Twin girls born with drugs including cocaine in their system die two days after birth, mother charged with murder
Chattanooga, Tennessee: A 29-year-old woman is facing multiple charges including murder after her newborn twins died and were found to have drugs in their systems.
Tiffany Marie Roberts was arrested on Tuesday, July 23, after the Chattanooga police responded to a call at TC Thompson Children's Hospital for a death investigation, according to the Nashville Tennessean.
On arrival, police officials learned that Roberts had given birth to twins prematurely at 23 weeks pregnant and the babies died just two days after their birth.
Authorities also found that both infants tested positive for several narcotics, including cocaine, at their time of the death.
Their cause of death was listed as pulmonary hemorrhage, a Metro report said.
Roberts was allegedly under the influence on July 20, when she experienced shortness of breath and had to go to the hospital for an emergency delivery. Doctors told police officers that she was tested positive for the drug on the day she gave birth.
After an investigation, police uncovered that it wasn't the first time she had used drugs during her pregnancy either.
They said that the 29-year-old had visited the doctors for checkups numerous times while she was pregnant and had tested positive for drugs, including cocaine, oxycodone, roxicodone, methamphetamine, and benzodiazepine, on three different dates.
The 29-year-old had initially celebrated the birth of the twins on Facebook, uploading their pictures and writing, "Bless these beautiful babies girls came early but they gonna be strong."
She also confirmed their deaths with an image that read, "When someone we love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure."
While social media users did not take too kindly to Roberts following the infants' deaths, a woman claiming to be her sister defended her.
"‘(You) have no idea what she has been through and I promise its more than u could ever fathom," she wrote. "(Y)es she has a drug problem yes she needs help…"
"God knows her heart and that's all matters she didn't intentionally kill the girls she has had a serious problem since grade school and she has lived in the streets her whole life and even her childhood … it's all she knows [sic]."
Roberts has been arrested on allegations of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and viable fetus as a victim in connection to the deaths, Hamilton County Court records state.
"Based on Ms. Roberts' illicit drug use during her pregnancy, in conjunction with the medical records, the infants were subject to aggravated child abuse and neglect which later led to their deaths," an officer wrote in her arrest affidavit.
She is currently being held at the Hamilton County Jail on a $1 million bond.