A woman who was on trial for poisoning her partner has been found dead in her home two days before the court was due to deliver its verdict.

Yvon K., 64, was accused of killing Chris Grinwis at his home in Halsteren, Noord-Brabant, in December 2020. She was arrested 10 months later and went on trial in Breda earlier this year, but denied any involvement in his death.

K. had been a carer for Grinwis’s wife, Mia, who died in May 2020. His will was rewritten two months before he died to make K. the sole beneficiary of Grinwis, who owned a Plus supermarket franchise.

Traces of pentobarbatil, a short-acting barbiturate which is known as a suicide powder, were found in Grinwis’s body, on a wine glass and in a partially eaten dessert after he was found dead at his home.

Prosecutors said K. had murdered her partner “in a cold and refined manner”, but she denied all involvement and insisted he had taken his own life.

The trial was told that K.’s motivation was money. Grinwis financed the renovation of her house and bought her a new car for €50,000. Police also found €227,000 in cash in a safe held in her name.

In her closing statement to the court K. said: “I didn’t do it. I didn’t even help him take his life or give him information about it. I would never have wanted to lose Chris.”

The court was due to give its verdict in the case on Wednesday. K.’s death was confirmed to Omroep Brabant by her lawyer, Esther Vroegh.

“It’s very sad that two days before the verdict she apparently couldn’t take it anymore,” Vroegh said.

K. was suspected by the children of another man, John Boom, of killing him in similar circumstances in 2011 after being in a relationship with him for eight years, but no charges were ever brought. Boom’s three daughters only learned of his death after he had been cremated.