A 5-month-old girl may have been left alone for as many as four
days starving and dehydrated before dying, after her parents fatally
overdosed on heroin nearly two weeks ago, PEOPLE confirms.
According to police, the small body of Summer Chambers was found Thursday
inside a bassinet in the upstairs bedroom of a Johnstown, Pennsylvania, home, the
remains of her 19-year-old mother, Chelsea Cardaro, were found in a
neighboring bathroom while her father, Jason Chambers, 27, was found lifeless
on the first floor.
Local pathologists estimated Summer’s parents had been dead a week by the
time a friend found them. Authorities believe the mother and father died almost
simultaneously.
“The pathologists said a child can
live a couple of days without food or milk. She was only 5 months old, so she
was on her back … she had no way to move from that bassinet.”
Summer succumbed to dehydration and starvation, according to
officials.
According to the Report, a friend was called to check on Chambers and
Cardaro when the couple, who had recently moved to Pennsylvania from New York,
failed to show up for planned holiday festivities.
The friend found all three bodies and immediately called 911.
Police recovered “evidence of drug use and heroin” from the couples’ home
and believes the two “were using a substance that was obviously laced with
something.” Tests are being performed on the heroin that was removed from the
residence to determine if other chemicals were present.
Police had been called to the couples’ home before Last month, when Chambers
overdosed on heroin, responding police and EMS technicians revived him using
Narcan, a heroin overdose antidote.
State child welfare authorities were contacted after Chambers overdosed,
officials visited the home on Dec. 7 and “felt everything was appropriate,” though
Cardaro denied being a drug user.
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