Kids Removed After Meth-Lab Arrests

Two children are in foster care today and three adults are behind bars following a Tuesday night drug bust in a usually quiet part of Mount Pleasant.

Police found the remnants of a small-scale meth lab in the home on Wakendaw Blvd. Tuesday evening. Officers charged Daniel Evander Johnston III and Heidi Marie Dawley with with two counts of unlawfully exposing a child to methamphetamine, according to a Mount Pleasant Police Department news release.

A third woman, Lauren Pender, was also taken into custody and charged with possession of schedule IV controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and providing false information to police officers, according to the release.

Dawley, 31, was the only full-time occupant of the home. The two children in the home are hers, police said. Johnson, 29, resides on Woodlock Road in Mount Pleasant and Pender resides in Moncks Corner, according to police documents.

Though the lab was small in scale, the scene on Tuesday evening in Wakendaw Lakes was anything but. Police closed the road into the neighborhood for at least five hours while investigating the discovery.

“As a precautionary measure, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office Metro-Narcotic Unit and Bomb Squad, along with the Mount Pleasant Fire Department HAZMAT Team responded to the location,” said Police spokesman Capt. Stan Gragg. “Metro Officers donned protective equipment and were able to confirm the presence of precursor chemicals but not an active lab.”

The children were taken to the local hospital to be examined for their exposure and turned over to Charleston County Department of Social Services, Gragg said.