LAWRENCE: Chemist indicted on murder charge

By David Kilby
   Tianle Li, who allegedly poisoned and killed her husband with thallium, was indicted by a grand jury May 5 on charges of killing her husband, then giving police false information during the investigation.
   No date has been set yet for her arraignment.
   Ms. Li, 41, who had been employed for 10 years as a chemist at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Lawrence, was charged with murder and hindering her apprehension or prosecution in the death of Xiaoye Wang, a 39-year-old computer software engineer who died at University Medical Center at Princeton on Jan. 26, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan announced May 5.
   The indictment charged Ms. Li, who lived with Mr. Wang at 26 Stanley Drive, in Monroe Township, administered poison to her husband between Nov. 16, 2010, and Jan. 26 in Monroe and later in the hospital after Mr. Wang admitted himself for treatment of an unknown illness, according to the press release on Ms. Li’s indictment.
   The indictment further charged Ms. Li gave false information to police in Princeton on Jan. 26 when they initially were assigned to investigate Mr. Wang’s death.
   An investigation by Sgt. Jason Grosser of the Monroe Township Police Department and investigator Jeffrey Temple of the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office determined Ms. Li and Mr. Wang, who were in the process of getting a divorce, had been involved in a series of domestic disturbances since April 2009. The divorce was scheduled to be finalized Jan. 14, the day Mr. Wang admitted himself to the hospital, said Nicholas Sewitch, Middlesex County assistant prosecutor, at a briefing after the original court hearing on the case Feb. 9.
   The investigation determined Ms. Li allegedly had obtained an undisclosed quantity of thallium and administered a portion of the substance to her husband a few months before he entered the hospital and allegedly while he was in the hospital.
   Thallium is a soft, odorless, malleable and highly toxic metal found in the earth’s crust. It was used in rat poisoning and insecticides in the United States before production of the metal was banned in 1984.
   Outside the United States, it primarily is used in electronic devices, switches and closures.
   After becoming ill with apparent flu-like symptoms, Mr. Wang checked himself into the Princeton hospital. A series of tests, completed Jan. 25, determined he had been poisoned with thallium.
   Officials at the hospital immediately notified authorities and searched for a remedy for the poison, but could not save Mr. Wang, who died at 3:10 p.m. the next day.
   The results of an autopsy performed by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded Mr. Wang died from thallium poisoning and the manner of death was homicide, states the press release.
   Following the death, members of the New Jersey State Police Hazardous Materials Unit and the Middlesex County Hazardous Materials Unit undertook an extensive investigation at Mr. Wang’s home and concluded no one else was exposed to thallium, states the release.
   Ms. Li is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick in lieu of $4.15 million bail, $4 million on the murder charges and $150,000 on the hindering apprehension charges.
   The indictment was made by a grand jury so no further information is available, said Jim O’Neill, press officer at the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office.
   Anyone with information is asked to contact Sgt. Grosser at 732-521-0222, or Mr. Temple at 732-745-3373.