Profiles

Lab poisoning mystery triggers debate

By Jessie Tao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-01-13 17:37

Zhu Ling's health condition is deteriorate day by day. Picture taken in late 2005.

"Zhu's high school classmate -- Bei Zhicheng -- made public Zhu's symptoms on the Internet and appealed for help. Within a short time, he received over 1,500 replies, 30% of which thought it was thallium poisoning. But nobody at PUMCH looked at his materials, as the doctors had excluded the possibility of heavy metal poisoning. When the diagnosis of thallium poisoning finally came out, thallium had ruined most parts of her nervous system. She suffered serious sequelae (complications of a condition), even though by then thallium was clearly out of her body," said Skyoneline.

Skyoneline went on to say in her thread, "Sun Wei was Zhu Ling' classmate, roommate, and teammate on the college folk music team. According to some Tsinghua students, Sun was doing a research with her professor at that time, and was the only student that had access to thallium. Besides, due to her close relationship with Zhu, she had the best chance and time to poison Zhu. …Some well-informed classmates of Zhu Ling even point out that Sun Wei was the would-be poisoner…"

"Also according to Zhu's Tsinghua classmates, Sun was denied the Certificate of Graduation without an official reason, and also was refused any materials for going abroad." Skyoneline continued.

Skyoneline 's thread received abundant replies, most of which showed deep  sympathy for Zhu, while accusing Sun of being the poisoner.

A month later a statement allegedly written by Sun Wei emerged in the Tianya club, refuting the illdoings and claiming Sun's innocence

"Many people are helping Zhu Ling and demanding due punishment of the murderer. Rumors about me have been spreading all the time, but I retained my silence all the years. As I always believed my innocence would be proven one day. However, my silence has given people reason to doubt. Even my friends are asking me about the case. Therefore, I have decided to issue a statement of innocence here." the statement read.

"I am innocent, and also a victim of the case," claimed the statement.

According to the statement, the police questioned Sun Wei for eight hours on April 2, 1995, and cleared her of suspicion in August the same year, as there was no evidence pointing to her involvement in Zhu's poisoning.