But according to witnesses, Nick tried hard to stay out of outright illegal deals. That may be one reason he never earned enough to get out from under the debt. Looking for fresh leads, detectives returned to the sealed Lawson apartment.
Crime scene technicians carefully examined the front door while investigators interviewed neighbors. They asked whether anyone had seen suspicious strangers in the building. Most neighbors shrugged it off, saying no one had noticed the usual kind of troublemakers hanging around.
But detectives did uncover one important detail. Nick’s ex-wife, Elizabeth Lawson, had come to the apartment shortly before the tragedy. An older woman who lived across the hall confirmed that she had seen Elizabeth there the night before the family fell ill.
According to the neighbor, the ex-wife rarely showed up at that building. That evening, several outsiders entered the apartment with her. One of them was even a man wearing a law enforcement uniform.
The visit happened Saturday night, after 11 p.m. And by the neighbor’s account, it was anything but peaceful. Elizabeth still had legal registration tied to the apartment and claimed she had a right to be there.
She caused a loud scene, demanding that Natalie get out of what she called her apartment. Nick was not home at the time, so the group easily forced the pregnant woman out into the hallway. The frightened children, Annie and baby Maggie, were locked in a back room, where they cried for hours.
The neighbor said Natalie ran to her apartment to call the police. But the dispatcher reportedly told her that a domestic dispute was not enough to send a patrol car. Desperate, Natalie knocked on other doors asking for help, but no one stepped in.
For hours, Natalie paced the cold hallway in tears. Finally, Elizabeth and her noisy companions got ready to leave. The neighbor clearly remembered one final remark: “You think you’re going to have that baby? You won’t live that long.”
What exactly had Elizabeth meant by that chilling threat? Detectives knew they needed to bring her in for questioning immediately. But just then, they got shocking news from the city’s main emergency hospital: another patient had turned up with thallium poisoning.
The new victim was Leonard May, a 42-year-old herbal practitioner who ran a private alternative medicine practice. Doctors at the hospital shared an important detail. He had been admitted on March 22 with symptoms nearly identical to those seen in the Lawson family.
His condition had developed fast, beginning like a bad virus and escalating into severe muscle seizures. Leonard spent several difficult days in intensive care, but on March 28 he died. Detectives immediately went to the hospital where both he and his young assistant, Laura Miller, had been treated.
Fortunately, the young woman survived. She was now the only witness who might explain what had happened. Laura Miller, 21, was a medical student and Leonard’s assistant…
