Middletown boy, 5, alerts relatives after both parents overdose

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw said a 5-year-old boy should have been eating ice cream and watching cartoons early this morning, not potentially saving three lives.

Instead, the boy reportedly walked two blocks to a relative’s house in Middletown at about 5 a.m. to say that his parents were dead.

Officers who responded to the home in the 1900 block of Hill Avenue found that both adults had overdosed on heroin, police said.

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A 3-month-old girl was also found in the home, crying in a car seat in the living room, according to the police report.

Police found Lee Johnson and Chelsie Marshall lying on the floor unconscious.

Both were revived by paramedics.

Johnson admitted to police that he was using heroin, according to a police report. He was handcuffed and placed in a police cruiser.

Officers found a white residue on a chair, which was collected and sent for analysis, according to the report.

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

Marshall was transported to Atrium Medical Center because she would not wake up, police said. After she became conscious, she was transported to the Middletown City Jail.

The situation could have been “10 times worse,” Muterspaw said. “Anybody should be appalled.”

Officers brought the young boy and infant back to the police department after the incident. The boy was given a badge “for being so brave,” according to police.

Muterspaw called the boy “a little hero,” adding that it was dark and he was barefoot when he left the house.

Muterspaw said doesn’t understand why a parent with children at home would ever use heroin.

“(The children) are first,” he said. “You are not first.”

Johnson and Marshall were both charged with two counts of endangering children and disorderly conduct.

Each are being held on $7,500 bond in the Middletown City Jail.

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