Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

                                 25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

 

                                *News Release*         Date: February 8, 2011

 
 

 

 


Monroe Township woman charged with murder

 

          Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan and Monroe Township Police Chief John J. Kraivec announced that a township woman was charged today with the murder of her husband, who died after being poisoned.

 

          Tianle Li (DOB 4/7/70) was charged with the January 26, 2011, death of Xiaoye Wang, a 39-year-old computer software engineer who lived with his wife at 26 Stanley Drive in the township.

 

          Li was charged following an investigation by Sgt. Jason Grosser of the Monroe Township Police Department and Investigator Jeffrey Temple of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

 

The investigation determined that Li and Mr. Wang, who were in the process of getting a divorce, had been involved in a series of domestic disturbances since April 2009.

 

It was further determined that Li, who had been employed for 10 years as a chemist at Bristol-Myers Squibb, had obtained an undisclosed quantity of thallium, a highly-toxic metal, and administered a portion of the substance to her husband between December 2010 and January 2011.

 

After becoming ill with apparent flu-like symptoms, Mr. Wang checked himself into University Medical Center at Princeton on January 14, 2011. A series of tests, completed on January 25, 2011, determined that he had been poisoned with thallium.

 

Officials at the hospital immediately notified authorities, who began the investigation. Mr. Wang was pronounced dead at the hospital on January 26, 2011, at 3:10 p.m.

 

The results of an autopsy performed by the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Mr. Wang died from thallium poisoning and that the manner of death was homicide.

 

Prosecutor Kaplan thanked officials at the hospital and at Bristol-Myers Squibb for their quick response and cooperation during the extensive investigation.

 

The prosecutor also cited invaluable assistance from special agents at the FBI office in Newark, the FBI laboratories at Quantico, Va., the New Jersey State Police Hazardous Materials Unit and the Middlesex County Hazardous Materials Unit.

 

The hazardous materials specialists, who undertook an extensive investigation at Mr. Wang’s home, concluded that no one else was exposed to thallium

 

Li initially was arrested on January 28, 2011 and was charged with a count of hindering her own apprehension for providing police with false statements during the investigation into Mr. Wang’s death.

 

She is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick. Her bail was set at $150,000 on the hindering charge. Superior Court Judge Bradley Ferencz today set bail at $4 million on the murder charge, bringing the total to $4.15 million.

 

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sgt. Grosser at the Monroe Township Police Department at (732) 521-0222, or Investigator Temple of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office at (732) 745-3373.

 

As is the case with all criminal defendants, the charges against Li are merely accusations and she is presumed innocent until proven guilty.