Self-Professed ‘Super Mom’ Refused to Listen to Warnings About Co-Sleeping with Her Baby Girl. It Wound Up Killing Her

Mar. 15, 2025

Tricia Cavanaugh.Photo:Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office

Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office

Tricia Cavanaugh, 36, pleaded guilty to neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury on Sept. 3, eight years after her 4-month-old daughter, Celina, died.

The Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said in a release announcing her sentence that Cavanuagh appeared to be intoxicated, and that she had slurred speech and unsteady balance, when police responded to her home in Muncie, Ind., in June 2016 after Celina was found unconscious.

At the time, Cavanaugh told police that when she woke up, Celina was lying face down on the bed, prosecutors said. The 4-month-old died in the hospital later that morning.

According to the arresting affidavit, police found bottles of prescription drugs in Cavanaugh’s home, not all of which were prescribed.

After submitting to a drug test, Cavanaugh was found to have drugs in her system, some of which were prescribed recently, while others hadn’t been prescribed in more than a year. Prosecutors said there was evidence Cavanaugh had taken more Hydrocodone, a painkiller, than instructed in the days leading up to Celina’s death.

When Celina was born, authorities said she tested positive for opiates and was placed in the NICU for neonatal drug withdrawal, according to the affidavit.

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Cavanaugh was arrested in connection with Celina’s death in July 2017.

At her sentencing hearing, prosecutors said Cavanaugh called herself a “super mom,” to which Judge Douglas Mawhorr responded, “I am not so sure about that.”

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

source: people.com