Frank Rodriguez: ‘Dateline’ To Profile Angelina Rodriguez, The Deadly Wife Who Killed Hubby With Oleander Tea, Antifreeze Laced Gatorade

The Frank Rodriguez-Angelina Rodriguez California murder case will be discussed on tonight’s DatelineNBC. Frank Rodriguez, aka Jose Francisco Rodriguez, was an ex-military man who died mysteriously in 2000. His wife of five months, Angelina Rodriguez, was arrested for spiking her husband’s Gatorade with oleander and antifreeze. The woman, who was also accused of poisoning her infant daughter years earlier, received the death penalty for Frank Rodriguez’ death.

The case baffled police as they tried to determine what had happened to Frank Rodriguez that September day in 2000. Upon arriving at the man’s home located at 837 Marconi Street in Montebello, they found a Hispanic male who appeared to be in his forties lying dead. The man’s wife, Angelina, told detectives that she found him on the floor. Police noticed that the woman seemed to be “fake” crying as she described finding him on the floor. Even more confusing was the fact that the coroners could not pinpoint a cause of death — though only at first.

They had no idea that this case would turn out to be a case with a lot of twists and turns as they dug deeper into Angelina Rodriguez’ past, which showed her to be a diabolical killer in the coldest form.

Angelina Rodriguez thought she was smart. People who knew her said that she loved to hear herself talk and could usually talk her way out of anything. And speaking with police about the case was no different. In fact, she had insisted on speaking with detectives about what she thought might have been the cause of his death. She explained that she had once worked at the Angel Gate Academy, where her husband volunteered to chaperone the troubled youth. Angelina Rodriguez went on to explain that she was now on their bad side since she had accused an employee of abusing one of the young people. She speculated that someone at Angel Gate had killed her husband out of revenge.

Her words would come back to haunt her after investigators were informed that Angelina had talked about killing her husband for the insurance money. The insurance agent was also eager to speak with investigators about how Angelina Rodriguez had hounded him for the insurance money right after her husband was found dead. In fact she had contacted him several times to urged him to move forward quickly so that she could buy a home.

And Angelina’s talking didn’t stop there. Law enforcement officials were shocked when Angelina Rodriguez stated that she had received a strange call from someone telling her about antifreeze.The case became even more dramatic after Frank Rodriguez’s mother called police, stating that Angelina had mentioned something about how oleander could be mixed in a tea to use as a poison.

Medical examiners were then able to confirm that antifreeze was found in his system, giving police plenty of reason to take Angelina into custody. Tune in to Dateline NBC tonight to see how the police untangled the case and how oleander tea and antifreeze-tainted Gatorade sent a wife to death row.

[Photo Credit: Facebook]