Editors Note: This article was originally published in the March 20, 2024 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
A report of an unresponsive child led to their mother’s arrest last Wednesday afternoon.
Chelsea Brauner, 31, was arrested after her child was reportedly exposed to a controlled substance.
According to a probable cause report filed in the incident, a responding Millard County Sheriff’s deputy arrived at a Fillmore business after receiving a call of an unresponsive child.
“I arrived and observed a female subject inside a silver Porsche. The female subject, later identified as Chelsea Brauner, said her child was inside the store,” the report states.
The deputy entered the building and saw a small child in the arms of a store employee.
“The child was unresponsive but breathing. I observed the child’s pupils to be constricted,” the deputy reported. The child and Brauner were both taken to Fillmore Community Hospital by ambulance after Brauner had secured her vehicle.
The deputy returned to the vehicle, where he allegedly saw a plastic bag with a brown substance as well as a clear plastic bag with a white substance. A K9 deputy was deployed for a free air sniff near the vehicle, where it gave an alleged positive indication to the presence of drugs.
During an interview, Brauner said she had used drugs—fentanyl laced heroin—prior to the incident. A search warrant was applied for and granted, which later revealed a blue pill, suspected to contain fentanyl.
During another interview, Brauner allegedly told detectives her child was unrestrained in the car while she was driving northbound on I-15.
“Chelsea stated that the child was exposed to heroine (sic) and fentanyl inside the car. Chelsea used these substances in the car with the child. This is when the child began to act strange and then lose consciousness,” the report states. The child was also reported by Brauner to have crawled to the front of the car from the back.
This is when Brauner allegedly pulled off the interstate and entered a business and gave her child to a store clerk, and then returned to her vehicle.
Prior to the incident, law enforcement had received calls that a woman was trying to give her child away.
“A description of this female and the car was given, law enforcement had not located the car until the medical incident,” the report states.
Brauner allegedly told deputies she had asked several people to take her child to Draper. Brauner was also aware of her Miranda rights and allegedly waived them to speak to investigators.
Brauner was charged with second-degree felony aggravated child abuse as well as Class A misdemeanors for reckless endangerment and possession of a controlled substance. She is scheduled to make an initial appearance in Fourth District Court Wednesday morning.
She was being held without bail pending her first court appearance.
