Texas woman accused in ricin case has Hall County roots

TEXARKANA, Texas - The Texas woman arrested Friday for sending poisonous letters to President Obama and the mayor of New York apparently grew up in Hall County.

Shannon Guess Richardson lists her hometown as Oakwood in an online resume. Her Wikipedia page indicates she graduated from West Hall High School and the 1994 West Hall "Quicksilver," the school's yearbook, lists Shannon Rogers, as she was known then, as a member of the junior class that year.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution said Richardson also has lived in Jefferson, Lawrenceville and Gainesville.

The 35-year-old Richardson is an actress, who has had small roles in TV series such as "The Vampire Diaries," "The Walking Dead" and "Franklin & Bash."

According to the Associated Press, Richardson originally told the FBI that her husband was responsible for sending the ricin-laced letters.

An FBI affidavit said Richardson contacted authorities on May 30 and implicated her husband, Nathaniel Richardson. She described finding small, brown beans with white speckles - a description matching the key ingredient in ricin, castor beans - at the couple's home in New Boston, Texas. She also told investigators that she had found a sticky note on her husband's desk with addresses for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Obama, the affidavit said.

But she later failed a polygraph test, the document said, and investigators looking into her story found numerous inconsistencies. Among them: Nathaniel Richardson would have been at work when Internet searches tied to the letters were made on the couple's laptop and when the envelopes containing the letters were postmarked.

Finally, the affidavit says, in an interview with authorities on Thursday, Shannon Richardson admitted that she had received syringes and lye - a caustic chemical used in making ricin - in the mail; that she had printed the labels for the letters; and that she mailed them. However, she insisted her husband typed them and "made her" print and send them, the affidavit says.

No charges have been filed against her husband. His attorney, John Delk, told The Associated Press on Friday that his client was pleased with his wife's arrest and was working with authorities to prove his innocence.

Delk previously told the AP that the couple is going through a divorce and that the 33-year-old Army veteran may have been "set up" by his wife. In divorce papers filed Thursday, Nathanial Richardson said the marriage had become "insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities."

FBI agents wearing hazardous material suits were seen going in and out of the Richardsons' house on Wednesday in nearby New Boston, about 150 miles northeast of Dallas near the Arkansas and Oklahoma borders. Authorities conducted a similar search on May 31.

The house is now under quarantine for "environmental or toxic agents," according to a posting at the residence. Multiple samples taken from the couples' home tested positive for ricin, according to the affidavit. Federal agents also found castor beans along with syringes and other items that could be used to extract the lethal poison, the affidavit says.

Delk said the Richardsons were expecting their first child in October. Shannon Richardson also has five children ranging in age from 4 to 19 from other relationships, four of whom had been living with the couple in the New Boston home, the attorney said.

Nathaniel Richardson works as a mechanic at the Red River Army Depot near Texarkana, Texas, a facility that repairs tanks, Humvees and other mobile military equipment. He and Shannon were married in October 2011.

A detention hearing for Shannon Richardson is scheduled for next Friday, court records show, and the government is requesting that she be held without bond.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2013/6/262345