Deputies Say after a lengthy investigation a mother in Spartanburg has been charged with homicide.

A baby passed away because of drugs given to the child through the mother’s milk.

Deputies said on Nov. 13, 2010 police received an emergency call about a dead infant at a home in Spartanburg.

After the Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office and the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office investigated the death, they determined that lethal amounts of medications, including morphine, had been passed to the infant through the breast milk of the baby’s mother.

Investigators said after a widespread investigation which included toxicology tests, they determined the child’s mother, was taking prescription painkillers while nursing her 1½ month old.

She was arrested a few days later.

Doing toxicology tests and things like that, we wanted to make sure, and the coroner’s office wanted to make sure that we had done everything correctly and possible to make sure we understood fully what had happened to this child, how this child died and who was responsible for it,” said Tony Ivey of the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.

The mother, 37, has been charged with homicide by child abuse or neglect and 38 counts of violation of drug distribution laws.

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said the parent used fraudulent prescriptions to obtain painkillers in patch and pill form from a pharmacy in Inman.

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