Police audio: Girl ate candy, was bleeding prior to death  | Haverhill

LAWRENCE — A police dispatcher sent an officer to a Jackson Street apartment building after a caller said “a baby ate a bunch of candy and is now bleeding through the nose and mouth.” 

The child was also “having a hard time breathing,” according to a recording of Lawrence Police Department audio from early Saturday morning. 

Shortly after, a police sergeant asks for state police investigators to be called to the Jackson Street apartment building. 

Precious Wallaces, 11, died four days later at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, where she was airlifted after the 3:29 a.m. incident Saturday at 233 Jackson St., unit 5, authorities said. 

The death of Precious, a sixth-grader at the Consentino School in Haverhill, remained under investigation Thursday. 

“There are no developments to report at this time,” said Carrie Kimball Monahan, spokesperson for District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, in an email Thursday afternoon. 

Lawrence police and troopers assigned to Blodgett’s office are investigating the girl’s death. 

Precious had been in a coma and on life support prior to her death. 

Exposure to fentanyl, a manmade opioid, or another toxic substance may have killed the girl, who had been visiting her uncle at 233 Jackson St., unit 5, according to investigators. 

Fentanyl, often a cause of overdose deaths, is a synthetic opioid that is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. The drug is often combined with or confused for heroin. 

A sudden change in mental state, including confusion and loss of consciousness, and shallow breathing are symptoms of a fentanyl overdose. 

A individual’s lips and nail beds can turn blue and their pupils will pinpoint, said Paul Brennan, Lawrence General Hospital’s director of pre-hospital emergency medical services.

“We rarely see any oral fentanyl overdoses,” said Brennan, speaking generally about fentanyl exposure and overdose symptoms. 

Lollipops containing fentanyl are at times prescribed to cancer patients, as well as fentanyl skin patches, which are occasionally abused by overdose victims, Brennan said. 

Local first responders typically see overdoses caused by injections of fentanyl or when the drug is snorted but not so frequently from exposure, Brennan said.

Police said the girl and her brother routinely visited an uncle who lived in the Jackson Street apartment building. 

The name “Miguel Rivera” was listed on a mailbox for unit 5. Two signs regarding surveillance video on the property are posted on the front porch. 

Attempts to reach Rivera as well as others among Precious’ relatives have been unsuccessful.

Cathie Rivera, a woman who identified herself as the girl’s aunt, started a GoFundMe page on Sunday night to raise money for funeral expenses. 

Follow staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter @EagleTribJill.