Dateline: Secrets Uncovered - How did the police solve Matt Podolak's murder case?

In 2006, Matt Podolak, father of two, died of antifreeze poisoning. The case was only solved six years later when his former fiance and mother of his children, Holly McFeeture, was arrested for poisoning his drinks.

Investigators made the breakthrough in 2010 after receiving an unexpected tip from one of McFeeture's boyfriends she dated after Podolak's death. The man alleged that the two were having drinks when she got emotional and admitted to adding something to Matt's drinks that led to his death.

Holly McFeeture was first charged and arrested in connection with Podolak's murder in 2012, two years after the manner of death was changed from "undetermined" to "homicide." She pleaded not guilty and entered a trial in 2013. A jury found her guilty, sentencing her to life in prison with parole after 30 years.

---

How was Matt Podolak's murder from antifreeze poisoning solved?

After Madd Podolak, a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, died in 2006, witnesses picked up on a series of strange instances connected to Holly McFeeture, who showed no remorse or distress in the days that followed her fiance's death. About a month and a half after his demise, she even started dating other men.

Moreover, McFeeture claimed that Matt had respiratory problems and was suffering as a consequence of playing hockey. She told one of the men she was dating that Matt Podolak died of kidney failure, but as soon as the autopsy results were released, she claimed that he was either poisoned or exposed to potentially dangerous substances at work.

In 2008, McFeeture started dating Jamison Kennedy, who later revealed that she had admitted to putting something in Matt Podolak's drinks that made him sick and ultimately killed him. Kennedy stated that the two were drinking when she got emotional and confessed to spiking his drinks. She said that "she wanted to stop, but his kidneys were already failing."

Until then, although authorities knew that Podolak died from antifreeze poisoning, the manner remained "undetermined" and was only officially changed to "homicide" in 2010. Two years later, McFeeture was charged with aggravated murder and contamination of a substance for human consumption, to which she pleaded not guilty and was sent to trial.

---

Matt Podolak was made to consume spiked iced tea for three months before his death

During her trial in 2013, Dr. Galita, a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, testified that McFeeture allegedly began poisoning Matt Podolak in the spring of 2006 by adding antifreeze to his iced tea. Podolak unintentionally consumed the drug, which his blood and liver absorbed. A three-month period of chronic ethylene glycol poisoning was found to be the cause of Podolak's death.

Dr. Galita also spoke about medical documents stating that Madd Podolak complained about back pain for up to three months before his death in July. He alleged that the poisoning probably caused the suffering.

McFeeture's defense argued that Galita's method for obtaining his diagnosis was flawed. Additionally, they used closed-circuit television to introduce their own expert witness, who testified during the hearing that Podolak died from acute intoxication rather than chronic intoxication and that there was strong evidence that he intentionally ingested the sweet-tasting but odorless poison.

The controversial trial ended with a jury finding Holly McFeeture guilty of murdering her former fiance Matt Podolak. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

---

Watch Dateline: Secret Uncovered's recent episode, titled Manner of Death, to learn more about Matt Podolak's murder case.