SPANAWAY, Wash. — A Spanaway father has been charged with first-degree manslaughter after his 2-year-old daughter died from a fentanyl overdose last week.
33-year-old Evan Hodge pled not guilty to the manslaughter charge on Wednesday and is being held on a $1 million bond.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Department (PCSD) said deputies responded to a home in Spanaway early Saturday morning after a man called 911 reporting his daughter was not breathing. Upon arrival, deputies and paramedics said the child was dead. Hodge told deputies he fell asleep with his daughter and when he woke up around 4:20 a.m., she was non-responsive.
Detectives returned to the home and reinterviewed the father along with serving a search warrant. The documents revealed investigators found a drug pipe, plastic baggies, a drug scale, tin foil with burn residue, and Narcan at the residence. Hodge told authorities he had fentanyl in a backpack in his car.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office said the child had a "significant amount of fentanyl in her system." According to court documents, the medical examiner said that the "amount of pills was among the most she had seen in a child."
"She, you know, probably just found these little pills and thought it was candy and thought she was being sneaky taking candy from her daddy," the child’s mom, Lilliana Peden, said after Hodge's first court appearance. “She was the happiest little girl."