A California dermatologist has been arrested after her husband provided police with “compelling” video evidence that she was poisoning him with Drano.
Yue “Emily” Yu, 45, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly poisoning her husband of 10 years, Jack Chen, Fox News reported. On Friday, the New York Post reported that Chen said his wife had abused him for years, but that the poisoning was the most recent incident.
“He became ill and his condition worsened over the past month and as a result of him examining his routine he grew suspicious of his wife and placed a video camera in the home they shared and discovered evidence he believes supports the fact that she was poisoning him,” Irvine police Lt. Bill Bingham told Fox News.
Bingham wouldn’t tell the outlet how the husband was allegedly being poisoned, but said police found the video footage he provided “to be compelling.”
Irvine, California, police also told the outlet that Chen, a radiologist, “sustained significant internal injuries but is expected to recover.”
Chen said in court documents reviewed by the Post that his wife allegedly added liquid Drano to his drinks at least three times last month. Chen said in those documents that he started feeling seriously ill and began suspecting his wife, so he installed a “nanny cam” in their kitchen. Footage shared in court and obtained by the Post allegedly show Yu holding what appears to be a bottle of Drano and pouring the liquid into a cup, which Chen then drinks from. The footage shows Yu pouring the liquid into Chen’s drinks on July 11 and 18, but he said he had been feeling sick for months before that.
“This video (from July 18) shows me taking a sip of my still-hot lemonade, covering my cup with Saran wrap, and then of Emily taking the Draino (sic) from under the sink, removing the covering to pour the Draino, and then replacing the cellophane and putting the Draino (sic) back,” Chen said in court documents, according to the Post.
Chen also alleged that Yu and her mother would verbally, physically, and emotionally abuse him and the couple’s two kids.
“When Emily gets frustrated and yells at the children, she’ll commonly use a Chinese phrase that translates to ‘go die!’ She also says to the children, ‘your head has a problem,’ ‘your head is sick,’ ‘go f–k yourself,’ ‘f–-ing idiot,’ ‘stupid a–hole,’ and ‘get the f–k out of my way,’” Chen wrote in court documents, according to the Post.
He said his mother-in-law, Yuqin “Amy” Gu, would insult him “almost daily,” saying, “I ‘act like a thug’ and I ‘don’t act like a man.’”
Chen was granted a temporary restraining order against his wife, who hasn’t been charged with any crimes yet.