Parents charged after son, 4, dies from fentanyl exposure: DA
(Chester County District Attorneys Office)
THORNDALE, Pa. - A father and mother have been charged in the death of their four-year-old son after authorities say he died from fentanyl exposure late last year.
Jason Moore, 35, and Amanda Moore, 36, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of children, and recklessly endangering another person.
Back on Nov. 29, 2022 Caln Township police officers responded to a 911 call around 10:50 a.m. for a report of an unresponsive child at a home in Thorndale.
Officers arrived on the scene to find Jason Moore performing CPR on the unresponsive child. Medics then arrived on the scene and rushed the child to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in King of Prussia where he was pronounced dead.
According to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office, both Jason and Amanda Moore had both left their home at 7 a.m. that morning to go to work, forcing another one of their children to stay home from school and watch their two younger children.
Jason Moore returned home and called 911 after learning that his young son could not be awoken as he laid on the couch.
Investigators say the child had complained of a headache the night before, and his parents gave him Tylenol and a bath before he went to bed. He fell asleep on the couch, woke up at 4 a.m., and then returned to sleeping on the couch – the spot where he was later found unresponsive, according to authorities.
An initial autopsy turned up no obvious cause of death and no signs of injury, though authorities say the child appeared to have been deceased for some time before he was found and his father returned home.
Detectives then collected several items from the home and say that the stick of a half-eaten lollipop that was found in the Moore’s bedroom trashcan tested positive for trace amounts of fentanyl.
A toxicology report later confirmed the presence of fentanyl in his body. The cause of death was determined to be homicide by fentanyl toxicity.
Later in their investigation, detectives learned that Jason Moore had used fentanyl in the home, and paraphernalia was later found in his car and tested positive for fentanyl.
Authorities also alleged that Jason Moore had delayed calling 911 to clean up additional paraphernalia from the bedroom where the child had been found.
Both parents later submitted hair samples to test for the use of narcotics. Authorities say Amanda’s Moore’s sample tested positive for fentanyl, amphetamine, and methamphetamine.
Both Jason and Amanda Moore turned themselves In last week and transported to Chester County Prison. Bail was set at 10% of if $250,000.