PUYALLUP, Wash. — A mother has been arrested following the death of her 5-year-old son, Brentlee Lawrence, who investigators say died from a fentanyl overdose.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the home on the 14900 block of 66th Avenue Court East in Puyallup around 4 a.m. on March 13 and discovered the boy unresponsive. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The boy’s mother, Jordan Shank, told deputies she fell asleep with her son and woke up to find him with vomit on him and not breathing. Investigators found drug paraphernalia throughout the home, which was reportedly in deplorable conditions, with no running water, dog waste in the child’s room, and toilets filled with human excrement.
It was 100% preventable,” Brentlee’s aunt, Kelsey Osborne, said. “We did everything we could do. We called CPS, I personally called over 10 times, his pediatrician did, the neighbors did.
Court documents reveal Shank admitted to using fentanyl while pregnant and getting high twice a day. Records indicate the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office had been called to the home for various reasons nearly 40 times since 2021, and there were at least two prior reports to Child Protective Services regarding the child being left unattended at a Target and outside the home.
I think CPS has their hands tied to an extent,” Osborne said. “They can only do what the state allows them to do, and I think change needs to be made on a higher level.
Brentlee’s family told KOMO News that Brentlee is on the autism spectrum and briefly lived with other relatives but was ultimately placed back with his parents, who then limited the family’s contact with him.
“Why couldn’t he stay with us?” Brentlee’s aunt, Cassandra Parsons, said. “He was safe and he was healthy and he was fine, and we would have gotten him his proper care.”
It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” Bonnie Johnson, Brentlee’s grandmother, told KOMO News. “I lost my grandson and my daughter, since she’s been on drugs, hasn’t been my daughter, and I kept hoping for her to be clean.
“The way the system is set up, our hands are tied,” Johnson added. “I can’t go take him, or it’s kidnapping.”
Shank was arrested on May 10 after blood tests confirmed that the boy died from fentanyl.
“No life should have been lost. Something should have been done,” Parsons said. “He should have never gone back to them.”
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) stated that they are unable to comment on this case due to privacy laws. The boy’s father was also present at the home when the boy was found unresponsive, but is not facing any charges at this time. The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office did not specify why, but shared that they are still investigating the case.
Shank pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the first degree in court Monday. She is being held at the Pierce County jail on $750,000 bail.
