MIDDLETOWN, Ohio -- A grandmother overdosed on heroin Thursday afternoon after leaving her injured 2-year-old grandson with a stranger, according to the Middletown (Ohio) Police Department.
Police documents indicate that officers responding to an overdose call found Sheryl Graham unconscious inside her pickup and Joe Zeek, the man she’d asked to care for the child, pacing outside.
The child, which police heard crying inside the house, was in a full body cast when they arrived.
Zeek said Graham, whom he did not know, had asked him to babysit her grandson while she drove to the store to buy food and diapers. According to the police report, Graham instead spent this errand buying heroin and snorting it in the parking lot of a Dollar General.
Police said Graham was revived with narcan and taken to Atrium Medical Center, where she admitted to buying heroin and said she had been watching her grandson for a few days while her son was out of town. Melissa Spoonmore, an acquaintance of Graham's, told police the toddler was in a cast because his father had dropped him and broken his back.
Police removed the child from Graham’s care and charged her with child endangerment and disorderly conduct.
