The betrayal had gone on long enough. For years, Judy Church had known her boyfriend, Leroy Fowler, was seeing another woman.
Leroy had moved into Judy’s house as a tenant. Romance blossomed and they went from roommates to lovers in 2012.
But two years later, Leroy had reconnected with an old friend named Barbara Randall on Facebook.
Ever since, there’d been three people in the relationship. For a long time Judy – who was nine years Leroy’s senior – reluctantly put up with the arrangement, showering Leroy with gifts in the belief that one day he’d pick her.
She’d treat him to milkshakes and sweets, which he liked even though he’d lost the ability to taste properly after a bout of Covid. And once she even gifted him a motorbike to try and stop him seeing his mistress.
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Barbara, meanwhile, nicknamed her love rival ‘grandma’, and Leroy played the women off against each other, fuelling their resentment by passing information back and forth, while splitting his time between the two.
By 2022, Judy had had enough. She sent Barbara a text message. He’s playing us both with lies upon lies… He’s a coward! Plain and simple and it’s time we BOTH toss him out! she wrote.
But the words didn’t lead to action. Instead, Judy and Leroy made plans to move from Massachusetts to Florida together.
Would Judy ever get the happily ever after she wanted?
Leroy’s 55th birthday came around in November 2022, and Judy spoiled her cheating boyfriend with sugary treats the way she always did. That evening she made him his favourite orange fruit punch Powerade sports drink.
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It would be Leroy’s last.
By 8pm he was thrashing around the bedroom, blood streaming from his nose. Judy called emergency services.
‘My boyfriend must have ingested something and he can’t stand,’ she told them.
‘His nose is bleeding and he told me to call the ambulance.’
By the time paramedics arrived, Leroy was confused and in agony. He was rushed to hospital, where doctors battled to save his life, but it was no good. Leroy had suffered catastrophic kidney damage and died two days later.
An autopsy exposed something unusual. Leroy had calcium oxalate crystals in his kidneys.
It pointed to poisoning by a highly toxic chemical – ethylene glycol – an ingredient in antifreeze, hydraulic brake fluids, and windscreen de-icing solutions.
But how did Leroy end up ingesting antifreeze?
A police search of the home he shared with Judy uncovered a Powerade sports drink bottle with orange residue in it.
Also found was a bottle of orange de-icer – a chemical used to melt ice from car windows.
A notebook that Judy had written in was also found. One entry read, I hate being alone. I hate you for all the lies. You don’t love me, this is not love.
Tests confirmed Judy’s DNA was on the bottle, and there was a high concentration of chemical ethylene glycol inside it.
Leroy’s sister Tammy told police, before his death, her brother had told her he was worried Judy might have been slipping something in his coffee shakes.
Could Judy have been driven so mad by jealousy she’d poisoned Leroy on his birthday?
A month later the police arrested Judy Church on suspicion of murder.
In March this year, Judy Church, appeared in Essex Superior Court, where she pleaded not guilty.
The defence claimed she loved Leroy, and pointed to his medical history and drug use which could have explained his death.
But the prosecution said Church had waited at least 30 minutes to call emergency services while Leroy writhed in agony on the bedroom floor.
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She’d only called when he’d begged her to, and after filming 13 videos of him suffering.
Footage from her mobile showed Leroy staggering and groaning. In it, she could be heard mocking him, saying, ‘Is it your birthday?’ and ‘You having fun?’
‘I’m gonna die, you know that, don’t you?’ Leroy was heard to say.
In further shocking revelations, Leroy’s stepson Michael Fowler alleged that Church had taken out an insurance policy in Leroy’s name a year before his death, and she’d offered him $10,000 to kidnap Leroy from Barbara’s house.
Witnesses said Judy was so bitter about the love triangle, she had a voodoo doll representing Barbara that she’d stick pins in and throw about.
The prosecution described the poisoned Powerade as ‘the murder weapon’ – the taste of antifreeze masked by the sugary flavour.
Barbara, 64, told the court how Leroy would play her and Judy off against each other.
‘No-one deserves to suffer like that. No-one deserves to have their life ended in fear and pain at the hands of someone he thought he could trust,’ she told the court.
Judy Church, 67, was found guilty of first-degree murder ‘with premeditation and extreme atrocity and cruelty.’
A month later, Judge James Lang sentenced her to life without parole.
After years of putting up with her lover’s infidelity, when Judy Church finally snapped, she made sure no-one else would ever have him.
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