Two separate cases out of western Colorado deal with mothers on drugs with tragic results. The Craig Daily Press reports that on January 26th a routine drug bust at the Colorado Inn in Craig resulted in officers finding a deceased infant in a backpack. 26-year-old Mikayla Diane Hoppe and 30-year-old Ronald Martin Chovanec were arrested on drug possession charges and later Hoppe was charged with concealing the death of an infant. The Moffat County Coroner estimated the deceased baby to be approximately 34 weeks along and likely a stillborn. The official autopsy from the Medical Examiner stated that it could not be determined whether the infant was born alive or stillborn but believed the baby had been born sometime in the last 10 days. On Monday, the judge reduced Hoppe’s bond from $5,000 dollars to $750 dollars since the charge of concealing the infant’s death was a misdemeanor. Hoppe’s next court date is February 24th. In a separate case, a Rifle mother and two others were arrested on Thursday on charges related to the death of a 5-year-old girl who was given water contaminated with methamphetamine back in December. 26-year-old Stephanie Alvarado, her cousin 27-year-old Daniel Alvarado, and friend Bertha Ceballos-Romo are charged with child abuse resulting in death. According to court documents, 5-year-old Sophie Larson had gone to bed around 10:30 pm but had gotten up and asked her mother for a drink. Alvarado saw a bottle with clear liquid in it and gave it to her daughter. When the girl woke up soon after she displayed erratic hyper behavior. Her mother and the other adults present recognized the 5-year-old girl appeared to be high on methamphetamine. They determined they would watch her and wait for the high to go away. During that time the mother told police she went outside and smoked some methamphetamine. Several hours later after 2am, Sophie had stopped breathing at which point they drove her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. The same day of their arrest last week, all three were released after posting bail.
