Infant Starved to Death While Strapped in Car Seat After Mother Dies From Heroin Overdose

In Tennessee, autopsies revealed that a 1-year-old toddler died of starvation in his car seat in a home where his mother died of a heroin overdose, and his 3-year-old sister, who was discovered alive, had struggled for days to feed her sibling.

Tiffany Spears, 32, and her infant boy, Nicholas Crowder, were discovered dead at their home in Portland, Tennessee.  The child had been strapped into a car seat that had been placed on the floor of a bedroom.

The woman had been dead for several days when a probation officer performing a house visit alerted the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office.

According to news reports, tests revealed that her death was caused by drug poisoning from methamphetamine and fentanyl. Starvation and dehydration killed the 15-month-old boy. Both fatalities were ruled to be unintentional.

As a precaution, the 3-year-old was sent to the hospital.

The autopsy report stated, “It appeared the decedent’s sister tried to take care of the decedent for several days,” noting that food was found in and around the car seat.