SEASIDE HEIGHTS

— When investigators in Ocean County discovered an 11-month-old Seaside Heights boy dead four years ago, they knew it was more than an accident.

They just couldn’t prove it.

The cause of the infant’s death wasn’t a mystery, investigators said. A toxicology report revealed heroin in his system.

The baby, identified only as “Baby JM,” was with his parents, Rondel Moore and Denise Manco, when he lost consciousness the night of Sept. 12, 2008, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch-Ford.

Neither parent could explain it.

The investigation languished until 2011, Lynch-Ford said, until an outside expert reviewed the case.

A second look at the forensics showed the baby’s death could not have been an accident, Lynch-Ford said, and that discovery set off a chain of events that revealed what really happened.

The heroin in “Baby JM” had been placed there on purpose. By his parents.

On Monday, Manco and Moore admitted in court that they they placed heroin on their baby’s gums to alleviate his pain from teething, a decision that ultimately led to the infant’s death, Lynch-Ford said yesterday.

The announcement shocked law enforcement officials throughout Ocean County.

“What goes through people’s minds sometimes is unfathomable,” Seaside Heights Police Chief Thomas Boyd said. “You just sit back and you ask ‘Is the world going crazy, or am I?’”

The parents were indicted on manslaughter and child endangerment charges on Sept. 26, according to Lynch-Ford, who said a “credible eyewitness” stepped forward a few weeks later and told investigators the death was no accident.

The prosecutor praised Seaside Heights police Detective Stephen Korman and prosecutor’s Detective Carlos Trujillo-Tovar for pursuing the case doggedly long after “Baby JM” died in 2008.

“They kept coming back to this,” Lynch-Ford said. “It’s all about giving justice, in this case to an 11-month-old child who would just be a name on a headstone in a cemetery right now were it not for their efforts.”

Forensics showed “Baby JM” ingested the heroin around 5:50 p.m. and 7 p.m. the night of the incident, Lynch-Ford said. He died within 2-1/2 hours.

Manco and Moore face up to 10 years in prison when they are sentenced on the manslaughter charges next month, Lynch-Ford said.

Both parents have a history of drug offenses, according to public records. Moore was arrested in Asbury Park in 2005 on charges he was dealing heroin and cocaine, records show, and Manco was previously arrested on a narcotics offense in Seaside Heights.

During the initial investigation, Lynch-Ford said, detectives allowed for the possibility the baby came into contact with heroin that had been left out in the house. But the second toxicology report proved “Baby JM” ingested the heroin.

While she’s handled her share of child abuses during her career, Lynch-Ford said it’s always difficult dealing with the death of an infant.

“I’ve seen a lot of child abuse cases. I’ve visited children in the hospital who have been subject of our cases,” she said. “Obviously, this one really tears at your heart.”

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