Aili Wang, a 32-year-old Wyoming microbiology graduate student, is arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after prosecutors accuse her of poisoning a colleague’s tea and then trying to flee back to China. Police and prosecutors say Wang was taken into custody on Oct. 6 and remained jailed without bail as of the latest reporting.
Prosecutors allege the victim—another graduate student with pending patents—had disputes with Wang, and that investigators found evidence including laptops, electronic storage devices, and documents in Wang’s possession. Outlet reports also say surveillance footage shows Wang rummaging through the victim’s desk. The alleged poisoning is linked to acrylamide, which prosecutors say Wang purchased online, and which was detected when the victim’s wife and others tested water used in the colleague’s tea.
The outlets largely align on the key facts: the location and timing of the arrest, the alleged use of acrylamide, the investigative steps leading to detection, and the attempted departure to China. One additional context noted by a source is that U.S. officials have long accused China of intellectual property theft involving American universities, though this is not presented as part of the poisoning allegation itself.
