Woman charged with killing husband using lethal misutgaru drink

A woman, 37, is facing a trial on charges of killing her husband by putting nicotine in his morning misutgaru shake. 

According to the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday, the suspect, under arrest since early this month, has recently been indicted for her role in the death of her 46-year-old husband on May 27.

The husband, said to be a nonsmoker for the last eight years, died of nicotine poisoning, autopsy results showed.

A day before his passing, the deceased had complained of a stomachache and called his wife from work to ask if the honey she put in the multigrain shake had gone bad. Misutgaru is a traditional Korean drink made with roasted grain power and sweetened with honey or sugar.

Investigators have also secured testimony that the wife bought liquid nicotine from an e-cigarette vendor near her home a few days before the husband’s death.

The suspect claims innocence and insists the husband was a smoker, which contradicts with the testimonies of the deceased’ acquaintances, according to authorities.

If she is convicted, this could be one of only a few cases in South Korea in which nicotine was used as a murder weapon.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)