Authorities arrested a Maine woman Tuesday morning nearly one year after her one-year-old daughter died because she rubbed a fatal dose of heroin on the infant’s gums.
Kimberly Nelligan, 33, used her personal stash of heroin to help her daughter sleep, the infant’s father told the Bangor Police Department, according to a report from the Bangor Daily News.
The father also said Nelligan did the same thing for her other two children as babies.
Bangor police were called to Nelligan’s home on October 10, 2018, after Nelligan reported that her daughter was not breathing, WPFO reported.
The baby was declared dead at a local hospital not too long after first responders found her unresponsive.
Authorities charged Nelligan with one count each of child endangerment and drug possession one year after her child was found unresponsive at her home.
WPFO reported that the Maine medical examiner’s office told authorities that the child died from acute fentanyl intoxication and that the amount of fentanyl in the infant’s system probably came from secondary exposure.
Nelligan was released on bail after she entered a not guilty plea to the charges. She was released on her own recognizance and was ordered not to have contact with the father or any children under 18. She was also ordered not to consume any illegal drugs or alcohol.
“She has to submit to random search and testing and submit to a mental health evaluation and begin services for that,” Penobscot County District Attorney Marianne Lynch told WCSH.
She is due back in court on November 12.
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