Scientist Accused of Plot to Kill Colleague : Crime: Co-worker found his nasal spray laced with a carcinogen. Suspect is credited with a breakthrough in tissue preservation.
HOUSTON — The alleged weapon was a bottle of nasal spray laced with poison.
The man charged with attempted murder hardly has the look of a killer. John Linner’s beefy body is usually framed by sandals and baseball caps, and he prides himself on his chili-fixing ability. He is also a research scientist who developed a breakthrough process in the world of cryobiology, the study of organisms at reduced temperatures.
And now he sits in the Montgomery County jail in Conroe, Tex., his request for release on bond denied. He is charged with attempting to murder his colleague at the University of Texas’ Cryobiology Research Center by replacing his nasal spray with a carcinogen called beta-propiolactone.
For now there are more questions than answers in the case. If there is a strong motive, it is not yet clear. What would this admittedly eccentric bear of a man stand to gain by putting poison in a colleague’s nasal spray?
“It’s going to get weirder,†Montgomery County Dist. Atty. Pete Speers said Thursday. “We have reason to believe that it is not thoroughly out of character.â€
The story began two weeks ago, when W. Barry Van Winkle opened his desk drawer at the research center in Woodlands, 25 miles north of Houston, and pulled out a bottle of Afrin Nasal Spray. But when he used it, he experienced a burning sensation. Suspicious, he took the spray to the Harris County medical examiner’s office in Houston. Toxicologists found the carcinogen in the spray.
Bob Morrison, a spokesman for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, said investigators discovered that Linner had purchased a quantity of beta-propiolactone and immediately became the prime suspect, since the only other person in the lab was a secretary. Based on that information, Linner was arrested at his office early Tuesday morning.
In a search of both Linner’s office and home, deputies discovered two unopened containers of chemicals, but not the kind that was put in the nasal spray. Linner’s lawyer, Robert C. Bennett, said the evidence in the case appears extremely thin.
“The man is a cell biologist. He has access to chemicals in the lab and was conducting scientific experiments,†he said. “The presence of chemicals that might be dangerous in the hands of lay persons is not unusual.
“The system has gone awry here,†he said. “A man who is not guilty of a crime has been accused of one. We have people here who may well have brought irresponsible charges against him, causing him a great deal of trauma.
“I’ve never seen a case like this,†he said. “It’s pretty bizarre.â€
One possible motive that has been mentioned is professional jealousy. The lab was going to be shut down in August. Van Winkle had applied for and received a transfer to the University of Texas Medical School’s pathology department. Linner had not.
But Dr. R. W. Butcher, the dean of the school, said Linner had not even applied for a new position after being informed that the lab would close, largely for lack of scientific productivity and outside funding.
“As far as I know, John did not apply for any jobs in Houston,†he said. “I’m sure he made no application with the graduate school.â€
Butcher and Linner go back a number of years. It was Butcher who took an interest in the researcher in the early ‘80s when it was clear that Linner was on the verge of a major breakthrough in the area of cryobiology.
Working on his own in the basement of the UT center, borrowing parts (and once trading his chili recipe for a pump), Linner developed a machine that could preserve tissues almost indefinitely, whereas before they had a very short shelf life because they were damaged by ice crystals.
The discovery was hailed in the scientific world as revolutionary, raising the possibility of preserving such things as corneas and vital organs. A company called LifeCell was formed in 1986 to study and market the system and just received a $50,000 contract from the federal government to seek better ways of preserving veins taken from donors for heart bypass surgery. The Navy has given LifeCell a $500,000 grant to study the possibilities of preserving human blood at room temperature.
A hearing may be held today in the Linner case. Neither Van Winkle nor a spokesman for LifeCell returned phone calls.
“To my knowledge, no one has ever said this is a dangerous guy,†Butcher said.
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