Author Sherrilyn Kenyon Files Lawsuit Claiming Her Husband Poisoned Her

(Photo: Courtesy Sherrilyn Kenyon

As a best-selling author of dozens of fantasy novels, Sherrilyn Kenyon knows how to craft crazy twists for a thrilling story, and now, it looks she's part of one. Kenyon has filed an 80-page lawsuit claiming that her husband and his assistant poisoned her over a three-year period in hopes of cashing in on her estate and life insurance.

The author of the Dark Hunter series and several other paranormal and science fiction novels is suing her husband, Lawrence Kenyon, and his assistant, Kerrie Ann Plump, in Williamson County Circuit Court, Tennessean reports.

According to Kenyon, her husband and Plump poisoned her with food and drink that they "would force her to eat and become enraged any time she failed to consume it."

The lawsuit also named Paco Cavanaugh as a defendant. Cavanaugh was hired by Sherrilyn Kenyon as an IT specialist and was able to access bank accounts, email, and other personal information.

Her husband was also accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of his wife's income for his personal use and rewarding Cavanaugh and Plump financially for helping him pull off his plan.

The complaint claimed that after Lawrence Kenyon hired Plump through the Franklin business Tutor Doctor in 2014 to help with their son's education, Lawrence hired Plump to take on other responsibilities, paying her using his wife's business account that he wasn't authorized to use.

According to the lawsuit, in late 2014, the best-selling author began experiencing mysterious symptoms, and no medical cause could be determined through the tests. Sherrilyn Kenyon felt sicker and unable to walk without help.

The lawsuit said that a year later, Sherrilyn Kenyon's hair was falling out and her teeth began to break. She felt weak from symptoms including facial swelling, extreme nausea, respiratory distress, tongue numbness, vertigo, disorientation, tremors, back pain, and a strange metallic taste in her mouth.

"By February 2017, Ms. Kenyon's health was worsening to a critical level. No doctor or dentist could tell her why her teeth were routinely crumbling (and) her bones were breaking from very minor pressure," the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit said that during a convention in May 2017, Plump gave food to Sherrilyn Kenyon to eat at her hotel room, and when Sherrilyn shared the food with another employee, that employee became sick and started to vomit.

One time, according to the lawsuit, when Sherrilyn Kenyon began vomiting on the floor after eating food her husband served her, Lawrence Kenyon told their distressed son, "she does that all the time, ignore it."

After her husband filed for divorce, Sherrilyn Kenyon had her blood, hair, and nails tested for toxins. According to the tests, her body contained high levels of barium, lithium, tin, thorium, and platinum, the complaint reads.

After Lawrence Kenyon moved out, Sherrilyn's health began to improve; the lawsuit said that Lawrence Kenyon and Plump, who had helped coordinate Sherrilyn Kenyon's book-related appearances and events, worked together to sabotage her career by disparaging fans and industry professionals. She claimed that their actions led to several canceled contracts with her publisher as well as the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last week, Sherrilyn Kenyon sent a newsletter to fans detailing her tragic experience.

"Again, as many of you know, one of the reasons I had to cut back on my appearances and stop doing my annual fan convention a couple of years ago was that out of the blue I was viciously and painfully struck down by a bevy of strange, inexplicable and baffling symptoms," Kenyon said in the newsletter. "This past spring and summer, after new rounds of testing, my doctor finally learned the cause of it all: Someone close to me was tainting my food."

"Rest assured, I am much better today as my symptoms have dramatically improved since this past March when it all came to light and the authorities were notified," Kenyon wrote. "But I and the authorities are still trying to determine who all had a hand in doing this to me as a number of people who handled my food then are all gone, and to find out what, if any damage might be permanent from what I unknowingly ingested while they were around."

In 2016, Kenyon earned some notoriety when she filed a lawsuit against another popular author, Cassandra Clare, accusing her of plagiarizing the Dark-Hunter series for Claire's Shadowhunter series, which have seen been adapted into a movie and TV series. Kenyon claims that her husband started this lawsuit.

"For the record, the Cassandra Clare lawsuit was settled outside of court and was not dropped," Kenyon wrote in the newsletter. "A lawsuit my husband started because of his own personal agenda and greed; one that Kerrie and Lawrence worked on together, and seem determined to have reopened by their spurious and baiting comments they are recklessly making and that they need to stop as I will not be held responsible for their nefarious speech and/or schemes."

Sherrilyn Kenyon is suing for assault by poisoning, invasion of privacy, concerted action aiding and intentional interference with business relationships.

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