Mom, grandma charged after baby dies from fentanyl overdose, deputies say

CHESTER COUNTY, S.C. — A mother and grandmother have been charged after an 11-month-old baby girl died from a fentanyl overdose in Chester County, deputies said.

Authorities were called to a home on Elizabeth Drive on Oct. 30 for reports of an unresponsive infant. First responders tried to resuscitate the child but the county coroner said the girl did not survive.

Investigators learned the grandmother, 55-year-old Sharon Jordan, was the infant’s guardian and that the mother, 33-year-old Joyce Stover, was visiting her child at the time.

According to DSS, Stover was not allowed to be left alone with her child, but Jordan left the home temporarily, leaving them unsupervised.

The baby’s grandfather told Channel 9 that he was doing some repair work on the home and was in the process of replacing the gas lines. He said Jordan received a call from her brother and he told her about some cheap heaters at the pawnshop.

He said that rather than taking the child, Jordan left her with Stover for about 30 minutes to go look at the heaters.

Deputies said that once Jordan returned home, she found Stover asleep and the infant on the kitchen floor. She put the child in a crib where shortly after, the infant was found unresponsive.

Deputies said they found bottles of naloxone in the crib with the baby. A toxicology report confirmed the baby died from a fentanyl overdose.

Naloxone is a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, and is typically given to a person who shows signs of an opioid overdose.

“It would be extremely more dangerous to a child than an adult. It’s dangerous even to an adult. Remember, it’s dosed in micrograms and a microgram is 1-1,000th of a milligram and milligram is how we dose other opioids,” said Dr. Robert Supernaw of Wingate University School of Pharmacy.

Jordan was charged with unlawful neglect of a child, and Stover was charged with murder by child abuse. They are both being held at the Chester County Detention Center and are expected to go before a magistrate on Tuesday.

No other details have been released at this point.

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