you could have complete respiratory failure within a matter of minutes. diz dizziness, 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 that. >> reporter: she'd found love at last with husband number 3 -- the charming "jeopardy" champ. >> he belonged to mensa. >> younger guy, gourmet cook, nuclear physicist. i was very impressed. >> reporter: then suddenly, she was gone! a mystery illness that baffled even her doctors. >> she shook like someone with the start of parkinsons. >> reporter: what had killed her? something at work? something at home? >> household items? that's a possibility. >> reporter: listen carefully.

in this case, the most important clue of all just might come from the victim herself. >> there seems like there's some suspicious things that have occurred. >> reporter: could this be murder? >> do you think that someone might be trying to poison you? >> sounds like a very unpleasant way to die. >> yes. >> reporter: and could she help solve it? >> you're describing kind of a murder in slow motion. >> yeah, elaborate, diabolical. it's mind boggling. >> reporter: i'm lester holt and this is "dateline." here's josh mankiewicz with "poison." >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: she went to the doctor. a lot of doctors. >> and it wouldn't go away. and it would get worse. >> nausea, vomiting, dizziness, confusion. >> reporter: medicine didn't seem to help her. >> you could have respiratory

failure within a number of minutes. >> reporter: 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. >> 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 lotta fun. >> she was a lotta fun. she was a blast. >> reporter: linda worked for the power company, southern california edison. that's where she met merry

seabold. >> 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. it really -- >> yes. >> don't you hate people like that? >> totally. and it drew me to her. and then we came the best buds ever. >> reporter: but looks, generosity and brains don't guarantee happiness in love. linda was married twice and divorced twice. >> she did choose guys that didn't seem to be a nice fit for the long term. >> and so she got her heartbroken a couple of times? >> she got her heart broken i think more than a couple of times, yeah. >> reporter: 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 thirteen 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 -- to find. >> reporter: and just a few months before linda and paul started dating, he had 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. >> and he's a nuclear physicist. >> nuclear physicist. all the right things. >> reporter: 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. merry 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: paul kept a vigil by her bedside and kept their edison colleagues updated with daily e-mails 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 all can 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. >> reporter: 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 e-mailed merry. >> it was -- "gee, merry, i'm really worried about linda. she's wobbly and weak." >> reporter: 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, merry, she'll listen to you." >> reporter: 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. he said, "mr. flower, this is the chaplain." and he said, "can you come to paul and linda curry's house?" >> reporter: 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 911 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. >> reporter: grief, shock and at the bottom of it all, a question. what killed linda curry? >> when we come back, a medical mystery. >> this is really detective work, isn't it? >> it is, it is. >> her strange symptoms, her sudden death, linda's loved ones

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anncr: save $25 when you open a walmart credit card account and spend $75 today. then get another $10 when you make another $75 purchase. walmart >> reporter: everyone who knew paul and linda curry, knew 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 -- >> everybody was in such shock that i don't think the reason mattered.

it was just, okay, we got to take care of our friend. >> how was paul? >> grief-stricken. >> reporter: so was linda's family. her niece, ricki remembers how paul changed the funeral arrangements to help them deal with linda's sudden death. >> he allowed the casket to be open so my mom could see her sister, wrap her mind around her sister being gone. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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, merry seabold -- >> she worked at a nuclear plant. >> she did. >> conceivable that maybe something she picked up there had something to do with that? >> no, that's not what happens. not unless you're in the reactor. >> and she never did that. >> no, no, not at all. >> reporter: they considered other, darker possibilities. >> you know there are people who make themselves sick because they wanna be the center of attention. >> sure. she wasn't of that personality. >> possible that she was depressed? >> she loved her job. she had friends. >> had the perfect husband? >> perfect husband, a lotta nice high heels. what could she be depressed about? >> reporter: linda's autopsy was inconclusive.

her death certificate listed the cause as "pending investigation." and sheriff's detectives did investigate. >> the interview is taking place at mr. curry's residence. >> reporter: in december 1994, six months after linda's death, they interviewed paul. >> did you ever question them why they never found what was wrong with her? >> sure. well, both of us. we were making ourselves hysterical trying to figure out what was going on. >> reporter: like everyone else in linda's life, paul said he was puzzled and frustrated. >> i've been a problem solver all my life and for the last couple years there was a problem that i couldn't solve and it's extremely taxing. >> reporter: and, like everyone else, he wondered if post-mortem tests would finally solve the mystery. >> you understand that they're doing toxicological testing to find out -- >> yeah. >> try to determine the exact cause of death. >> and they haven't sent me any information. >> this is really detective

work, isn't it? >> it is, it is. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: something ingested that the body can't handle? that's what linda's friend merry seabold had thought all along. she says she shared her concerns with linda. >> let's have someone go into the house. and just check it. let's see if there's anything foreign in here. let's see if there's something in your lipstick, maybe something in your cream that you use every night. >> reporter: 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 detective -- 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 nonsmoker. >> reporter: 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 insecticides. >> if you're working in your garden and you were using an -- an old insecticide that did contain nicotine you could possibly get it through absorption through the skin. >> enough to kill you? >> yes. >> reporter: in sufficient quantities, she says, nicotine is a deadly poison. >> in the beginning the individual may experience some nausea, vomiting. that's gonna 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> he seemed to be inclined to think that she had committed suicide. >> reporter: that might have been the end of the story. 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. coming up -- >> we went back through every interview with every witness. >> a new team makes a new discovery. >> the nurse came back to the room and found the iv bag had a discolored fluid in it. >> when "dateline" continues.

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>> reporter: in 2006, when the name linda curry caught the eye of an orange county prosecutor named ebrahim 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. >> reporter: nevertheless, baytieh and sheriff's investigator yvonne shull 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: linda, of course, loved paul's intelligence. and the way he spoiled her. but when linda got sick, her friend merry got suspicious. >> she was telling me that, "oh, paul is now making me these salads and he's making me this new dressing. and you know what he's doing, merry? 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 has 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. >> reporter: 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 -- >> may be able to mask the -- any odor that it may produce. >> so, there's a lot of ways that you can get nicotine into your system without noticing it? >> possible. >> reporter: 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? >> from the first phone call. >> i thought he definitely was trying to kill her. >> other people thought the same thing. >> absolutely. >> nobody called the police. >> there was no proof. >> reporter: still, merry 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, "merry, he's a good husband. he wouldn't hurt me." >> reporter: 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. >> what's your full name? >> linda lee curry. >> reporter: linda curry herself. and what she had to say was breathtaking. coming up -- >> how have you been feeling since you went to the hospital? >> exactly what was on those interview tapes. >> if somebody were trying to do something to you, if they were trying to poison, you idea who would try to do that? >> linda's powerful words from the past.

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more surprising yet was what caused it -- nicotine poisoning. could this have been murder? >> reporter: as prosecutor ebrahim 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. >> how have you been feeling since you're at the hospital? >> oh, you know, i'm not feeling great. >> reporter: now, investigator shull put her headphones on and listened to linda curry's voice. >> i'm hard on a lot of things. i'm hard on my men. i'm hard on my cars. i'm hard on my shoes. i was not easy on my iv bag. >> reporter: 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. >> i'm going on the assumption right now that paul is doing this, if something is being done. >> uh-huh. >> we can't even prove something's being done. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: linda did acknowledge the suspicions of others. >> all my friends, a lot of my friends are saying that paul is guilty. "get out of the house." >> reporter: but, she said, she did not suspect her husband. >> i don't really believe that paul's trying to do anything. >> reporter: she described a loving partner who nursed her through her illness. >> i have to say that overall our relationship is wonderful. he's a wonderful man. i love him. >> reporter: 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. >> if somebody were trying to do something to you, if they were trying to poison you, any idea who would try to do that? >> well, the only person i could think of that would have a motive to do it would be paul and the only motive i can think

of is money. >> reporter: 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 out 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." >> you thought, "she laid it out for us. we should finish it." >> she laid it out. from the grave. we have to find justice. >> reporter: 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." >> reporter: shull also found out that paul had filed an insurance claim for a ladies 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. >> reporter: in fact, the watch had never been stolen. paul curry, it seemed, had filed a phony insurance claim. >> who does that? who -- if somebody's an innocent spouse, grieving the death of his beloved wife, who decides to fake the theft of her rolex and file a claim to collect money?

>> reporter: 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. >> he didn't have a degree at all. paul ended up submitting his resignation. >> and if he had not, he would have been fired. >> yes. >> to lie about something that can be so easily checked, that sounds to me that the person

doing that, has an unbelievably large ego. >> it was very disappointing. >> somebody who thinks they can get way with anything. >> it was very disappointing. >> reporter: 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 a suspect. he was one step ahead. >> reporter: 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." >> you think that's him thinking ahead. >> sure, that's his m.o. >> reporter: 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. >> he 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?" >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: 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." >> reporter: prosecutor baytieh and investigator shull knew it was now time for some show and tell with paul curry. coming up -- >> kind of taken by surprise. >> investigators would be in for a surprise too because paul curry had something to reveal. >> i've been less than honest about that. >> when "dateline" continues. no. how much are you spending per month? $110 bucks $120 bucks $330 yeee-ah... what if sprint could cut your rate plan in half? and give you unlimited talk and text in the u.s., and match your data. goodbye verizon. i am done with at&t.

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>> reporter: after linda curry's death, paul curry lost his job at the nuclear power plant in large part because he'd lied about being a nuclear physicist. he left california, moved to las vegas, and started his life over. he eventually remarried, adopted a son, and by 2010, he was living in the small town of

salina, kansas. jason gage is the city manager. >> when we met paul, one of the things that we noticed initially was that he seemed to be very, very smart. >> reporter: paul was hired as salina's building official, dealing with permits and inspections. >> mr. curry. >> thank you, mr. mayor and commissioners -- >> reporter: he kept city commissioners updated about his projects. >> 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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: the camera was recording as paul talked about his long-ago marriage to linda. >> we were very absorbed with one another. i -- it was a wonderful many years. >> reporter: and he spoke of the night she died. >> i woke up in the middle of the night and she was not breathing and called 911 and, uh, performed cpr and they came and there was nothing they could do. >> reporter: after 40 minutes or so, yvonne shull started with the hard questions. >> you let pat have the rolex, right? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: first, she confronted paul with the phony insurance claim on linda's watch. >> i have been less than honest about that and, quite frankly, it just was a poor decision.

>> 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. >> reporter: 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. >> there was something that went on in one of her hospital rooms and it was never really explained to me exactly what occurred. >> reporter: shull wanted an explanation too. but first she wanted a reaction. she played linda's 1993 interview with detectives for paul. >> well, the only person i could think of that would have a motive to do it would be paul. >> paul, do you have any comments? >> it's very unusual to hear her voice. >> unusual to hear her voice? >> yes, it's nostalgic. >> it was nostalgic to hear her voice. >> yes. >> he's a cool customer.

>> yes. >> reporter: but now it was time to ask the biggest question of all. >> did you kill linda? >> absolutely not. i loved her dearly. >> would you have a reason to kill linda? >> absolutely not. it's an open mystery, i mean, it's an unsolved death. but -- >> right. but part of it's not unsolved. we know what killed linda. >> okay. >> we know that it was the nicotine intoxication. >> right. >> and now you show him the report saying she had to die within two hours of getting the nicotine? >> right. >> um, i don't know how to respond to that. >> reporter: the man who'd always had all the answers, suddenly had none. >> i'm kind of taken by surprise. i -- you're drudging up memories that are uncomfortable.

>> he still thinks he's gonna walk out of that interview. >> at that point, yes, he does. >> reporter: 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 had the opportunity to kill her, based on that expert's report. two hours in, yvonne left the room to call ebrahim baytieh back in orange county to let him how things were going. listen to what paul says to the other detective as he waits for yvonne to come back. >> should i presume that i'm not going to make my 4:00 meeting today? >> 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. >> reporter: sixteen years after linda curry died -- >> i am placing you under arrest for the murder of linda curry. >> reporter: yvonne shull

handcuffed paul curry. >> am i allowed to call anybody? >> not right now. >> reporter: the man linda had loved, married and trusted. linda's best friend merry seabold 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 mean, 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. >> reporter: paul curry entered a plea of not guilty. prosecutor ebrahim 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. coming up -- a stunning question. could linda have poisoned herself? >> she was very, very desperate to find a cure. >> and what other secrets would tumble out in court. >> i go upstairs to the extra bedroom and i'm going, oh, my gosh.

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>> septiembre de 2014, 20 años it was finally time for him to face a jury. his defense attorney, lisa kopelman, argued that the prosecution's case was all a cauldron of suspicion, stirred by linda's friends. >> they tell the doctors their suspicions. they talked to each other about the suspicions over the years.

so, everything starts getting interpreted in suspicious ways. >> reporter: suspicion without evidence, said kopelman. 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 kopelman, paul was a loving, caring husband. she called paul's friend steve whitley to testify. >> she wasn't in a harmful environment to my knowledge in anything i saw. >> and it never occurred to you that paul might have had any evil intention toward his wife? >> no, no, i just didn't see it. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: kopelman explained to the jury that nicotine was sometimes used as a homeopathic cure to treat illnesses with

symptoms similar to linda's. >> when we go to mexico they would, you know, sometimes pick up herbs. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: maybe it was only accidentally drastic. an inadvertent overdose that caused an unintentional suicide, so the defense argued. prosecutor ebrahim baytieh said this was no accident. it was a premeditated plot by paul curry. >> he married her, planning on collecting on all the life insurance. he murdered her by poisoning

her. and he collected on the life insurance. >> reporter: the jury heard from linda's best friend merry seabold, who stayed at their san clemente home while linda was in the hospital. >> i go upstairs to the extra bedroom. and there, laying out on the bureau, are all of her documents -- her 401k, her life insurance. >> so, somebody's looking through her -- >> all of her -- >> -- insurance. >> that's right. >> and her 401k. >> right. >> all the stuff. >> right. >> that you would go through -- >> that's right. >> -- if somebody was dead. >> exactly. >> reporter: that somebody was paul, said the prosecutor. and remember that email that paul sent merry the morning of linda's death? the one asking for merry's help. >> he says, "i'm worried about linda. i'm worried something bad's gonna really happen to her. >> this is how many hours before linda died? >> 16 hours before. >> you think paul's layin' the

ground work there. >> absolutely, that's what it is. >> reporter: 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 he stuck a needle in her? >> no doubt in my mind. that's exactly what he did. >> and you think he's getting, what, frustrated? >> that's it, yeah. it's time to cash this paycheck. >> reporter: and while there is no evidence paul ever bought nicotine, baytieh said he didn't have to. >> he could have distilled it from cigarettes. >> right. >> he would have known how. >> it's very easy. >> reporter: 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. >> you think paul poisoned leslie? >> i think he was poisoning her, yes. and i think if she would've got the life insurance policy, that he would've killed her. >> reporter: 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-smarts, greedy, arrogant, insatiable appetite for money, sneaky and manipulative. got away with murder for 16 years. who is paul marshall curry? >> reporter: after three weeks and more than 30 witnesses, the jury had the case. and the next day, they reached a verdict. >> we the jury, in the above entitled action, find the

defendant paul curry guilty of the crime of felony. >> reporter: 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've 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 now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us. - i still have a little bit of nausea. it's not a big deal. it's just happened a couple times. - are you possibly pregnant? [thermometer beeps] - fever's down, less achy. - she should be okay in a couple of days. make sure she stays in bed and hydrated. - our flight's in a couple hours. we got to get going.