Two poisonings suspected
August after falling unconscious.
Tests eventually revealed his blood contained five different types of prescription medicine.
All five were found in a large stash of drugs – described as ‘‘literally a suitcase full’’ – discovered at Dawson’s home.
They were all prescribed to her, a hypochondriac, by her own doctor for a number of conditions she claimed to have.
The partner grew suspicious when he woke in his hospital room to find Dawson wearing gloves and administering what appeared to be a yellow substance to his IV line through a needle.
She claimed she wore the gloves because he was infectious and that he had seen a yellow pen.
After being discharged, the partner consulted his lawyers who advised making a complaint to the police.
Police discovered Dawson had taken out a $350,000 insurance policy on her partner’s life before the suspected poisoning began.
He thought he was paying for travel insurance. The couple had been together for about three years before they split last year.
Detectives interviewed Dawson twice before her death.
She was also under investigation by ACC and another agency over benefit fraud. She died soon after ACC interviewed her about her claiming compensation for a fictitious accident.
Police found the partner’s symptoms were almost identical to those suffered by Dawson’s husband, Graham Edward Dawson, 54, before his death in September 2009. He also experienced a sudden collapse.
Graham Dawson, a retired firefighter, died in Christchurch Hospital after suffering multiorgan failure. There was no autopsy and his body was cremated three days later.
A hospital doctor signed off on his death, no coronial inquiry occurred and no death notice appeared. The husband’s insurance company paid Shelagh Dawson $350,000 and she claimed a widow’s pension from England.
The couple had been married for 32 years.
The couple – Shelagh Dawson was born in Scotland and Graham Dawson was from Kent, England – emigrated to New Zealand in 2002. They had three children, who are now aged in their 30s.
Dawson’s former partner declined to comment.
He wanted the matter kept private to protect all those concerned, including her children.
A source close to the case said the full facts would show it was ‘‘much worse’’ than Christchurch’s infamous Black Widow saga. Black Widow was the name given to Helen Milner, who was convicted in 2014 of poisoning her husband Phil Nisbet, 47, with anti-allergy medicine in 2009.
Police began investigating the murder after Nisbet’s sister made her own inquiries and raised serious questions. The Crown said Milner probably mixed phenergan into her husband’s dinner and then may have suffocated him once he was sedated. She then manipulated the scene and fabricated suicide notes and a cellphone text message to throw investigators off the track.
A spokesperson for the coroner’s office confirmed the Dawson case was active and investigations were continuing.