Biochemist gets life for killing husband by stuffing him in vat of acid

A biochemist was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday for killing her estranged husband by knocking him out and stuffing him into a vat of acid, possibly while he was still alive.

Larissa Schuster was convicted in December of murdering Timothy Schuster with the special circumstance that the murder was committed for financial gain. At the time of his death in July 2003, the Schusters were in the middle of a divorce after nearly 20 years of marriage.

Just days after Timothy Schuster was reported missing, his half-dissolved remains - intact from only the belt buckle down - were found inside a 208-kilolitre barrel concealed in a storage unit his wife had rented.



Kristin Schuster, the couple's adult daughter, told the judge that she felt safer knowing her mother would be behind bars.

Prosecutors said Schuster and her former lab assistant, James Fagone, first immobilized Timothy Schuster with a stun gun and a chloroform-soaked rag. Then they bound his hands and feet, dumped his body headfirst into a barrel while he was still breathing and poured hydrochloric acid on him.

Fagone has already been sentenced to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder and burglary.