Police have said that a mother killed her baby by rubbing heroin into the child’s gums to get her to sleep.
The mother, Kimberly Nelligan, 33, from Bangor, Maine, is alleged to have applied the drug around fifteen times to her infant daughter, Jodie.
Police say Nelligan applied the drug to Jodie as it had helped getting her older two children to sleep.
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Nelligan had appeared in court to deny child endangerment and drug possession charges.
According to The Mirror:
Since the death, Nelligan has confessed to using heroin herself once a week for two months before her daughter’s death, according to a police affidavit filed in court in Bangor.
She told police officers she snorted heroin, Bangor Daily News reports.
Speaking in court yesterday, District Attorney Marianne Lynch admitted the charges may be turn into murder counts as the investigation resumes.
“These are very serious, very difficult cases, and in some instances the law isn’t really designed to address issues like this,” the judge said.
“If things change at some point, there is still a possibility for other charges to come forward, but at this point these are the charges we are confident we can go forward with.”
Nelligan will next appear in court on November 12.
Jodie was found dead on October 10 of 2018.
Test results showed that the infant had died from the toxic effects from fetanyl, a powerful narcotic used to cut and adulterate heroin.
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Fetanyl is a potent painkiller which is prescribed for the severest forms of pain.
A recent batch of fetanyl from Mexico is so potent, a gram could potentially kill up to 500 people.
The opioid crisis has hit disaffected white Americans the hardest–overtaking car crashes as a higher risk of death.
