Tuesday, October 13, 2026 - A California chemical engineer, who pleaded no contest to poisoning a colleague, was caught on hidden video allegedly pouring cadmium into her water bottle.
David Xu, a metallurgist at Berkeley Engineering and
Research, spiked his colleague Rong Yuan’s food and water with cadmium, a toxic
heavy metal, for nearly 18 months between 2017 and 2019.
“My blood was frozen,” Yuan told The San Francisco Standard
of the first time she watched the video. “I almost died. I experienced death
so, so close so many times. I cannot let him go.”
Yuan suffered a series of alarming health problems,
including persistent vomiting, hair loss, and a strange sour taste in her
mouth. Her condition deteriorated to the point that she required repeated
hospital visits while struggling to understand what was making her sick.
When Yuan emailed her colleagues on Nov. 27, 2018, to report
severe vomiting and take a sick day, Xu responded with chilling nonchalance,
The Standard reports.
“You should work from home until you feel better. No reason
to rush in,” he wrote, adding, “I think BEAR is moldy.”
The truth emerged after Yuan, suspicious that someone might
be tampering with her food and drinks, installed a hidden camera at her
workplace.
The footage captured Xu approaching her desk and appearing
to pour a substance into her water bottle on separate occasions. Yuan
subsequently handed the evidence to police, triggering an investigation that
led to Xu’s arrest in March 2019.
After his arrest, Xu was released on $2 million bail. He
then received repeated modifications to his home confinement, with his travel
restrictions eventually fully lifted, reports The Standard.
In late 2023, under a plea bargain offered by Pamela Price,
the former Alameda County District Attorney, the attempted murder charges were
dropped.
Xu pleaded no contest to a single felony count of poisoning
and received two years of probation, serving just a single day of credited jail
time.
Yuan had sought nearly $500,000 in restitution but Xu was
ordered to pay only a $7,058 restitution order.
He completed his probation earlier this year in March and is
now asking the court to formally dismiss the felony conviction under
California’s expungement statute.
Under California law, judges are bound to grant record
dismissals to defendants who fulfill every term of their probation.
Watch the video below..
Hidden camera captures engineer poisoning coworker before she suffered horrific health problems (VIDEO) https://t.co/VTk4biKZ0Z
— DAILY POST 🇳🇬 (@dailypost_ng) October 13, 2026
){kind=link}
0 Comments