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LINDON -- A Lindon woman was booked into jail Friday for child neglect and other charges after police say she overdosed on drugs while she was babysitting her 8-month-old niece.
Lindon police got a call just before 8 a.m. about a woman collapsed on the front porch of a home near 300 West and 60 North. Chief Cody Cullimore says officers responded and found 22-year-old Kassandra Wood barely breathing.
Cullimore says there was strong evidence she had overdosed on heroin.
They were smoking and injecting heroin and smoking marijuana, so an extremely neglectful situation for this little infant.
–Chief Cody Cullimore
Wood's boyfriend was at the home and let police inside. As Woods was being treated outside the house, officers went inside to collect drug paraphernalia and were surprised to find an 8-month-old girl playing alone in a playpen in the basement.
"The drug abuse was taking place all through the night," Cullimore said. "It just didn't happen early in the morning. The child, being physically alone, was neglected the entire time this drug abuse was taking place."
Police say the baby belongs to Wood's sister and Wood was supposed to be babysitting the girl.
"They were smoking and injecting heroin and smoking marijuana, so an extremely neglectful situation for this little infant," said Cullimore. "While the drug abuse was taking place they had placed the child into the bathroom apparently in an effort to keep it a little farther away I guess from the fumes of the heroin burning."
Police say the baby was OK and has been returned to her mother. Wood was taken to the hospital for treatment before being booked into the Utah County Jail. She's being held on $3,500 bail.
Police are still searching for Wood's boyfriend -- Lanale Taylor -- who they say took off while officers and medics were attending to Wood and the baby. Taylor will likely face drug and child neglect charges as well.
Police say he has several warrants out for his arrest.
"We had no indication that the child is in any danger with the mother, but obviously she made some poor choices in who she left the child with," said Cullimore.
Police say Wood has been arrested 17 times in the last three years. A majority of those arrests have been related to drug charges.
Story compiled with contributions from Shara Park and Randall Jeppesen.
