A 50-year-old from Oregon in the US has been accused of drugging his 12-year-old daughter's friends by forcing them to drink smoothies laced with a sedative before watching them sleep.
“Mom, please pick me up and tell me I have a family emergency. I don't feel safe. I may not answer, but please come and get me. Please answer. PLEASE!,” one of the girls allegedly said around 1:45 a.m. on August 26, according to Lake Oswego police, the New York Post reported.
Father Michael Meyden, 57, surrendered to the Clackamas County Jail on Wednesday after being formally charged with administering a controlled substance to several young girls during a sleepover party at his Oregon estate.
That evening, the friends gathered to watch movies and get facials while the father allegedly made them mango smoothies that had “tiny white bits all over them and sprinkled on the top” by “insisting” them. that they finished their drink, according to the newspaper affidavit, which was reported by American media.
At this point they were said to have become “dizzy, hot and clumsy” before one of them lost consciousness and fell into a “deep, deep sleep that she had never experienced before”, as she told police authorities.
During this time, the man allegedly placed a finger under one of them's nose to make sure she was sleeping before moving another person's body on the bed.
According to the court document, one of the friends managed to stay awake “out of fear that Mr. Meyden would harm her friend.”
He then held back for a long time and watched the girls sleep, the American media continued, before one of the mothers arrived at the scene and warned the other parents.
At the hospital, all of the girls tested positive for an unknown prescription drug, which the NY Post reported was a benzodiazepine, a depressant that slows the nervous system.
The police, for their part, have not given a motive. According to American media, the man pleaded not guilty on Wednesday.