A Lockport Heights woman has been charged more than two years after her 12-year-old daughter was found unresponsive in a Joliet bedroom and later died, with police announcing Monday that 37-year-old Colette Bancroft faces involuntary manslaughter, endangering the life or health of a child, and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. Bancroft was taken into custody at a McDonald’s restaurant in Lockport two days earlier, after a warrant was issued against her.
According to Shaw Local, Joliet police officers responded to a report of an unresponsive girl at a residence on the 1500 block of East Washington Street in Joliet in April 2024. Officers found Mya King, 12, in a second-floor bedroom and provided medical assistance until paramedics arrived, the outlet reported. Other people inside the home had called 911, and Bancroft — Mya’s mother — was the one who discovered her unresponsive.
Mya was first taken to Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox before being transferred to Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. She died on April 17, 2024, three days after emergency crews were first called to the home. At the scene, police said they found suspected heroin and fentanyl in Bancroft’s purse, and she was taken into custody at the time on probable cause of possession of a controlled substance — though no formal charges were filed against her at that point.
What the Medical Examiner Found
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office ultimately deemed Mya’s death undetermined. Per the same Shaw Local report, a urine screen of Mya’s was positive for the presence of fentanyl, yet a postmortem toxicology test on her blood came back negative for all substances tested on all samples. The examiner, Claire Sorensen, wrote that the reason postmortem tests of hospital blood samples came back negative was unclear.
Sorensen said a drug overdose “cannot be confirmed by our examination and ancillary studies,” and that the manner of death was best certified as undetermined, though she noted that police investigation and hospital findings supporting a drug overdose could still be pursued by those agencies. The examiner also reported concern that Mya may have taken some of her mother’s drugs, and said family members living with Mya reported that she had depression, had smoked marijuana, and sometimes cut her forearms.
Drugs Found in Bancroft's Purse
The same October 2024 examiner report said Bancroft admitted to a history of drug abuse, and that she had multiple baggies of a white powdery substance in her purse in the bedroom, as well as a crack pipe. A preliminary investigation led officers to believe Mya had ingested an unknown amount of suspected heroin and fentanyl, according to Joliet police spokesman Dwayne English.
English also said fentanyl was present in Mya’s system at the time of her death, as Patch reported — a statement that sits alongside the examiner’s finding that postmortem blood toxicology was negative for all tested substances, even as her urine screen was positive for fentanyl. English said Joliet police detectives reviewed medical records, toxicology findings, and additional evidence as the case developed, and the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office reviewed further evidence before a warrant was obtained on Nov. 5.
Charges and Custody
Bancroft, who resides in unincorporated Lockport Heights, was taken into custody at the Lockport McDonald’s on Saturday. Reports vary on the exact count of the drug charge: the Herald-News report describes a single count of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, while Fox 32 Chicago reported two counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance. The dossier reviewed for this report does not resolve which figure is accurate, and no information on Bancroft’s plea, custody status, or further court proceedings was available.
