A California woman is under arrest after her husband allegedly caught her on camera poisoning his drinks with drain cleaner, ABC News reported.
According to a press release by Irvine Police Department , Yue “Emily” Yu, 45, was booked at Orange County Jail after her husband of 10 years turned in video he recorded that showed her pouring Drano into drinks before serving them to him.
Jack Chen, 53, had long suspected something wasn’t right.
According to CBS News , Chen started to experience symptoms in March and April of 2022. In addition to some digestive issues, Chen noticed a chemical taste to some of his drinks.
“He went in to get checked by a doctor and found that he had physical effects,” Chen’s lawyer, Steven Hittelman, told CBS News. “He then started to connect the dots.”
Those physical effects included stomach ulcers, gastritis, and inflammation of the esophagus.
As Chen’s suspicions mounted, he set up cameras to record his wife’s actions, and he says that he captured her poisoning him on video.
“She takes up the bottle, she pours it in, puts the cap back on and puts it back under the sink as though nothing else was happening that day,” Hittelman told CBS News.
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What’s more, Chen says he recorded Yu adding the drain cleaner to his drinks on multiple occasions.
“This is an incredibly intimate way to commit a murder,” Hittelman told Good Morning America . “She had to know what his routine was, what his preferences were. A methodical, intimate, horrific way to murder someone.”
In addition to turning his wife in, Chen also filed for a restraining order and for divorce, which included additional allegations.
In the paperwork for the restraining order, Chen alleges verbal and physical abuse against both himself and the couple’s two children.
“If our children let Emily know that they enjoyed spending time with me, or showed affection toward me, then Emily would put them in their room and yell at them until they assured her they would not show affection toward me,” he wrote in the restraining order request, according to CBS News.
Yu denies trying to poison Chen.
Her defense attorney, David Wohl, told ABC News that all the allegations Chen has made against Yu are “absolutely and unequivocally” false.
“There is absolutely nothing done in those videos that were in any way illegal,” Wohl added. “The videos do not depict her trying to poison her husband or harm anyone in her family.”
Yu also denies Chen’s allegations of domestic abuse.
“She has never, in any way, shape, or form, tried to harm her husband or her children,” Wohl added. He and Yu have countered Chen’s allegations by suggesting Chen made it all up to gain an advantage in divorce and custody proceedings.
Specific charges are still pending as the Orange County District Attorney’s Office weighs the evidence.
Yu’s workplace, Mission Heritage Medical Group, also released a statement to ABC News, saying “This incident is a domestic matter which occurred in Irvine, and we want to reassure our community that there has been no impact on our patients.”
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