By SPEAKIN’ OUT NEWS
GOOSE CREEK, S.C.—The parents of a 13-year-old girl are facing drug-possession and child-neglect charges after their daughter was found dead inside the family’s South Carolina home.
Berkeley County sheriff’s deputies responded to a residence on Keyes Lane on Aug. 27 after the teenager’s mother reportedly attempted to wake her for school but received no response. Emergency medical personnel and firefighters arrived and confirmed the child had died.
The girl’s parents—Tracy Lyn Castillo, 37, and Derrell Dominquez Joshua, 42—were at the residence when first responders arrived. Both were arrested Aug. 28, one day after their daughter’s death.
According to the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office report cited by Live 5 News, Castillo and Joshua were each charged with possessing more than two grains of fentanyl and three counts of unlawfully placing a child at risk of harm, causing harm or willfully abandoning a child.
Authorities announced Sept. 10 that an initial test performed on the teenager returned a presumptive positive result for fentanyl. However, investigators are awaiting the results of an independent toxicology examination before determining her official cause and manner of death.
Investigators have not publicly explained how the teenager may have encountered the drug. The charges against her parents do not establish that fentanyl caused her death or that either parent is responsible for the fatality.
Castillo was previously charged in October 2024 with four counts involving allegations of unlawfully placing a child at risk, according to WCSC reporting.
The investigation remains active. No additional details about the child’s identity have been released.