ST. LOUIS – Mary Anne Curtis, 30, was facing child endangerment charges in St. Louis City last year, when she was connected to three child deaths. At one point, she was allowed out on bond, leading to what authorities now say is a fourth child death in St. Louis County.
The suspect lives on Janet Avenue in Jennings, where we spoke with her mother, Nadine. “I just feel like if my child didn’t have bad luck, she wouldn’t have any at all,” Nadine Richardson told us.
Her daughter Mary is behind bars after a judge wrote on a warrant “This may be the 4th infant to die as a result of the defendant.”
“I strongly feel that if she wouldn’t have gotten involved in drugs, we wouldn’t be here,” Nadine added.
Court records point to drug exposure as the connection in each child death. Nadine told us that her daughter had drug-exposed twins born five months prematurely in 2020. She added, “So they were born really, really small, under a pound, and they lived for about a minute.”
Then she said, in 2021, her daughter had another child, named Tre’mon, who lived just 17 days. She said her daughter Mary was using Methadone to treat a Heroin addiction and that hospital staff told them it was ok for her to breastfeed.
That death led to a child endangerment charge in St. Louis City and a court deal to allow her to leave jail under certain conditions, such as GPS monitoring. Nadine added, “This last time, Mary was doing everything she was supposed to be doing – doing the right thing.”
Until Nadine says an acquaintance brought over a sleeping two-year-old, who never woke up.
Nadine explained, “The way she breathing, I wasn’t comfortable with it, so I asked Mary … does she always sleep this hard?”
The child died March 20th, leading to the latest charge – alleging fentanyl exposure.
Then there’s a 5th child death – that’s not reportedly drug related. Nadine says Mary Anne Curtis’ 15-year-old daughter Emily died February 28th after being shot in the face by an acquaintance in south St. Louis. She said Curtis attended the funeral and then was locked up on the St. Louis County child endangerment charges she was arraigned on Friday.