Horrors of heroin: Mum of boy pictured with 'overdosed' adults in car says she wants him returned to her
The mother of a little boy who became the face of the US heroin crisis has spoken about her anguish in seeing her son witnessing his adult caretakers slumped unconscious in a car.
Reva McCullough, 25, told the Daily Mail she cried for four days straight when she heard about the photos.
WARNING, DISTRESSING IMAGES BELOW
City officials in Ohio made the decision to release the unedited picture, which shocked the world.
Ms McCullough’s little boy, 4, is now being cared for by his aunt in South Carolina.
His paternal grandmother Rhonda Pasek, the woman pictured passed out from an apparent heroin overdose, has been prevented from seeing him since the photo was released.
The photo put a human face to the heroin crisis that has gripped America for decades.
It shows the little boy staring at the camera while his grandmother is slumped half out of her chair, mouth agape. The driver, Jim Acord, was also sitting with his head back and mouth wide open.
The Daily Mail claims court papers showed the boy had been handed around relatives since he was born.
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Ms McCullough had lost custody of her son when he was born in December 2012 due to her drug use.
His great grandparents were initially awarded custody.
The Mail claimed Ms McCullough was working at a gentleman’s club called Tiffany’s Dolls in Ohio, where she is reportedly a dancer known as Mercedes.
She told the Mail she “didn’t even know” that her son had been sent to live with her aunt.
She claimed she didn’t take drugs any more, had never taken heroin and admitted to abusing crack cocaine and cannabis “for year”.
“I've made a lot of bad decisions in my life,” she said “I just went wild when I was 18.”
When police found the car Accord’s head was “bobbing back and forth, his speech was unintelligible” according to the police report. Accord also was noted as having “pin point pupils”.
Accord eventually went completely unconscious and Pasek was found completely unconscious and turning blue, according to police.
Pasek is due to face court this week. Acord has been sentenced to two terms of 180 days in jail.
Local police have defended releasing the confronting photo, saying it was necessary to let everyone see the boy’s expression, to depict the horror of the heroin epidemic.
The little boy is one of four of Ms McCullough’s children.
The Mail claims he was born in Delaware on August 2012 and he was immediately placed in the care of his great grandparents.
Court documents reportedly showed Ms McCullough lost custody of her child after being found to be “using illicit and illegal drug” specifically crack cocaine.
Ms McCullough told The Mail she “bawled for four days straight” when she saw the horrifying photo of her son and that she wanted her son to be returned to her.
