Family: Nobel prize winner confused when wife’s body found

Family: Nobel prize winner confused when wife's body found | iNFOnews.ca
In this April 18, 2014, file photo, Nobel laureate and Purdue University professor Ei-ichi Negishi, left, stands with his wife Sumire after the unveiling of a bronze sculpture of him outside of Wetherill Laboratory of Chemistry on campus at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Sumire Negishi was found dead Tuesday, March 13, 2018, in a northern Illinois landfill after her 82-year-old husband was found wandering a road south of Rockford, Ill., police said. (Steve Scherer/Purdue University via AP)

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 travelling 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.

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