DCF: Strangled toddler's mother did drugs

Reported by: Karen Castillo
Email: kcastillo@wfts.com
Last Update: 8/28/2009 6:56 am

A burmese python was removed from a Sumter County home after it killed a 2-year-old child inside

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OXFORD, FL -- Newly released documents by the Department of Children and Families say the mother of a 2-year-old girl, who was strangled by a python, did drugs while she was pregnant.

The new information is revealed in a 150 page report started in May 2009, a month before the child was killed.

The report says Jaren Hare, Shaiunna Hare's mother, tested positive for marijuana several times while 4 months pregnant.

The documents also state Charles Darnell, Hare's live in boyfriend, tested positive for marijuana and Oxycodone, a drug for which he did not have a prescription.

Darnell and Hare are both awaiting manslaughter charges for the death.

The DCF report also says Darnell did not store the python in an aquarium like once thought. The report states Darnell stored the exotic animal in a homemade wooden contraption, an illegal way to store the exotic animal.

While police work on the criminal case, DCF has taken custody of Jaren Hare's newborn.

The report also says investigators felt Hare was being controlled by Darnell, who DCF called manipulative and suspected of having an untreated mental health illness.

DCF says its 150 page report proves they were very thorough, and if case workers suspected the python inside an aquarium was a risk to the child, they would have taken action.

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