美国怀俄明大学(University of Wyoming)32岁中国籍女研究生王艾莉(Aili Wang,音译)涉嫌投毒企图伤害同实验室的越南籍研究生,于10月6日在洛杉矶国际机场被捕,当时她正准备离开美国。
据英国广播公司(BBC)及美联社报导,王艾莉在怀俄明大学主修微生物学。检方指控她涉嫌将丙烯酰胺(acrylamide)混入一名越南籍研究生使用的咖啡机中。受害人在法庭文件中以“K.T.”代称,真实身份未公开。
根据法庭文件,王艾莉涉嫌于今年年中两次通过网络购物平台eBay购买丙烯酰胺,之后要求平台删除其账户。丙烯酰胺是一种具有神经毒性的化学物质,接触或摄入过量可能损害神经系统。
10月5日,校园警察就相关事件询问王艾莉。她声称自己已经多年没有使用丙烯酰胺。次日,执法人员在洛杉矶国际机场将她逮捕,并查扣笔记本电脑、电子储存设备及手写文件。检察官称,她当时正试图返回中国。
据美联社报导,受害人正在参与一项涉及癌症等疾病治疗的研究,相关成果正在申请专利。两人的指导教授、微生物学家马克·戈梅尔斯基(Mark Gomelsky)表示,王艾莉此前论文答辩未获通过,两名研究生之间存在矛盾,但检方尚未证实这些情况是否与涉嫌投毒的动机有关。
怀俄明大学证实,王艾莉因涉嫌使用化学物质伤害实验室同事,被控加重攻击及伤害重罪(felony aggravated assault and battery)。校方副校长查德·鲍德温(Chad Baldwin)表示,校园警察已将调查结果移交检察机关,学校同时启动学生纪律程序。
根据BBC报导,王艾莉面临的重罪指控最高可判处10年监禁及1万美元罚款,法院已将保释金提高至150万美元。
目前,案件仍处于司法程序中,王艾莉尚未被法院判定有罪。校方强调,应遵循无罪推定原则。
🇨🇳 Aili Wang, a University of Wyoming microbiology graduate student from China, has been arrested on accusations she poisoned the tea of a colleague who had pending patents and with whom she didn’t get along, and then tried to flee the country after police questioned her.
Wang was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Oct 6 while attempting to return to China. With her were laptops, electronic storage devices and documents now in the possession of police, who allege Wang was seen on surveillance video rummaging through the desk of the victim who specialized in technology for disease treatment — research similar to work she’d done in China.
Wang remains jailed without bail in Los Angeles.
She bought acrylamide over eBay, and it was first detected when the victim’s wife and others tested water from the coffee maker he used to brew tea.
The police investigation began after the victim “K.T.” — Kiet Tran, the man standing next to Wang in lower right pic — began experiencing symptoms and his wife and others isolated the chemical in the coffee maker water. The victim and campus police then set up surveillance cameras in the office space he shared with Wang at the university in Laramie.
Wang was recorded on Sep 27 going through the victim’s desk. On Oct 1, she was recorded “taking photos and manipulating notebooks” on his desk, as well as rinsing out his mug with a liquid from her own mug.
During an interview by campus police on Oct 5, Wang said she “had not used acrylamide in years.” A day later she was taken into custody in Los Angeles while in possession of “multiple laptops, multiple portable external digital storage devices, related accessories, physical records and written materials,” according to a request by Wyoming prosecutors to “significantly increase” her $200,000 bond upon extradition.
Wang had no reason to go through the desk of the other student whose federally funded, patent-pending research involved new technology for cancer, neurological and genetic disease treatment.
Wang “was reportedly working on similar research in China before coming to the US.”The victim as a highly successful student from Vietnam.
Wang failed her first attempt to defend her dissertation and became envious of her colleague’s success in discovering how to deliver RNA to human cells using bacteria.
The victim began experiencing extreme tiredness, inability to sleep and other unexplained symptoms such as finger tingling and numbness, and leg weakness soon after attending a prestigious conference in Aug.
He also noticed a strange taste in the tea that he made with a small coffee maker on his desk. When he washed the coffee maker, the taste would go away.
Suspecting someone in their shared office could be poisoning the graduate student, a chemistry professor tested the water and identified acrylamide — which is “not something you would find in that kind of quantity anywhere.” 63 milligrams of white powder that tested positive for acrylamide were isolated.
Wang faces a felony aggravated assault and battery charge in Wyoming punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
It’s not clear when she could be extradited to the state, where Albany County Circuit Court Judge Robert Sanford granted prosecutors’ request and raised bond to $1.5 million cash-only.
Wang had asked eBay to delete her account after she bought acrylamide there twice last summer.
Best known as a carcinogenic byproduct of cooking starchy food and burning tobacco, acrylamide can be acutely toxic in high doses. It’s used in microbiology research involving proteins or DNA.
The victim was working on a pretty promising cancer therapy method. Wang took photos of every page of a notebook the victim left on his desk.
The victim continues to experience symptoms from the poisoning. Acrylamide is a neurotoxin that cannot be neutralized so it stays in neurons and basically kills them. So it’s unclear if he’ll fully recover or not.
https://t.co/OZQxfyqaHu
— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) October 14, 2026