GUILTY PA - Husband charged in cyanide poisoning death of Dr. Autumn Klein

[LynnM]

Wow! Thank you for sorting me out! Does this mean you think his job was holding on strong? He is still listed on the Pitt website.

I honestly don't think there was any problem with his job.

I can't find the link right now where Autumn's mother talks about her relationship with Dr. F. but it does sound like it started out as a mentor-protege relationship. You know, over the years I've seen friendships that started out that way dissolve after the person who was originally the protege stops taking or asking for advice; it's not an easy transition for some people especially when the protege starts to achieve some goals that the mentor has not achieved. I wonder if there was a strain on their marriage as Autumn started to get more recognition and honors. Still, I cannot wrap my head around the idea that someone would commit murder because their marriage wasn't working out the way they hoped or because they became jealous of their spouse's success. I know it happens but it would be such an awful, cold thing to do.

 

[LynnM]

An arrest is imminent:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...iminal-charges-in-wifes-cyanide-death-696755/

 

[colette]

Dr. Karen Roos, who edited several articles Dr. Klein wrote for Seminars in Neurology and stayed in regular contact with her until her death, said the couple met when Dr. Klein was doing her residency.

"She did not run into cyanide in the context of her research," Dr. Roos said. "I am absolutely a million times positive of this. There's probably no neurologists using cyanide in the context of her research."

She says no way did Autumn kill herself...from LynnM's link.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...-in-wifes-cyanide-death-696755/#ixzz2a4dIBqSY

 

[coastal]

An arrest is imminent:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...iminal-charges-in-wifes-cyanide-death-696755/

From your link, for your "what's in a name" file:

William Difenderfer, who represents Robert J. Ferrante, a professor of neurological surgery, said he was disappointed with the development.


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...-in-wifes-cyanide-death-696755/#ixzz2a57vH21Y

 

[time]

An arrest is imminent:

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...iminal-charges-in-wifes-cyanide-death-696755/

Wow, thank you. I look almost everyday to see if there is any news.

 

[time]

Klein collapsed April 17 in the kitchen of the Lytton Avenue home she shared with Ferrante and their daughter, Cianna, 6. Ferrante called emergency dispatchers for assistance, and asked them to take her to UPMC Shadyside, which is not a trauma center and is 1.4 miles away from their home, according to the criminal complaint filed Thursday in Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

A witness told police that Klein planned to leave Ferrante, and that she described him as controlling and unsupportive with her fast-rising career and their daughter, according to the criminal complaint. '

Detectives withheld the identities of 10 witnesses in the criminal complaint to “ensure their safety and to preserve the integrity of this ongoing investigation.”

One witness told police that Ferrante's reaction to seeing his wife on the exam table “seemed fake and like ‘bad acting.'” The witness said Klein's blood was bright red, indicated it was highly oxygenated, consistent with cyanide poisoning.

In the emergency room, Klein was unresponsive. She went into cardiac arrest for 27 minutes and doctors had to continually resuscitate her until 3 a.m. Doctors in the emergency room placed her on a blood circulation system, which pumps the blood from the body, supplies the blood with oxygen and then pumps the blood back into the body, functioning as an artificial heart and lung.

Even as doctors struggled to keep Klein alive, Farrente began talking about her in the past tense, a witness told police.

...Doctors did not learn of the results of the test from an outside lab until after she died and after her autopsy was performed, the statement said. Farrente opposed the autopsy, Klein's parents told police. When the toxicology tests found cyanide, the Medical Examiner tried to get Klein's body for further testing only to find that she'd been cremated at Ferrante's request.

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4420971-74/ferrante-klein-pittsburgh

 

[time]

http://triblive.com/csp/mediapool/sites/dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls?STREAMOID=r84wVY4P_Dt_eKzjzcuFbpM5tm0Zxrvol3sywaAHBAnLLcP0_0MYPtDGKg151NttE0$uXvBjavsllACLNr6VhLEUIm2tympBeeq1Fwi7sIigrCfKm_F3DhYfWov3omce$8CAqP1xDAFoSAgEcS6kSQ--&CONTENTTYPE=application/pdf&CONTENTDISPOSITION=ptr-RobertFerranteS.pdf

Ferrante sent her to a hospital 1.4 miles away that is not a trauma center instead of one .4 miles away where there is a trauma center.

Police noticed a one gallon plastic bag with white powder and a glass vial. Ferrante told them it was Creatine.

 

[time]

I think he killed her, but now I am really confused about their relationship. She seemed to be staying with some guy occasionally (and his two kids some of that) and meeting him out of town. Ferrante was suspicious they were having an affair to the point he decided to go to both a SF and a Boston meeting to keep her out of trouble. I'm confused because meeting a guy like that, even if just a friend, wouldn't be something I would do if married or in a relationship. Klein say he was controlling and told someone she was going to leave him, yet they WERE talking a bout her getting pregnant together (and about Creatine use). Another person says Klein was hoping to get pregnant within the next year.

Hope I have my facts more or less straight!

 

[time]

Some details...

During a conference in San Francisco in February, Klein told her friend that Mr. Ferrante provided no support for her work or their daughter.
"Within weeks of the victim's death, Ferrante confronted the victim three times as to whether she was having an affair," according to the affidavit.

On April 17, Mr. Ferrante asked the witness to measure out more, and they then placed it in a bag.

That day, according to the report, Mr. Ferrante and Dr. Klein exchanged text messages in which she said she would begin ovulating the next day.

Mr. Ferrante told her to take creatine.

"I'm serious," he texted. "It will make a huge difference. I certain of it."
When paramedics arrived to treat Dr. Klein, according to the affidavit, they noted a one-gallon resealable plastic bag containing a white substance along with a small glass vial in the kitchen, where Klein was found on the floor.

"Ferrante told paramedics that the bag contained the substance Creatine," according to the affidavit. "Paramedics did not ask, and Ferrante did not elaborate what was in the glass vial."

Out of the 250 grams of cyanide purchased by Ferrante in the lab, approximately 8.3 grams were missing when it was measured by the medical examiner's lab.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...ules-doctors-cyanide-death-a-homicide-696890/

 

[jjenny]

Wow, thank you. I look almost everyday to see if there is any news.

Yes. I was wondering if police need to be drawn a map here. Husband-buys cyanide. Wife-dies from cyanide poisoning.

:floorlaugh:

 

[time]

Yes. I was wondering if police need to be drawn a map here. Husband-buys cyanide. Wife-dies from cyanide poisoning.

:floorlaugh:

That about sums it up!:aktion1:

 

[colette]

Blood drawn from Klein had high levels of acid so doctors had it tested for cyanide as a precaution, even noting it was unlikely, the police complaint said. Those tests revealed a lethal level of cyanide, but only after Klein had died and been cremated at her husband's insistence, police said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/2...ed-poisoning-wife-with-cyanide/#ixzz2a7BPEqbI

 

[colette]

Arrested tonight near a Raliegh County West Virginia toll area. They had a BOLO for him after he left Florida.


http://woay.com/News.aspx?nid=7520

 

[time]

Arrested tonight near a Raliegh County West Virginia toll area. They had a BOLO for him after he left Florida.


http://woay.com/News.aspx?nid=7520

He ran?

 

[passionflower]

He ran?

according to WPXI TV yes he was on the run.

 

[jjenny]

...
I'm confused because meeting a guy like that, even if just a friend, wouldn't be something I would do if married or in a relationship. Klein say he was controlling and told someone she was going to leave him, yet they WERE talking a bout her getting pregnant together (and about Creatine use). Another person says Klein was hoping to get pregnant within the next year.

Hope I have my facts more or less straight!

Sounds like they didn't have the best marriage, that's for sure. There is a large age difference after all.
Maybe he was the one trying to convince her to get pregnant. Based on what has been reported, he was trying to convince her to take the creatine. Supposedly he was trying to convince her that creatine was going to improve her chances of becoming pregnant. Also at her age if she wanted another child there really is no time to waste.

 

[LambChop]

Neuroscientist Charged with Homicide in Wife's Cyanide Death


http://gma.yahoo.com/neuroscientist...ing-death-225601549--abc-news-topstories.html

 

[21merc7]

According to LambChop's posted article, Ferrante was seen drinking a creatine mix a few days before his wife's murder. So we do not know if she had agreed to drink any at anytime before the poisoning?

He ordered the cyanide overnight delivery from the internet!!! A few days before she drank it and died! And didn't expect that would show up?! I can see premeditated all over the place.

He was playing a game about getting pregnant, she was going to leave him but continued to talk about pregnancy to keep him at bay until she made her move out?

Dang. Never marry a doctor and take anything they give you...Just awful. Divorce is so much easier. Expensive in this situation, but really, since both were docs I'm sure a settlement is all that would have been required. No support or what have you. Good grief what people will do!

 

[jjenny]

I don't think he expected that hospital would test her for cyanide.
If it didn't, he'd be home free, since the body was cremated.
Cyanide is not something hospitals normally test for.
If the test was not done, it'd be ruled natural causes, and he'd be going on with his life and no worries.

 

[time]

According to LambChop's posted article, Ferrante was seen drinking a creatine mix a few days before his wife's murder. So we do not know if she had agreed to drink any at anytime before the poisoning?

He ordered the cyanide overnight delivery from the internet!!! A few days before she drank it and died! And didn't expect that would show up?! I can see premeditated all over the place.

He was playing a game about getting pregnant, she was going to leave him but continued to talk about pregnancy to keep him at bay until she made her move out?

Dang. Never marry a doctor and take anything they give you...Just awful. Divorce is so much easier. Expensive in this situation, but really, since both were docs I'm sure a settlement is all that would have been required. No support or what have you. Good grief what people will do!

BBM - yes, there were text messages that day back and forth between Klein and Ferrante about taking Creatine to get pregnant (I believe 9 hours before she went to he hospital) .