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Woman in Indiana charged in overdose death of 16-year-old

Posted at 7:40 AM, Feb 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-08 12:55:09-05

GREENFIELD, Ind. -- A 19-year-old woman has been arrested in Indiana and charged after she provided Fentanyl to a 16-year-old, leading to him overdosing and dying.

Officers with the Greenfield Police Department were called to a house in the 900 block of Gondola Run on Jan. 3, where they found 16-year-old Jacob Root dead. 

A woman who lives at the house, 19-year-old Anna Southgate, told police he came over to the house, where he injected heroin. 

According to the probable cause document, she told police they used heroin at 4 a.m., then stayed up for a few more hours. She said she didn't want Root to go to sleep because she thought he was "too high." She said he started to look really pale and fell asleep, but she didn't call 911.

According to the document, Southgate admitted to police that the heroin was hers, and that she bought it from a man in Indianapolis.

Police conducted a search of Southgate's phone and found the following Google searches: 

  • "What to do when someone is oding"
  • "What to do if your friend has overdosed"
  • "How to intervene during an overdose"
  • "The dying process"
  • "What you should know about agonal breathing"

An autopsy showed that Root overdosed on Fentanyl. The human limits of Fentanyl are .10 ng/ml, but Root had consumed 1.7 ng/ml that night, 17 times the human limit. He also had .56 ng/ml of Norfentanyl in his system. The limit of Norfentanyl is .20 ng/ml. 

Southgate faces the following charges:

  • Dealing in a narcotic drug
  • Reckless homicide
  • Unlawful possession of syringe
  • Possession of paraphernalia