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There are a lot of ways to die. Sometimes, however, there’s a murder that’s so weird and unorthodox it really gets your attention. The Jessy Kurczewski case is one such instance. Kurczewski poisoned a woman she was supposedly caring for, and set up a whole scene to make it look like a suicide. Her choice of poison? Tetrahydrozoline, or the ingredient commonly found in eyedrops.
Tetrahydrozoline was approved by the FDA in 1954. It constricts blood vessels to “get the red out.” However, if you ingest it, the chemical quickly passes through your gastrointestinal tract and finds its way to your central nervous system and blood. Obviously, not a place you want blood vessels constricted.
To make matters worse, it’s odorless and clear, so it’s hard to detect. In children, a dose as little as 1 to 2 milliliters can be toxic. A bottle generally contains between 15 and 30 milliliters. Kurczewski poisoned her ailing beautician friend Lynn Hernan and stole more than $290,000 from her. A jury found her guilty on Nov. 14, 2023. The murder happened on Oct. 3, 2018, and Kurczewski was arrested in July a year later.
Here’s how it went down:
Why did Jessy Kurczewski poison Lynn Hernan with eye drops?
Kurczewski said 62-year-old Lynn Hernan was a family friend and she’d been checking up on her daily. Hernan suffered from a few ailments, including COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was basically in poor health and needed regular care from someone.
On the day of the murder, deputies found Hernan unresponsive in her recliner with a “large amount” of crushed pills on her chest and on a plate nearby. There were also prescription bottles everywhere.
Kurczewski told authorities she’d been checking in on Hernan “two to three times daily” to take care of her. She also revealed that she was Hernan’s power of attorney, which means she had control of Hernan’s financial affairs. It always boils down to money, doesn’t it?
When asked why Hernan would kill herself, Kurczewski claimed Hernan was acting weird all week, and that when she checked Hernan’s pills, they were never the right amount. She it was possible that Hernan was suicidal.
When deputies started asking around, people who knew Hernan said they didn’t think she would “intentionally or unintentionally overdose.” One of her cousins said it was suspicious that Hernan left everything she owned to Kurczewski.
Investigators changed the case to a murder investigation when the Waukesha County Medical Examiner found a lethal amount of tetrahydrozoline in her system, and all other medicines within “therapeutic amounts.”
In the report, the examiner said it would be “impossible” to ingest that much of the chemical through the eyes. To make things even more suspicious, Kurczewski kept calling the medical examiners office for the toxicology reports, showing “a great deal of interest and curiosity,” per the criminal complaint against her.
Deputies searched Kurczewski’s house and arrested her on charges of murder and theft on July 9, 2019, almost a year after Hernan’s death. When approached about the tetrahydrozoline, Kurczewski said that was something Hernan was “known” for and that she had a lot of it lying around. She also said she never saw Hernan ingest it.
When authorities revealed that no other medicines could have killed her, she said Hernan wanted to die and “staged” her own suicide. In a later interview, she said she saw Hernan drink vodka and Visine together. Why didn’t she say something earlier? She had “no rational explanation for not disclosing this information to detectives.”
Her story changed again in another subsequent interview. This time she said there was a water bottle with six bottles of visine in it and Hernan told her she wanted it, so she brought it to her with full knowledge of the contents.
Kurczewski said she “didn’t think” it would be fatal to Hernan because she had been “drinking it regularly for so long.” While she was in prison waiting for trial, Kurczewski shared more details with her cellmate at the Taycheedah Correctional Institution.
She had an “emotional breakdown” and said she gave Hernan “several bottles of Visine to kill her” — but she didn’t do it for money. She had a much more benevolent reason for doing it: She was compassionately ending Hernan’s suffering.
She then led detectives on a wild goose chase for a box that supposedly held recordings of Hernan’s final wishes, as well as parts of a gun, Visine bottles with dates on them, and papers signed by Hernan that would prove her innocence. Why wouldn’t she have said this before? She wanted to “get things in order.”
When investigators couldn’t find the box, she then said it was buried “several feet underground at Whitnall Park in freezer bags.” Officers tried to find it but were unable, even with the defendant guiding them on video from the jail.
Adding to the suspicion, Kurczewski had a history of gambling problems and fraud. Also, Hernan’s financial history “changed over time as contact with Kurczewski increased.” Detectives said that Kurczewski stole about $290k from Hernan, with about $130k through fraudulent checks.
After she was found guilty but before her sentencing, Kurczewski spoke with WTMJ in Milwaukee about the murder.
“Nobody got to know the Lynn I knew, the Lynn that I was there for, with and worked for daily, the Lynn that was my family that I loved and cared for,” Kurczewski said. “I could no longer wait. It is time I speak. I cannot be silenced.”
Why did Hernan “kill herself?” She was “troubled by what she did to her mom.” Despite the verdict, Kurczewski continues to claim her innocence. She was supposed to be sentenced on Dec. 7, 2023 but the proceedings turned into sort of a circus and both her lawyers asked to be withdrawn from the case.
Somehow, a letter with postage but no addresses on it was delivered to a friend of Kurczewski. The letter claimed Kurczewski’s lawyers were coming up with a plan to save her. All the recipient had to do was fake a Hernan voice recording.
Because of this, Kurczewski needs new lawyers. Her next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12, 2024. She faces a mandatory life sentence for the murder.