The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office charged a Venice couple with Child Neglect after a 21-month-old child in their care consumed cocaine.

Deputies were initially called on January 8, 2021, just before 5:00 p.m., to a home along Park Road in Venice to assist the Sarasota County Fire Department on a medical call involving an unconscious child who was not breathing. When first responders arrived, Kaitlyn Van Dorn, DOB 2/09/88, explained that while on a neighborhood walk, the child picked up an unknown object from the ground and put it in his mouth. The child then began stumbling and became limp before losing consciousness. Emergency medical personnel administered three doses of Naloxone, the medication designed to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, which caused the child to quickly regain consciousness and become alert. The child was taken to the hospital for additional testing.

As deputies spoke with Van Dorn, she explained the child was picking up rocks around the neighborhood using a teal bucket. Van Dorn said the child may have picked up a needle cap along the route that she swatted out of his mouth. Deputies searched the neighborhood and were unable to locate the drug paraphernalia or bucket. Deputies returned to Van Dorn’s home where she soon located the teal bucket behind a closed door and presented it to deputies. Inside the bucket was a silver spoon and tissue, both items consistent with the ingestion of narcotics. Van Dorn’s partner, Blake Pavey DOB 11/16/86, told deputies he did not accompany Van Dorn on the walk but supported Van Dorn’s story that the child must have ingested something in the neighborhood.