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Richard Piatt and Marc Giauque ReportingA four-year old finds a pill that turns out to be a powerful painkiller. Did it come from a bowl of candy she shared with three other kids?
Tonight, police and the F-B-I still don't know where the pill came from. A day care provider claims the 30 milligram dose of time-release Morphine was mixed in a bowl of candy.
Tonight, the unnamed Herriman woman is claiming she got more than she bargained for when she poured a box of Nerds into a cup. The pill has been identified as MS Contin, timed-release morphine used to treat severe pain.
The candy is identified as Nerds, tiny, crunchy tidbits, some with roughly the same color as the pill. Apparently, a four-year old girl spotted the difference and set the pill on the counter for her mother.
It's a good thing. If one of the four children at the daycare had chewed the pill, it could have been fatal.
Danielle Mudrock, Salt Lake Co. Sheriff's Dept.: "It is an extended release tablet, and we as adults would take the pill. But a child would chew it so it would go into their blood stream all at once and shut down their breathing."
Tracking down the source of the pill isn't going to be easy, but police are investigating this as a product tampering case.
Danielle Mudrock, Salt Lake Co. Sheriff's Dept.: "This could be at a local level. This could be at a national level," Mudrock says. "It's just, at this point, it's not confirmed. We're in the process of investigating that and getting all the information." The sheriff's department verified that the daycare provider bought grape and strawberry Nerds candy at the Smith's grocery store in Herriman. She told investigators she put the candy in a bowl for the children and noticed a pill mixed inside. The Smith's in Herriman removed the candy from its shelves.
Another curious aspect of the case, the two-year old in the group tested positive for opiates at a local hospital.
Danielle Mudrock, Salt Lake Co. Sheriff's Dept.: "The only thing I got from the parents is that her pupils were huge, and that they had gone down by about 7:00 last night, and she's doing fine."
All of the children are okay. While the pill mystery remains unsolved, the family of the little girl is thankful she didn't eat the MS Contin. Her mother told police, "There must have been an angel on her shoulder."
The FBI is on the case and the Sheriff's department is investigating. The Willy Wonka Candy Company has an internal investigation underway, as does Smith's, where the family bought the candy.
Authorities are advising parents to inspect their children's candy if they have indeed purchased some grape-flavored Nerds.
