A Wisconsin boyfriend and girlfriend who’ve been charged with tried homicide are accused of attempting to poison two girls the person beforehand dated after he met them on-line, authorities stated.
Paul VanDuyne Jr., 43, and Andrea Whitaker, 41, have every been charged with tried homicide, aggravated battery, recklessly endangering the general public and stalking, in accordance with prison instances filed within the Madison area.
On Friday, they appeared in court docket individually in Janesville, in Dane County, which is also residence to the state capital. Bail was set at $10 million for VanDuyne, who prosecutors stated has entry to substantial sources, and $4 million for Whitaker.
Pleas weren’t entered, and every remained in custody, in accordance with jail data. The defendants have separate attorneys, who didn’t reply instantly to requests for remark.
One of many two victims — every of whom met VanDuyne on a courting app and noticed him just a few instances — described an expertise discovering a stranger she later realized was Whitaker crouched subsequent to her car in her storage in April.
The lady is recognized in redacted court docket data because the sufferer from Dane County; the opposite girl is recognized because the sufferer from Rock County. The Dane County girl stated Friday in court docket that she met VanDuyne greater than a yr in the past, went on two dates with him and informed him she was not concerned with seeing him once more.
“I used to be by no means his girlfriend, but he and Andrea developed the delusion that I used to be,” she stated in court docket Friday. “This delusion was so robust, they tried to homicide me. Their actions and motivations are disconnected from actuality. Each have proven their capability for evil.”
Showing at VanDuyne’s listening to, the lady stated that after she found the allegations towards the couple, she has individuals keep together with her in a single day, she put in a safety system, and he or she hides her car.
“I want the court docket’s safety,” she stated. “The group wants the court docket’s safety.”
Prosecutors stated VanDuyne met Whitaker on-line roughly through the time he dated the victims and carried on a relationship nearly as she took programs within the discipline of pharmacology away from the realm.
Upon finishing her programs, she moved close by, and the 2 met in individual within the spring, in accordance with narratives offered in case paperwork.
VanDuyne graduated from Princeton College greater than 20 years beforehand, the establishment confirmed. He had a profession as a mechanical engineer, his lawyer stated in court docket Friday. Paperwork within the Rock County case say he was not too long ago divorced and began courting the victims after having met them on courting apps or websites that weren’t named.
When he related with Whitaker, the 2 launched into a plot towards the victims, prosecutors stated.
The sufferer from Rock County got here to the eye of authorities in early Could when a health care provider from the Wisconsin Poison Heart reported {that a} girl was hospitalized with thallium in her system, the court docket paperwork say.
Thallium was as soon as generally used to kill rodents. Largely due to unintended poisonings, it has been banned from family use in the USA since 1965 and commercially since 1975.
The physician, recognized solely by a final identify, is quoted as saying, “The one manner a human may have this quantity of thallium in her system is that if they had been deliberately consuming it.”
Prosecutors stated the sufferer reported no suicidal motion and struggled to think about anybody who would attempt to poison her — the names she got here up with had been vetted — till VanDuyne got here to thoughts, in accordance with the paperwork from Rock County.
She informed detectives about texts she had obtained in early 2025 from the person she knew solely as Paul once they dated beginning practically two years earlier than, the paperwork say.
She gave investigators VanDuyne’s quantity, and so they began him this month, in accordance with the court docket paperwork.
She stated he had despatched her texts within the spring after months of no contact. In them, the Rock County sufferer stated, he known as her “evil” and blamed her for inflicting his girlfriend, Whitaker, to kill herself when she found their courting historical past, the paperwork say.
Whitaker didn’t kill herself.
In reality, court docket paperwork allege, she was integral to the plot to kill the 2 different girls VanDuyne had dated, and so they labored collectively to taint water bottles and autos with poisons they procured or, in a single case, constructed from scratch.
Within the Could incident that despatched the Rock County sufferer to the hospital, the lady took her middle-school-age sister to the flicks however each grew to become ailing, in accordance with the paperwork. The sufferer took her car to a dealership, the place staff reported a noxious odor and tossed out a storage tote they stated contained an unknown substance, the paperwork say.
As a result of the lady and her sister described a odor of rotten eggs, detectives concluded the substance was hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gasoline.
Rock County Sheriff Curtis Fell stated the Rock County sufferer was nonetheless in a wheelchair on account of her poisoning. With out the medical care she has obtained — together with an antidote flown in a single day from California — she probably would have died, he stated.
The alleged plot affected the opposite sufferer, the lady from Dane County, not lengthy afterward, in mid-Could, when bystanders reported somebody breaking into her car at a Costco car parking zone on two separate events, in accordance with the paperwork.
A witness on the Costco car parking zone reported seeing a person get right into a Chrysler Pacifica minivan that was traced again to VanDuyne, authorities stated within the paperwork.
After one of many incidents, the sufferer reported ingesting bottled water she left in her car and noticing it tasted horrible, the court docket paperwork say. The water examined constructive for cyanide and thallium.
After they realized the 2 girls could have been the victims of the identical perpetrators, authorities took a second take a look at the Rock County sufferer’s car and concluded it was the topic of break-ins or makes an attempt with markings just like these made within the Costco makes an attempt, the paperwork say.
Detectives obtained a decide’s permission to trace VanDuyne’s actions and located him touring to the Rock County sufferer’s residence, in accordance with the paperwork. After that journey, they allege, authorities discovered a path digital camera held on a tree throughout from the sufferer’s residence.
In different situations, the couple labored collectively to make use of cyanide, thallium and abrin in a number of makes an attempt to poison the victims, as soon as even placing a powdery substance within the air flow system of a sufferer’s car, authorities stated within the court docket paperwork.
Abrin may be made by grinding the seeds of rosary peas, authorities stated within the paperwork.
On Thursday, a search of VanDuyne’s minivan turned up a tan bag with a number of vials inside, the court docket paperwork say. Authorities discovered rosary peas within the bag and a seed grinder at his residence, the paperwork say.
An FBI hazardous supplies workforce was known as to assist with the search, and members took an lively half a number of instances, the paperwork say.
The defendants had been anticipated to look in Rock County court docket subsequent week to face costs of tried homicide and stalking for VanDuyne and tried homicide and aiding a felon for Whitaker.
VanDuyne is due in Dane County court docket once more Aug. 4. Whitaker is scheduled for an look there July 2.
