The former couple lived apart but shared three children, allowing regular contact while the man’s unexplained health crises continued, police say.
STEVENS POINT, Wis. — Jessica Meis and her former husband had ended their marriage, but investigators say their lives remained closely connected through three children, frequent visits and continued access to the Stevens Point home where police allege she repeatedly tampered with his drinks.
That post-divorce contact forms a key part of the criminal complaint against Meis, 37, who lived in Plover after moving out of the former couple’s home. Prosecutors have filed an aggravated battery charge with a domestic violence modifier and two counts of placing foreign objects in edibles. Police say Meis eventually acknowledged putting Visine eye drops into beverages and told investigators she wanted her ex-husband to become sick so he would depend on her and allow her to care for him. The statements and conduct described in the complaint are allegations in an unresolved criminal case. Meis has not been convicted, and her next reported court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 31.
The former couple finalized their divorce in June 2025 but continued sharing the Stevens Point residence for a period afterward, according to the complaint. Meis later established a separate home in Plover. Separation did not end her visits to the house because the two shared custody of three children. Police described it as normal for Meis to be at her ex-husband’s home even after she moved. That detail became significant only later, when investigators began comparing her access to the residence with the timing of the man’s episodes of dizziness, fatigue, headaches, low blood pressure and unusually slow heart rate.
In January 2026, Meis had another reason to remain at the home for a longer stretch. The man told police she stayed there because the heat at her residence was broken. He said he suffered three separate episodes of illness during that month. His symptoms later flared again in May and continued into July, when he reported that low-blood-pressure events became increasingly frequent. The complaint does not say that every episode happened while Meis was physically present, and prosecutors have not publicly proved a cause for each medical event. Investigators instead describe the repeated access and illnesses as part of the broader timeline that led the man to suspect intentional interference with things he consumed.
His history of unexplained illness predated the divorce. He told police he had experienced exhaustion, dizziness, headaches and long periods of sleep beginning in 2021. The problems became more acute in 2025, according to the complaint and local reporting. He was hospitalized several times and sought care at medical facilities in Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids and Madison. He also saw specialists. At one point, he told investigators, a cardiologist said the symptoms did not make sense. The man said he had wondered aloud whether someone could be poisoning him, but the suspicion was not confirmed. For months, his health problems remained a medical question rather than a criminal investigation.
The line between those two questions began to shift when the man started looking back at what he had consumed before certain episodes. He remembered becoming sick in July 2025 after drinking from an energy-drink can that had been left open in a refrigerator. He suspected Meis might have added something to it. His mother saved that can, which eventually was provided to police when the man reported his concerns roughly a year later. The preserved container gave investigators an item tied to one older incident, though publicly available reporting does not establish that laboratory testing has proved what the can contained or that it caused the particular illness the man recalled.
By mid-July 2026, suspicion had become strong enough for the man to install a kitchen camera. The first recording cited by police was dated July 16. Investigators said Meis removed an eye-drop bottle from her purse and handled a bottle of Propel water from the refrigerator while facing in a direction that obscured part of what she was doing. Police suspected she added eye-drop solution to the bottle. Someone else later consumed from that water and surrendered the container as evidence. The incident highlighted one danger investigators said was created by leaving an allegedly altered beverage among other household items: It could be picked up by a person who was not the intended recipient.
Two days later, according to the complaint, the camera recorded another episode. Police said Meis took a small container from a pocket, unscrewed it and emptied the contents into a black water bottle. Investigators wrote that she kept the container and bottle below the top of the kitchen island while two children were nearby, then returned the bottle and put the container away. The footage was important not simply because police believed it showed tampering, but because it placed the alleged act inside the family setting that had allowed Meis continued access after the divorce. Officers later obtained a search warrant for her residence and arrested her July 21.
What police say happened during the interview added a second layer to the case. After being advised of her rights, Meis initially claimed she had placed saline or salt in the water as a way of helping her former husband’s blood pressure, according to investigators. Police said she later acknowledged using Visine. She allegedly identified several kinds of drinks that had been contaminated over time and said she had also tried putting the product into her ex-husband’s CPAP equipment, though she did not think that attempt had worked. Investigators said she initially characterized the conduct as happening only a couple of times before saying it had occurred “many times.”
The alleged explanation for the conduct is one of the most unusual parts of the complaint. Police said Meis told them she wanted her ex-husband sick so he would let her take care of him and so he would need her. Investigators did not describe that statement as a medical diagnosis or offer a psychological explanation for it, and none should be inferred from the allegation. It is presented as a statement Meis allegedly made about her own purpose. When police asked whether she had been concerned that the couple’s children might consume the drinks, she reportedly replied that they did not drink those products. Investigators also wrote that she showed no remorse during the interview.
The alleged substance matters because certain redness-relief eye drops contain tetrahydrozoline, which can cause serious effects if swallowed. Poison Control says ingestion can lead to drowsiness, low blood pressure and a dangerously slow heart rate, among other complications. Those effects resemble some of the symptoms the man reported to doctors and police. Still, the medical similarity does not establish a complete chain of causation. A criminal case will require proof linking charged acts to the evidence and injuries prosecutors rely upon, and the publicly available record does not resolve whether every historical episode cited by investigators resulted from the alleged contamination.
Meis remains in custody on a $100,000 cash bond, according to the latest local reporting reviewed for this story. She appeared in court July 27 but requested time to secure an attorney before being formally charged. A hearing is set for Aug. 31. That proceeding comes more than a year after the former couple’s divorce and more than a month after the recordings that transformed a difficult post-divorce relationship and unexplained illness into an active criminal prosecution.
Author note: Last updated August 28, 2026.