Wife Attempts to Murder Husband with Antifreeze

You put poison in my coffee instead of milk or cream
You about the evilest woman that I ever seen 
You mixed my drink with a can of Red Devil lye
You mixed my drink with a can of Red Devil lye
Then you sit down, watch me hoping that I might die

These lyrics from the song Commit a Crime by blues legend Howling Wolf always scared impressed me. Can you imagine living with someone who is evil and cold enough to mix your drink with lye and sit down and watch you hoping that you might die?  The sheer malevolence of such a move still chills me. You indeed might need to leave that living arrangement before you killed that person or s/he killed you. I could listen to that song and only wonder at the pure malice from which Howling Wolf is trying to escape. Matthew Burke doesn't have to listen to classic blues songs to get a sense of evil that's loose in the world. His estranged wife, Renee Burke, allegedly mixed Matthew Burke's drinks with antifreeze. Apparently the wife wanted full custody of the couple's children. She decided the world would be a better place without her former special rider.

HOLBROOK, N.Y. - A Long Island woman is charged with attempted murder after she allegedly put antifreeze in her estranged husband’s drinks -- while their two children were present. Renee Burke, 40, of Holbrook, is also charged with burglary, assault, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and two counts of criminal contempt, according to NBC News. “It’s not only disturbing that the defendant attempted to murder her estranged husband, but that she did so in the presence of children,” Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini said in a statement Thursday.

Sini, who spoke at a brief news conference following Burke’s arraignment, said the defendant, who is locked in a bitter custody battle with her estranged husband, Matthew Burke, is accused of breaking into his apartment at least three times in September and poisoning his wine and soda with the chemical coolant. Matthew Burke has primary custody of the couple’s 8-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son and, according to Newsday, a family court judge limited Renee Burke’s visitation and issued protective orders to stop her from harming the children. 

Sini said that Renee Burke enlisted the help of her young daughter in at least one of the incidents. Both children allegedly witnessed the drink tampering, NBC News reported.“Mommy put something in Daddy’s drink,” the 4-year-old told a babysitter after one incident, prosecutors allege. 

NBC News said Matthew Burke drank from a glass of wine and a glass of soda on two separate occasions but spit the drink out after noticing a strange taste and odor. He called police on Sept. 10 to report his suspicions, the network reported

When questioned by police, the defendant claimed she poured fruit juice into the victim’s wine bottle to water it down,” Sini said. 

Detectives recovered multiple beverage bottles from Matthew Burke’s apartment that, when tested, showed the presence of ethylene glycol, a chemical in antifreeze that is deadly when ingested, according to the district attorney. 

Sini said a search warrant for Renee Burke’s home turned up a bottle of pink-colored Prestone antifreeze. Investigators also searched Renee Burke’s cellphone, on which they found searches for “antifreeze with alcohol,” “what liquids for cars can kill a human” and “can antifreeze kill a human,” the district attorney said. 

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Everyone is innocent until proven guilty of course but this appears to be another example that evil comes in both genders and every conceivable background. Death by antifreeze poisoning is neither quick nor painfree. On the contrary, it's prolonged and usually very painful.  There are of course some women I don't like that much anymore and vice versa, but I can't imagine being so lost in evil that I would attempt to poison their drinks. There really is a thin line between love and hate though. But for this lady to allegedly involve her kids in her attempts is just too much. If she's guilty I hope she's sent away for a long time.