Raymond Kotomski was a 65-year-old retired corrections officer living in Pierpont, Ohio with his second wife Teresa Kotomski. In 2009, he fell ill at home and was rushed to the hospital. Teresa told the doctors that he’d drunk “something sweet.” The autopsy report found that Raymond died of Ethylene Glycol poisoning. (Ethylene Glycol is the primary ingredient in automotive antifreeze.) But the police didn’t have enough evidence to go on. The case went cold for four years. A new investigation in 2012 discovered Teresa’s phone records which put her with Raymond at the time he drank the poison. And just days before Raymond’s death, she had signed a lease to rent an apartment.
Teresa Kotomski was found guilty of Raymond’s death in July 2015. She insists that she is innocent and refused a plea deal that could have reduced the charges to manslaughter. She was sentenced to life in prison. Dateline NBC will air Josh Mankiewicz’s report on the case on December 4 at 10pm.
