Wisconsin pair charged in alleged plot to stalk, poison, and kill courting app liaisons
A Wisconsin boyfriend and girlfriend have been charged with tried homicide for allegedly attempting to poison two ladies the person beforehand dated after assembly them on-line, authorities stated.
Paul VanDuyne Jr., 43, and Andrea Whitaker, 41, have every been charged with tried homicide, aggravated battery, recklessly endangering the general public and stalking, in keeping with legal instances filed within the Madison, Wisconsin area.
On Friday, they every appeared in courtroom individually in Janesville, in Dane County, which is also dwelling to the state capital. Bail was set at $10 million for VanDuyne, who prosecutors stated has entry to substantial assets, and $4 million for Whitaker.
Pleas weren’t entered and every remained in custody, in keeping with jail information. The defendants have separate legal professionals, who didn’t reply instantly to requests for remark.
One of many two victims — every of whom met VanDuyne on a courting app and noticed him just a few occasions — described an expertise discovering a stranger she later realized was Whitaker crouched subsequent to her automobile in her storage in April.
The lady is recognized in redacted courtroom information because the sufferer from Dane County; the opposite girl is recognized because the sufferer from Rock County. The Dane County girl stated Friday in courtroom that she met VanDuyne greater than a yr in the past, went on two dates with him, and advised him she wasn’t all for seeing him once more.
“I used to be by no means his girlfriend, but he and Andrea developed the delusion that I used to be,” she stated in courtroom Friday. “This delusion was so sturdy, they tried to homicide me. Their actions and motivations are disconnected from actuality. Each have proven their capability for evil.”
Showing at VanDuyne’s listening to, the lady stated that after discovering the allegations in opposition to the couple, she has folks keep together with her in a single day, put in a safety system, and hides her automobile.
“I would like the courtroom’s safety,” she stated. “The group wants the courtroom’s safety.”
Prosecutors stated VanDuyne met Whitaker on-line roughly throughout the identical time he dated the victims and carried on a relationship just about as she took programs within the area of pharmacology away from the realm.
Upon her completion of programs, she moved close by, and the 2 met in particular person in spring, in keeping with narratives offered in case paperwork.
VanDuyne graduated from Princeton College greater than 20 years prior, the establishment confirmed. He had a profession as a mechanical engineer, his lawyer stated in courtroom on Friday. Paperwork within the Rock County case say he was just lately divorced and began courting the victims after assembly them on courting apps or websites that weren’t named.
When he related with Whitaker, the 2 launched into a plot in opposition to the victims, prosecutors stated.
The sufferer from Rock County got here to the eye of authorities in early Could when a health care provider from the Wisconsin Poison Heart reported {that a} girl was hospitalized with thallium in her system, the courtroom paperwork state.
Thallium was as soon as generally used to kill rodents. Largely due to unintended poisonings, it has been banned from family use within the U.S. since 1965 and commercially since 1975.
The physician, recognized solely by a final title, is quoted as saying, “The one approach a human may have this quantity of thallium in her system is that if they have been deliberately consuming it.”
Prosecutors stated the sufferer reported no suicidal motion and struggled to think about anybody who would attempt to poison her — the names she got here up with have been vetted — till VanDuyne got here to thoughts, in keeping with the paperwork from Rock County.
She advised detectives about texts she had acquired in early 2025 texts from the person she knew solely as Paul after they dated beginning practically two years earlier than, they state.
She gave investigators his quantity, and so they began taking a look at VanDuyne earlier this month, in keeping with the courtroom paperwork.
She stated he had despatched her texts within the spring after months of no contact. In them, the Rock County sufferer stated, he referred to as her “evil” and blamed her for inflicting his girlfriend, Whitaker, to kill herself when she found their courting historical past, the paperwork state.
Whitaker didn’t kill herself.
In actual fact, courtroom paperwork allege, she was integral to the plot to kill the 2 different ladies VanDuyne had dated, and so they labored collectively to taint water bottles and automobiles with poisons they procured or, in a single case, constructed from scratch.
Within the Could incident that despatched the Rock County sufferer to the hospital, the lady took her middle-school aged sister to the flicks however each grew to become ailing, in keeping with the paperwork. The sufferer took her automobile to a dealership, the place employees reported a noxious odor and tossed out a storage tote they stated contained an unknown substance, they stated.
As a result of the lady and her sister described a odor of rotten eggs, detectives concluded the substance was hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gasoline.
Rock County Sheriff Curtis stated the Rock County sufferer was nonetheless in a wheelchair on account of her poisoning. With out the medical care she’s acquired — together with an antidote flown in a single day from California — she almost definitely would have died, he stated.
The alleged plot impacted the opposite sufferer, the lady from Dane County, not lengthy afterward, in mid-Could, when bystanders reported somebody breaking into her automobile at a Costco parking zone on two separate events, in keeping with the paperwork.
One witness on the Costco parking zone reported seeing a person get right into a Chrysler Pacifica minivan that was traced again to VanDuyne, authorities stated within the paperwork.
After one of many incidents, the sufferer reported ingesting bottled water she left in her automobile and noticing in tasted horrible, the courtroom paperwork state. The water examined constructive for cyanide and thallium.
After realizing the 2 victims could have the identical perpetrators, authorities took a second take a look at the Rock County sufferer’s automobile and concluded it was the topic of a break-ins or makes an attempt with markings much like these made within the Costco makes an attempt, the paperwork state.
Detectives received a decide’s permission to trace VanDuyne’s motion and located him touring to the Rock County sufferer’s residence, in keeping with the paperwork. After that journey, authorities allege, they discovered a path digicam held on a tree throughout from the sufferer’s dwelling.
In different situations the couple labored collectively to make use of cyanide, thallium, and abrin in a number of makes an attempt to poison the victims, as soon as even placing a powdery substance within the air flow system of a sufferer’s automobile, authorities stated within the courtroom paperwork.
Abrin may be made by grinding the seeds of rosary peas, authorities stated within the paperwork.
On Thursday, a search of VanDuyne’s minivan turned up a tan bag with a number of vials inside, the courtroom paperwork say. Authorities discovered rosary peas within the bag and a seed grinder at his dwelling, the paperwork state.
An FBI hazardous supplies workforce was referred to as to assist with the search, and members took an lively half a number of occasions, the paperwork say.
The defendants have been anticipated to look in Rock County courtroom subsequent week to face expenses of tried homicide and stalking for VanDuyne and tried homicide and aiding a felon for Whitaker.
VanDuyne is due in Dane County courtroom once more Aug. 4. She is scheduled for an look there July 2.