Police: USF biologist dies in an apparent suicide by cyanide

[seafan]

Source: St. Petersburg Times

TEMPLE TERRACE — A University of South Florida molecular biologist died Monday night in an apparent suicide by cyanide at a Temple Terrace hotel, police say.

.....

Police say that at about 8 p.m. Monday, emergency personnel were called to the Extended StayAmerica hotel at 12242 Morris Bridge Road after someone reported that a woman was having a heart attack.
When they arrived, they found Chauhan in apparent distress. They tried to resuscitate her and took her to the hospital, police said.

Her cause of death is still under investigation, but witnesses at the hotel say that Chauhan had mentioned that she had cyanide. A suicide note was found at the scene.

.....

Potassium cyanide is commonly used by universities in chemistry classes and for research, but it was not used in the research projects Chauhan was working on, USF said in its statement.
Chauhan investigated treatments for tropical diseases, including malaria, viral encephalopathies and filariasis, which is caused by parasitic worms, USF said.


Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article1134582.ece

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Another bright, young, enthusiastic, well-liked scientist is gone, under very strange circumstances.


I hope a thorough investigation ensues, and that the truth will emerge. And thoroughly check out those 'witnesses'.


RIP, Chitra Chauhan.

[WhiteTara]

1. I'm surprised he did not shoot himself in the back

of the head, twice. Cyanide? sounds fishy to me.

[proteus_lives]

2. Why the tinfoil vibe?

I read the article and I'm not seeing any reason for it.

[sally cat]

4. She said she had cyanide yet died of a heart attack. Coincidence?

[LisaL]

9. Heart attack?

I don't think she died of a heart attack. Somebody called 911 saying she had a heart attack but that somebody obviously just assumed she had a heart attack because she was in distress.

[kestrel91316]

15. The term "heart attack" is flung about willy nilly by nonmedical persons.

That doesn't mean she died of an actual myocardial infarction, lol. A postmortem exam by pathologists will determine the cause of death, not some panicked layperson calling 911.

[Poiuyt]

28. The ultimate cause of death in cyanide poisoning is cardiac arrest

The cyanide prevents cells from using oxygen, thus leading to seizure, cardiac arrest, etc.

[AlienGirl]

5. Me neither. To me it sounds like she checked out using a method she knew to be fast and sure

You never know what makes a person decide life's not worth it anymore. From the outside, someone can appear to have it made: intelligent, well-liked, employed...and still may have caught bone-chilling despair to the degree that the only escape seems to be death.

Tucker

[LisaL]

10. She was working as a postdoctoral researcher.

That's hardly having it made. Those are considered temporary positions and are usually not very well paid. Add to this, postdoctoral researcher is usually expected to find a permanent position after the postdoctoral position, such as a faculty position, and it's not easy to do. Could be a very stressful situation for someone.

[jberryhill]

11. "Stressful" is an understatement

I've known people who've spent most of their lives on the academic treadmill, living post-doc to post-doc and keeping a stiff upper lip about approaching middle age without a decent paying job or future.

[LisaL]

13. Yep. I don't know what were this girl's reasons, and maybe they had

nothing to do with career, but I don't find it hard to believe that career related stress like this can push someone over the age.

[dogknob]

8. If memory serves...

...the twice-in-back-of-head suicide is a reference to Gary Webb. As for tinfoil-sounding statements, more and more recently, we see instances of tinfoil being not-tinfoil

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LisaL]

35. That list has some victims of murder, some of suicide, and

some from natural causes. I am pretty sure similar lists can be composed of people in other professions.

[CoffeeCat]

3. Why would someone want biologists,

molecular biologists and other related professionals, gone?

[aquart]

7. No idea. Are their deaths statistically anomolous or in normal range?

[sally cat]

12. Probably not.

[frustrated_lefty]

39. Link to David Kelly wiki:

There were a string of scientists whose deaths occurred under unusual circumstances. David Kelly was the most public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_David_Kelly

[Judi Lynn]

6. Reminds me of the fact a Cuban "exile" assassin, Eduardo Arocena,

at his murder trial in NYC, after he went there to assassinate the Cuban diplomat to the U.N., Felix Rodriguez Garcia, testified that he had been employed by the C.I.A. to carry biological warfare materials into Cuba to use against the population there.

It's in court records, it's permanent. People have known about it for a very long time.

Thank you, seafan. :hi:

[sally cat]

14. You're on to something here. Does sound similar.

[seafan]

23. Thanks for adding that, Judi Lynn.

I put away my tinfoil long ago.


:hi: back atcha.

[bluetrain]

16. Another one, eh? /nt

[Javaman]

17. My first thought as well.

It is very bizarre.

[bluetrain]

18. We haven't heard about this in a while so I assumed they'd gotten rid of all the ones who knew

too much about whatever this is all about. It's really weird.

[LisaL]

33. Not everything is this big giant conspiracy.

I don't see anything suspicious here at all. The OP article says she called her husband and told him she took the cyanide. It also says she left a note. Seems like a clear cut suicide.

[bluetrain]

34. What an inappropriately aggressive attitude to take with me. Have you followed the long string of

bizarre microbiologists' deaths? See seafan's link downthread.

[LisaL]

36. I saw that link. What exactly is bizarre about most of these deaths?

Apparently, some were killed, some committed suicide, some died from natural causes. I am pretty sure people who aren't scientists have been known to die due to the same reasons. For instance, 81 year old gentleman's cause of death listed as respiratory distress and other natural causes. Is that suspicious considering he was 81 years old?

[Xipe Totec]

19. It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.

- Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

[PSPS]

20. There was a spate of mysterious deaths within the biomedical community during BushCo's regime

Here's just a few that immediately come to mind:

11/6/2001 - Jeffrey Paris Wall, 41, biomedical expert ("suicide")

11/16/2001 - Donald C. Wiley, 57, one of the foremost microbiologists in the United States ("suicide")

3/25/2002 - Steven Mostow, 63, expert in bioterrorism (plane crash)

11/12/2002 - Benito Que, 52, expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology ("natural causes")

7/18/2003 - Dr. David Kelly, 59, biological warfare weapons specialist ("suicide")

[CTyankee]

21. what was the unifying factor here, biological warfare of some sort?

I'm trying to figure this whole thing out. If it was biological warfare, why didn't these scientists speak out? Are you saying that they were "suicide-ded" before we knew who they were? We DID know what they had revealed, didn't we? So the cat was out of the bag already, so to speak...

[Generic Other]

22. Wasn't it possibly related to anthrax?

It was so long ago it has dropped from the radar. I seem to recall a number of oddly suspicious "suicides" of microbiologists.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bluedigger]

26. Cyanide seems kind of mundane for a molecular biologist.

Effective enough, I suppose, but I would expect something more inventive.:shrug:

[Ian David]

27. Was she studying Anthrax virus? n/t

[BlueIris]

29. And if she was? nt

[LisaL]

30. No. She was studying tropical diseases according to the OP article.

[Ian David]

31. Thanks. I missed that. n/t

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

32. That's okay.....half the people in this thread missed it was a woman

I'm always amazed that people post first and read later.

[defendandprotect]

37. K&R

[frustrated_lefty]

38. A co-worker commited suicide recently when he lost his funding.

Funding for research is tough to come by these days. It's created a tremendous amount of pressure on young scientists. I think, in many instances, these are people not prepared to face the prospect of unemployment. Not all that long ago, the only question a young scientist really had to worry about was whether they'd pursue a career in academia, biotech or government. Facing such an uncertain future is troubling.

Regarding the potassium cyanide, it's extremely common. Not the sort of thing you'd find in individual research labs, but almost guaranteed to be in the common chemical supplies of virtually every biology department in the country. There's nothing particularly mysterious about it being used.

It's sad.