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Child feared mom would kill her after poisoning charge: Docs

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 22:17:10 +0000

Yue Yu faces charges after allegedly poisoning her husband’s tea with a “Drano-like” liquid, prosecutors said. (Mug shot from Irvine Police Department; screenshot of her in the kitchen courtesy of Steven G. Hittelman of the Hittelman Family Law Group)

The daughter of a California dermatologist facing charges for allegedly poisoning her husband’s tea with a “Drano-like” liquid told a school counselor she feared her mom would kill her if she didn’t lie about it in court, court documents say.

Dr. Yue “Emily” Yu’s 11-year-old daughter, appearing to be distressed and tearful, told her school counselor in a private session last November that she feared if she didn’t lie about what happened, she would make her mom angry, the therapist wrote in court documents.

When the therapist asked why, the girl said, “Because what if she does what she did to my dad to me?”

The counselor then asked, “Are you afraid that your mom would kill you?”

“Yes,” the girl replied, according to court documents.

The allegations surfaced as Yu and her husband, Dr. Jack Chen, are in the middle of a divorce and custody battle.

Yu’s lawyer, David Dworakowski, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime. But in court documents, he and his co-counsel said Yu “categorically denies having any violative communications with the children, much less coaching them about facts related to her defense in the criminal matter.”

“Over the past year of Mother’s parenting time, there has not been a scintilla of evidence that Mother, or Grandmother, attempted improper communications with the children,” the document said. “Nothing extraordinary has been seen by the monitors. Additionally, the evidence is that the children enjoy the parenting time spent with Mother, and it is evident that a bond exists between the children and Mother.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, Chen alleged his wife tried to kill him by poisoning his hot lemonade with drain cleaner after he started noticing a chemical taste in the drink in March and April 2022.

His suspicions were raised after he was diagnosed with two stomach ulcers, gastritis, and inflammation of his esophagus. He put up a nanny cam in the kitchen, which caught her three times taking the drain cleaner from under the sink and pouring it into his drink, court documents said.

Yu was arrested after Chen reported the incidents to the Irvine Police Department on Aug. 4, 2022. She faces three felony counts of poisoning and one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury, prosecutors said. Yu was released from jail after posting a $30,000 bond and faces a hearing in the criminal case in May.

Chen alleged years of verbal and physical abuse by Yu and her mother — the children’s grandmother — on their children and him, court documents said.

In court documents, the school therapist wrote that when the daughter came in to see her she described her mother using her phone to type lines for her. In one alleged instance about the drain cleaner used in the house, the daughter “acted out herself and her mom by changing voices,” the documents said.

The daughter said Yu would ask her, “and why did we have Drain-O in the house in the summer?”

“Because we had ants and dad wouldn’t buy ant traps,” the daughter was expected to say, court documents said.

Later, the therapist wrote, the daughter said her mother grabbed her by the arm and it hurt. She reported feeling scared to make her mom angry and didn’t know what to do about being asked to lie.

The daughter said when she lived at home with her mother, Yu would keep her up late and wake her up early to study for tests and practice piano.

She also reported her mother would sometimes unscrew the leg of a baby chair that mom would use to “beat” her, court documents said.

Her maternal grandmother told her and her younger brother to come over so she could hit them with the chair leg, documents said.

“If they ran grandma would chase them and beat them,” the documents said.

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Missing sailor couple feared dead after boat theft

homesafetytechpros — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 15:00:46 +0000

Police say that three jail escapees stole a boat belonging to an American couple. Family identified the couple as Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, who are pictured in the inset. (Inset photo: GoFundMe campaign; screenshot: ABC News file footage in a story about the case)

Authorities fear the worst after recapturing three jail escapees — the men allegedly stole a yacht and might have killed a missing sailor couple.

“The RGPF is currently working on leads that suggest that the two occupants of the yacht may have been killed in the process,” the Royal Grenada Police Force wrote on Thursday. “It is believed that the occupants of the yacht were American citizens.”

Loved ones identified the missing sailors as Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, a married Virginia couple in their 60s who had been enjoying retirement on their boat, “Simplicity.”

According to cops in the Caribbean nation of Grenada, Ron Mitchell, 30, Trevon Robertson, 19, and Abita Stanislaus, 25, were locked up at the South St. George’s Police Station and fled on Sunday, Fed. 18. All three had been jointly charged with a count each of robbery with violence. On top of that, Mitchell faced a count of rape, three counts of attempted rape, two counts of indecent assault, and a count of causing harm at the time of the escape.

The search came to an end up north in the nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Hendry and Brandel were longtime members of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association. According to the organization, a good Samaritan encountered Simplicity anchored and abandoned off a beach on the south coast of St. Vincent.

“The good Samaritan had boarded the boat and noted that the owners, Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel, were not onboard and found evidence of apparent violence,” the organization said. “Contact information for the SDSA was posted and the skipper contacted the Association. The good Samaritan contacted the St. Vincent coast guard alerting them of the situation; they in turn notified the local police. The Coast Guard took possession of Simplicity and the St. Vincent police are currently investigating with the U.S Embassy and the Grenada police department.”

Grenada police said they worked with their St. Vincent counterparts to rearrest the escapees Wednesday. They said the men had taken a yacht that had been docked in the St. George’s area, and then made their way to St. Vincent. But as mentioned before, cops believe the original yacht occupants are dead.

“What happened in Grenada was a perfect storm. It was a perfect tragedy of a perfect storm of a perfect love story,” Hendry’s sister, Suellen Desmarais, told West Palm Beach ABC affiliate WPTV in Florida. “They went into town to have a little bite and to walk back (on Feb. 18),” she said. “Somehow Ralph crossed paths in this teeny tiny town with these three men. What happened after that, we’re not sure.”

“Kathy and Ralph, experienced adventurers, spent their retirement sailing aboard Simplicity, spending summers in New England and embracing the warmth of Caribbean winters,” said a GoFundMe campaign to support family. “Their final voyage with the Salty Dawg Sailing Association crew took an unthinkable turn as Simplicity was found abandoned in St. Vincent, bearing chilling evidence of a violent struggle.”

Desmarais reportedly said that the couple had been in a once-in-a-lifetime trip, which had been in the works for 12 years, during the incident.

“Ralph and Kathy are the kindest people in the entire world and I just can’t understand how a tragedy like this could happen to people as kind and nice as them,” she said. “It feels made up and I just can’t comprehend why someone would do this? Why didn’t someone just take the boat?”

But Desmarais is holding out hope that her brother and sister-in-law are still alive.

“You have to presume they’re still alive until further notice, and without bodies or DNA, I won’t give up,” she told WHAS, the ABC affiliate in Louisville, Kentucky.

More Law&Crime coverage: Convicted family murderer and fraudster Alex Murdaugh locked up even longer for stealing money from vulnerable clients after emotional hearing

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