SMYRNA, Del. — A woman whose 42-year-old husband died last year from antifreeze poisoning has been arrested in connection with his death, Delaware State Police said Friday.
Jamie L. Baker, 44, of Smyrna was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during a felony, Master Cpl. Gary Fournier said.
Baker found her husband, James D. Baker II, dead on the bedroom floor of their home on Sept. 16, police said.
An autopsy determined that the victim's kidneys contained a substance suspected to be ethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze. If taken in small doses, ethylene glycol will crystallize in the kidneys and eventually kill a person, police said in court records.
Evidence that detectives recovered when James Baker died included pills, syringes and a box containing several bottles of liquid steroids, Fournier said. When the bottles of steroids were tested at a laboratory and found to contain ethylene glycol, the medical examiner ruled the death homicide by poisoning.
Homicide detectives investigated further and conducted interviews that indicated James Baker had ordered the steroids over the Internet with a friend in June and had them shipped to the friend's house.
The friend told detectives that the steroid bottles were not tampered with when they arrived because they always checked for tampering.
The two would divide the bottles between themselves and Baker would take his portion back to his home and place them in a locked toolbox in a closet, Fournier said.
Detectives, armed Thursday with a search warrant, went to the Baker home and took the victim's widow back to Troop 3 in Camden, Del., to interview, according to court records.
Jamie Baker then told detectives how she had used a hypodermic syringe to extract antifreeze from a container stored in the garage and then injected several bottles of the steroids with the antifreeze, police said in court records.
The woman gave no reason for what she did, Fournier said.
According to James Baker's obituary, he was a competitive weightlifter who had worked as an environmental specialist for 22 years at the DuPont Experimental Station. He had been married to his wife for 21 years and had two daughters.
Jamie Baker is being held without bail in Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in New Castle, Del.
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