The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina have charged a mother and her husband with criminal offences in connection to the death of the mother’s 6-year-old son.
On October 30, paramedics and law enforcement arrived at the Greer home of Sarah Elizabeth Stewart, 32, and Christopher Allen Stewart, 48, to find the boy, identified only by his first name, Aydon, unresponsive.
It was reported that the boy had fallen out of a recliner, hitting his head on the hard floor and suffering a seizure. Paramedics said the child’s prognosis was poor, and he later died at a hospital.
An autopsy revealed bruises in various stages of healing, as well as a toxicology report which showed the boy had overdosed on Benadryl to a point where it could have killed a man.
The home was described as being in filthy conditions, and it was discovered that there had been child abuse referrals made to the South Carolina Department of Social Services.
The mother admitted to giving her son Benadryl to combat his hyperactivity.
The couple were both charged with the death of their child, with Sarah Elizabeth Stewart being denied bond and Christopher Allen Stewart being granted a bond of $10,000.
The boy’s biological mother had signed guardianship over to Christopher Stewart while she was in federal prison in West Virginia, yet the reasons behind this remain unknown.