FacebookThe investigation into the poison letters sent to President Barack Obama just took a bizarre turn.
A Texas man and his estranged actress-wife who appeared in bit parts on The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries are each accusing the other of being behind a plot to send ricin-tainted mail to the commander in chief and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Per NBC's Today, Shannon Rogers Guess called police late last week to alert them that her husband, Nathaniel Richardson, had allegedly researched President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg online and that she found ricin in the refrigerator.
The 33-year-old army veteran was taken in for further questioning after the FBI searched the family home in New Boston, Texas. While talking to the feds, however, Richardson denied issuing the threats and claimed it was his 36-year-old missus that was behind the letters.
A law enforcement source told the New York Post that Guess contacted authorities after finding "Tupperware with what looked like ricin in the refrigerator." The ricin was also made from castor beans that were supposedly bought with a credit card, and Guess claimed to have discovered directions on "how to make ricin" in the house.
However, Richardson denied using credit cards and insisted that Guess was the culprit who postmarked the dangerous missives on May 20 from Shreveport, La., about 95 miles from New Boston.
The three letters—which threatened the prez and the mayor with certain harm over their efforts to push through more stringent gun control laws—were later caught by authorities thanks to a rigorous screening process.
Both Richardson and Guess were set to undergo polygraph tests but it's not known when those results may be published. FBI agents allowed Richardson to leave the courthouse where he was being questioned due to a lack of evidence enabling them to hold him. He did not speak to reporters.
But in a statement to E! News, Guess said: "I really can't say much at all but the accusation couldn't be further from the truth. I would not put my unborn child or other children in danger just to 'frame' someone. He simply needed someone to blame for what he has done and I was the obvious person for him to blame. Most of what is being reported in this case is absolutely inaccurate. That's all I can say. Thank you for asking for my side of this instead of running with the inaccuracies many others are publishing."
(E! and Today are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
—Reporting by Lindsay Good
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