Leslie Laughlin indicted in daughter's death

The mother of a Cape Henlopen High School student, who died in July from a drug overdose, has been indicted on charges of endangering the welfare of a child.

Attorney General Beau Biden announced today his office has secured an indictment against Leslie Laughlin, 46, of Milton, charging her with endangering the welfare of a child and other crimes for providing her daughter, Emily, with prescription narcotics. Emily died in July from a drug overdose. “This young woman’s avoidable death is a tragic testament to the danger of prescription drug misuse and abuse,” said Biden.

On July 15, emergency personnel responded to a report of an unresponsive 17-year-old girl at a Milton-area residence.  The teenager died from what was determined to be a narcotic overdose.  The investigation, conducted by Delaware State Police Troop 4 Major Crimes Unit, revealed Leslie Laughlin, the girl’s mother, had on multiple occasions provided her with several narcotic drugs that had been prescribed to Laughlin. Toxicology testing conducted after her daughter’s death revealed the presence of drugs that investigators determined Laughlin provided to her daughter, as well as significant amounts of other prescription narcotics.

The Dec. 5 indictment charges Laughlin with five felonies, including one count of endangering the welfare of a child, three  counts of delivery of a controlled substance, and one count of delivery of a noncontrolled prescription drug for providing her daughter with Vicodin and Xanax, commonly used to control pain and anxiety respectively, and Soma, a muscle relaxer.

On Dec. 7, Laughlin turned herself in to state police. She was arraigned in Superior Court and released on $5,000 unsecured bail with pretrial supervision.