Sophia Larson, a 5-year-old Colorado child, died of a methamphetamine overdose on Tuesday night after ingesting a lethal water concoction from her mother’s homemade bong. Sophia described it as “yucky” after she drank it. Stephanie Alvarado, her 26-year-old mother, knew what had occurred quickly. What she did next, however, makes things considerably worse.
After losing her work at a dental clinic due to a failed drug test, Alvarado allegedly exchanged meth with her cousins, Daniel Alvarado, 27, and Bertha Karina Ceballos-Romo, 26. They continued to consume narcotics while driving to Sophia’s school, but stopped as she got in the vehicle.
After getting high, the threesome forgot about the water bottle they used as a pipe to inhale the methamphetamine. Sophia apparently went to bed at 10:30 p.m. that night, but became thirsty later. According to the affidavit, she got up to get a drink, saw the water bottle in her mother’s house, and drank the methamphetamine-contaminated water from it.
The meth-laced water led the toddler to hallucinate. Despite the fact that Sophia was clearly suffering from the symptoms of methamphetamine intake, Alvarado and her relatives did not seek medical attention. They were supposedly more concerned with their own legal problems than with the child’s well-being. So they sat and watched Sophia hallucinate for many hours.
Sophia’s hallucinations lasted more than three hours, according to court filings, and she told her mother she was seeing monsters and devils. According to reports, the family attempted home cures such as feeding Sophia milk and swaddling her in a blanket. Rather than going to the hospital, Daniel Alvaredo and Ceballos-Romo persisted on reading Biblical texts and praying, feeling the daughter was possessed by an evil spirit.
Instead of waking up from her drug-induced stupor, Sophia stopped breathing, but her mother refused to provide her the treatment she required, apparently worried she would lose custody of her daughter. Instead of transporting Sophia to the hospital, Alvarado and her cousins allegedly transported the kid to an unnamed family member’s house, where they knew an oxygen machine was available.
As it became clear that giving Sophia oxygen wasn’t working, Alvarado and her cousins drove her to the Grand River Hospital in Rifle, Colorado, but it was too late. Sophia was pronounced deceased. The youngster had a “very, very high” amount of methamphetamine in her system, according to Garfield County Coroner Robert Glassmire, and her death was deemed an overdose from methamphetamine intoxication.
As officers investigated the flat, they discovered baggies full of white powder, drug residue on a dollar note, and pipes and bongs everywhere. Ultimately, weeks after Sophia Larson’s murder, officials arrested Stephanie Alvarado, Daniel Alvarado, and Bertha Karina Ceballos-Romo in connection with her killing.
The three were charged with child maltreatment resulting in death, drug possession, and reckless endangerment. Ceballos-Romo was also charged with manipulating evidence after authorities said she attempted to clean up the flat where the girl overdosed.
Alex Larson, Sophia’s father, claimed he broke up with Alvarado about a year ago due to her drug usage, and he had desired full custody of her. The heartbroken father, who shared custody of his daughter and had her five days a week, claimed he could never forgive Alvarado or her family for his daughter’s murder.
If they had rushed her to the hospital when they noticed his daughter drink that, she would have been a bit sluggish and not quite right in her mind — but his daughter would still be here with him today, Alex recounted, tears streaming down her cheeks. The fact that he can’t hug her or tell her anything, is because he doesn’t know how to adequately convey how much he misses her, he sobbed.
Let Sophia Larson and her father, Alex, serve as a reminder that drug usage is not a victimless crime. Others pay for an abuser’s addiction, and at times it costs them their lives or the lives of others they care about. Three grownups bet with a small girl’s life in order to get out of trouble, and unfortunately, there were no winners. All were defeated, even Alex and Sophia, who endured the greatest cost.
