Wisconsin woman accused of poisoning friend with eyedrops

Prosecutors have accused a suburban Milwaukee woman of killing her friend by poisoning her with eyedrops.

Jessy Kurczewski, 37, was charged Friday with homicide and two counts of felony theft, according to online court records.

A criminal complaint shows the case began in 2018 when Kurczewski called police to her friend’s Pewaukee home, saying her friend wasn’t breathing, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday. The complaint doesn’t name the friend.

A deputy found the woman in a recliner with crushed medication on her chest. Investigators initially thought she had overdosed. Kurczewski said there was a possibility her friend was suicidal.

Toxicology tests showed the woman had a fatal dose of tetrahydrozoline, the main ingredient in eyedrops, in her system. When investigators told Kurczewski tetrahydrozoline killed her friend and the scene was staged to look like a suicide, Kurczewski said it was what her friend wanted and she must have staged her own suicide.

Later, Kurczewski told investigators she brought her friend a water bottle loaded with six bottles’ worth of Visine. She didn’t think it would kill her friend because she had been drinking it for so long.

Detectives also learned that Kurczewski’s finances began to more closely resemble her friend’s and eventually concluded Kurczewski committed $290,210 worth of fraud. That included about $130,204 that was believed to have been “transferred fraudulently” by check from the victim to Kurczewski, according to the complaint.

Online court records didn’t list an attorney for Kurczewski who could comment on the allegations.