This undated photo provided by the Allegheny County District Attorney shows University of Pittsburgh medical researcher Dr. Robert Ferrante. Police in St. Augustine, Fla., arrested Ferrante, 64, Thursday, July 25, 2013 on a charge that he fatally poisoned his wife, a neurologist at the University of Pittsburgh medical school.PITTSBURGH – A University of Pittsburgh medical researcher accused of poisoning his neurologist wife with a supplement she apparently thought would help them have a baby was arrested on Thursday in West Virginia, authorities said.
Dr. Robert Ferrante laced an energy supplement with cyanide and gave it to Dr. Autumn Klein, a neurologist at the university’s medical school, hours after they exchanged text messages about how the supplement could help them conceive, according to a police complaint.
“Will it stimulate egg production too?” Klein, 41, asked about nine hours before she fell ill.
Ferrante, 64, responded with a smiling emoticon.
Police had traveled to St. Augustine, Fla., to look for Ferrante, a leading researcher on Lou Gehrig’s disease. But Allegheny County district attorney’s office spokesman Mike Manko and police said Ferrante was arrested near Beckley, W.Va., by state police.