MOM BUSTED IN TODDLER’S METH DEATH

Autopsy: 2-year-old boy found unresponsive in S. Wichita motel died of 'methadone toxicity'

KWCH
August 28, 2019

WICHITA, Kan. -- Autopsy results show a 2-year-old boy found dead in a south Wichita motel in May had methadone in his system.

According to Sedgwick County District Coroner Timothy Gorrill, 2-year-old Zayden Jaynesahkluah died as a result of methadone toxicity. Gorrill noted that because he did not know how the boy got the narcotic his manner of death is undetermined.

Toxicology results show a juice bottle containing red liquid and a cigarette butt both tested positive for methadone and nicotine. A can of Coke containing a cigarette butt and cigarette ashes also tested positive for methadone, nicotine and caffeine.

The autopsy report goes on to state Zayden was born prematurely. He had been treated for seizures believed to be linked to a viral infection at a local hospital May 2-3, 2019.

The autopsy states Zayden reportedly arrived at the Sunset Motel in the 2300 block of South Broadway around midnight on May 31 because his family's electricity had been cut off. The boy was with his mother, sister and his mother's male friend

Zayden was discovered unresponsive at 9:45 a.m. and 911 was called. When police and EMS arrived on the scene, resuscitation attempts failed and Zayden was pronounced dead at 10:35 a.m.

The report states the boy had 0.82 mg/L of the drug in his femoral blood and 0.50 mg/L in the blood in his heart.

Eyewitness News interviewed Zayden's mother, Kimberly Compass, following the boy's death. At that time, she said got up, saw her son had thrown up and called 911.

"It freaked me out," she told us at the time. "I became hysterical, which of course, I would. He's my son. Then I just waited for them to get there to help."

Compass was arrested on Aug. 15 and charged her with first-degree murder in the son's death. She is being held in the Sedgwick County jail on a $500,000 bond and is scheduled to be back in court in September.