Rodica Negroiu, a widowed Romanian nurse, born in 1940 (?), arrived in France in 1985.
Husband # 1 – Her Romanian first husband, Hermann Golstein, aged 50, had died mysteriously in 1982.
Husband # 2 – Soon after moving to France in 1985 Rodica, then 45, married 65-year old Gérard Helluy, meanwhile, married Rodica in 1985. He died in 1988, at age 68 after changing his will in favor of his wife with whom he did not live.
Husband # 3 – Then, at the age of 50, Rodica married 82-year-old Raymond Jactel. He died of a heart attack in 1990. Just two months before his death he sold his house and put 700,000 franks in the bank.
This time an autopsy was performed and two medications were found in the remains: phénobarbital, a barbiturate, and digoxine, at a dosage level three times normal. An investigation ensued and the two first husbands corpses were exhumed. In each digitalis was found.
Iw would be years before she was tried for murder. There was not enough evidence to charge for the first suspected murder, so she was tried for the two other deaths. Rodica Negroiu came to be called "the poisoner of Maxéville" by the press.
In June 1999 Negriou was found guilty of the murders of Gerard Helluy and Raymond Jactel, and sentenced in 1999 to 20 years of criminal imprisonment. She continued to proclaim her innocence after her release from prison in January 24, 2015.
***
CHRONOLOGY
1982 – Husband #1, Hermann Golstein, 50, died; digoxine (class of digitalis).
1988 – Husband #2, Gérard Helluy – died, 68; married in 1985; digoxine.
Dec. 14, 1990 – Raymond Jactel, 82, died; digoxine.
Jun. 9, 1992 – Rodica Negroiu est placée en garde à vue et inculpée d’homicide volontaire.
Jun. 21, 1999 – trial begins; convicted of 2 murders; sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Jan. 24, 2015 – released from prison.
***
For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.
***