An Arizona woman is accused of using bleach to poison the coffee of her estranged husband, a member of the U.S. Air Force, over a period of several months, according to court documents.
Melody Johnson was arrested on July 18 after her husband submitted video to police allegedly showing her pouring the toxic substance into his coffee machine.
The husband, who is not named in court documents, started noticing that his coffee tasted badly at the end of March 2023 while stationed in Germany.
Johnson and her husband are going through a divorce but lived together with their child.
The husband continued drinking the coffee for two to three weeks before using chemical testing strips to test the water in his faucet, which came back normal. When he tested the water in his coffee pot it showed “high levels of chlorine,” court documents state.
In May 2023, the husband set up a camera in the home which showed Johnson “pouring something into his coffee pot.” He pretended to drink the coffee until the family went back to the U.S. on June 28 because he didn’t want to file a report in Germany, according to the complaint.
While temporarily stationed at a hotel in Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, the husband set up another camera which again allegedly showed Johnson “walk to his coffee maker and pour something into his water reservoir,” on July 5. The husband filed a police report the next day but was told by officers that it wasn’t clear what Johnson was pouring into his coffee pot.
When the family moved to permanent housing on July 7, the husband set up more cameras that looked like fire alarms to the ceiling, according to court documents. One was placed in the laundry room where bleach was kept, another was placed right over the coffee machine and a third was placed to show walking between those two areas.
After collecting multiple videos allegedly showing Johnson “take bleach, pour it into a container and then walk over and pour it into the coffee maker,” the husband went back to police, court documents state.
The husband told police he believes his estranged wife was trying to kill him to collect death benefits.
Johnson was arrested by the Tucson Police Department and charged with attempted first degree homicide, attempted aggravated assault and adding poison to food or drink. She’s being held at the Pima County Adult Detention Center, per online records.
A search warrant was executed at the home that recovered a container in Johnson’s bedroom under her bathroom sink that smelled like bleach and had some liquid inside it. There was also liquid inside the coffee maker that smelled like bleach, according to court documents.
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