Curry & Cyanide: Was Roy Aware Of Wife Jolly Joseph¡¯s Crimes? Where Does The Case Stand Today?

When it comes to true crime documentaries, Netflix seldom goes wrong. The latest one to make the rounds is the peculiar yet spine-chilling case of Jolly Joseph. Directed by National award-winning director Christo Tomy, documentary Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case revolves around the infamous Koodathayi killings which shook the nation back in 2019.

netflix

Who All Were Murdered By Jolly Joseph?

In Kerala, six people of the same family were killed over a period of almost 14 years and homemaker Jolly Joseph was at the centre of it as a prime suspect. From 2002 till 2016, her husband Roy Thomas, mother-in-law Annamma, father-in-law Tom Thomas, Roy¡¯s maternal uncle Mathew Manjayadil, Roy¡¯s cousin Shaju Zachariah¡¯s wife Sili and two-year-old daughter Alphine were killed in similar manner unbeknownst to the entire family.

Due to a good amount of years in between the initial few killings, most of them were treated as natural deaths with no eyebrows raised whatsoever.

netflix

The family members never knew that a serial killer was living amongst them. Jolly continued to carry out the killings in a seamless manner until Roy¡¯s siblings Renji and Rojo got suspicious and eventually exposed her illicit activities.

The documentary film features retired cop KG Simon who was the investigating officer of this case, Jolly¡¯s elder son Remo, Rojo, Renji, her advocate BA Aloor, a psychology expert and a toxicologist among others.

netflix

Due to its limited duration of 1 hour and 30 minutes, many questions remained unanswered. Be it Jolly¡¯s background or psyche, many areas got a surface level treatment, which if adhered to, would have taken the documentary to another level. Many viewers kept waiting for the account of some of the people that knew Jolly from close quarters - relatives, friends or neighbours.

While inclusion of her eldest son¡¯s account surely added gravitas but due to the intrigue that his case generated, viewers were left wanting for more.

Let's try and answer some of the pressing questions.

What Was Jolly Joseph¡¯s background?

netflix

We are told that Jolly belonged to a humble family residing in Kattappana. Both her parents were farmers. She got married to the affluent Ponnamattam family¡¯s eldest boy Roy Thomas. Jolly was an expert at lying as she not only presented her fake education degrees but she also lied about scoring a job of a guest lecturer in NIT college. She kept this fa?ade for many years and it was only after she came under the radar of suspicion that these lies were busted.

Did Jolly Have A Deep Seated Mental Disorder Which Triggered The Crimes?

netflix

There can be no other reason than a personality disorder for a woman to have taken such a heinous step of killing a 2-year old. The greed for wealth and property cannot be that big for a normal human being to callously murder a child! Her delusions made her go to extreme lengths. She was looking to make money by not working hard for it. It is revealed in the film that she married Roy as his family came from wealth. They met at a relative¡¯s function and that¡¯s when Jolly got attracted to Roy. Even her second husband Shaju¡¯s financial stability was the reason that got her attracted to him in the first place. She was happy to stay at home and look after running the household. However, she had little affection for her two sons and was rather focused on her own needs and wants.

netflix

She was also a pathological liar as it took her no time to completely change the narrative and cook up fake stories to justify her lies. During the course of the film, it becomes pretty clear that Roy¡¯s sister Renji has more affection for her brother¡¯s sons than Jolly herself. Even the kids felt the same as her elder son Remo had no qualms about sending his mother to jail once he found out that she was indeed the culprit.

How Did Roy¡¯s Sister Renji Find Out That Jolly Was The Killer?

Both Renji and Rojo were clueless about the deaths of their family members. They somehow bought the natural causes angle of their parents and the suicide angle of their brother. It raised doubts eventually when they noticed the pattern repeating itself.

Renji noticed a loophole in the autopsy report of her brother and that turned out to be a major red flag. Jolly told her that he ate food in the afternoon and got seizures at night which led to his death but the report suggested that his stomach had undigested food which meant that his last meal was right before his death.

netflix

This proved the theory that he didn¡¯t commit suicide but was poisoned. Another thing that solidified their belief was that as per Jolly, Roy was under huge debt which made him take his own life but when no lenders showed up to recover their money, they knew that the story didn¡¯t add up.

This made Renji question all the deaths in the past and she knew that Jolly was definitely hiding something. It was then that Rojo filed a police complaint against Jolly. Once the investigation began, the entire story unfolded and Renji's suspicions turned out to be true. An order was passed stating that the bodies of the deceased family members need to be exhumed for forensic investigation. Soon after, remains of Shaju¡¯s wife Sili were found with traces of Cyanide. Once taken into custody, Jolly confessed her crimes in front of the police officers that she had killed all six people that died in her family.

Was Roy Aware Of Wife Jolly¡¯s Crimes?

netflix

It will be wrong to rule out this possibility. While there has been no mention of the same in the documentary, it¡¯s hard to believe that Roy didn¡¯t know of Jolly¡¯s many deceptions. Be it her fake degrees or her killing off his parents. Post the death of Roy¡¯s father, both him and Jolly produced a fake will in front of his siblings Renji and Rojo which stated that all the wealth and property had been left in the name of Roy and Jolly. There was no mention of Tom Thomas¡¯ other two children. Interestingly, the will had no notary stamps nor signatures of witnesses. It¡¯s possible that the husband-wife duo hatched the plan together to gain all the wealth.

Probably, Roy didn¡¯t see it coming that he could be Jolly¡¯s next target. There's no proof of the same and it is merely conjecture.

How Did Jolly Get Hold Of The Cyanide?

netflix

Cyanide is not a chemical that can be easily purchased from the market, so how did Jolly get it? Jolly got close to a distant cousin of Roy named KC Mathew. Although, it isn¡¯t directly said in the documentary but as per reports citing Police¡¯s charge sheet, she had an extramarital affair with him and Roy was privy to this secret of hers. Mathew used to work at a jewelry shop. Not many know but cyanide is used to polish gold. She asked Mathew to provide her Cyanide on the pretext of killing a rat in her house. Years later, Mathew was also arrested for being an accomplice of Jolly.

What Was Jolly¡¯s Motive Behind All The Killings?

Without getting into detailed specifics, Jolly resorted to killing when she couldn¡¯t deal with a situation at hand. This is the reason why the six killings were done in a span of 14 years!

First was Annamma, her mother-in-law - while Jolly thought that marrying Roy would get the affluence that she craved for, the real situation was far from that. Apparently, Roy¡¯s business wasn¡¯t doing well and this led to a lot of financial pressure for the couple. Jolly¡¯s mother-in-law kept insisting that Jolly either find a job or continue her studies. The constant nudge pushed her to the dark side. That¡¯s when Jolly poisoned Annamma¡¯s soup. She immediately got a cardiac arrest after consumption and Jolly passed it off as death due to natural causes.

Her next target, the father-in-law, became a hindrance when she got to know that he is looking to make a will in which he would likely distribute his wealth and assets equally among his three children. Jolly wasn¡¯t ready to share it and thus, spiked his mushroom capsules with cyanide. She again passed it off as natural death and people bought it with no questions asked.

netflix

The third target was her husband Roy. Although there was no specific reason cited, there¡¯s a possibility that their equation changed after the death of his parents or he didn¡¯t approve of Jolly¡¯s friendship with Mathew. She poisoned his dinner with Cyanide. After consuming his food, he went to the washroom and collapsed inside while frothing from his mouth. Jolly convinced the police that it was a suicide as Roy was under a lot of debt.

However, Roy¡¯s maternal uncle Mathew Manjadyil insisted that an autopsy be conducted on Roy¡¯s body. The report revealed that his stomach had traces of Cyanide. Mathew then started asking her a lot of questions about the previous deaths of Roy¡¯s parents. This must have rubbed Jolly the wrong way. Therefore, she spiked his coffee with cyanide and killed him to get him off her back.

The next target of Jolly was Shaju and Sili's two-year-old daughter Alphine. As per reports and police statements, it was said that Jolly wasn¡¯t very fond of girls. This was the reason why Alphine became a target but another reason could be that she thought of the little girl as more of a liability in her larger plan of marrying Shaju. She spiked the girl¡¯s food at the communion of her brother. She passed out right after consumption and died on the way to the hospital.

Last one to become a victim of Jolly was Shaju¡¯s wife Sili. Post the passing of her daughter, a grieving mother Sili formed a close friendship with Jolly. During one of her visits to the dentist, Jolly spiked her water with cyanide and just like the others, she dropped dead instantly post consumption.

Where Does The Case Stand Today?

netflix

As of this moment, the case is still ongoing in a special court in Kozhikode, Kerala. She remains in custody and is facing trial. Jolly was arrested on October 5, 2019. Going by the evidence and investigation, it would be hard to prove Jolly guilty of all the six murders. Apart from Roy, autopsies weren¡¯t conducted for all the other deceased. Ascertaining information from exhumed remains wasn¡¯t conclusive enough. As for her confession to the police, many viewers who are obsessed with true crime stories would know that it is not admissible in court. Jolly confessing to her crimes in front of the judge during cross-examination is a possibility but going by her deceptive nature, it could go the other way as well. As for her accomplice Mathew is concerned, it depends on the defense argument.

Curry And Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case is available to stream on Netflix.

(To read more such stories related to movies and shows released on OTTs, keep reading Indiatimes BINGE)