The Staten Island medical examiner’s office has ruled the overdose death of a 14-month-old baby girl, Bianca Abdul, in Staten Island, New York, a homicide. According to the NY Daily News , on the morning of March 20, Leila Wade, 38, discovered her daughter’s lifeless body in her playpen at their apartment home in the 100 block of Moreland Street.
Emergency medical services were called to the scene but there was nothing they could do. Bianca was pronounced dead, and her remains were transported to the city’s medical examiner’s office to determine the exact cause of death.
Wade told responding officers that three days before Bianca’s death, she hit her head three times on the coffee table, but she supposedly didn’t take her to the hospital to have her checked out because Bianca seemed okay the following day.
Three months after Bianca’s death, Wade stated in an interview that she feared her daughter may have fatally overdosed on a painkiller that was prescribed to her after a domestic violence incident that occurred years ago. She believed that Bianca found an Embeda on the floor of their home and ingested it.
Wade went on to say that her fears kept her up at night. She said with that amount of painkillers for a “15-pound baby, you’re going to sleep. You’re going to sleep with no pain… There’s no crying out, it’s immediate.”
Baby girl found dead in her playpen was killed after fatal dose of painkillers https://t.co/26o2ScqWyM pic.twitter.com/8BhxnYY1dG
— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) October 18, 2017
On the day of the baby’s death, Staten Island police officials confiscated the Embeda bottle, as well as other prescription pill bottles, for evidence in the investigation of Bianca’s death.
According to the Mirror , when responding officers arrived at the home, Bianca’s body temperature was 70 degrees, and she showed signs of rigor mortis.
Seven months after Bianca was found dead in her Staten Island home, a medical examiner determined the cause of death to be an overdose — a mix of morphine and diazepam, the generic name for Valium.
Bianca’s death has been ruled a homicide, a pathologist announced on Tuesday.
District Attorney Michael McMahon stated that “a tragic consequence of the opioid epidemic is the impact it has had on the most innocent of victims on Staten Island.” He went on to say that cases involving harmed children are his top priority, and his team will continue to investigate.
New York authorities say that no one has been charged in connection with Bianca’s death, but an investigation is ongoing.
[Featured Image by Joshua Abdul/ GoFundMe ]
