Information found in court documents offers new insight into the death of an 11-day-old girl in Edmonton. However, a Dallas-based toxicologist says we can’t interpret too much from the data.
On March 29, 11-day-old Eliana Rice died of a methamphetamine overdose. In mid-May, the girl’s mother, Michelle Rice, was charged with second-degree murder.
Court documents obtained by Global News indicate Eliana had a methamphetamine concentration of .23 mg/L of blood when she died.
READ MORE: Edmonton mother charged in newborn meth death told police she was sober: court documents
Dr. Robert Johnson is a toxicologist in the medical examiner’s office in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. He says that concentration isn’t usually fatal in adults but babies are very different. Any amount of meth can be fatal for infants.
Johnson also says it’s difficult to quantify how much of the narcotic Eliana would have had to have ingested to have a blood concentration of .23 mg/L.
“We don’t know the purity of the drug, route of administration, how the baby ingested the drug,” Johnson said.
“It’s impossible to get there. Just in general, that amount of meth in a blood sample, it’s probably more than a crystal or two. It would probably have to be a more significant amount than that.”
That information could be important in court. A second-degree murder conviction requires the Crown prove the accused knew or ought to have known her actions could lead to death.
Court documents indicated Edmonton toxicologists concluded the methamphetamine concentration was too high to have come from breast milk; it must have been ingested either orally or anally.
Johnson said he does not disagree with the conclusions of his Edmonton counterparts. However, he says it’s hard to know how much of the drug can be transmitted through breast milk because there isn’t enough data.
“We can’t study it, really,” Johnson said. “We’re not allowed to dose mothers and test their breast milk to see the amount of meth in their milk following use.”
READ MORE: Edmonton mother charged with murder after 11-day-old daughter dies of lethal dose of meth
The court documents also show that despite claims she had been sober for months, Edmonton police found drugs and drug paraphernalia in Rice’s home.
The information is contained in documents filed by police when seeking to obtain a search warrant for Rice’s home. None of the claims has been proven in court.
Police wrote Rice found Eliana unconscious and not breathing. She called 911 and Eliana was taken to the Stollery Children’s Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Rice remained at her home and spoke with police officers. Court documents indicate that her “daughter had been sleeping in a bassinet near Michelle’s bed, but woke up crying during the night. Michelle then breastfed Eliana and put her to bed beside her in her bed (Michelle’s bed).”
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Documents also say Rice told police she fell asleep while breastfeeding.
Police also claimed that Rice, in subsequent interviews, told officers Eliana had never been alone with anyone other than her.
She said she has been sober for the last nine to 10 months from everything other than a small amount of alcohol and the last time she consumed meth was when she was pregnant with Eliana, about nine or 10 months ago.
Rice acknowledged to officers she had a vaporizer pipe and it was possible she still had baggies with meth residue inside them.
Police were granted the search warrant. They searched Rice’s home on April 7 and other documents indicate they seized multiple pipes, a small drug bag and drugs.
Rice remains in custody and faces second-degree murder charges.
Her next court appearance is on June 16.
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