I recall watching a show, not sure if it was Unsolved Mysteries, they had a guy who was trying to gain weight, he was into weightlifting and trying to build a muscular body. His girlfriend would take him "homemade shakes" for lunch. After a while, he would get nauseated, vomiting, etc. She was poisoning his shakes little by little I think with rat poison. He ended up with some sort of kidney failure and some paralysis (nerve damage to his legs). He survived but the girlfriend fled and they aired this hoping to catch her. Was it Unsolved Mysteries? If so, what ever happened? did she get caught?

yes there was a man named gilbert ortiz, whose wife elizabeth put poison (insecticide) in what was supposed to be a protein shake... it gave him the shakes alright!
police knew it was her when she came up with the stupid story of somebody taking her son jonathan...

yes there was a man named gilbert ortiz, whose wife elizabeth put poison (insecticide) in what was supposed to be a protein shake... it gave him the shakes alright!
police knew it was her when she came up with the stupid story of somebody taking her son jonathan...
oh yes, that's the one...i remember because the guy is hispanic. I believe she was having an affair too. do you know if she was caught? i am glad you knew the information. thanx.

She was caught in 2000. The son was safely returned to Gilbert. Elizabeth was convicted of attempted murder and sent to prison. Her attempt to appeal the conviction has been unsuccessful.

She was caught in 2000. The son was safely returned to Gilbert. Elizabeth was convicted of attempted murder and sent to prison. Her attempt to appeal the conviction has been unsuccessful.
thanx Kane, I appreciate the information.:wave:

There was a topic about her appeal here, but the link is broken.

Basically she said on appeal that she poisoned him because he regularly beat and raped her on an almost daily basis, and she was trying to save herself and her son by poisioning him.

Yeah, it didn't work. Shocking, huh?

It's also somewhat important to note that during the original segment Gilbert mentioned that the poisoned shake did immense damage to his nervous system and he was afraid he would never again walk without assistance. When they updated it in 2000 they showed a very brief clip of Gilbert playing baseball with his son and walking and running under his own power so I was glad to see that at least most of his health has returned.

I feel so bad for Gilbert!!! :(

This has to be one of the most overplayed cases on UM, what do you guys think?

"There's a guy outside who says he's gonna take Jonathan!"

"What guy?"

"I don't know, just a guy. I think he had a mask."

"What kind of mask?"

"I don't know, just a mask. It just covered his face."

"There's a guy outside who says he's gonna take Jonathan!"

"What guy?"

"I don't know, just a guy. I think he had a mask."

"What kind of mask?"

"I don't know, just a mask. It just covered his face."

:lol: So much so that you've memorized the lines, huh? :lol:

It's also somewhat important to note that during the original segment Gilbert mentioned that the poisoned shake did immense damage to his nervous system and he was afraid he would never again walk without assistance. When they updated it in 2000 they showed a very brief clip of Gilbert playing baseball with his son and walking and running under his own power so I was glad to see that at least most of his health has returned.
You know I don't get to watch any daytime television, so I don't get to watch UM. I appreciate the feedback. This story, along with some others, really stuck in my mind and I felt so bad for him. He seems so nice and what a total B***** that ex-wife of his is. I am glad she got caught. Reading the above words of what she said, I couldn't help but laugh, she is soooo bad at lying. I am glad for dumb criminals, how else could they get caught.
I really want to see the update on this on UM. I appreciate the info you all gave me, that's the next best thing to actually watching it. :wave:

"There's a guy outside who says he's gonna take Jonathan!"

"What guy?"

"I don't know, just a guy. I think he had a mask."

"What kind of mask?"

"I don't know, just a mask. It just covered his face."


Hilarious! :rotflmao:

I am just happy she got caught and now she is all alone in prison...stupid B****!!!

I have never seen the update with Gilbert playing with his son. Good to know he recovered.

I think bad acting had a part in that segment as well. I mean, UM is notorious for getting the worst people to play characters, but whoever played Elizabeth was just terrible.

In all fairness JH - Unsolved Mysteries wasn't exactly looking for Academy Award winning actors for their shows. It was not necessary to be a great actor to be on UM - you just have to reinact the part in a way to covey the facts to the public in order to help catch the criminals. Some cases were actually very good as I always cite the Rick Church segment as being as good as any mainstream horror flick around. Just awesome awesome stuff there.

When UM was in it's glory years and they were not using digital sources - it was one of the best produced shows on television which often made up for some of the lackluster acting.

In all fairness JH - Unsolved Mysteries wasn't exactly looking for Academy Award winning actors for their shows. It was not necessary to be a great actor to be on UM - you just have to reinact the part in a way to covey the facts to the public in order to help catch the criminals. Some cases were actually very good as I always cite the Rick Church segment as being as good as any mainstream horror flick around. Just awesome awesome stuff there.

When UM was in it's glory years and they were not using digital sources - it was one of the best produced shows on television which often made up for some of the lackluster acting.

Well said DarkDante! :wave:

It's also somewhat important to note that during the original segment Gilbert mentioned that the poisoned shake did immense damage to his nervous system and he was afraid he would never again walk without assistance. When they updated it in 2000 they showed a very brief clip of Gilbert playing baseball with his son and walking and running under his own power so I was glad to see that at least most of his health has returned.

I'm glad too. Indeed, when the segment first aired in 1993, Gilbert said that doctors didn't know whether the damage would be permanent. I'm guessing that some of the bodily damage done to him was reversible, but slowly so. However, it's possible that he still has some damage left, and that it's so minimal that few would notice it.

The real Elizabeth wasn't that bright to begin with... (did she honestly think that she would get away with it? Poison a milkshake and drop it off right before he got sick? Come on :rolleyes: )

This was a rare time where you NEEDED a bad actress because the person she was portraying wasn't exactly gifted in the brains department.

I don't know why but this is one episode that I don't mind seeing again and again. For some reason it also seems to be rather long. I'm sure it has to do with the order everything was shown. I'll remember the acting mainly for the whole "He's got Jonathan, that man has Jonathan!" part. It seems lame but maybe that's how it really happened. :D

I know we've had this discussion before on the board, but this is one of those cases where it's hard to tell if they just used a bad actress, or whether she's a brilliant actress playing a bad actress. I'm willing to give the actress the benefit of the doubt. Then again, what does it really matter? That's some great tv!

LOL. True enough. Someone asked if this segment was one of the most overplayed on UM... I'd have to agree with that. I don't get a chance to watch UM like I used to, and it seems that everytime I get a chance to tune in, they're playing that story. Granted, I'm glad that she got caught and that Gilbert was reuinted with his son.

As for her explanation that he beat and raped her daily, that doesn't explain WHY Gilbert was trying so hard to please his wife. He drank that stupid "protein shake" because he wanted to get buff because that was the type of man his wife preferred. If he was controlling and raping her, I don't buy that he would go to those lengths to please her.

Just my theory.

LOL. True enough. Someone asked if this segment was one of the most overplayed on UM... I'd have to agree with that. I don't get a chance to watch UM like I used to, and it seems that everytime I get a chance to tune in, they're playing that story. Granted, I'm glad that she got caught and that Gilbert was reuinted with his son.

As for her explanation that he beat and raped her daily, that doesn't explain WHY Gilbert was trying so hard to please his wife. He drank that stupid "protein shake" because he wanted to get buff because that was the type of man his wife preferred. If he was controlling and raping her, I don't buy that he would go to those lengths to please her.

Just my theory.

I think that this is the most overplayed segment, if not that, then one of them. But I really don't mind watching it over and over...I'm glad Ms. Ortiz was caught! :mad:

Conviction upheld for woman who gave husband 'poisoned milkshake'

The attempted murder conviction and life sentence of an East Palo Alto woman who tried to kill her husband with a poisoned milkshake have been upheld by a state appeals court in San Francisco.
Elizabeth Fuentes-Ortiz, 34, was convicted in San Mateo County Superior Court in 2002 of trying to poison her husband, Gilbert Ortiz, 10 years earlier.

She delivered the insecticide-laced milkshake along with a hamburger and French fries to her husband for lunch at his job at a Toys R Us store in Redwood City on March 11, 1992.

The next day, as Ortiz lay in critical condition at a hospital, Fuentes-Ortiz fled to Mexico with the couple's 2-year-old son.

Fuentes-Ortiz was arrested by FBI and Mexican authorities in a town near Guadalajara eight years later. The boy was found several months afterward and returned to his father's custody.

While Fuentes-Ortiz was a fugitive, a story about the crime ran several times on the television show "Unsolved Mysteries.''

The poison caused Ortiz to suffer cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, lung collapse and permanent nerve damage.

In a decision made public last week, a three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeal unanimously rejected Fuentes-Ortiz's appeal argument that her trial was flawed because the jury was not instructed that it could find that she acted in self-defense.

Fuentes-Ortiz had claimed she was abused by her husband and feared she was in imminent danger. But the appeals court said there was no evidence that Fuentes-Ortiz had reason to believe she was in immediate danger and that she was therefore not entitled to a self-defense jury instruction.

Fuentes-Ortiz's sentence was for life in prison with possibility of parole, with an additional six years for concealing a child and inflicting great bodily injury.


-- Bay City News Service

Conviction upheld for woman who gave husband 'poisoned milkshake'

The attempted murder conviction and life sentence of an East Palo Alto woman who tried to kill her husband with a poisoned milkshake have been upheld by a state appeals court in San Francisco.
Elizabeth Fuentes-Ortiz, 34, was convicted in San Mateo County Superior Court in 2002 of trying to poison her husband, Gilbert Ortiz, 10 years earlier.

She delivered the insecticide-laced milkshake along with a hamburger and French fries to her husband for lunch at his job at a Toys R Us store in Redwood City on March 11, 1992.

The next day, as Ortiz lay in critical condition at a hospital, Fuentes-Ortiz fled to Mexico with the couple's 2-year-old son.

Fuentes-Ortiz was arrested by FBI and Mexican authorities in a town near Guadalajara eight years later. The boy was found several months afterward and returned to his father's custody.

While Fuentes-Ortiz was a fugitive, a story about the crime ran several times on the television show "Unsolved Mysteries.''

The poison caused Ortiz to suffer cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, lung collapse and permanent nerve damage.

In a decision made public last week, a three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeal unanimously rejected Fuentes-Ortiz's appeal argument that her trial was flawed because the jury was not instructed that it could find that she acted in self-defense.

Fuentes-Ortiz had claimed she was abused by her husband and feared she was in imminent danger. But the appeals court said there was no evidence that Fuentes-Ortiz had reason to believe she was in immediate danger and that she was therefore not entitled to a self-defense jury instruction.

Fuentes-Ortiz's sentence was for life in prison with possibility of parole, with an additional six years for concealing a child and inflicting great bodily injury.


-- Bay City News Service

thank the Lord!!!! Justice!!! the thought of her getting another trial would do no good...for her or the son she took from her husband. I felt so bad for him.

I know that this is an older thread, but I just came upon it tonight. The Toys R Us store shown in the segment is about a block from my place. I've been to the shopping center and that Toys R Us countless times, kinda freaky to see it on UM!

I'm glad they caught his wife, I always felt so bad for poor Gilbert.

I thought Gilbert was cute and he really seemed like a nice guy. That hag he married was lucky to get him. He worked to support his family and she was nothing but a conniving leech.

And then she decides that she's dissatisfied with Gilbert because she wants her husband to be muscular and buff?

Did she ever look in the mirror? That Jenny Craig candidate was no swimsuit model. What made her think that hot muscular guys would want to hook up with a mean, grouchy, ignorant, greedy, superficial, untrustworthy, murdering, pudgy chick like her? Gilbert could have done wwwaaaaaaaaayyyyy better.

I thought Gilbert was cute and he really seemed like a nice guy. That hag he married was lucky to get him. He worked to support his family and she was nothing but a conniving leech.

And then she decides that she's dissatisfied with Gilbert because she wants her husband to be muscular and buff?

Did she ever look in the mirror? That Jenny Craig candidate was no swimsuit model. What made her think that hot muscular guys would want to hook up with a mean, grouchy, ignorant, greedy, superficial, untrustworthy, murdering, pudgy chick like her? Gilbert could have done wwwaaaaaaaaayyyyy better.

I know, right? He came across like such a sweetheart. How horrible to have your spouse not only try and kill you, but then to run off with your child, too. He was definitely one of the most sympathetic people to be featured on UM, in my opinion. I just wanted to give him a hug.

I drink YOUR poisoned milkshake. I drink it up! :rip:

Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

Elizabeth was complete biotch for doing that to her husband. He probably suffered a lot. I remember even getting a bad feeling in my stomach from watching that segment.

I drink YOUR poisoned milkshake. I drink it up!


:lol: You have a straw that reaches allllll the way over here?

Thanks for making me laugh. That was such a f'd up movie.