Investigators have launched chilling new audio of a Kentucky mom confessing to exposing her eight-month-old child lady to heroin after she had traces of the drug on her palms.
Brianne Ehlinger, 33, and Shawn Gardner, 35, have been each arrested in November of 2023 after their eight-month-old daughter went into respiratory arrest.
Now Boone County investigators have made public audio through which Ehlinger will be heard confessing to how her youngster overdosed.
‘It is loads,’ the detective will be heard saying. It by no means ought to have occurred,’ Ehlinger says, tearfully.
The detective is then heard telling her in audio aired by Fox 19: ‘Yeah, yeah. It undoubtedly by no means ought to have occurred. However from right here, that is how we moved ahead and makes issues higher.’
Brianne Ehlinger, 33, is pictured with a distinct child, and never the one which overdosed on heroin. She confessed to exposing her eight-month-old child lady to heroin
Ehlinger is pictured together with her associate Shawn Gardner, 35. Each have been arrested in November of 2023 following the overdose of their child
The overdose occurred on the household dwelling in Burlington, Kentucky, in Boone County
Ehlinger, who has given start to not less than three youngsters, defined how she had a drug dependancy since she was 18 years previous however had been clear for 2 years having finishing a therapy program.
Nonetheless, she instructed the detective how had just lately suffered a relapse and made a tragic mistake after utilizing the drug.
‘Afterward, I used to be enjoying with my children, and I believed she had one thing in her mouth,’ the mom defined.
‘So, I put my finger in her mouth to verify her mouth, after which she kinda, like… she wasn’t respiration, like one thing was happening. So, we known as 911 and I did not even take into consideration one thing being on my palms,’
Ehlinger had unintentionally allowed her child to ingest the drug after forgetting to scrub her palms.
Brianne Ehlinger, 33, and Shawn Gardner, 35, have been arrested in November of 2023
Brianne Ehlinger is seen with Boone County officers throughout her preliminary arrest in November 2023
The couple have had not less than three youngsters collectively through the years
Each Ehlinger and Gardner had been by means of rehabilitation applications as a way to get clear
After realizing one thing was improper together with her child, it was then her associate Gardner who known as 911.
‘Me and my sister gave her CPR as a result of she was nonetheless type of respiration, however she was going out of it,’ Ehlinger defined to the detective.
Paramedics arrived on the dwelling and have been in a position to administer Narcan to reverse the opioid overdose.
Extremely, the newborn survived and after spending just a few days being cared for in Cincinnati Kids’s Hospital, she was later launched.
Ehlinger is pictured alongside one other of her daughter’s in a photograph on her Fb web page
Gardner is seen enjoying with considered one of his daughters in images posted to social media
Alongside the confession, Ehlinger instructed officers that her associate, Gardner, who had additionally undergone a therapy program prior to now, had given her the medicine.
Ehlinger accomplished a therapy program in 2019 whereas Gardner additionally underwent a drug therapy from which he ‘graduated’ in 2016. However each appeared to have relapsed lately.
The pair have been arrested in Might with Ehlinger pleading responsible to wanton endangerment and endangering the welfare of a minor.
She will probably be sentenced later this month and faces between one and 5 years in jail.
Gardner can even be in court docket later in July to face comparable prices.
The kid has since been taken into care beneath the Cupboard for Well being and Household Providers.
