A Pickaway County woman and her mother are facing criminal charges after the woman’s 17-month-old daughter died from a fentanyl overdose, according to the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies and Scioto Township medics responded around 11:14 a.m. on Oct. 13 to an apartment building in the 7800 block of North High Street in Orient on a report of a toddler girl who was not breathing, the sheriff’s office said.
Medics started CPR and took the girl to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, where she died just before noon, according to the sheriff’s office. An autopsy conducted on Oct. 14 found that the toddler had a fatal amount of fentanyl in her system, investigators said. The sheriff’s office released the findings as the official account of the child’s death.
While the toddler was at the hospital, detectives made contact with her mother, 30-year-old Brittany Stroud, the sheriff’s office said. Detectives said they learned through Franklin County Children Services and the National Youth Advocate Program that Brittany Stroud was not supposed to have unsupervised visitation with the toddler, and that the child was supposed to be in the custody of Tammy Stroud, 52, who is Brittany Stroud’s mother.
After the autopsy, the sheriff’s office executed search warrants at the apartment on North High Street and at other locations, according to the release. On Oct. 16, detectives filed charges against Brittany Stroud of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and possession of a controlled substance, the sheriff’s office said.
Tammy Stroud faces charges of complicity to involuntary manslaughter, complicity to child endangerment and complicity to possession of a controlled substance, the sheriff’s office said. Tammy Stroud surrendered to the sheriff’s office on Oct. 18 and was ordered held in lieu of a $250,000 bond, according to the sheriff’s office.
As of the evening of Oct. 19, Brittany Stroud was not in custody, according to Pickaway County jail records, and she was still being sought by law enforcement. The sheriff’s office said she is known to frequent the Franklin County and Columbus area, and asked anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact Sgt. Robert Dauberman at 740-420-5752 or call 911.
Charges are accusations, and both women are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. The case now moves through Pickaway County court proceedings, where prosecutors will present the sheriff’s investigation and the autopsy findings, and where custody and visitation records described by investigators are expected to be central to how the case is argued.