INDIANAPOLIS — Police arrested an Indianapolis woman Wednesday in the death of her 2-month-old daughter last summer.
Dacia Lacey, 32, was arrested on the preliminary charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in death.
On the morning of Aug. 29, 2022, police responded to Lacey's residence in the 2700 block of Burton Avenue, near East Riverside Drive and West 29th Street, on the near northwest side and found the infant not breathing, according to a probable cause document filed in Lacey's arrest. Medics pronounced the baby dead at the scene.
Lacey told investigators that she had placed the baby on her couch, propped up with a bottle, and gone to bed. She called 911 when the baby was not breathing.
A relative contacted IMPD on Sept. 1, claiming one of Lacey's other two children, who were both home at the time the baby died, had made the comment, “Yah, she was crying, and mom put a pillow over her face.”
Results of a drug screen conducted on Lacey the day the baby died came back in September. The screen showed Lacey had both amphetamine and methamphetamine in her system.
The Marion County Coroner's Office told IMPD in early December that the baby's cause of death was undetermined after an autopsy was completed.
In an interview on Wednesday, Lacey admitted to an IMPD detective that she had taken a pill and was still impaired the day the baby died, and she was initially interviewed by investigators.
Lacey went on to describe how she fed and rocked the baby, who would not stop crying. She said she hit the baby and tried to force a bottle into her mouth.
She admitted to then turning the baby and smothering her in between the cushions of the couch because she wanted to sleep, according to the probable cause document.
Lacey allegedly told the detective during her interview that the incident was an accident since she was on methamphetamine and didn't smother the baby intentionally.
Her initial court appearance has not been scheduled.