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They went away for a romantic MURDER MYSTERY weekend. Hours after watching a fictional groom get poisoned, her husband was DEAD for real.
On Valentine’s weekend 1998, Kimberly and Stephen Hricko travelled to the Harbourtowne Resort in St. Michaels, Maryland. Their marriage had been struggling, but the weekend was supposed to be a romantic getaway — complete with dinner, champagne and an interactive murder mystery called The Bride Who Cried.
During the performance, guests were encouraged to play detective and work out who had killed the fictional victim.
Kimberly threw herself into it.
She questioned the actors, searched for clues and followed the fictional investigation as guests attempted to solve the staged murder.
In the play, a groom had been POISONED.
Just hours later, Kimberly Hricko ran for help after discovering a fire inside the cottage she shared with her husband.
Stephen Hricko, 35, was found dead inside.
At first, it looked like a horrifying accident. Kimberly claimed Stephen had been drinking heavily that evening, and investigators were faced with what appeared to be a fatal hotel room fire.
Except the evidence told a very different story.
Stephen had NO alcohol in his system. There was no evidence that he had inhaled the smoke or deadly gases produced by the fire.
Stephen Hricko was already dead when the flames reached him. And suddenly, investigators weren’t dealing with an accidental fire anymore. They were dealing with a real-life murder mystery..
In January 1999, a Maryland jury found Kimberly Hricko guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree arson. She was sentenced to life in prison for Stephen’s murder, alongside a 30-year sentence for arson.
This is the disturbing true story of Kimberly Hricko and the murder of Stephen Hricko — a bizarre Maryland true crime case involving a Valentine’s Day murder mystery weekend, a troubled marriage, an affair, life insurance, a mysterious hotel fire, suspected succinylcholine poisoning and a murder case built largely on circumstantial and forensic evidence.
A true crime deep dive into one of America’s strangest solved murder cases: a fictional murder mystery followed by a REAL death, a husband found dead in a burning hotel room, an unusual poison that investigators believed could vanish from the body, allegations of a previously discussed murder plan and a wife ultimately convicted of first-degree murder and arson.
Podcast: True Crime w/ Anna Templeton