A Florida woman is facing allegations that she tried to kill an older man she met through a dating app by secretly drugging his drink.
Samantha Adams, 39, is accused of poisoning an unidentified 69-year-old man on at least three separate occasions while the two were involved in what authorities described as a transactional romantic relationship, 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.
Authorities said Adams, who was known to the alleged victim only as ‘Nala,’ met him online through a dating app. Over a period of two or three months, the man paid her for sex, the sheriff said.
‘The longer they knew each other, the more profound she became with her requests,’ Judd said.
The case came to a head on August 17, when Adams and the 69-year-old man allegedly argued over a vehicle he had bought for her, investigators said. The dispute unfolded at the man’s home in Haines City, a community roughly 40 miles south of Orlando.
After the argument, police said Adams walked into the kitchen carrying her purse and then came back with two glasses of whiskey. The man told investigators he drank one of them before he and Adams became intimate.
As the encounter progressed, Adams abruptly stopped and demanded $1,000 to continue, according to police. When the man refused to pay, she left the 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.
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‘He said: “I don’t have any medicine like that. I don’t take any medicine like that,”‘ Sheriff Judd said.
‘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.
