An Act of Murder

"The Bride Who Cried" - that was the title of the dinner-theatre murder mystery presented at Maryland's luxurious Harbourtowne resort on Valentine's Day weekend, 1998.

But no tears were being shed by Kimberly Hricko at 3 am when she reported a fire in the room she shared with her husband, Stephen.

Rescuers found him dead, badly burned around the upper body.

It seemed that he'd fallen asleep while smoking a cigar, sparking off an inferno.

But Kimberly's efforts to play the part of an innocent widow quickly began to unravel.

Sleuths learned that she had been having an affair with a man ten years her junior.

She also stood to inherit $400,000 on her husband's death - and had tried to bribe a co-worker to kill Stephen for $50,000.

In the courtroom, prosecutors argued that Kimberly injected her sleeping spouse with a lethal dose of muscle relaxant and set the fire to cover her tracks.

For a cold-blooded killer who acted without remorse, there could only be one verdict - guilty as charged.