Chinese Graduate Student Arrested After Poisoning Peer's Drink and Sneaking Research Notes

A Chinese graduate student at a U.S. university who poisoned a fellow graduate student's drink, causing severe injuries, and attempted to flee to China has been arrested by police.

According to the Associated Press, Aili Wang, a 32-year-old Chinese national enrolled in a master's and doctoral program in microbiology at the University of Wyoming, was arrested on the 6th at Los Angeles International Airport on charges of aggravated assault and battery and is currently being held in custody.

The victim was identified as a Vietnamese graduate student who was preparing to file a patent in the field of disease treatment technology.

The victim began experiencing severe fatigue, insomnia, finger numbness, and leg paralysis starting in August.

One day, while making tea using the coffee machine on the office desk, the victim noticed a strange taste.

In response, the victim's wife and people around them evaporated the water from the coffee machine, and subsequently delivered 63 milligrams of a white powder extracted from it to the police.

The substance of this powder was revealed to be acrylamide, a neurotoxic agent.

CCTV footage inside the laboratory reviewed by local police captured Wang photographing the victim's research notes and rinsing the victim's cup with liquid from Wang's own cup.

According to the AP, investigations showed that Wang had felt jealous of the victim, who was making major breakthroughs in new technology research related to treatments for cancer and genetic disorders, after Wang failed a preliminary thesis defense.

If convicted in court, Wang faces up to 10 years in prison.

At the request of prosecutors, a Wyoming court significantly increased Wang's bond from $200,000 to $1.5 million, or approximately 2 billion won.

Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Chang Yu-jin | Graphics by Sumin Lee | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.