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Police Ask To Look Into Doctor's Google Search After Wife's Poisoning Death

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – There was a bombshell Friday in the case of a doctor accused in the cyanide death of his wife.

Dr. Robert Ferrante was accompanied by his attorneys, Bill Difenderfer and Wendy Williams at the Allegheny County Courthouse.

As he passed by reporters, only the lawyers spoke, citing a gag order.

Reporter: "You guys have any comment?"

Difenderfer: "Not allowed."

Williams: "We have nothing to hide."

But after a hearing in which Ferrante agreed to submit to a DNA swab, paperwork was unsealed that could point to the doctor's frame of mind after he was questioned and before he was arrested and charged in the cyanide poisoning of his wife, Dr. Autumn Klein.

A search warrant obtained this week seeks additional data from Google regarding an Internet search of the phrase "would ecmo or dialysis remove traces of toxins poisons."

It's a search phrase, investigators say they found on a MacBook Air laptop computer seized as part of the investigation.

Ecmo is a treatment for patients whose heart and lungs can no longer serve their function, pumps blood out of the body and pumps in new blood with oxygen.

It's a treatment Klein received at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital after she was admitted to the emergency room.

In their affidavit for probable cause, investigators say the Internet search happened April 25, 2013, at 9:32 p.m. Eight hours after Ferrante was interviewed by police and told by them that his wife died of cyanide poisoning.

Meanwhile, the defense notified the judge he will be asking for an out of county jury to hear this case.

RELATED LINKS
Unsealed Documents Reveal New Details In Cyanide Poisoning (11/7/13)
Assets Frozen, Gag Order Issued In Ferrante Case (8/5/13)
D.A.'s Office Won't Seek Death Penalty In Cyanide Poisoning Case (11/5/13)
More Reports by Harold Hayes

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