A 17-month-old girl in Orient, Ohio stopped breathing on October 13, and 42 minutes later she was pronounced dead at a Columbus hospital. Now her 30-year-old mother is the target of an active manhunt, while the child's 52-year-old grandmother sits in the Pickaway County Jail on a $250,000 bond, each accused of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the toddler's fatal fentanyl exposure.
Emergency crews were dispatched to 7809 High Street, Unit #3, in Orient at 11:14 a.m. that day for a report of a nonbreathing child, according to 10TV WBNS. Per a Pickaway County Sheriff's Office update from Sheriff Matthew O. Hafey, Scioto Township EMS arrived first, began CPR, and rushed the girl to Nationwide Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced deceased at 11:56 a.m. The Franklin County Coroner's Office performed an autopsy the following day and found a fatal amount of fentanyl in the child's system, the sheriff's office reported.
Charges Against Mother and Grandmother
Detective Sergeant Robert Dauberman filed charges on October 16 against Brittany M. Stroud, the child's mother, for first-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, third-degree felony child endangerment, and fifth-degree felony possession of a controlled substance, per the sheriff's office. Tammy M. Stroud, the child's maternal grandmother, faces complicity counts on all three charges — a legal mechanism that, under Ohio's complicity statute, exposes an accomplice to the same felony classification as the principal offender, as the Hopewell Heritage Headlines reports.
Arrest warrants were issued for both women. Tammy Stroud turned herself in to the Pickaway County Sheriff's Office on Sunday and was booked into the Pickaway County Jail at 9:10 p.m., according to the same Hopewell Heritage Headlines account of the booking. She was arraigned Monday in Circleville Municipal Court and given a $250,000 bond, the sheriff's office said.
Mother's Warrant Still Outstanding
Brittany Stroud's arrest warrant remains outstanding, and she is known to frequent the Franklin County and Columbus area, according to the sheriff's office update. Detective Sergeant Dauberman has publicly requested tips on her location, releasing a direct line — 740-420-5752 — and an email address, [email protected], for the public to use, 10TV WBNS reports. Pickaway County detectives executed a search warrant at the High Street apartment and seized evidence, then carried out additional search warrants as the investigation progressed, working alongside the Columbus Police Department, per the sheriff's office.
A Franklin County court order had placed the child in Tammy Stroud's custody and restricted Brittany Stroud to supervised visitation only, the sheriff's office said. Franklin County Children Services and the National Youth Advocate Program worked with detectives on the investigation, according to the same update. How Brittany Stroud came to have access to the child despite that restriction has not been detailed publicly.
What Ohio's Involuntary Manslaughter Law Requires
Under Ohio Revised Code 2903.04, involuntary manslaughter tied to an underlying felony is a first-degree felony carrying a standard prison term of three to 11 years and fines of up to $20,000, according to VanHo Law. Prosecutors do not need to prove intent or foresight of death — only that the death was the proximate result of the underlying felony offense, per James D. Owen Defense Law. Because Ohio's complicity statute carries equal weight to the underlying offense, Tammy Stroud faces the same felony exposure as her daughter, the Hopewell Heritage Headlines notes.
Detective Sergeant Dauberman has led cross-jurisdictional felony investigations between Pickaway County and Columbus before, including a multi-agency case tied to Columbus involving an armed assault investigation in late 2025, according to Hoodline's prior coverage.
A Broader Pattern Across Ohio
Illicitly manufactured fentanyl accounted for between 86.8% and 98% of all pediatric opioid overdose deaths across Ohio in 2022 and 2023, according to Ohio Department of Health data analyzed in research published on PubMed Central. Statewide, the Ohio Department of Health recorded 2,931 unintentional drug overdose deaths in 2024, with fentanyl or its analogs involved in 69% of those fatalities, the agency reported.
Research from The Ohio State University notes that parental opioid addiction has pushed roughly one in four affected Ohio children into out-of-home care, often through kinship arrangements like the one that placed the Orient toddler with her grandmother. That systemic reliance on relatives to step in when parents struggle with substance abuse frames the custody order at the center of this case, though the circumstances that allowed Brittany Stroud access to her daughter remain unclear.
