PORTLAND — A Battle Ground woman enlisted the help of two friends to kill her ex-husband in Hillsboro, Ore., and assist her with an alibi, leading to the friends instead notifying police and one wearing a body wire to record the plot being discussed, court records show.
The friends contacted Hillsboro police on Nov. 10 claiming Tanya Schmalz, 36, intended to kill former spouse Jonathan Schmalz two days later, according to a search warrant affidavit.
They told investigators that Schmalz wanted one of them to provide her with Rush, an inhalant drug often used during sex that can have side effects that include dizziness and lightheadedness. The other would allow Schmalz to leave her cellphone at their home and text Schmalz’s daughter to give the impression Schmalz was with that friend, the affidavit said.
Meanwhile, Schmalz planned to be at her ex-husband’s home, the affidavit said. The friends told police Schmalz planned to get him drunk, have him inhale Rush, then inject him with insulin and smother him with a towel laced with Rush until he stopped breathing, according to the court papers.
One friend described Schmalz as struggling financially and said that she blamed her ex-husband and talked about killing him to collect his Social Security money, the affidavit said.
That same friend said Schmalz talked last year about a prior attempt to get her ex-husband “so drunk that he would do something stupid to get arrested,” but the friend didn’t think Schmalz was serious, the affidavit said. Schmalz claimed she once drove to Hillsboro to meet him, gave him a bottle of vodka in which she put crushed Benadryl pills without him knowing and abandoned him outside a 7-Eleven after he drank it. He was later found by police, Schmalz claimed, who suspected he was overdosing, the affidavit said.
Schmalz was arrested Nov. 12 on suspicion of attempted murder and solicitation to commit murder. A Washington County judge on the same day approved an order that allowed one of the friends to later wear a wire, the affidavit said.
According to the court papers, Schmalz was recorded by police talking about making sure her former spouse was “blackout drunk,” that he would then inhale something, she would jab him with a syringe while acting as if she were going to hug him and then use a washcloth to make sure he wasn’t breathing. She said she planned to wipe everything down beforehand in his home and wear gloves, the affidavit said.
An indictment was filed Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court dropping the solicitation accusation and charging Schmalz with two counts of attempted murder — one for Nov. 12 and the other for September 2016. It’s not clear if the alleged vodka with Benadryl incident is the 2016 plot being alleged.
Oregon court records show Tanya and Jonathan Schmalz, 37, got divorced in Washington County in 2013. The former husband filed a motion last Wednesday seeking temporary custody of their two young children and claimed in court documents that his ex-wife has tried to kill him twice.
His motion for custody was granted the next day.
Schmalz was pulled over by police soon after leaving her recorded meeting with her friends, the affidavit said. Police found a bottle of Rush in her pocket and a loaded syringe with a clear substance inside being kept on a cold pack, the court papers said.
Schmalz later told police detectives that she’s talked about hurting or killing her ex-husband over the last several years because “she hated him,” and talking to her friends about it was a way for her to vent, court documents allege.
“I would love for him to be dead,” Schmalz told police, according to the affidavit.
She admitted that it was insulin in the syringe and said it was being used for her son’s science experiment, the court papers said. She requested a lawyer when a detective asked her about crushed Benadryl pills.
