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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas woman was charged Tuesday with manslaughter in the death of her 10-month-old son after investigators said she and her husband took the boy into a rugged part of the Ouachita Mountains while having drug-induced hallucinations about being chased.
Brooke Sueann Floyd, 21, of Greenwood, surrendered to Yell County officers Tuesday and went free under terms of a $50,000 bond posted on a previous child endangerment charge. She is due in a Danville, Arkansas, court Thursday.
The child, Harper, and Floyd's husband, 33-year-old Brian Floyd, were found dead last week after a four-day search in an area about 80 miles west of Little Rock. Deputies said they suspected something was amiss when Brooke Floyd emerged from heavy brush and reported the pair missing but didn't tell searchers where they might be.
"I asked her if she was taking any medication because she appeared to be hallucinating many of the events she described," sheriff's Capt. John Foster Jr. wrote in an affidavit. She said the woman told him she had recently used methamphetamine and an anti-seizure medication.
Foster also wrote that Floyd initially told officers the family was being chased but later believed the story was based on mutual hallucinations she was having with her husband.
"She seemed to be indicating that they would tell each other what they were seeing or experiencing as they were hallucinating and then the other would believe they also saw or experienced the same thing," Foster wrote.
Brooke Floyd was found July 25 in a ditch in the Ouachita National Forest, with bruises, bare feet and scratches that suggested she had walked through the thick woods for a long time, Foster said. The family's pickup truck was found July 28 and Brian and Harper's bodies were found the next day.
Preliminary autopsy reports said the child died of "exposure and abandonment." The cause of the husband's death was awaiting toxicology results.
Bill James, the woman's lawyer, said he does not believe the woman is guilty.
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