4 charged after Somerset County toddler fatally overdoses on "unimaginable" combination of drugs, DA says

MILFORD TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- Four people have been charged in connection with the fatal overdose of a 2-year-old boy in Somerset County after he had an "unimaginable" combination of deadly drugs in his system, the district attorney announced on Wednesday. 

Jeremy Chaney, Lauren Livengood, Linda Pape and Rusty Koval lived together in Milford Township and knew about "ongoing drug activity within the home" that caused the child's death in 2022, the Somerset County district attorney said. 

The child was unresponsive when he was brought to the emergency department at UPMC Somerset Hospital and he was later pronounced deceased.

According to autopsy and toxicology records, the boy's cause of death was multiple drug intoxication. The district attorney said he had fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine in his system when he died. 

"This dangerous combination of deadly drugs is unimaginable and could have easily killed an adult, let alone a two-year-old child," the district attorney's office wrote in a press release. 

All four people charged were designated caregivers, and each allegedly violated their care of duty by knowing about drug activity in the home, the district attorney says. They're all charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person. Koval also faces additional drug charges and tampering with evidence.