PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The mother of a 5-year-old boy who died this week in Portsmouth faces multiple charges, including second-degree murder, child neglect and child cruelty, after she admitted he’d been around fentanyl and crack cocaine the night before.
Police announced Kara Faulkner’s arrest on Wednesday morning. She’s also been charged with possession of a schedule 1 or schedule 2 controlled substance and concealing/moving a corpse. She’s currently in Portsmouth Sheriff’s Office custody.
Faulkner, 31, brought her son into Maryview Hospital on Monday morning and he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. Portsmouth police announced that day that they deemed his death suspicious and later charged Faulkner after they said they visited a crime scene in the 3800 block of Turnpike Road.
Faulkner later admitted to a detective to using fentanyl and crack cocaine the night before, and that her son was around the substances, according to court documents obtained by 10 On Your Side. She also said she left her son in the care of her drug dealer when she went to Wawa to buy vape cartridges, and met up with a different drug dealer that night to buy crack cocaine.
Faulkner told an ER nurse “I was chilling with some friends last night and when he went to sleep, he was fine,” court documents show. The child was cold to the touch the morning Faulkner brought him to the hospital, and nurses found he had been dead for several hours before he was brought in.
A search warrant shows no drugs were seized at the home, but detectives took swabs, paperwork, fingerprints and the child’s bookbag. Faulkner’s 2022 gray Honda Accord was also taken as evidence.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to contact the PPD Investigations Bureau at 757–393–8536. Or call the Crime Line at 1–888-LOCK-U-UP.