Investigators have released chilling new audio of a Kentucky mother who admits to exposing her eight-month-old baby to heroin after getting traces of the drug on her hands.
Brianne Ehlinger, 33, and Shawn Gardner, 35, were arrested in November 2023 after their eight-month-old daughter went into respiratory arrest.
Now Boone County investigators have released audio in which Ehlinger can be heard confessing how her son overdosed.
“It’s a lot,” the detective is heard saying. “It should never have happened,” Ehlinger says through tears.
The detective is then heard telling him in an audio broadcast by fox 19: ‘Yeah, yeah. It definitely should have never happened. But from here, this is how we move forward and make things better.’
Brianne Ehlinger, 33, is pictured with a different baby, not the one who overdosed on heroin. She confessed to exposing her eight-month-old baby to heroin.
Ehlinger is pictured with her partner Shawn Gardner, 35. Both were arrested in November 2023 following their baby’s overdose.
The overdose occurred at the family home in Burlington, Kentucky, in Boone County.
Ehlinger, who has given birth to at least three children, said she had been addicted to drugs since she was 18 but had been clean for two years after completing a treatment program.
However, he told the detective that he had recently suffered a relapse and made a tragic mistake after using the drug.
“Later I was playing with my children and I thought I had something in my mouth,” the mother explained.
‘So, I put my finger in her mouth to check her and then she was like… not breathing, like something was going on. So we called 911 and I didn’t even think I would have anything on my hands.’
Ehlinger had accidentally allowed her baby to ingest the drug after forgetting to wash her hands.
Brianne Ehlinger, 33, and Shawn Gardner, 35, were arrested in November 2023.
Brianne Ehlinger is seen with Boone County deputies during her initial arrest in November 2023.
The couple has had at least three children together over the years.
After realizing something was wrong with her baby, it was her partner Gardner who called 911.
“My sister and I did CPR on him because he was still breathing a little bit, but he was losing his rhythm,” Ehlinger explained to the detective.
Paramedics arrived at the home and were able to administer Narcan to reverse the opioid overdose.
Incredibly, the baby survived and after spending a few days being treated at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, she was released.
Ehlinger appears alongside another of her daughters in a photo on her Facebook page.
Gardner is seen playing with one of his daughters in photos posted on social media.
After realizing something was wrong with her baby, it was her partner Gardner who called 911 and paramedics arrived at the house.
In addition to the confession, Ehlinger told officers that his partner, Gardner, who had also gone through a treatment program in the past, had given him the medications.
Ehlinger completed a treatment program in 2019, while Gardner also underwent drug treatment from which he “graduated” in 2016. But both appear to have relapsed in recent years.
The couple was arrested in May and Ehlinger pleaded guilty to wanton endangerment and endangering the welfare of a minor.
She will be sentenced later this month and faces between one and five years in prison.
Gardner is also due to appear in court in late July to face similar charges.
The boy has since been placed under the guardianship of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.