Michigan Nurse ‘Shot Up’ Meth Before Work, Then Allegedly Killed 3-Year-Old, Police Say

Judith Maria Sobol via the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office.

A home healthcare nurse in Michigan was arrested this week after she allegedly killed a 3-year-old girl in her care while high on meth. Judith Maria Sobol, 42, was taken into custody on Monday and charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of possession of methamphetamine, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.

Officers with the Coloma Township Police Department on June 20 at approximately 2:30 a.m. responded to a 911 call about a child not breathing at a home located in the 6200 block of East Brecht Road, according to a report from South Bend NBC affiliate WNDU-TV. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders found the child and both of the parents inside the toddler’s room. The father was reportedly performing CPR on the little girl, but told police they were not sure how long she had been unconscious.

The parents, whose names have not been reported, told the officers that they walked into their daughter’s room and found the little girl and her nighttime nurse, later identified as Sobol, both lying on the ground. They noted that the child’s required breathing tube was nowhere to be found. Police said that the victim appeared “blue,” South Bend ABC affiliate WBND-TV reported.

The parents reportedly told police that they hired Sobol, a registered nurse, to watch their daughter because the toddler had several medical conditions and required constant monitoring. But police reportedly said that when they arrived, Sobol was “lying on the ground next to the child mumbling.”

The toddler was transported to Spectrum Lakeland Hospital in Watervliet for treatment. However, she succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at approximately 4 a.m.

“Through an investigation, the officers found out that was the registered nurse that was supposed to care for the child throughout the night. After the investigation was completed, we determined that she was high on methamphetamines and should not have been in care of that child,” Coloma Township Police Chief Wes Smigielski told reporters on Wednesday.

According to WNDU, police said that Sobol confessed that she “shot up” meth before coming to work that evening and admitted she was responsible for the toddler’s death because she was “not in the right state of mind to be at work and should have never come to work at all.” In fact, she allegedly told investigators that she had also shot up meth before coming to work on each of the four days before the child’s tragic death.

South Bend CBS affiliate WSBT reported that the toddler’s trachea tube wasn’t located until after they arrived at the hospital, where it was found tangled up in her hair.

Sobol, who allegedly had a container of meth and two pipes on her when she was processed, reportedly told police that when she cleaned the trachea tube it likely became disconnected. She reportedly said she likely then “passed out or fell asleep without the trachea tube being properly replaced,” per WSBT.