Black Widow Caught in a Web

In a plot that resembles a made for television scheme to collect on a life insurance policy, alleged black widow killer Tami Duvall was arrested and charged with the murder of her spouse. The cause of death of 61 year old Alan Duvall was initially determined as accidental alcohol poisoning. However, after the discovery of a life insurance policy taken out by Duvall’s wife one month prior to his death in August 2007, authorities began to shift their focus from an accidental death to a murder investigation.

According to the Chicago Tribune, 51-year-old wife of the recently deceased was then charged with murder, insurance fraud and obstruction of justice.

“Authorities say in court documents that Duvall may have stolen morphine while working at a local nursing home and taken prescription muscle relaxants from one of her husband’s relatives. Investigators have said they believe Duvall used those drugs to poison her 61-year-old husband’s dinner. “

“She reported finding him dead the next morning in a chair on the back porch of their home in the city about 40 miles south of Indianapolis.”

Investigators originally called Duvall’s death accidental alcohol poisoning as his blood work came back with an alcohol level of .436 percent; however, according to court documents, Duvall’s blood also contained 82 times the maximum therapeutic level of morphine.  Prosecutors claim that Tami Duvall told people that she had planned on divorcing her husband, but persuaded him to sign a life insurance policy a month before his death listing her as the beneficiary. There was also the deceased’s step brother, Henry McCune, who became very suspicious of the presence of drugs in his system. He says that while his step-brother “liked to drink”, he was not known to use drugs and went as far to say that “if someone walked into his house with drugs, he would throw them out.”

Apparently, Tami began to get anxious to have Alan’s body cremated and continued to ask when the investigation was going to be closed, as it delayed her insurance payout.  The affidavit also states that Tami’s account of the death began to change stating to investigators that Alan had drank the morphine and took the pills to kill himself because  “he wasn’t willing to live if he couldn’t move back home and have free reign to do the things he wanted to do.”

Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge Stephen Heimann has entered a not guilty plea for Tami Duvall. Her trial begins on January 4, 2011.