Mom charged for heroin OD while watching toddler

UPDATE @ 4:18 p.m. June 5

A Champaign County grand jury indicted a Jackson Twp. woman on multiple charges stemming from an incident where deputies said she overdosed on heroin while watching her 3-year-old daughter.

Mary Dulen, 28, who lives on Speaks Road, is charged with endangering children, possession of heroin and possessing drug abuse instruments.

Deputies were called to Dulen’s home around 10 a.m. June 1 by Ernest Fannin after his 3-year-old granddaughter told him that her mother had died, according to the Champaign County Sheriff Office.

Christiansburg Fire and EMS responded to the home and Dulen was revived.

Deputies found a syringe and other items of drug abuse in the bathroom, according to the report.

She is next scheduled to appear in court Monday, according to online jail records.

FIRST REPORT June 1

A 3-year-old girl who thought she’d found her mother dead may have saved her life when medics discovered the woman had overdosed on heroin.

Mary Dulen, 28, told Champaign County deputies and emergency medical services personnel that she had injected herself with heroin Monday morning after bathing. For that admission, Dulen was taken to jail and detained on a felony and several misdemeanors.

Christianburg Fire & EMS was dispatched just after 10 a.m. when Ernest Fannin called to report that his 3-year-old great-granddaughter had come to his home to tell him that her “mommy had died,” the sheriff’s office said in a prepared statement released Monday night.

Fannin said he went to Dulen’s home, in the 13,000 block of Speaks Road, and found her on the bathroom floor, unresponsive.

Relatives who were also called helped Fannin shake Dulen and get her to her feet.

After her admission to authorities about the heroin, deputies said they found a used syringe in the bathroom and other items of drug abuse.

Dulen was taken to the Tri-County Jail on a felony charge of drug possession and misdemeanor charges of inducing panic, having drug abuse instruments and child endangerment.