John Jefferson
Brittney Leigh Hensley (Jackson County Jail).
A Mississippi mother and her 10-year-old daughter allegedly formed a “suicide pact” and decided to take several pills. But only the girl followed through, police say. And it nearly cost the girl her life. Now the mother, Brittney Leigh Hensley, is behind bars. She’s charged with aggravated child abuse.
The Ocean Springs Police Department responded shortly before 6:30 p.m. on July 6 for an unresponsive child call at the extended stay Studio 6 motel. Hensley, 37, and her daughter had been living there. When first responders arrived, they found the girl unresponsive near several unknown pill capsules and empty prescription medication bottles in a green backpack, a press release said. The medication was prescribed to Hensley, police say.
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Paramedics rushed the girl to a hospital where she was intubated. She was then flown to another hospital. At some point, the girl woke up and told police she and her mother entered a pact and she took a lot of pills.
“She had this suicide pact with her daughter, and the daughter took the pills, but (Hensley) didn’t,” Ocean Springs Police Chief Ryan Lemaire told the Biloxi Sun Herald. “So, the momma started freaking out when her daughter wouldn’t wake up.”
The girl remains under the care and custody of Mississippi Child Protective Services. Her recovery is ongoing.
Hensley was set to meet with police detectives and CPS investigators but she fled to Alabama. Police obtained a warrant for Hensley’s arrest in September. On Oct. 15, the Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers announced her arrest by the Huntsville (Alabama) Police Department. She has since been extradited back to the Jackson County Jail where she remains on a $500,000 bond. It is unclear if she has a lawyer.
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