Long IslandCrime
Suffolk DA: Woman tried to poison estranged husband with antifreeze
On Sept. 6, prosecutors say, Matthew Burke poured himself a glass of wine and spit it out. Later, they said, his children's baby-sitter told him that his son had told her, "Mommy came in and put something in Daddy's drink."
A Holbrook mother was charged Thursday with trying to kill her estranged husband by breaking into his house and putting antifreeze in his drinks, sometimes with the assistance of the couple's then 8-year-old daughter, Suffolk prosecutors said.
Renee Burke's attempts on Matthew Burke's life, prosecutors said, came in the midst of a divorce and child custody battle in which a Family Court judge gave him custody of the children, issued orders of protection for her not to harm the children and limited her visitation. At least three times last September, Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Santomartino said, Renee Burke broke into Matthew Burke's Holbrook home to poison his drinks. The last attempt was captured on video, he said.
Renee Burke, 40, pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging her with second-degree attempted murder, second-degree attempted assault, second-degree burglary and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
On the evening of Sept. 6, Santomartino said, Matthew Burke poured himself a glass of wine and immediately spit it out. He at first thought the wine had gone bad and threw out the bottle, but later his children's baby-sitter told him that his son, 5, had told her, "Mommy came in and put something in Daddy's drink."
Two days later, Matthew Burke had a similar experience with a bottle of Pepsi, Santomartino said. A neighbor told police later that she'd seen a woman entering his home with a child that day, he said.
Police then advised Burke to set up a surveillance camera in his kitchen, which he did, Stafford said.
A Sept. 12 video showed a woman and a girl in Matthew Burke's kitchen. It showed the woman pouring a pink liquid from two baby bottles into a bottle of wine, putting the wine back into the refrigerator and wiping down the counter, the bottle and the corkscrew.
Santomartino said Renee Burke had her daughter help her remove the cork. While this was happening, he said, Renee Burke had left her son, then 4, alone in her car.
After Matthew Burke showed the video to police, she was arrested and initially charged only with burglary. Santomartino said she told detectives she had not doctored any drinks, then said she'd added water, then said she'd added fruit juice to the drinks.
She consented to a search of her cell phone, Santomartino said, and detectives found she had done internet searches related to antifreeze and rat poison. One search asked, "What car liquids could kill a human?" Santomartino said.
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/crime/poison-antifreeze-attempted-murder-husband-1.25458180