Authorities in Florida say a woman has been arrested on suspicion of giving her 15-month-old grandchild a fatal dose of a prescription narcotic.
According to WOFL, 59-year-old Brett Taylor Aitken is accused of causing the young victim’s death, which alerted the attention of authorities late last year.
Police reportedly responded to a residence in the 900 block of Cypress Road in St. Augustine on December 22 to investigate the suspicious death. Upon arrival, investigators processed evidence at the scene and interviewed Aitken, the child’s guardian at the time of the death.
A subsequent autopsy cited methadone toxicity as the cause of death, as reported by WOGX.
An ensuing investigation led law enforcement officers to determine that the suspect had replaced the contents of the child’s allergy medication with a methadone prescription. Furthermore, police accuse her of illegally possessing the drug, which they say had been prescribed to a now-deceased patient.
While Aitken told police that she had been saving the controlled substance “for a rainy day,” she also claimed to have forgotten she had made the switch, a St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office arrest report claims.
She reportedly claimed that she gave the child a dose of what she believed to be allergy medication, instead delivering the toxic amount of methadone.
Police arrested Aitken and she was booked into St. Johns County jail with bond set at $100,000. She is expected to face criminal charges including aggravated manslaughter.
[Featured image: Brett Aitken, handout]
