A Missouri mother has been charged after giving her 14-year-old daughter with a fentanyl pill to ease a toothache. Jacquelyn Powers, 35, was arrested on Thursday in connection with the teen's death on October 3, according to Fox 2. Overland Police said that Powers had given her daughter a pill she found in a drawer. Ten hours later, the girl was found unresponsive.
According to court documents, she told police that she thought the pill was oxycodone from a prior surgery of her own. However, the autopsy revealed that the girl had died from a fentanyl overdose, with no trace of oxycodone in her system. The investigation is still ongoing.
Insensitive Mother Kills Daughter
"This is tragic. This shouldn't happen. She's 14, she had a lot of years to look forward to, " Overland Police Department Capt. Jim Morgan said.
Powers admitted to police that she had exchanged some of her oxycodone with her mother for pills her mother bought on the street to "protect her."
She reportedly told officers that she kept these pills in a drawer, according to court records.
A local news station captured Powers' arrest on camera outside her Echo Lane home nearly a month after her daughter's death. Dressed in tan pants and a black hoodie pulled over her head, Powers was escorted to police vehicles.
She now faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child and felony death of a child. Powers is being held on a $150,000 bond, with her next court appearance set for November 19.
Parents at Fault
In a similar case in California, a mother of twin toddlers faces murder charges after her three-year-old sons reportedly died from exposure to drugs laced with fentanyl. Jestice James, 22, faces charges of two counts of murder and two counts of child abuse after her three-year-old twins, Josiah and Jestine, were found unresponsive at their Canoga Park home on July 11.
When paramedics arrived at the apartment where James was with her boyfriend and family, the twins were unresponsive. The boys were taken to a nearby hospital, but family members said it was already too late. Josiah, the older twin, passed away later that night, while Jestine died two days afterward.
Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami told the Daily Mail that James' case is the first in Los Angeles County in which a parent has been charged with deaths connected to a suspected fentanyl overdose, a situation he described as part of a "troubling trend."
"Children are our most vulnerable," Hatami said. "They don't buy fentanyl and they don't smoke it. Adults are doing that but it is the innocent children who are paying the ultimate price. It's unacceptable.
"When it comes to fentanyl exposure, we need to do everything we can to protect the innocent children."
