Man caught poisoning co-worker's lunch prompts investigation into 21 deaths

German police are investigating a series of deaths dating back 18 years at a metal fittings company after an employee was caught trying to poison a colleague’s lunch.

The authorities launched the probe after finding quicksilver, lead and cadmium at the 56-year-old suspect’s home following the attempted poisoning at the firm in the northwestern town of Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock.

The police arrested the man, who has not been named, in May, “after one of his co-workers noticed an unknown white powder on his food”, reports Deutsche Welle. The potential victim “alerted his superiors and asked them to review the recordings made by security cameras, which then showed the suspect adding the substance to the co-worker’s lunch”, adds the Bonn-based newspaper.

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Subsequent tests “showed it was a poison that could have caused severe organ damage”, The Daily Telegraph says.

Further investigation uncovered 21 cases, dating back to 2000, of employees at the same company who had died of heart attacks or cancer shortly before retiring.

Experts concluded that heavy metal poisoning could have been the cause of the illnesses that led to those deaths.

“In the beginning, we thought it was a misconceived prank between co-workers, and not a murder attempt,” Tilo Blechinger, manager of the metal fittings firm, ARI Armaturen, told German news agency DPA.

Blechinger said the suspect had worked for the company for 38 years, and described him as “conspicuously inconspicuous”.

The suspect has remained silent about the allegations and his alleged motive remains unclear, police said.