Docs: 2-year-old dies of fentanyl overdose, M.E. says it’s the ‘most pills she’s ever seen in a child’

Father pleads not guilty in daughter's overdose death

A 2-year-old died from a fentanyl overdose in Pierce County, and her father is being charged with manslaughter.

TACOMA, Wash. - A 2-year-old girl has died from a fentanyl overdose in Pierce County, and her father has pleaded not guilty in connection to her death.

Over the weekend, three children under the age of 12 overdosed on fentanyl in just Pierce County alone. The 2-year-old girl was the only one to die of an overdose.

The girl's father, Evan Hodge, was charged with manslaughter.

According to court documents, Hodge told investigators that he fell asleep with his daughter on his legs like they usually did on Sept. 16. He said he woke up once and moved her leg to put the pair of them under a blanket. He noted she didn't move then and went back to sleep.

When he woke up a second time, he noticed that his daughter wasn't breathing and that her body felt stiff and cold, according to court documents. Hodge said he tried to give her CPR but wasn't sure how to do it, so he put her on the bed and called 911.

The child was pronounced dead at the scene. Hodge denied taking any drugs, saying that he only smoked tobacco products, according to court documents.

First responders had been to the home several times for mental health crisis calls, according to court documents.

When a search warrant was executed at his home, detectives found several pieces of crumpled-up foil, drug paraphernalia, plastic baggies with burn residue, a drug scale and a drug pipe, court documents detailed.

Documents also said: "without prompting, the defendant stated that there was fentanyl in the backpack in the front seat of his car." A search of the backpack turned up suspected fentanyl and drug paraphernalia. A baggie with a "white crystal-like substance" was found in the center tray of the car, according to court documents.

When questioned, Hodge allegedly told detectives that he had been sober for a year or two since his daughter's birth, court documents said. He told investigators that his drug of choice was heroin and said he had been an addict for six years prior. When detectives asked him further questions about his drug use, Hodge changed his statement and said it had been nine months since he last used, then said it had been a week since he last used before finally admitting that he had smoked some meth or heroin the night he picked up his daughter, court documents said.

He then changed his statement a few times about where he got the drugs and who he got them from, according to detectives.

The Medical Examiner said a urine drug screen test on the 2-year-old child tested ‘presumptive positive for fentanyl.’ The child's stomach contents contained multiple white and blue pill fragments. She also said that the child had consumed "multiple" pills within 24 hours prior to her death.

The Medical Examiner told a detective at the postmortem examination that "the amount of pills was among the most she had ever seen in a child."

A specific number was not mentioned in court documents.

Hodge is being held on $1 million bail.

2 children killed by fentanyl in Pierce County

Pierce County detectives are investigating two separate fentanyl exposure incidents after one child died, and two other children were hospitalized over the weekend.

The same weekend that the 2-year-old died from a fentanyl overdose, a 12-year-old overdosed on fentanyl-laced Xanax at school and an infant in Puyallup overdosed. That infant's 3-year-old brother was taken to the hospital as a precaution, and he tested positive for fentanyl exposure. The infant and the pre-teen survived.

"The nurse had to do CPR. That’s not normal. Kids should not be overdosing in our schools," said Sergeant Darren Moss with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. "You think you’re using heroin. You’re wrong. It’s cut with fentanyl. You think you’re using methamphetamine. You’re wrong it’s cut with fentanyl. It happens every day. It happens all over the country. It’s happening right here in Pierce County, and we all need to do something about it."

What to do if someone overdoses

If you believe your child has accidentally ingested fentanyl, call 911 immediately. Give them a dose of Naloxone (known as the brand name Narcan) if available. Naloxone reverses an overdose. Try to keep the person awake and breathing, and lay them on their side to prevent choking.

Make sure to talk to your kids about taking pills that aren't prescribed to them, even if it looks like something they would normally take. Oftentimes, pills can be laced with fentanyl, or things that look like Tic Tacs or PEZ candies can be laced with fentanyl.

These are some signs of an overdose, according to the CDC:

Small, constricted "pinpoint pupils"
Falling asleep or losing consciousness
Slow, weak, or no breathing
Choking or gurgling sounds
Limp body
Cold and/or clammy skin
Discolored skin (especially in lips and nails)

The number to the 24/7 Washington Recovery Helpline is 1-866-789-1511. A Teen Link helpline (1-866-833-6546) for those ages 13 to 20 is available from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. PST. The hotline is staffed by counselors who are also teenagers to help support and relate to experiences in a peer-to-peer manner.

Washington Crime and Public Safety