Bonney Lake infant who died from ingesting fentanyl has been IDed, ME reports
An infant who died after ingesting fentanyl inside a Bonney Lake apartment has been identified as 1-year-old Weston Tucker.
Weston died from acute fentanyl toxicity on March 13 near the 22000 block of 100th Street East. His manner of death was ruled an accident, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office in a news release.
Tucker’s parents, Nicholas Lee Tucker, 33, and Karlee Eley, 26, have been charged by prosecutors with first-degree manslaughter.
Officers were dispatched to the complex at 7:41 p.m. after a child was found unresponsive on a bed. Nicholas Tucker told officers that he gave the child a bottle and then laid him down before he fell asleep, according to charging documents.
After Eley returned home that night, she smelled vomit and woke Nicholas Tucker up, documents show. When Eley checked on her son, he was blue.
Weston was taken to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital where he died on March 18.
Police allegedly found substances that tested positive for fentanyl on the bed and in parts of the apartment. A test for possible dangerous residue was arranged by the complex after Nicholas Tucker and Eley moved out. The results allegedly showed the unit had “the highest amount of residue they had ever seen in a residential apartment that had not been used for the manufacture of narcotics,” according to prosecutors.
Nicholas Tucker pleaded not guilty to the charge during his arraignment Friday. He is being held at the Pierce County Jail on a $1 million bail.
A bench warrant was issued for Eley’s arrest, according to court records.
