Cyanide-Tainted Sudafed Spawns Wave of Fear

Kathleen Daneker had been married only one day when she went to get some over-the-counter medicine in her bathroom.

When she did not return, her husband called her, then rapped on the closed door. He tried to open the door but it would not budge. He forced it open only to find her unconscious body slumped on the floor, authorities said.

Her poisoning by cyanide-laced Sudafed--plus two other poisonings and the discovery of a sixth suspicious package of the drug--has spawned a wave of fear and anxiety, with consumers in droves returning blister-packed cold capsules to stores and law enforcement authorities.

Daneker, 40, of Tacoma, died on Feb. 11. Authorities concluded 18 days later that she had been poisoned by the tainted time-release capsules.

The first poisoning occurred Feb. 2 when Jennifer Meling, 28, of Tumwater, fell into a coma after taking a capsule from a Sudafed package. She eventually recovered after having her stomach pumped, but Stan McWhorter, 44, of Lacey, died Feb. 18 after taking some of the popular decongestant capsules.

“People are frightened because there is a maniac on the loose,” said Mary Southard, 38, of Tacoma, who attended the same church as Daneker. “I don’t think anyone is buying time capsules anymore.”

“It’s scary to think someone is randomly killing people in this way,” said Leslie Sturdevant, 37, of Tumwater, a community of 9,900 people about 30 miles south of Tacoma. “What’s it going to be in next? Milk? Eggs? Bread?”

The FBI has joined local police departments and state and federal health authorities in a massive effort to trace the tainted products back to a suspect.

“The FBI has a 25-person task force assigned to this--that’s more people than I have in my department,” said Tumwater Police Chief H. M. (Mike) Vandiver, whose department investigated Meling’s poisoning.

In that case, he said, Meling had just finished eating dinner when she took a a few vitamin tablets and a Sudafed capsule. Moments later, “she collapsed unconscious and her husband called paramedics,” he said.

Although dozens of people have been interviewed in the ongoing investigation, “We have not confirmed--nor eliminated--anyone as a suspect at this time,” Vandiver said.

“I don’t know how long it will take to break this case,” he said. “My hope would be that it is over soon, but my one lingering feeling is that there is a chance we will never know who did this.”

In the past week, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have ordered a nationwide recall of the medication and checked more than 46,000 Sudafed 12-hour capsules. Federal health investigators were also out collecting Sudafed capsules from small markets and stores throughout a three-county area straddling a 25-mile stretch of Interstate 5 between Tacoma on the north and Olympia on the south.

Meanwhile, Burroughs Wellcome Co., the manufacturer of the cold capsules, said Wednesday that:

--245,000 recall notices have been sent to pharmacists and other retailers and 235,000 letters are being mailed to physicians this week.

--600 members of the Burroughs Wellcome sales force have contacted a total of 118,000 pharmacies throughout the country to alert them to the recall effort.

--About 1,000 Burroughs Wellcome agents have been involved in removing Sudafed 12-hour capsules from retail shelves in 29,000 outlets.

--A variety of electronic notification systems has been used to alert wholesalers and warehouses.

--No Sudafed 12-hour capsules are being produced or shipped.

--About 6,500 consumers have contacted the company’s toll-free number and another 1,200 have called the company directly for information and clarification.

Burroughs Wellcome said it has dispatched quality assurance experts to Seattle to assist with the investigation.

All six of the packages that had been tampered with have been traced to drugstores and markets near I-5 off-ramps, where even over-the-counter products by other manufactures are now getting close scrutiny by some consumers.

“My mother-in-law just bought some Contac, and the first thing we did was put it under a bright light and powerful magnifying glass to make sure there were no punctures,” said Cindy Weber, 34, of Lacey, while shopping in the same Fred Meyer store where McWhorter is believed to have bought his capsules. “We were very serious about it.”

At the Drug Emporium store in Olympia, where Meling purchased a pack of Sudafed laced with cyanide, Ollie Ingersott, 43, studied every individually wrapped, honey-flavored throat lozenge in a bag that he turned over and over in his hands just a few inches from his face.

“Well, it hasn’t been opened and it’s sealed tight,” he said, trundling off to buy the bag of cough drops. “A customer can’t ask for more than that.”

Mimi Nickerson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said consumers have to protect themselves. “I only hope this level of awareness and responsibility stays with people and they pass it on to their children,” she said.

No one realized that more than members of the Life Center Church of Tacoma, where Kathleen Daneker remarried her ex-husband, Kenneth, on Feb. 10.

“Our congregation was stunned by her death,” said Life Center Pastor Fulton Buntain. “But I told them Kathy’s death shows how fragile and vulnerable life is and that if you are going to love, love now, because there may not be a tomorrow.”

He also reminded them that Daneker, an active member of an inner-city ministry sponsored by the church, was known for her “love for underprivileged children.”

“She got by on welfare, but on the invitations to her wedding she asked for donations to a children’s club sponsored by our church instead of flowers,” he said. “She was quite a lady.”

DRUG TAMPERING

Past drug tampering episodes:

Year Drug State Killed 1982 Tylenol Extra Strength Ill. 7 1986 Tylenol Extra Strength N.Y. 1 1986 Contac, Teldrin, Dietac Fla., Tex. 0 1986 Extra Strength Excedrin Wash. 2

Year Outcome 1982 No Arrest 1986 No arrest 1986 One conviction 1986 Wife of victim convicted

Staff writer Marlene Cimons in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.