Rong Yuan has spoken out after hidden-camera footage surfaced showing her former colleague David Xu lacing her water bottle with a toxic heavy metal.
Yuan, who nearly died during the 17-month poisoning campaign, told The San Francisco Standard that watching the video left her shaken. “My blood was frozen,” she said. “I almost died. I experienced death so, so close so many times. I cannot let him go.”
Xu, a metallurgist at Berkeley Engineering and Research, spiked Yuan’s food and water with cadmium between 2017 and 2019. The toxic heavy metal caused debilitating symptoms that sent Yuan to the hospital repeatedly and left her fearing she had a terminal illness.
While Yuan suffered, Xu projected concern that masked his role in her deteriorating health. On Nov. 27, 2018, Yuan emailed colleagues to report severe vomiting and announce she would take a sick day. Xu responded with what appeared to be casual sympathy.
“You should work from home until you feel better. No reason to rush in,” he wrote in the email. He added a deflection that pointed blame elsewhere: “I think BEAR is moldy.”
The poisoning scheme collapsed in early 2019 when Yuan installed a hidden camera at her desk. The footage captured Xu tampering with her water bottle, providing the evidence that led to his arrest in March 2019 on charges of attempted murder and poisoning.
The contamination had spread beyond Yuan herself. Her parents had unknowingly consumed the poisoned water, making them additional victims of Xu’s campaign.
After his arrest, Xu secured release on $2 million bail. He then received multiple modifications to his home confinement terms, with travel restrictions eventually lifted entirely, according to The San Francisco Standard.
The case took a sharp turn in late 2023 under a plea bargain from former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. The attempted murder charges were dropped, and Xu pleaded no contest to a single felony count of poisoning.
The sentence drew criticism for its leniency. Xu received two years of probation and just one day of credited jail time. Yuan had requested nearly $500,000 in restitution, but the court ordered Xu to pay only $7,058.
Xu completed his probation in March of this year. He is now petitioning the court to dismiss the felony conviction under California’s expungement statute, which generally requires judges to grant record dismissals to defendants who fulfill all probation terms.
Yuan’s defiant stance suggests she will continue fighting for accountability. Her release of the spy-cam footage comes as Xu seeks to erase the conviction from his record.
The hidden-camera video shows Xu at Yuan’s desk, opening her water bottle and introducing the cadmium that had been slowly destroying her health. The footage became the linchpin of the criminal case against him.
Yuan’s symptoms during the poisoning period were severe and unexplained, with repeated hospital visits that offered no clear diagnosis. Xu’s suggestion of office mold as the cause now reads as calculated misdirection.
The case has drawn attention to how workplace poisonings can evade detection for extended periods, and how victims may need to take extraordinary measures to uncover the truth.
Xu’s expungement hearing is scheduled in Alameda County.