Case 349: Michael Wallace & David Castor

**SPEAKER_1** (0:13)
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At 2pm on Monday August 22 2005, 38 year old Stacey Castor called the police. She was the office manager at her husband David's heating and air conditioning business, and he hadn't shown up for work that day. Stacey was concerned because David had been acting erratically lately. Over the weekend, the couple had an argument that culminated in David yelling at Stacey to take the kids and get out. He also warned her that if she ever left him, he would make her sorry. Afterward, he locked himself in the bedroom of their home in the town of Clay, New York. Stacey hadn't heard from David since. She tried calling him at home, but he didn't answer. She told the police she couldn't understand why he was acting this way, but admitted that he had been depressed lately. She agreed to meet an officer at the house so they could conduct a welfare check. Sergeant Robert Willoughby arrived at the Castor's home and found Stacey sitting in a lawn chair out the front. Given the situation, her body language was unusually relaxed. She explained that she'd been waiting for the police to arrive before she entered the house. Stacey let Sergeant Willoughby inside, stopping in the kitchen while he continued toward the main bedroom. He found it unusual that she showed little interest in checking on her husband herself. Willoughby tried the bedroom door and found it locked. He knocked loudly and identified himself, but received no response. Unsure whether David was inside, Willoughby walked around the outside of the house to see if he could look into the room through a window. The blinds were closed, so he retrieved a ladder to check a higher window, but still couldn't get a clear view. Sergeant Willoughby went back inside. Stacey followed him for a moment before inexplicably disappearing into the garage. With no other option, Willoughby kicked open the bedroom door. Inside, he found 48-year-old David Castor lying naked on the bed. He was motionless, turned on his side and facing the wall. What appeared to be reddish-brown vomit had pulled around his head and was caked on his hands. Clothes and bedding scattered messily throughout the room also appeared to be stained with vomit. One of David's hands was stiff and curled in a claw-like position, as though he had been gripping a glass. On the nightstand beside the bed were remnants of cranberry juice, a bottle of apricot brandy and a short glass half filled with a bright green liquid. From outside the room, Stacey called out, asking whether her husband was okay.
Will it be checked David's pulse before responding? No, he's not.
She turned on the bed and screamed. She started yelling hysterically, bring him back, bring him back. He's not dead. He's not dead. A forensic examiner who soon arrived at the scene concluded that David Castor had only been deceased for a short time. Mucus dripping from his mouth and nose suggested that he had died from some type of poison. The focus turned to the glass of bright green liquid on his nightstand. It didn't smell like liquor but appeared to be antifreeze, a liquid used in vehicle cooling systems to regulate engine temperature. A blue plastic bottle of Peak brand antifreeze was discovered on the bedroom floor, partially tucked under the bed frame directly underneath David's overhanging feet. It appeared that he had consumed the poisonous antifreeze and taken his own life. But something was off about the scene. On the side of the bed closest to the door, a trail of vomit ran down the bare mattress and pulled on the rug below. The bottle of antifreeze was positioned on its side on top of the pulled vomit but the container itself was notably clean. It appeared as though the bottle had been placed there after David vomited. Even the glass of antifreeze on the nightstand looked remarkably clean given David's state and the room in general. A loaded shotgun was also found under the bed. Stacey hadn't mentioned it, so the police were surprised to find it. In the adjacent bathroom, a towel rack had been torn from the wall, but nothing else appeared amiss in the rest of the house. Meanwhile, Stacey remained in a state of denial about her husband's death, demanding that paramedics come to the house and save him. When questioned at the scene, she revealed that David had been drinking copious amounts of alcohol that weekend and had not been acting like himself. Stacey said she hadn't been at home the day before as she had been out shopping. She said she'd gone to Walmart and had a receipt to prove it, but couldn't remember what she had done with it and that she must have thrown it away. Police searched the kitchen bin in an attempt to find the receipt. Barely hidden beneath a few pieces of paper, they discovered a turkey beister. It appeared to be brand new and contained a few small drops of green liquid, confirmed to be antifreeze.