Minnesota Parents Charged in Fentanyl Death of Baby Girl

St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News)- A Minnesota mother and father have been charged in the death of their infant daughter. 

See Also: Minnesota Mother Charged With Murdering 2 of Her Children 

The criminal complaint, filed earlier this week in Ramsey County Court, says St. Paul Police responded to a 911 call reporting of a one-year-old not breathing and gasping at St. Paul home on Dec. 1, 2023. 

A voice in the background of the 911 call could be heard saying “Where is the Narcan,” the complaint says. 

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Officers who responded to the home found medics working on the young girl who appeared to have ingested something. The child’s father and her grandmother were also there and said they did not know what the child ingested. 

Charges: 1-Year-Old Minnesota Child Dies After Ingesting Fentanyl

The infant’s mother, identified as 20-year-old Tessa Jean Vorlicky of St. Paul, had fled the scene on foot before officers arrived at the home. She was detained a short time later, the complaint says. 

The child was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced brain dead on Dec. 5. 

Meanwhile St. Paul Police executed two search warrants at the home and found multiple pieces of burnt tinfoil on the home’s floor, numerous items of drug paraphernalia, narcotic residue, 0.2 grams of suspected methamphetamine and a baggie of suspected drugs. The charges also say the home had dog feces on the floor. 

Over the course of the investigation, police learned that a hold was placed on the child when she was born in September of 2022 because Vorlicky was using fentanyl while she was in labor at the hospital, the charges say. 

An autopsy of the child determined she died of acute fentanyl toxicity. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office found fentanyl and non-fentanyl in the child’s system and recovered a piece of folded up tinfoil in her colon, according to the complaint. 

Vorlicky has been charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter. Court records indicate she had active arrest warrants at the time of the child’s death. 

The child’s father, identified as 36-year-old Derrick Marshawn Harrison of St. Paul, has also been charged with felony child endangerment. 

He was not at the home at the time of the overdose but admitted to knowing about Vorlicky’s drug use and acknowledged the child could’ve been left in a safer place, the charges say. 

Harrison said he sees Vorlicky’s drugs, and they talk about it frequently. Harrison said he accepted responsibility for not being there for MV and getting her into a better situation.

-Vorlicky complaint. Ramsey County Court

 

Vorlicky is being held on $150,000 bail and has not yet made her first court appearance in the case. Harrison is jailed on $50,000 bail and is also awaiting his first court appearance.

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