14-Year-Old Girl Dies After Her Mom Accidentally Gave Her Fentanyl To Treat a Toothache

Jackie Powers/Facebook, Overland Police Department/Facebook

Police in Missouri have arrested a mother in connection with the death of her 14-year-old daughter. Jacquelyn Renee Powers allegedly wanted to help ease the pain of her daughter’s toothache. She reportedly gave her a pill laced with fentanyl. The teenager died from an overdose hours later.

The tragedy occurred on October 3, 2024, at a home on Echo Lane in the town of Overland. Police arrested Powers more than a month later, and now she faces felony charges related to her daughter’s death.

Powers allegedly told police she gave her daughter the pill.

According to court documents, Powers reportedly admitted to giving her daughter what “she believed to be a prescription pain pill.” Police allegedly found other street drugs inside the home where minor children lived.

Powers gave her daughter the pill to help with pain associated with a toothache, KTVI reported. Ten hours later, her daughter was dead.

Powers had reportedly tried to prevent her own mother from taking the pills.

According to KTVI, Powers told police she had traded oxycodone pills with her mother for drugs she bought on the street, indicating that was why she possessed the fentanyl-laced pill. Powers said she wanted to “protect” her mom from the dangerous pills. She said she put the unidentified pills into a drawer. When her daughter complained of tooth pain, Powers allegedly gave her one of the pills, which ended up being fentanyl.

Police arrested Powers on November 8.

After an autopsy revealed the child died from a fentanyl overdose, Overland police officers took Powers into custody. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged her with endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree leading to death.

“This is tragic,” Overland Police Department Captain Jim Morgan told KTVI. “This shouldn’t happen. She was 14, she had a lot of years to look forward to.” Morgan confirmed the child had died several hours before police arrived.

Experts warn of the dangers of unused prescription medication.

Assisted Recovery Centers of America’s executive director, Aaron Laxton, told KTVI the teen’s death serves as a grave reminder to discard unused prescription drugs.

“In this instance, it was fentanyl and certainly should not have been in the home in the first place,” Laxton said. He added that no one should consume street drugs because of the dangers they pose.

“We warn folks not to trust the street-pressed pills that are purchased out on the streets because you simply don’t know what’s in them,” he added.