Female friend now main suspect in Australian student Alex Shorey poisoning case
A 45-year-old Taiwanese woman is being investigated as a suspect in the Alex Shorey poisoning case after an empty bottle of rat poison was found in her home, where the 24-year-old Australian student was staying.
According to reports in multiple Taiwanese media outlets, the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office brought the woman in for questioning after finding an empty bottle of rodenticide in the woman’s Taipei City home during a search on May 3. The woman confessed to having put the poison into a drink, but claimed it was with the intention of drinking it herself to commit suicide, and that Shorey had accidentally ingested it.
According to United Daily News, the woman told investigators that she had purchased several bottles of the rat poison, ingested the contents of one bottle, and added the contents of the other bottles into drinks. The woman claimed that she had intended to ingest those drinks herself, but Alex accidentally drank the contents.
Investigators had reservations about the woman’s statements, and prosecutors issued a “restricted residence” order while the investigation continues.
Reports first appeared April 29 that an Australian exchange student studying at Tamkang University had been diagnosed with symptoms of poisoning by the anti-coagulant warfarin. The reports came after the man’s family had already raised more than AU$172,000 to fly him back to Australia via medivac.
According to an investigation by the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office, Alex Shorey first sought hospital treatment March 15. He went to the hospital on multiple occasions after suffering various symptoms in the ensuing weeks.
At some point, Alex was diagnosed as having been poisoned by warfarin. Alex then suffered anaphylactic reactions to vitamin K and plasma treatments, and was sent to the intensive care unit in a critical condition on April 18.
After Alex Shorey’s condition stabilized, he was sent home to Queensland, Australia via a specialist medical plane chartered by his family.
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Taiwan medical field is top notch and would have helped the Australian student recover. Not sure if it was a good idea to move him in such a way. Hope he is doing better.
I agree.
I think the man’s family assumed Taiwan is some kind of Third World backwater, judging from their suspicions that the poisoning was due to “Taiwanese street food.”