12.07.17
The ricin pensioner: A sad and ugly tale
Seventy year old Betty Miller, accused of making ricin powder to use on herself after testing — unsuccessfully, fortunately — on acquaintances at her retirement home had a dog. On a sign at her apartment:
“I wish I could be the person my dog thinks I am.???
Unspecified in court are citations of mental illness (depression?) and attempts at suicide and a story in which Miller researched basic information on plant poisons on the net, apparently settling on ricin because of castor plants readily available in the home’s garden.
Miller, upon feeling ill, drove herself to the hospital where she revealed she may have been exposed to ricin. Doing that in the context of a hospital triggers the entire anti-terror national network set up over the last decade and a half, summoning everyone from the FBI and Homeland Security to an array of local responding agencies including the state of Vermont, in this case.
Information on various tests has been doled out. The presence of ricinine comfirmed. Ricinine is not ricin, but an organic compound that is viewed as a marker in castor. It can be read about in a toxicological study of ricin poisoning here.
“Ricinine is an alkaloid present in the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis) that can be used as a biomarker for ricin poisoning,” reads another analytical paper in which ricin was used in a suicide.
Although not ill now, an unnamed tenant is said to have tested positive for ricin exposure at the home where Miller is alleged to have tester her powder on others.
Currently, the case is involved in securing Miller’s cellphone so that it may be examined for possible corroborating information.