New Warrant Details Emerge In Enfield Girl’s Death

ENFIELD, CT — Police found loose pills in a 12-year-old girl’s bedroom and documented conflicting accounts from her mother about how sleep aids were handled before the child’s death, according to portions of an arrest warrant reviewed by Patch.

The warrant provides new details behind the risk of injury to a child charge against Melanie Federline, 39, whose daughter, Eve Rogers, was found dead at the family’s Elm Street home March 18. Federline was arrested Oct. 30, as Patch previously reported.

Federline was arraigned Monday in Hartford Superior Court and is free on $250,000 bond, with another appearance scheduled Dec. 14, the Journal Inquirer reported. The outlet reported that Judge Nuala Droney allowed visits with her other children supervised by the state Department of Children and Families to continue.

Those court developments come from the Journal Inquirer’s reporting. Patch separately reviewed five pages of the nine-page affidavit supporting her arrest and the two-page charging form. The warrant contains police allegations, which have not been proven in court.

Detective Rebecca J. Leger wrote that officers were called to the home at about 10:25 a.m. March 18. An Enfield paramedic pronounced Eve dead at 10:37 a.m.

Investigators found loose medication or vitamin pills on the floor behind Eve’s bedroom door and elsewhere in the room, according to the affidavit. Police also described old food, empty bottles, trash and clothing scattered across the floor.

In another child’s bedroom, officers found hundreds of used pill capsules with the medication removed, along with loose medications outside their containers, the affidavit says.

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Federline told detectives she filled her children’s pill organizers each Sunday and that the nighttime side of Eve’s organizer would contain only melatonin, according to the affidavit.

Asked about Benadryl, Federline said she sometimes gave it to Eve on difficult nights when she could not sleep, but did not remember whether Eve had taken it that night, police wrote.

Federline initially told detectives Eve’s organizer contained a migraine supplement and melatonin, and said Eve might also have had one sleep-aid pill in it. In a later interview, she said she never put sleep aids in the children’s pill cases and “would only give it out herself, as needed,” according to the affidavit.

The available warrant pages do not establish who supplied or administered the drugs that caused Eve’s death.

Federline also told detectives she had previously suspected Eve of taking another family member’s Adderall and had begun keeping that person’s pill case downstairs, police wrote. She said medications such as Adderall had been kept in a lockbox for longer than a month.

Describing the morning she found Eve, Federline told police she knocked on the bedroom door, received no response and used a butter knife to open the locked door. She found Eve on the floor, sought help from Anthony Federline and called 911, according to the affidavit.

The medical examiner determined Eve died from intoxication involving diphenhydramine, fluoxetine and bupropion, commonly known as Benadryl, Prozac and Wellbutrin. Her manner of death was classified as undetermined, NBC Connecticut reported.

Patch previously reported on search warrants seeking medication purchase records and social media communications as investigators worked to determine how Eve obtained and ingested the drugs.

Eve’s stepfather, Anthony Federline, faces separate charges of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child. He pleaded not guilty, according to Patch’s earlier coverage.

For more Northern Connecticut news, follow Patch editor Jay Kenney.