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JS woman charged after overdose

From staff reports

JERSEY SHORE — After leaving her 3-year-old daughter alone in a bedroom, Jennifer Berkebile went into a bathroom and overdoses on a controlled substance, collapsing onto the floor in the family’s Jersey Shore apartment in the 300 block of Allegheny Street, according to Tiadaghton Valley Regional Police.

Just a few feet from the little girl was “a loaded syringe that contained cocaine and fentanyl,” as well as a baggie with the same two controlled substances, police said.

When police and paramedics arrived at the apartment during the early morning hours of April 15, Berkebile, 35, was on the floor unresponsive, but she did have a pulse. There were “track marks on her left hand and arm,” an officer said in an affidavit.

While paramedics worked to revive the woman, police spoke with her daughter who was standing on a mattress in the middle of a bedroom floor. There was no bed frame, police said.

Two other adults were in the apartment at the time, police said.

Berkebile was revived, but there was no information on whether she was taken to a local hospital.

Arraigned early Saturday morning on charges of recklessly endangering, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, Berkebile admitted to District Judge Gary Whiteman that she was addicted to heroin and had been “born as a heroin baby,” and had been using the drug since age 13. She was taken to the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $5,000 bail.

Another family member has protective custody of her daughter, according to court records.

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