By Amaka Ojo
A couple in Quincy, Massachusetts have been accused of killing their 5-month-old daughter by giving her a bottle of baby formula containing heroin.
The couple, 30-year old Ryan Barry and Ashley Cyr, 26, who were arrested and charged with manslaughter on Friday, October 12, 2013, pleaded not guilty and were held on $200,000 cash bail.
According to Associated Press reports, the couple’s daughter Mya Barry died in September 2011 after Police responded to a 911 call and found the baby on the living room floor with her grandmother performing CPR on her.
Baby Mya’s father, Barry told police that he had made the baby’s last bottle by mixing 2 ounces of formula with 2 ounces of water, and later claimed that the heroin may have gotten into the bottle when someone cleaned a dirty syringe in the water bottle he used to make the formula.
Tests later proved that the baby formula in the bottle contained heroin, and an autopsy showed that the baby died from opiate poisoning.
At the time, Police said they found 3 grams of heroin and hypodermic needles on a shelf in a bedroom shared by Barry, Cyr, the baby and her two sisters, ages 3 and 4.
The couple are due back in court November 8 for a pretrial conference.
