(File photo: WRN)
Court records say a UW-Oshkosh student accused of trying to make Ricin told a professor that he was interested in ending life.
Oshkosh police and the FBI raided the 21-year-old man’s house last Friday afternoon. Court records say they seized castor bean plants and an unidentified white powder. The FBI is testing it at its lab in Quantico, Virginia to see if it is Ricin.
If someone inhales or eats a small amount of the poison, it can shut down their respiratory and circulatory systems, within a couple of days. Oil from castor beans is used to make Ricin. Police were called to investigate after two professors contacted authorities and said the student asked them about making the poison.
An organic chemistry professor told investigators that he became concerned during a conversation with the suspect. When the professor told him that questions about extracting things from seeds are better handled by someone in the biology department, the suspect reportedly said that “they are interested in life and I am interested in ending it.”
The student is in custody for reckless endangerment.
WHBY