Woman Held in Cyanide Mail Plot

A 50-year-old Carpinteria woman was arrested Sunday after allegedly attempting to mail about 100 envelopes of potentially deadly sodium cyanide--disguised as a powdered nutritional supplement--at a Marina del Rey post office, authorities said.

No one was reported injured in the incident, which triggered a five-hour evacuation of the post office and a surrounding shopping center, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Detectives were investigating whether any envelopes have been mailed from any locations outside of Marina del Rey.

“Had this stuff gone into the mail, we would have had mass murder,” Sheriff Sherman Block told reporters during an evening news conference. If anyone had consumed the powder, “it would have been a fatal dose,” Block added.

Kathryn Schoonover, 50, was arrested in her car outside the post office and faces charges of attempted murder. She was being held Sunday without bail. Block said he did not know Schoonover’s motive or whether she had accomplices.

The sheriff issued a warning to postal officials and the public to be on the lookout for any suspicious and unsolicited mailings of sample powders from health companies.

Witnesses in the post office called authorities after watching Schoonover, her hands clad in rubber gloves, place the chemical into envelopes, Deputy Steve Wealer said. She was arrested about 1 p.m. shortly before she was able to deposit the envelopes into the post office mail box in the 4700 block of Admiralty Way.

The plain white envelopes, with a glassine window, each contained about one teaspoon of sodium cyanide, encased in a plastic bag. The bags were attached to a promotional brochure for a legitimate health product that was supposed to appeal to athletes. The brochures urged consumers to try the sample. When Schoonover was arrested, she had brochures for at least eight brand-name products, including Hawaiian Energizer, Diet-Phen Weight Loss Plan, Ginsana, Herbal V, NeuroGain, and Twinlab Sports Nutrition Products. Many of the brochures were from GNC, a national health food store chain, deputies said.

Sheriff’s deputies reportedly recovered a container of commercially manufactured sodium cyanide and discovered about two-thirds of the contents missing. The cyanide resembled salt powder.

Sodium cyanide is fatal if ingested. Anyone who receives any suspicious mailings with samples attached should contact authorities, Block said.

Authorities on Sunday were unable to determine a pattern among the intended recipients. Most of the envelopes had Southland addresses that appeared to be from a computer generated list, Block said. But some were apparently headed to other states, including at least one to New York.

Two county hazardous materials teams were sent to the post office and Waterside Shopping Center. Roads into the area, which is near Lincoln Boulevard, were closed.