Background: The rural road where Gudrun Casper-Leinenkugel lives in Hendersonville, North Carolina (Google Maps). Inset: Gudrun Casper-Leinenkugel (North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation).
A North Carolina woman is accused of slipping a deadly chemical into the drinks of at least three people, killing one — and authorities say this isn”t the first time she has committed murder.
Gudrun Casper-Leinenkugel, 52, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the 2025 death of 32-year-old Leela Livis, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation announced in a statement.
Officials say that the investigation unearthed information about a decades-old slaying, adding a second murder charge to the case against Casper-Leinenkugel.
“During the course of the investigation, Detectives located evidence linking Casper-Leinenkugel to the murder of Michael Schmidt that occurred in Henderson County in 2007,” the NCSBI statement said.
The woman, who had reportedly previously opened a restaurant in Asheville, is also charged with two counts of attempted murder, state officials said, as well as three counts of distribution of prohibited food or beverage.
“[T]he defendant unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did knowingly distributed or otherwise caused to be placed in a position of human accessibility or ingestion a beverage which contained a poisonous chemical, acetonitrile, which might cause death or serious physical injury,” an arrest warrant reviewed by Law&Crime said. Acetonitrile is a chemical solvent used for a variety of purposes, including pharmaceuticals, pesticides and batteries.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, acetonitrile “forms cyanide in the body” and can result in “delayed toxicity.”
The defendant was the subject of a 2016 story on local news website Mountain Xpress about the opening of her restaurant, Patton Public House, in nearby Asheville.
According to that story, Casper-Leinenkugel had opened “six restaurants and bars across the country.”
Court records show that a judge denied Casper-Leinenkugel’s request for release, and that she is currently being held at the Henderson County Detention Facility. No future court date was indicated.
