Parents charged after 10-month-old dies of drug overdose

WPVI logo
Friday, December 7, 2018
Upper Darby parents charged for 10-month-old girl's drug overdose death
Upper Darby parents charged for 10-month-old girl's drug overdose deathUpper Darby parents charged for 10-month-old girl's drug overdose death. Gray Hall reports during Action News at Noon on December 6, 2018.

UPPER DARBY, Pennsylvania -- A mother and father were arrested and charged with murder after their 10-month-old girl died from an accidental drug overdose.

Thursday morning, 32-year-old Lauren Semanyk was taken away from the courthouse in handcuffs.

She did not speak to the media. The father, 34-year-old Joseph Milano, was already in jail on DUI charges.

Joseph Milano and Lauren Semanyk

Police say Semanyk and Milano tried to cover up the fact that their daughter Angelina got her hands on fentanyl-laced heroin and overdosed.

Investigators say they responded to the family home back in April for reports of a child going into cardiac arrest.

Police say the parents claimed the child drowned in a bathtub. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Arrest warrants were issued after the autopsy revealed the drug overdose.

"This is a very, very tragic story and it shows what drug addiction can do. The victim was a 10-month-old baby girl," said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.

"She was healthy and just learning to walk, she could say 'momma' and 'da-da'.... and she's dead," he continued.

Chitwood said the parents waited more than six hours before getting the child help, despite allegedly knowing the girl had ingested the drugs.

Copyright © 2024 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.