North Texas mom poisoned 4-year-old with Benadryl to fake seizure disorder, arrest warrant says
A Dallas-Fort Worth mom is accused of poisoning her 4-year-old with Benadryl overdoses to fake a seizure disorder and was arrested Wednesday, according to a warrant from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
Jesika Jones, 30, took her child to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth multiple times claiming the child had seizures, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
The warrant states that when a Tarrant County sheriff’s detective interviewed Jones, she said she was “a habitual liar” and had given the child Benadryl “more times than I should have.”
Jones, whose home address is in Krum, faces felony charges of injury to a child and endangering a child. The Star-Telegram was not able to reach Jones for comment, and an attorney was not yet listed for her.
On June 19, Jones took her 4-year-old to Cook Children’s hospital and said she had been having seizures, according to the arrest warrant. She had taken her child to the ER multiple times before and the child had been admitted to the hospital three other times, the warrant said.
During those visits, the hospital took urine samples from the child and found Benadryl in the child’s system, according to the warrant. However, those test results came back after Jones and her child had left the hospital. When Jones and her daughter returned on June 19, the hospital took another sample and ordered a 24-hour turnaround on the tests, and admitted the child into the hospital.
While the child was in the hospital from June 19 to June 22, Jones took her daughter into the bathroom multiple times. Each time, according to the arrest warrant, Jones carried her purse in with her. An hour after the bathroom visits, the child had full body tremors, dilated pupils, elevated heart rate and could not stand on her own. Those symptoms, according to doctors’ statements in the affidavit, are indicative of Benadryl poisoning.
Jones told doctors she had not given any medication to her child, the warrant says. However, on June 19, 20 and 23, the child’s urine samples were positive for Benadryl.
On June 23, Dr. Jamye Coffman, a child abuse pediatrician at Cook Children’s Medical Center, called Detective Michael Weber at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office. Doctors at the hospital said they were concerned that when Jones took her daughter to the bathroom, she was dosing her daughter with Benadryl to make it look like her daughter had a seizure disorder. In order for the child to have the symptoms she had, the dosage of Benadryl would have to be high, Coffman said. Another doctor also told Weber that on June 24, Jones blurted out without prompting, “I haven’t given Benadryl in months,” the warrant states.
On June 24, Weber interviewed Jones and asked her about her child’s medical history. Jones said her daughter had been having seizures and shaking episodes since November 2021, according to the warrant. When Weber asked whether Jones had given her daughter Benadryl while she had been in the hospital, Jones said she had not. She said she did have Benadryl in her purse, but it was for her own allergies.
However, Weber confronted Jones about her daughter’s urine samples, and Jones admitted she had given her daughter two adult Benadryl pills because she could not sleep, the warrant states. Eventually, Jones broke down, according to the warrant, and said she gave her daughter more Benadryl than she should.
Jones told Weber she gave her daughter four to five 25 mg adult Benadryl tablets on multiple occasions while in the hospital. According to Benadryl’s dosage guidelines, 4-year-olds should not be given Benadryl unless directed by a doctor. The dosage amount for 6- to 11-year-olds is one 25 mg tablet every four to six hours.
“I think I’m a horrible person. I don’t love myself. I don’t like who I am. I’m tired of living life like this. I’m tired of hurting people emotionally, (redacted) medically,” the arrest warrant states that Jones told Weber. “I don’t know. I really don’t. I just know I need help. I really do. I want help.”
In her purse, Jones had a package of Benadryl that was missing 18 pills, and said she had another empty 24-pill package, according to the arrest warrant. Jones told Weber she did not give her daughter any pills from the empty package. In total from June 19 to June 24, Jones appeared to have gone through 42 Benadryl pills.
In Jones’ purse, detectives also found an empty 30-pill bottle of Trazodone — an antidepressant and sedative — and a bottle of Hydroxyzine — an antihistamine — that was missing 64 pills.
On June 30, Coffman called Weber from Cook Children’s and told him results from a June 23 urine sample had come back. The sample showed the child not only had Benadryl in her system on that day, according to the arrest warrant, but she also tested positive for Trazadone and Hydroxyzine.
When Weber questioned Jones about the Trazadone and Hydroxyzine, Jones said she took the pills herself, according to the warrant. However, when Weber told Jones about the June 23 urine sample, Jones said she gave her daughter one pill each of Trazadone and Hydroxyzine on two different occasions.
Weber interviewed multiple people who know Jones personally, according to the arrest warrant. A man who lived with her and her children for three years told Weber he never saw evidence of a seizure disorder. Another man who went on a few dates with Jones referred to her as “a con woman,” the warrant says.
The man who lived with Jones said he reported “Munchausen by proxy” concerns to Child Protective Services on several occasions, but those cases were either ruled out for abuse or ruled “unable to determine.” Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a condition in which a caretaker — often a mother — fakes symptoms in someone else — usually a child.
In the affidavit, one of the child’s doctors said the symptoms the child displayed while in the hospital were signs of severe Benadryl poisoning. He said the child was at substantial risk of seizures, cardiac arrhythmia, difficulty breathing and coma — all of which can lead to death.
