ERIAL SUMMERS - 3 yo - Liberty IN

A Union County woman will likely face charges in the death of her daughter, investigators said.Police found 3-year-old Erial Summers dead Saturday at her Liberty home.Her
mother, 37-year-old Sarah Summers, pleaded guilty in May to child
neglect and is currently serving a 180-day sentence on home detention.That
conviction came after police found Erial, then 2 years old, and her
4-year-old brother wandering dirty and partially clothed in the parking
lot of Patriot Pointe Apartments.Officers said their mother was asleep and passed out inside their home under the apparent influence of drugs.Police reports show that the children said they had eaten only a mustard and ketchup sandwich and were hungry.The children were taken into protective custody, but at some point were returned to their mother.Investigators
said they expected to charge Summers in her daughter's death pending
the results of an autopsy and toxicology reports, which should be
available later this month.

Offidials of the Indiana Department of Child Services said they will
investigate the death of a 3-year-old girl whose mother was on home
detention for child neglect.Erial Summers was found dead last Saturday at her home in Liberty, which in is Union County.An autopsy was conducted Monday in Montgomery County, but the coroner is still awaiting toxicology test results.Erial's mother, Sarah Summer, 37, is currently serving six months of home detention for child neglect.Summers was convicted after police found the little girl and her four-year-old brother wandering alone in a parking lot.

The cousin of a three-year-old Liberty, Indiana girl who died over the weekend said she thinks an asthma attack was to blame.

Three-year-old Erial Summers died while in the care of her mother, Sarah Summers, who
was on home detention after pleading guilty to a previous child neglect
charge.

Indiana State Police and the Indiana Department of
Child Services are investigating the girl's death. Investigators are
still awaiting results of an autopsy.

Erial's cousin, 16-year-old Amber Collins, said Erial had suffered from asthma since she was a baby.

Collins said Sarah Summers would often wake up in the middle of the night to make sure Erial was still breathing.

"It was horrible," Collins said. "The ambulances were here all the time
because that baby couldn't breathe. And everybody's trying to make it
sound like Sarah killed her and she didn't."

Police said they had previously found Summers' two small children unattended in the
parking lot of the apartment building where they lived. They said they
found Sarah Summers asleep inside, apparently under the influence of a
"narcotic or other drug."

But Collins said Summers had just returned from a stay in the hospital and was under the influence of
medication. Collins added that Summers had asked a teen aged relative to
watch her children in case she fell asleep but that relative left while
Summers was asleep and that's when the children got out of the
apartment.

Sarah Summers was unavailable for comment Thursday.

No Charges Filed In Child's Death After Neglect Case
Sarah Summers Vindicated In Daughter's Death

POSTED: 10:28 am EST January 14, 2010

LIBERTY, Ind. -- Union County Prosecutor Ron Jordan has determined charges are not warranted in the case of a 3-year-old girl who died while in the care of her mother, who had previously been convicted of child neglect.

Erial Summers died in September 2009 in her apartment home in Liberty while in the care of Sarah Summers, 37, who was on home detention at the time after she pleaded guilty to two counts of child neglect.

Prosecutors found no evidence that neglect or abuse occurred that would have led to the child's death.
Amber Collins, a relative of Summers, said in September that the girl's mother would be vindicated.

"That little girl had asthma and died at 3 o'clock in the morning," Collins said in September. "There's nothing nobody can do about it."

Summers pleaded guilty in May 2009 to two counts of child neglect after Erial and her brother were found wandering outside their apartment home.
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