commentary by Patrick H. Moore
There have undoubtedly been cases where young men and young women have overdosed on heroin and died in the arms of friends or loved ones – perhaps on the way to the emergency room, perhaps at their house or apartment, or perhaps in a shooting gallery with other lost souls. Never, however, have I heard of a case in which a 2-year-old dies of a methadone (a heroin replacement) overdose in his mother’s arms when – weirdly enough – his mother is the one who gave him the overdose. Yet, that is exactly what happened in the case of little Aiden Goff of Tooele, Utah on Friday Jan. 31st.
According to the police, Aiden’s mother, Jill Goff, accidentally gave him a drink of liquid methadone that she stored in a Gatorade bottle. When Aiden complained that it didn’t taste good, in what can only be seen as a rather odd response, Jill gave it to his five-year-old sister who agreed it was disgusting. Then, apparently playing a game of Follow the Leader, Aiden’s eight-year-old brother tasted it and said it tasted like medicine.
“The children had told us there was a sippy cup passed around between the three of them that mom had prepared for them and it didn’t taste right,” Tooele Police Captain Paul Wimmer told KSL.
According to Captain Wimmer, the investigators believe that Jill Goff inadvertently gave little Aiden methadone, which had been stored in the Gatorade bottle, rather than serving him actual Gatorade.
Methadone is a pain reliever that can also be used to help recovering addicts withstand withdrawal symptoms. It is a powerful synthetic opiate and its side effects are similar to heroin – a pleasant drowsiness and possibly a sense of euphoria or well-being. Methadone is also used – oddly enough – as a legal heroin replacement. In many states, an addict, upon demonstrating through a blood test that he or she has opiates in their system, can register for the local Methadone Program (every community worth its salt in America provides some sort of methadone program.) Once accepted into the program, the addict can pop into the clinic each morning and get their pink plastic cup of methadone.
In the case of Jill Goff, it’s possible that she was/is a regular methadone drinker who was weaned off of heroin by converting to methadone. The police have indicated that they believe the methadone was legal. The other possibility, of course, is that Jill (or someone else in the house) suffers from severe chronic pain and has been prescribed methadone based on its efficacy as a powerful painkiller.
In any event, it appears that Jill was prescribed the methadone and in a quantity greater than the daily clinic dose. The fact that she was storing it in the Gatorade bottle is incomprehensibly dumb. And as we will see, this mother, who appears to be perfectly loving and good-hearted, did not handle things that well once she realized what she had done.
According to the Daily Mail Reporter, the police statement said that when Jill Goff realized that she had switched the liquids, she tried to get little Aiden to throw up. Then she gave him a bath and put him down for a nap.
So we see that after screwing up royally, Jill then did her best to be a caring and concerned mother. Unfortunately, she did not do the one thing that would have saved her son’s life. She did not call for help, she told the investigators, because she was scared.
An older sibling eventually tried to wake up Aiden but he wasn’t responsive. At that point Jill called 911.
The police arrived at around 6pm on Friday. Jill Goff was very possibly holding Aiden when they arrived but he was not breathing. Emergency responders tried to save him, but he died at the home.
Then the two other kids, the 5-year-old sister and the 8-year-old brother, went to the emergency room. The police told the Salt Lake Tribune that they both tested positive for methadone.
The boy was not in good shape — he had broken out in a rash and his eyes were swollen. But both of the children survived.
At the hospital the two recovering children told relatives and detectives that their mother had given Aiden a drink but he did not like it.
The police have stated that Goff has no prior record and they believe she did not intend to kill her son. Nonetheless, she was arrested on suspicion of homicide, two counts of child abuse and endangerment of a child or vulnerable adult. She remains in the Tooele County jail.
In a statement, Captain Wimmer equivocated to some degree:
“While we don’t have any evidence that suggests that she was trying to harm the children with it, there is a certain level of care that is required with such a dangerous substance and medication.”
Unless those that knew Jill Goff are pulling the wool over our eyes, she is likely a loving mother. In her photos she looks rather beneficent (not that that can’t be deceiving). Facebook images show her doting over her five children and proudly posing with Aiden.
The four surviving children – aged 5, 8, 11 and 14 – have been placed with relatives.
Although only she knows if this is actually true, Jill wrote on her Facebook page on Friday, “I want to let you all know my baby boy Aiden Goff passed away in his momma arms tonight.”
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We’ll have to see what Rick Stack thinks about this one. I’m not convinced Jill Goff is only going to have her wrist slapped. She might get hit a little harder than that. The child abuse and child endangerment charges will almost certainly carry some weight considering that Aiden is dead.