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Mom Charged After Allegedly Rubbing Heroin on 1-Year-Old's Gums to 'Help Her Sleep'

NewsPublished Sep 19, 2019
By Kaitlin Stanford
Kimberly Nelligan appears in courtNews Center Maine/YouTube

A mom in Bangor, Maine, is in court after police say she resorted to extreme -- and deadly -- measures to get her 1-year-old to sleep last year: She allegedly rubbed heroin on the baby's gums. The little girl, named Jordynn, was later found unresponsive and rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Now, her mom, Kimberly Nelligan, is being held on charges of child endangerment and drug possession.

The incident happened on October 19, 2018, and it was the baby's father, Shane Smith, who told the police about the heroin.

In an affidavit, both parents told police their daughter had recurring issues with her stomach, as well as sleeping. But Smith told police Nelligan was the one to "treat" it, claiming the mom rubbed the leftover residue from their heroin doses on her daughter's gums.

And this wasn't an isolated incident, either. 

Smith claimed Nelligan had began rubbing heroin on Jordynn's gums for two months before her death. When asked how many times he witnessed her doing it, Smith claimed he saw it happen at least 15 times.

First responders rushed to the couple's home in the Holiday Trailer Park in Bangor, but were unable to revive the toddler.

Jordynn was taken to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, though was pronounced dead at the scene, News Center Maine reports.

The cause of death was sadly no surprise to investigators once they had Smith's confession -- a medical examiner ruled it to be acute fentanyl intoxication.

On Wednesday, nearly a year after her daughter's death, Nelligan finally appeared in court.

If the judge was expecting her to show remorse, though, that wouldn't be the case.

Nelligan was captured on camera making obscene gestures, yelling, and appearing to be irate that she was being filmed.

She was eventually granted bail on several conditions: She's forbidden to make contact with Smith, any minors under the age of 18, and any chemicals or illegal substances (except legal marijuana).

Alarmingly, this is the second case of its kind to be prosecuted in Maine, where a child ingested their parent's drugs.

This is the first case that led to a death.

"The fact that the case took a long time to investigate meant that we wanted to make sure about the charges that we were able to bring," Penobscot County District Attorney Marianne Lynch told News Center Maine. "We were in constant communication with the Attorney General's Office. If things change at some point, there's still a possibility for other charges to come forward, but at this time, these are the charges we are confident we can go forward with."

Nelligan has entered a not guilty plea and is due back in court in November.

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