A 52-year-old woman has been jailed for 20 years by judges in Leeuwarden for poisoning her second husband in 2012.

Ada S was originally accused of killing two husbands but was found not guilty of the first death because of a lack of evidence. She was, however, found guilty of not helping her first husband by phoning for help when it was clear he was extremely ill, the NRC reports.

The court ruled that S poisoned her second husband with a mixture of substances and had ‘systematically’ set about killing him after setting up a false life insurance policy for €250,000 in his name.

Although there is no evidence she actually gave him the poison, other events around the death are sufficient evidence of murder, the court said. The man was healthy, had an aversion to medicine and yet medicine and poisonous substances were found in his body. In addition, S had looked into poisons on the internet several times before he died.

S had also done an internet search the day before the death for ‘funeral flowers with sunflowers’, news agency ANP reports.

Nurse

S, who worked as a terminal care nurse, had always denied murder and told the court at the end of October that she ‘had nothing to do with the death of my men’.

Police began investigating S after the daughters of S’s second husband went to the police. Although their father officially died of a heart attack, they felt the widow’s behaviour was odd.

She complained about the size of his pension and is alleged to have said to his body after he died ‘lovely that you are no longer here, that mouth is shut for good’. The man’s body was exhumed and traces of various medicines were found in it.

S was also found guilty of setting fire to a former boyfriend’s home in 2013.