UK News. Department of Chemistry Post-Doctoral Scholar Found Dead

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1 March 20, 2018; Lexington, KY UK News Department of Chemistry Post-Doctoral Scholar Found Dead The University of Kentucky police are assisting the Lexington Police Department in the investigation of the death of 26-year old post-doctoral scholar Dr. Evangaline Harris in a Department of Chemistry laboratory. Dr. Harris was found at 8:00 am Monday March 20 at her desk with a single gunshot wound to her head. Her lab mate, Dr. Zelena West, discovered the crime scene and immediately called UK and Lexington Police who filed the following report. Dr. Evangaline Harris, a post-doctoral scholar working on the synthesis of a novel cancer therapeutic in the Department of Chemistry. Evidence and Crime Scene Photos. As shown below Dr. Harris suffered a single small caliber gunshot wound to the left temple. A 22-caliber pistol that had been fired one time was found on the floor by the victim. A check of the gun s registration showed it was registered to Dr. Harris. The gun was dusted for fingerprints but none were detected. The laboratory was locked by a keycard lock and inspection of access to the lab showed Dr. Harris key card was the last used to access the laboratory at 7:00 pm on Sunday March 19. There was no other record of key card access to the laboratory.

2 Photos taken at the crime scene by investigating officers. The police investigators observed a laboratory notebook with a synthetic pathway on one page and a presumed suicide note reading I m sorry. I have failed (See photos below).

3 Autopsy results showed Dr. Harris died of a single 22-caliber gunshot wound to the left temple. The coroner was able to estimate a time of death of 11:30 pm April 5. Presence of gunshot residue embedded around the entrance wound suggested Dr. Harris had been shot at close range. The angle of bullet entrance, the close range of the shot coupled with an apparent suicide note and a clean murder weapon suggests Dr. Harris did indeed commit suicide. Background Story Dr. Evangaline Harris was widely regarded by the faculty as a gifted, albeit arrogant, researcher. She had spent the majority of the past 3 years working on a synthetic pathway leading to a silver bullet for cancer (Compound X). If successful, the pathway she was developing would allow cheap, high yield synthesis of a chemotherapeutic compound that could be easily modified to attack specific cancers. Dr. Harris shared a lab with Dr. Zelena West (left in photo below), an equally gifted researcher but without the arrogance. Dr. West had been in the laboratory for only a year and a half and was working on an alternate synthetic pathway to the same product and was making rapid progress. Because of the potential for wide use of the compound against a

4 variety of tumors, the first one to complete the synthetic pathway would stand to earn substantial amounts of money in patent royalties. Drs. Zelena West (left), Evangaline Harris (center) and Emily Wang (right). Photo taken 1 month before Dr. Harris death. Police interviews with those who knew Dr. Harris indicated her only close friend was Dr. Emily Wang, (right in photo above), a senior research analyst in a neighboring lab. In addition to being friends, Dr. Wang had helped Dr. Harris with a critical aspect of the synthesis and was told by Dr. Harris that she would include her as an inventor on the expected patent application. A few days prior to her death, Evangaline informed Dr. Wang that she was close to completion of the synthesis of Compound X but had reconsidered including her as an inventor on the patent application because her contributions hadn t merited inclusion as an inventor. Evangaline also told Dr. Wang that she planned to come back to the lab the evening she died to complete the last step of the synthesis. It was the final experiment to determine if she had succeeded or if the last three years of work had been wasted. When investigators talked with Dr. Wang she told them that Dr. Harris and Dr. West did not get along particularly since Zelena was quickly closing in on a competing synthetic route to Compound X. She also said that Evangaline was so worried about the competition that she virtually lived in the lab to try and be the first to complete the synthesis. When told of the apparent suicide note in Evangaline s notebook, Emily sadly nodded and said I guess her synthesis failed and she couldn t face the concept of 3 wasted years. When investigators asked Dr. West about her relationship with Dr. Harris she said that it was frosty at best. Examination of Dr. West s research notebook showed soon after Evanaline s death she had completed the synthesis of Compound X using an approach described as pure inspiration by her advisor. Further investigation showed a patent application had been filed by Drs. West and Wang for the total synthesis of Compound X.

5 Lab mates and competitors. Evangaline and Zelena 1 week prior to Evangaline s death. Credits: A special thanks to Professor Nelson Fields and his TA350 (Makeup for the Stage) class, Ms. Katie Noble and Mr. David Alan Clarke for creating the murder victim. Special thanks to Dr. Melissa Bradley-Whitman and Dr. Shuling Fister for assistance with the crime scene and for crime scene photographs.