Deerfield Beach Child Found Emaciated, High On Drugs
DEERFIELD BEACH (CBSMiami) – Darin MacDannald, 47, of Deerfield Beach, has been arrested and charged with child neglect after Broward Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a structure fire and found a 14-year-old boy in the house weighing just 85 pounds and high on drugs.
The teenager was initially taken to Broward Health Coral Springs for smoke inhalation. But investigators said Emergency Room Doctors determined the child was malnourished and had unexplained red blotches on both of his legs that were not a result of injuries from the structure fire.
Medical workers said the teen had dirty clothes and under examination his eyes were dialated and was unresponsive to questioning. A drug screen of the teen tested positive for barbiturates, opiates, cocaine, and marijuana and appeared to have overdosed on the substances, the police report said.
According to the police report, the teen had several pills, a cigarette, and a red makeup case on him. The pills were determined to be butalbital with codeine, alprazolam, and oxycodone. The makeup case tested positive for cocaine.
Deputies asked MacDannald how the teen got the pills. MacDanalld told deputies he has a prescription for the medications and that he hid the pills so the teen couldn't get them. MacDonald said he didn't know how the teen got the pills or the cocaine.
Neighbors who lived near MacDannald, said they noticed the young boy didn't look right.
"Yeah, I know he was very thin and pale. But besides that I never spoke to him," said Elizabeth Corpeno, a neighbor with children of her own. "I don't know. I worry about mine and that's it."
In the small trailer park where they lived that seemed to be the consensus. Everyone keeps to themselves. Even Genesis Nunez and her father who lived next door to the 14-year-old.
"We noticed it. But that was between them," said Nunez. When asked why she didn't call police she said, "That's a personal problem between them."
The Broward Sheriff's Office said the fire is still under investigation.
As for MacDannald, a judge set his bond at $7500 and ordered him to have no contact with his son. A DCF shelter hearing is set for Friday.
