Husband Accused of Spiking Wife’s Cereal With Heroin, 5 Years After Her Death

A stock photo of police tape. Scott Olson/Getty Images

The husband of a Michigan woman who died five years ago from what was thought to be an accidental overdose has been charged with her murder. He is accused of slipping heroin into her bowl of cereal.

Christina Ann-Thompson Harris age 36, passed away on Sept. 29, 2014, according to her obituary, just weeks after giving birth to the couple’s second child.

Her death was initially ruled as an accidental overdose from heroin toxicity, but last week that was overturned with her death being ruled as a homicide, and her husband charged, reported MichiganLive.

Jason Harris, 44, was arrested on Aug. 27 on single counts of first-degree murder, solicitation of murder and delivery of a controlled substance causing death.

“We believe Jason Harris murdered his wife," Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said at a news conference cited by various outlets and broadcast by WJRT. “We believe he put heroin into her cereal and milk the night that she died after getting it from someone, thinking it would be tasteless and odorless.”

Christina Harris Facebook

Despite suspicions being raised by family members just days after her death in 2014, and coworkers insisting that she would never take drugs, it has taken five years for investigators to piece together the case and for her husband to be charged.

One key piece of evidence was frozen breast milk found by her parents at their home.

“Police were able to secure three plastic packages of Christina’s frozen breast milk placed in a cooler. All three were submitted to the crime lab. In each instance no controlled substance was detected,” Leyton said.

He also noted that blood tests during her pregnancy had revealed no drugs in her system.

The couple lived in the small town of Davidson, Michigan, about 60 miles north of Detroit, near the city of Flint.

Davidson, Michigan Screenshot/Google Maps

Leyton said that back in October 2014, Jason Harris brother and sister told police that he had made comments about “getting rid of Christina Harris” and said they believed he had been having extramarital affairs at that time.

According to the prosecution, he had exchanged over 5,800 texts with one woman, who he flew out to visit in Rhode Island—700 miles away—just nine days after his wife’s death.

His wife’s death gifted him a $100,000 life insurance payout from her employee and a 20,000 life insurance check from his own.

According to the county prosecutor, he had told coworkers how he put pills in his wife’s food and drinks “to knock her out” and “so she would not feel anything,” and so he’d be able to move her body without detection.

Leyton said that Harris had taken matters into his own hands after plans to hire a hitman fell through.

”Jason paid 5000 dollars to a guy to kill Christina and while this alleged hitman was doing surveillance on her the hit man was caught by police with a firearm,” Leyton said.

Jason Harris’s attorney, Nicholas Robinson, told CNN that his client has pleaded not guilty to all charges. “We were very surprised and frankly saddened to learn the original determination of accidental overdose has been overturned and that has led to these charges,” Robinson said.