A mother and her young child were found dead inside their home Wednesday afternoon at Arms Apartments.
The mother, Marisha Drake, 25, and her daughter, Kalyrica Drake, 14 months, were found deceased in their apartment when maintenance men entered to conduct an inspection around 3 p.m. Wednesday.
“The maintenance men knocked and when they didn’t get an answer they used their key to get in,” said McMinnville Police Capt. Derwin Adcock. “When they got inside they found Ms. Drake deceased on the couch.”
Police were then called and made the grisly discovery of Drake’s 14-month-old daughter, whose body was found in a bedroom. While autopsies are ongoing, police suspect the mother had been dead about five days before her body was found. She was last heard from via a text message with family members June 25.
It is believed Drake was pregnant at the time of her death with neighbors saying she had a due date. The autopsy report, when complete, will indicate if she was pregnant.
While police have not received a definite cause of death for the mother or child, Adcock said there are no indications foul play was involved, leaving some to theorize the mother may have died of natural causes and the child then died from neglect because there was no one to care for her. However, Adcock said police received no reports of hearing a child crying or screaming in the days leading up to the discovery of the bodies.
Neighbors said Drake had been sick in the weeks leading up to her death and had been apprehensive about taking drugs prescribed for her treatment due to her pregnancy. They said she and her daughter were often outside, but hadn’t been seen in recent weeks because Drake had not been feeling well.
“She didn’t want to do anything,” said neighbor and friend Jennifer Carney. “I probably hadn’t seen her in three weeks. She’d been sick and going to the doctor, but she was reluctant to take the antibiotics because she was scared it might hurt her baby. She had a Nov. 22 due date. I told her to give me a call if she ever needed anything. I wish she would have called me.”
Neighbors said Drake was suffering anxiety about her pregnancy because she would have two young children to care for when the baby was born. They said she did not have a job.
As for the maintenance check, neighbors said that’s done about twice a year at Arms Apartments to ensure everything remains in working order with no glaring damage done to the apartment.