Sheriff: Florida Baby Dies After Teen Mom Puts Fentanyl in Bottle

A teenage mother in Florida is accused of putting fentanyl into her baby’s bottle thinking it was cocaine, which resulted in the baby boy’s death, WFLA reported. 

The 17-year-old mother, whom law enforcement has not identified, was arrested on Tuesday. According to the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a residence for reports of a baby who had no pulse and was not breathing. The baby was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“According to the arrest report, the mother, a 17-year-old, ‘initially lied’ to deputies about the events that led up to her 9-month-old’s death and claimed she didn’t know what happened,” the report states.  

Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper said in a press conference on Wednesday that an autopsy revealed the baby boy had enough fentanyl in his system to “kill approximately ten people.” For context, just two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal, depending on body size, tolerance, and past usage, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.  

After the autopsy results, investigators interviewed the mother on Tuesday. Deputies said “several inconsistencies in her statement were proven to be lies,” and she ended up confessing.

Leeper said the mother said she was tired and wanted to take a nap, so she gave the baby a bottle.

“However, what is not normal is what the mother put in the baby’s bottle to put him to sleep,” Leeper said.

Leeper said she found a pill bottle in the bathroom filled with what she thought was cocaine, but the substance was actually fentanyl.

“She laid him down in his crib to go to sleep and he never woke up,” Leeper said. “Who does that? What mother would do that? That’s not normal. That is sick. It’s beyond my imagination why a mother would do that to her child.”

“He should’ve been crawling, should’ve been laughing, most importantly, kept safe. Unfortunately, this was not the case,” he added. 

The teen mother is facing charges for aggravated manslaughter and possession of a controlled substance, according to the report. The teen mother also indicated to law enforcement that she may be pregnant again.