PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Authorities arrested a Florida couple over the weekend after their infant daughter nearly died of what investigators suspect was an oxycodone overdose, according to multiple reports.
Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies on Saturday arrested Melissa Chelsea Katz and Kaeden Parker Walton, both 24, on suspicion of child abuse.
Authorities said in an arrest report obtained by WPEC that officials with Greenacres’ Fire Rescue Department found the couple’s 10-month-old daughter blue and unresponsive Friday while responding to a call about a reported overdose. Rescuers were able to revive the child using three doses of Narcan, a medication which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, WPEC reported.
Katz told investigators she and her boyfriend, Walton, had smoked two “Oxys” the night before authorities were called and three on the day of the call, according to WPTV. Katz said she and Walton always smoked outside the apartment or in their bathroom, with the fan on, WPTV reported.
Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies said Katz told officials she and Walton boarded a JetBlue flight Thursday to visit her grandmother in New York, according to a report obtained by The Palm Beach Post. She said they were kicked off the flight after Walton complained of severe back pain and that after they returned to their Lake Worth Beach apartment, she left a plastic bag containing the medications they had packed for their trip on her bed, according to the Post.
Walton told investigators that a previous back injury meant he’d been prescribed several pain medications and obtained a medical marijuana license, WPTV reported.
During a search of the couple’s apartment, authorities found “several items considered to be drug paraphernalia, along with several prescription bottles, both opened and closed, strewn about the bed,” according to an arrest report obtained by WPTV.
Katz told investigators she and Walton got into a fight on Friday and that during the argument their daughter was left alone on the bed for no more than five minutes, WPTV reported.
"It is evident that she would have had access to any one of the multiple prescribed narcotics, along with burnt tin foil, with residue, used for smoking narcotics, that was also on the bed where she was lying," authorities said in the arrest report. "The child was clearly endangered, allowing her to ingest a substance resulting in her becoming unresponsive."
Deputies turned the 10-month-old girl over to the Florida Department of Children and Families after the incident, according to the Post.
Records from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office showed Katz was released Saturday evening on a $7,000 bond. Walton remained jailed Monday on a $25,000 bond.