LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A Hardin County woman was arrested after three of her small children tested positive for methamphetamine.
According to an arrest warrant, 27-year-old Malaynah Root is the mother of four children: a 5-year-old, a 3-year-old a 2-year-old and an infant whose age was not provided.
“There are going to be long-term scars from what these children have experienced, and it breaks my heart to say that,” said Officer John Thomas with the Elizabethtown Police Department.
On July 30, Child Protective Services, as well as the Elizabethtown Police Department, were asked to investigate after a large bruise was discovered on the infant’s forehead. All four children were placed in protective custody, but medical professionals were unable to determine the cause of the bruise.
During the investigation, the hair follicles of three of the children were tested for illicit drugs. According to court documents, all three of those children tested positive for methamphetamine, and two of the children tested positive for THC.
“All we can say for certain is they were in close proximity to these substances,” Thomas said. “We don’t know if they directly ingested them somehow, or they were simply close-by when these substances were being used. But we do know they were in dangerous proximity to these drugs.”
Investigators did not test the infant, because they were unable to get a sufficient hair sample, according to the arrest warrant. But they believe the infant was exposed to the same drugs the other children were.
Thomas said one of the police department’s goals is to protect those who are the most vulnerable, including these children.
“They’re in a place where they should be protected and loved in their own home, and instead, that place of love and protection was a place of great danger,” Thomas said. “This is absolutely heartbreaking. Many of our officers have children of their own.”
According to court documents, the only way the children could have tested positive for those drugs is if they were in an environment where the drugs were, “either accessible to them, being actively used when caring for them, and/or the caregiver was impaired.”
“The above-named defendant was the parent of the four children, and she failed to exercise reasonable diligence in the control of the children to prevent the children from being neglected,” the arrest warrant states.
Root was arrested Monday morning and charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor. She is currently being held in the Hardin County Detention Center.
“We can’t say for certain that she had any direct knowledge that the kids were exposed to these,” Thomas said. “We don’t know exactly how that happened. But she was the primary caretaker, and their safety was her responsibility.”
Thomas said if you see something or suspect something, notify the police.
“It’s disturbing to know that this sort of thing does happen in our community, and for every case that we detect, there are many we do not,” he said.