Crime & Safety

St. Louis Couple Charged In Infant's Overdose Death

The 8-month-old girl was exposed to fentanyl, an opiod that has been used to execute a death-row prisoner.

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ST. LOUIS, MO — A St. Louis couple is facing charges after their 8-month-old daughter overdosed and died after coming into contact with the opiod fentanyl. The Post-Dispatch reports 52-year-old Robert Hasenfratz and his 27-year-old girlfriend, Samantha Poppleton, are accused of child endangerment resulting in the infant's death in May.

The child was found dead at the couple's south St. Louis home in the early morning hours of May 14, and investigators quickly ruled her death suspicious. Charges against Hasenfratz and Poppleton accuse them of using drugs in the girl's room and storing drugs near her bed.

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Fentanyl, a prescription pain medication and anesthetic, is a primary culprit in the rash of drug overdose deaths to strike the United States in recent years. More than 72,000 Americans died from overdoses last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — more than car crashes and shootings combined.

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Just this week, Nebraska became the first state to use fentanyl to execute a death-row prisoner, despite death penalty opponents saying the drug could cause "tortuous pain."

Hasenfratz and Poppleton are held on $150,000 cash-only bail.

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