News

Poison-murder suspect to remain held without bond

Gudrun Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel speaks with her attorney, Dustin Dow, as a court security officer escorts her into a Henderson County courtroom on Wednesday.

By Amy McCraw, Published: May 20, 2026

A Hendersonville woman charged with using poison to murder two people, including one of her daughters, will remain held in jail under no bond, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Superior Court Judge Athena Brooks ordered that 53-year-old Gudrun Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel remain in Henderson County’s Detention Center under no bond after hearing from one of her attorneys, Dustin Dow of Asheville, and local Assistant District Attorney Michael Van Buren.
Dow argued in part that the state’s case against his client is weak.
“This case has many holes in it,” he said. “She is presumed innocent. She deserves a secured bond of some form.”
Van Buren told the judge he opposed Casper-Leinenkugel receiving a bond.
He said the defendant is accused of “two very unique homicides” that involved poisoning from a unique substance.
Casper-Leinenkugel has been held without bond since the time of her arrest in January on charges of first-degree murder in the death of her 32-year-old daughter, Leela Livis, and with attempted first-degree murder of her younger daughter, Maija Lacey, and Lacey’s boyfriend, Richard Evan Pegg.
She was also charged with first-degree murder in the 2007 death of 42-year-old Michael Schmidt who lived in a camper on property she owned at her Schmidt Terrace address off Big Willow Road.
Casper-Leinenkugel is accused of using the chemical acetonitrile to poison wine Livis, Lacey and Pegg drank during a Thanksgiving meal at her home. She is also accused of using the substance to poison Schmidt in 2007.
In a motion to set conditions for pretrial release filed in April, Dow and Asheville attorney Paul Bidwell listed several reasons they said supported their request for Casper-Leinenkugel to be eligible for a bond.
In his argument on Wednesday, Dow said his client is not a flight risk, has ties to the community, is the mother of two young children, suffers from medical conditions that need to be addressed outside of jail and needs to be free to adequately assist in her defense.
Dow pointed to Lacey and Pegg as they sat in the courtroom in support of Casper-Leinenkugel.
Lacey and Pegg “believe she had nothing to do with what happened,” he said. “They are here to tell you today they want her out.”
Investigators determined Livis, Lacey and Pegg had attended a meal shortly after Thanksgiving at Casper-Leinenkugel’s home on Schmidt Terrace along with Landon Phillips, who Casper-Leinenkugel identified as her boyfriend, and Jeffrey Bosch, who Lacey identified as her mother’s boyfriend, according to a search warrant executed in the case.
Dow also pointed to Bosch as he sat with Lacey and Pegg in the courtroom.
He said investigators have used business records to insinuate that Casper-Leinenkugel may have had a motive to target Bosch at the Thanksgiving meal.
“They believe the motive was somehow to get rid of him,” Dow said. “He thinks it’s patently absurd.”
Livis and Pegg fell ill shortly after the meal on Nov. 30. Livis was found dead in her apartment the next day. Pegg spent six days in the hospital before he recovered.
Acetonitrile, a common industrial organic solvent, was found in Livis blood after her death. High levels of cyanide were found in Pegg’s blood. Acetonitrile converts to cyanide once it is metabolized in the body, according to a search warrant in the case.
In a previous court hearing, prosecutors said that after Casper-Leinenkugel learned that Livis and Pegg were sick she asked Google “what to do if I accidentally ingest acetonitrile?” She also asked the internet “Does wine turn into cyanide?”
Van Buren pointed to those internet searches when he responded to Dow’s request for bond in the case.
“It’s mindboggling she would know to search for that,” he said.
She also volunteered to authorities that she thought wine caused Livis and Pegg to become sick, Van Buren said.
Casper-Leinenkugel told a doctor treating Pegg at AdventHealth in Henderson County that children playing in a room where the wine and acetonitrile were stored might have poisoned the wine Livis, Lacey and Pegg drank.
In addition to Livis and Lacey, Casper-Leinenkugel is also the mother of two other children, a 3-year-old and an 8-year-old.
In the bond motion for Casper-Leinenkugel and in court Wednesday Dow said his client was breastfeeding the 3-year-old at the time of her arrest. The motion cited her need to care for her children as one of the reasons a bond should be set.
Dow also addressed the state’s case involving Schmidt in court on Wednesday.
He said an autopsy determined that Schmidt’s death was accidental and probably involved huffing.
His death certificate identifies “acute acetonitrile toxicity (probable huffing) as his immediate cause of death. His manner of death was listed as accidental.
Nail polish remover was also found near his body, Dow said.
An insurance policy taken out on Schmidt shortly before his death paid out to his wife, not Casper-Leinenkugel, he said.
Schmidt had a history of drug use, depression and multiple suicide attempts. He was also involved in a head-on collision shortly before his death.
“I don’t see how that case even reaches a jury,” Dow told the judge.
Van Buren said that Schmidt lived in a trailer on the property at Casper-Leinenkugel’s home at 15 Schmidt Terrace.
He said that she was able to “get that property” from Schmidt.
Schmidt had transferred his property at Schmidt Terrace to Casper-Leinenkugel in 2006, Henderson County land records show.
Casper-Leinenkugel was also the last person to see Schmidt alive, Van Buren said.
He said investigators in North Carolina were not as familiar with acetonitrile and its potential as a poison in 2007 as they are today.
Brooks ruled that Casper-Leinenkugel should remain held without bond after determining her attorney did not provide enough reason to justify releasing her.
A new North Carolina law, known as Iryna’s law, shifts the burden in pretrial release hearings. Under the new law, the question is no longer whether the state can justify that a suspect should remain in jail but whether the defendant can present enough evidence to overcome a presumption that detention is required.
The law was named after Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was fatally stabbed on a Charlotte light rail train in 2025 by a man with a lengthy criminal history.
The law took effect on Dec. 1, 2025.