News

Young children of murder suspect confused by their mother’s detention, her friend says

Gudrun Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel speaks with her attorney, Dustin Dow, as a court security officer escorts her into a Henderson County courtroom for a bond hearing in May.

By Amy McCraw, Published: October 15, 2026

The ongoing detention of a Henderson County woman accused of using poison to murder two people, including one of her daughters, is difficult for her younger children to understand, her friend and former business associate said Thursday.

“Take into consideration that your mother is there day in and day out and then all of a sudden they aren’t there anymore,” Jeff Bosch said of the 8-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter of Gudrun Linda Jean Casper-Leinenkugel. “Kids don’t understand. They are being punished for something they didn’t do. Why are we keeping them separate from their mother?”
Detectives with Henderson County Sheriff’s Office in January charged Casper-Leinenkugel, 53, with first-degree murder in the death of her older daughter, 32-year-old Leela Jean Livis. She was also charged with attempted first-degree murder of her other daughter, Maija Lacey and Lacey’s boyfriend, Richard Evan Pegg.
In addition to the charges involving her daughters and Pegg, investigators in January charged Casper-Leinenkugel with first-degree murder in the 2007 death of Mischa August Schmidt, who was also known as Michael Schmidt.
She is also charged with three counts of causing the “ingestion (of) a beverage which contained a poisonous chemical.”
Warrants identified the chemical as acetonitrile, a common industrial organic solvent, that when ingested “is slowly converted to cyanide, resulting in delayed toxicity,” the National Institutes of Health said in a report about the chemical.
Casper-Leinenkugel remains in Henderson County’s jail under no bond as she awaits trial on the charges.
Superior Court Judge Athena Brooks in May denied a defense motion asking that a bond be set for Casper-Leinenkugel.
A hearing in her case scheduled for Thursday in Superior Court was delayed until December.
Bosch, who has attended the court proceedings in support of Casper-Leinenkugel, on Thursday said her ongoing detention without bond is confusing for her young children and unnecessary.
When Casper-Leinenkugel’s 3-year-old daughter first spoke with her mother through a video feed from the jail, she thought her mother might have also died, Bosch said.
“She thought she had left just like her sister, Leela,” Bosch said. “She said, ‘Mom, are you dead?’”
Casper-Leinenkugel tried to reassure her daughter, he said.
“She said, ‘No, baby, I’m still here,’” Bosch said.
Casper-Leinenkugel was breastfeeding her daughter at the time of her arrest, according to the bond motion filed by her attorneys in May.
She is in contact with her children through the video connection from the jail about once a month and on special days including holidays and birthdays. Her last visit with the children was in July, Bosch said.
Bosch said he spends about $200 to $300 each month to pay for telephone conversations with Casper-Leinenkugel while she is in jail.
“I can’t go see her. But I can pay to talk with her,” he said. “They have a system to make money.”
Bosch said he tries to joke with Casper-Leinenkugel during their visits to keep her spirits up.
“I try to make her laugh,” he said. “She says, ‘I just want to be there with you.’ She misses the kids.”
Bosch, who helps take care of the children in their mother’s absence, said he believes Casper-Leinenkugel’s lack of a criminal record, her ties to the community and her need to be with her children should be enough reason for her to be released from jail on bond while she awaits trial.
“She’s not going anywhere. She’s got family here,” he said. “These are allegations. That’s all they are.”
Livis and Pegg fell ill after attending a Thanksgiving meal on Nov. 30 at Casper-Leinenkugel’s home at 15 Schmidt Terrace. Livis died in her home in Cullowhee the next day. Pegg was hospitalized at AdventHealth in Henderson County for six days after the meal.
Medical tests showed high levels of acetonitrile in the blood of Livis and Pegg who both consumed wine Casper-Leinenkugel provided during the meal. Lacey also consumed a small amount of the wine, according to search warrants in the case.
A supplemental report to the death certificate for Schmidt determined the cause of his death to be “acute acetonitrile toxicity (probable huffing).”
At the time of Pegg’s hospitalization, Casper-Leinenkugel told doctors she believed the children playing in a closet where chemicals were stored with the wine might have “got to it,” according to search warrants.
Bosch was identified in the search warrants as a possible boyfriend of Casper-Leinenkugel. He said on Thursday that he was her friend and that they had a business partnership in the past.
Bosch is identified on linkedin.com as executive director of the former Bean Werks Coffee & Tea business in Asheville. Records from the N.C. Secretary of State’s Office list Casper-Leinenkugel as business manager and trustee of Bean Werks in 2023 and 2024.
The Asheville Citizen Times reported in February that Casper-Leinenkugel was a co-owner of Bean Werks Coffee & Tea on Haywood Road and had been associated with a variety of other businesses in Buncombe and Henderson counties over the past 20 years.
Bean Werks was dissolved on Nov. 21, 2025, after failing to file annual reports, corporate records show.
Bosch on Thursday said he had retired and sold the business.
During the bond hearing in May, one of Casper-Leinenkugel’s attorneys, Dustin Dow of Asheville, 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 at the time. “He thinks it’s patently absurd.”
On Thursday, Bosch said he had no idea what happened during the Thanksgiving meal when Livis and Pegg fell ill from the wine they drank.
“It’s very tragic,” he said. “I don’t speculate and make assumptions.”
Lacey and Pegg have also voiced their support for Casper-Leinenkugel and attended her court dates.
They declined to speak to the Lightning on Thursday.