An Idaho sheriff’s office believes that a man who died in a Boise church 44 years ago could be linked to the 1982 case in which several people were killed after taking tampered Tylenol.
The Ada County Sheriff’s Office said that a man who killed himself inside a Boise Catholic church was Dr. Mathew Betkouski, according to a news release. When the man was found in December 1982, he had no ID, only a large amount of cash and a typed letter with a false name.
Sheriff’s office cold case Detective Tim Cooper began looking at the case in 2019. He determined through photos and DNA that a Florida man who disappeared in 1982 and Betkouwski were one and the same.
Betkouski, who had worked in two drugstores in college, had discussed the use of cyanide to kill without being detected.
The 1982 Tylenol killings involved cyanide being substituted for the medicine in several Tylenol capsules. Seven people were killed in the Chicago area before the product was pulled from shelves.
Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist, said that by 2021, he believed Cooper was making connections that linked Betkouski to the Tylenol case.
More details will be released on the “Unsolved Mysteries” TV series episode titled “Unmasking the Tylenol Killer.” The show will appear Oct. 9 on The Roku Channel.
