband. as they reviewed old interviews and conducted new ones, baytieh and shull quickly picked up on a theme-- linda's friends and family didn't much like him. her niece, ricki. there was this arrogance about him. josh mankiewicz: remember, paul was a physicist, a member of mensa, a "jeopardy" winner. and apparently, he didn't keep any of that a secret. he was on some other social level than we were,

and so i felt he looked down his nose at us. he thought he was better than you were. yeah, definitely that. josh mankiewicz: linda, of course, loved paul's intelligence, and the way he spoiled her. but when linda got sick, her friend mary got suspicious. she was telling me that, oh, paul is now making these salads, and he's making me this new dressing. and you know what he's doing, mary? he's such a good guy. he's drawing a hot bath for me right after i eat, and he's making me soak. and she's getting sick. and you think that the salads and the homemade dressing and the hot bath all had something to do with this? i think. he's a nuclear physicist, right? yeah, he's mensa. he's a smart guy. i think he was trying different things. josh mankiewicz: things like nicotine? was that even possible? well, not impossible, according to toxicologist sabra botch-jones. conceivable that, if you serve somebody a spicy or savory enough dish, that they might not notice that there was a significant amount of nicotine in there? it could be possible.

if you introduced it somehow in someone's bathwater, and put in some perfume or scented soap of some kind? it may be able to mask the-- any odor that it may produce. so there's a lot of ways that you can get nicotine in your system without noticing it. possible. josh mankiewicz: it's worth remembering that paul got sick at the same time linda did, so whatever affected her seemed to affect him, too. but as friends and family watched paul get well and linda get sicker, their suspicions hardened. you always-- immediately suspected paul of having done something. mhm. from the first phone call. i thought he definitely was trying to kill her. josh mankiewicz: other people thought the same thing. absolutely. nobody called the police. there was no proof. josh mankiewicz: still, mary says, she tried to warn linda. i told her she had to leave. and she'd say what? you're seeing things? she'd say, mary, he's a good husband. he wouldn't hurt me. josh mankiewicz: those worries from friends

and family, the mystery illness, the questions about the ivs-- a lot of suspicions, but no evidence, and certainly no witnesses, except one. linda curry herself. and what she had to say was breathtaking. craig melvin: coming up. linda's powerful words from the past. when "dateline" continues. with dupixent, stay ahead of moderate-to-severe eczema. as you welcome the feeling of touch with clearer skin and less itch. the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, helps heal your skin from within. severe allergic reactions can occur.

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people were killed and more than 12,000 structures destroyed. some people were allowed to return to evacuation zones recently, and the cease fire between israel and hamas is set to take effect sunday. 33 hostages are set to be released from gaza, including two israeli americans, in exchange for more than 1900 palestinian prisoners and detainees held by israel. and detainees held by israel. for now, back to dateline. and that's from-- josh mankiewicz: as prosecutor brahim baytieh and investigator yvonne shull looked into the decade-old mystery of linda curry's death, they found something remarkable-- two interviews with linda curry. turns out, after strange things happened with linda's ivs while she was in the hospital, detectives had interviewed her. and those conversations were recorded.

now, investigator shull put her headphones on and listened to linda curry's voice. she seemed to be joking about the apparent damage to the iv, but detectives weren't laughing. they knew linda's friends and family suspected paul. linda did acknowledge the suspicions of others. but, she said, she did not suspect her husband. she described a loving partner who nursed her through her illness.

and she seemed to mean it in that interview. but in another one, she said something entirely different. so different it makes you sit up a little straighter. idea who would try to do that? for investigator shull, this was a revelation. she says it's why she stuck with this case for so many years. it's very rare to find a motive in a homicide at all. and in this case, i had a motive. handed to you by the victim. yes. when i listened to that interview, i thought, this is a solvable case. josh mankiewicz: you thought, she laid it out for us. we should finish it. from the grave, we have to find justice. josh mankiewicz: they began to follow the money. it turned out linda was worth a lot of it. she had retirement accounts at southern california edison

and almost $700,000 in life insurance. and despite her reluctance to believe that paul was trying to poison her, she had changed those insurance policies, making her sister, pat, not paul the beneficiary. according to prosecutor baytieh, paul only found that out after linda's death. and he wasn't happy. he had letters that he sent to all these insurance companies saying we paid for the premium of these insurance companies from our marriage money, i'm entitled to it. josh mankiewicz: shull also found out that paul had filed an insurance claim for a lady's rolex watch and some jewelry that had gone missing after linda's funeral. he received a $9,000 payout. but investigator shull knew that linda had wanted the rolex to go to her sister. and i called her and said, there's a report that the watch was stolen.

she goes, no, i have the watch on right now. josh mankiewicz: in fact, the watch had never been stolen. paul curry, it seemed, had filed a phony insurance claim. who does that? who-- if somebody is an innocent spouse, grieving the death of his beloved wife, who decides within days after that to fake the theft of her rolex and file a claim to collect money? josh mankiewicz: paul, apparently. but it turned out he needn't have bothered. shull and baytieh learned that linda's conflicted feelings about paul ran deep. five months after taking him off her insurance policies, she wrote her sister, pat, a letter, a will, and left paul $400,000, which he eventually received after her death. but by then, paul had other troubles. within a year of linda's death, paul's boss, mike flower, discovered that his star employee was not

a nuclear physicist, as he had claimed publicly and on his resume for so long. mike flower: he didn't have a degree at all. paul ended up submitting his resignation. and if he had not, he would've been fired. yes. to lie about something that can be so easily checked, that says to me that the person doing that has an unbelievably large ego. it was very disappointing. somebody who thinks they can get away with anything. it was very disappointing. josh mankiewicz: all of it added up to a deeply unflattering portrait of paul curry. but did it add up to a case for murder? prosecutor baytieh knew it did not. he and shull faced exactly the same problem detectives had in 1994-- lots of suspicion, but no direct evidence that paul killed linda. and baytieh felt their prime suspect, a self-proclaimed genius, knew that.

he was smart enough to realize that any police officer, a minute after she's murdered, is going to expect the husband to be the suspect. he was one step ahead. josh mankiewicz: baytieh's theory? paul tested different poisons, carefully picked an obscure one, then poisoned himself to cover his tracks. the first time linda got sick, he had the exact same symptoms, because that allows him to say, hey, look, we both got sick. maybe we both caught something. and you think that's him thinking ahead. that's his mo. josh mankiewicz: baytieh went back to the night linda died and the nicotine that killed her. he consulted a nicotine expert who had looked into the case back in 1994. goes, yeah, i remember the case. nobody ever followed up with me. i go, would you kindly please be willing to write a report to us about your interpretation of the result? josh mankiewicz: it turned out to be the breakthrough baytieh needed.

the amount of nicotine in linda's blood was extraordinarily high, nearly 100 times what you'd find in a regular smoker. forensic toxicologist sabra botch-jones. for the amount that was found in those specimens, it could take a matter of minutes to reach death. josh mankiewicz: and remember, paul had always maintained he was alone with linda for hours before she died. that report allowed us to say, look, there is absolutely categorically no other human being that had the opportunity to do what he did. josh mankiewicz: prosecutor baytieh and investigator shull knew it was now time for some show-and-tell with paul curry. craig melvin: coming up, paul curry had something to reveal. when "dateline" continues.

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analysis from our prime time anchors as the new term begins tomorrow, beginning at 6:00 on tomorrow, beginning at 6:00 on msnbc. to understand josh mankiewicz: after linda curry's death, paul curry lost his job at the nuclear power plant, in large part because it turned out he'd lied about being a nuclear physicist. he left california, moved to las vegas, and began his life over. he eventually remarried, adopted a son, and by 2010, he was living in the small town of salina, kansas. back now, jason gage was the city manager. jason gage: when we met paul, one

of the things that we noticed initially was that he seemed to be very, very smart. josh mankiewicz: paul was hired as salina's building official, dealing with permits and inspections. he kept city commissioners updated about his projects. jason gage: he was soft-spoken, really, but very much to the point. and it was easy to tell he did his homework, he knew what he was doing. josh mankiewicz: yvonne shull, by this time a sergeant with the orange county sheriff's department, had done her homework, too. and on november 9th, 2010, she was more than ready to speak with paul curry about the death of his wife more than 16 years earlier. paul met shull at the salina police department. he came in without an attorney and agreed to answer questions. - hi. - hi. hi. [interposing voices] josh mankiewicz: the camera was recording as paul talked about his long-ago marriage to linda.

and he spoke of the night she died. 911 and. after 40 minutes or so, yvonne shull started with the hard questions. first, she confronted paul with the phony insurance claim on linda's watch. so right there in that room, he's basically copping to insurance fraud. yes. which is way less serious than murder, but--

but it's still a crime. josh mankiewicz: but when it came to linda's death, paul seemed like a man with nothing to hide. in fact, he was the one who brought up the incidents with the ivs. shull wanted an explanation, too, but first, she wanted a reaction. she played linda's 1993 interview with detectives for paul. obviously. >> comments, and it was nostalgic to hear her voice. yes. he's a cool customer. yes. josh mankiewicz: but now, it was time to ask the biggest question of all.

kill linda? >> absolutely not. it's an open mystery. i mean, it's an unsolved. death, but. unsolved. death, but. >> and now, you show him the report saying she had to die within two hours of getting the nicotine. right. josh mankiewicz: the man who'd always had all the answers suddenly had none. he still thinks he's gonna walk out of that interview. at that point, yes, he does. josh mankiewicz: paul had finally miscalculated. shull knew that, if paul didn't change his story about being

alone with linda the night she died, he was essentially admitting that he, and no one else, the opportunity to kill her, based on that expert's report. two hours in, yvonne left the room to call brahim baytieh back in orange county to let him know how things were going. listen to what paul says to the other detective as he waits for yvonne to come back. and he wasn't joking. he was serious. because in his mind, he's thinking, maybe they're suspicious of me. they don't have enough to charge me. and that was his mistake. because he never made that meeting. oh, he never made that meeting. josh mankiewicz: 16 years after linda curry died. yvonne shull handcuffed paul curry. am i allowed to call anybody? not right now. josh mankiewicz: the man linda had loved, married, and trusted.

linda's best friend, mary siebold, heard the news back in california. and i'm sitting there, and all of a sudden, i see paul curry's mug shot. and i'm going, oh my gosh, i'm like, look, there's paul. what this man did is, for about eight, nine months, he was poisoning her. he was watching the impact of what he was doing on her every day, while at the same time holding her hand and saying i love you, honey. i'm here for you, honey. you're describing an elaborate con that ended up being kind of a murder in slow motion. yeah. elaborate, diabolical. josh mankiewicz: paul curry entered a plea of not guilty. prosecutor brahim baytieh knew it would be a tough case. there was no physical evidence tying paul to linda's death, and paul's defense attorney had a very different theory about how that nicotine

got into linda's system. a theory that hinged on a stunning question-- could linda have poisoned herself? coming up. lisa cappleman: she was very, very desperate to find a cure. craig melvin: what other secrets would tumble out in court? i go upstairs to the extra bedroom, and i'm going, oh my gosh. craig melvin: when "dateline" continues. if you take or have taken humira for moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis and still have symptoms... you don't have to settle. ask your gastroenterologist if switching to rinvoq is right for you. it's one of the latest treatments from the makers of humira. rinvoq works differently than humira and may help. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can deliver rapid symptom relief, lasting steroid-free remission, and helps visibly reduce damage of the intestinal lining. rinvoq can lower ability to fight infections.

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plan. >> having a plan in place, it >> having a plan in place, it was a josh mankiewicz: september 2014, 20 years after linda's death and four years after paul's arrest, it was finally time for him to face a jury. his defense attorney, lisa cappleman, argued that the prosecution's case was all a cauldron of suspicion stirred by linda's friends. they tell the doctors their suspicions. they tell-- they talk to each other about the suspicions over the years. so everything starts getting interpreted in suspicious ways. josh mankiewicz: suspicion without evidence, said cappleman. there was no evidence that paul had ever bought nicotine or any other poison, nothing to tie him directly to linda's death. on the contrary, according to cappleman, paul was a loving, caring husband. she called paul's friend steve whitley to testify.

steve whitley: she wasn't in a harmful environment, to my knowledge, in anything i saw. and it never occurred to you paul might have had any evil intention toward his wife. no. no. i just didn't see it. josh mankiewicz: so how did linda get a lethal dose of nicotine? the defense had a bombshell theory that linda herself was responsible. because she had been very, very sick and was very, very desperate to find a cure. josh mankiewicz: cappleman explained to the jury that nicotine was sometimes used as a homeopathic cure to treat illnesses with symptoms similar to linda's. when we'd go to mexico, they would, you know, sometimes pick up herbs. josh mankiewicz: steve said he couldn't remember what the herbs were, but to the defense, it meant that linda was willing to try anything, maybe even nicotine. and in light of the type of illness that she had and her tendency to use herbal medicine and non-traditional medicine,

it's very reasonable to think that she took steps-- and this is not a drastic step. josh mankiewicz: maybe it was only accidentally drastic, an inadvertent overdose that caused an unintentional suicide. so the defense argued. prosecutor brahim baytieh said this was no accident. it was a premeditated plot by paul curry. brahim baytieh: he married her planning on collecting on all the life insurance. he murdered her by poisoning her, and he collected on the life insurance. josh mankiewicz: the jury heard from linda's best friend, mary siebold, who stayed at their san clemente home while linda was in hospital. i go upstairs to the extra bedroom, and there, laying out on the bureau, are all of her documents. her 401(k), her life insurance.

so somebody is looking through her-- - all of her-- - --insurance-- - that's right. - --her 401(k)-- right. right. --all the stuff that you would go through-- that's right. --if somebody was dead. exactly. josh mankiewicz: that somebody was paul, said the prosecutor. and remember that email that paul sent mary the morning of linda's death, the one asking for mary's help? he says, "i'm worried about linda. i'm worried something bad's going to really happen to her." this is how many hours before linda died? 16 hours before. you think paul is laying the groundwork there. absolutely that's what it is. josh mankiewicz: baytieh revealed to the jury how he believed paul introduced that fatal dose of nicotine into linda's system. during the autopsy, the medical examiner found an injection mark behind linda's ear. you think you stuck a needle in her? there's no doubt in my mind that's exactly what he did. and you think he's getting, what, frustrated? that's it, yeah. i mean, it's time to cash this paycheck. josh mankiewicz: and while there is no evidence paul ever bought nicotine,

baytieh said he didn't have to. he could have distilled it from cigarettes. he would have known how. it's very easy. the prosecutor had one more surprising revelation for the jury. he called leslie curry to testify. she was paul's wife prior to his marriage to linda. leslie told the jury that, over the course of several months during her marriage to paul, she became very weak and sick. when paul told her to get life insurance, she took the required blood test, but the insurance company declined coverage. and after that, leslie said, two things happened-- paul left her, and she got better. do you think paul poisoned leslie? i think he was poisoning her, yes. and i think, if she would have got the life insurance policy, that he would have killed her. josh mankiewicz: the prosecutor had one last opportunity to convince the jury to convict paul curry, the mensa member and former "jeopardy" contestant, of murder.

and in his closing argument, he channeled alex trebek. category, human criminality. book-smart, greedy, arrogant, insatiable appetite for money, sneaky and manipulative, got away with murder for 16 years. who is paul marshall curry? josh mankiewicz: after three weeks and more than 30 witnesses, the jury had the case. and the next day, they reached a verdict. jury foreman: we the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, paul curry, guilty of the crime of felony-- josh mankiewicz: guilty of first-degree murder, sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. the jury had reached a verdict on how linda died, but there was still one lingering question. she was smart. she was educated. she had a good job.

she could have walked out the door at any time if she thought her life was in danger. that was his hook on linda. he gave her what she needed, which is somebody to say i love you, i will be here for you, i will hold your hand. that's what he preyed on. look, we all want someone in our lives who loves us and cares about us and tells us how great we are. linda curry not alone in that. but how long are you willing to stick around for what turns out to be your eventual murder after you already suspect your husband? in linda's case, for the rest of her life. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [theme music] morning, and welcome to this sunday edition of morning joe. >> weekend. it was