HUSBAND'S 'DEVOTION' HIDES PLOT TO KILL WIFE
Unsuspecting Julie Keown adored her attentive husband James – but he wasn’t just doting…he was deadly.
When she got sick, Julie was glad her seemingly devoted husband of eight years was by her side.
In an e-mail to a friend, she said she considered herself “lucky to have an extraordinary husband… who was working full time and going to school full time and still finding time to care for me.”
But there was something that Julie didn’t know – her “loving” husband James, now 34, was slowly poisoning her with antifreeze so that he could collect on a $250,000 life insurance policy.
In late 2003, James, a Web page designer, asked his company if the firm would let him move from Missouri, where he and Julie grew up, to Massachusetts so he could work there while attending Harvard.
They agreed, and he and Julie moved to Waltham in January 2004. Authorities now believe he made the move to prevent Julie’s family from getting in the way of his plan to kill her.
By May, Julie had developed an illness that baffled doctors. She was experiencing nausea, dizziness and slurred speech.
“She thought she had a gastric illness,” said prosecutor Martha Coakley.
“It was pretty clear that she did not know what was happening to her or that she was being poisoned.”
Get all the details in this week's ENQUIRER!
Published on: 07/16/2008
