An Ohio father allegedly kept his 7-month-old baby girl in a hotel room with drugs and her dead mother’s body, according to a police affidavit.
Police made the discovery while they carried out a wellness check at the Days Inn and Suites in Sharonville, just north of Cincinnati, on August 2.
Dad Troy Mahaffey, 32, opened the door to the hotel room and appeared surprised to see police, according to an incident report obtained by Fox19.
When police entered the hotel room, they found 34-year-old Geri Mays unresponsive on one of the two beds.
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First responders later determined Mays passed away several hours before police arrived and that her body was “full of rigor mortis with lividity present.”
Mahaffey allegedly told officers “she was passed out and then audibly laughed while saying it.”
Officers believe that Mays died as a result of a drug overdose, according to the same affidavit.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021 there were 5,397 drug overdose deaths in Ohio.
When police found the baby, who was Mays and Mahaffey’s child, they soon realized she had been wearing a soiled onesie that was meant for a 3-month-old.
Police said in documents obtained by Fox19: “She smelled of cigarette and marijuana smoke. The formula inside her bottle was curdled and she had an untreated diaper rash.
“(The baby’s) hair was matted and unkept as if she had not been bathed in quite some time. She was reluctant to straighten her legs as if she had been kept in a car seat for exorbitant periods of time.”
It said: “(The baby) never attempted to crawl or roll over when on the floor, which is inconsistent with age.”
Officers said Mahaffey “was a suspected drug dealer and had been selling drugs, specifically crack cocaine” to a man and a woman who were in the hotel room with him, Mays, and the child, the report stated.
The report said: “All parties had smoked crack cocaine last night, except for Troy who smoked marijuana (with the child present). Everyone spent the night in Room 153.”
Police questioned the other people, who were not named in the report, at the hotel who said Mays complained that her chest hurt and she refused an ambulance when asked if she wanted one to be called for.
Neither of them made the wellness check call and it was learned that both wanted on capias warrants related to previous court orders.
The Hamilton County Heroin Task Force later found white powder in a dresser drawer in the hotel room, according to the report.
Mahaffey was apprehended on charges related to child endangerment and failure to report a death.
Newsweek has contacted the Sharonville Police Department for comment via email.