A US chemical engineer who poisoned a female colleague’s water bottle for 18 months was caught on hidden-camera footage now released to the media.
David Xu, a metallurgist at Berkeley Engineering and Research (BEAR) in California, was recorded appearing to pour cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, into the water bottle of his co-worker Rong Yuan.
The spiking went on between 2017 and 2019, according to reports by The San Francisco Standard and ABC7. Yuan suffered severe vomiting, hair loss and persistent illness that required emergency hospital visits. Lab tests later found cadmium in her bottle at levels 3.5 million times above the federal limit for drinking water.
Suspicious after cleaning the bottle failed to remove a strange smell and sour taste, Yuan installed a hidden camera at her desk in early 2019. The footage captured Xu leaning over her desk and tampering with the bottle.
“My blood was frozen. I almost died. I experienced death so, so close so many times,” Yuan said after watching the clip.
She handed the video to police and Xu was arrested in March 2019 on charges of attempted murder and poisoning. He was released on $2 million bail.
In 2023, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price offered a plea deal dropping the attempted murder charge. Xu pleaded no contest to one felony count of poisoning and was sentenced in March 2024 to two years probation and one day of credited jail time. He was ordered to pay $7,058 in restitution, after Yuan sought $500,000.
Yuan, who says her parents were also exposed after drinking from the bottle and using it to cook, released the video last weekend as Xu asked an Alameda County court on Monday, October 13, to dismiss his felony conviction under California’s expungement law. Prosecutors objected, but dismissal is mandatory if probation terms are completed.
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