Welfare check leads to meth lab discovery

PALMER — A welfare check on an unsupervised, naked 2-year-old boy at an apartment complex led police to a suspected methamphetamine lab.

Officer Donna Anthony and her partner responded to the apartments at 302 N. Valley Way Tuesday evening after other residents called to report the child was running around without clothing on, Anthony said.

“Basically, we found a naked 2-year-old and when I pulled up, the neighbors downstairs had the boy and the upstairs apartment door was wide open,” she said.

Yells into the apartment, where police were told the boy lived, were not answered, so Anthony called for another unit to respond to do a welfare check.

“We had no response until we got to the back bedroom,” she said.

There, they found the boy’s mother unconscious and unresponsive, Anthony said, adding she also observed what appeared to be drug paraphernalia near the bed.

“We were doing the welfare check not knowing what we were getting into,” she said. “We could see in plain view what appeared to be drug paraphernalia. When we came back the second time, we could smell the chemicals and as we were walking through it was pretty prevalent it was a meth lab, so we called the drug unit.”

That unit is the Alaska State Troopers’ Drug Task Force, where Anthony was assigned until recently moving over to the Palmer Police Department. Her training with the task force helped her to spot the meth lab in the apartment during the welfare check, she said. That both she and her partner also developed rashes and headaches from being inside the apartment is also a sign.

“I just left the drug unit and the last thing I expected was doing a check on the mother that it would turn into a meth lab,” she said. “Her behavior led me to believe, based on my training experience, she was under the influence of narcotics, especially with the paraphernalia next to the bed.”

The child was taken by the state Office of Child Services and AST continues to investigate the suspected lab, but no arrests or charges have yet been made, said AST spokeswoman Megan Peters.

Investigators removed the suspected lab equipment and meth ingredients and are testing them, she said.

“They’re trying to make sure their Ts are crossed and Is dotted,” she said. What was taken includes “drug-type paraphernalia and what are believed to be ingredients for the production and distribution of methamphetamine. There could be charges, but they want to make sure everything is in order.”

Members of the task force are also trained in safely collecting and removing the volatile equipment and materials used to manufacture the drug, Peters said. A witness at the scene Tuesday report a portion of the parking lot was roped off with yellow police tape that still allowed other residents access to their apartments in the building.

Three officers entered the home wearing full-body haz-mat suits with facemasks and rubber booties, the witness said. Among the items witnesses observed being taken were jars, cookware and at least one coffee grinder.

Along with the lab, the task force found “multiple grams of methamphetamine,” according to an AST report. As the investigation proceeds, it is expected that charges will be forwarded to the District Attorney’s Office.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.