A Wisconsin woman has been found guilty of poisoning her longtime friend with eye drops, then making the death look like a suicide and stealing nearly $300,000 from the dead woman.
Jesse Kulczewski, 39, confessed to dumping six bottles of Visine into a water bottle in 2018 and giving it to Lynne Harnan, who said she was suicidal and drank the contaminated water. He claimed to have requested it.
But a Waukesha grand jury on Tuesday rejected Kulczewski’s explanation and found him guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of theft in connection with her death.
Hernan was found dead in his Pewaukee apartment on October 3, 2018, with a drug crushed in his chest. Kruczewski called 911 and said his family friend was not breathing and believed he may have committed suicide.
The scene was made to look like a suicide by overdose, but the Waukesha County coroner found tetrahydrozoline, the main ingredient in Visine, in her body and ruled her death a homicide.
Kruczewski appeared to be a caring friend and reportedly checked in on Hernan every day, but in reality he had created a credit card in the deceased woman’s name and maxed out her bank account.
“She never spent a day worrying about Lynn. She had opened a J.C. Penney account in Lynn’s name, and while she knew she had just poisoned Lynn, He used the account to go shopping and do online shopping,” said Waukesha County Brig. District Attorney Randy Sitzberger said. According to WISN12 News.
“Lynn Hernan became worth more to Jesse Kurczewski dead than alive,” he added.
Kurczewski was arrested nearly a year after Hernan’s death after investigators discovered he had stolen $290,000 from Hernan.
Before the killing, she maxed out her credit cards and suspiciously accepted several large checks from Hernan, including some for more than $130,000, prosecutors said. milwaukee journal sentinel report.
“Lynn always gave Jessie money because that’s what she wanted,” Lynn’s attorney Donna Kushler said, according to the newspaper. She said, “She gave Jesse money and it made her happy. Jesse was like a daughter to her.”
Investigators also discovered that Kruczewski had searched for “household poisons” in his cell phone’s deleted search history, WISN reported.
According to court video, Kulczewski sobbed as the jury’s decision was read in court Tuesday afternoon.
She faces life in prison for murder and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 7th.
Prosecutors said she killed a woman they said had a mother-daughter relationship over money.
“The defendant betrayed Lynn out of greed,” Assistant District Attorney Abby Nicholey said after the verdict.
with post wire
