A Florida woman has been charged with attempted murder after investigators alleged she drugged a 69-year-old man she met through a dating app and left him suffering a benzodiazepine overdose.
Samantha Adams, 39, of Orlando, was arrested on August 27 after agreeing to meet the man at Posner Park shopping centre in Davenport, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Detectives boxed in her vehicle in the car park before taking her into custody.
The investigation began on August 20, three days after the man was taken to hospital following a medical emergency at his home in Haines City, around 40 miles south of Orlando.
He told investigators that he knew Adams only as “Nala” and had met her on a dating app. The pair had been involved in a transactional relationship, with the man paying her for sex over a period of two or three months.
According to the arrest affidavit, the pair argued about a vehicle he had bought for Adams. She then went into the kitchen carrying her purse and returned with two glasses of whiskey.
The man drank from one of the glasses before the pair became intimate, investigators said. Adams allegedly stopped and demanded $1,000 to continue, but left after he refused.
Later that evening, the man passed out and was taken to hospital, where medical staff determined that he had suffered a benzodiazepine overdose. He told police he did not take the medication and had none prescribed to him.
Detectives also alleged that the home’s security system had been tampered with. The man said he had seen Adams in the part of the house where the system was located.
Police fear there may be other victims
The man told investigators about several other occasions when he became unusually drowsy or unsteady after drinking with Adams at her Orlando home.
On one occasion, he said he fell after consuming a drink. On another, he passed out in his vehicle after leaving her residence. He also reported backing into another car on August 15 after feeling groggy, despite having consumed only a small amount of alcohol.
When Adams was arrested, detectives said she was carrying a prescription bottle issued to someone else. It allegedly contained hydrocodone and acetaminophen, oxycodone, sertraline, Adderall and alprazolam, commonly known by the brand name Xanax.
Adams faces charges including second-degree attempted murder, tampering with evidence, possession of oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam, resisting an officer without violence, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a prescription drug without a prescription and offering to commit prostitution.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd described Adams as a potential “black widow” and said investigators believed money was the motive.
“It is possible that there could be more people out there who have been victimized by Samantha Adams,” Judd said. “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.”
Adams was being held in Polk County Jail on a $42,500 bond. The allegations against her have not been tested in court.
