Mom On The Run After Toddler Daughter Dies: Sheriff
00:00 She was sleep in the front room, my one-year-old, and she was sleeping in the front room. Oh, my God. She was sleeping in the front room. She walked, she came in and was laying next to my niece. She's dead. A mother calls 911 after her daughter dies, and now she and her mother are in jail, charged in the little girl's death. I'll explain why and how this was so incredibly preventable. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and this is crime. This case is so sad and so tragic. If the allegations the sheriff is making are true, the death of this 17-month-old girl at the center of this story was entirely preventable. The child's grandmother, Tammy Stroud, faces a number of charges, including involuntary manslaughter in connection to the little girl's death. And the girl's mother, Brittany Stroud, also faces charges.
01:03 As it stands right now, the sheriff says the little girl died from a drug overdose of fentanyl. That's an opioid that a lot of IV drug users use instead of heroin. This case takes us to Orient, Ohio, a small village of 246 people in Pickaway County. That's about 25 miles south of Columbus, Ohio's state capital. It was October 13th, a Tuesday, just after 11 a.m., when Brittany Stroud, a 30-year-old woman called 911, frantically, Her 17-month-old daughter was not breathing. Take a listen. She was sleeping in the front room.
01:49 She was sleeping in the front room. Oh, my gosh. She was sleeping in the front room. She walked, she came in and was laying next to my niece. And she just, she was looking. I don't know. I checked on her earlier. I checked on her.
02:05 I just tried to flip her over if she's dead. She was laying with her face like flat in the bed. Brittany Stroud is beside herself. And she should be. This is a small child. Her daughter. who's unresponsive. Oh, my God, my leg, I can't even see it.
02:23 Lot three. Three? It's the third trailer. Oh, my, it's okay. We're past that. She's purple. We've all been sleep. She came in and laid down in the bed this morning when I got my daughter up for school.
03:05 Oh, my God. Okay. And I said, where's the baby? And my niece said, she. You saw the baby? Um, we call in there. I don't know.
03:29 I was just like my phone. She said that she was making a sound, but I thought she was just, oh my God. The 911 call taker tried to see whether the little girl could be helped. Her lips are purple-wood cheese pale. She would have came in after my mom went to work. So around 5 o'clock,
04:24 five or six this morning, I don't know what time it was when my niece was, she was obviously breathing because she was like, making this, but I thought she was just snoring. And then I'm sitting on the bed, and I'm, like, looking at her, and she's, like, I'm not seeing her move around. She hadn't moved at all or anything. So I got over there, I walked over there, and I touched her arm, and I noticed, oh, my God, bro. And you do you not think CPR will help at all at this point?
04:51 No, ma'am. No, she's cold and everything. Yes. She's on her baby mattress on the floor. Okay. But no one was around her? No, my niece is laying on the floor next to her. Brittany Stroud did not attempt CPR.
05:18 The EMTs arrived at the mobile home and found the little girl. She was rushed to the Children's Hospital in Columbus, but it was too late. The 17-month-old child had died. A Pickaway County Sheriff's incident report states, upon investigation and questioning, it appeared that one-year-old AJ was seen on the living room floor, last evening on yesterday's date watching television. House members and family were in the living room with her for most of the night. At some point, the girl fell asleep on the floor that was seen by AJ's grandmother slash guardian, Tammy Stroud and her son. The incident report matches much of what
05:57 Brittany Stroud said in the 911 call. The report continues, Tammy had gone to bed, leaving AJ on the floor and her son fell asleep on the couch. It was then stated that Tammy had got out of bed and had gone to work at around 0,600 hours this date, and AJ was still on the living room floor at some point after Tammy went to work. AJ ended up in her bedroom laying on her mattress that is situated along the far wall on the right side of the room. AJ's cousin, a 14-year-old, was asleep on the floor next to AJ, and AJ's biological mother, Brittany Stroud, was a sleep on a mattress along the left wall of the bedroom. Brittany woke up and checked on AJ about 7.30 and heard AJ snoring. Brittany laid back down and fell asleep and woke up again about 1100 hours.
06:48 Brittany checked on AJ again and saw that she was not breathing. A.J. was reported to have been sleeping on her knees with her face partially pushed into the mattress that possibly restricted her oxygen intake. Brittany turned A.J. onto her back and saw that A.J. lips were blue slash purple. Brittany screamed and ran out of the room calling 911. One of the saddest and enraging parts of this case is that Brittany Stroud wasn't even supposed to be around her children unsupervised. Court documents state that she had lost custody of them and her mother. Tammy Stroud had custody of the little girl with the initials AJ. Court documents state that Franklin County Children's Services was in the process of removing Britney's children from Tammy's.
07:34 home because she was living in the home, and two of her children have been born with fentany in their systems. Brittany Stroud is charged with involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, and possession of a controlled substance for her alleged role in her daughter's death. Tammy Stroud, the grandmother of the children, faces the same charges, since the sheriff says she allowed her daughter to live with her and be allowed around the children unsupervised, which violated a court order. I want to turn now to Newtown Police Chief Tom Sinen. He is not involved with this case at all, but he is heavily involved in the fight against the opioid epidemic in the state of Ohio, in southwest Ohio, in the greater Cincinnati area. Tom, thanks so much for coming on.
08:23 Thanks for having me, Ingenet. You know, Tom, I've done stories with you many times over the years. It's been a long time. But when you listen to this 911 call, I mean, what? comes to mind for you. I mean, to me, this is just like horrific, every parent's worst nightmare. A hundred percent. It's really difficult to listen to. And I think one of the first things that popped out to me was hearing the kids in the background screaming, they're yelling, just the chaos of the call. And from someone who's been dealing with addiction and substance use disorder working
08:57 in the space for quite a long time, you understand that when it comes to addiction, studies have shown 40 to 60 percent of it is genetic. Then there's also a trauma component and an environment component. And, Ann Jeanette, when I'm sitting there listening to this 911 call, I'm sitting there listening going, wait a minute, these kids are in the cycle. Now the mother and grandmother are both in criminal justice system. I read reports where now the kids are in foster care and you just think this cycle is continuing. And the other part when I listen to this, I'm thinking about those first responders who were responding to a 17th month old who is now dead. And it seems in to, from what I've been able to read or read that all the allegations that the courts were trying
09:44 to step in, protective services were trying to step in. Those barriers were put in place, but because of allegedly the grandmother allowing the daughter back into the home and this condition that they knew could happen, ends up happening. It's pretty tragic to hear this, especially from the 911 call. The whole thing that really strikes me about this incident, aside from being so tragic, is that it was so preventable. And children's services knew they told Tammy Stroud, grandma, that you're not supposed to allow your daughter to have unsupervised contact with her children.
10:22 They knew she was a danger to them. And now, Grandma, Tammy, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and other crimes. And I want to read just a little snippet. We'll put it up on the screen from the court documents. It states, Tammy Stroud did aid nor bet in committing an offense of endangering children by allowing Brittany Stroud to have unsupervised possession of Britney Stroud's 17-month-old child, A.J. And would have knowledge that Brittany Stroud would be in possession of fentanyl, which did cause the death of A.J. by means of fentanyl intoxication. Tammy Stroud did have knowledge Britney Stroud had an aggressive addiction to fentanyl,
10:58 did have knowledge to children, of which the oldest being AJ tested positive for fentanyl during birth and did have knowledge per Franklin County Juvenile Court, Brittany Stroud, was not to have unsupervised visitation or control with AJ due to those ongoing circumstances. It's unbelievable to me that, you know, a grandparent would have allowed this, and maybe grandma because her son was there, thought everything's going to be okay but everything was not okay so that's what's so upsetting to me about this case is that this was foreseeable and preventable a hundred percent foreseeable and preventable and i tend to side on it on empathy but empathy doesn't mean i condone or accept somebody's behavior nor does it relieve them of responsibility and accountability and that's going to be the
11:53 challenge with this is it's going to add to the discussion of when you're talking about substance use disorder that part of holding people accountable now you want to try to get people treatment but just like you're saying here is a grandmother who's told by a court and by the juvenile system don't allow your daughter around the kids because of their addiction and then allegedly now those kids were exposed to the fentanyl and they had been exposed allegedly to fentanyl before so to your point it's very preventable. All she had to do was make sure the daughter was not there by herself. And I'm sure there's a hundred reasons we could go through. Why? But when it comes down to, in the end, the 17th month old lost their life. And to your point, this is something that could
12:36 have been prevented. If someone would have been there, if someone would have told her, don't be here alone. Or if someone just would have said, I'm not going to allow you in the house while I'm not there. It could have been that simple to prevent a 17-month-old from being exposed, allegedly to this fentanyl or whatever else it may have been. But it is an extremely tragic story, and it's more tragic. When you talk about substance use disorder, there's always the discussion of choice and no choice. But when you're doing that, you're talking about an adult. You're not talking about a 17th month old. This was a completely innocent child that was already in an environment that would have been challenging, but now unfortunately lost their life.
13:15 because of the substance use disorder someone was going through and that they didn't follow the rules from the court and from child services yeah and then it goes on to talk about in these court documents basically that children's services was concerned Tammy was not communicating with them we're going to put this other grab up on the screen a Franklin County Children's Services would also advise me another child was born to Brittany Stroud in May of 2026 so there's a baby a little baby involved in this and was born with neonatal abstinence syndrome as the child upon birth tested positive for fentany as did brittany during the birth so she's very active in her addiction this child was placed into the custody of the biological father and brittany at the time had stated she consumed fentany daily as she gets sick and so they say that basically the children's services agency they were attempting to pursue a removal of little a.J. from Tammy Stroud's residents as on prior visitations they observed Brittany to be in the house and having the appearance of residing there which was
14:22 in violation of the Franklin County Juvenile Court's order. Additionally Franklin County Children's Services would note Tammy Stroud lacked return communication with them and not being forthcoming regarding Brittany residing with her. That is really really concerning because that signals my grandma mom of Brittany not you know she's enabling her daughter potentially and not really looking out for the best interest of her granddaughter absolutely and you would would have hoped that there's obviously a pattern that they're establishing they see the pattern there's a court order and it sounds like they were in a process of moving forward with it and I'm sure that they had legal hurdles that they had to go through first probably had to check off boxes before they could take action you wish that there could have been
15:12 some action beforehand and I'm sure everyone involved in this case because again this is one that apparently everyone sees this coming and it's a matter of when can we step in and when can we prevent this and unfortunately it didn't happen in time and again you go back to the allegations with the grandmother as you're saying it all she had to do is make sure she wasn't there by herself and and look I'm sure when it comes to substance use disorder one of the things we see is a lot of guilt and shame this is going to be very difficult on everyone involved the kids, the first responders. I'm sure for for Britney and the grandmother, it's going to be challenging too,
15:48 especially when she gets into a point where she's sober and understanding how the, her actions led to these allegedly led to these consequences. It's going to be challenging for everybody. And Jeanette, this is just a tragic story all around. And I'm usually one who can try to find a silver lining. I can't find a silver lining in this one. To have a 17-month-old baby die from something that, that could have a, have been so was everyone saw it coming and could have been prevented. I'm not exactly sure
16:17 what steps could have been taken. I'm not involved in the case. So I'm not sure if they could have stepped in sooner or if there was some kind of legal hurdle. But to me, it sounds like the system was trying and the system was trying to work on it. It goes back to human behavior. And whether it's enabling or tough love, I've seen both sides of it. I've seen mothers who do enabling and something bad happens. I've seen tough love and something bad happens too. I'm not saying these are easy situations to be in, whether it's someone with addiction, substance use disorder, or someone who loves them. It is a very challenging situation. But when it comes to a court order and children's services saying, do not let her around the kids unsupervised because her addiction
16:58 is so bad, we are concerned for her kids. That should be a huge red flag for someone to say, you know what, I'm going to take that time. I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen because I got to protect the next generation. And again, I go back to that 911 call, which just sticks in my mind of hearing these kids screaming. And you hear that screaming. And they're in this chaos. And you're thinking, this could have been prevented if someone just would have said, no, don't be around here. And I know the struggles are trying to get someone into treatment.
17:27 I'm not even going down that path. It is a matter of all someone had to do was say, I'm, Brittany, I'm not going to let you hear at home by yourself. This is what the court says. We need to protect these little kids. At some point, again, you're talking about a 17-month-old who has no ability to walk away from this, to step away from this, to get out of this chaos. And again, I go back to those kids who are going to be living this cycle, and now they're in foster care. The mother and grandmother are involved, at least initially, in the criminal justice system. So, again, I can't find a silver lining in this.
18:02 I've looked and I've tried, and this is just one of those tragedies that I think hits hard for everybody involved. And no matter where you stand on this issue, you're going to look at this and say that this is really difficult for us to absorb and to comprehend. What I find so shocking about this is that Brittany, you know, she had one baby, AJ, initials AJ, born with fentany in her system. That was not enough of a wake-up call. And then she had another baby in May of this year. second chance to wake up call not enough so that says to me this is somebody who is so deep into their addiction and now at the time that we're recording this tom they cannot find her she is in the wind somewhere whether she is somewhere hiding out getting high or just hiding she's in the wind
19:01 they can't they haven't been able to find her yet so that is somebody who is very very very very entrenched and deep into their addiction. And I'm not sure there's, there's any coming back from that aside from maybe, maybe throwing her in jail will save her life. Yeah, no, that is probably an option. And you hear it a lot when you're working in a space of substance disorder. Some people need treatment. Some people need a 12-step program. Some need medically assisted treatment. And we had a case here in Newtown where the entire family died and one of the daughters. If she would not have one to prison and she says this, it saved my life. So it may be one of those, incidents where someone, as you said, is so entrenched in that substance use disorder that
19:41 that's what it might take. And this is the struggle, Ingenet, is you try to understand substance use disorder, and you do understand that it changed the makeup of the brain, for layman's term, the wiring of the brain. You understand that they're not really working with the frontal cortex of the brain. And you hear people talk about, how could someone make a decision like that? Well, their brain is not necessarily, like a layman terms, online. So when they're not online, they're making these decisions that most people wouldn't make.
20:10 And to be quite honest, if they were not under the influence of the substances or their substance use disorder, they probably wouldn't make it either. But as you said, they're so entrenched in it, this pattern continues over and over and over again. And where is that breaking point? It might be that someone needs to go to jail. In our case, that's what ended up saving this person's life. And they've been in sobriety for a number of years. They have their family back and job and they're helping other people. So I guess the only thing you can hope for is that the family gets back on track, those kids get on track and get into a loving home, that they break some of these cycles of substance use disorder, that Brittany gets into help, whether it is in jail or whatever she may need to get that help.
20:52 But she's got a long road, and the grandmother's got a long road too. Again, you're already dealing with guilt and shame when you're under that throw of substance use disorder. Add this on top of it, and that's going to be a lifetime of struggle, knowing that. that again, especially when you get to a point where you're sober and you look back on your decisions and your actions and wonder how that could have happened and now you realize it's going to be traumatic for a lot of people. And there's going to be a lot of work that's going to be needed by everyone involved in this. And again, I want to point out this first responders responding to that call. I'm sure this had a tremendous impact on them. And when you think of it from a first responder perspective, I've worked a number of years over 10 years trying to change the stigma of substance use disorder.
21:34 especially from a first responder perspective. It is hard to argue a first responder coming back from a call like that and not feeling angry, upset, not feeling like there's some kind of, they just saw something traumatic and they're going to have to process it too. And how do you reconcile that? How do you reconcile the empathy for someone who's going through substance use disorder and yet seeing a 17-month-old baby that's dead? So it's going to be a challenge for everybody involved.
22:01 And my heart goes out to everyone that's in this incident. And I'm hoping that down the road there's something that may be good that can come out of it. I'm just not at a point where I can see this right now, and I'm sure there's first responders are feeling the same way. Anyone that listens to 911 tape is going to feel the same way. They're going to have their own struggles listening to that tape. So, again, a very tragic scene. This is, and what makes it more tragic, as you said, this was preventable. It could have been stopped.
22:29 And a 17-month-old could have been alive. you and I would not be sitting here talking right now if people just would have done what the court said in children's services said a 17-month-old baby would still be alive. Yeah, it's just heartbreaking. It's sickening, actually. It's heartbreaking and sickening just really turns my stomach. May that little child rest in peace. And hopefully the other children get the help that they will need. Chief Tom Sinen of the Newtown Police Department. Thank you so much for joining me. So at the time of this recording, deputies are still looking for Brittany Stroud. Her mother, Tammy Stroud, is being held on a $250,000 bond in the Pickaway County Jail.
23:14 And that is it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back.
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