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Parents charged with endangering 5-week-old, drug possession

The parents of an infant determined to be “essentially starving” last month have been arrested on charges of child endangerment and drug possession, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Ellie Jean Barnhart, 29, and Brent E. Reynolds, 32, of 1220 Watertown Road, Waterford, were charged this morning with third-degree felony child endangering and fifth-degree drug possession out of an investigation that began in April when their 5-week-old child was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, “possibly due to failure to thrive,” a sheriff’s news release says.

The child weighed just 4.14 pounds at the time, down from a birth weight of 6.2 pounds, the release says.

“It was determined that the child was essentially ‘starving,'” it says.

Speaking with detectives, Barnhart said she did not feel she was producing enough milk to feed the child, the release says. She also admitted to smoking marijuana “all day, every day,” even though she was nursing, it says.

A search of the couple’s home revealed straws containing a white powdered residue that later tested positive for cocaine, hydrocodone, oxycodone and 6-monoacetylmorphone, the release says.

The child was removed from the parents’ custody on May 8.

Read more in Thursday’s edition of The Marietta Times.

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