Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

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

*News Release* Date: May 5, 2011

Monroe woman indicted on murder, hindering charges

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan announced that a Monroe Township woman was indicted today by a grand jury in Middlesex County on charges of killing her husband and then giving police false information during an investigation into the fatal poisoning.

Tianle Li (DOB 4/7/70) was charged with murder and hindering her apprehension or prosecution in the death January 26, 2011, of Xiaoye Wang, a 39-year-old computer software engineer who lived with her at 26 Stanley Drive in Monroe.

The indictment charged that Li administered poison to her victim between November 16, 2010, and January 26, 2011, in Monroe, and later in Princeton, after Mr. Wang admitted himself to the University Medical Center at Princeton for treatment of an unknown illness.

The indictment further charged that Li gave false information to police in Princeton on January 26, 2011, when they were initially assigned to investigate Mr. Wang’s death.

Li was arrested and 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 November 16, 2010, and January 26, 2011.

After becoming ill with apparent flu-like symptoms, Mr. Wang checked himself into the Princeton hospital 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.

Following the death, members of the New Jersey State Police Hazardous Materials Unit and the Middlesex County Hazardous Materials Unit undertook an extensive investigation at Mr. Wang’s home, and concluded that no one else was exposed to thallium

Li is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick in lieu of $4.15 million bail.

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, Li is presumed innocent until proven guilty.