Location: Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (1994-1995) 🇨🇳
The Story: In late 1994, Zhu Ling, a brilliant and promising chemistry student at China's most prestigious university, began suffering from a mysterious and agonizing illness. Her health deteriorated rapidly;her hair fell out, her limbs seized with pain, and she eventually fell into a coma. Doctors were baffled until a friend, leveraging the nascent internet, identified the cause: thallium poisoning, a heavy metal toxin. 🍵
The Twist: While Zhu Ling survived, she awoke with catastrophic, permanent brain and nerve damage, leaving her almost entirely paralyzed and blind. The investigation pointed to a deliberate, calculated attack using a highly controlled substance, suggesting the perpetrator had intimate knowledge and access. Despite intense public scrutiny and a prime suspect widely known among the student body, the official investigation was abruptly closed in 1998 for "insufficient evidence." The true horror of the case is not just the destruction of a young life, but the shroud of impunity that followed;a chilling demonstration of how justice can be silenced within the very walls meant to nurture brilliance. The case remains China's most infamous unsolved academic crime. 🔪