Asian Grandmother, 4-Year-Old Grandson Dead After Consuming Odorless Rat Poison

A grandmother and her 4-year-old grandson reportedly died after they were poisoned with a fatal dose of thallium, a tasteless and odorless rat poison, just three months apart in 2021.

On Feb. 17, 2021, the 63-year-old grandmother, Tofoon Man, fell ill with stomach pains inside her Mapleton home and was subsequently rushed by her daughter to Mount Sinai Hospital. The elderly woman's health deteriorated drastically and she was pronounced dead at the hospital the same day, Daily News reported.

“All of a sudden, she got sick. I didn’t know what happened,” the woman's husband, Hing Sou Wong, said.

Barely three months after the incident, on May 24, 2021, the woman's 4-year-old grandson, Wilhelm Ducatl, experienced an intense stomachache and fatigue while he was residing inside the same apartment. He was rushed to Maimonides Hospital in critical condition. The young Ducatl also succumbed to his complications and died two days later.

After an autopsy was conducted, the NYPD and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that the cause of the boy’s death was acute poisoning from thallium, New York Post reported.

Thallium is an odorless metal found in foreign rat poisoning and insecticide that was once used by KGB killers during the Cold War. It was discovered in 1861 and was typically employed to kill vermin or mice. However, its production was banned in the U.S. back in 1984 due to its toxicity from even accidental exposure.

The officers later exhumed the grandmother’s corpse for an autopsy and determined in early January 2022 that the same substance had killed her.

“Before this happened, she used to be really healthy. I’m heartbroken,” said Wong, who immigrated to the U.S. from China with his wife in 1979.

“I am very sad and heartbroken,” added Wong, the widowed grandfather. “My wife was very healthy. I still do not know what happened.”

A second relative said that there was initially nothing suspicious about the deaths despite the proximity of the two fatalities.

“It originally sounded like it was a natural cause,” the family member said. “Almost a year after everything ... if the police are investigating, we just want them to do their work.”