A Wisconsin couple is behind bars after they allegedly attempted to poison the man’s ex-girlfriend with cyanide, authorities said.
Two similar incidents involving Paul Van Duyne’s exes occurred within weeks, with both women finding powdery substances in their cars and their water bottles.
“Ultimately, that water bottle was taken to the crime lab, and it was learned that there was cyanide placed in that water bottle,” said Dane County Deputy District Attorney William Brown.
One of the two women and seven Wisconsin Department of Justice DCI agents were hospitalized after being exposed to the poison.
Brown said that Van Duyne and his current girlfriend, Andrea Whitaker, plotted to kill the women and that Whitaker had an academic background in pharmacology and knowledge of how to make the poison.
“So while it does appear that Mr. Van Duyne was perhaps the actual person that was entering both victims vehicles and putting the cyanide in the water bottles, and in at least Rock County putting cyanide powder in the air vents, I think this defendant’s involvement is absolutely clear in that she is likely the brains of the operation in figuring out how to do this,” Brown said.
