The Sheriff's Office in Ada County, Idaho has connected a 1982 cold case death to the Tylenol Murders, when seven people died in the Chicago area after taking Tylenol laced with cyanide in September and October of that same year.
It was December of 1982 when a man died in a church in Boise, Idaho.
It was ruled a suicide by cyanide poisoning.
And it became a cold case.
The man came to be known as the "Unknown Wanderer."
A set of keys were found with his body.
Detective Tim Cooper re-opened the case in 2019, and he traced one key to a hardware store in Jacksonville, Florida, and ultimately to property records identifying Dr. Mathew Francis Betkouski, a chemist, who, the detective learned, suffered from mental illness.
DNA would later confirm the identity.
At least twice, Cooper said, Betkouski made similar comments to colleagues in Florida and New Mexico.
"Concerns mounted after co-workers reported Dr. Betkouski discussing the perfect crime and how cyanide could be used as a less messy means of taking one's life," Cooper said during a press conference.
"A fellow scientist recalled that Dr. Betkouski made a comment about how poison could be introduced into over-the-counter capsules, if a person wished to do so."
See the press conference here:
Cooper said there's other circumstantial evidence, including a form of cyanide found in Betkouski's brother's home in Los Angeles, where Betkouski had stayed, along with a map of Chicago.
It was a different form of cyanide than what was used in the Tylenol Murders and Cooper suggested it may have been made by Betkouski.
There's also evidence that Betkouski travelled to Chicago in late 1981.
Detective Cooper said they're not naming him as a suspect in the Tylenol Murders.
He said they found "a connection" and the case needs more investigation.
Cooper said Betkouski lived in Florida, New Mexico
