 In January 1987, Stella Nickell's adult daughter, Cynthia Hamilton, approached police with information: Nickell had spoken to her daughter repeatedly about wanting her husband dead. He was a bore, Nickell said, who after having gotten sober, preferred to stay home and watch television rather than go out to bars. Nickell, Hamilton claimed, had even told her that she had tried to poison Bruce previously with foxglove. When that failed, she had begun library research into other methods and hit upon cyanide. Cynthia also claimed that Nickell had spoken to her about what the two of them could do with the insurance money if Bruce Nickell were dead.
