Stacey Daniels met her first husband, Michael Wallace in 1985, when she was 17 years old. The couple married and had their first daughter, Ashley, in 1988. A second daughter, Bree, was born in 1991. Daniels was born in Clay, New York, on July 24, 1967. Her parents were Jerry Daniels and Judie Eaton. Daniels worked for an ambulance dispatch company, while Wallace spent his nights as a mechanic, yet the family still struggled financially. Daniels said Wallace was especially close to Bree, showing a favoritism she balanced out by becoming “best friends” with their older daughter Ashley. Despite their bonds with the kids, the couple drifted apart, and rumors swirled that both were involved in extramarital affairs.
In late 1999, Wallace started feeling sick off and on. His family remembers him seeming unsteady, coughing, and looking swollen. As his strange illness dragged on through the holidays, they urged him to see a doctor, but he passed away in early 2000 before he got the chance. Doctors told Castor her husband had died of a heart attack. Although Wallace’s sister didn’t believe that and wanted an autopsy. Daniels declined, saying she trusted the doctors’ conclusion.
In 2003, Stacey married David Castor and took his last name…the name she would carry for the rest of her life. David owned an air conditioning installation and repair business, where Stacey worked as his office manager. One afternoon in August 2005, Stacey called the Onondaga County sheriff’s office, saying David had locked himself in their bedroom after an argument and hadn’t been seen or heard from in a day. She added that he had been depressed lately. When Sergeant Robert Willoughby arrived for a wellness check, he kicked in the bedroom door and found David dead. Near his body were a container of antifreeze and a half-full glass of bright green liquid. Willoughby recalled Stacey screaming, “He’s not dead, he’s not dead.”
The coroner ruled David’s death a suicide from a self-administered lethal dose of antifreeze, but suspicion arose when police found Stacey’s fingerprints on the glass and discovered a turkey baster with David’s DNA on its tip. Investigators suspected she had used it to force-feed him once he was too weak to resist. With this new lead, they obtained permission to place audio and visual surveillance at the Castor home and the gravesites of Stacey’s husbands, buried side by side at her request. Detectives figured that if she truly loved her late husbands, she would visit their graves, but she never did. Eventually, they decided the only way to prove she was behind both deaths was to exhume Wallace’s body. A toxicology report confirmed that Wallace had also died from antifreeze poisoning.
In September 2007, after her first husband’s body had been exhumed, Castor decided to kill her daughter and “best friend” Ashley for the murders to save her own skin. This was her “best friend” and yet, she felt no 
remorse. A suicide note seemed her best option, so she typed it up and presented it as Ashley’s. Castor invited Ashley to the family home in Liverpool for a drink. Ashley agreed, as Castor was not just her mother but also her “best friend.” The next day, Castor invited Ashley over for drinks at home again, offering her a “nasty-tasting” beverage that she initially turned down. Seventeen hours later, Ashley was found unconscious in bed by her younger sister, Bree. Thankfully, Bree insisted they get help, prompting Castor to call 911. When Bree briefly stepped away and returned, she discovered a suicide note beside Ashley, allegedly confessing to the murders of her father and stepfather. Castor swiftly took the note and later handed it to paramedics. Tests showed that Ashley had potentially deadly painkillers in her system and would likely have died if she’d arrived at the hospital just minutes later. When she woke up, police asked her about the murders and the suicide note. She said the last thing she remembered was her mother making her an alcoholic drink, which had never happened before. She told them she hadn’t written the note and was baffled by their questions.
The DA even pointed out that Castor may have even murdered her own father, Jerry Daniels, who died February 22, 2002, shortly after his daughter visited him in the hospital where he had a minor lung complaint. Castor’s first husband’s family also believes Castor may have killed her father by bringing in an open can of soda for her father to drink. She was the executor of his estate. On February 5, 2009, Castor was convicted of second-degree murder for poisoning David and of attempted second-degree murder for overdosing Ashley. She kept her eyes closed as the verdicts were read. Keller stated she would appeal the decision, planning to challenge the use of evidence related to Wallace’s death, for which Castor had not been charged.
On March 5, 2009, during Castor’s sentencing, Garvey urged Judge Fahey to hand down the maximum consecutive sentences, citing the brutality of David’s death. She condemned Castor for “partying in her backyard with friends like nothing was happening” while Ashley lay comatose in her room. Calling her cold, calculating, and devoid of emotion, Garvey said, “Human life is sacred. Stacey Castor places no value on it, not even her own flesh and blood. To her, people are disposable.” David’s son, cheated out of his inheritance, also pleaded for severe punishment, calling Castor “a monster and a threat to society” who had caused immense pain and loss, multiplying the suffering among the families she hurt.
Judge Fahey told Castor he had never seen a parent try to kill their own child just to frame them for a crime they committed. He told her she was “in a class all by herself.” The judge then gave her the maximum sentence of twenty-five years to life for David’s murder, plus another twenty-five years for attempting to kill Ashley. For forging David’s will, he added an extra 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison. The trial had lasted for four weeks. An emotional Ashley told the judge she hated her mother “for ruining so many people’s lives” but still loved her for the bond she had originally had with her. She said, “I never knew what hate was until now. Even though I do hate her, I still love her at the same time. That bothers me, it is so confusing. How can you hate someone and love them at the same time? I just wish that she would say sorry for everything she did, including all the lies. As horrible as it makes me feel, this is goodbye mom. As hard as you tried, I survived and I will survive because now I’m surrounded by people that love me. I’m going to do good things in this world despite making me in every sense of the word an orphan.”
Castor became New York Department of Corrections inmate number 09G0209 and was placed in Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in Bedford Hills, New York. Even with credit for time served, her earliest possible release date was June 15, 2055…slightly over a month shy of her 88th birthday. Castor had been dubbed “The Black Widow” by media outlets. Her prison term would be long, but she wouldn’t live to see much of it. Castor was found dead in her cell on the morning of June 11, 2016. It was not immediately apparent how she died and the manner of her death was listed as undetermined; it was later determined by the DA’s office that she died of a heart attack, with no evidence of suicide or foul play.
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