Wyoming grad student accused of poisoning colleague, attempting to flee the country
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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Chinese microbiology student at the University of Wyoming is accused of poisoning a colleague and attempting to flee the country before she was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport.
Aili Wang, 32, was arrested on Oct. 6 and has since been charged with one count of felony aggravated assault.
Wang’s colleague, a man whose identity has not been publicly released, said he began experiencing symptoms such as extreme tiredness and inability to sleep following a prestigious conference in August, the Associated Press reports.
In addition to fatigue, the man reported tingling and numbness in his fingertips, restless leg sensations and weakness in his legs, an affidavit obtained by Cowboy State Daily states. After numbness spread to his entire arm, the man went to the campus clinic for evaluation.
The man told doctors he also noticed an odd taste in his tea, which he made in a small coffee maker. When he washed out the coffee maker, the taste went away. The man, his wife, and others worked together to eventually isolate the source of the chemical taste to the coffee maker.
Cowboy State Daily reports the man’s wife and analysts at the University of Wyoming — who were not named in the affidavit — performed an evaporation test on a water sample from the coffee maker. After all the water had evaporated, 63 milligrams of a white powder remained, and it tested positive for acrylamide.
Acrylamide is a neurotoxin that the Environmental Protection Agency says can cause nerve damage after chronic oral exposure. It is typically used for sewage and waste treatment, soil conditioning agents, ore processing, paper and textile industries and in the manufacture of dyes, adhesives and permanent-press fabrics.
The Associated Press reports the man worked with campus police to set up cameras in the office space he shared with Wang. Then on Sept. 27, police say Wang was recorded going through the man’s desk. On Oct. 1, she was recorded again, this time allegedly taking photos and looking through the notebooks on the man’s desk before rinsing out his mug with a liquid from her own mug.
FOX News reports that the investigation also discovered that Wang had purchased acrylamide on eBay. When interviewed by police on Oct. 5, she reportedly told them that she “had not used acrylamide in years.”
Wang was arrested the following day at LAX. Prosecutors allege that she was at the airport attempting to return to China.
When she was apprehended, police say Wang was found to be possession of laptops, electronic storage devices and documents that were then seized by law enforcement.
The microbiology professor who oversaw both Wang and her colleague said that the situation has left him reeling.
“It’s been disheartening, to say the least, to see that one of your students’ life is in jeopardy, and another student may be responsible for that,” Mark Gomelsky told The Associated Press. “That was one of the worst shocks in my professional career.”
Gomelsky told Fox News that the man he supervised is a student from Vietnam. He said that after Wang failed to defend her dissertation, she became jealous of the man.
If found guilty of the charges against her, Wang may be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison and required to pay up to $10,000 in fines.