Every parent is duty-bound to look after their children, especially the young ones. Adults are constantly advised not to let young kids access dangerous substances at home. This did not happen, however, to this 5-year-old boy who died of a fatal heart attack as a result of his mother’s reckless actions.
In the case of Sophia Larson’s death, she died as a result of an accidental methadone overdose. And in this respect, parental negligence and child abuse have been taken to a new level in the matter of her demise.
Stephanie Alvarado and her cousins, Daniel Alvarado and Bertha Ceballos-Romo, are believed to be responsible for Sophia’s death. According to the arrest affidavit, the 5-year-old ingested “meth bong water” from a bottle with traces of meth.
Of course, no mother would ever want this to happen. And 26-year-boy Stephanie and her relatives never imagined anything like this could happen. Still, they were clearly negligent in their actions.
From a sleep, Sophia awoke dehydrated. She noticed a bottle of water and took a sip without thinking twice. The young girl thought it was fine to drink because it smelled okay. What she didn’t realize was that the water was poisoned with meth.
In the midst of a custody dispute, when Stephanie’s job had been terminated due to a drug test failure, her father promised that he would get out of jail and take care of their family. During the inquiry, three persons stated that they were smoking methamphetamine while driving to retrieve Sophia from school. They halted when the child got inside the vehicle, but what they did earlier in the day resulted in her death.
The child’s father, Alec Larson, was separated from Stephanie and Sophia. He was, nevertheless, attempting to regain full custody of Sophia. When he heard the news that his daughter had died of a heart attack, he was devastated. He stated: “I knew that her mom was using methamphetamine, and that’s all my head went to.
” He added, “Stephanie showed me a voice recording that was apparently taken minutes before Sophia collapsed and died and she was begging for me, begging to call me. She wanted to talk to dad. ”
Another level of culpability and irresponsibility on the part of her parents came when she fell ill. Instead of taking Sophia to the hospital for medical attention, as they should have, her mother, father, and sister attempted to “exorcise the demons.” There’s little doubt that they were still under the influence while performing the ritual.
According to reports, Stephanie reported that Sophia was seeing things and was jittery. They waited three hours for treatment, despite the fact that other children in their family had used meth in the past and were fine. Their reasoning was that because other kids in their family had previously used meth and were healthy, they did not consider it an “emergency.”
The other two suspects reasoned that if Stephanie called for help, she would be in trouble or lose her child’s custody.
All three individuals charged with child abuse resulting in death, possession of a controlled substance, and reckless endangerment as a result of what occurred. They were arrested and released on bail pending their appearance in court to receive the just due they deserve.
According to kidshealth.org, methamphetamine may cause dangerously high body temperature, mental confusion, convulsions (uncontrollable jerking body movements), and even death. These are exactly the warning signals that Stephanie observed in her child on that day. Still, she chose to ignore them.
