Mom gave 10-year-old daughter pills, then broke their ‘suicide pact’: police

Brittney Lee Hensley was arrested in Alabama and extradited to Mississippi on child abuse charges.

• On July 6, police responded to a report of a child overdosing on pills at an extended stay motel in Ocean Springs, Miss.

• During the months-long investigation, the girl’s mother, Britney Lee Hensley, allegedly fled to Alabama, where she was arrested on October 15.

• According to official records, Hensley claimed she also took a large amount of medication, but blood tests did not support her story.

A Mississippi mother has been accused of making a suicide deal with her young daughter, then breaking the deal herself when her 10-year-old child took pills, Ocean Springs Deputy Police Chief Stephen Dye tells PEOPLE.

Britney Lee Hensley, 37, was arrested by Ocean Springs police and charged with child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, she said online. reservation record. On Tuesday, October 29, she was taken into custody at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where she is being held on a $500,000 bond.

As PEOPLE has learned, the case did not go to a jury trial.

“It’s very tragic,” Dye told PEOPLE in a phone interview, noting that police want to turn the case over to the local district attorney’s office. “We wish these cases would never happen, but at least when we work on these cases and catch the bad guy, we can hold them in the fire for what they did. For us, this is the main thing: people should be responsible for their actions.”

Dye notes that the disturbing details of the case in the quiet Mississippi beach town had a resonant effect on the small seaside community. “Nobody wants a child to get hurt,” he says, adding that the officers involved have children of their own, and these kinds of child abuse cases are “always a little bit harder on us.”

He adds: “Every time we deal with a child in this situation, it’s very difficult. It tugs at the heartstrings.”

Police first responded to a report of a child overdose at the Studio 6 Motel in Ocean Springs around 6:25 p.m. on July 6, Police Chief Ryan Lemer confirmed to PEOPLE. The 10-year-old girl, whose name has not been released, was unresponsive when police arrived.

In the motel room, police found “several unknown capsules and empty prescription medication bottles in a green backpack” near the child, Lemer said. Hensley allegedly prescribed the medication.

Both mother and child were transported separately by ambulance to Ocean Springs Hospital, where doctors intubated mother and daughter, the chief said, adding that the daughter was then airlifted to USA Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Alabama for further treatment, and she survived

Investigators later learned that Hensley and her daughter had entered into a “suicide pact,” with both allegedly agreeing to take the medication, Lemer said. The deputy police chief adds that Hensley told investigators that she also took the pills, stating the amount of the medication and the time period she took it.

But citing a doctor’s statement, Dye tells PEOPLE that blood work done on the mother during her hospitalization is inconsistent with what she told investigators. He also says the doctor concluded that if the mother’s statements were “true and accurate, she would have died.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime news? Click here to receive the latest crime news, current trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

The exact results of the blood tests have not been released, but Dye says her claims do not match what was found in her system.

Citing his preliminary findings, Dye says investigators believe the mother chose not to live up to her end of the suicide deal.

During the case against Hensley, police say she fled to Alabama, where she once lived and had a family. In a release posted on Facebook on Oct. 14, Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers said the mother is wanted in connection with a child abuse charge related to the poisoning of a minor.

After that, the authorities issued a warrant for her arrest. Huntsville police arrested her in Alabama on October 15.

She was later extradited to Mississippi. As of Oct. 31, she had not been charged, and it was unclear if Hensley had yet retained an attorney.

Lemaire says the 10-year-old boy is now in the custody of Mississippi Child Protective Services.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Support Service by dialing 988, text “FORCE” to the emergency line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.