John Jefferson
Inset: Daisy Zantjer (Marion County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Zantjer’s residence in Pleasantville, Iowa (Google Maps).
An Iowa woman fixated on “harmful chemicals and other toxins” pleaded guilty in a case where she was accused of poisoning her husband with eyedrops, court records show.
In August, Daisy Zantjer, 39, was charged with two counts each of administering harmful substances and domestic abuse causing bodily injury, according to Marion County court records.
On Thursday, the defendant pleaded guilty to one of each count, according to an order accepting plea and setting sentencing.
Authorities say the woman’s guilt was never really in doubt.
“Daisy Zantjer did admit during an interview to administering a harmful substance, on two separate occasions, called tetrahdrozoline hydrochloride to her husband Allan Zantjer, in July of 2023,” the harmful substance charging documents read. “On or about the above date and time, the Defendant, Daisy Zantjer did administer a harmful substance known as Tetrahdrozoline to her husband, Allan Zantjer.”
The domestic abuse charging documents briefly elaborates: “On or about the above stated date and time, the Defendant committed domestic assault against Allan Zantjer, causing injury to him by giving him Tetrahydrozoline in his drink without his knowledge.”
A blog post by author Daisy Zantjer on Oct. 30, 2018 (LinkedIn).
The first blog post, “What I am Passionate About,” identifies the author as hailing from Pleasantville, Iowa. In court documents, law enforcement identified the defendant as a resident of Pleasantville who lives on North Washington Street.
Several years earlier, a series of LinkedIn blog posts warning about the prevalence of chemicals in everyday household products were published by a woman with the same name. The anti-toxin author and the since-admitted poisoner “appears to be” one and the same, Pleasantville Police Chief Joe Mrstik previously told Law&Crime.
“I am a Christian woman who wants to do right by her family and part of that is keeping them free from harmful chemicals and other toxins that could destroy their body,” Daisy Zantjer wrote on Oct. 30, 2018.
“It’s like feeding someone arsenic,” the author wrote in a LinkedIn blog post about doing your own research dated Nov. 1, 2018. “It’s not going to kill that person right away. It’s killing them slowly.”
The anti-chemical and anti-toxin messages appear part and parcel of efforts directing readers to shop at organic retailers.
“I want to see others who care about themselves join me in being toxic free and financially free,” one post reads. “If you decide you want to transfer to spending a toxic free and organic store, feel free to message me and I will give you my website.”
Another blog post by author Daisy Zantjer on Nov. 1, 2018 (LinkedIn).
But that broad-based war against modern science was apparently abandoned in favor of a concentration on the home front — which embraced the dangerous powers of modern chemistry.
Zantjer was arrested on July 30 by local and state police. She was originally detained on a $12,000 cash or surety bond. As a result of her guilty plea, her bond was reduced to $6,000 cash or surety.
Sentencing in the case is slated for Nov. 7.
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