By William Booth, The Washington Post
LONDON — A middle-aged British woman, who somehow came into contact with the Soviet-era nerve agent, died Sunday evening in a hospital in south England where she was being treated for exposure to the chemical weapon.
Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “appalled and shocked by the death,” and announced that incident is now being investigated as a murder.
Dawn Sturgess, 44, was one of five people who have become became critically after being exposed to the military-grade nerve agent in the Salisbury area.
She was exposed to the chemical last weekend and survived eight days.
Her boyfriend Charlie Rowley, 45, was also exposed to the nerve agent around the same time and place — and he remains in critical condition and in a coma at the Salisbury hospital.
The poisonings began with a still unsolved attack against former Russian spy and double agent Sergei Skripal and his adult daughter, Yulia, four months ago.
Specialists at the nearby military research laboratory at Porton Down, which specializes in the study of chemical weapons, identified the nerve agent used against the Skripals and Sturgess and Rowley as Novichok.
The U.N. chemical weapons watchdog confirmed the finding in the Skripal case.
