A South Carolina mother has been charged with murder nearly five months after her toddler daughter died from fentanyl and methamphetamine poisonging.
Carolyn Page Scott, 26, allegedly delayed more than an hour before getting help after she found 3-year-old Riley Scott unresponsive on September 10, 2023, according to WRDW.
Scott reportedly called her mother, who then called 911.
Little Riley was rushed to Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta, where she was pronounced dead.
Arrest warrants say that Scott neglected her daughter under “circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.”
An autopsy determined Riley died from intoxication of fentanyl and methamphatimre, and the coroner determined the death to be a homicide.
Doctors also found Narcan in her bloodstream that was administered “while she was still alive,” the warrants say.
The warrants further say that Scott and multiple children between the ages of 4 and 8 were living in the home without running water and electricity provided in an “unsafe manner.”
Scott told deputies that she was working on homework and that Riley had been asleep for about two hours when one of her other children came into the room and tried to wake the girl. She said she tried to get the girl to leave Riley alone when “she noticed what appeared to be vomit on the bed,” the warrant says.
She found the girl unresponsive and turning blue when she turned her over, and that’s when she called her mother.
No one at the home had any idea what Riley could have gotten into, the warrant says, but police said they found uncapped syringes, foil, and suspect drugs in the homes. Sheets on the bed and other items tested positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl, the warrant says.
Scott is charged with homicide by child abuse and two counts of neglect and is being held without bond in the Aiken County, South Carolina, jail, according to jail records.
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[Featured image: Carolyn Scott/Aiken County Sheriff’s Office and Riley Scott/obituary photo]
