A GCSD detective’s investigation, after EMS responded during the summer to an unresponsive teen who had overdosed, has resulted in the arrest of a Solsberry woman on a felony charge.

Daphine Ann Murphy, 44, Solsberry, was arrested by Deputy James Carpenter of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department on Thursday, October 14, and booked into the Greene County Jail at 4:50 p.m. with bond set at $5,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. She posted $500 and was released later the same day.

Murphy was taken into custody after a warrant was issued for her arrest on October 7 as a result of an investigation led by GCSD Detective David Elmore into an incident that occurred in June.

In a lengthy probable cause affidavit prepared by Det. Elmore, he describes the incident and investigative steps taken including numerous interviews as well as examining cell phone texts and messaging on various social media.

On Tuesday, June 8, shortly after 8:30 a.m., Greene County Dispatch received a 911 call from Daphine Murphy saying her teen child’s friend, also a teenager, was cold to the touch and unresponsive but breathing.

Det. Elmore said when personnel with the Greene County Ambulance Service arrived at Murphy’s home on North Legion Road in the Solsberry area, the teen child’s friend, who will be referred to as the victim in the rest of this story, had a mixture of a foam-like substance and blood coming out of the victim’s mouth. Emergency personnel told Det. Elmore the victim was only taking three breaths per minute, had low blood sugar, and a heart rate of 30 until medication raised the heart rate to 40. Narcan was administered four times which improved the victim’s condition slightly though still unresponsive. The victim was transported to IU Health Bloomington Hospital but on the way, the ambulance pulled over at one point to put a board under the victim because the victim had gone into cardiac arrest.

The victim had identification from another state that turned out to be fake, but identification was made and Det. Elmore determined the victim was 17 years old. The victim was admitted to the hospital into intensive care. No addition information regarding the victim’s condition or recovery has been released.

When Det. Elmore first interviewed Daphine Murphy and her teen child at the hospital, he learned the victim had just moved in with them from another state. Murphy said she had returned home around 12:30 a.m. after working late, checked on her child and the victim and said the victim was asleep and her child was still awake. After saying good night, she went to bed. The next morning, her child woke her and said she couldn’t get her friend to wake up and after she ran to the child’s bedroom and also tried to wake the victim, called 911. She said the only people in the house were Murphy, her boyfriend, the child and the child’s friend/victim.

The child allegedly said she saw her friend/victim putting pills in her mouth the night before and the friend/victim said they were some sleeping pills. When the friend wouldn’t wake up that morning, and had a substance coming from the mouth, they told Murphy. When asked if the victim had been buying narcotics, the child said the victim didn’t know any one around the area because they’d just moved here.

According to Det. Elmore, Murphy withheld pertinent information during her interview including that she was sometimes unaware of her child’s location, allowing the child to move out then lying to both law enforcement and the Department of Child Services about where the child was living, among other things. During earlier interviews that were recorded, Murphy was reported to have said she was aware of her child using illegal narcotics but didn’t know how to stop it.

In addition, Det. Elmore reported Murphy did not tell the truth about how often and when she talked to her child that morning, saying she last spoke to her child before going to bed the night before. But Det. Elmore reported Murphy had helped her child throughout the early morning due to the child being sick after having taken Flexeril and Roxicodone “Roxy” pills.

The child’s cell phone was seized during the investigation. Messages were found that indicated what pills, and at what strengths, the child and victim had taken, and that Murphy had taken them away from the child late the night before after saying the child didn’t look good. Other messages included the child asking Murphy where she got the Roxys from.

Murphy had maintained there were no illegal narcotics in the house but after being confronted with the text messaging evidence during a later interview, Murphy allegedly said she had found out afterwards there were Roxys in her home but they were not hers and she didn’t know how the victim got hold of them. She also confirmed she found out and did take the pills away the night the victim overdosed.

Det. Elmore noted that during Murphy’s last interview at the sheriff’s department, when he stepped out of the room to get a drink for Murphy, she got a call from her boyfriend and told him, “They know (the victim) took Flexeril and the Roxys. I told them I got them from you.”

Murphy was in Greene Superior Court last week for her initial hearing.

She has been charged with:

Neglect of a dependent – dependent placed in a situation that endangered the dependent, a Level 6 felony, and
False informing – that substantially hindered a law enforcement procedure, a Class A misdemeanor.