Delaware Women Fatally Injecting Her Husband with Steroids Contaminated with Anti-Freeze

Jamie Baker was married to James D. Baker III for 21 years. They raised two daughters together. Jamie indulged and supported her husband’s pursuit of competitive bodybuilding. Jamie was the loving and devoted wife who even injected her husband with anabolic steroids when he asked. She continued to inject him up to the very end just as devoted but with a little less love.

On February 6, 2017, Baker pleaded guilty in Kent County Superior Court (Delaware) to the reduced charge of second-degree murder of her husband. She admitted to lacing his steroids with antifreeze before injecting him with the fatal solution. She was originally charged with first-degree murder, adulteration and felony murder based on adulteration in March 2014.

Baker initially thought she was going to get away with the murder of her husband after she called 911 to report finding her husband dead on their bedroom floor on September 16, 2013. Fortunately, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the death as a homicide by poisoning after it found a synthetic substance known as ethylene glycol in the deceased’s kidneys during a post-mortem examination. The substance is a primary chemical component in antifreeze.

The surprising discovery launched a six month investigation by the Delaware State Police (DSP). DSP homicide detectives suspected that anabolic steroids may have played a role. Police knew that James Baker was a steroid user when they confiscated several vials of injectable steroids, steroid pills and syringes stored in a locked toolbox stored in a closet at the Baker residence. The steroids were sent to a laboratory for chemical analysis after the release of the medical examiner’s report. The laboratory confirmed the presence of ethylene glycol in the injectable steroid solution.

Police first tracked the source of the steroids and traced them to an order placed over the Internet by James Baker and delivered to a bodybuilding friend in June 2013. The two friends split the steroid order once it arrived. The friend used the steroids himself and insisted the steroids had not been tampered with when he received them.

With the evidence in hand suggesting that the murder was committed by the wife, DSP executed a search warrant and arrested her on March 13, 2014. Upon interrogation, she admitted to using a hypodermic syringe to extract anti-freeze from a plastic container stored in the garage and subsequently inject it into her husband’s steroid vials.

Ethylene glycol, depending on the level of exposure, can cause a slow and painful suffering that can last weeks or months before death results or can cause death within 72 hours due to acute kidney failure. The symptoms of ethylene glycol poisoning include severe diarrhea and vomiting that can easily be mistaken for natural causes. This type of poisoning is often overlooked but fortunately this did not happen in this case.

Jamie Baker is scheduled to appear at a sentencing hearing in March 2017. She will most likely receive 15 years to life in prison.