John Franceschini runs a private forensic laboratory in Melbourne, testing dangerous goods, chemicals and even food. It’s not uncommon for people to bring in samples of home-cooked meals – but why they do – can sometimes lead to a mystery.
One day a man brought in his wife’s famous spaghetti and meatballs into the lab.
“He said my wife’s trying to poison me. I want you to test my meatballs,” Franceschini said.
Hear the full poison meatball murder plot story on this episode of Crime Insiders:
“We issued a report saying, look, nothing detected … He came back about three months later. Same story. No, she’s at it again. And I’m absolutely convinced she’s poisoning me. Please test it again,” he said.
When the man came in for the second time, the lab extended the range of poisons tested for. But it still came back negative.
Crime Insiders: Forensics host Kathryn Fox asked, “How many sort of things would you be testing for?”
“The heavy metals, the arsenic and cadmium and probably a range of pesticides, commercial rat poisons,” Franceschini said.
But when the man came back a third time, the lab found a large dose of arsenic.
“This just absolutely stunned us because we’re going well how the hell did we miss it?”
More from LiSTNR Crime: Can identical twins frame each other for a crime with fingerprints?
Host Fox said, “As a crime writer I’d be thinking maybe someone hasn’t managed to do the job so far so they went that bit further. Or maybe he’s setting up his partner?”
Franceschini said a theory came back from the laboratory that this had been a deliberate addition to the sample. He also theorised whether the man was testing the laboratory.
The man never returned to the lab and Franceschini still doesn’t know why.
Subscribe to Crime Insiders, taking you beyond true crime. In groundbreaking interviews, explore the world of policing and forensics through stories from the world’s most experienced and decorated experts.