Police: Father drugged baby to hide withdrawal symptoms

Authorities say baby was born addicted to opioids.

Colby Wilde and Lacey Christenson welcomed their third child into the world on April 9 at Utah Valley Hospital.

The doctors, nurses and medical staff eventually cleared out of the room, giving the parents a few moments alone with their new daughter. Unlike most new parents, they did not hold the newborn child, overcome with emotion.

Instead, Wilde quickly crushed pills of Suboxone, an FDA-approved drug used to treat heroin addiction and withdrawal, police say.

He moistened his finger and dipped it in the resulting powder. Then he stuck his finger in his daughter’s mouth, smearing it along her tiny, tender gums. Though she had been in the world less than half a day, the baby, like thousands others in the United States, was already addicted to opioids.

Christenson had been “heavily using heroin and prescription pain medication during her pregnancy,” according to a news release from the Utah County Sheriff ’s Office.

The Suboxone pumping through the baby’s body masked any withdrawal symptoms, so only the couple knew of her addiction.

They left the hospital, baby in tow.

But for an incident at a Walmart, authorities might never have known what had really happened at the hospital, and of the plight of the infant and other children in the couple’s home, police say.

Two months after the couple left the hospital, a security guard at Walmart in Elk Ridge, Utah, witnessed the 29-year-old Wilde pushing a shopping cart containing a car seat holding his twomonth-old daughter.

Wilde walked down an aisle and picked out a few items. Rather than check out, he marched directly across the store to customer service, where he returned the items “as if he had purchased them,” police said.

As several security guards approached Wilde, he grabbed the car seat and sprinted toward the exit. But he mistimed the sliding doors and reached them before they fully opened. He hit the glass hard, dropping the car seat. It bounced and rolled several times, his daughter still strapped in, according to police.

Wilde scrambled to grab the seat and began running. He exited the store, but again misjudged his path. As he raced past a pillar, he accidentally smashed the car seat into it. Again the seat crashed to the ground with his daughter still strapped in.

And again he picked it up. This time he handed it, and his baby, to a stranger before jumping into his car and driving away.

His 26-year-old common law wife Christenson waited inside the store with their two sons and one son she had from a previous relationship. They ranged in age from 2 to 8 years old.

Police arrested Wilde before he made it out of the parking lot and booked him into the Utah County Jail on a variety of charges, including driving under the influence, possession of heroin and methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without insurance.

Christenson was also arrested on a prior outstanding warrant.

When police searched the house where the couple lived with the four children, they found drug paraphernalia scattered everywhere. One piece was next to the infant’s bassinet, another near a sippy cup. Also lying around was Suboxone, some of it in pill form, the rest of it crushed.

The two were additionally charged with four counts each of child endangerment.

The children were tested, and the two younger boys the couple’s biological sons - tested positive for methamphetamine, according to police. The infant tested positive for methamphetamine, heroin and morphine. The oldest boy’s father, took custody of all four children.

By July 5, both Wilde and Christenson were out on bail. Acting on a tip, police visited their house on July 18 with a search warrant, only to find Wilde smoking heroin.

Both were arrested again, and this time investigators collected blood and urine samples. Both tested positive for methamphetamine and opiates.