BOSTON, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- An apparent poisoning death in Massachusetts highlights the risk of university lab chemicals falling into the wrong hands, a terrorism expert said.
Emily Staupe, 30, a lab technician at Northeastern University in Boston, was found dead at her home in Milford Sunday, a suspected suicide by cyanide, local and state police told the Boston Herald.
Neil Livingstone, a Washington, D.C., terrorism expert, said the death points to lax security at universities across the country.
"This should be a wake-up call," said Livingstone, president of ExecutiveAction. "What if her name were Mohamed Atta (a leader of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States) instead? … Cyanide is a good weapon of assassination or for killing a small number of people."
David Procopio, a spokesman for the state police, who are investigating Staupe's death, said it is not yet known how she got the cyanide to Milford.
Family members told police she had recently lost her job. A Northeastern spokeswoman declined to comment beyond expressing condolences to Staupe's family.
Universities are targets of terrorists seeking chemical weapons, Livingstone said, because they don't screen their students and are often careless about who has access to dangerous substances.
