- Police responded to a report of a child overdosing on pills at an extended stay motel in Ocean Springs, Miss. on July 6
- Over the course of the months-long investigation that followed, the girl’s mother, Brittney Leigh Hensley, allegedly fled to Alabama, where she was apprehended on Oct. 15
- Per authorities, Hensley claimed that she had also taken large quantities of medication but that her blood work does not support her story
A mother in Mississippi has been accused of making a suicide pact with her young daughter — and then after her 10-year-old took the pills, not following through with the pact herself, Ocean Springs Deputy Chief of Police Steven Dye tells PEOPLE.
Brittney Leigh Hensley, 37, was arrested by the Ocean Springs police and charged with felony child abuse causing serious bodily harm, according to her online booking record. On Tuesday, Oct. 29, she was taken into custody at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center in Pascagoula, Miss., where she is being held on a $500,000 bond.
Brittney Leigh Hensley in an undated mugshot released by Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers.
Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers/Facebook
“It is very tragic,” Dye tells us in a phone interview, noting that police are looking to hand over a strong case to the local district attorney’s office. “It’s cases that we wish would never occur, but at least when we work these cases and apprehend the bad guy, we can hold their feet to the fire on what they’ve done. That’s the main thing for us: People need to be held accountable for their actions.”
Dye notes that the upsetting details of the case in the quiet Mississippi beach town have had reverberating effects on the small seaside community. “No one wants to see a child hurt,” he says, adding that officers involved in the case have children of their own and such child abuse cases are “always a little bit harder on us.”
He adds, “Any time we’re dealing with a child in a situation like this, it is very tough. It pulls on our heartstrings.”
Police first responded to a report of a child overdosing at a Studio 6 Motel in Ocean Springs around 6:25 p.m. on July 6, Police Chief Ryan Lemaire confirms to PEOPLE. The 10-year-old girl — whose name has not been released — was unresponsive when police arrived.
Inside the motel room, officers located “several unknown capsules and empty prescription medication bottles in a green backpack” near the child, according to Lemaire. The medications were allegedly prescribed to Hensley.
Both mother and child were separately transported by ambulance to Ocean Springs Hospital, where doctors intubated both mother and daughter, the chief says, adding that daughter was then flown out by helicopter to USA Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Alabama for further treatment and survived.
Investigators later learned that Hensley and her daughter had made a “suicide pact,” with both allegedly agreeing to take the medication, Lemaire says. The deputy chief of police adds that Hensley claimed to investigators that she had also taken pills, specifying an amount of medication and time period when she took it.
But, citing the physician’s statement, Dye tells PEOPLE that blood work conducted on the mother while she was hospitalized was not consistent with her statements to investigators. He also says the physician concluded that if the mother’s statements were “true and accurate then she would have been deceased.”
The exact bloodwork results have not been released, but Dye says that her claims did not add up compared to what was found in her system.
Citing their preliminary findings, Dye says investigators believe the mother decided not to follow through on her end of the suicide pact.
As the case built against Hensley, police say she fled to Alabama, where she had once lived and had family. In a release posted to Facebook on Oct. 14, the Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers said that the mother was wanted in connection to a criminal child abuse charge involving the poisoning of a minor.
Authorities then issued a warrant for her arrest. On Oct. 15, Huntsville police arrested her in Alabama.
She was later extradited to Mississippi. As of Oct. 31, she has not been indicted, and it was unclear if Hensley had yet retained a lawyer.
Lemaire says the 10-year-old is now in the custody of Mississippi’s Child Protective Services.
