The Silent Killer: Who Is Trying To Poison Zhu Ling?

How An Ivy League Student Went From Topping Her Cohort To Requiring 24/7 Medical Care

She began to show strange and debilitating symptoms at the end of 1994, when she reported experiencing acute stomach pain, along with extensive hair loss. Following her hospitalization at TongRen Hospital, her condition gradually improved and she was allowed to return to school.

The following March, however, her old symptoms returned worse than before, this time accompanied by pain in her legs, loss of muscular eye control, and partial facial paralysis. Unable to breathe on her own, she was placed on a respirator.

The Crippling Conditions Suffered By Zhu Ling

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Zhu Ling was a student from the prestigious Tsinghua University, the school is better known internationally as the Harvard of China. The students that graced its halls all hail from powerful and influential families that hold considerable power and influence within the government and private sectors.

Zhu Ling was able to stand out even amongst her fellow scholars and future leaders. She was super popular, gifted in music, and was at the top of her cohort for several semesters. But, behind the scenes of her success, Zhu Ling suffered from severe stomach cramps and hair loss.

At first, she chalked her symptoms up to stress but when she slowly started losing her vision and speech, she couldn’t help but wonder, is there something more sinister at play?

In the dead of the night when all seems quiet and you think you’re safe that’s when evil comes out to play.

Criminal File investigates, Case #15 — The Thallium Poisoning Case Of Zhu Ling

Zhu Ling And Her Family

Not much is known about Zhu Ling’s childhood and her family as most of the articles are either lost in translations or kept in the archives of the Chinese police otherwise known as The People’s Police.

Ling was born on November 24, 1973 in Beijing, China. Her father held a senior position in the China Earthquake Administration and her mother was also an engineer though it is unknown where she worked.

Ling had an elder sister who studied biology at Peking University but unfortunately, her sister died tragically in a climbing accident in April of 1989 while on a Spring Excursion with her classmate.

Ling studied at Tsinghua University as a chemistry major and was known to be incredibly gifted both academically and in sports, having made it into the swim team. She was also blessed with an affinity for music and her instrument of choice is the Guqin, an ancient Chinese musical instrument renowned for its difficult to learn much less master.

Our story begins at one of the most important performances of Ling’s life.

The Performance Of A Lifetime

Tsinghua University held one of the most important events in its history in March 1995 at the Beijing Symphony Orchestra. They invited some of the most influential figures of the time to attend the ceremony.

As the guests took their seats, the student performers seated at the back of the stage were fidgeting nervously. While most of them have performed in front of a live audience, none of them has ever seen a crowd of this size and so they sat in silence hoping and praying for the best.

Ling sat beside her peers visibly shaking. She had been hand-picked by her conductor to lead a six-minute solo on the Guqin. Ling knew that she had one chance to impress the audience, one chance to make it into the China National Orchestra. She couldn’t afford to make any mistakes, everything must be perfect, she had already sacrificed too much during her training to fail on the big day.

And finally, Ling’s name was called and she took her seat in front of the instrument that she had known all too well. If you were seated in the audience that night you would never be able to tell that Ling was nervous. She moved with such grace and was one with the music and the song was almost divine.

Her friends watched on in awe, and when Ling’s hands finally stopped, they erupted into applause, and then the entire audience roared into cheers.

The next couple of minutes were a blur, the lack of sleep finally caught up with her and her eyes began twitching wildly. Ling skipped the celebration party and headed home to sleep off the fatigue.

Once home, she quickly hopped into the shower and as she was getting the towel she saw that the bathroom floor was covered with patches of hair. Panicked, she ran to the mirror and saw large bald spots all across her head.

In a matter of weeks, Ling would be confined to a wheelchair, unable to even speak or control her facial muscles. This was not a disease or a genetic condition, something strange was happening to Ling’s body and her parents knew that they must work fast if they wanted to save their daughter.

Disturbing Symptoms

Ling was one of only 31 chemistry majors in the university, the course is notorious for its difficulty and the competition was brutal. Deceit, cheating, backstabbing, and betrayal among friends were all too common, and yet despite the odds Ling consistently ranked in the top three of her major.

Despite her successes, she was described as an incredibly down-to-earth student with a level of sophistication that cannot be bought. And her professors knew that she was destined for bigger things.

But as time passed Ling’s friends started noticing some odd changes. The girl who used to show up early and dressed to the nines was now consistently late. Her appearance became disheveled, she started sweating profusely and her energy level was always low.

Ling couldn’t grasp even the most basic of concepts and was constantly complaining of stomach aches. Eventually, she just stopped showing up to class.

Her dormitory mates noted that Ling was losing hair at an alarming rate and clumps of hair were found near the floor surrounding and on her bed. The hair loss was so bald to the point of near baldness.

What’s even more worrisome is that she was still trying to force herself to attend lectures and was given the nickname of ‘campus ghost’ due to how pale she looked.

According to Ling’s parents, two months before her hospitalization, she had been complaining about stomach aches and cramps but did not think much about it as these symptoms were similar to the ones you would experience during a menstrual cycle.

But the pain started coming more frequently and it got so bad that Ling had to curl herself up on the floor just to relieve the ache. She refused to see a doctor then as she was about to take an important exam and wanted to wait till they were done before seeking medical help.

Her symptoms continued to worsen in the days leading up to her exams and she began to experience blackouts and long periods of vision loss. She finally sought professional help after two months of enduring her illness.

The Doctors Had No Answer

Ling’s fingernails had clear and visible Mees’ lines on them which is usually the result of a bruised fingernail, kidney failure, or a sign of poison. She was tested for everything including arsenic and mercury poison but all her medical reports came back normal.

Seeing that she is a chemistry student her doctors requested the list of chemicals that she had been in contact with in the labs but there were no records of her coming into contact with any radioactive chemicals

Her condition continued to worsen and she had to be hooked up to several machines and tubes just to help with her breathing. The doctors were not able to conduct further tests as Ling’s skin became extremely sensitive to touch.

Friends who visited Ling said that she looked almost possessed, her skin was pale, her hair was gone and she even had difficulty keeping her mouth closed. They said that her eyes looked like she was crying for help but no one was able to hear her scream.

Then, miraculously, Ling started to get better in a matter of weeks, and by February 1995, her symptoms were all but gone. The doctors were puzzled as they were not able to find the reason for her sudden recovery.

Ling put in a request for immediate discharge much to the protest of her parents and doctors. She wanted to return to school to prepare for her finals and ultimately her parents relented. She returned to school in February of 1995 and by March of that same year, she was back in the hospital on the brink of death.

A Friend In Need

Bei Zhicheng and Cai Quanqing were two of Ling’s closest friends so when they saw the state that she was in they decided to post her symptoms online hoping that someone was able to recognize them and provide an explanation for her condition.

They put her story up in medical forums and within hours, they started getting replies from medical professionals all over the globe. All of them came to the same conclusion, thallium poisoning.

Thallium is a bluish-white metal that is used in manufacturing electronic devices and certain types of special glass. It is extremely fatal when exposed or consumed and can only be treated with a rare drug called Prussian blue, and even then the treatment only works if the person is exposed to a small dosage of thallium.

One medical expert reached out to the group and said that if Ling’s condition has deteriorated this quickly, that means that someone is deliberately poisoning her and wants her dead in the most painful way possible.

Side trivia here, thallium was once used in the early 1900s as a form of lice treatment. Parents would feed their children with thallium so that they would lose all of their hair effectively killing off any lice.

The Poisoner’s Poison

Thallium is often referred to as the poisoner’s poison because it is odorless, colorless, tasteless, and slow-acting. Symptoms of thallium poisoning are often similar to those caused by autoimmune diseases, stomach infections, kidney infections, and bowel infections causing doctors to misdiagnose the patients until it is too late.

Add to the fact that it can easily be transmitted through the air and we have the recipe for the perfect weapon of choice for killers.

Serial killer Graham Young was infamous for his usage of thallium. He poisoned over 70 people by slipping the substance into their teacups. He enjoyed watching them suffer slowly and was quoted saying that he couldn’t stop killing because he enjoyed the thrill. And yes, he will be featured in future episodes.

Frustrations And Despair

When Bei and Cai brought their findings to Ling’s doctors in the hospital, they refused to believe them. They claimed that the internet doctors knew nothing about Ling and could not be trusted despite Ling displaying all the tell-tale signs of thallium poisoning.

One factor that they brought up is just how rare thallium is and they refused to believe that someone has so much hatred for Ling that they would go out of their way to procure the chemical illegally.

The most shocking thing that Ling’s doctor said was and I quote “Even if it is thallium poisoning, like hypothetically speaking, which it’s not, I assure you, but even if it were the antidote isn’t gonna help right now, is she’s too far gone”.

In rare situations when victims survive thallium poisoning, they would often not be able to regain the mobility that they had before they were exposed to the chemical. Survivors of thallium often remained in a state of semi or permanent disability and their mental state often regressed to a child-like state.

So the question we must ask ourselves is who’s trying to kill Ling?

A Strange Incident

Before we looked into our suspect, there was a strange case of theft at Tsinghua University while Ling was in the hospital.

Someone had been going around the female dormitories stealing personal belongings and whoever the thief was they seemed particularly interested in Ling’s room. She reported having her contact lens case, lipstick, shampoo, soap, cups, and towel stolen.

And because there were no security cameras fitted in the dormitory building, authorities were unable to determine the identity of the thief but by order of elimination, they were able to narrow down the list.

Only students who are still studying in the school have access to the dormitories meaning alumni will not have access and since it is the girls’ dormitory only females would have access to it.

So the police are looking for a female undergrad student who possibly held a grudge against Ling but even then there were thousands of female students and the police had their work cut out for them.

Ling’s parents were influential people and they used every connection that they had to get the police to focus all of their resources on the investigation. Since thallium is a controlled substance there are only 20 retailers who are permitted by the Chinese government to carry them.

Interestingly, the Tsinghua University chemistry department was one of the vendors that thallium was supplied to, so now the police are starting to form a connection between the shampoo thief and the chemistry department.

There were only seven people in the entire university who had permission to access thallium within the chemistry department, two teachers, three post-grad students, and two undergrad students.

If you have been following the bolded points so far, by elimination, we are only looking at undergrads who can access the female dormitories. The two undergrads consisted of one male and one female student and that brings us to our suspect, Sun Wei.

Sun Wei

Wei was Ling’s best friend and roommate but it seemed that their relationship was one-sided. Ling loved Wei and invited her to hang with the rest of her friends and even got Wei a spot in the Orchestra team.

Many of the pair’s mutual friends shared that Wei grew increasingly jealous of Ling’s success and would go out of her way to sabotage Ling.

Whenever Ling had to miss a music practice due to a class test Wei would fabricate stories to their teacher claiming that Ling felt she was too good for the class.

Once, the orchestra team invited a legendary performer to teach the class and Wei said out loud that since Ling is so talented she should sit at the back of the room to give the rest of the class a chance to ask questions.

Wei was immediately brought to the police station for questioning and on paper it seemed like we had an easy case. Wei held some form of hatred for Ling, she had access to thallium and access to Ling’s personal belongings. The police even have Wei’s school library records of her borrowing books about thallium poisoning. But sadly Wei was never charged she was only questioned once and was never brought back to the station again much to the outrage of Chinese Netizens.

Wei’s parents were very powerful people, her father was a key figure in the government, her grandfather was the vice chairman of the Democratic Revolutionary Committee and her uncle was the pioneer of China’s transportation sector.

Most of her other family members also held various positions within the government sector. Now I don’t want to speculate on this but could there be a possibility that Wei’s family pulled some strings behind the scenes to clear her name?

Wei eventually changed her legal name and moved to the United States with a green card after marrying an American and has since lived a free life. Sadly, I do not have a happy ending for today’s case…

Zhu Ling’s Fate And A Letter

The damage done to Ling’s body is permanent and even though she survived, she is forever stuck with the mental state of a 6-year-old.

Half of her face is paralyzed, she is almost completely blind and requires 24/7 care from her family. The hospital was charged with mishandling the case and was fined a measly 14,000 Chinese Yuan.

In 2013, the family received a strange letter from an unknown sender, the letter read:

To Zhu Ling’s Parents:

Recently, the community has been speculating about your daughter again. As a person who knows a little, I always feel that your daughter is at fault first. If she hadn’t made noise, disturbed other people’s rest, and hurt people, discriminated against foreigners (It’s unknown if this means non-Chinese or not as people from other provinces are also referred to as “foreigners) and other annoying vices, she would not have been poisoned and maimed collectively by her fellow dormitory members.

The main thing in life is karma, one’s own evil cause bears the evil fruit today. She had been affecting the sleep of others for more than two years, the dormitory was in a state of semi-collapse, and could not tolerate it any longer, They only wanted to expel her from the dormitory, to send her to detention, she was poisoned, purely by accident. In their own words, if this continues, we will all get a nervous breakdown.

In addition, there was a case here in Los Angeles, a man because of the neighbours creating a variety of noise that he could not sleep, repeatedly protested to each other to no avail, so, with a gun he killed them. The court sentenced him (Origin of Labor Day: On May 1, 1886, workers in Chicago had to work 14 to 16 hours a day, some even up to 18 hours, but the wages were very low.

As a result, more than 200,000 workers went on strike to fight for their legal rights. The workers raised a strike slogan, demanding an eight-hour workday. After a hard and bloody struggle, the victory was finally won.) Not guilty, not a day in jail. If your daughter’s case was in the U.S. and it ended up in court, it’s highly likely that these people who poisoned her would have escaped justice as well. With enough justification, they can get away with it.

To sum up, everything has a cause and a consequence, your daughter is wrong in the first; they repeatedly complained to the dormitory management, and Tsinghua University did not act wrong in the second; the few people who poisoned N times, N programs, before the next step, is wrong in the second.

All three parties are at fault. If they really wanted to harm your daughter, the first time you can poison her down. Because the first time was ineffective, the second time only increased the measurement, the result is unexpected, and this is not the result they wanted. They just wanted to make your daughter sick and repeat the year so they could sleep well for two years.

Content of the letter from an unknown sender.

The sender was never found and Zhu Ling’s family has since disappeared from the media.

Closing Out The Case

Zhu Ling’s case sparked massive outrage across China with many calling for the prosecution of Sun Wei. Despite petitions and protests, no further actions were made against Wei and the case was classified as unsolved.

What happened to Ling was a tragic case of injustice, a promising young student had her entire life taken from her seemingly out of jealousy. Until next time, Detective.

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