INDIANAPOLIS — A grief-stricken Indianapolis mother said she thought her daughter would be safe serving time in a Marion County Community Corrections facility.
Instead, that mother has filed a tort claim notice with the city of Indianapolis, Marion County Community Corrections and Craine House, claiming the facility’s negligence led to her daughter’s death.
The filing puts Craine House, the city and Marion County on notice that the family of Leticia Hardimon Umbekoia could file a lawsuit in the coming months.
13News spoke to Leticia’s mother, Shannon McGibboney, just days after her daughter’s passing in October 2022.
“She told me she would never put me through this," McGibboney said as she sobbed, uncontrollably at times, thinking about the promise her daughter, Leticia, made to her and ultimately broke.
Now, McGibboney is left broken at times, under the weight of overwhelming grief that hits her in waves.
This mother is trying to rebuild a life without her child.
“Everybody said you can still talk to her. It’s not the same. It’s not the same. It’s not the same," cried McGibboney, burying her face in her hands.
And it hasn’t been, not since the moment staff at Craine House found Leticia dead in a bathroom.
"I would have done anything — anything — if I had any inkling that this girl was going to do something like this," said McGibboney.
Leticia, a mother of two, had been living at Craine House as part of a 12-month sentence for a probation violation.
Up until December, Craine House had a longtime contract with Marion County Community Corrections to house female inmates, like Leticia, convicted of nonviolent felonies.
“I thought she was going to be safe. I thought she was going to be safe," McGibboney said, continuing to cry.
An IMPD report shows Craine House called about an overdose the morning of Oct. 1.
According to the report, the victim was 32-year-old Leticia Hardimon Umbekoia.
McGibboney said, at the time staff found Leticia, her children were at Craine House, waiting in the lobby to visit their mom.
“When I get there, they tell me my baby’s dead. She’s gone. She’s gone," McGibboney said, bursting into tears again at the memory.
According to a report from the Marion County Coroner's Office, Leticia died accidentally from combined intoxication of fentanyl and citalopram.
McGibboney said her daughter struggled with addiction for years.
“This time, it was different. She said she wanted to do right for her babies," McGibboney recalled of conversations she had with her daughter.
McGibboney said investigators told her they found drug paraphernalia near Leticia’s body. Craine House, who refused to return multiple calls from 13News, has never confirmed that, and neither has Marion County Community Corrections.
Now, McGibboney wants to know how that could happen in a facility where residents and even visitors are searched when they enter and exit.
“Every time I go in there, they search. They search the kids. They search everything. How you going to search baby bags and everything and don’t search the people?" McGibboney asked.
Marion County Community Corrections declined to talk on camera but provided 13News with surveillance videos from Craine House showing the last hours of Leticia's life.
When 13News reviewed them, we saw Leticia returning to Craine House from work, just a few minutes before midnight.
In the video, you could see her taking a breathalyzer test, which is standard procedure for returning residents, according to Marion County Community Corrections.
Searches like the one we watched an employee do on Leticia are also standard. In the video, you could see a staff member patting Leticia down before searching her bag.
Over the next hour, more video surveillance inside Craine House showed Leticia talking to other residents, filling up a water bottle and going to a vending machine.
The last time we saw her on any surveillance video from Craine House was just after 1 a.m. In the video, we watched Leticia walk down the hall to her room and go inside.
According to records from Craine House that Marion County Community Corrections provided to 13News, nine-and-a-half hours after Leticia was last seen on video, staff found her unresponsive in the bathroom at 10:30 a.m.
Records from Craine House also showed a staff member used one dose of Narcan on Leticia, but she had already died.
McGibboney believes if Craine House staff had been doing regular room checks throughout the night, someone might have found Leticia in time to save her.
According to Marion County Community Corrections, Craine House staff is supposed to do a head count of residents every two hours overnight, physically checking to make sure they are in their beds.
Records Marion County Community Corrections received from Craine House and provided to 13News showed that the night before Leticia died, lights out was at 12:04 a.m. According to those same records, at 12:06 a.m., Leticia left her room, went to the medication window and asked to get water in the dining room, before she went back to her room.
The records noted at 1:30 a.m., "Everybody was in the building, 37 women and 1 child." Two hours later, at 3:30 a.m., those records had the same notation.
No more head counts were noted on the records after that time.
At 9 a.m., Craine House records indicated chore time was announced.
The records didn't note Leticia's absence from chores, only that a staff member walked by her room and noticed the light and radio on.
"Where and when were you guys going to check to see where she was at?" asked McGibboney.
According to the records Craine House provided to Marion County Community Corrections, that didn't happen until 10:27 a.m., when staff went to find Leticia to tell her that her family was there.
That's when staff found her in the bathroom.
"They should have just did their jobs," said McGibboney.
In December, Marion County's longtime contract with Craine House was not renewed.
A spokesperson for Marion County Community Corrections told 13 News, Leticia's death was one of the reasons why.
"These kids, they got to be without their mom," cried McGibboney, referring to her young grandsons, ages 1 and 3 1/2 years old.
And McGibboney is now without her child.
"They didn't keep my baby safe," she cried. "They did not keep her safe! They did not keep her safe! You are supposed to be safe! You're there! You're supposed to be safe!"