An Indiana woman is wanted on charges that she tried to kill her brother’s 11-week-old daughter earlier this year by lacing the baby’s breast milk with Excedrin.
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Sarai Rodriguez-Miranda, 19, of Fort Wayne. Rodriguez-Miranda was charged Monday with attempted murder, according to WANE in Fort Wayne.
Rodriguez-Miranda is accused of trying to kill her niece after her mother allowed her brother, his fiancée and their new daughter to live in her home. The news station reported that Rodriguez-Miranda is believed to have fled to Michigan with her boyfriend when she realized she was under investigation.
An affidavit in the case shows that police began investigating Rodriguez-Miranda in January after her mother found disturbing messages on a cellphone to which they both had access, Fort Wayne's Journal Gazette reported.
"I'm gonna crush up some of these pills since she decided they can stay longer, and kill their baby," Rodriguez-Miranda wrote in one Jan. 12 message to her boyfriend, according to the Journal Gazette.
Rodriguez-Miranda, then 18, is accused of crushing Excedrin tablets with a mortar and pestle and putting the powder in one of the bottles of breast milk that the baby’s mother kept in the refrigerator.
Credit: Allen County Sheriff's Department
Credit: Allen County Sheriff's Department
She wrote in messages to her boyfriend that she had no remorse for her thoughts or actions, the newspaper said.
"I put the stuff in a made bottle in the fridge," she wrote. "Yeah, I thought it was funny that I don't have an ounce of guilt."
WANE reported that she also sent her boyfriend a photo of the mortar and pestle she allegedly used to crush the pills.
When she saw one of the bottles gone, she expressed excitement.
“Omg, I forgot to tell you, the bottle is gone,” Rodriguez-Miranda wrote. “I know, I’m so excited, dude. I’m glad it didn’t happen while I was here.”
What Rodriguez-Miranda didn't know was that her mother found the messages early the morning of Jan. 12, after she had allegedly added the powder to the milk, the Journal Gazette said. Her mother took screenshots of the text messages and went to the refrigerator.
One of the two baby bottles in the fridge had residue at the bottom of it and a greenish ring on top of the milk, the newspaper reported. The milk was also a darker color than the milk in the shorter bottle.
Police would later test the substance found in the bottle, according to court documents. The lab found acetaminophen, caffeine and aspirin, the ingredients of Excedrin.
The toxicologist told investigators that the milk contained the equivalent of nine Excedrin tablets, enough to kill an adult, the Journal Gazette reported.
Rodriguez-Miranda's mother took the baby and the baby's mother to the hospital to be checked for signs of poisoning, but both were fine. WANE reported that the baby's mother told police she had not yet used either of the bottles stored in the fridge.
Rodriguez-Miranda later lamented that the baby was not dead, court documents showed.
“Why didn’t the baby die, dude, that’s dumb,” she wrote. “They definitely threw it out.”
She talked about stomach pains she was having and wondered if it was guilt playing on her conscience, but decided it was not, the Journal Gazette said.
“TBH (to be honest), I hope she dies,” Rodriguez-Miranda wrote, in part. “I don’t feel bad about it bc (because) she was destined to grow up (expletive) or be abused. I’d never be suspect, I know, but I hope it works.”
Rodriguez-Miranda remained at large Thursday. When arrested, she will be held in lieu of $50,000 bond, WANE reported.
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