Forensic Files | Til Death Do Us Part | FULL EPISODE | HD | True Crime Procedure Investigation Drama | Forensic Files

[Music] When Bobby Curley was brought to the hospital hallucinating and in extreme
pain, doctors could not find the cause. At first, they diagnosed a neurological problem,
but his condition deteriorated. Something he was given in the hospital wasn't curing him.
It was killing him. [Music] 32-year-old Bobby Curley was a young man with a ready smile, many good friends,
and a loving family. My brother Bobby, he was a a fun-loving guy. He really was. He cared for his family very much,
myself and his mom and my other brother Dave. Um he was just an all-around great guy.
Bobby was a perfect brother, a great brother. We fished together a lot. We'd go to
Canada twice a year fishing, and we'd have a ball up there. In August of 1990, Bobby married Joanne
Chopak, a young widow with a 4-year-old daughter. Bobby and Joanne had been dating for
about a year following the death of Joanne's first husband in an automobile accident.
I gave them my blessings. I said it was time for him to get married and have a life of his own.
They had a beautiful wedding. Bob really wanted to meet a nice girl and start a family and just enjoy life.
And he said he really loved her, and I was very happy for Bob. The couple moved into Joanne's home on a
quiet street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Bobby worked for the Morgan Corporation
as an electrician, and in May of 1991, he and his crew started work on a major renovation project in a local chemistry
lab. We'd go in. Supposedly, we were told that everything would be cleared out of the labs. There would be
nothing in there. But we'd go in a lab and there'd be bottles of chemicals here,
stuff over there spilled and that, and uh it was kind of you know, uh I thought hazardous.
3 months into the project, Bobby became ill. His brother noticed something was wrong
when they met at a local bar one day after work. After one beer, he was ready to leave. I
asked him why, and he said he he just didn't feel right. His feet were burning for some reason
and his feet hurt, and he had a hard time walking. And I didn't know what was the problem.
Bobby also complained of numbness in his hands and pain in his feet. When he went
to the local hospital, doctors diagnosed his illness as Guillain-Barré syndrome,
a rare condition that causes numbness and weakness of the extremities. Although it can be serious, most
patients recover. Bobby's condition gradually improved and he was released from the hospital,
but the pain returned, this time even worse than before. He was also vomiting. He couldn't even stand up.
And he had to go to the bathroom. I remember my sister and I had to literally carry him to the bathroom.
Once we got him into the bathroom, he looked at me and he said, "Sue, please call the ambulance." He knew he was that
sick. This time, Curley was taken to a regional medical center about a hundred miles away.
When he got there, he was hallucinating and had to be restrained. I thought maybe at one point that he
would get better, but he never did. He got worse and worse. He couldn't sit, he couldn't lay, he couldn't do Everything
was bothering him. Although Curley's blood tests were all normal, Dr. Donovan had a hunch,
and if he was correct, Bobby Curley was dying. When Bobby Curley was examined by
doctors in the regional medical center, his blood tests were all normal, but his doctors noticed something that
had previously been overlooked. Bobby Curley was losing his hair. He had had weakness and numbness in the
extremities, and he particularly had had burning and pain on the soles of his feet, which is a classical description
of arsenic and thallium poisoning. That coupled with the hair loss almost makes the diagnosis.
A special urine test confirmed Dr. Donovan's suspicion. Curley was suffering from thallium
poisoning. Thallium is a rare and highly toxic poison, which doesn't show up in routine
lab tests. Before it was banned in the United States in the early '70s, thallium was commonly used in rat
poison. It can take months to build up in the body before causing symptoms. Unfortunately, there is no known
antidote for thallium poisoning. Well, my first thought was could I save this patient? Unfortunately, by the time
I was involved in this case and the diagnosis was being established, there was very little that can be done.
And I remember him pointing to all his um diplomas and everything else, his certificates on his walls and saying,
"All of these can't do anything for your brother." He said, "There is just nothing that we
can do. Your brother is going to die." On September 26th, Bobby Curley lapsed into a coma.
When there were no longer any signs of brain activity, he was taken off life support.
We said our goodbyes to Bobby and we were we went in and I couldn't see Bobby going. I couldn't.
Oh, it wasn't easy. I talked to him. Uh who knows, maybe he did hear. We don't know.
But it wasn't good. It wasn't fun. The autopsy confirmed that Curley died of complications caused by thallium
poisoning, most likely one large dose. Hospital officials notified the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration to see if Curley could have ingested the thallium while working at the chemistry lab. One of Curley's
coworkers believed the work site was unsafe. In one lab, I found a wiping rag that had a note put on it, "Thallium
wiping rag, touch me and die." And I remember this was after Bobby was already sick.
And I remember going to tell the brother Joey and the other guys uh "You don't go in that room and work.
You know, there's thallium. It's a heavy metal. It's a poison and uh I don't think we should bother going in
there." Thallium can be ingested, it can be absorbed through the skin, or it can be
inhaled. So, any one of those routes could give you um a poisoning-type exposure.
To find out if thallium could have been accidentally ingested by workers in the lab, air samples were collected, counter
and shelf surfaces were swabbed, and dust and dirt samples were all taken for analysis.
Joanne Curley told investigators that her husband had brought home some cabinets from the laboratory which were
going to be discarded. The cabinets were also tested for thallium. The results of all of these tests were
negative, and none of the other electricians who worked with Bobby Curley at the
chemistry lab had thallium in their systems. Joanne Curley requested a thallium test
for herself. Both Joanne and her 4-year-old daughter Angela tested positive for thallium.
It was not enough to either cause symptoms or even to need treatment, but it did indicate that there had been
abnormal exposure to thallium for both of them. Investigators found traces of thallium
in Curley's home. They found it in two thermoses Bobby took with him to work every day,
thermoses that usually held iced tea. I did not know who placed the thallium in the iced tea
containers. I cannot confirm that, but I think that somebody certainly did, and that caused
his death, and homicide is one person causing the death of another. Police turned their attention to Bobby
Curley's coworkers and the possibility of a practical joke gone bad. When traces of thallium were found in a
thermos Bobby Curley took to work, police questioned his coworkers. They'd ask me how well he got along with the
other guys on the job. Was there any bad blood? Did he have any arguments? Uh stuff like that.
Bobby Curley was only 32 years old when he was named foreman of the electrical job at the chemistry lab. His promotion
bypassed several older, more experienced electricians. Was jealousy a possible motive?
Investigators also discovered that Curley was sometimes the victim of practical jokes. Coworkers would
sometimes lace his food with seasonings as a joke. Curley was just one of uh uh several people that had jokes played
on him, but it would be like uh hot pepper and chewing tobacco or things of that nature.
And it was theorized that possibly somebody put the thallium in his iced tea mistaking it for Valium
just to see what it would do to him. When investigators looked closely at the thermoses in Curly's home,
they found thallium in the threads of a pint-sized thermos that Bobby never took
to work. JoAnn Curly offered an explanation. [Music] She recalled that once after her husband
came home from work, she poured some leftover iced tea from his work thermos into the smaller pint-sized one so it
wouldn't go to waste. JoAnn said that she and her daughter may have consumed some of that iced tea
later, which would explain how they had thallium in their systems. Bobby Curly's family grew increasingly
suspicious of JoAnn's possible involvement in Bobby's death, especially after thallium was found in Bobby's
thermos. Curly's family asked authorities if there was any way to prove whether JoAnn
was involved. To find out, the district attorney had Curly's body exhumed for a second
autopsy. Forensic toxicologist Dr. Frederick Rieders was particularly interested in
analyzing Bobby Curly's hair. When a substance like thallium is circulating in the bloodstream, it will
attach to the hair root, which is a cell. Thallium then stays on the hair shaft even as the hair grows out.
Hair grows at the average rate of 1.3 cm per month, which means that a strand of
hair can contain 6 months or more of medical history. Dr. Rieders took samples of Bobby
Curly's hair and cut them into smaller pieces, a process called segmental analysis of the hair samples.
Those segments were then analyzed with the test called atomic absorption spectrophotometry,
which shows which sections of hair contain thallium and which sections did not. The results were plotted on a calendar
and indicated that Bobby Curly was exposed to thallium long before he started work in the chemistry lab.
Curly received a dose of thallium, not a very large one, essentially 2 months after they got
married, about a year before he died. Forensic tests would soon provide police with even more shocking evidence,
evidence that pointed in only one direction. Segmental hair analysis indicated Bobby
Curly had been systematically poisoned with thallium for almost a year, long before he started work in the chemistry
lab. And the tests also indicated Bobby had ingested a massive dose of thallium as he lay dying in the hospital.
This horrifying scenario was confirmed when Dr. Rieders discovered a large concentration of thallium in Bobby
Curly's intestines. He got a very large dose not too long before he died. The concentrations in the intestine were a
thousand times higher than the concentrations in his blood and in his autopsy tissues,
which meant that they were of very recent origin. Using the timeline of ingestion,
investigators eliminated individuals who had no contact with Bobby Curly during the times he had been poisoned.
This was an investigation of exclusion, eliminating people that couldn't have done it until you got down to the one
person left that had to have done it, which was JoAnn. Police also learned that JoAnn and Bobby
were not always a happy couple. At first, I do think Bob was very happy, but then
even just even a few months into the marriage, I wasn't quite sure. Bob um made some different comments,
maybe that he wished he never got married. [Music] Police discovered that shortly after the
wedding, Bobby made JoAnn the sole beneficiary of his life insurance policies worth nearly $300,000.
Forensic tests showed that the poisonings began approximately 2 months after Bobby and JoAnn married.
That was a shocker. I couldn't believe that. It's like she planned it right from day
one. When the papers were signed making her beneficiary of everything, that's when she started.
Family members recall JoAnn's disturbing behavior the moment Bobby was taken off
life support. Remember, none of us could go into the room and stay there and watch this
happen, but JoAnn could. She wanted to stay in the room and um see Bob die. On December 12th,
1996, JoAnn Curly was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Facing overwhelming forensic evidence
and the possibility of the death penalty, she pled guilty to a lesser charge of third-degree murder.
At her sentencing, JoAnn publicly admitted what forensic testing had already confirmed, that she had
systematically poisoned her husband with thallium. Today, JoAnn Curly is a confessed
killer. Today, JoAnn Curly surrendered. In open court and under oath, JoAnn Curly admitted that she personally
poisoned her husband over a lengthy period. She openly admitted to how it was done,
when it was done, and to the type of poison used. She placed the thallium in her husband's
iced tea about a dozen times. Her confession matched almost perfectly Dr. Rieders' timeline.
And that her confession paralleled it, I I frankly I was amazed. I wasn't proud or delighted. I mean, it was good, but I
was amazed. JoAnn's confession told a horrific tale of murder motivated by greed. Her answer
when asked point-blank why she did this was for the money. I killed him for the money.
JoAnn said she used rat poison she found in her grandmother's basement. At first, she used only a small amount
in her husband's iced tea, but later increased the amount when she feared it wasn't working.
[Music] Here's your tea. Uh I think so. Good day. You too. [Music] In the hospital, JoAnn finished what she
started. [Music] She poured a massive amount of thallium into his soda and gave it to him as he
lay dying. I'll bring you something cold to drink. [Music] That's unbelievable. Be married 2 months and
start killing your husband. And the last one, that's the one that that really bothered me.
That he got it while he was in the hospital cuz I was there that day and JoAnn was there. I was sitting next
to her and her purse was right there between us. And to know now that the thallium was in her purse
at that time was really that that bothered me. That really bothered me. Tests revealed that JoAnn and her
daughter ingested minute traces of thallium sometime after Bobby's death. JoAnn may have ingested the thallium
intentionally and given a small amount to her daughter in order to divert police suspicion.
JoAnn Curly denies this and says she has no idea how she and her daughter ingested the trace amounts of thallium.
Ironically, JoAnn Curly was not aware that thallium was present in the chemistry lab where Bobby was working
before his death. Her not knowing what the chemical was that she was poisoning him with and then
to have found it at the university where he had last worked, you couldn't ask for
a bigger coincidence when you were sitting there as JoAnn Curly. But forensic science had established a
toxicological timeline of a blushing bride's evil plan. JoAnn Curly was sentenced to 10 to 20
years in state prison. Well, obviously she was somebody who was intent upon carrying out her plan. She
was intent on on a result, and the result that she wanted was was Bob Curley's death. And uh
um it was it was obviously a a a ghoulish type of a crime that you don't see very often
anywhere in this country. I could never forgive JoAnn for what she did to Bob. To watch him die like that.
It was heartbreaking for me to watch him die. Any human being to die like that. No one deserves to die like that.
I know there's evil out there, but you know, I I just that's the first time I ever ran into anybody that could
methodically poison somebody and watch them die. She's a monster. That's what she is.
I'll always believe that. In my heart she took somebody away from us that was very dear to us and we miss
him terribly. I couldn't believe that they got so much from so little. From a few strands of hair they were
able to tell when she gave him the poison, how often she gave him the poison, and basically in how how big a doses she
gave him poison. Right up to the last day. It's amazing. [Music] [Music] [Applause]
[Music]

Season 4 Episode 6 | The doctors at the hospital couldn't determine the cause of Bobby Curley's hallucinations and intense pain. They treated it as a neurological disorder but his condition deteriorated. He was being poisoned.

Brief Summary

Bobby Curley was poisoned by his wife JoAnn, leading to his death and her eventual confession and arrest.

Key points

Bobby Curley's Mysterious Illness. Bobby Curley was hospitalized with severe symptoms, but doctors struggled to find the cause.
A Gruesome Discovery. Forensic tests revealed Bobby was poisoned long before he started work at the lab.
The Shocking Confession. JoAnn Curly confessed to systematically poisoning her husband with thallium over time.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was killing him.

Describing Bobby Curley's deteriorating condition in the hospital.

0:25WatchOct 15, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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