Background: Unity Terrace apartments in Fairmont, West Virginia (Google Maps). Inset: Stevie Thibodeaux (West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation).
A 6-year-old jumped out of a second-story apartment window in West Virginia while their mother was asleep, and the child later tested positive for cocaine, authorities say.
The mother, 30-year-old Stevie Thibodeaux, is in the North Central Regional Jail, records reviewed by Law&Crime show. She has been charged with child neglect creating risk of serious injury or death, regional CBS affiliate WDTV reported.
On Monday, Thibodeaux was sleeping in a Unity Terrace apartment in Fairmont, West Virginia, she later told deputies. The Marion County city is located in the north of the state, about 90 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
As the defendant apparently slept, her 6-year-old child jumped out of a second-story window in the apartment, authorities said. The window had a screen missing, and someone contacted police about the incident.
Deputies with the Marion County Sheriff's Office responded to the home and spoke with Thibodeaux, who told them she had been asleep, per the area TV station. She also showed them childproof locks on doors inside the home, explaining that the locks usually kept the child from wandering off.
Authorities brought the child to a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, about 20 miles away, for evaluation. Once there, the child reportedly tested positive for cocaine.
Deputies requested and obtained a search warrant for the defendant's home, and during the search, they allegedly discovered a white plate with a food stamp card, as well as a white powder and a device used to ingest drugs. The defendant apparently admitted to using cocaine and leaving the plate in her closet.
The child's condition was not immediately clear.
Law&Crime reached out to the Marion County Sheriff's Office for more information about the case.
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