A Wisconsin couple faces charges after authorities say they tried to poison two women—who knew the male suspect because they had casually dated him. Paul VanDuyne Jr., 43, and Andrea Whitaker, 41, of Madison, are charged with attempted murder, stalking, aggravated battery, and reckless endangerment, according to state and local officials. The investigation began in May when deputies responded to a hospital for a possible poisoning case, per the New York Times. In the weeks that followed, investigators say they determined that VanDuyne and Whitaker had "conspired to gather or create elaborate poisons" in an effort to kill the women.
The victim from Rock County said she vomited in late April after drinking from a water bottle in her gym bag that tasted "rancid." She says she went to the hospital in June after suffering abdominal pain; per court documents, doctors found thallium—an odorless, tasteless poison once used to kill rodents—in her system. The victim's car had reportedly been broken into, and police later determined that her water bottle also contained cyanide. Authorities also detected abrin, a highly toxic substance, on her car seat.
The victim initially couldn't name a suspect but later identified VanDuyne, an ex-boyfriend she met online. She said their relationship ended when he told her he was seeing someone else—identified as Whitaker, who, contrary to VanDuyne's claims, is alive; he'd texted the victim earlier this year that Whitaker had killed herself after finding out they had dated. Rock County Sheriff Curtis Fell says that victim is still in a wheelchair as a result of her poisoning, per NBC News.
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A second woman, from Dane County, called police in May after her car was broken into at a Costco. She told police water left in her vehicle tasted strange and made her mouth numb. She, too, had gone on a couple of dates with VanDuyne, a mechanical engineer who graduated from Princeton. "I was never his girlfriend, yet he and Andrea developed the delusion that I was," she said in court on Friday. "This delusion was so strong, they tried to murder me." Meanwhile, WMTV reports that the couple's arrest spurred hazmat probes at three separate locations. Bail has been set at $10 million for VanDuyne and $4 million for Whitaker. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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