Professor poisoned wife with cyanide

Until he was accused of using one of those substances -- cyanide -- to kill his wife. On Friday, a Pennsylvania jury determined that this accusation was well founded, convicting the University of Pittsburgh medical researcher and professor of murder in death of 41-year-old Autumn Klein. As juror Helen Ewing told reporters afterward, "It was very hard for me to accept and to believe that he could have done it, CNN reports. "But I felt that the facts were clear, and I couldn't argue with them." For many on the outside, there seemed little amiss in the lives of Ferrante and Klein. They both had successful careers, including Klein as a top neurologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Their house was brightened by Klein's then-6-year-old daughter, Cianna. And they'd just returned from a trip to Puerto Rico. "I've never seen anything to suggest they were anything but a happy couple with a beautiful little girl," their neighbor Blithe Runsdorf said. Then, on April 17, 2013, Ferrante called 911 and said his wife was "conscious and breathing, but not alert" inside their Pittsburgh home. "Please, please, please," he said. "... I think my wife is having a stroke." When paramedics arrived, they found Klein on the floor of the kitchen with a plastic bag containing creatine. She died three days later. According to a criminal complaint, several text messages sent between the couple suggest Ferrante urged Klein to try using creatine to get help her get pregnant. Whatever Ferrante's rationale, there's no scientific consensus that creatine supplements -- which some use to build muscle mass and may have medical value -- help with female fertility; in fact, the National Institutes of Health says pregnant women should not use creatine. Regardless, authorities say it wasn't the creatine that killed Klein -- but rather cyanide that had been mixed with it. One day before Klein fell ill, Ferrante had used a credit card to place an overnight order for more than a half-pound of cyanide. At the time the order was placed, there were no active projects at Ferrante's lab that involved the use of cyanide, according to the complaint. And when investigators looked at the bottle, they found that over 8 grams of cyanide were missing from it. Cyanide is often used in research laboratories for experiments. In humans, in which it interferes with a body's ability to use oxygen to produce energy, it can be deadly. In July 2013, Ferrante was charged in his late wife's death, arrested in West Virginia, then extradited back to Pennsylvania. And why did Autumn Klein die? For full version go to