Decades-old Tylenol murders case is revived as Chicago cops launch 'intense ... trends now
Police are using advanced DNA technology to find the killer of seven people murdered in Chicago in 1982 who unknowingly took Tylenol pills laced with a lethal dose of cyanide.
DNA evidence is being collected by several sources, including relatives of the victims and a family that survived the deadly attack that changed the way in which over-the-counter drugs are manufactured.
Specialized technology that extracts trace amounts of human DNA from items to analyze them, even if they're old or degraded, is being used in the fresh probe.
Records obtained by CBS Chicago's Dave Savini, Samah Assad, and Rebecca McCann show that law enforcement has retained a multitude of evidence, including the 40-year-old bottles and contaminated pills. But it remains unclear what specifically is being tested.
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The Morgan family is among those who have been approached to help in the investigation.
Laura Morgan was three in 1982 when her mother Linda bought a tampered bottle of Tylenol from her local grocery store to ease the pain of an aching leg and by chance survived.
'Now that I'm old enough to understand, I have a child of my own, knowing that my life could have been forever altered without my mom or dad,' Laura told the outlet.
'I don't know why we were spared, but we were.'
Linda who had been 35 at the time said she had sensed something was off and chose an alternative for her pain.
'I had the bottle open. I looked at one of the capsules,' Linda, now 75, told Savini in her first interview since the events.
'Then I thought, no, I'll just take aspirin instead. I could have been the eighth victim.'
At the time of the murders that remain shrouded in mystery, it was determined that Linda and her husband DuPage County Judge Lewis Morgan, who died in 2018, both touched the bottle of Tylenol.
'I don't think it's really hit yet how fortunate we were,' Judge Morgan said to CBS Chicago's Terry Anzur at the time.
'I think the first feeling we both have is a feeling of extreme sympathy, now that it's touched us so closely, for the people that weren't so fortunate as we.'
New documents obtained by CBS Chicago reveal that an intense effort to use advanced DNA technology to identify the killer is underway.
The Arlington Heights Illinois Police Department (AHPD) is spurring the efforts as it continues to investigate the deaths of three members of the same family – Adam Janus, Teresa Janus, and Stanley Janus. They all were killed in Arlington Heights after taking poisoned Tylenol.
Joe Janus, who lost his two brothers and sister-in-law, said he hopes DNA will help police arrest the killer. It's something he wants to see before he dies.
'He's an animal,' Janus said. 'He kills people with no fear.'
Employees of the Chicago City Health Department continue to test Tylenol medication for the presence of deadly cyanide at the Department's lab on Oct 7, 1982 following the murders
DNA evidence is being collected by several sources, including relatives of the victims and a family that survived the deadly attack that changed the way in which over-the-counter drugs are manufactured
Meanwhile, the police department has also collected a swab of DNA from Laura and her late father, from his smoking pipes, on Jan 14, 2020, 38 years after the murders.
'I'm assuming there's got to be some other DNA on that bottle,' Laura said of the bottle her mother purchased in 1982.
'They have something. If they need DNA if they need my cheek swabbed, if they need evidence from the past people, from the past DNA, they must have something that they are running or retesting.'
AHPD told CBS in a statement that the recent DNA testing done on the Morgan family was to eliminate their DNA, and officials continue to review and submit elimination prints for people they know handled evidence.
The agency would not comment on what specifically prompted investigators to take another look at their DNA, and why it wasn't until 2020 that they took Laura's DNA, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.
'Elimination prints and/or DNA elimination of those individuals who are known to have been in possession of contaminated bottles has been an ongoing and important effort,' the statement said.
'The department was able to conduct this necessary process in 2020.'
Authorities also started working with Houston-based company Othram to solve the case
Othram uses specialized technology to extract trace amounts of human DNA from items and analyze them even if they're old or degraded.
Othram's Chief development officer, Kristen Mittelman, said the company has managed to solve some of the most notorious cases.
'There are cases that we've completely solved, notorious cases we've completely solved, that we cannot speak of until law enforcement comes out and speaks of them or announces it themselves,' Mittelman said.
Othram can analyze DNA smaller than the top of a pin needle and the goal is to find distant relationships to the person police are trying to identify, such as a victim or a killer, through thousands of markers in the human genome.
The process, which can cost between $6,000 and $10,000, is less about identifying and more about excluding other possibilities.
'When we look at all these markers, we're able to get really distant relationships,' she said.
The Morgan family are among those who have been approached to help in the investigation
At the time of the murders that remain shrouded in mystery, it was determined that Linda and her husband DuPage County Judge Lewis Morgan, who died in 2018, both touched the bottle of Tylenol
Laura Morgan (center) was three in 1982 when her mother Linda (right) bought a tampered bottle of Tylenol from her local grocery store to ease the pain of an aching leg and by chance survived
'Then you can figure out how far this piece of the puzzle is from all these relationships and fit it onto a family tree exactly where it belongs.'
Mittelman said the company has returned investigative leads in thousands of cases, including identifying a murder victim from 1881.
The technology has also helped produce leads for cases in Illinois. In 2021, the Will County Coroner's office sent Othram a young woman's remains that were found in New Lenox in 1981.
Othram's DNA analysis also helped lead to the identification of a suspect in the murder of Carla Walker, who was 17
