A dad poisoned his baby girl born to his mistress because his wife was upset he’d fathered the child with another woman.
Jeffrey Thomas, 23, is accused of giving the four-month-old antifreeze mixed with formula while feeding her last month, leaving the infant extremely ill.
When the child’s illness worsened, he and his wife took her to a hospital close to their home in Brainerd, Minnesota, but the poison had left her in a critical condition, and she was airlifted to the Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.
There, tests showed the little girl had ingested ethylene glycol, which is most commonly found in anti-freeze and de-icer.
Thomas reportedly told the police he did not have any anti-freeze in his home but during a search they found a jug of it in the basement. Investigators also discovered traces of ethanol in the baby’s formula bottle, a common antidote to antifreeze poisoning.
Thomas’ Google search also showed that he searched for “what does antifreeze do to the human body” six days before the girl was rushed to hospital.
He is said to have told cops that he searched for that on Google because he feared his mom’s cat had been poisoned with antifreeze.
The baby was almost killed by the poison but has managed to recover and is now in foster care. Thomas insists he is not the girl’s father, but the baby’s mom insists that he is. A paternity test has been carried out.
Thomas was charged with first-degree attempted murder at Crow Wing County District Court Monday and has been held in the adjoining jail on a $750,000 bond.
