Mother arrested for manslaughter in 4-year-old son’s death in Hamilton

A 39-year-old woman has been charged with manslaughter in the death of her four-year-old son after investigators spent more than a year probing the case, police said Friday.

Hamilton Police Service said they arrested the woman in Newfoundland, where she had given birth to another child in the months since her son died in September 2017 after a long history of medical issues.

Police said they originally did not have grounds to suspect foul play when they were called to the woman’s home for reports that her son was unresponsive.

Police said, however, that it’s a matter of routine to investigate the death of a child under five.

While initial autopsy results did not raise any red flags, police said the results of a toxicology screening released three months later showed a lethal dose of unspecified drugs in the child’s system. That led police to officially designate the boy’s death as caused by “drug poisoning” — by a prescription narcotic that was not prescribed to him.

Although the death was immediately classified as a homicide, police said they chose not to disclose that fact at the time.

The force notified the boy’s parents of the toxicology results in February 2018 and informed them that they were officially viewed as suspects in his death. His mother and father, who police said had previously co-operated with investigators, stopped doing so at that point.

Police said they reviewed medical records belonging to both the boy and his parents and ultimately formed “reasonable grounds” to charge his mother.

She appeared in a Hamilton courtroom Friday and was remanded into police custody.