Family: Nobel prize winner confused when wife's body found
Mar 15, 2018
Family members say a Nobel Prize-winning Purdue University chemistry professor was confused and searching for help when his wife's body was found at a northern Illinois landfill
ROCKFORD, Ill. — Family members say a Nobel Prize-winning Purdue University chemistry professor was confused and searching for help when his wife's body was found at a northern Illinois landfill.
The relatives told WTHR-TV in Indianapolis that 80-year-old Sumire Negishi (soo-MEE'-la nah-GEE'-shee) was "near the end of her battle with Parkinson's" disease and was traveling with her husband, 82-year-old professor Ei-ichi Negishi (aich nah-GEE'-shee).
The Ogle County Sheriff's Office said deputies found Sumire Negishi's body and the couple's vehicle Tuesday at Orchard Hills Landfill outside Rockford. Shortly after, they found Ei-ichi Negishi walking nearby.
Family members say he was apparently in "an acute state of confusion and shock." They say the vehicle was stuck in a ditch.
Ogle County authorities have said they don't suspect foul play in the woman's death.
Negishi won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
