Audria Nickerson Franklin County Detention Center
FARMINGTON — A former Montana woman was arrested Saturday at a Strong residence in connection to the death of her 5-month-old daughter on Sept. 25 in Montana.
She allegedly had methamphetamine in her system and was slumped over her infant in a vehicle when police found her in Butte, Montana, according to a press release.
Audria Shannon Nickerson, 30, of Strong is charged with negligent homicide, according to a press release from Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff George Skuletich.
She was taken into custody Saturday at a South Main Street residence in Strong after Maine State Trooper Rick Moody, Franklin County sheriff’s Sgt. Matthew Brann and two U.S. Marshals went to the residence where a family member confirmed Nickerson was there.
She is being held as a fugitive from justice at the Franklin County Detention Center.
Butte-Silver Bow police officers witnessed Nickerson slumped over in her vehicle in the early morning hours of Sept. 25 in the 200 block of Alaska Street and attempted to wake the female, according to a release from Undersheriff George Skuletich of the Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Department.
“They were unable to wake the female and they noticed that there was possibly a child underneath the slumped over female,” according to the release.
Police proceeded to break the window out of the vehicle to remove the female and the officers immediately began CPR on the infant.
The infant and a child who was in the back seat were taken to a hospital where the infant was pronounced dead. The surviving child was turned over to the Department of Family Services, according to the release.
These charges are a result of an intensive investigation with results from the crime lab showing that the suspect did have methamphetamine in her system on Sept. 25, Skuletich wrote. Bond is set at $250,000.
“The child died of suffocation, autopsy results showed, according to The Montana Standard.
Nickerson is scheduled to go before a judge in Farmington on Monday afternoon.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
