4-year-old Washington girl overdoses on 'rainbow fentanyl' pills, parents facing charges

The parents of a 4-year-old girl who police said overdosed on what appears to be "rainbow fentanyl" pills in Washington state last week have been charged by authorities in connection to her death.

Joseph Edward C. Walker, 30 and Judy Bribiescas, 39, are each charged with first-degree manslaughter in their daughter's Dec. 28 death, Benton County records show. The child died in Kennewick, a city in the southeast portion of the state just north of the Oregon border.

Jail records show Bribiescas, who is also charged with misdemeanor drug possession, was being held on $200,000 bond Thursday at the Benton County Corrections Department. An arrest warrant was issued for Walker on Wednesday.

As of Thursday, Walker remained at large and online records showed he had not been booked into the jail.

According to a Kennewick Police Department news release, just after 9:30 p.m. officers responded to an Econo Lodge for a report of a child that had stopped breathing.

Emergency workers performed first aid and transported the child to a local hospital, where she died, police wrote in the release.

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4-year-old consumed 'rainbow fentanyl': court documents

According to court documents obtained by KEPR-TV, doctors found "two pills and multiple pill fragments in the child's body" that resembled a fentanyl laced pill sometimes called rainbow or Skittles fentanyl.

The outlet reported the girl's mother told officers she found her daughter unresponsive and called 91 after exiting the bathroom and that she admitted using the drug but said she did not 'use it around her children."

Security video footage at the scene shows Walker holding his daughter in his arms by the front door to the hotel room, before handing her to the child's mother and reportedly fleeing the scene, the outlet reported.

The case remains under investigation.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.