Death of a friend.

As a fan of true crime I often watch programs like Forensic Files. It is surprising how many of their true cases involve a spouse, usually a husband, slowly poisoning his wife or business partner with arsenic. More often than not the doctors and hospital cannot understand the patient's deterioration until they conduct special searches for arsenic which they don't often do. Usually they attribute the patients sudden failure to thrive to some disease or organ malfunction. Once the patient is dead, good detectives test for arsenic, often using hair samples. This is why so many killers rush their spouse to the crematorium. It's always a horribly sad story that happens to people you don't know. But today I was made aware of it on a personal level. Years ago a close female friend, who was attractive and vivacious and had a coterie of admiring friends met an obnoxious and controlling Englishman18 years older than her 26. For some reason she adored this bombastic bore, so much so that she eventually gave up all her friends and family. Even though I had not heard from her for over 20 years, I always expected to run into her. Today I learned from another long ago friend that she had died at 53. I, and everyone else that knew her, immediately assumed that he had murdered her. By doing some research I found that she had supposedly died of celiac disease, but no tests for poisoning were ever done. She was immediately cremated and this ne'er-do-well inherited her home and trust fund. When he returned to his ill-gotten house, showing no signs of grief or regret, the neighbors and all past friends scorned and ignored him. I'm happy to report that 18 months after her death, and having no one to control or even communicate with, this creature committed suicide by taking pills, his body, upon discovery, was rancid, bloated, and fly-infested.