WHITELAND, Ind. -- A couple is facing charges after police say they overdosed in a car at a Whiteland truck stop Wednesday night with a young child in the back seat.
Whiteland police received multiple 911 calls reporting two people who were apparently overdosing in a car in the parking lot of the Loves Travel Center on Whiteland Road near I-65 around 8:45 p.m.
People reported a woman passed out on the ground next to a gas pump and a man walking in circles in the parking lot before he fell to the ground.
According to a police report, when police arrived they found a female sitting on the ground with her back against the vehicle parked at a gas pump and a bystander waving his arms pointing to a man lying unresponsive on the ground nearby. The officer noticed the man was taking only shallow breaths and was coming in and out of consciousness and convulsing.
Paramedics administered Naloxone to the man and both of them were taken to Johnson Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Officers also noticed an empty child's car seat fastened in the back seat of the vehicle the couple had been in. Police began looking for the child since neither the man or woman knew where the child was, just that they had a child in the backseat when they arrived at the gas station.
While searching for the child, a bystander told police she noticed the unattended child in the car witnessing the overdoses and told police she decided it would be best for the child's wellbeing to remove her from witnessing this horrible situation any further. She removed the child from the car and moved her to safety inside the store while her son called 911.
When police responded to the hospital the couple, identified as Michael Tanner and Samanthia Thompson, told them they had been using drugs earlier that day.
Tanner told police he had been clean from using heroin for two months but snorted a small amount that day in the car while the child was in the back seat. He said he did not remember anything about the incident.
Thompson told police that she had smoked some spice and couldn't remember what had happened.
The police contacted the child's father who said the couple were watching the child that day and were not supposed to leave the house where they were babysitting.
The department of children's services took custody of the child.
Both Tanner and Thompson are facing charges for neglect of a dependent and a warrant has been issued for their arrests.
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