Prosecutor Seeks Volunteers for Toilet Test
A Northern Wisconsin prosecutor is looking for women volunteers willing to stick their heads in toilets to help prove his murder theory.
District Attorney Al Moustakis of Vilas County wants to do a second round of toilet tests with women about 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds—about the size of the late Genell Plude, the Associated Press reports.
Prosecutors contend Plude’s husband, Douglas Plude, murdered his wife because she wanted to leave him, the AP story says. They claim he gave her an overdose of a migraine drug then pushed her head down into the toilet while she vomited. Douglas Plude, on the other hand, says his wife was suicidal and he tried to revive her after finding her slumped over the toilet.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Plude’s earlier conviction because an expert witness who conducted earlier toilet tests had exaggerated his credentials. Moustakis has hired a new expert to test whether a victim could drown on her own in a toilet.
