CRIME HUNTER: Woman's dreams of babies dashed by killer husband
Julie Keown was slowly poisoned to death with antifreeze
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For months, Julie Oldag Keown had been terrified about her deteriorating health.
The 31-year-old should have been in peak condition, but a mystery stomach ailment kept her in constant pain. She desperately scoured the internet trying to find out what was wrong.
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The only silver lining was her husband, James Keown.
James and Julie were an odd couple if ever there was one. Both from rural Missouri, he was the 34-year-old son of a political lobbyist and a boastful showoff who liked the finer things in life.
On the other hand, Julie was a down-to-earth farm girl who liked nothing better than being at home.
The couple met on a blind date.
She graduated from nursing school, and while he never finished college, James had plans. Big plans. And Julie was part of those plans.
He told old friends he was working for ESPN in Chicago – America’s biggest sports radio network. Julie worked as a nurse and dreamed of babies.
James then stunned friends when he told them he had been accepted into the prestigious Harvard Business School in Boston to pursue an MBA. He would also be telecommuting via laptop to his old job back in Kansas City.
The Keowns rented half of a two-family house in the Boston suburbs. After eight years of marriage, the quiet farm girl was ready to start a family.
But in June 2006, Julie became deathly ill, triggered by a low electrolyte count, she said. James had been plying her with Gatorade to get the count back up.
Despite the TLC, Julie wasn’t getting better. At the end of August 2006, he told Julie’s parents – Jack and Nancy Oldag – she was in the hospital.
Her condition baffled doctors despite tests showing she had lost half her kidney function. Julie was stunned and fearful that she would never have children.
She frantically began reading everything she could on kidney disease and what it meant for a woman who wanted to get pregnant. By late August, when her mother visited Boston, Julie was looking better.
In the car on a day trip, Julie dropped a bombshell.
“Mum, the doctor asked me the craziest question when I was at the hospital,” her mom recalled her saying. “He asked, ‘Is your husband trying to poison you?’ Isn’t that absurd?”
Jack and Nancy flew back home to Missouri. Julie appeared to be getting better.
A few days later, on the morning of Sept. 4, Julie Keown’s bizarre illness struck again. A kidney doctor later revealed that James had called her explaining Julie’s latest symptoms: garbled speech, confusion, difficulty walking.
“You need to get her to an emergency room right this minute,” the doctor told him.
Ten hours later, James walked his dying wife into the ER. Two hours later, she was in a coma from which she would never emerge.
When her frantic parents arrived at the hospital, they were stunned by what the doctors told them.
“Julie does have chronic kidney disease, but that’s not the reason she is so sick now – she’s been poisoned with ethylene glycol, otherwise known as antifreeze,” the doctor said.
“It’s been happening over a long period of time.”
On Sept. 8, 2006 – four days after first being admitted to the hospital – the machine keeping Julie alive was turned off.
But the heartbroken Oldags had some questions for police detectives. How could a car additive like antifreeze end up in their daughter’s system, and who put it there?
Did she kill herself or was she murdered?
James gave police an “unusually” complete medical history of Julie. The smooth man from the Show Me State was helpful and cooperative.
And he had a theory: Julie had killed herself, or else it was a horrible accident. Before she was stricken, James said his wife was sitting on a curb, appearing disoriented and drinking Gatorade. Maybe she picked it out of a neighbour’s trash?
Antifreeze is sweet-tasting, mixed with Gatorade, Julie may never have known the danger. But why kill herself by drinking antifreeze, an agonizing death? Something wasn’t right.
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Cops started looking at James Keown, but there was little to go on. He returned to Missouri. Money wasn’t a worry – he had Julie’s $250,000 insurance policy. James didn’t mention his recent heartache.
If he did, his story would change. Stomach cancer. Kidney failure. Suicide.
Then, in November 2007, detectives from the Massachusetts State Police were waiting for him as he finished his radio show. James Keown was charged with first-degree murder.
In June 2008, James went on trial for murder.
Prosecutors painted him as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character. He had woven a tapestry of half-truths and outright lies. His wife was in the dark. There was no ESPN, no Harvard. He was fired for embezzling $60,000 from his employer.
Julie knew nothing. Even as she was dying, she believed her hubby was the pinnacle of kindness.
On his laptop were myriad searches on how to poison someone. His lawyers argued that James loved his wife deeply, and even prosecution witnesses agreed.
But James Keown was headed for a permanent commercial break. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The judge told him, “I am truly in the presence of an evil person.”
The James Keown show is now off the air.
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