Lawrence man held without bail in death of girl who died with fentanyl in her system

LAWRENCE, MASS. (WHDH) - A Lawrence man was ordered held without bail in connection with the death of an 11-year-old Haverhill girl who was found with fentanyl in her system.

Miguel Rivera, 58, appeared in Lawrence District Court Tuesday on charges of permitting substantial bodily injury to a child and misleading a police investigation stemming from the Dec. 15 death of Precious Wallaces, according to the Essex District Attorney’s Office.

Emergency crews responding to a medical call at a rooming house on Jackson Street rushed Wallaces from a family friend’s home to Lawrence General Hospital, where hospital personnel told officers that she had fentanyl in her system, according to a police report.

She was then transferred by medical helicopter to Tufts Medical Center, where she died the following Tuesday.

Medical Examiners have conducted an autopsy on Wallaces but have not yet ruled on the cause of her death.

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