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The Iowa Register
Linh Ta, lta@dmreg.com
Published 7:31 p.m. CT Sept. 12, 2017
An Iowa mom was arrested Monday after she allegedly gave her 8-year-old-daughter pain medications she wasn’t prescribed, resulting in her death, according to court documents.
Prosecutors charged 34-year-old Misty Dawn Frazier, of Glenwood, on Monday. She’s being held in the Mills County Jail on a $35,000 cash-only bond. No attorney was named Tuesday for Frazier in online court records.
Frazier’s biological daughter, referred to as “K.T.” in court documents, died Oct. 19, 2016, after she was found unresponsive in her mother’s home in the 500 block of North Walnut Street in Glenwood. She attended Glenwood Elementary School and had a “lengthy medical history, which included various behavioral disorders,” according to court records.
A month prior to her death, local police were called to the Glenwood home and were told Frazier’s daughter was suffering from a seizure. While “K.T.” was being transferred to the hospital, Frazier told medics that earlier in the day, she had given her daughter 100 milligrams of amitriptyline, an anti-depressant. She then lied and told medics her daughter was prescribed the medication, according to court records. Frazier was then told to lower her daughter’s dosage of medication and she was discharged from the hospital.
After “K.T.”‘s death, law enforcement interviewed Frazier on Nov. 15. She told officers her daughter had been prescribed amitriptyline but said she threw out the pills after “K.T.” had had a bad reaction to the medication.
The 8-year-old’s grandmother was also interviewed that same day. The girl’s grandmother, who also lived in the same home, told officers she was unable to read, so “K.T.”‘s mother would set out medication that she would give to her granddaughter. She also told officers she was prescribed amitriptyline, but had extras because she would not take it regularly.
During a search warrant, officers found no medications prescribed to the 8-year-old girl. They found a bottle of amitriptyline prescribed to the grandmother, along with various old medications around the house.
When confronted about the lack of prescription for “K.T.” in December, Frazier began to cry and told officers she had given her daughter the pills from “an old medication,” according to police reports.
A review of “K.T.”‘s Medicaid records showed she was never prescribed amitriptyline.
An April 28 autopsy showed the girl died because of toxic blood levels caused by taking the pills over a long period of time, according to court records.
Frazier was charged with child endangerment resulting in death and a prescription drug violation involving a minor on Sept. 11. She is being held in Mills County Jail on a $35,000 cash-only bond.