New York woman attempted to kill husband by spiking drink with antifreeze with help of 8-year-old daughter

She poisoned her husband with antifreeze-filled drinks three times

(Brittany Comak / Twitter)

A woman in New York attempted to kill her husband three times by poisoning him with drink spiked with antifreeze, and often asked their eight-year-old daughter for help, prosecutors said Thursday.

Renee Burke, 40, and her husband Matthew were in midst of going through a chaotic divorce. A judge granted the husband custody of their children while Ms Burke was given limited visitation rights, the New York Daily News reported.

During a news conference, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Santomartino said, Ms Burke allegedly broke into her husband’s home in September to poison his drinks. Her third attempt was caught on camera.

On September 6, after the he poured himself a glass of wine, Mr Burke took a sip of the alcoholic beverage and immediately spat it out. Initially, he thought the wine had gone spoiled, but the babysitter reportedly said his five-year-old son told her that “Mommy came in and put something in Daddy’s drink.”

Then, two days later, Mr Burke felt something was iffy about a bottle of Pepsi he was drinking. The police said neighbours reported seeing a woman entering his home with his child earlier that day. Soon after, Mr Burke decided to enlist his brother for help in installing security cameras in his home.

After installing the video cameras, Ms Burke was allegedly seen pouring a pink liquid into a bottle of wine in her husband’s home. The video shows Mr Burke’s daughter assisting Ms Burke by removing the cork, Mr Santomartino said.

“You see her in the video try to poison him,” Rick Stafford, Mr Burke’s lawyer, told the New York Daily News. “You see her wiping her fingers off the bottle, off the corkscrew, off the cabinets.”

The police used a search warrant on Ms Burke’s home where they found a bottle of pink Prestone antifreeze in her kitchen. There were also several wine bottles discovered in Mr Burke’s home that has trace amounts of ethylene glycol—an odourless and toxic chemical in antifreeze.

Ms Burke’s internet records also shows her searching “what car liquids could kill humans?”

Ms Burke was charged with attempted murder. She was also ordered to be held on $200,000 cash or $400,000 bond.