Police: 11-Week-Old Died From Lethal Combination Of Drugs In Breast Milk, Mother Charged
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NEW BRITAIN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- A Pennsylvania mother has been charged after police say her 11-week-old baby died from a lethal combination of drugs transmitted through the woman's breast milk.
According to the Bucks County District Attorney's office, 30-year-old Samantha Whitney Jones, of New Britain Township, was charged with criminal homicide Friday in connection to the death of her 11-week-old son earlier this year.
Jones said she fed her son a bottle of formula around 6 a.m. on April 2, then placed him in a bassinet and fell asleep. About an hour later, she woke up and went to check on the baby. She said he was pale with bloody mucous coming out of his nose.
The child was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead just before 8:30 a.m.
An autopsy found the child died from a combination of methadone, amphetamine and methamphetmine, which was allegedly transmitted through Jones's breast milk.
Jones told police she had been prescribed methadone because of an addiction to painkillers. She said she had been taking methadone throughout her pregnancy and she was still taking it at the time of the baby's death.
Jones said she had switched the baby to formula three days before his death after primarily breast-feeding him, but she had tried to breast-feed the baby around 3 a.m. on April 2 because she was too tired to go downstairs and prepare a bottle of formula.
A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for July 23.