A Florida woman is facing allegations that she attempted to kill an elderly man she met through an online dating platform by secretly drugging his drink.
Samantha Adams, 39, is accused of poisoning a 69-year-old man, whose name has not been released, on at least three separate occasions during what authorities described as a paid romantic and sexual arrangement, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
‘We refer to her as a black widow,’ Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news release.
Investigators said the man knew Adams only by the name ‘Nala’ after the two connected on a dating app. Over a period of roughly two to three months, he allegedly paid her for sex, the sheriff said.
‘The longer they knew each other, the more profound she became with her requests,’ Judd said.
On August 17, Adams and her victim got into an argument over a vehicle the 69-year-old man had purchased for her, police said. The fight took place in the victim’s home in Haines City, which is about 40 miles south of Orlando.
After the argument, Adams went into the kitchen with her purse and returned with two glasses of whiskey, police said. The victim had one of the drinks before he and Adams got intimate, he told police.
As the intimacy escalated, Adams suddenly stopped and demanded $1,000 to continue, according to police. When the victim refused, she left his residence.
Samantha Adams, 39, is accused of drugging a 69-year-old man she met online and attempting to kill him by overdose. Adams was charged with second-degree attempted murder
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said that Adams and the older man had a transactional romantic relationship and that his office refers to the woman as ‘a black widow’
Later that evening, the 69-year-old man passed out and was taken to a hospital. When he woke up, staff told him he had suffered a benzodiazepine overdose. The drug is most commonly associated with the brand name Xanax.
‘He said: “I don’t have any medicine like that. I don’t take any medicine like that,”‘ Sheriff Judd said.
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‘That’s how our investigation led to her. She tried to kill him. She tried to overdose him. She tried to extort him,’ the sheriff added.
After waking up in the hospital and reporting what happened to police, the victim told detectives that there were other suspicious times he had drunk with Adams and felt woozy afterward.
On one occasion, he became unsteady and fell in her home after a drink. In another, he backed into an Osceola County deputy’s car after leaving Adams’s residence because he felt drowsy, Judd said.
During each occasion, the man said he had little to drink and was disproportionately intoxicated, according to police.
Detectives began investigating Adams on August 20, and she was arrested by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office seven days later at a shopping center where she had agreed to meet her victim.
When she arrived at the parking lot, officers rushed over, boxed in her vehicle and took her into custody.
Sheriff Judd said his office believes that Adams may have had more victims and that an investigation is ongoing
At the time she was arrested, Adams had a prescription bottle in someone else’s name that contained 19 hydrocodone/acetaminophen pills, 2.5 oxycodone hydrochloride pills, nine Sertraline pills, one partial pill of Adderall and one partial pill of Xanax.
The ‘black widow’ has been charged with second-degree attempted murder, tampering with evidence, offering to commit prostitution, possession of drug paraphernalia and additional possession charges for the various drugs she was allegedly found with.
She is being held in the Polk County Jail on a $42,500 bond, according to the jail’s records.
Sheriff Judd said it is possible that Adams had more victims and that his office is continuing to investigate.
‘Her motivation is money, and as we have seen with this case, she is willing to go to great lengths to get money – including murder,’ Judd said.