OLATHE, Kan. — New court documents say three children allegedly drugged by their mother “would have died” if first-responders hadn’t acted when they did.
Therese Roever is charged with attempted capital murder for allegedly giving her three children drugs that nearly killed two of them.
According to court documents, on Feb. 19, police were dispatched after Roever’s ex-husband called, saying Roever and their three children were drugged and groggy.
The ex-husband said he could not get Roever to answer the phone or door for more than an hour. When she finally answered the door, court documents say Roever told him to call four ambulances.
When officers arrived, Roever was lying on a bed with her 7-year-old daughter who was not alert, according to police. The couple’s five-year-old was also seen getting up from a bed and stumbling to the ground, and police found another 7-year-old child crying inside a bathroom.
Court documents say officers also found multiple pill bottles on the ledge of a bed.
Police called Johnson County Med-Act to the Olathe home, and Roever and all three children were taken to a nearby hospital. On the way to the hospital, Med-Act crews administered Narcan, a drug used to treat opioid overdoses, on two of the children.
According to court documents, doctors at the hospital told police two of the children would have died if police wouldn’t have arrived when they did.
The capital classification to Roever’s charges is because the crime involved more than one victim in the same act, but the attempted murder charges may be the result of what she allegedly told a 911 operator.
In a police dispatch recording, the dispatcher fills in first-responders before they arrived at the scene: “The male is back on the phone and advising the kids were given something. I can hear one certain cry in the background. The other is sleeping,” the dispatcher said.
Later, dispatchers spoke with Roever.
“The wife is now on the phone,” the dispatcher said. “She says it was intentional. It was a drug overdose. There is no weapons.”
Roever lost custody of the children to her ex-husband shortly after the two were divorced in 2016, court documents say. Three months ago, the court granted her unsupervised visitation.
Roever is being held in jail on a $1 million bond. In court documents, police said the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Previous charges:
Note: A previous version of this story stated that Roever was charged with three counts of attempted capital murder. It has since be updated to reflect the single attempted capital murder charge she faces for allegedly drugging her three children.
