8/29/2021- 11:40 p.m.
Three adults are in custody in Washington, Missouri after a 13-year-old boy was found dead Sunday morning of a suspected drug overdose, police said.
Officers responded to a home about 9 a.m. in the 600 block of Seventh Street and found the boy dead in his 12-year-old friend’s bedroom, said Washington Detective Sergeant Steve Sitzes. The 13-year-old was staying the night at his friend’s house.
The 12-year-old boy told police he and his friend had been experimenting with drugs in the house, Sitzes said. Police detained the 12-year-old’s mother, stepfather and another man who had been renting a room in the basement of the home.
“The 12-year-old was showing signs of being under the influence of something,” Sitzes said. “He was quite lethargic, and not quite with it.”
Police plan to seek drug possession charges Monday but may have to wait until toxicology test results are back before seeking charges related to the child’s death.
Police have not pinpointed the time of the boy’s suspected overdose but said they were last seen awake by adults in the house about 11 p.m. Saturday. Police said the 12-year-old said he and his friend then stayed up until at least 1 a.m. playing videogames.
Officers obtained a search warrant and found various prescription drugs and some illegal narcotics including methamphetamine and capsules possibly containing heroin or fentanyl, Sitzes said.
Police were withholding the dead boy’s identity to allow time for his extended family to learn of his death, Sitzes said. An autopsy is set for Monday.
