Belgium woman accused of spiking parents’ coffee with drug

A 38-year-old Belgium woman accused of slipping a drug into a pot of coffee she made for her parents was charged Monday in Ozaukee County Circuit Court with three felonies.

The case against Anna G. Young, which hinged on the results of tests conducted by the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory, dates to Aug. 13, 2019, when Young’s mother requested emergency help and said she believed her daughter poisoned her and her husband by putting a substance in their coffee, according to the criminal complaint.

When officers arrived at the family’s home, they found Young’s mother walking in the front yard. Her speech was slow and she appeared unsteady. Young’s father, who was in the garage, was lethargic, had a blank stare and was also unsteady.

Young was found slumped over on the living room floor struggling to open a Band-Aid, the complaint states.

Interviewed later at the hospital, Young’s father said his daughter made a pot of coffee and he drank a cup before driving her to her methadone appointment in Milwaukee. 

On I-43, he said, he began to see double, felt like he was drunk and was swerving.

While waiting at the clinic for his daughter, he said, he began to feel better. But when he arrived home, he had another cup of coffee and began to feel dizzy and disoriented. He said he was stumbling around the garage and felt like he was going to faint, according to the criminal complaint.

Young’s mother, who seemed very confused and lethargic while being interviewed at the hospital, said that after she had a cup of coffee from the pot made by her daughter she felt “loopy and dizzy,” the complaint states.

While Young was being treated, emergency responders found a brown glass eyedropper and vial, both containing a liquid, taped to her chest. Young said they contained a homeopathic oil, and while she admitted making the pot of coffee she denied spiking it with a drug, according to the complaint.

Tests showed the dropper and vial contained etizolam, which was also found in the coffee made by Young and in blood samples from her and her parents, the complaint states.

Etizolam is related to a class of substances known as benzodiazepines that depress the central nervous system and are used to treat insomnia and anxiety. While etizolam is a prescription drug in some countries, it is not approved for medical use in the United States. In some states, it’s classified as a controlled substance, but not under federal law or in Wisconsin.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration, there has been a recent increase in the abuse of etizolam, and in 2014 the Blue Ridge Poison Center labeled it an emerging drug of concern.

A detective who examined Young’s cell phone discovered she was using Facebook to purchase substances and was a member of a secret Facebook group that included a person identified as Kandman who made and distributed chemical substances.

The detective saw Young had placed orders for etizolam and had been warned that it was “very high purity,” according to the complaint.

In other messages on Young’s phone, she agreed to hide a bottle of etizolam where the person she was communicating with could find it. A photo Young sent to the person showed a bottle similar to the one found taped to her chest, the complaint states.

Young is charged with placing foreign objects in edibles and two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety. 

Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain set her bail at $10,000 this week and ordered her to maintain absolute sobriety, not to possess etizolam or controlled substances and not to order medications via the internet, dark web or any source other than a physical pharmacy. She was also ordered not to have contact with her parents.

Officers were called to Young’s home again on Dec. 17, 2020, and were told by her mother that at 1:30 a.m. Young was outside trying to force her way into her father’s truck, then began running around the house banging on the windows, according to a complaint filed on Dec. 16 charging her with disorderly conduct.

At 4:30 a.m., Young went into her parents’ bedroom, screamed at them, demanded money and threatened to steal it from them.

Young’s mother told authorities that her daughter has stolen money and used it to order “medications” via the internet from the United Kingdom and China, the complaint states.

When officers searched Young, they found two vials labeled “not for human consumption.” Young said the vials contained legal benzodiazepines that she ordered via the internet. 

Young then said she was having a panic attack, then became belligerent with officers. She was taken to a hospital, and while there continued to be verbally abusive to an officer, telling him he should kill himself, according to the complaint.