Police: USF biologist dies in an apparent suicide by cyanide

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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

...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

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

molecular biologists and other related professionals, gone?

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

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:

I put away my tinfoil long ago.


:hi: back atcha.

It is very bizarre.

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

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.

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

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?

- Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

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")

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...

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

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

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

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.