Episode 43: The New Sweden Poisonings
On Sunday April 27, 2003, 16 people attending the morning worship service at the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church in New Sweden, Maine became extremely ill, seemingly out of nowhere. Members of the congregation had been drinking Swedish coffee, which is famously strong, and eating baked goods left over from a bake sale fundraiser the previous day. Minutes after noticing that the coffee had a very unusual and bitter taste, people began vomiting.
Several members of the church, including 78-year-old Walter Reid Morrill, were admitted to the Cary Medical Center in Caribou, Maine for medical attention. Walter, the beloved church caretaker, ended up passing away early the next morning.
Doctors at the Cary Medical Center informed the Maine State Police that they suspected that the members of the church had ingested poison. During the investigation it was revealed that members of the church that had grown ill had all consumed the same thing during the morning service: the coffee.
Laboratory tests showed that the tap water, sugar and unbrewed coffee were all negative for any substance, but the brewed coffee in the large urn tested positive for significant amounts of arsenic.
Five days later on May 2nd, 2003, police arrived at the farmhouse of 53-year-old Daniel Bondeson and found him with a single gunshot wound to the chest. He later passed away and his death was ruled a suicide. Detectives also found a handwritten note where Daniel admitted to the poisonings and said he acted alone, and they found that the source of the arsenic was from a chemical container on Daniel’s property. It was determined that he had driven by himself to the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church and then entered the kitchen while the members of the congregation were attending the worship service, where he then poured liquid arsenic into the coffee urn.
Daniel had also poisoned his sister Norma. He had been a member of the congregation and it is still unclear as to why he poisoned the coffee or what his intentions were, and many of his fellow churchgoers were shocked that he had anything to do with the crime. This remains one of the largest cases of poisonings and the 13th largest arsenic poisoning in the history of the US.
Image sources:
cbsnews.com - “Maine Church Death May Be Murder”
wgme.com - “Special Report: New Sweden arsenic poisonings”