Bill Marler and Denis Stearns represented the families of the most severely injured children in this outbreak.
Two months before an E. coli outbreak was linked to Odwalla apple juice, several Seattle families became ill with E. coli infections. All victims tested positive for genetically identical strains of E. coli.
Although at the time apple juice was not considered a possible source of contamination, after the larger outbreak was discovered, epidemiologists reviewed the earlier cases, and it was determined that Odwalla apple juice was the most likely cause of the earlier outbreak.