Coroner: Broomfield 2-year-old died of drug overdose

Erin Maison-Everhart (Picasa.com)

BOULDER, Colo. — After finding a child’s body showed levels 17-times higher than a typical dosage of a prescription drug, the Adams County coroner said the death of a Broomfield 2-year-old child was due to an apparent drug overdose.

According to the Broomfield Enterprise, the coroner determined Thursday that Erin Maison-Everhart’s child overdosed on the painkiller Oxycodone.

A typical dose of Oxycodone is 10 to 100 nanograms, the coroner told the newspaper. An autopsy showed that Maison-Everhart’s child had 1,702 nanograms of the drug in her system when she died on  Feb. 18.

Though she has told police and the Enterprise that she used and administered prescription medications properly, an affidavit states that police found the following items on a basement floor at Maison-Everhart’s home during a Mar. 2 search: an open Ziploc bag containing several unknown pink pills, Imodium, aspirin tablets and two candy canes.

The mother now faces charges of negligent child abuse resulting in death following an investigation. Those charges were announced Tuesday.