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FBI: Retiree made, gave ricin to fellow residents at senior facility

By Danielle Haynes

Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The FBI arrested a 70-year-old retiree after she allegedly admitted to making ricin and using it to poison her neighbors at a Vermont senior living facility.

Agents arrested Betty Miller on Thursday and charged her with unregistered possession of a select agent, ricin.

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A release from the FBI said agents and officials with the Vermont Department of Health interviewed Miller at the University of Vermont Medical Center where she said she was interested in plant-based poisons and used the Internet to learn how to create ricin. She said she made the ricin in her kitchen at the Wake Robin senior living facility.

Officers discovered a bottle labeled "ricin" in her residence at the facility, and the Vermont Forensic Lab determined it tested positive for the toxin, the FBI said.

Miller allegedly said she wanted to test the potency of the poison so she put it in the food and beverages of other residents at Wake Robin. No deaths were reported at the facility as a result of Miller's alleged actions.

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