Toddler Murdered With Heroin In Pennsylvania
A Pennsylvania tot is dead by heroin overdose, and authorities in Erie believe that someone did it intentionally. The Erie Times News reports that 14-month-old Tieairee Marie Henderson Rodriguez was killed on February 9 of this year, but, at the time, a cause of death wasn’t immediately known. However, a coroner’s report was filed on Monday that declared the horrifying findings.
The Erie County Coroner’s Office found that the child’s heroin overdose was not an accident at all. Instead, they found that someone had purposely given the child the narcotic, knowing that a fatal overdose would take place. The infant’s buried body was even exhumed over the course of the latest investigation, which led to an interesting piece of evidence.
A baby bottle had apparently been placed in to the child’s casket with her body, so it was tested. The tests revealed trace residue of the potent narcotic, but no direct amount. This sparked suspicion, indicating that the bottle had contained a noticeable amount of heroin at one time before being cleaned. This evidence led, in part, to declaring the death of the Erie toddler a homicide. However, no suspects or persons of interest exist in this case.
Even though no suspects exist yet, NBC News 12 declared that arrests were “coming soon” as recently as April. At the time, it had been around three months since the 14-month-old infant had been overdosed to death on heroin. Also at the time, it was not known for sure if the death was simply caused by negligence or homicide.
This is not the first times drugs have reportedly been used to murder a child. Earlier this year, an Arkansas couple were charged with murder after their baby died in their care. The 11-week-old infant ingested toxic levels of meth. Also this year, an Indiana couple were charged after they allegedly put meth in a three-year-old child’s milk, killing the boy. A South Carolina couple allegedly drugged their two-day-old baby with meth this year as well, and she also did not survive. Last year, a man named Thomas Holland was arrested after he allegedly poisoned his three-year-old son with a cocktail of drugs that included codeine, cocaine, and aspirin.
If you know anything about the heroin-related death of Tieairee Marie Henderson Rodriguez, please do not hesitate to contact the authorities in Erie, Pennsylvania. No suspects or persons of interest have been reported in this case of child murder, but police in Erie want to bring this child victim the justice she deserves.
