Court: Dover mom who vanished with child tried to poison ex with milkshake

An attempted poisoning by milkshake is at the heart of new charges levied Friday against a mother who whisked her 8-year-old daughter out of state last month after she'd been barred by a court order from being alone with the girl, court documents said.

Jessica Ewing lost her rights to see Mia Funes without state supervision on May 24. Later that day, Ewing picked the girl up from school and vanished.

Police learned days later they spent the weekend with family near Pittsburgh. They came back on Memorial Day, Mia was handed over to her father and Ewing was arrested. 

Ewing was charged with interfering with child custody, a felony because she left Delaware with the girl.

On Friday, Ewing was charged with adulteration, a felony in which a person changes the content of a substance intending to harm someone else. 

The person Ewing wanted to poison, court documents said, was her ex-husband. Ewing tried to have her daughter convince the girl's father to drink the milkshake she'd drugged. 

Ewing may have tried to make the poison ricin and put it in the milkshake. Ewing instead laced it with a non-lethal substance, court documents said. 

Police pointed to her purchase of castor beans, which can be processed into ricin but also contain the non-lethal substance found in the milkshake, and texts between mother and daughter about trying to get her ex-husband to drink it, court documents said.

Missing 8-year-old's father, grandmother fear Delaware girl's life is in danger

Ewing and Michael Funes, Mia's father who's had the girl in his sole care since her return from Pennsylvania, have been in a vicious custody battle.

While she was missing, Funes told The News Journal about a milkshake poisoned with ricin. Funes also told the story to police investigators, according to the court documents. 

Funes said Ewing had started to give him food, such as fried chicken, during the early stages of their custody fight. He said he always threw it away because he didn't trust it. 

On the day of their first custody hearing last July, he said he called Ewing's mother, Vicki Miller, to ask her to testify on his behalf. Before they hung up, Miller dropped a bomb. 

"Vicki said, 'I'm going to tell you something that I shouldn't tell you. But I feel like it's the right thing to do,'" Funes said in a story Miller has confirmed for The News Journal. "She said that she's worried because Jessica has told her that she plans to poison me." 

The plan, according to Funes and Miller, was that Ewing would use a stolen Amazon gift card to buy castor beans and make ricin.

Court documents said a state department of justice subpoena to Amazon revealed Ewing had bought castor beans and that they had been sent to her Dover address. 

"Jessica was unable to explain the purchasing of castor beans from Amazon.com," the court documents said. "Jessica advised she has had dozens of conversations with her mother about doing things like poisoning [Funes] but she was always kidding."

As the conversation with Miller ended, Funes said Ewing and Mia pulled up behind him. 

"As I pulled in my driveway, she pulled up behind me with my daughter and a milkshake and a quesadilla," Funes said. "My daughter was adamant that I drink the milkshake."

The court documents said Mia also had a milkshake with a different color cap.

Jessica told police she did not give Funes food on that date, court documents said.

Funes said he didn't drink the milkshake and stashed the food in the freezer. His attorney, Melissa Hopkins, told him to send the milkshake to a toxicology laboratory.

The lab report, provided to The News Journal, said the milkshake contained — along with chocolate, caffeine and food additives – ricinoleic acid from castor beans.

Funes "called for police as soon as he saw that the test was positive for ricin," according to court documents. But Funes apparently misread what was in the milkshake report.

The court documents said police sent the lab report to a doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who explained non-toxic ricinoleic acid is not the same as the poison ricin.

Funes' attorney provided text messages supposedly sent between Ewing and Mia on the day of the milkshake episode. Mia's texts tell Ewing that Funes didn't drink it.

"I love you more. Telling him you picked it out for him because he likes cookies and always drinks coffee," subsequent texts sent from Ewing to Mia says. "Don't be sad."

"Ok," the next texts from Mia to Ewing read. "I love you too." 

Court documents described the texts. Ewing told police the texts were because Mia "was upset because she picked out the milkshake" and Funes "wouldn't drink it." 

Before Ewing was found over Memorial Day, her new husband, Bradley Martineau, was calling Funes and Miller liars, specifically concerning the alleged poisonous milkshake.

Martineau said he and Ewing went to speak with state police investigators about a month before Memorial Day to discuss the attempted poisoning allegations.

"They stated that they found no lethal substances in it but they wanted to continue the investigation further," Martineau said on May 27. "He told me there was a castor-oil based substance, a non-dairy substance, in there but it was non lethal."

Martineau did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday.

A court order issued May 24 said Ewing was only allowed to see Mia while supervised at state visitation centers. Mia was temporarily placed with her father after the Family Court hearing in which the order was issued. Ewing took Mia to Pennsylvania that day.

The order said Ewing "demonstrated mental instability" and may have been coaching Mia to make false accusation of molestation against her father, who denies them.

Contact Adam Duvernay at (302) 319-1855 or aduvernay@delawareonline.com

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