Succinylcholine – The Perfect Murder Weapon?

Seeing that my boyfriend, Jaren, and I watch way too much true crime TV, we have noticed a lot of references to the drug succinylcholine (pronounced suck-sin-al-coal-lean), or sux for short, lately, so we thought it deserved a blog post.

Many of these crime shows are labeling succinylcholine as the perfect murder weapon, though a cruel one since succinylcholine does not render a person unconscious. Instead, the victim maintains full consciousness, but their bodies are paralyzed. Succinylcholine works by keeping muscles from contracting, which makes it impossible to breath. The victim feels themselves suffocate as respiratory failure claims their life, but are unable to communicate or move – truly a terrifying way to die.

There is no antidote to succinylcholine – only artificial respirator can be used to maintain breathing. If this is not done within 5 minutes of the injection, death is imminent.

Succinylcholine is a muscle relaxer often used in the ER, due it its fast onset, usually within 30 seconds, or in conjunction with anesthetics during surgeries. Under doctor supervision, the respiratory rates of a patient can be monitored artificially. Therefore, a lethal dose in a homicide is the same dose used in a hospital, but under doctor supervision.

It is considered the perfect murder weapon since death by a lethal injection is often explained away by cardiac arrest. During routine toxicology screens, succinylcholine does not show up unless it is specifically tested for.

Furthermore, in the body, succinylcholine is broken down by enzymes in human plasma into succinic acid and nitrogen containing choline. Both of these are normal components of human tissues. That is why it is difficult for medical examiners to use chemical examination alone to prove a homicide by succinylcholine poisoning.

Other circumstances of the death need to be analyzed to see if they make a complete picture of murder including, motive and means of obtaining the substance.

Famous Cases Involving Succinylcholine

Dr. William Sybers
Dr. Sybers, a Florida medical examiner, was convicted of killing his wife by way of succinylcholine poisoning,10 years after her death. Suspicions arose after the doctor insisted that no autopsy be performed on his wife. Two years after his conviction, it was overturned since the tests that were conducted to detect succinylcholine in her body had not been verified by an outside expert, making the evidence inadmissible. Furthermore, the same test performed on body tissues from cadavers that were not poisoned by succinylcholine did come back positive for the drug since the body does make a similar compound naturally.

Genene Jones, RN
Jones, a nurse, was indicted on two counts of murder in Kerr County, Texas, charged with injecting lethal doses of a muscle-relaxants, including succinylcholine to deliberately cause a 15-month-old girl’s death. Additional charges of injury were filed in the cases of six other children. During the trial, ego was presented as her motive as Jones allegedly sought to become a hero or “miracle worker” by “saving” children in life-and-death situations.

Chaz Higgs
Higgs, a critical care nurse in Reno, Nevada, was found guilty of murdering his wife, state Controller Kathy Augustine, by injecting her with succinylcholine. Chaz had mentioned numerous times to co-workers that succinylcholine was the perfect murder weapon.

Kim Hricko
The prosecution alleged that Kim injected her husband, Steve, with a lethal dose of Succinylcholine, before setting fire to his body. Kim, who worked at a local hospital, had access to the drug. In addition, the autopsy showed a normal level of carbon monoxide in his lungs, indicating that he was dead (or couldn’t breathe) before the fire started. A Maryland jury found her guilty of both murder and arson, and sentenced Kim Hricko to life in prison, plus thirty years concurrent.

Stay Brutal!