A Missouri woman is behind bars after police allege she put Roundup weed killer into her husband’s bottles of Mountain Dew soda, saying in part he was insufficiently appreciative of a party she threw for his birthday.
Michelle Peters, 47, of Lebanon, Missouri, is being held without bond on charges of first-degree domestic assault and armed criminal action, according to KYTV-TV.
“It is a different type of domestic assault,” said Laclede County Sheriff David Millsap.
Imagine thinking whatever poison you choose could survive Mountain Dew 😂😂😂 https://t.co/FlbG7UEPG5
— Lost in the Ether (@AnonDogAcct) June 27, 2024
Peters’ husband said that beginning May 1, he began noticing that the Diet Mountain Dew he drank in two-liter bottles stored in the garage refrigerator “tasted weird,” police said, according to the New York Post.
He ignored the odd taste, but within a couple of weeks couple weeks later, experienced a sore throat, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting.
Eventually, he was suspicious, and checked security camera footage from the garage, alleging to police that he saw his wife take his Moutain Dew and the weed killer into the house, returning with them moments later. He also shared the video with police.
The husband, whose name was not used by police, told Peters he was feeling sick. She told him he told her he “probably had COVID” and to “stay away from the grandkids,” an affidavit said.
Peters’ husband said that he wondered if the conduct was linked to an affair or his $500,000 life insurance policy and claimed she had reduced the money she put from a business account into their personal bank account.
Peters initially said she mixed the soda and Roundup in a cup to serve as a weed killer, saying the idea was on Pinterest, an affidavit said.
The affidavit said she was told by police that videos of her never showed a cup.
Further, several bottles of Roundup-laced Mountain Dew were in the fridge, the affidavit said.
Michelle said that she should have just divorced him, People magazine reported police as saying, adding that she told police her husband was “selfish and they have relationship issues.”
“Michelle said she was mad at (her husband) because she had thrown him a 50th birthday party and he was not appreciative,” the affidavit said, citing an incident from late June when she admitted putting insecticide in her husband’s Mountain Dew.
“Michelle said she believed the chemical in the basement was Roundup when she put it in the Mountain Dew bottle and did so to be ‘mean,’” the affidavit said.
“The investigation will reveal more as we go to court as to the totality of all of the circumstances. Is there more to the story? Yes, there is. All that comes out in court,” Milsap said, according to KYTV.
