A grad student said he became ill after noticing an odd taste in his water. His coworkers may have helped crack the case

By Eduardo Cuevas, CNN

(CNN) — It began with tingling and numbness in the graduate student’s fingertips and weakness in his legs. As summer ended, it got worse, as the numbness spread across his left arm and all his fingertips.

But after weeks and visits to the University of Wyoming student health clinic, he told investigators he couldn’t figure out what was wrong, court documents show. He had mentioned to professors and other researchers that the hot water he regularly drank in his office tasted off, two professors told CNN.

Then, he found a white substance near his coffee pot and water bottle, according to a chemist at the university who helped the student and spoke to CNN. His colleagues helped him test the powder, court records show, revealing what they said were high levels of acrylamide, a typically odorless, tasteless neurotoxin that resulted in him losing physical and cognitive function over nearly two months. The bitterness he tasted in his water could be the result of the toxin being heated in the coffee maker, according to the university chemist who tested the material.

What researchers uncovered through lab testing and surveillance footage, prosecutors said, was a plot by his fellow graduate student to intentionally poison him. His colleague, Aili Wang, was arrested while prosecutors allege she was trying to flee to China last week after university police had gathered evidence to charge her with felony aggravated assault and battery.

It’s unclear how long Wang, a 32-year-old Chinese national, allegedly had been poisoning her fellow doctoral student, but his symptoms dated back to early August, a University of Wyoming campus police detective said in an affidavit.

CNN is not naming the graduate student, who was identified only by initials in court documents. He did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Wang and the victim reportedly didn’t get along, the police affidavit said. The victim also told investigators he had a patent pending for a new technology to help treat cancer as well as neurological and genetic diseases, according to court documents. Wang had reportedly worked on similar research in China before coming to the US, university police said.

Wang had displayed animosity toward the victim and other students but did so mostly by avoiding them in the lab, according to Mark Gomelsky, who directs the university’s microbiology program and who says he oversaw both the victim’s and the suspect’s research.

Before the results from the chemical analysis were available, “there was nothing to suspect that poisoning would be the way she expresses her dissatisfaction,” he told CNN in an email.

Wang is now facing a felony aggravated assault and battery charge, according to prosecutors.

A lawyer for Wang wasn’t listed in court records. CNN has reached out to Wang via her university email.

The University of Wyoming said it’s working with authorities and “will take appropriate action as warranted,” according to a university news release published Tuesday.

“The university takes matters involving the health and safety of the campus community seriously and remains committed to providing a safe and secure environment for students, faculty, staff and visitors,” Shane Reeves, president of the University of Wyoming, said in a statement.

University researchers say they discover neurotoxin

After the graduate student found the white substance around his coffee maker and in his office, his wife brought a sample to Tak Suyama’s lab around mid-September, Suyama told CNN. Suyama, a chemistry professor at the university who knew the couple, said he worked with another graduate student to evaporate the substance into a powder. The material, through lab testing, was found to be consistent with acrylamide, Suyama said.

Acrylamide can be found in infinitesimal amounts in coffee, but the lab results were extremely high, Suyama said, far more than what is typically found in food. Subsequent tests of different items used by the victim also revealed acrylamide in high levels, he said.

“We knew for sure that that is now intentional poisoning,” Suyama told CNN.

Along with the graduate student’s numbness and tingling in his hands and arm, and weakness in his legs, he also had temporary cognitive issues that included difficulty forming sentences, Suyama said. Those symptoms were consistent with acrylamide exposure, Suyama said, adding these could easily be mistaken for a neurodegenerative disease.

Suyama said he then created a report for campus police and gave the white powder sample to officials. Subsequent samples were taken elsewhere in the university’s Agriculture Building, the police affidavit said. Only the victim’s coffee maker tested positive for acrylamide.

Gomelsky, the overseeing professor, said he hadn’t thought much about the victim’s past comments about the water tasting strange until he saw the chemical analysis. “Even then, it took a while to mentally process that this must have been intentional poisoning,” he said.

Cameras installed to gather more evidence, police say

Campus police and the victim installed video cameras inside the office space in Room 6003, which the victim shared with Wang. In late September, video showed Wang going through the victim’s desk before picking up his coffee tin, opening and inspecting its contents, the police affidavit said. In the victim’s surveillance footage, Wang was seen entering the room, walking back and forth, before sitting on a desk using her cellphone, police said in the affidavit.

Just after midnight on October 1, police say that video from the victim’s camera showed Wang rinsing out the victim’s coffee mug with a liquid from her own. She was also seen taking photos and manipulating notebooks on the victim’s desk, the police affidavit said.

A police camera also installed in the building showed Wang opening and looking inside the coffee maker and moving items on the victim’s desk, police said.

Gomelsky told investigators there was no reason Wang would need the victim’s research notes because their fields of study at the university were unrelated, the affidavit said.

Suspect was questioned about toxin before fleeing, prosecutors say

University police on October 6 obtained information from the school’s IT department showing an account tied to Wang’s university email had purchased acrylamide on eBay in late June that arrived in early July, according to the police affidavit. The account then made a second order of acrylamide in late August, which was delivered in early September.

On October 5, the account then requested that eBay delete the order history and the account itself, according to the affidavit. The same day, Wang told a university police detective she hadn’t used acrylamide in years, according to court documents.

A day later, prosecutors filed a felony aggravated assault and battery charge against Wang. Judge Robert J. Sanford, of Wyoming’s Second Judicial Court, set bond at $200,000.

Wang is accused of fleeing the state and trying to leave the country and fly back to China via Los Angeles International Airport, Wyoming prosecutors said.

On October 6, Los Angeles Airport Police arrested her at Terminal 7, an agency spokesperson said. Officials found her with multiple laptops, portable external digital storage devices, written materials and physical records, Wyoming prosecutors said in an October 8 petition to modify her bond.

Airport Police took her to the city’s Van Nuys jail for booking, an agency spokesperson said.

Wang was in the United States on a temporary visa prosecutors said. If she were able to return to China, American officials couldn’t ensure her return since the US doesn’t have a bilateral agreement for extradition with China.

On October 8, Sanford raised her bond to $1.5 million, court records show. She was ordered to surrender all travel documents, including passports and visas. Sanford’s order also has a no-travel restriction.

There is no court date scheduled for Wang appearing because there is still an outstanding warrant, a circuit court spokesperson said.

As officials await a conclusion to this case, the victim’s university community is left reeling.

“I could not imagine that anyone in my lab is capable of doing something like this,” Gomelsky wrote in an email.

The graduate student continues to have medical follow-ups, officials said.

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