Woman Accused of Poisoning Husband with Eyedrops

Pleasantville, Iowa Woman Arrested for Alleged Poisoning

An Iowa woman from the tiny city that bears the same name as the 1998 film “Pleas­antville” is accused of poi­son­ing her hus­band with eye­drops at least twice last year, accord­ing to police.

Harmful Substances in Eyedrops Allegedly Used

Daisy Zan­t­jer, 39, was arrest­ed last Tues­day more than a year after she alleged­ly spiked her hub­by’s drinks with the over-the-counter prod­uct that con­tains ingre­di­ents includ­ing the “harm­ful” tetrahy­dro­zo­line hydrochlo­ride, accord­ing to court documents.

Eye­drops can include harm­ful sub­stances that cause sleepi­ness, low blood pres­sure and a dan­ger­ous­ly slow heart rate when ingested. 

Zan­t­jer is accused of admin­is­ter­ing these sub­stances to her hus­band on two sep­a­rate occa­sions in July 2023.

Husband Hospitalized, Suspect Charged

Her hus­band sur­vived the alleged poi­son­ings but was hos­pi­tal­ized after strug­gling to breathe after drink­ing the taint­ed beverages. 

Zan­t­jer was charged with a pair of counts each of admin­is­ter­ing harm­ful sub­stances and domes­tic abuse – injury or men­tal ill­ness. She is being held in the Mar­i­on Coun­ty Jail on a $12,000 cash/surety bond.

The cou­ple lives in Pleas­antville, Iowa, which is about 25 miles south­east of Des Moines and has a pop­u­la­tion of less than 2,000.

The city’s mot­to is, “The name says it all,” though this inci­dent paints a dif­fer­ent picture.