North Carolina investigators say a 2025 poisoning death has cracked open a homicide case that had been cold for nearly two decades. Authorities on Wednesday announced the arrest of 52-year-old Gudrun Casper-Leinenkugel of Hendersonville, who is accused of killing her adult daughter, identified as Leela Livis, last November. An arrest warrant charges her with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, and three counts of distributing a prohibited food or beverage, NBC News reports. She's accused of giving Livis, another daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend poisoned wine at a 12-person Thanksgiving dinner, reports Fox Carolina.
According to an arrest warrant, authorities say Casper-Leinenkugel used the chemical acetonitrile, a clear colorless liquid that the body slowly converts to cyanide, causing "delayed toxicity," People reports. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation says that Livis' death was caused by poisoning and that the two other people, Mia Lacey and Richard Pegg, survived. "After an extensive and comprehensive investigation," the Henderson County Sheriff's Office Violent Crime Unit charged Casper-Leinenkugel in connection with Livis' killing and the attempted murders, the SBI said.
Investigators say that work on the 2025 case led them to tie Casper-Leinenkugel to the 2007 death of Michael Schmidt, who died in a Hendersonville house fire, though they have not explained how the two cases are linked or how Schmidt allegedly died. According to court documents, authorities say Casper-Leinenkugel killed both victims with "malice aforethought," the Charlotte Observer reports. Fox Carolina reports that during a bond hearing Tuesday, authorities revealed that Casper-Leinenkugel, former owner of a restaurant in Asheville, is linked to other deaths under investigation. She was denied bond and is due back in court on Feb. 10.
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