Mother charged in overdose death of young daughter

DES MOINES -- (WHO) -- John Tafta remembers his daughter Kathleen as a little girl with a big heart.

“She was a happy, healthy, energetic eight-year-old little girl that loved life, loved her family, did nothing to nobody,” Tafta said.

It has been almost a year since Kathleen Tafta died under the care of her biological mother, Misty Dawn Frazier, after Frazier gave the girl drugs that were not prescribed for her.

Frazier is now charged with two felonies: child endangerment resulting in death and distributing a drug to a minor without a prescription.

“Misty was giving her medicine that was not prescribed by a doctor, giving it to Kathleen, slowly killing her a little bit at a time," Tafta said.

The court affidavit backs John Tafta, showing Kathleen was hospitalized in September 2016 for a drug-related seizure. Investigators say her mother lied and said Kathleen had a prescription for the anti-depressant drug Amitriptyline.

A month later, on October 19th, Kathleen died of an overdose. The state medical examination showed toxic levels of the drug in Kathleen's body, achieved over a prolonged period of time.