DARLINGTON — A 50-year-old Monroe woman is accused of trying to repeatedly poison the older area veterinarian she met online and married here — temporarily sending him into a coma for four days last summer.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Lafayette County Circuit Court, Amanda Chapin is charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide following her September arrest at a Monroe hotel, where she apparently tried to kill herself as police closed in.
The victim, Gary Chapin, eventually recovered after being treated at a SMS Monroe Clinic; and at the Middleton VA Hospital.
The complaint alleges that the ordeal began Aug. 21, 2021, when Chapin’s 70-year-old husband was taken to the SMS Health Monroe Clinic, complaining of breathing issues. Gary Chapin later was placed in intensive care in the VA facility and slipped into a coma. His blood reportedly tested positive for barbiturates.
“Person 1 stated Amanda acted confused like she did not understand what barbiturates were,” said the complaint. “This is noteworthy because Amanda has been employed in the medical field for a long time and should have a basic knowledge about barbiturates.”
That incident apparently led the man’s son to act against Amanda Chapin on Aug. 23, seeking to recover medical power of attorney for him and further alleging Chapin poisoned his dad with barbiturates. A number of relatives involved were suspicious of the man’s new wife, who had fantasies of opening a Yoga Studio in Hawaii, according to reports.
“Person 1 (in the criminal complaint) explained that victim 1 and Amanda had met over the Internet and the courtship was fast and that …after a couple weeks of meeting,” she moved into his home.
On March 17, 2022, they married at the Lafayette County courthouse, despite the lingering suspicions of her motives by his family. “(Victim 1) believed he was just a ‘sugar daddy’ for Amanda,” the complaint said, adding that the relationship was “fairly stormy from the beginning.”
Not long after the wedding ceremony, Amanda Chapin allegedly forged the signature of one of her new husband’s children on a power-of-attorney document, and then demanded her husband file a quit-claim on the house so she would get the home if he died. Not long after its signing, she is alleged to have begun poisoning him.
Late that August, Chapin awoke from his coma after four days and began to talk to police. According to the complaint, he alleged that Chapin poisoned him three times earlier that summer, typically with morning coffee, culminating in his waking up in the hospital on Aug. 25
The first instance allegedly came on July 18. After having morning coffee with Chapin, he told authorities he attempted to stand up and felt like he had “vertigo-like” symptoms.
It is unclear how any barbiturates or other substances were obtained, as they are a controlled substance, although the victim is a veterinarian and the complaint mentions the suspect may have had access to a substance used to “euthanize” Amanda’s dog.
On Sep. 1, Chapin was found unresponsive in a hotel room in Monroe and was taken to a local hospital. Her room was searched and recovered letters addressed to her husband and his family all deny hurting him or trying to kill him over the summer.
They also refer to suicide, which is what investigators believe she tried to commit in the hotel room. She has since recovered, and Gary Chapin reportedly filed for divorce the next day.
“I truly know and believe that you know the truth that I didn’t poison you,” she wrote to the victim, in one such letter. “I have been accused of the worst crime ever.”
Chapin remains in Lafayette County Jail on $10,000 bond, said a jail official. She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on the charges at 12:30 p.m. Jan 12 before Circuit Judge Duane M. Jorgenson.
In Wisconsin, first degree intentional homicide is a Class A Felony, punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison.