Doc being returned to Pa. in wife’s cyanide death


July 29, 2013 at 5:30p.m.

Doc being returned to Pa. in wife’s cyanide death

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A University of Pittsburgh medical researcher arrested in West Virginia is being returned to Pennsylvania to face charges in the cyanide poisoning death of his neurologist wife.

Dr. Robert Ferrante agreed to the transfer in a brief hearing today in West Virginia, where he was taken into custody last week.

Defense attorney William Difenderfer says he understands detectives are to escort his client to Allegheny County on Tuesday.

A preliminary arraignment is scheduled Tuesday afternoon on charges in the death of Autumn Klein, chief of women’s neurology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Klein died April 20 after suddenly falling ill.

Blood tests revealed a lethal level of cyanide. Police allege Ferrante bought cyanide days earlier.

Difenderfer says Ferrante was returning to Pennsylvania to surrender when he was arrested.

Ferrante and Klein met in Bedford, Mass.