TODDLERS the innocent victims of the opioid crisis
In the past five years, at least three kids in Waterloo Region have died after finding drugs in the family home
Many of the photos depict a typical family home.
A child’s first handprints on a piece of paper taped to a cabinet in the bedroom. A calendar with his first birthday highlighted. Stuffed animals, toys and a crib.
But this house in Cambridge is a crime scene.
The photos were taken by police after the one-year-old died. The cause of death was a parent’s fentanyl.
Another photo shows three items on the bed where he died — a laundry basket, a smiling stuffed toy, and scorched tinfoil likely used to consume drugs.
Photos taken inside the room in Kitchener where a 20-month-old girl died from opioids are heartbreaking.
One shows a “Sesame Street” book, “5-Minute Stories,” near a soother and a drug baggie containing a multicoloured substance, all on the bed where the child died.
A scrap of tinfoil with drug residue sits in the cup holder of the child’s car seat.
These are the innocent victims of the national opioid epidemic — toddlers dying after finding fentanyl or carfentanil in the family home.
“This is the type of tragic death that has become all too common,” Justice Dominique Kennedy said in sentencing the mother of the oneyear-old who died.
“It is an unfortunate consequence of the opioid crisis facing our society.”
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times more potent than heroin, causes drowsiness and sedation. People who ingest it can lose consciousness and stop breathing.
Carfentanil, also an opioid, is much worse — up to 100 times more potent than fentanyl.
Across Canada, from 2016 to 2023, more than 40,000 people died from opioids. Children make up only a tiny portion of the deaths.
But in the last five years, at least three toddlers in Waterloo Region have died after finding opioids in the house. They apparently either ate the drug or absorbed it through the skin. Four parents have been convicted of criminal negligence causing death in those cases.
In another case still before the courts, a 27-year-old woman is charged with manslaughter in the death of her 15-month-old son who was allegedly exposed to an illicit drug in Cambridge in September 2022. She was also charged with possession of fentanyl.
Children have also died from opioids in other parts of Ontario. In Hamilton, a 42-year-old was sentenced in 2021 to 30 months behind bars for criminal negligence causing the death of her four-year-old son. He died of hydromorphone poisoning after ingesting his mom’s opioid pain medication.
In the local cases where the parents have been convicted, court-ordered publication bans prevent The Record from naming two victims and three parents.
THE DEATHS
May 4, 2021
■ The boy had just turned one. His parents rented the basement of a house in Cambridge. They and their three children all slept in the same bedroom.
The woman put her son down for a nap beside his father. The dad awoke at 1:30 p.m. and left his son alone on the bed.
A half-hour later, the woman tried to wake her son, but he was unresponsive and had stopped breathing. She screamed. The boy was taken to hospital but pronounced dead at 4:20 p.m.
Police found traces of fentanyl and the anti-anxiety drug etizolam on scraps of tinfoil in the bedroom. The father admitted he brought fentanyl into the home. Both parents knew drugs were in the bedroom.
The father “was in the highest position of trust toward the victim, which he breached, causing the most tragic of results,” said Justice Melanie Sopinka.
The boy’s death devastated his extended family.
His grandmother said their world was “shattered and turned upside down” after the death of the boy, whom another relative described as a “sweet, loving, smiling, lovable and, most importantly, innocent little baby.”
“I recognize that no sentence will bring back the joyful and innocent life that has been lost or provide adequate closure to (his) extended family,” Sopinka said.
“I also recognize that (the father) has also paid a heavy price for his actions” through the loss of his son.
The father, now 41, was found guilty after a trial and was sentenced earlier this year to five and a half years behind bars.
He was prescribed opioids after an injury when he was 21, then became addicted.
He no longer uses drugs, and is “extremely remorseful for his actions,” said defence lawyer Cooper Lord.
“This is a tragedy, no matter how you look at it,” Lord said. “Nothing that happens from here on will change for him the extreme sorrow and guilt and pain that he has dealt with and will deal with for the rest of his life.”
The boy’s mother “knew the drug was dangerous and she did not take necessary steps to keep (her son) safe in that context,” said Justice Kennedy.
Determining the appropriate sentence was difficult, she said.
“On the one hand, (she) has suffered a terrible loss. I accept that (the) death has cast a long shadow over her life and has motivated her to be a better parent for her surviving children,” Kennedy said.
“On the other hand, an innocent child lost his life in a totally preventable and foreseeable way because of decisions made” by the mother.
The 40-year-old woman was sentenced last October to 30 months in prison. She received credit for pleading guilty, a sign of remorse, and taking steps toward rehabilitation.
The mother “had a duty to keep him safe,” Kennedy said. “(He) was an innocent one-year-old baby who relied on his parents for everything. He was totally vulnerable and fell victim to his environment — the environment maintained by his mother.”
Dec. 1, 2020
■ The boy was two years old when he found his mom’s fentanyl in their house in Cambridge and ingested it.
His mother, now 31, was sentenced last June to four years in prison.
She was addicted to fentanyl. Her parents also used drugs. The three lived with the boy and his two young siblings.
On Dec. 1, 2020, at 12:14 p.m., someone in the house called 911 to say a child had no vital signs.
Police arrived four minutes later. When no one came to the door, an officer kicked it open.
The officer saw the three adults, “who all appeared panicked, walking around while (the child) was lying on his back on the couch without vital signs,” said Crown prosecutor Andrea Macgillivray.
The boy’s siblings, aged five and six, were also at home.
“One was in a bedroom playing and the other was running up and down the stairs,” said Macgillivray.
Firefighters began resuscitation, and continued until paramedics arrived and stopped the life-saving efforts after determining the boy was dead.
The boy’s mother and her parents were taken to the police station. The mother collapsed and was taken to Cambridge Memorial Hospital for an assessment.
She later told police her son woke up between 1 and 3 a.m. She said she gave him a Fruitopia drink and put him back to bed. In the morning, his siblings woke up. The mom thought her son was just sleeping in, which is why she did not realize until shortly after noon that he was dead, the Crown said.
Four days after the boy died, police got a search warrant for the house and found drug paraphernalia, including in the grandparents’ bedroom.
A piece of tinfoil in the boy’s bedroom contained fentanyl; another piece had fentanyl and etizolam.
An autopsy concluded he died of intoxication from fentanyl and etizolam.
In court, the mother acknowledged she used fentanyl and left some in her son’s bedroom.
“This was not an accident,” said Macgillivray. “The tragedy here was completely avoidable.
“We’re no longer at a point where anyone can claim that they don’t know about the dangers of fentanyl. Fentanyl is a scourge on our community. It’s killing people.”
When the mom was arrested about four months after her son died, she gave a videotaped interview at the police station.
On the tape, she’s seen hiding something in a chair in the interview room. It turned out to be fentanyl.
“Sentencing in these types of cases is very difficult,” Macgillivray said. “The loss of an innocent child — what worse outcome can there possibly be? This shouldn’t have happened …
“You have an addicted parent, addicted grandparents. Their addictions led them to put these children in danger. They put their needs above the needs of their children.
“(The mother) did not want to cause harm to (her son), but her actions made it incredibly likely that harm would befall him, and it did.” The mother has already paid a steep price, Macgillivray said.
“The loss of her child — there can be no greater punishment than that,” she said.
“But the principles of deterrence and denunciation have to be the primary considerations here. A strong and clear message has to be sent to the community — bringing fentanyl into a home with children makes a tragic end very likely. The dangers are well known. To ignore them will result in a significant penalty.”
Justice Paul Sweeny accepted a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence for a four-year sentence.
The mother got credit for pleading guilty and having no prior criminal record.
Charges of criminal negligence causing death against the woman’s parents were stayed after they agreed to a three-year peace bond that barred them from having contact with the boy’s siblings. The couple admit no guilt.
Feb. 21, 2019
■ Amelia Runstedler was 20 months old.
Her mother, Nicole Eidt, put a bag of carfentanil in a zipped pocket of a jacket or sweater and went to sleep. Amelia opened the pocket, ate some of the drugs and died.
Eidt, 27 at the time, was sentenced in December 2019 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to criminal negligence causing death.
Eidt, who had previously quit drugs but relapsed a few weeks before Amelia’s death, was using carfentanil — she thought it was fentanyl — in the room she rented on Heritage Drive in Kitchener.
She put an Elmo movie on the television and got out a puzzle for Amelia to play with.
With Amelia playing on the bed, Eidt fell asleep.
She awoke to find Amelia lying on top of her, limp and with blue lips, but still warm to the touch. Eidt noticed the baggie of drugs was missing from her pocket and found the baggie on the bed.
She started screaming hysterically for help, which got the attention of others in the home, who called 911. Eidt started CPR on Amelia and continued until paramedics and police arrived.
“I killed my baby,” Eidt told police. She said she knew Amelia was a clever girl who could open zippers.
Toxicology tests found an “astronomical” level of carfentanil in Amelia’s body.
Amelia’s grandparents told the court of their “immense grief” over the toddler’s death.
“Her grandparents all reflect on what a beautiful, caring and happy child she was,” Justice Sopinka said.
“She brought much love and joy to all of their hearts, and her loss in such tragic circumstances is simply devastating.”
Visit cancelled
In the Eidt case, she was supposed to have a visit from a child-welfare worker a few hours before her daughter died.
Family and Children’s Services of Waterloo Region had arranged the visit after learning Eidt might be using drugs again.
Four hours before the scheduled visit, Eidt left a voice message with the agency, cancelling the meeting.
This was not the first time Eidt had cancelled an appointment with F&CS, said Eidt’s mother, Deborah
Donner, in a victim-impact statement.
“Why would anyone with a long addiction history be allowed to cancel several appointments?” she asked.
No one from the agency was called to speak at Eidt’s sentencing hearing, but the court heard evidence of the agency’s actions.
About one month before Amelia died, Family and Children’s Services got a referral from a family doctor, saying a relative suspected Eidt was using drugs again.
Six days later, the agency spoke to Eidt and the child’s dad, who both denied Eidt was using drugs.
Further followup with Eidt was “difficult” and despite several attempts, the agency wasn’t able to set up a home visit.
On Feb. 13, 2019, eight days before Amelia died, an agency worker went unannounced to Eidt’s last known address and was told Eidt had moved to an unknown location. The next day, F&CS again reached out to Eidt, eventually made contact and scheduled a home visit for Feb. 21 at 10 a.m.
Eidt, Amelia and the child’s father, Christopher Runstedler, had been living in a rented room. Four days before Amelia’s death, Runstedler, 29, was arrested on drug trafficking charges. He was in jail when his daughter died. Eidt had full custody of Amelia.
On the day Amelia died, the room she and her mother lived in had drug paraphernalia strewn about. Methadone, glass pipes, a small torch, syringes, alcohol wipes and scales with drug residue were in the closet. What appeared to be drug residue in tinfoil was in the cup holder of Amelia’s car seat. There was no crib.
“This is not a case of what Family and Children’s Services could have done,” Crown prosecutor Jane Young said in court.
“They did what they could have done as soon as they became aware that Ms. Eidt was potentially back using narcotics and did their utmost to track her down and have an in-house visit.
“These are people who are reaching out and … concerned about Amelia.”
Eidt herself had been the one who first contacted Family and Children’s Services, when she asked for help to stay clean of drugs while pregnant.
But in the weeks leading up to Amelia’s death, Eidt lied to authorities about restarting her drug use, then failed to draw on the supports offered by cancelling the visit “on the very day of Amelia’s passing,” Justice Sopinka said.
“Ms. Eidt’s lack of candour with child-welfare workers does aggravate her conduct, as it removed a safety net that might well have saved Amelia.”
Eidt “chose to care alone for Amelia despite the support she had in the community from Amelia’s grandparents and Family and Children’s Services, an agency that she had voluntarily engaged in the past to ensure her successful parenting,” the judge noted.
That, combined with leaving deadly drugs in a room with no crib, “represented an environment of abuse that was simply ripe for disaster,” the judge said.
‘‘ We’re no longer at a point where anyone can claim that they don’t know about the dangers of fentanyl. Fentanyl is a scourge on our community. It’s killing people.
ANDREA MACGILLIVRAY CROWN PROSECUTOR
‘Actively involved’
In the case of the two-year-old Cambridge boy who died, his family had been “actively involved” with Family and Children’s Services, court was told.
Workers had been to their home several times after getting reports about concerns of neglect as well as the children’s exposure to drugs.
“Witnesses to the state of the family home would attest that there was illegal drug use, including fentanyl, inside the family home at least six months prior to the death,” said Macgillivray, the prosecutor.
F&CS was unable to substantiate the claims, Macgillivray said.
But the agency talked to the boy’s mother and grandmother about “the dangers of drug use and exposure to the children.”
Three months before the child’s death, the mother and grandmother told an F&CS worker they did not use drugs. The agency “offered a lifeline” for the child, but the mother “threw that lifeline away,” said Macgillivray.
“That’s an aggravating fact. There were ways out. This didn’t have to happen.”
Children have also died from opioids in other parts of Ontario. In Hamilton, a 42-yearold was sentenced in 2021 to 30 months behind bars for criminal negligence causing the death of her fouryear-old son