Law&Crime Sidebar - Mother Locked Up After Toddler Dies from Fentanyl Overdose

Episode Date: July 27, 2025

Mother Katherine Richards now faces justice after her 21-month-old daughter tragically died from a lethal fentanyl overdose. Nearly two years after the heartbreaking loss, court documents and testimony reveal a harrowing story of addiction, neglect, and the growing opioid crisis devastating families nationwide. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber breaks down the chilling details—from the toxicology reports to bodycam footage—with forensic toxicology expert Dr. Marc LeBeau.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A mother was sentenced to serve years behind bars after her toddler died from a deadly fentanyl overdose. And this shines a harsh light on the growing opioid crisis and its devastating impact on families. Nearly two years after the tragedy, the court heard how addiction and neglect led to such a heartbreaking loss. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law & Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. A Vancouver, Washington mother has been sentenced to several years in prison, nearly two years

after her daughter died from a tragic fentanyl overdose. You heard me right. Standing before Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis, 39-year-old Catherine Richards awaited her fate. In April, the jury had found her guilty of first degree manslaughter in the March 2024 death of her toddler, 21 months old. And we're going to get to the sentence in a little bit, but first, here's how all this began.

So the nightmare unfolded on March 26, 2024, when Vancouver police responded to a report of an unresponsive toddler. According to a probable cause affidavit, Catherine Richards told officers she had put her daughter down for a nap at around 3 p.m. and found her lifeless five hours later. Now the affidavit, which was reviewed by multiple outlets, states, quote, Catherine placed RJR on her stomach inside of her crib as RJR typically slept with her knees tucked up underneath her. While napping, Catherine checked on RJR using a baby monitor. When Catherine physically checked on RJR at about 20, 30 hours, she discovered her to be unresponsive and called 911.

Now paramedics, they pronounce this child dead within an hour. And at first, there were no obvious signs of trauma or anything like that. But I will tell you, the home itself raised a lot of red flags. The affidavit reads, quote, the residence was cluttered and unkempt. There was garbage strewn throughout, moldy food in various places, and limited free space on the floors, counters, and furniture. This is all something that investigators noted. And in the basement, they found quote, drug paraphernalia that was positioned like it

was used recently. Such a sad case, such a disturbing case. And this is one that we definitely wanted to shed light on and bring to you. And I will tell you, one of the reasons that we can do this is because of the amazing support that we get from our sponsors like Upside. Now, if you don't know what it is, Upside is great. It is a free app that gets you cash back when you buy daily essentials. So I pump my gas, I can use Upside.

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So Richards claimed that a friend was staying at her home seemingly suggesting It was that person who was using drugs But insisted it was confined to the basement and that her daughter never went near that area. But unfortunately for her basement and that her daughter never went near that area. But unfortunately for her, toxicology results told a very different story. The affidavit reveals, quote, on March 28th, 2024, an autopsy was performed on RJR. During the initial exam, a sample of RJR's urine was collected and presumptively tested for illicit drugs. RJR's urine was positive for fentanyl. Further analysis was requested from NMS Labs. On April 11th, 2024, I learned RJR was positive for fentanyl as well as naloxone, Narcan.

And this was concerning as naloxone was not administered by any first responders. According to the report, RJR's blood contained NG slash ML of fentanyl, and the urine contained 18 NG slash ML. And the presence of naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug, shocked paramedics because first responders hadn't administered it. So it raised serious questions about how it entered the child's system. Now before we go any further, I wanna bring on a special guest. I wanna bring on right now Dr. Mark Laboe, a board certified toxicology expert

and founder of Forensic Toxicology Consulting. Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate you taking the time. All right, thank you. Thank you for having me, Jesse. We talk about fentanyl being a poison in adults, but in toddlers, how lethal is it? What blood concentration levels are typically fatal?

What are we talking about here? Well, it's incredibly fatal, as you mentioned, for adults, but when you're dealing with a child, a toddler, it's such a minute amount that can be lethal to the child. There's no set magic number of a concentration that has to be reached for it to be lethal. These are presumably individuals that have developed no tolerance whatsoever to the effects of the opioid drug, which fentanyl is. Just a minute amount can be lethal.

So when we talk about fentanyl level of 17 ng slash ml in the blood, what does that tell you about the amount and what does that tell you also about the timing of the exposure? Because I wonder how quickly it could leave the system or it stays in the system. So 17, it's nanograms per milliliter. So it's an amount, a mass nanograms per amount of blood, milliliter. And what that means essentially is that if that were an adult that had that amount of fentanyl in their blood and they were not a chronic user of fentanyl, that would be considered to be lethal on its own. So what does that mean as far as the timing?

Well, we can't just look at the drug itself. We have to look at the metabolites, what our body converts that drug into. And a common metabolite for fentanyl is what's known as norefentanyl. And when you look at the ratio of the parent drug, fentanyl, to the amount of norefentanyl, you start to get an idea how quickly the death would have occurred. Did the body shut down?

Did the individual die before the body had a chance to fully convert the fentanyl into noref fentanyl into norfentanil. How easy is it for a child to consume or ingest fentanyl indirectly in a home environment? That's really the problem is that a child, a toddler is crawling across the floor. They're touching surfaces and putting their hands in their mouth. They're picking things up and eating them without even knowing what it is. And so it's incredibly easy to accidentally expose a child to fentanyl when you're in a home where a parent or some other individual

is using a drug like fentanyl. And the presence of naloxone, Narcan in the child's system, what does that suggest to you? Again, especially if first responders weren't the one to administer it. Yeah, exactly. You know, its presence when it's not administered by first responders, that's strongly suggesting that someone in the household recognize the signs of that opioid overdose and they tried to intervene. So that does indicate that the individual recognized that gave the naloxone as a means of trying

to overcome the overdose. But it also indicates that most people don't have naloxone in their house quite honestly. And to have that presence in the house means there probably was a common risk of an opioid overdose in the house. Is it possible it could have saved the child if it administered a certain way or at a certain time? Well, absolutely it's possible it could have because naloxone, what it does is it goes into the body and it blocks the receptors that opioids like fentanyl would normally bind to.

And by doing that, it minimizes the effects and kind of reverses the effect. So had it been administered quickly, it's certainly possible the child's life could have been saved. And it's possible that naloxone could be administered by a non-professional in a safe way? Do you need specialized training in order to administer it?

Yeah, I mean, it really doesn't require any specialized training. In fact, that's one of the means in which we've tried to overcome the opioid crisis here in the United States is more widespread administration and access to naloxone so that people can quickly administer this antidote, if you will, to the poison in instances of an opioid overdose. By the way, how reliable are urine tests in order to detect fentanyl and naloxone when you're dealing post-mortem cases, so somebody's already died? It's very reliable, provided that the laboratory has done their due diligence of appropriately validating their methods before they're using them. But today, fentanyl and naloxone are so commonly encountered that most forensic toxicology

laboratories and clinical laboratories have done that. They've validated for those specific drugs and the other evidence of those drugs with metabolite validation as well. Yeah, let me jump on that and I apologize if we talked about this again already, but I just want to clarify. How quickly does fentanyl metabolize in the body and is that important when you talk about the timing of toxicology in investigations? Yeah, it can be important.

It does metabolize relatively quickly in an adult, but there are so many factors that go into it, beginning with how frequently you're exposed to the drug and certain genetic makeups that can impact the speed at which it's metabolized, but in general, it's going to be a relatively fast acting and then quickly metabolized drug. The effects, they can last for an hour, maybe a little bit more, but in general, the individual is going to show the effects a short time after they've been administered the drug, somewhat dependent on the means in which they're administered the drug, somewhat dependent on the means in which they're exposed to it. Is it inhalation versus contact with the skin, oral ingestion, all of those will impact how quickly the drug acts and then how quickly the body is able to metabolize the drug.

Doctor, before we move on, I hate to ask this question, but I have to. We're living in this epidemic right now, fentanyl. How scary is it for parents out there if outside the home? So they don't even do it, nobody they know is doing it, but they go to parks, they go to movie theaters, they go to stores, kids are touching things. Should they be concerned about exposure in those environments and their kids putting their fingers in their mouths or whatever it might be or touching? How concerned should parents be? I would say not overly concerned.

The reality is this, you know, generally people that use drugs like fentanyl are going to do that in more of a private setting. They don't want to be out there advertising that they're using the drugs. So it tends to be in somebody's home or maybe in a bathroom stall, you know, a public park or something like that. And as a parent, you just want to take your normal precautions. You know, you don't want to just send your child into a park restroom all on their own and you want to make sure that they're washing their hands and, you know, they're being watched over. So just common sense in a way should stop any real risk of being exposed to drugs like this.

So when police returned weeks later on April 25th, 2024 to confront Richards with the toxicology findings and the unexpected presence of naloxone, her reaction was telling. The affidavit states, when I told Catherine that RJR died from a lethal overdose of fentanyl, she shook her head and replied, I'm bleeping careless. Now Richards initially blamed her houseguest, suggesting that the woman must have accidentally dropped fentanyl on the floor and she denied using the drug herself. However, the affidavit reveals that the friend told police otherwise, that both women had been using fentanyl.

And when questioned about the Narcan, Richards eventually decided to come clean. The affidavit states, quote, Next I ask why RJR would be positive for Narcan. Catherine admitted to administering two doses thinking it could not hurt when I asked why RJR would be positive for Narcan. Catherine admitted to administering two doses thinking it could not hurt. When I asked Catherine why she didn't tell any of the first responders or dispatch, she said she thought she told the paramedics. According to the VFD patient care record, there is no mention of Narcan. It is in fact stated that Catherine denied RJR had any medical conditions or had taken any medication. See, that's the problem. backstated that Catherine denied RJR had any medical conditions or had taken any

medication. See, that's the problem. So when Richards made her first court appearance, Richard's family had pushed for no bail, believing that she would be a flight risk. And in a September 2024 hearing, a victim's advocate relayed those fears. I wish my daughter no harm, but I believe it deserves justice and that Katie is currently using and will kill herself or run if you get her bail. Now Richard's attorney argued for treatment rather than incarceration, urging the court to place her in a facility where she can receive the help that she needs.

She really needs to get clean and sober, but that's going to be something she has to live with for the rest of her life. I couldn't imagine that. I think no jail would ever take that away from her or any of that pain. So doctor, just to reiterate this point, is it common, is it advisable for a non-medical person to administer naloxone in a suspected overdose,

especially with a toddler? If time is of the essence, I mean, what are the risks? Could her admission of giving naloxone without professional guidance, could that have adversely affected the child's condition? What is your take on that? Now, I would say the opposite.

I think by not administering naloxone, you would actually increase the risk of death. The naloxone is there to actually block those receptors that fentanyl would normally bind to. So the administration, I think, is perfectly fine. Probably what happened is the child was probably already deceased by the time the naloxone may have been given, and therefore it wouldn't have had any effect. But to be clear, I mean, she should have told the truth. So in other words, it might not have affected the care of her, the treatment of the child at that state when first responders arrived, but it would have been important,

you know, to record that in an emergency medical reports, right? That's true. I mean, you should always let first responders know what intervention that you tried yourself, including anything that was administered. Now, at Catherine Richards' sentencing on July 8th, Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Nicole Meyer delivered a stark assessment before Judge Robert Lewis, as reported by the Columbian. Meyer acknowledged that while Richards never intended to kill her 21-month-old daughter, her actions, her inactions warranted accountability. Meyer argued that Richard's lack of intent, that didn't absolve her from taking full responsibility. Now Richard's defense attorney, Michelle Michalick, urged the court for a lighter sentence, highlighting

her client's clean record, her overwhelming grief. She told the court, she's been punished the most because she lost her daughter. She's sick by it. And the Colombian also reports that Richard spoke in court too, expressing her sorrow, saying, I know nothing I do or amount of time I do will bring my daughter back. I don't wish this on my worst enemy. Whatever happens to me, nothing could hurt as much as losing my daughter. Now, Judge Lewis described the case as a tragedy, reflecting a growing societal problem, expressed his condolences to Richards before sentencing

her to seven and a half years in prison. At the end of the day, it is a tragedy. It shouldn't have happened. There needs to be a sense of accountability, but it is important to note that she didn't intend for this to happen and it's a really difficult situation and I can understand why the judge said that. But doctor, going back to you to finish this out, as we talk about this case, I hope the answer is that this is an outlier,

that you've never seen a case like this, but I'm gonna be guessing that unfortunately, you have seen cases like this, and I do wonder if you're seeing a lot of these kinds of cases. Yeah, unfortunately, we see far too many of these cases. The reality is parents that use fentanyl and other drugs, they tend to lose their sense as far as the dangers of these drugs and particularly around their children.

So it's unfortunate that particularly toddlers, young babies get exposed to these drugs accidentally. They're so small compared to an adult. So it doesn't take very much of an exposure for it to cause problems like this. So yeah, it's a sad state, but in homes where drugs are consumed, many times children are also exposed to those drugs. Dr. Marc LeBeau, thank you so much for taking the time.

Difficult case, really, really appreciate your insight. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber.

I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.