Iowa Woman Who Campaigned Against Toxins Pleads Guilty to Poisoning Husband with Eyedrops
On Thursday, 39-year-old Daisy Zantjer of Pleasantville pleaded guilty to one count each of administering harmful substances and domestic abuse causing bodily injury. She was initially charged in August with two counts of each offense.
Authorities stated that Zantjer admitted to the crime during an interview. “Daisy Zantjer did admit during an interview to administering a harmful substance, on two separate occasions, called tetrahydrozoline hydrochloride to her husband, Allan Zantjer, in July of 2023,” the charging documents read. Tetrahydrozoline hydrochloride is the active ingredient in many over-the-counter eyedrops.
The domestic abuse charges detailed that she caused injury to her husband by secretly adding the substance to his drink without his knowledge.
Ironically, several years prior to the incident, Zantjer had published a series of blog posts on LinkedIn warning about the dangers of chemicals in everyday household products. “I am a Christian woman who wants to do right by her family and part of that is keeping them free from harmful chemicals and other toxins that could destroy their body,” she wrote on October 30, 2018.
In another post dated November 1, 2018, she compared the gradual harm of toxins to poisoning: “It’s like feeding someone arsenic. It’s not going to kill that person right away. It’s killing them slowly.”
Pleasantville Police Chief Joe Mrstik previously told Law&Crime that the anti-toxin blogger and the admitted poisoner appear to be the same person.
Zantjer was arrested on July 30 by local and state police. Initially held on a $12,000 bond, it was reduced to $6,000 following her guilty plea. Sentencing is scheduled for November 7.
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