Local couple charged with drug-related death of child
Two Boulder City parents were taken into custody on June 16 and charged with second-degree murder in the death of their 8-month-old child late last year.
A press release issued by the Boulder City Police Department on June 22 states that on Nov. 15, Boulder City officers received a report of an infant who was unresponsive and not breathing. Officers of the police and fire departments responded to a residence on the 1600 block of Broadmoor Circle. Rescue personnel administered life-saving efforts and transported the child to St. Rose Siena Hospital in Henderson, where the child was pronounced dead on arrival.
On June 15, the Boulder City Police Department obtained arrest warrants for Jeffrey Terakami and the child’s mother, Kara Marie Dugan, on charges of second-degreee murder. According to police, this charge is based on the couple having made available a controlled substance which resulted in death.
On June 16, 2023, BCPD officers arrested both parents on the murder warrants and transported them to the Clark County Detention Center.
Results of an autopsy conducted by the Clark County Coroner’s Office showed that the primary cause of death was “a result of fentanyl toxicity” while noting a second “significant condition of “recent methamphetamine exposure.”
Lt. Thomas Healing, of the Boulder City Police Department, said they received the medical examination report on the child’s death from the Clark County coroner on March 7.
“The manner of ingestion was not specified,” he said.
BCPD detectives conducted interviews with both parents during which both disclosed that the child had been exposed to a mixture of methamphetamine and fentanyl. They both stated that this occurred after the father, Terakami, spilled a bag of fentanyl mixed with methamphetamine on the couple’s bed. The child was later allowed to crawl on the same bed where the substances were spilled.
