An engineer has been charged with attempted murder after poisoning a co-worker

A woman felt ill at work for months and had no idea why.

The Californian engineer noticed “a strange taste or smell from her water and food” and felt “immediate and significant health problems” after eating or drinking.

It wasn’t until Rong Yuan watched footage from a surveillance camera she discovered a co-worker was poisoning her with a toxic metal called cadmium.

According to police documents obtained by local news site Berkeleyside, the poisoning was so severe the woman had to be treated in hospital on more than one occasion. And so did two of her relatives who also drank from the same water bottle.
 

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Police took blood samples from the woman and her relatives and said all three “had elevated levels of cadmium”, which can lead to “organ system toxicity, cancer and/or death”.

Last week, 34-year-old engineer David Xu was arrested and charged with premeditated attempted murder over a five-month period and causing great bodily harm.

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The engineer has also been charged with two counts of felony poisoning “which may have caused death and which did cause the infliction of great bodily injury”.

According to reports, the reasoning behind the devious poisoning at the Berkeley Engineering and Research company is unknown.

Reports say the man was in custody on Monday and was being held without bail.
 

According to the company’s website, the laboratory and “forensic engineering experts” have consulted on a number of high-profile projects in the United States, including the Alaskan Pipeline, the Golden Gate Bridge and the BP Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“In each instance, our investigative approach as problem solvers covers every angle,” the site says.

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