HLN murder mystery series features local case
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
People love true medical mystery stories — from “Diagnosis” in The New York Times Magazine to HLN’s “Something’s Killing Me,” following the trail of the unknown is a source of great fascination.
Sunday’s episode of “Something’s Killing Me” features the high-profile trial of University of Pittsburgh neuroresearcher Robert Ferrante that was all over the local news in 2014.
Despite its overwrought dramatic presentation, the program still captivates, through interviews with reporters and even forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht.
Neurologist Autumn Klein, 41, left work at UPMC Presbyterian hospital after 11 p.m. on April 17, 2013. It was a fairly short walk to her home on Lytton Avenue, in the Schenley Farms area of Oakland.
Less than a half-hour later, her husband, Ferrante, discovered her on the floor of their kitchen, struggling to breathe. She died three days later.
The second season of “Something’s Killing Me,” hosted by B.D. Wong, debuted July 22. A crew
came to Pittsburgh to shoot interviews and exteriors in the spring, including one with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Paula Reed Ward.
Ms. Ward wrote a 2016 book on the case, “Death By Cyanide: The Murder of Dr. Autumn Klein.”
“This case fascinated me from the beginning,” she said. “Dr. Klein was a beloved, well-respected physician specializing in women’s neurology, and her husband was a brilliant neuroresearcher and devoted father.
“The two of them, together, seemingly had it all, and then she died from poisoning, which I had never seen in nearly 20 years as a criminal justice reporter.
“I knew it was a compelling story worthy of indepth treatment.”
The Post-Gazette has an online interactive feature detailing events, “Irritrievably Broken,” at post-gazette.com.
The producers of “Something’s Killing Me” also talked to Blithe Runsdorf, a Schenley Farms neighbor.
She recalled that at the time of Dr. Klein’s death, the media descended upon Lytton Avenue.
“I happened to come out to mow the grass and had on my best mow-the-grass clothes,” she said. “A couple of people from Channel 4 [WTAE-TV], I think, were here, and nobody would talk to them.”
Ms. Runsdorf has been a longtime judge of elections for Ward 4 of District 7. But she also spent about 15 years as a freelance reporter for the Post-Gazette, covering news and courts.
Although she said she could speak only in generalities about the tragedy (“just about what kind of neighborhood this is, blah blah”), Ms. Runsdorf granted an interview to the TV station.
“I had my 15 minutes of fame when my brother called to say, ‘We saw you on television this morning,’” she said.
It’s understandable that HLN would choose the story of these two doctors. The details are spun out over the course of an hour, and even for Pittsburghers familiar with it, this re-creation raises a question.
Mainly, how could someone as educated as Ferrante — convicted of first-degree murder and now spending a mandatory life sentence with no hope of parole at State Correctional Institution Houtzdale in Clearfield County — leave such an obvious trail of clues? Days before Dr. Klein’s death, he purchased cyanide, and his personal laptop yielded a web search history of topics about poisoning.
“Well, in hindsight, which is perfect, we all saw that any one of us could have figured it out,” Ms. Runsdorf said.
The episode, “My Wife Can’t Breathe,” airs at 8 p.m.
Maria Sciullo: msciullo@post-gazette.com or @MariaSciulloPG.