A woman is accused of fatally poisoning her husband with antifreeze so she could marry an inmate at the prison where she was employed.
Amy Murray was charged with first-degree murder after the body of Joshua Murray was found in their burned Iberia home on Dec. 11. Investigators believe Amy Murray used accelerant to start a fire after she allegedly poisoned her husband.
Authorities say she fled the home with her 11-year-old son and her dogs after setting the fire, according to probable cause documents obtained by local news outlets. She told investigators that when she returned to the home there was too much smoke for her to go inside.
“It looked suspicious,” Miller County Sheriff Louie Gregoire told KMIZ. “The sheriff’s office detectives came in with the fire marshal’s office department and started investigating it and continued from there.”
The defendant worked as a nurse at the Jefferson City Correctional Center and apparently was romantically involved with inmate Eugene Claypool, according to authorities.
“Several phone conversations between Amy Murray and Eugene Claypool talked about having a life now that Joshua Murray was deceased and out of the picture,” read probable cause documents obtained by Lake Expo.
Amy Murray apparently worked to try to get Claypool out of prison early, according to the news website. Claypool is serving a life sentence for murder, according to prison records.
Murray, 40, was arrested Thursday. She was being held at the Miller County Adult Detention Center on a $750,000 bond.
