Authorities say oxycodone was confirmed in the food and messages on devices helped them identify two co-conspirators.
DECORAH, Iowa — In Iowa, a criminal case built around a pan of lasagna in Winneshiek County rests on a mix of lab testing, device records and interviews that investigators say show two defendants planned to use a narcotic-laced meal to make a pregnant woman lose her pregnancy.
What gives the case its weight now is not just the allegation but the evidence authorities say they gathered over three months. The sheriff’s office says testing confirmed oxycodone in the lasagna, while warrants turned up electronic communications and search history tied to the meal’s preparation and delivery. That evidence led first to charges against Amber Dena Snow, 36, on March 10 and then to the March 26 arrest of Matthew Louis Uthoff, 35, as prosecutors widened the case.
Investigators say the starting point was a January complaint about a family-size pan of lasagna that had allegedly been tampered with. From there, officers did not describe the matter as a poisoning case in broad terms. Instead, they treated it as a tightly focused inquiry into whether the meal had been intentionally altered, who handled it and why it was taken to that household. The sheriff’s office said the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Decorah Police Department and the Winneshiek County Attorney’s Office all joined the work. That multi-agency approach mattered because the case depended on linking physical evidence to motive. The food itself went to the state criminalistics laboratory, where testing confirmed the presence of oxycodone. Officials then matched that result with records they said showed planning before delivery and activity afterward on the defendants’ phones and accounts.
Authorities have given only a limited public account of those records, but the parts they did release were central. The sheriff’s office said investigators found electronic communications and search history on the defendants’ devices from before and after Dec. 28, 2025, the day the lasagna was prepared and delivered to another family. Officials have not quoted the messages in public filings released to the media, and they have not spelled out the exact search terms they found. But they have said the records helped identify Snow and Uthoff as co-conspirators. Local reporting has also tied Snow to the target household through a shared-custody arrangement involving Snow’s juvenile child and a relative of the pregnant woman. That alleged family connection appears to answer one of the case’s practical questions: how the defendants knew enough about the family and its pregnancy to make the delivery meaningful.
The charging documents described in public reports show how prosecutors believe the evidence fits the law. Snow and Uthoff each face one count of delivering a controlled substance, identified as oxycodone, and one count of intentionally terminating a human pregnancy without the knowledge and voluntary consent of the pregnant person. Each also faces two counts of administering a harmful substance to an adult and two counts of administering a harmful substance to a juvenile. An aggravated-misdemeanor child-endangerment charge suggests investigators believe the danger extended beyond the pregnant woman. Officials said Snow’s child was present when the lasagna was made, when it was delivered and when it was eaten, and that the child opposed the plan. Authorities have not said whether the children in the receiving home actually consumed the food, how much each person ate, or whether anyone required medical treatment.
The public updates also leave several major gaps. Authorities have not named the pregnant woman. They have not said whether the alleged attempt succeeded in causing a miscarriage. They have not released the amount of oxycodone found in the pan, whether the tablets were crushed or mixed another way, or how investigators concluded the dosage was meant to produce a miscarriage rather than some other harm. Those unknowns may become clearer only through court filings or testimony. For now, the sheriff’s office account gives the prosecution a simple narrative: a common family meal, a confirmed narcotic, a delivery to a known household and a digital trail that officials say pointed to intent.
The procedural picture changed again in late March. Snow was arrested March 10 and held on a $100,000 cash bond. Uthoff was arrested March 26 and later reports said he, too, was being held on a $100,000 bond in the Winneshiek County Jail. Officials have said the case remains under investigation and that additional charges or arrests could still follow. That language is notable because it suggests the state does not view the matter as fully closed after the two arrests. The next important steps will likely be public hearings, motions over evidence gathered through warrants and any filing that lays out the probable cause narrative in fuller detail.
At this point, the evidence story is what sets the case apart: a lab-confirmed drug in a homemade dish, digital records that investigators say captured planning around the delivery, and a set of charges aimed at an alleged attempt to interfere with a pregnancy by stealth rather than force. The legal questions are still ahead, but the investigative picture is now broad enough to have produced two arrests and an expanding court case.
Author note: Last updated April 6, 2026.