Idaho’s Ada County sheriff’s office identified “The Unknown Wanderer,” who died by suicide in a Boise church in 1982, as organic chemist Mathew Francis Betkouski. Officials said he may be connected to the unsolved Tylenol poisonings but are not naming him a suspect.
The 1982 Chicago-area Tylenol poisonings killed at least seven people after someone replaced the powder in capsules with cyanide and returned the bottles to store shelves; the killings remain unsolved. Ada County officials said Betkouski died from cyanide ingestion, but said they cannot confirm he was in Chicago during the final week of September 1982.
Detective Tim Cooper said coworkers at a Jacksonville-area flavors and fragrances company reported Betkouski discussing “the perfect crime” and cyanide. Cooper also said Betkouski was fired by his employer in 1982 after trying to obtain pills or capsules for an experiment at a pharmacy. Ada County shared its findings with Chicago police and said its partnership with Unsolved Mysteries seeks tips and evidence; the documentary is set to stream Oct. 9, 2026, on the Roku Channel.
