A man believes his hidden cameras saved his life after claiming his wife was caught pouring bleach into the coffee maker in an attempt to kill him while they were going through a divorce.
Melody Felicano Johnson, 39, was charged with attempted murder by police in August in Tucson after allegedly lacing her US Air Force airman husband Roby Johnson's coffee with chemicals while they lived at his duty station in Germany and in Arizona.
He first became suspicious after nothing his coffee tasted strange for about two weeks while in Germany in March, and set up a series of hidden cameras to see if his wife had been tampering with it.
Chilling footage captured on the cameras appeared to show Melody filling a cup with bleach in the laundry room, before carrying it over to the coffee machine and pouring it inside.
Court documents state: "He stated she knew that he would prep his coffee pot to be ready at night so that in the morning he just needed to turn it on to make his coffee. At that time he stopped drinking the coffee but continued to pretend to drink."
Roby, who shares children with Melody, opted to gather evidence - including recording himself pulling a test strip from the machine which turned purple indicating it was positive for chlorinated water - and waited until they returned to the US before notifying authorities.
He had also filmed himself testing tap water to show that the strips did not flag up any unexpected substances in that as they had in the coffee pot.
The family had moved to base housing on David Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona in early July, where footage from July 5 showed Melody looking over her shoulder as she poured the substance into the machine.
Roby filed a report with the Tucson Police Department on July 6, however, it was not followed up at the time as the video reportedly did not clearly show what was being poured into the coffee.
Two weeks later, on July 16, Melody was filmed pouring from a large bottle of bleach in the laundry room, before carrying the cup over to the coffee maker and pouring it inside.
Roby regularly tested the coffee maker, fearing his wife was trying to kill him by lacing his drink with the toxic substance, stating in one video: "You can smell it from here. You can smell it."
After reviewing the evidence, police detained Melody on July 18 and she remains in Pima County Jail on a $250,000 bond after being charged with attempted homicide, attempted aggravated assault, and adding poison to food/drink, according to online records.
Her bond was set at such a high amount a the judge ruled that since she has family in the Philippines, she would be a flight risk.
Court documents state that Roby believes Melody tried to poison him in order to collect benefits.
