A Pennsylvania father allegedly told detectives that his late son knew he should not “touch Daddy’s medicines” when he overdosed on drugs.
Mousa Hawa, 41, and Holly Back, 40, were charged a year after their son’s death with third-degree involuntary manslaughter.
Police responded to the couple’s Coatesville home at around 2:30 a.m. on July 26, 2023, over reports of an unresponsive child.
The 8-year-old died at Chester County Hospital about an hour after police arrived.
Officers spotted “several crystalline baggies scattered throughout the living room and other medication bottles in a bag on the floor.”
Samples from the deceased child revealed the presence of cocaine and fentanyl indicating a prolonged exposure to the drugs.
Detectives located empty heroin bags in the room where the boy overdosed along with hundreds of small glassine bags in a shoebox.
“Each contained blue fentanyl/heroin bags that were either empty or contained residue," police said.
Following the child’s death, his parents set up a fundraiser claiming that he “passed suddenly” and “we loved him with all our hearts.”
