A Pennsylvania woman was arrested on Thursday in connection with the death of her boyfriend’s 1-year-old daughter, who prosecutors said was poisoned with household items.
Alesia Owens, 20, is facing multiple charges, including criminal homicide, in the death of Iris Alfera in June 2023. She allegedly researched household products that were fatal to children and then poisoned the girl, Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry announced.
According to prosecutors emergency responders arrived June 25 at the home of Iris’ father in New Castle, northeast of Pittsburgh, where he lived with Owens. They found the 1-year-old unresponsive.
Iris was taken to a local hospital for treatment, then airlifted to UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. She died there on June 29, prosecutors said.
Medical examiners who performed an autopsy on her body revealed she died of organ failure caused by acetone poisoning, prosecutors said.
Investigators from the New Castle Police Department said they discovered that Owens conducted several web searches from February to June for information that was related to the toddler’s cause of death.
According to the attorney general’s office, Owens allegedly made repeated searchesfor household products that could kill a child, including water beads, batteries and nail polish.
Owens’ alleged searches included phrases such as “beauty products that are poisonous to kids” and “medications leading to cause accidental poisoning deaths in children,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors reported that months before the toddler’s death, she was hospitalized after eating “multiple harmful objects, including about 20 water beads, batteries, and a metal screw.”
Lawrence County Children and Youth Services was contacted after the hospitalization but charges were not filed, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The Tribune-Review reported that Owens is in the Owens County Jail after being denied bail.
“The details of this case are heartbreaking,” Henry said in the statement. “It is hard to fathom someone taking deliberate steps to harm a completely helpless child, then mislead investigators about what happened.”
