Mass Spectrometry Solves
Murder Mystery
A Florida jury has
found a former Florida medical examiner
guilty of murdering his wife by lethal
injection nearly 10 years ago.
Dr. William Sybers was convicted of
first-degree murder in the death of his
wife, Kay. Sybers, 68, who retired to
Malahat, British Columbia in Canada worked
as a district medical examiner and had a
private pathology practice when his
52-year-old wife died at their Panama City
Beach, Fla., home. The Florida Department
of Law Enforcement began investigating the
next day after a tip from a former
colleague that Sybers had ordered no
autopsy.
Sybers, who did not testify in his
defense, told investigators he was abiding
by his wife's wishes but subsequently
agreed to an autopsy. By then, the body
had been embalmed and the autopsy failed
to detect a cause of death.
That changed in late 1999 when Dr. Kevin
Ballard, Director of Research and Analytic
Toxicology at the National Medical Service
in Pennsylvania found evidence of
succinylcholine, a drug used to paralyse
patients during surgery in the embalmed
tissue.
Ballard testified he used mass
spectrometry to detect succinylmonocholine
derived from the drug when it degrades.
The FBI's laboratory confirmed the drug
was present in tissue by the same
procedure.
Defence witnesses criticized the
Pennsylvania laboratory's procedures and
suggested the tissue samples may have been
contaminated. They testified Kay Sybers
died naturally from cardiac arrhythmia
caused by a severe asthma attack.
But the autopsy also disclosed two needle
marks on Mrs. Sybers arm. Mr. Sybers told
investigators his wife was having chest
pains and he tried to draw blood for
analysis but botched the job. The syringe
would have been conclusive proof that the
drug had been injected but it was never
found.