Briton poisoned by nerve agent dies
PM ‘appalled, shocked’ as murder probe opens
LONDON — Awomanwhowas poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent in southwest England died Sunday, eight days after police think she touched a contaminated item that has not been found.
London’s Metropolitan Police force said the case had become a homicide investigation now that 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess had died in a hospital in Salisbury. She and her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, 45, were admitted June 30 and remained in critical condition.
Police said tests showed the pair was exposed to Novichok, the same type of nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury in March. Police suspect Rowley and Sturgesshandledanitem from the first attack, which Britain blames on Russia. Moscow denies involvement. Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “appalled and shocked” by Sturgess’s death.
“Police and security officials are working urgently to establish the facts of this incident, which is now being treated as murder,” May said.
Assistant Commissioner Neil
Basu, Britain’s top anti-terrorism police officer, said the death “has only served to strengthen our resolve” to find those responsible.
More than 100 police officers have been working to locate a small vial or other container thought to have held the nerve agent that sickened the two. Officials say the search and cleanup operation will take weeks or even months.
Counterterrorism police are also studying roughly 1,300 hours of closed circuit television footage in hopes of finding clues about the couple’s activities in the hours before they became violently ill.
Detectives want to know where thecouplewastogetnewleadson where the contamination might have occurred.
Britain maintains the March attack on the Skripals had been ordered by the Russian government, a charge denied by representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The case led to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Britain, the United States, and other countries.