Cyanide

EACH day, a young man puts on diving goggles and a pair of swim fins fashioned from little more than plywood and rubber, takes a tube in his mouth, grabs a plastic bottle of cyanide and a small net, and slips into the clear waters of a Philippine lagoon.Breathing air pumped from the surface, he descends onto the coral reef in search of fish -- not for the next meal, but for the international aquarium trade. His eyes trained to detect the slightest movement in the rocks or flash of color among the anemones, he quickly squirts a shot from his bottle into a hidden recess.

Sept. 29 1982 Seven people in the Chicago area died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. 2005 John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation's 17th chief justice.

Frederick chemist Alan Bruce Chmurny died yesterday, less than 24 hours after he swallowed a cyanide pill in open court after hearing a jury convict him of trying to poison a former co-worker with mercury. Chmurny, who had been in the intensive care unit at Howard County General Hospital, was pronounced dead at 1:55 p.m., said hospital spokeswoman Mary Patton, who confirmed that Chmurny suffered cyanide poisoning. Chmurny's decision to swallow the pill Wednesday unnerved Howard Circuit Court officials and stunned his lawyer, Dino Flores.

The parents of an Ellicott City teenager who was killed by his friend with cyanide are suing the friend's parents, the friend's psychiatrist and the company where he bought the poison for $2 million each. Ryan Furlough, 21, is serving a life sentence, with the possibility of parole, after being convicted in 2004 of first-degree murder in the death of Benjamin Vassiliev. Vassiliev's parents, Walter Vassiliev and Karen Dale-Barrett, are seeking a total of $6 million in damages from Susan and Thomas Furlough; Dr. Richard Bacharach and his practice; and Antec Inc., accusing them of negligence that led to Benjamin Vassiliev's death.

An Ellicott City teen-ager accused of fatally poisoning a friend by spiking his soda with cyanide filed an insanity plea in the case yesterday. Lawyers filed legal notice claiming that Ryan T. Furlough, 18, was not criminally responsible "by reason of insanity" for the death of 17-year-old Benjamin Edward Vassiliev in January. "It's certainly one of the defenses we're considering in our representation of Ryan," attorney Joseph Murtha said after a brief hearing in Howard County Circuit Court.

Ryan T. Furlough, the Ellicott City teenager who fatally laced his best friend's soda with cyanide last year, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison by a judge who said he did not want to cut off any chance that the 19-year-old could one day earn his release. The sentence - a middle ground between life without parole, which prosecutors sought, and the shorter term requested by defense attorneys - was imposed at the end of an emotional four-hour hearing that brought a simmering debate over the use of antidepressant drugs by youths to the forefront.

Ryan T. Furlough, a Centennial High School senior accused of fatally poisoning a friend by spiking his soda with cyanide bought over the Internet, is scheduled for trial June 30 in Howard County Circuit Court. Furlough, 18, was indicted last month on charges of first-degree murder, poisoning, felony assault and reckless endangerment in the death of fellow Centennial senior Benjamin Edward Vassiliev, 17, last month. Authorities have said they think Furlough, a resident of the 3500 block of Rhode Valley Trail in Columbia, bought potassium cyanide over the Internet last fall and spiked Vassiliev's drink while the two played video games in Furlough's basement Jan. 3. Vassiliev died five days later.

An Ellicott City teen-ager who spent several months researching the best way to kill before spiking his best friend's soda with cyanide was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder. The Howard County jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning the guilty verdict. Jurors apparently rejected a defense argument that Ryan T. Furlough, 19, was so depressed and so heavily medicated that he could not have been thinking rationally when he slipped cyanide into a soda can last year and offered it to 17-year-old Benjamin Vassiliev.

The maker of the popular cold remedy Sudafed has announced a nationwide recall of the 12-hour decongestant capsules after federal officials said they believed two people had died and a third had become ill from taking cyanide-laced capsules.The three victims, all from Washington state, were unrelated and lived in different towns in neighboring counties.Officials of the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that the victims had purchased the Sudafed in different stores.One of two links found so far in the three poisonings was the code on the foil packs.

Frederick chemist Alan Bruce Chmurny apparently took a cyanide pill yesterday afternoon, minutes after a jury found him guilty of trying to poison a former co-worker with mercury. Chmurny, who faces significant prison time, was rushed to Howard County General Hospital, where he was reported in critical condition last night. County police said he was unconscious, and they could offer no additional medical information. It was a bizarre ending to an unusual case. Chmurny, who has a doctorate in chemistry, was arrested on assault and related charges in June 2000 after North Laurel resident Marta Bradley found mercury, a toxic metallic element, splashed on the seats and floor and in the vents of her station wagon.

Ryan T. Furlough, the Ellicott City teenager who fatally laced his best friend's soda with cyanide last year, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison by a judge who said he did not want to cut off any chance that the 19-year-old could one day earn his release. The sentence - a middle ground between life without parole, which prosecutors sought, and the shorter term requested by defense attorneys - was imposed at the end of an emotional four-hour hearing that brought a simmering debate over the use of antidepressant drugs by youths to the forefront.

An Ellicott City teen-ager who spent several months researching the best way to kill before spiking his best friend's soda with cyanide was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder. The Howard County jury deliberated for less than three hours before returning the guilty verdict. Jurors apparently rejected a defense argument that Ryan T. Furlough, 19, was so depressed and so heavily medicated that he could not have been thinking rationally when he slipped cyanide into a soda can last year and offered it to 17-year-old Benjamin Vassiliev.

Upset that his friend Ben Vassiliev hadn't given him birthday and Christmas presents and fearful that he no longer "cared," Ryan Furlough told investigators that he turned to the Internet in the fall of 2002 to find the best way to kill Vassiliev - and himself. He chose cyanide for its simplicity and ability to produce "instantaneous" results, all the while waiting for the 17-year-old Vassiliev to prove him wrong, Furlough said through tears. "But when it was nothing again and again and again, I started to accept the fact that for some reason or another, he just doesn't care about me anymore," he said during a lengthy videotaped police interview that was played yesterday in Howard Circuit Court during the third day of testimony in Furlough's trial on murder charges.

The girl who prosecutors say was the source of jealousy that spurred an Ellicott City teen-ager to poison his friend with cyanide testified yesterday at his murder trial, painting a complex picture of teen-age love, kisses and envy. During the second day of testimony in Ryan T. Furlough's trial in Howard Circuit Court, Caroline Smith told jurors she and the youth kissed while watching the movie Happy Gilmore at Furlough's house one day toward the end of their junior year. After that, their friendship grew more complicated.

The girl who prosecutors say was the source of jealousy that spurred an Ellicott City teen-ager to poison his friend with cyanide testified yesterday at his murder trial, painting a complex picture of teen-age love, kisses and envy. During the second day of testimony in Ryan T. Furlough's trial in Howard Circuit Court, Caroline Smith told jurors she and the youth kissed while watching the movie Happy Gilmore at Furlough's house one day toward the end of their junior year. After that, their friendship grew more complicated.

With his deathly ill son clinging to life, Walter Vassiliev said he turned to the one person he was certain knew the cause - his son's friend and classmate, Ryan Furlough. But the Ellicott City teen-ager, who had been playing video games with Ben Vassiliev when Vassiliev began to have a seizure, offered no information, answering every question with the words, "I don't know," Walter Vassiliev said yesterday during the first day of testimony in Furlough's murder trial in Howard County Circuit Court.

First there was a child with a cold. Twelve-year-old Mary Kellerman took a pain reliever early on a Wednesday morning in 1982 in her home in Elk Grove Village, Ill. Minutes later, she lay dying on the bathroom floor. Doctors thought she might have suffered a stroke. But within two days, six more people in the Chicago area had died, and the murder weapon was identified as Tylenol capsules whose burnt-almond smell revealed they had been opened and packed with cyanide. The investigation that followed was one of the biggest in U.S. history, involving hundreds of agents from the FBI, the Illinois State Police, and police departments in Chicago and a half-dozen suburbs.

An Ellicott City teen-ager accused of killing a Centennial High School classmate by spiking his soda with cyanide is scheduled to go on trial tomorrow in a case that his lawyer said has destroyed two young men's lives. With a reported confession from Ryan T. Furlough, 19, and a search that turned up cyanide packaging and labels in his home, the case likely will be a challenging one for defense attorneys. Even though his lawyers withdrew Furlough's insanity plea last month, they are expected to focus their efforts on their client's psychological state Jan. 3 last year - the day Benjamin Edward Vassiliev, 17, went into seizures while playing video games in Furlough's basement.

Lawyers selected 12 jurors and two alternates yesterday to hear the case against an Ellicott City teen accused of fatally poisoning a classmate last year by spiking his soda with cyanide. Seven men and five women were chosen to hear the case, which is expected to last more than a week. The two alternate jurors are men. Opening statements are scheduled to begin this morning in Howard County Circuit Court. Ryan T. Furlough, 19, is charged with first-degree murder in the January 2003 death of his friend and Centennial High School classmate Benjamin Edward Vassiliev.