Mother Charged After 2-Year-Old Died In Motel With Lethal Levels Of Benadryl In Her System

A women has been charged with murder after her 2-year-old daughter was found unresponsive in a Virginia motel room due to what an autopsy revealed was a lethal dose of Benadryl.

Virginia Beach police found Lanoix Andrade dead inside Cutty Sark motel at the Oceanfront, while her mother was suffering a medical emergency on Aug. 1.

The medical examiner's office determined Sunday the toddler's cause of death to be "acute diphenhydramine toxicity," WTVR-TV reported.

Diphenhydramine is commonly known as Benadryl, an antihistamine medication used to treat allergies and the common cold. Family medicine practitioner Dr. Ryan Light said an overdose of the drug can lead to seizures and even death.

"It can make you very irritable," he told WTVR-TV. "It can cause headaches; it can cause visual disturbances; it can cause hallucinations. When you get to the point of toxicity, it's not just putting you to sleep. Some people do go to sleep, and that's where it leads into a coma and then either a cardiac arrest or arrest of the heart because of the arrhythmia that it can cause because of the toxicity."

After being found alongside her daughter, Lanoix's mother, Leandra Andrade, 38, was transferred to a local hospital for treatment. Upon her release, she was charged with abuse and neglect of a child in relation to Lanoix's death, which authorities deemed suspicious from the beginning, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

Leandra had allegedly fled to Washington D.C. after losing Lanoix's full legal custody to the child's father, Fabio Andrade Jr., even though the physical custody was evenly split between both parents. It wasn't clear when she went to the hotel with her child.

Leandra's initial charges have now been upgraded to second-degree murder after the results of the autopsy came out.

After Lanoix was found dead, her father, Fabio, called her the "love of my life," in a statement obtained by WTVR-TV.

"While today's charges will never bring back my daughter, I am thankful to the Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney for seeking justice for her senseless murder. I look forward to seeing justice served for Lanoix and continue to ask for privacy so that I may mourn my beloved angel," the statement read.