A jury in the US county of Waukesha found a 39-year-old resident of Wisconsin guilty of murdering her 62-year-old friend and stealing the equivalent of over a million zlotys. The 39-year-old allegedly gave the woman a bottle of water into which she had previously poured several bottles of eye drops.
Lynn Hernan was found dead in her Pewaukee, Wisconsin apartment in October 2018 with crushed medications on her chest. As CBS News recalled, Jessy Kurczewski called the police and said that her 62-year-old friend was unconscious and not breathing. The woman added that she was a family friend and visited Hernan every day. The Waukesha County coroner ruled the deceased a murder victim after testing for tetrahydrozoline, a chemical used in the form of hydrochloride as eye drops, in her system.
From the beginning, Kurczewski convinced the authorities that Hernan committed suicide. She later admitted that she brought the 62-year-old a bottle of water filled with six bottles of Visine eye drops. – She just liked vodka. She also liked Visine. I have no idea why, said Kurczewski’s defense attorney, Pablo Galaviz, during one of the hearings reported by ABC News. In 2021, a 39-year-old woman was arrested and charged with the murder of Hernan and theft of PLN 290,000. dollars (approx. PLN 1.1 million – ed.).
On Tuesday, a Waukesha County jury found Kurczewski guilty of the charges. The 39-year-old will be sentenced on December 7. According to prosecutors quoted by CBS News, she faces life in prison. Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Abbey Nickolie said in a statement that the verdict “sends a clear message to the community that our society will not tolerate the intentional acts of taking someone’s life.”
Jessy Kurczewski in courtMike De Sisti/Associated Press/East News
“The defendant betrayed Lynn out of greed,” Nickolie told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing. “This case has highlighted the financial vulnerability of a victim and what a person would do to get what they want,” she added. During the trial, prosecutors found that Kurczewski was “one of the beneficiaries of Hernan’s will” and pointed out that “Lynn Hernan became worth more to the defendant dead than alive.” According to ABC News, prosecutors expressed satisfaction with the guilty verdict and said the coroner’s work provided “significant evidence” in the case.
Main photo source: Mike De Sisti/Associated Press/East News