http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3947000-74/cyanide-klein-died#axzz2SKJwCKXXA prominent Pittsburgh neurologist died with what city homicide detectives are calling “toxic amounts of cyanide” in her system.
Dr. Autumn Marie Klein, 41, chief of women's neurology at UPMC and an assistant professor of neurology, gynecology, obstetrics and reproduction sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, died April 20 at UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland after collapsing at home three days earlier.
“The homicide unit is conducting a death investigation of a UPMC employee who died with toxic amounts of cyanide in her blood,” city police Lt. Kevin Kraus, acting commander of investigations, said on Wednesday. “At this time, the cause and manner of death are undetermined.”
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Paramedics were called to the Oakland home Klein shared with her husband, Robert J. Ferrante, and daughter, Cianna, when she collapsed at 11:52 p.m. April 17, investigators said.
Williams said police received their information about the level of cyanide in Klein's system from the hospital.
Autumn Klein's mother, Lois Klein of Towson, Md., said Wednesday evening that she was surprised to learn that police were investigating her daughter's death.
“I had no idea,” Klein said.
Klein said that neither she nor her husband, William, had any reason to be concerned about her daughter's safety.
She said she had no other comment until the couple have a chance to contact city homicide detectives.
Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, a former Allegheny County coroner, said his private forensic practice has been contacted to look into Klein's death. Wecht would not say who contacted him or when.
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Kraus would not say how police believe the cyanide got into Klein's system.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/doctors-cy...micide-suicide/story?id=19100947#.UYT_wco7bKcThe death of a Pennsylvania doctor who had "toxic levels of cyanide" in her system is being investigated as a possible homicide and a possible suicide, authorities said today, before later launching a search of her home.
This evening, investigators with the Pittsburgh police and FBI descended on Autumn Marie Klein's residence, where they were in the process of conducting an extensive search of the home and backyard. Two Mobile Crime Scene Units were stationed in plain view in front of the house.
Investigators declined to discuss precisely what they were doing or looking for but they confirmed to ABC News that they were in the process of an "official search" of the home. Two investigators, wearing blue lab gloves, were seen carrying in large garbage bags.
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When Cook Klein got word of her daughter's death she and her husband were preparing to travel to Pennsylvania to babysit the daughter while the parents went out of town for a medical event. Cook Klein was packing her suitcase late the night before she was set to leave when she said Ferrante called her.
"Bob was saying something had happened to Autumn and he was there in the house by himself with Cianna," Cook Klein said. "He had called 911 and they had taken Autumn to the emergency room."
Cook Klein said she was initially told her daughter may have suffered a stroke.
When she heard about the cyanide, her first concern was her granddaughter and who would pick her up from school if police needed to speak to her father. Cook Klein said police told her that Cianna was with her father.
She said her young granddaughter "just knows her mommy isn't home."
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...rds-detail-911-call-for-ailing-doctor-686204/When Dr. Autumn Klein's husband called 911 the night she lost consciousness, he told dispatchers she was showing stroke-like symptoms, records reviewed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette show.
At 11:52 p.m. on April 17, Robert J. Ferrante called 911 and stated that his wife was not alert in their Oakland home.
Two minutes later, a call-taker noted that Dr. Klein was "conscious breathing" and then "not alert."
The call-taker wrote that Mr. Ferrante, a professor of neurological surgery, told dispatchers he thought his wife might be having a stroke and that "about 10 minutes ago" she began "just staring off into space."
A medic unit was dispatched at 11:56 p.m. and a note made in the system at 11:57 p.m. says, "Female is groaning right now ... is conscious and breathing."
Three days later she was dead in what officials have since described as a rare cyanide-related death that investigators are probing as either a homicide or suicide.
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Dr. Klein's mother, Lois Klein, said on Friday that she does not know what to make of her daughter's death and investigators have not given her details of the case.
"I certainly am working under the assumption she certainly would not do that to herself," Ms. Klein said. "I'm just totally dumbfounded. I can't imagine anybody that would want to harm her."
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/sta...cle_6dba01c7-ed3d-58cb-bb0e-3bb7d8770c90.htmlAuthorities have said Dr. Klein was taking fertility drugs and her mother said, "She never liked being an only child. She didn't want her child to be an only child."
She said Ferrante also told her the couple was trying to have another child.
The couple met while Klein was a student where Ferrante worked at the VA Hospital in Bedford, Mass. They were married in 2001 and moved to Pittsburgh after being recruited to join the university's neurological surgery team.
Lois Klein said Ferrante was sensitive in explaining the medical situation to the couple's young daughter at the hospital before his wife was pronounced dead.
"He said something about, `Mommy's sick, and I don't mean a headache and I don't mean Mommy has a tummyache,' and `Mommy's heart stopped beating and the doctors are trying to help her and get her heart to start beating again,'" Lois Klein said.
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