Child, 12, Dies In Joliet: Bloodstain On Mattress Shared By Girl And Her Mother, Prosecutors Reveal

JOLIET, IL — Mya King would still be alive today if not for the actions of her own mother,Colette Bancroft, whose addiction to heroin and careless behavior led to the death of her 12-year-old daughter back in 2024, the Will County State's Attorney's Office alleges.

Now, Bancroft must be kept inside the Will County Jail indefinitely under the SAFE-T-Act, according to the prosecution's petition to deny pretrial release. A pretrial detention hearing is Thursday at the Will County Courthouse.

Bancroft faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, endangering the life of a child and two counts of possession of controlled substances. Joliet Patch broke the story of Bancroft's arrest by the Joliet police force over the weekend, prompting other news outlets to pursue the story as well.

According to the prosecution, Joliet officers Hall and Olevara responded to the Bancroft house in the 1500 block of East Washington Street at 8:24 a.m. back on April 14, 2024, after learning of an unresponsive juvenile. Mya King was one month shy of her 13th birthday.

The victim's 21-year-old uncle guided the officers through the rear entrance of the house, indicating he woke up and went into the bathroom and heard his aunt, Colette Bancroft, yelling and crying. He then saw Mya foaming at the mouth and not responding, prosecutors said.

The officers found the kitchen filthy and messy, and the house smelled of cat urine, prosecutors said. Joliet police saw dirty dishes and laundry littered on the floor and dirty human and animal tracks covering high-traffic areas of the floors. Rooms smelled and contained grime, feces and clumps of dog hair and cat hair all over, plus a dirty litter box, prosecutors revealed.

Old towels were used to soak up water from a broken water pipe, and clothes and other items were piled on top of each other inside the Bancroft house, according to court documents. The officers found Mya unresponsive in a second-floor bedroom that the adolescent child shared with her mother. Mya was reportedly unresponsive, drooling and had blood on her face. One officer administered Narcan twice, but Mya showed no signs of consciousness, court records state.

Eventually, Mya was taken to Silver Cross Hospital. When Bancroft was asked if her daughter took any drugs, she answered no, prosecutors said.

Before leaving for the Joliet police station, "Bancroft stated she was an active drug user, she uses heroin. Bancroft said she last used heroin that morning around midnight and went to bed," court files show. "She said she had heroin in her purse but did not know if Mya went into her purse or what she may have taken. The purse was at the foot of the bed in their bedroom."

Bloodstain Found On Bedroom Mattress

Officer Blankenship noted that he saw blood stains on the mattress of the bed shared by Mya and her mother and vomit in the middle of the bed, prosecutors pointed out. Bancroft told Joliet police that Mya did not have a history of drug use, but admitted to having a drug problem herself, court records state. The officer found multiple bags of a white powdery substance inside Bancroft's purse and a glass pipe, and then an empty cigarette box with more baggies of the white powdery substance inside her purse, court documents show.

The officer noted he also saw part of a blue straw with tissue or toilet paper wrapped around one end, and the exposed end of the straw contained a white substance on the end of it.

Officers also interviewed Mya's 66-year-old grandfather, as he lived there and was present. He saw Mya the night before around 9 p.m., and she seemed normal. He did not witness the event as he was inside his bedroom, prosecutors advised.

A 20-year-old woman who was in the house told the officers that she awoke around 6 a.m. and saw Mya walk into the bathroom, and then at 7:27 a.m., as she left for work, she saw both Mya and her mother lying face down on the bed; she saw them through the open doorway and thought they were both sleeping, court records state.

By 8:37 a.m., the woman's boyfriend called to alert her that Mya was foaming at the mouth and being taken to the hospital. During her interview with police, she referred to Mya's mother as a "crackhead" and said she believed Bancroft smoked crack, noting how she saw her passed out on the bathroom floor at least once before from suspected drug use, court records indicate.

The woman said the 12-year-old only smoked marijuana and was not known to use any other drugs, according to prosecutors. The child smoked marijuana in front of her mother, who did nothing about it, at least once, the court files state.

Bancroft Recounts Her Whereabouts Before Mya's Death

Inside the Joliet police station, Colette Bancroft told Detective Esqueda-Reed that between 11:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. she took a shower, snorted heroin using a red or blue straw and then went to bed, court files show. She kept her heroin in the upstairs bedroom and kept the straw, razor blade, mirror and heroin in her purse or jacket pocket. Bancroft said she bought four or five bags of heroin on April 12 or April 13 and opened three of the bags, but did not know what she did with the remainder of her drugs that night, prosecutors alleged.

Bancroft said she finished her crack cocaine on April 13, 2024. As for her and Mya, she said they were up around 6 a.m. and talked about going to the laundromat later that day; they decided to lie back down and go to bed, and when Bancroft woke up again at 8 a.m., she saw Mya laying on her stomach, prosecutors outlined.

Bancroft told the detective she tried to wake up her daughter, but Mya would not wake up. Her skin was blue, and she had vomit on her face; Mya was drooling and unresponsive, so Bancroft dragged her daughter off the bed, court records indicate.

"The heroin she did on April 14 may have been mixed with something. She admits she could have forgotten the blue straw in the bathroom. She also said Mya did not take any drugs," prosecutors advised.

At Silver Cross Hospital, a urine screen for drugs detected fentanyl for Mya. The blood draw did not test her for drugs. Because of her worsening condition, Mya was moved to Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago by ambulance. However, she developed a pulmonary embolism inside the ambulance, so they took her to Good Samaritan to stabilize her. From there, she was airlifted to Lurie, where she was admitted at 2:28 p.m. A doctor revealed that Mya had an irreversible brain injury, and a subsequent urine screen that night detected fentanyl again, court records noted.

Mya remained at Lurie for another two days until April 17, 2024, when two different doctors confirmed "death by neurologic criteria; " she was pronounced dead at 5:06 p.m. and her family consented to organ donations, court records explained.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office autopsy found the cause of Mya's death to be undetermined because the blood samples that went to the medical examiner's office were negative for any drugs, Will County's prosecutors have explained.