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Holly Back and Mousa Hawa were each charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the July 26, 2023 overdose death of their son, the Chester County District Attorney's Office said on Tuesday, June 4.
Police also said they found two unused doses of Narcan in the East Lincoln Highway home of Back and Hawa, who both denied the possibility that the boy had gotten into "their medicine," when interviewed by detectives, according to a criminal complaint.
The day before he died, the boy woke up and went to summer school as usual. That afternoon, the school bus dropped him off around 2:45 p.m., and the boy sat on the recliner in the living room and napped until about 8 p.m., his mother said.
When he woke up, he’d urinated himself, Back told police. She said she changed her son’s clothes and ordered dinner from Dominos around 9:30 p.m.
Hawa went with a friend to pick up the wings, cheese steak, pizza, and some tater tots, which the boy ate, his mom said. After dinner, Back had the boy used the bathroom and put on his pull-up, as he still had been wetting the bed, his parents both said.
When he came back to the living room, the boy told Back and Hawa that he had a headache. So, Back asked him if he wanted Tylenol, but he said no. She had him lay down on the recliner and fell asleep almost immediately, his mother told police.
Back went to do some crafting in the dining room and when she returned to the living room, her son was “off” the recliner, entangled in his blanket between the recliner and the floor. She described his body as being on the ground with his hips and legs elevated, and off to the side of his body.
That’s when Hawa woke up. Back said she tried lifting the boy form the recliner but his body was limp, and she and Hawa noticed the boy wasn’t breathing. The parents called 911, and dispatchers instructed them to start CPR.
Responding officers found the boy with "ashen skin" and discoloration to his mouth and ears, according to the criminal complaint. They took over CPR, and spotted crystalline drug baggies scattered throughout the living room, including near the recliner where the child had been sleeping, police said.
When police began speaking about the apartment as a "possible crime scene," authorities said Hawa "became belligerent and at one point said 'Get the f--- out of here!' to the officers on the scene."
Hawa later "became irate" when police told him the house would be secured pending an application for a search warrant, the criminal complaint says.
He "was more concerned about law enforcement searching the house than going to the hospital," authorities said.
The 8-year-old victim was taken to Chester County Hospital and pronounced dead, according to the DA's Office. Analysis of his blood, urine, and hair later showed traces of fentanyl and cocaine, prosecutors said.
Hair samples showed the boy was exposed to the drugs before his fatal overdose on July 26, investigators added.
A search of the living room where the child had overdosed contained empty heroin bags stamped “Bad Bunny” in three separate locations, according to the criminal complaint. Within five feet of the recliner was a shoebox with hundreds of small glassine bottles, each containing blue bags stamped “Bad Bunny,” and contained residue, the affidavit said.Suspected cocaine and meth were also in the room, police said.
Detectives also found unused Narcan doses. They'd later come to discover a text exchange between Hawa and Back, with Back asking Hawa for a bag of heroin — one that authorities found at the scene.
When asked if it was possible that the boy had gotten into the drugs, Back told police that wasn’t a possibility because she and Hawa told him the drugs were “their medicine” and that he knew it to be bad and not to touch it.
Months after the boy’s death, blood samples of both Hawa and Back showed they’d each been recent users of methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl, taken concomitantly or in close proximity to each other, the affidavit says.
“Parents have a sacred responsibility to care for their children," said DA Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe. "Day after day, these defendants prioritized easy access to drugs over the health and safety of their child, leaving deadly fentanyl within arm’s reach."
"It is inexcusable. And it is murder."
Back is being held in lieu of a $1 million bond and Hawa is awaiting arraignment, officials added.
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