The active ingredient in eye drops works by constricting blood vessels.
Lana Clayton confessed to killing her husband Steven Clayton, 64, by poisoning him with eye drops in York County, SC within a Lake Wylie community. Lana pleaded guilty on January 16, 2020 to voluntary manslaughter and tampering with a food or drug.
Lana confessed to spiking her husband’s water with eye drops over the summer of 2018. Lana started poisoning her husband with eye drops on July 19, 2018.
Steven was found dead at the foot of the stairs inside the couple’s Lake Wylie home two days later. A toxicology test during Steven’s autopsy revealed poisonous levels of Tetrahydrozoline, a decongestant used to relieve redness in the eyes. Lana admitted to administering the substance to her husband without his knowledge.
Eye drops are tasteless and odorless, so it would be very hard for her husband to know that she put it in his water.
The prosecutor said when Lana realized that police started to suspect murder and not a natural death, she told them her husband would put Visine in his coffee all the time to induce bowel movements.
Lana told officers she was mad at her husband Steven and wanted him to suffer. Lana claimed Steven was abusive to her and that she tried to kill herself before her arrest by taking pills and turning on the gas in the stove. She also apparently left a suicide note.
