Jacqueline Patrick may have gotten away with trying to kill her husband on Christmas Day 2013, if not for a simple spelling mistake.
Lacing her husband Douglas’s Lambrini Cherry drink with deadly antifreeze, the 55-year-old penned a fake suicide note stating Douglas’s purported desire die with dignity and not be revived.
There was one small problem though – the word ‘dignity’ was misspelled, and when police asked Ms Patrick to spell the word in their presence, she made the same mistake and wrote ‘dignaty’ instead of ‘dignity.’
According to news.com, the police’s suspicions about Ms Patrick were confirmed when they discovered her online search for the effects of antifreeze, as well as text messages she’d exchanged with her 21-year-old daughter Katherine about her plan.
“I got the stuff I will give him some later delete txt tell no one OK,” one message read. “He feels sick again I gave him more delete this,” said another.
After drinking two and a half glasses of the drugged drink, Ms Patrick called an ambulance to their south London home, and gave them Douglas’s “suicide note” on their arrival.
Tests in hospital confirmed he was suffering from antifreeze poisoning, and police were called when Ms Patrick said she thought he may have drunk it by mistake.
After several days in a coma, Mr Patrick woke up and began a yearlong rehabilitation in which he learned to walk and talk again.
Despite not wanting to pursue a case against his wife and daughter, Ms Patrick was jailed for 15 years after pleading guilty to attempted murder, while Katherine was sentenced to three years after admitting to inciting another to administer a noxious substance.
In a statement, Mr Patrick said, “I will never get over it. It broke me. I’m just a shell now. This was a person I was married to for over 25 years. A person I loved and love.”
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