Dad Injects Self, Son With Heroin the Day Divorce Was To Be Final
Eric Emil Lehtinen, 37, of Redmond, Washington is accused of injecting his 4-year-old son with heroin, ketamine, morphine and codeine on the day his divorce with the boy’s mother was to be finalized. When the mother showed up to the house to pick up her son after a job interview, she found them both Lehtinen and the boy unconscious.
According to authorities, Lehtinen’s wife of six years—knowing he “had a history as both a heroin addict and a heroin dealer”—left her son with his father while she attended the interview. In what can only be described as horrifying, the mother came home, found the two in bed, and “removed a blanket from the little boy to find a syringe apparently filled with drugs on his chest.” Both the child and Lehtinen were still breathing and transferred immediately to the hospital. Lehtinen was released from the hospital and is now in jail, charged with attempted murder in the first degree.
The little boy is currently at Seattle Children’s Hospital and it’s unclear whether or not he will suffer long-term damage.
Upset neighbor Alex Marchand told Q13Fox, “I just don’t understand how messed up you have to be to inject your 4-year-old with heroin. Never heard of anything like this, never even had the thought cross my mind of anything like this happening in the world.”
In the final terms of the child-custody order, the mother wanted to require drug tests for Lehtinen.