GLENWOOD, IA (KETV/CNN) – A mother in Iowa was arrested Monday for allegedly drugging her 8-year-old daughter “over a long period of time,” which caused the girl’s death from an overdose.
Nearly one year after her daughter’s death, 34-year-old Misty Frazier is charged with two felonies: child endangerment resulting in death and distributing a drug to a minor without a prescription.
Before her death, Kathleen ‘K.T.’ Tafta, 8, lived with her mother, siblings and grandparents in Glenwood, IA. Investigators say Misty Frazier gave the 8-year-old an unprescribed antidepressant “over a long period of time.”
“She was wrong for giving her the medications, but she never intended any harm to come to K.T.,” said James Frazier, Kathleen’s grandfather.
According to court documents, emergency room doctors treated the girl for a drug-related seizure just three weeks before her death. Investigators say Misty Frazier lied and told doctors Kathleen had a prescription for the antidepressant Amitriptyline.
Doctors told the mother to reduce the dosage amount.
On Oct. 19, 2016, Kathleen died from an overdose.
The medical examiner reports “to achieve the toxicity levels found in the girl's body, she received the drug regularly over a long period of time."
Misty Frazier broke down during an interview last December, admitting she had been giving her daughter the pills from an old medication, investigators say.
According to court documents, investigators never found any prescribed medication for Kathleen.
"I don't see what she’d have a purpose for doing it. Why would she take one of her kid’s lives and not the other one?” said Cinda Frazier, Kathleen’s grandmother and Misty Frazier’s mother.
The girl’s father, John Tafta Jr. is estranged from Misty Frazier and her family, but he says he’s devastated over the loss of his daughter.
"Why did an 8-year-old little girl have to die? That's what everyone wants to know,” Tafta said. "Why did Misty have to go and do this? Why did she have to take a precious little girl who didn't do anything to anybody?"
Misty Frazier is being held in the Mills County Jail on a $35,000 bond. Her preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 2.
"It makes me sad now because I lost a granddaughter and now maybe a daughter for a while,” James Frazier said.
Copyright 2017 KETV, Cinda Frazier, John Tafta via CNN. All rights reserved.
