Mother of dead Roxboro child now facing murder charges
ROXBORO, N.C. (WTVD) -- The mother of a 2-year-old Roxboro boy who was accused of extreme child abuse following her son's death last summer, is now facing murder charges.
On Friday, officials in Person County released an autopsy report that stated the toddler - Donte Joseph Diven - had a significant amount of pain medication in his system when he died.
Investigators said the case began July 30, 2014 when Person County deputies went to a call about a child in cardiac arrest.
"It did not sound right from the beginning. They actually took the child from the residence and met at a convenience store instead of waiting at the residence for the ambulance to arrive," Person County Sheriff Dewey Jones told ABC11 in an interview last August.
Diven was taken to the hospital but never regained consciousness and died August 3.
"At this time, we do not have cause of death. We're still waiting for the medical examiner and also toxicology. There were no physical signs of trauma," Sheriff Jones previously said.
According to the report, Diven died following "cardiorespiratory arrest due to buprenorphine intoxication."
"Buprenorphine should not be present in the child's blood, and its presence is significant in the absence of any other identifiable cause of death," the reported stated.
The actual amount of pain medication in his system when he went into cardiac arrest could not be determined since the blood sample provided for toxicological analysis was not the initial sample taken when the boy arrived at the hospital.
The autopsy report went on to say that it was unknown how the 2-year-old obtained the medication - whether it was given to him by another person, or whether he found it and ingested it.
Following the boy's death, Diven's mother, 23-year-old Ellen Brittany Green-Allen, was charged with intentional child abuse causing serious physical injury after investigators said there was evidence her son was burned with a cigarette at least three times.
She now faces first-degree murder charges.
