Family says toddler died from fentanyl left behind at Airbnb

When Lydie Lavenir awoke from her nap, something wasn’t right: Enora, her normally energetic 19-month-old toddler, was not up from her slumber.

On a family vacation, Lavenir had put the child to sleep two hours earlier, after a morning of television and playtime with her four siblings. Lydie walked into Enora’s bedroom.

“Enora’s dead,” Lydie screamed, her voice carrying through the four-bedroom, two-bath lake house in Wellington, Fla., that the family had rented in August 2021. Enora’s face was blue, and there was a white foam seeping from her lips. The family scrambled to call 911. It was too late.

An autopsy by the Palm Beach County medical examiner and an independent toxicology report would later reveal that the baby’s system contained a lethal amount of fentanyl, a drug the family visiting from Guadeloupe had never heard of or realized could have been a danger.

No one knows how Enora got hold of the synthetic opioid. Investigators were not able to find any evidence of the fentanyl anywhere else in the vacation rental.

Police had suspected her parents, the family said. But investigators did not find drugs among their belongings, and Lydie and Boris tested negative, according to police reports.

Investigators tried to question previous renters, including one who admitted to throwing a party where there was cocaine. But nothing tied those drugs to what killed Enora.

“I am currently unable to determine how the child Enora Lavenir ingested the fentanyl,” an investigator wrote in the latest report. “Therefore I am unable to develop probable cause for abuse or neglect leading to the death of Enora. Currently the manner of death is listed as accidental.”

Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Teri Barbera confirmed the case is closed pending leads. Although no criminal charges have been brought, the family is now suing Airbnb, the property owner, the rental’s manager and the renter who had hosted the party.