Stacey Ruth Castor (née Daniels, formerly Wallace; July 24, 1967 – June 11, 2016)[1] was an American convicted murderer from Weedsport, New York.

In addition, she was suspected of having murdered her first husband, Michael Wallace, in 2000; his grave lay next to David's until the latter's remains were disinterred and buried elsewhere in 2016.

The story made national news, and Castor was subsequently named the "Black Widow" by media outlets.

[2][3] Castor was employed by an ambulance dispatch company, while Wallace worked nights as a mechanic, but the family had little money.

[2] In late 1999, Wallace began feeling intermittently ill. Family members variously remember him as acting unsteady, coughing and seeming swollen.

As his inexplicable sickness persisted over the holiday season, his family encouraged him to seek medical care, but he died in early 2000 before he could do so.

Although Wallace's sister was skeptical and requested an autopsy, Castor refused, saying she believed the doctors were correct.

One afternoon in August 2005, Castor called the Onondaga County sheriff's office to tell them that her husband had locked himself in their bedroom following an argument and had not been seen nor heard from for the past day, claiming he was depressed.

[3][4][6][7] Upon visiting the house for a wellness check, Sergeant Robert Willoughby kicked in the door of the bedroom and found David dead.

"[6] The coroner reported that David had committed suicide through a self-administered lethal dose of antifreeze, but when police found Castor's fingerprints on the antifreeze glass and located a turkey baster that had David's DNA on the tip, they began to suspect she had engineered his death.

[3] Detectives reasoned that if Castor were truly genuine about her love for her late husbands, then she would eventually visit their graves.

[3] After learning that police had exhumed Wallace's body and found traces of antifreeze in his system, she was believed to have devised a plan to set up her daughter Ashley for the murders.

[3] Tests revealed that potentially fatal painkillers had been found in Ashley's system, and that she most likely would have died if she had been taken to the hospital just a few minutes later.

[3][9] When Ashley woke up, police questioned her about the murders and the suicide note; she said the last thing she remembered was her mother making her an alcoholic drink, something she had never done before.

[3] Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick and Chief Assistant District Attorney Christine Garvey[13] argued that David's "suicide" had never made sense given the lack of his fingerprints on the glass or container tainted with ethylene glycol, a toxic substance found in antifreeze, and the turkey baster found in the kitchen garbage bearing both ethylene glycol and his DNA.

[3][9] Given evidence of the evolution of David's illness, they concluded that Castor had fed her husband antifreeze through the baster before trying to make it look like a suicide.

[14] She had said that her husband got the idea to kill himself with antifreeze while both were watching a news report about Lynn Turner, who murdered two past lovers by using the poison.

[3] Prosecutors presented evidence showing how antifreeze poisoning can be identified from the growth of calcium oxalate crystals in the kidneys, and that this was seen in Wallace and David's autopsies.

Forensic investigators found that based on the timestamps, it had been written while Ashley was in school, proving she couldn't have been its author.

[3] They wanted to "poke holes" in Ashley's version of events and prove that she could have been capable of murdering Wallace when she was 11 years old.

Fitzpatrick asserted that Castor's behavior during David's and Ashley's illnesses made no sense, given the years she had worked for an ambulance company.

She did not seek care for Ashley for seventeen hours and indicated that David, who was staggering and vomiting and unable to stand, "looked OK".

[3] During one of the recordings presented, typing sounds can be heard while Castor talks to a friend although she denied memory of using the computer that day.

[20] Keller announced that she would appeal the verdict, including challenging the inclusion of evidence regarding the death of Wallace, for which Castor had not been charged.

[21] An emotional Ashley told the judge she hated her mother "for ruining so many people's lives", but still loved her for the bond she had originally had with her.

During the trial, Castor had been dubbed "The Black Widow" by media outlets,[2] a title previously given to Lynn Turner.

[20] Castor, who professed to being shocked at the verdict, maintained her innocence during the 20/20 special,[3] as well as in unaired parts of the program.

[25] He stated that "psychopathic traits and histories of childhood abuse have been consistently reported in these women" and suggested that if Castor were guilty of the crimes of which she had been convicted and accused, then she would be demonstrating psychopathic traits, including regarding even her own child as an object to be used for her convenience.

The DA pointed out that Castor may have murdered her own father, Jerry Daniels, who died February 22, 2002, shortly after his daughter visited him in the hospital where he had a minor lung complaint.