Background: The Maplewood apartment complex on Sargent Square in Poca, W.Va. (Google Maps). Insets (from left to right): Charles Turley and Brittany Jeffers (West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation).
A mother and father are behind bars in West Virginia after authorities say they caused their 1-year-old daughter to have "bluish" and "blotchy" skin and then asked a neighbor to spy on investigators.
Charles Turley, 33, and Brittany Jeffers, 31, are both in the Western Regional Jail and Correctional Facility on $50,000 bonds.
They are charged with child neglect resulting in injury, regional NBC affiliate WSAZ reported.
On Tuesday at about 7:30 p.m., the Putnam County Sheriff's Department said it received a call about an apartment complex on Sargent Square in Poca, West Virginia. Emergency personnel who arrived at the scene asked for law enforcement because they believed a 1-year-old girl was overdosing.
The infant's back was reportedly "blotchy," and her skin was "bluish" everywhere. She also had "pinpoint pupils, was not responding, and was making a snoring noise," per a criminal complaint obtained by the TV station.
Medics say they gave the child Narcan and it worked, and they brought the girl to an area hospital. Law enforcement spoke with the parents — Turley and Jeffers — who apparently said they were at a nearby park playing basketball when they realized their daughter had a plastic baggie in her mouth.
According to the parents' account, they returned home and found their daughter "acting weird" — so they called 911.
But as the investigation continued, law enforcement reportedly found discrepancies in the parents' story. Video footage of the park during the time in question did not show the parents there, and witnesses stated they did not see any of the three family members leave their apartment.
Furthermore, a neighbor approached deputies and told them Jeffers had called about two hours after law enforcement arrived and asked if the police were still outside the apartment, according to the complaint. When the neighbor said yes, Jeffers allegedly asked if she could sneak by.
Investigators further alleged that they overheard someone they believed to be Jeffers telling the neighbor to listen to deputies' conversations to see what their plan was.
The child victim was later listed in stable condition, although she tested positive for fentanyl.
Deputies executed a search warrant at Turley and Jeffers' apartment and reportedly found dozens of used syringes and pieces of plastic bags with whitish residue. When the suspects returned home on Wednesday, they were arrested.