Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man who died after drinking a fish tank cleaner that he mistook for the malaria drug ...
Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a man who died after drinking a fish tank cleaner that he mistook for the malaria drug President Donald Trump said could be a miracle cure for coronavirus.
Gary Lenius, 68, died in March after he and his wife Wanda both drank the fish tank cleaner that contained chloroquine phosphate. He died and Wanda required hospital treatment.
On Wednesday, the Mesa Police Department in Arizona confirmed to DailyMail.com that a homicide detective was now investigating his death but said it was normal procedure and did not mean that his death was being treated as suspicious.
'The death of Gary Lenius has not been ruled a homicide at this time.
Gary Lenius and his wife Wanda, both in their 60s, took chloroquine phosphate. The couple, from Arizona, had confused the cleaner with hydroxychloroquine
Chloroquine phosphate, a chemical found commonly found in fish tank cleaner (file image). The couple thought it was the miracle coronavirus cure President Donald Trump had been touting at his press conferences
'It is normal protocol at the Mesa Police Department for all death cases (other than obvious natural causes) to be investigated.
'All death cases are assigned to a homicide detective for their review as a matter of protocol.'
The spokesman added that it was not being treated as a murder nor should it be interpreted as such.
It came after reports in The Washington Beacon, a conservative political website, claimed Wanda mixed the concoction that her husband drank and 'served' it to him.
The police department would neither confirm nor deny that detail.
Lenius and his wife drank the fish tank cleaner because they were afraid of being diagnosed with the virus and thought their efforts would preempt it.
'We were afraid we were getting sick. We were getting really worried.
'We saw his [Trump's] press conference. It was on a lot, actually. Trump kept saying it was pretty much a cure,' Wanda told NBC last month.
She said they both had one teaspoon of the cleaner mixed with soda.
Wanda, who said she had chloroquine phosphate in the house because she kept koi fish, added: 'I was in the pantry and I saw it sitting on the back shelf and I said 'hey isn't that stuff they were talking about on TV.
'Don't believe anything that the president says and his people, be so careful. Call your doctor,' she said.
The pair had confused it with hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that Trump excitedly labelled a potential treatment.
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