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‘Brave and strong’: Chinese victim of unsolved poisoning case dies, prompting flood of sympathy and anger
- Tsinghua University says former student Zhu Ling, who was disabled from thallium poisoning nearly 30 years ago, has died following prolonged illness
- Social media users express grief and outrage over lack of justice in the infamous cold case
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Jane Caiin Beijing
A Chinese woman who made headlines nearly 30 years ago as the victim in an unsolved poisoning case has died, triggering an outpouring of sympathy and anger on social media.
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Zhu Ling, who turned 50 last month, died on Friday night after a long battle with illness, according to a Weibo post by Tsinghua University, the prestigious Beijing institution she was attending when she was poisoned with thallium three decades ago.
In the message posted on Saturday, the university described her as “brave and strong”.
Zhu fell ill in late 1994, when she was in her third year at the university and majoring in chemistry. She complained she was losing hair and in pain.
It was not until the following April that doctors in Beijing confirmed Zhu had been poisoned with thallium, an acutely toxic substance that is hard to detect. She was diagnosed with the help of the internet after friends exchanged messages about her symptoms with global medical experts in an attempt to get answers.
The poison left Zhu paralysed, nearly blind and with the mental capacity of a child, and she was cared for by her parents in Beijing after she became ill. The mystery of who poisoned her was never solved.
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