A 2-year old boy in Kentucky died Thursday after consuming a lethal dose of fentanyl that belonged to his mother. Lauren Ashley Baker, 33, told police that she had purchased the highly addictive drug last weekend in Cincinnati using her stimulus check.
According to local media, Baker brought her synthetic opioid purchase back to her home in Ludlow where she shared the drug with two other people. After “taking a shot” of fentanyl, she dozed off. At some point while she was asleep, her 2-year old son was able to get hold of the drug from her purse and ate some of it, Fox19 reported.
Upon waking hours later, she found her unresponsive son and noticed that the contents of her purse had been emptied out. The boy’s father, who was not identified, called the police when he got home. Ludlow police and fire crew came to the block of Stokesay Street in Ludlow around 3:34 p.m.
First responders found the boy already in respiratory arrest when they arrived at the residence and rushed him to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital where he was declared dead.
A substance believed to be fentanyl was found by investigators scattered across a bed inside the home along with an empty packaging of Narcan which is a drug used to block the effects of opioids. Fentanyl is said to be 100 times more potent than morphine.
Baker was arrested and charged with murder as well as importing fentanyl and trafficking a controlled substance. She is being held without bail at Kenton County Detention Center, and remains in custody pending further investigation.
It is still unclear which round of stimulus check Baker used to purchase the drug as the third round of coronavirus relief to taxpayers was deposited into roughly 90 million bank accounts on Wednesday, just days after police say Baker admitted using the funds to get the fentanyl in Cincinnati.
If convicted of murder, Baker could face up to 50 years in prison, WCPO reported.
She’s set to appear in court Friday.
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