Police: Couple passed out in car had syringe of opiates, baby in back seat

Police said a Des Moines couple is lucky to be alive Tuesday after they were found passed out in a car with a syringe in their hand and their 3-week-old daughter in the back seat.Des Moines police found Jenna McDermott and Cameron Kauffman passed out on Monday in the Harding Hills Mall parking lot on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said Kauffman told officers that they passed out around 2:30 p.m. and were taken into custody around 5:30 p.m."If this would've been very cold or if it would've been July, when the temperatures are high, we might've got there and found one, two or three people dead,” Parizek said.Parizek said the syringe found in Kauffman's hand was filled with opiates."A lot of our officers are parents, and cases like this hit us hard personally,” he said. “I don't think you need to be a parent, though, to understand and appreciate the dangers that that child was in."Both of the child's parents have had drug-related charges before.McDermott pleaded guilty to dealing meth in March 2017 and Kauffman was found unconscious by Ankeny police officers with a heroin-filled syringe in 2016.Both were on probation and now face felony charges of child endangerment."Putting a 3-week-old child in that kind of harm's way is totally unacceptable,” Parizek said.Des Moines police confirmed that the Iowa Department of Human Services is working to place the baby in a safe home.

Police said a Des Moines couple is lucky to be alive Tuesday after they were found passed out in a car with a syringe in their hand and their 3-week-old daughter in the back seat.

Des Moines police found Jenna McDermott and Cameron Kauffman passed out on Monday in the Harding Hills Mall parking lot on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.


Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek said Kauffman told officers that they passed out around 2:30 p.m. and were taken into custody around 5:30 p.m.

"If this would've been very cold or if it would've been July, when the temperatures are high, we might've got there and found one, two or three people dead,” Parizek said.

Parizek said the syringe found in Kauffman's hand was filled with opiates.

"A lot of our officers are parents, and cases like this hit us hard personally,” he said. “I don't think you need to be a parent, though, to understand and appreciate the dangers that that child was in."

Both of the child's parents have had drug-related charges before.

McDermott pleaded guilty to dealing meth in March 2017 and Kauffman was found unconscious by Ankeny police officers with a heroin-filled syringe in 2016.

Both were on probation and now face felony charges of child endangerment.

"Putting a 3-week-old child in that kind of harm's way is totally unacceptable,” Parizek said.

Des Moines police confirmed that the Iowa Department of Human Services is working to place the baby in a safe home.