Woman Arrested In Cyanide Scare -- Envelopes Held Deadly Powder

LOS ANGELES - A woman has been arrested for investigation of attempted murder after she was found at a post office with more than 100 envelopes containing bags of deadly sodium cyanide disguised as nutritional supplements.

Kathryn Schoonover was arrested yesterday afternoon at a post office in Marina del Rey, about 10 miles southwest of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block said.

"Had this stuff gone into the mail, we would have had mass murder," Block said.

The envelopes were addressed to people across Southern California and as far away as New York. Each business-size envelope contained a clear plastic bag with about a teaspoon of sodium cyanide powder.

Each bag was attached to a promotional brochure for a legitimate health product that was supposed to appeal to athletes. The brochures urged consumers to try the sample, authorities said. When Schoonover was arrested, she had brochures for at least eight other health products, Block said.

Cyanide, which interrupts the uptake of oxygen in cells, causes almost instant death if consumed.

Investigators were questioning Schoonover, 50, to determine a motive.

Block said no envelopes had been mailed at the Marina del Rey post office, but there was some concern Schoonover may have mailed envelopes elsewhere between Los Angeles and her hometown in Carpinteria, a coastal town southeast of Santa Barbara about 90 miles north.

The U.S. Postal Service was checking public mailboxes, but authorities were uncertain how widely officials planned to search.

Deputies also planned to contact the people to whom the envelopes were addressed. Block said there did not appear to be any pattern to the mailings.

The envelopes were discovered after a passer-by in the post office became suspicious when she saw Schoonover - wearing protective gloves - stuffing the bags into envelopes and saw a container with poison symbols on the counter. The passer-by contacted authorities.

When Schoonover was pulled over in her car in front of the post office minutes later, deputies found the sealed envelopes and a container partially filled with a white powder.

Hazardous-materials experts later determined the powder was sodium cyanide and sealed off an area around the post office. Nearby streets and a shopping center were evacuated for five hours, Deputy Steve Wealer said.

Three types of brochures were in the envelopes, advertising the powder's nutritional, sports performance-enhancing or weight-loss abilities, Block said.

The packages looked convincing. "I think most people would probably try it," Block said.

In 1982, authorities determined that cyanide killed seven people in the Chicago area after the deadly chemical was placed in capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol.

Material from the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.