Three people in Bellingham, Washington, have been arrested in connection to the alleged secret drugging of a pregnant woman in an attempt to kill her baby in an abortion.
The Bellingham Police Department opened an investigation on October 20 after a woman reported that her former fiancé, 32-year-old Jean Brando Zintz, drugged her with abortion pills while she was sleeping to try to end her pregnancy, the Bellingham Herald reported.
Zintz was upset when he found out in March that the woman was pregnant, the report states, citing court records. His mother offered her $10,000 to have her baby aborted, and Zintz encouraged the woman to accept the offer, but she declined, per the report.
The woman began experiencing major medical complications early in the pregnancy, including prolonged bleeding and dangerously low blood pressure, court records show.
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The woman told police she was so “out of it” at some points that she was unable to walk. She also told police she woke up several times with a white, chalky substance in her mouth.
In early October, Zintz’s brother, 30-year-old Michael Moises Montano, contacted the pregnant woman over Facebook Messenger and told her that Zintz “poisoned [her] baby” and drugged her by replacing her prenatal vitamins with abortion pills, court records allege. Montano alleged that Zintz would give her benzodiazepine, which can have a sedative effect, and then put the abortion pill under her tongue.
Montano told the woman his brother ultimately failed at causing an abortion because he only gave her the first of two pills needed to cause a medication abortion, according to the report.
In a medication abortion, mifepristone blocks the action of progesterone, which the mother’s body produces to nourish the pregnancy. When progesterone is blocked, the lining of the mother’s uterus deteriorates, and blood and nourishment are cut off to the developing baby, who then dies inside the mother’s womb. The drug misoprostol (also called Cytotec) then causes contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from the mother’s uterus.
Montano alleged that his girlfriend, 30-year-old Ciara Miller, obtained the abortion pills and was paid by Zintz.
“Just know the truth,” Montano wrote, according to court records. “He tried killing your baby, and in the end your (sic) lucky because he failed and was planning something else entirely once and for all to get rid of you ‘the problem’ before it was to (sic) late and destroyed his life for good.”
Police arrested Montano on Friday. He is facing charges for complicity to attempted first-degree manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault.
Police arrested Miller on Sunday afternoon, and she is facing charges for two counts of second-degree assault.
Police searched Zintz’s apartment on October 29, where they found drug-cutting agents, labeled containers for choline supplements with multiple pills, packaged and labeled misoprostol tablets, sleep aids, and drug paraphernalia, according to the report. They also found lab equipment, including a magnetic mixer and laboratory glassware.
Law enforcement, including the U.S. Marshals Service, arrested Zintz in Mesa, Arizona, on Sunday. He is awaiting extradition to Whatcom County, according to the report.
He is facing charges for first-degree manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault. He is also facing charges for a protection order violation assault because there are two active domestic violence no-contact orders between him and the pregnant woman.
“The pregnant woman stopped communicating with Zintz in July, and her health has since improved,” according to the report.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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