A Miami woman was arrested on Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026, on manslaughter charges after her 18-month-old son died from accidentally ingesting drugs that she allegedly left in an unlocked room in their home this year.
Miami police and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested a woman on Thursday after her 18-month-old son died after accidentally ingesting drugs that she allegedly left in an unlocked room in their home this year.
The baby, whose name was not released, was found unresponsive around 3:50 a.m. on Jan. 3 inside the home that he lived in with his mother, 29-year-old Pearlandria Boujolly, according to the FDLE.
Miami Fire Rescue paramedics took the boy to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died later in the day, police said. Investigators say Boujolly was not inside the home when her son ingested the drugs.
The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office found fentanyl and trace amounts of cocaine in his blood, the FDLE said in a statement.
the FDLE and city of Miami police arrested Boujolly on charges of manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter of a child under 18 years old on Thursday. She is in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $50,000 bond, according to jail records. Information about her legal representation was not immediately available.
“The death of an 18-month-old child from fentanyl exposure is a heartbreaking and entirely preventable tragedy. This arrest sends a clear message: there is zero tolerance for negligence that puts an innocent child’s life at risk,” Miami Police Department Chief Edwin Lopez said in a statement.
Miami Herald
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.