Gerrard Kaonga
A teacher at a Christian school is currently in police custody after she was arrested on suspicion of attempting to poison her husband.
Sarah Scheffer, 37, has been accused of poisoning her husband's smoothies and has since been charged with attempted murder.
It's said that her partner installed surveillance cameras after he began to feel unwell and suspected she may have been tampering with his food and drink.
It's claimed that she was seen on footage adding a root to a smoothie she was making him from a bag labelled "lily of the valley' that her partner had earlier seen on a table.
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Scheffer taught at the Calvary Lutheran High School in Jefferson County in Missouri part-time and has been placed on leave. Her name and photo have been removed from the website following the news of her arrest.
The Jefferson City Police department issued a press release on its Facebook page and gave further details about the alleged incidents following her arrest last week.
“January 16, 2024, members of the department investigated a call involving allegations of intentional poisoning of a spouse,” the press release read.
“Authorities were notified by the victim that he believed a period of unexplained illnesses were infact an intentional act of poisoning.”
Following this, Scheffer was arrested and taken in for questioning. During her interviews, according to police she said that she had been ‘adding items’ to the victim’s food and drink with the knowledge of its ‘potential to cause illness/death.’
According to court documents, Scheffer had allegedly been adding Lilly of the Valley to her husband's food. The plant is known as being ‘very poisonous’, according to the National Capital Poison Centre.
The centre has also said the plant contains cardiac glycosides which ‘slow down the heart and cause irregular heart rhythms”.
A probable cause statement provided by the police also gave more disturbing details to the alleged ongoing incident.
“The victim described [experiencing] extreme fatigue, confusion, blurred vision, severe cotton mouth, and nausea," the statement said.
When the husband confronted his wife about the taste she allegedly told him that she had urinated in the beverage and added an industrial strength adhesive, only to then deny adding anything to it.
Scheffer also told police that she was having an affair and was in a relationship with a man from Pakistan.
Police have said they believe there would have been a risk Scheffer wouldn't show up to criminal court proceedings as her search history 'has Google searches for flights to Pakistan', according to the statement.
The school at which Scheffer was a teacher has also released a statement following her arrest.
"The alleged conduct was outside of the employee's association with the school and did not involve a student or any other school personnel," Calvary Lutheran Executive Director John Christman said in the statement.
“As a Christian community, Calvary Lutheran High School believes in protecting the well-being of all individuals who are part of our programs and we seek to respond in a caring and sensitive manner to everyone in our school community.”
Scheffer appeared in court last Friday and entered a plea of not guilty.