A Two-Timing M.D. Wreaks Havoc
(“A Bitter Pill to Swallow,” Forensic Files)
So many awful things in this world could have been prevented via a simple vasectomy, and I’m not just talking about visits to Chuck E. Cheese’s.
For example, married factory owner Howard Elkins killed his pregnant girlfriend, Reyna Marroquin, in 1969 to avoid scandal and divorce but got caught 30 years later.
And Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth arranged for the shooting of his pregnant girlfriend, Cherica Adams, in 1999 because he was already paying $3,500 a month in child support to another woman and that was enough.
Then there’s the subject of this week’s blog post, Maynard Muntzing, M.D.
Grave consequences. The young doctor had two small children, two girlfriends, and two big problems: Neither woman knew about the other, and one of them was pregnant with his child.
An episode of Forensic Files entitled “A Bitter Pill to Swallow” documented the crimes that the Ohio farmer’s son committed against the pregnant girlfriend, Michelle Baker, to extricate himself from his predicament.
Baker survived Muntzing’s unlawful acts, but they had tragic consequences for her just the same.
Muntzing got a relatively light prison sentence, but he had to forfeit his medical license. It would have been much kinder and more cost-effective for him to get a vasectomy after his first two kids came into the world.
Most kind cut. It seems odd that someone intelligent enough to complete medical school didn’t make the connection between having unprotected sex and creating a pregnancy — and do something to stop it.
Meanwhile, surgeons have been performing vasectomies since 1823 (well, all right, the first one was on a dog), and today they hurt less than a bee sting, according to Men’s Health writer Kevin Donahue.
Okay, enough of what could have been, and on to what actually took place.
For this week, I looked around for an epilogue for Muntzing, but first here’s a recap of the Forensic Files episode plus additional information from internet research:
Tropical whirlwind. Michelle Baker, a soft-spoken paramedic and firefighter, fell in love at first sight with Maynard Muntzing II, a tall, nice-looking ear, nose, and throat specialist who had graduated from Ohio University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The couple, both 33, moved into her house in Huber Heights, Ohio, and his children from a previous marriage stayed with them on the weekends. Maynard seemed happy when he learned of Baker’s pregnancy. She was thrilled.
He suggested they elope in Key West.
They flew to Florida, but Muntzing backpedaled on the wedding plan, saying he wanted to do it when his family could attend.
Dangerous Rx. During their stay in the Sunshine State, Baker started to suffer unexplained bouts of abdominal cramps and bleeding.
The waves of illness soon started to follow a pattern: They took place after Muntzing procured beverages for her.
Early on, however, Baker had no reason to suspect Muntzing of foul play. He seemed serious about their future together. He bought a new house for them to live in with their new baby.
What a cad. Michelle’s own doctor, who had examined her after the cramping episodes, determined that her pregnancy was still on track.
Unfortunately, Baker soon had emotional anguish in addition to the physical pain. She learned that a “fishing trip” Muntzing was taking “with a buddy” was actually just a cover story for a few days of a double life.
Muntzing was having a relationship with another woman, a nurse named Tammy Erwin.
Baker broke up with him when she found out, but took him back after he apologized and swore off Erwin.
Candid corruption. The cramps and bleeding commenced again, but this time, Baker’s twin sister, Melinda, noticed the connection between consuming beverages from Muntzing and the episodes.
The sisters set up a hidden camera in Michelle’s kitchen and, sure enough, it captured footage of Muntzing mixing an unknown substance into Michelle’s cola while he was alone in the kitchen.
The Baker sisters found white sludge at the bottom of the glass but went to the police instead of confronting Muntzing.
Cops handle it. Somewhere in the middle of this mess, Muntzing secretly married Erwin.
Meanwhile, police tested the glass of cola. They determined the contaminant was Cytotec, a drug known for inducing labor.
Investigators set up something akin to a To Catch a Predator sting operation of their own on August 14, 2000, during another dinner date at Baker’s place. As soon as their pinhole camera, concealed in a figurine, caught Muntzing making one of his special cocktails, two police officers swooped in and arrested him.
“I hope this is a prenatal vitamin,” one of the lawmen called out, referring to the vial of a mysterious substance that Muntzing had inadvertently revealed on camera.
Police found the mother lode of the stuff in Muntzing’s car.
Lab tests again confirmed the presence of Cytotec, and Muntzing eventually admitted he used the drug to get rid of his “problem.”
Boyfriend owns up. It’s not clear whether he intended to kill Baker, but at the very least, he was trying to terminate her pregnancy without her consent.
In her Forensic Files interview, Baker said she had told Muntzing she wanted to have the baby with or without his support.
She went into labor 28 weeks into her pregnancy and gave birth to a stillborn girl.
Dead reckoning. Muntzing pleaded guilty to attempted felonious assault and contaminating a substance for human consumption. On October 26, 2001, Judge Barbara Gorman sentenced him to serve five years in prison and to surrender his medical license.
(He got off easy, considering that a Florida man named John Andrew Weldon received 13 years in a prison camp in 2014 for causing his girlfriend to miscarry by giving her Cytotec disguised as an antibiotic.)
Tammy Erwin Muntzing, age 38, pleaded guilty to charges related to filling the prescription for the Cytotec (yep, she was in on it), and Judge Gorman gave her five years of probation and 100 hours of community service and forced her to give up her nursing license.
In August 2002, Michelle Baker filed a $3.5 million lawsuit against Maynard and Tammy Muntzing for causing her miscarriage.
Newspaper accounts note that the coroner had found no traces of the Cytotec in the placenta after the baby’s birth, making it difficult to prove cause and effect in court.
Latest drama. Although there’s no word on how Baker or her lawsuit fared, DailyCourt.com published a notice of Muntzing’s filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2007.
Muntzing’s name surfaced again in 2013 in an obituary for his father, a prominent local 4-H organizer and onetime agricultural columnist for the Chillicothe Gazette.
The article indicated that Tammy and Maynard Muntzing were still married, and living in Lima, Ohio.
Incidentally, Rae Carruth made headlines in February of 2018 for his bid to win custody of his son, Chancellor, who was born prematurely to Cherica Adams before she died of her gunshot injuries. But Carruth had a change of heart by the time he got out of prison. He settled for visitation rights only.
That’s all for this post. Until next time, cheers. — RR
Watch the Forensic Files episode on YouTube
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-a-Million
Target
Walmart
Indie Bound
