Coworker poisons his packed lunch after a man dies in Germany: A person has died in Germany after a colleague ate poison in his packed lunch with mercury and other substances. The 26-year-old was left in a coma for four years after his meal was spiked at the metal fitting company where he worked, confirming his death on Thursday with a state court in Bielefeld.
Two other employees at Ari Armefen, who poisoned their food over several years, were left with severe kidney damage.
In Germany a German man, identified only as “Klaus O” under local reporting laws, was sentenced to life in prison for attempted murder in March 2014 after he was caught on CCTV putting powder in a coworker’s sandwich.
Monitoring equipment was installed at the company after an employee opened the sandwich and found white powder inside. The same device later captured footage of Mr O taking his colleagues’ lunches out of their bags, spraying powder into them and putting them back.
Police searched Mr O’s house and found substances including cadmium, lead and mercury.
Following this discovery, officials announced an investigation into all deaths related to the company since 2000 — with a total of 21 employees at the ARI Armaturen in the city of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock, who died before the retirement age of conditions including a heart attack.
Police said at the time, “There was a strikingly high number of heart attacks and cancers among the causes of deaths in the company, they were related to the poisoning, confirming the investigation into the deaths.
Testimony from a psychologist in the case suggested Mr O “sounded to me like a scientist who was testing substances on a guinea pig,” Deutsche Welle reported at the time.
Before the trial, which saw very little other than Mr O say that he supported his defence comment, an attorney for one of the poisoning victims said that associates who had no particular issues with the defendant before poisoning remained.
“Like any other company, there was a relationship of trust between affiliates; the attorney told DSW, no one expected anything like that.
“Klaus O, a trained toolmaker, was considered technically experienced and helped his colleagues. Otherwise, he usually avoided them. There were no conversations about personal matters over a cup of coffee, but There were not even many fights.”
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