In November 2003, 40-year-old Rob Kissel, a high-profile investment banker for Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, uncharacteristically missed a crucial conference call. His colleagues, knowing his meticulous professionalism, were immediately alarmed.

When he failed to show up for work for a second day, their concern grew. Rob and his wife, Nancy, lived a life of immense privilege in Hong Kong’s exclusive Parkview apartment complex with their three young children.

Rob’s demanding, high-stakes career afforded them a luxurious lifestyle, but it also created distance, leaving Nancy, a former designer, feeling bored and isolated.

Rob’s colleagues, unable to reach him, contacted Nancy, who claimed he had left after a personal argument. But as days passed with no word, Rob’s friends and colleagues reported him missing to the police, noting Nancy seemed unconcerned.

Police visiting the apartment found Nancy calm, but her story was suspicious. She claimed Rob had attacked her after she refused intimacy, prompting her to file an assault charge against her missing husband.

The investigation quickly turned, however, when maintenance workers reported a strange request from Nancy days earlier: she had asked for help moving a large, heavy, foul-smelling rolled-up carpet to their private storage unit.

With a search warrant, police entered the storage unit and found the Oriental carpet. Inside, wrapped in plastic and blankets, was the lifeless body of Rob Kissel.

The autopsy revealed he had sustained at least five severe blows to the head. Toxicology reports showed a cocktail of six different drugs in his system, including sedatives and painkillers prescribed to Nancy.

The investigation uncovered a sordid domestic drama. Unhappy in her marriage, Nancy had begun a passionate affair months earlier, in 2003, while visiting their home in Vermont.

Her lover was Michael, a TV repairman living in a trailer park—a stark contrast to her wealthy husband. Nancy showered him with expensive gifts and, according to her, even got a tattoo at his suggestion, despite Rob’s disapproval.

Rob, suspicious of her behavior, hired a private investigator, Frank Shea, who installed spyware on her computer, confirming the affair. Rob confronted Nancy, who promised to end it and return to Hong Kong to save their marriage.

However, she secretly continued the relationship using a prepaid cellphone. On the evening of November 2, 2003, hours before Rob’s passing, a family friend, Andrew Tanzer, visited the apartment.

Nancy served both men a pink “Halloween” milkshake. Andrew drank only a sip before leaving; he later testified he became unusually drowsy and fell asleep on his sofa upon returning home.

Prosecutors argued this was Nancy’s “test run.” Later that night, Rob, also presumed heavily sedated from his own milkshake, was attacked.

Nancy claimed it was self-defense. She testified Rob, enraged about her affair and a pending divorce, confronted her, threatened her with a baseball bat, and attempted to assault her.

She claimed she fought back, grabbing a heavy metal figurine and striking him repeatedly to protect herself. The prosecution painted a far more calculated picture.

They presented Nancy’s computer search history, which included queries for “sleeping pills” and “medications that cause heart attacks.” They argued she planned the act, motivated by a desire to end her marriage without losing custody or money, hoping to secure Rob’s $18 million estate and return to her lover in the US.

Evidence refuted her self-defense claim. The baseball bat, which she claimed Rob used to attack her, had none of her DNA or fingerprints, only Rob’s.

Doctors who examined Nancy after she filed her assault claim found no injuries consistent with her story of a violent struggle. Witnesses, including the family’s nanny, contradicted her claims of Rob’s abuse, stating he was a kind father.

On September 1, 2005, a jury found Nancy Kissel guilty, rejecting her self-defense plea. She was sentenced to life in prison.

In a stunning twist, the verdict was overturned in 2010 due to legal errors in the first trial. However, Nancy was tried again, and in 2011, she was convicted for a second time, again receiving a life sentence for her husband’s passing.

Her lover, Michael, reportedly married another woman, asking the prison warden to stop Nancy from sending him love letters. The three Kissel children, left orphaned by the tragedy, were placed with Rob’s sister, ensuring their care far from the dark legacy of the “Milkshake Incident.”