Antifreeze Poisoning Suspected In Death

PERRY, Okla. - Carol Ann Hellar's killer took her life sip by agonizing sip, prosecutors say.

She probably never noticed the extra sweetness in her soft drinks or suspected it of causing the ailments that began troubling her a few months into her new marriage.

On the day before her first anniversary, Carol Hellar was dead. Prosecutors say it was from antifreeze her husband poured into her drinks over eight months.

"It's the only case we know of where somebody was poisoned over time with antifreeze," Assistant District Attorney Mark Gibson said.

A Noble County judge yesterday ordered Dennis Lee Hellar, 53, to return for a Dec. 15 preliminary hearing on a first-degree murder charge for his wife's death on June 12, 1995. He did not enter a plea and was jailed without bail.

Police Lt. David Farrow said Dennis Hellar allegedly slipped the antifreeze into his wife's drinks when he was home on weekends.

"The effects take a while to kick in to the body," Farrow said. "It looked like she was getting sick all on her own."

Prosecutors say the poisoning began in October 1994, less than five months after the couple's wedding. Investigators recovered a half-full gallon jug of antifreeze from the Hellars' apartment in Perry, 60 miles north of Oklahoma City.

Carol Hellar, who was in her early 50s, made 28 trips to hospitals and reported various ailments during the year of her marriage.

A few weeks before her death, Carol Hellar was treated in an emergency room where a doctor noted high unexplained levels of acidosis and ordered a blood test to check for ethylene glycol, the major ingredient in antifreeze.

The test was taken a few weeks before she died, but the results weren't available until a week after her death.