Mother charged with using heroin with daughter, 15

Patricia Davenport allegedly introduced her daughter to heroin in April, with the 15-year-old snorting the drug in their Harleysville kitchen.

By the summer, a needle was in the girl's forearms several times a week, with Davenport often injecting her, police said. The girl's 16-year-old boyfriend was getting high with them too, and Davenport's 8-year-old son often watched, according to court records.

Several times a week for six months, Davenport took the three children to North Philadelphia to score the heroin, injecting her daughter and the girl's boyfriend on the ride home, police said.

Davenport, 35, was arrested Wednesday on a slew of charges, including endangering the welfare of children and felony drug counts. Her friend Megan Rudolph, 26, who often did drugs with Davenport, her daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend, is expected to be arraigned on related charges Thursday, authorities said.

Risa Vetri Ferman, Montgomery County's district attorney, said the arrests exemplify the "national scourge" of heroin addiction, which has been spurred by its low cost and prescription gateway drugs such as OxyContin.

"I've been doing this long enough, so I don't get surprised a lot," she said at a news conference. "But I'm really at a loss for words. It's incomprehensible to me that a parent would introduce her child to these drugs."

Lower Salford Township police began their investigation because Rudolph called a Souderton Area High School guidance counselor to say she saw the mother and daughter use drugs together, court records stated. A school nurse then examined the 15-year-old and found track marks on her forearms, police said.

The girl then described to police the last six months of drug abuse, which included her 8-year-old brother's once asking his mother about the syringe in her hand, court records stated.

"His life has been very deeply impacted," Ferman said.

Davenport was being held Wednesday on $50,000 bail. Her children are now in the care of others, and the county's Office of Children and Youth is involved, Ferman said.