US teen charged with murdering love rival

A Maryland teenager has been charged with murder for allegedly poisoning a love rival’s soft drink with cyanide.

Ryan Furlough, 18, slipped the substance into his friend’s drink as they played computer games in Furlough’s basement in suburban Baltimore, police said.

Benjamin Vassiliev, 17, went into respiratory arrest and later died.

Police found a letter in Vassiliev’s house indicating that Furlough was in love with Vassiliev’s girlfriend, according to court papers.

Furlough told officers he had been thinking about killing Vassiliev since October, the documents said. He also faces reckless endangerment and poisoning charges, a police spokeswoman said.

Police said he bought the cyanide by phone and told the chemicals company he planned to use it to plate metal.

Furlough’s parents, Susan and Tom, apologised in a statement issued by their son’s lawyer.

“We are so sorry for the pain and suffering our son Ryan has caused Ben and his family,” it read.

“Our hearts go out to all those individuals involved.”