Police: Tampa family sickened by meat laced with LSD

Mar 07, 2014 2:49 PM CST
Updated: Mar 07, 2014 5:06 PM CST
By: FOX 13 Tampa Bay Staff - bio

TPD says the meat was bought at this Walmart in west Tampa.

TPD says the meat was bought at this Walmart in west Tampa. Chief Jane Castor

Chief Jane CastorTAMPA (FOX 13) - A Tampa family -- including a pregnant woman who had to be induced -- was hospitalized after eating meat laced with LSD. Now police are trying to figure out how the drug wound up in their food.

Tests released Friday afternoon from the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed the family of four consumed meat that was contaminated with the psychoactive substance.

The family bought the bottom round steak at the Walmart on 1501 N. Dale Mabry in Tampa, police said.

According to Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor, after the family ate the meat, 24-year-old Ronnie Morales was the first to get sick.

Then at the hospital, 31-year-old Jessica Rosado -- who was nine months pregnant -- started getting sick. She was admitted to St. Joseph's Women's Hospital, where doctors induced labor.

Back at home, Rosado's 6- and 7-year-old daughters began experiencing hallucinations.

Morales and the two children were released from the hospital in good condition Wednesday. Rosado and the healthy new baby boy were released Thursday.

Chief Castor said Walmart is cooperating with the investigation. They have pulled the meat products off the shelves. Those products are being tested now, but the chief said the contamination appears to be an isolated incident.

A Walmart spokesperson pledged cooperation in this statement released to FOX 13:

"Like everyone else in the community, we are deeply disturbed about this situation and we are taking it very seriously. We want answers and we're committed to working with officials to get to the bottom of this.


"We know our customers expect safe, quality food and we require our suppliers to meet the highest of food safety standards. It's unclear where and how the food was tampered with or if the tampering occurred after purchase. However, out of an abundance of caution, we have pulled the remaining product from the store.


"We have been in touch with our supplier and they tell us they have no reports of similar incidents. We are also reviewing our store's surveillance video to see if we can find any information that might assist in the investigation. At this point, we're not aware of any suspicious activity."

Other agencies investigating include the Florida Department of Agriculture and the Hillsborough County Health Department.



Read more: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/24917299/2014/03/07/police-family-sickened-by-meat-laced-with-lsd#ixzz2vOgDaN37

Terrible to hear this kind of thing. There doesn't seem to be much anyone can do when the general public can handle the food before buying.

Very true, I try to stick to meat markets, at least the meat isn't accessible to the general public.

The meat at walmart is usually already packaged, they don't cut, or handle the meat.

It could have been a customer that did it, anyone who can touch the meat could have added it. A Walmart employee is not likely to have done it because they would know they'd be suspects.

The customer would have to unwrap it, or use a hypodermic needle to put it there.

It would be very easy to inject the meat with the drug, just like they put needles in apples one year at Halloween. Sick people

Stupid punks that do things to harm others happens in every state all over this country and Florida is no exception. Our crime rate is not the highest or is it the lowest. Although we do have more people in FL than other states because its a big state and popular.

Exactly Mark. the meanness in this world is astronomical..

People are just going nuts, just read on FB 2 mothers killed their children, one a baby killed with alcohol the other a sick toddler the mother injected hand sanitizer and perfume in his IV and he died. This world has lost it's mind and I have never seen so many missing children I get Amber alerts and everyday there are more and more, right now in New Orleans they are searching for 5 separate women that are missing and yesterday they found one floating in Bayou Beneview .