In 2011, a Chinese wife murdered her husband shocked the whole United States. Li Tianle, who graduated from Peking University and worked as a chemist for ten years, chose to poison her husband with thallium, which made the public once again recognize this terrible poison after the Zhu Ling case. Was she inspired by the Zhu Ling case? Why did the close couple who are struggling in a foreign country come to an irreversible step?
(Li Tianle in professional attire)
Death at the end of marriage
2011, Li Tianle and her husband Wang XiaoyeThe two have been married for ten years and have also reached the end of their relationship. After a series of tedious divorce procedures, the two finally ushered in January 14.
This day was the day when the two of them originally planned to formally handle the divorce procedures. However, Wang Xiaoye drove to Princeton University Medical Center for treatment due to unbearable physical pain and was hospitalized. The doctor initially diagnosed Wang Xiaoye with flu , but after being hospitalized, his health condition not only did not improve, but instead deteriorated all the way, and he also showed symptoms of similar poisoning such as hair loss , nausea and vomiting, and pain sensitivity.
Wang Xiaoye told the doctor that he suspected that his wife Li Tianle poisoned him and insisted that he had to undergo a urine test.
However, this statement has not been taken seriously by the hospital. The hospital believes that Wang Xiaoye may have hallucinations under the heavy pressure of pain, and sent a psychiatrist to diagnose him.
Until January 17, it was a Chinese nurse's turn to change shifts to take care of Wang Xiaoye for 12 hours. She carefully recorded his symptoms and carefully looked up the cause after returning home.
There were already many reports on the Zhu Ling case on the Internet. After checking the report of the case, the nurse believed that Wang Xiaoye was very consistent with the symptoms of thallium poisoning . She immediately reported to the doctor, hoping to do relevant examinations for Wang Xiaoye.
determines that thallium poisoning requires special instruments. After the test, the hospital did not get the test report until the 25th. The report shows that Wang Xiaoye does contain a large amount of thallium in his body. There has never been a particularly ideal therapeutic drug for thallium poisoning. Prussian blue (hexacyanoferroferrate) is a drug that can prevent the body from continuing to absorb thallium and accelerate the excretion of existing thallium elements. It is usually the first choice for the treatment of thallium poisoning.
(The United States only included Prussian blue capsules as oral drugs in 2003)
However, Prussian blue was still very scarce in the United States at that time. Although multiple institutions including the New Jersey Poison Control Center and other efforts to raise, drug resources were already scarce. Coupled with the harsh traffic caused by heavy snow in winter, these efforts were in vain.
January 26, the day after receiving the test report, Wang Xiaoye died.
The hospital had called the police when it discovered Wang's signs of poisoning, and FBI and relevant authorities immediately intervened in the investigation. Soon, they discovered that Li Tianle purchased a one-way air ticket for himself and his children to return to China in the past few days on January 28, and hurriedly applied for a visa for his children to return to China. They then arrested him on charges of interfering with the investigation. Two weeks later, the Middlesex County prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit against the chemist who had worked for a decade in a prominent pharmaceutical company, accusing her of murdering her husband with thallium.
Behind the glamorous
To outsiders, Li Tianle and Wang Xiaoye are an enviable pair of "winners in life".
Li Tianle was born in 1971. He was admitted to the Department of Chemistry of Peking University with excellent results during the college entrance examination, and later continued to study for a master's degree at Peking University. Wang Xiaoye from Wuxi is one year younger than Li Tianle. He studied at Nanjing Institute of Chemical Engineering (now Nanjing University of Technology ). After graduation one year early, he entered Tsinghua University to study for a postgraduate study. They were the well-deserved prides of heaven in that era.
(Wang Xiaoye’s Tsinghua graduation photo)
While studying at Peking University, Li Tianle had a boyfriend who had been dating for several years. The two are not only classmates, but also encourage and accompany each other during the postgraduate entrance examination, and have a deeper relationship. But the two have irreparable differences about their subsequent life arrangements.
Li Tianle has always been willing to go abroad for further studies, but the other party never wants to go abroad. In the end, the two were unable to reach an agreement on this issue and could only break up regretfully.
Li Tianle and Wang Xiaoye’s acquaintance was around this time, but there are two statements about the exact time point.
A theory says that the two met at a friendship before going abroad. Wang Xiaoye fell in love with Li Tianle, who had not broken up at the time, and insisted on pursuing it. The two of them had in-depth communication because of their shared vision of going abroad, which led to a relationship. They went abroad in 1998. According to the Associated Press report, Li Tianle and Wang Xiaoye only met each other in Pennsylvania through alumni association channels after going abroad. At that time, both of them were already studying for a doctorate at Ivy League universities in the United States.
(The two of them are in the University of Pennsylvania campus)
After arriving in the United States, just like most international students, Li Tianle and the other two also spent a relatively difficult career. But around 2000, as the two of them graduated from a doctorate and started working, their living conditions improved greatly.
Wang Xiaoye got a job as a computer software engineer at Wall Street , and Li Tianle also joined the famous pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb as a chemist.
Hundred Years later, the two held a simple wedding ceremony and successfully obtained the green card three months later. They have been working hard to live a better life for the next few years.
In 2008, the two finally owned their house in the United States and moved into Stanley Street in Mengluo Town, New Jersey. The following year, Li Tianle successfully gave birth to a baby boy, and Li Tianle was 37 years old that year.
(the property purchased by Li Tianle and Wang Xiaoye for US$630,000)
On the surface, their lives are undoubtedly glamorous and successful. Many people dream of education, jobs and houses, they already have, and have a lovely child, and life seems full of sweetness.
(Li Tianle and Wang Xiaoye took photos at Philadelphia after their wedding)
But their marriage has actually been full of holes.
Long before buying a house, there was a huge conflict between the two.
According to the description of their relatives and friends, Wang Xiaoye is a very lively, playful and joking person. Because of this, he often has scandals with the opposite sex. It is no longer possible to verify whether Wang Xiaoye has had specific cheating behavior. But Li Tianle is obviously dissatisfied with this in his personality.
In addition, the pressure of studying and working also makes the two rarely have real emotional communication, and Li Tianle will be disappointed with such a life from time to time. Before buying a house, she once complained to Wang Xiaoye that he only had work but no self in his eyes. After buying the house, the relationship between the two eased for a while, but after the child was born, these undisappeared conflicts intensified again.
The two have particularly prominent conflicts in taking care of their children. Some netizens insiders said that Li Tianle was older when she gave birth and had gestational diabetes , and it was very hard to get pregnant and give birth. Children have serious allergies to dairy products, starch and other foods, and it is not easy to carry them.
In response, Wang Xiaoye suggested that Li Tianle quit his job and take care of his children full-time at home. Li Tianle, who valued his career development, did not agree, but instead went to compete for the position of supervisor.
But Li Tianle did not succeed in the election as she wished. She also blamed her marriage life for the failure, complaining that she had given a lot to her family, but her life was not satisfactory. Wang Xiaoye was also angry by such complaints. Since then, the two have been quarreling endlessly.
Before the two decided to divorce in 2010, even neighbors who didn't deal with them could hear their quarrels almost every day, and sometimes police were required to come to mediate.
Burning frustration
When the anxious emotions cannot be comforted in family life, Li Tianle's emotional problems are becoming more and more obvious.
In 2004 and 2008, Li Tianle was charged with assault, harassment and stalking twice, but these accusations were eventually revoked and transferred to the family court.
Her attacks and harassment were both targeted by a colleague, who also applied for a protection order against Li Tianle from the court. Afterwards, Wang Xiaoye's family's lawyer said that the colleague was Li Tianle's ex-boyfriend's wife. However, other reports did not mention the situation where his ex-boyfriend later went to the United States to develop, but only recorded that Li Tianle had called to harass and insulted his ex-boyfriend's wife.
Some netizens living in the local area posted that Li Tianle has many extraordinary tough behaviors in life. Not only does he have conflicts with his colleagues in the company, but he also often goes to the police station for trivial matters. Li often thinks that he is the victim and the right party in the conflict.
Such emotions may be temporarily relieved after buying a house, but the birth of the child has made Li Tianle tired of housework and quarrels. It can be imagined that her mental state has always been in a relatively tense state.
(A netizen who knows Li Tianle recalls the details of her undergraduate lectures. At that time, she was still a girl who gave people the impression of "delicate and quiet")
When Li Tianle was deeply trapped in the vortex of emotions and housework, Wang Xiaoye did not devote enough care and care to her. On the contrary, Wang has always had relatively close contacts with other opposite sexes.
In 2010, the two decided to divorce, but after the subprime mortgage crisis, the real estate market was in a slump. The two were unable to quickly cash out and divide the house they lived in, so they had to choose to temporarily live under the same roof.
At this time, Wang Xiaoye obviously believed that he could no longer be bound by marriage and would often take girls home. This made Li Tianle very angry. Not only did she stop Wang Xiaoye from making a new girlfriend, she also drove the other party out once. These dissatisfaction and anger finally accumulate into murderous resentment.
Starting from December of this year, Li Tianle began to poison Wang Xiaoye.
Thallium poisoning
Many readers should be familiar with thallium, let’s take a look at this poison.
thallium is a highly toxic radioactive metal , colorless and odorless, and one gram is enough to be fatal. It can block the body's absorption of potassium, affect cell survival, and attack the nervous system, , stomach and kidneys. Poisoned people often have clinical reactions such as hair loss, nausea and vomiting, numbness of the lower limbs, , pain sensitivity, and optic atrophy . Severely poisoned people will have permanent hair loss, lower limb weakness, , optic nerve atrophy and even blindness, and are prone to insomnia and anxiety, and even attack themselves and others.
In daily life, in addition to operators who have been in contact with industrial raw materials that use thallium for a long time, people near mine mining or soil pollution may also face chronic thallium poisoning. Acute thallium poisoning is usually caused by accidental ingestion and poisoning.
(In February this year, netizens asked for Prussian Blue for children with acute thallium poisoning at home on Weibo)
Among the currently known thallium poisoning cases, nearly half of them are from China.
1995, Tsinghua girl Zhu Ling was poisoned, and the case has not been solved yet. Zhu Ling's intelligence, vision, body and language functions have never been restored. He cannot take care of himself at all. He must take care of his daily life by his elderly parents.
In 1997, a thallium poisoning case also occurred at Peking University. Wang, a student from the Department of Chemistry, poisoned his classmates due to personal grudges. Later, Wang surrendered himself for fear of guilt, and the poisoned person was lucky to escape from danger through treatment.
(The well-known Zhu Ling case still touches the hearts of many people)
Both cases occurred before and after Li Tianle studied at Peking University. She wanted to poison, and it is very likely that she was affected by these two cases.
Since December 2010, she has taken advantage of her position to apply to the company for four bottles of thallium, and when she returned the thallium to the warehouse, the capacity was only 10% left. But Li Tianle's experiments at work do not require thallium. When the prosecutor inspected Li Tianle's home, some of the thallium were also found.In addition to the return and the remaining part (about half a bottle left), the other thallium was used by Li Tianle on Wang Xiaoye.
Tallurosis patients often do not show symptoms immediately, but will only have various reactions after a period of time (often for several weeks), which also makes it difficult for the poisoner to know when to stop poisoning. This also explains why Li Tianle kept some of the thallium at home and suddenly bought a plane ticket after Wang Xiaoye died.
Wang Xiaoye was probably inspired by the Zhu Ling case and guessed the truth, so he rushed to Princeton University Medical Center. It’s a pity that his persistence has not received enough attention here.
The tragedy of no one surviving
When Li Tianle walked onto the dock wearing green prison clothes and gold-framed glasses, her expression looked very reserved and a little indifferent. It took a total of two and a half years to hear the case. Until July 10, 2013, the jury unanimously ruled that Li Tianle was found guilty of murdering Wang Xiaoye.
For a long time, Li Tianle and his defense lawyer have always insisted that they are not guilty. Li said that he had reached a divorce property agreement with Wang Xiaoye, and the agreement clearly stated that Wang would pay for the support of his son and had no motive to murder her husband. In her last personal confession, she still reiterated that she did not murder her husband.
(Li Tianle wearing prison clothes appeared in court)
However, the prosecution stated in the closing statement that Li Tianle had premeditated, cold-blooded and cruelly killed her husband Wang Xiaoye, and should be sentenced to heavy sentence, that is, life imprisonment . She also read a handwritten letter from Wang Xiaoye’s father Wang Ming in court. In the letter, Wang Ming said that he and his wife worked hard to cultivate Wang Xiaoye, but now they want to give birth to the black-haired man, and they will live in sorrow for the rest of their lives. He believes in the US judicial system and hopes that the judges can re-sent Li Tianle and give them justice.
In the end, the judge considered that Li Tianle had no criminal record and still had a young son, so he ruled that Li Tianle was sentenced to 275 years in prison and would serve his sentence in the state prison. According to relevant regulations, Li Tianle, who was 44 years old at the time, must serve at least 62 years, 6 months and 19 days in prison (that is, 85% of the entire sentence) before he can be released on bail.
(prosecutor shows thallium in test tubes)
Wang Xiaoye's family also filed a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company where Li Tianle worked and the Princeton University Medical Center, believing that both of them had negligence. The pharmaceutical company knew that Li Tianle was unstable, but still provided Li with thallium, and this highly toxic substance was not a necessary item for Li's work. The medical center failed to fulfill its diagnosis and treatment responsibilities, which led to a certain delay in Wang Xiaoye's treatment, which eventually led to Wang's death.
After Li Tianle was arrested, her two-year-old son was sent to a foster care family, and her mother went from China to the United States alone to take care of her young son. When she was sentenced to 75 years in prison, her child was only 4 years old, while her mother was 70 years old. When she mentioned this in her personal confession, she thanked her mother and couldn't help crying. About two years later, Li Tianle's mother returned to China, and a family in the United States adopted their young children.
(Li Tianle cried in the courtyard)
