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PARKERSBURG -- A man accused in the death of a child in March 2020 has been returned to Wood County to answer charges, the Parkersburg Police Department said.
Officers on Wednesday went to the Trumbull Correctional Institute where Steven A. Siegel, 31, Parkersburg, was imprisoned on unrelated charges from Washington County of receiving stolen property, illegal possesion of a firearm and failure to appear.
Siegel was indicted by the September 2020 term of the grand jury in Wood County for the offenses of child neglect resulting in death and maintaining a dwelling for the keeping of a controlled substance.
The investigation began in March 2020 when the Police Department along with the Fire Department and EMS responded to a residence on Kanawha Street where there was an unresponsive 18-month-old child, the police department said. The child was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead, the department said.
The investigation by Detective J.O. Bell found Siegel resided at the Kanawha Street residence with the child's mother, Michelle D. Cyrus. A search of the residence revealed evidence of drug use inside the dwelling and during a subsequent interview with Cyrus, she admitted to the illicit use of fentanyl inside the residence, the department said.
An autopsy by the West Virginia State Medical Examiner revealed the cause of death of the child to be from fentanyl and nicotine intoxication, the police department said.
Cyrus pleaded guilty Nov. 17 in Wood County Circuit Court to child neglect resulting in death. She was sentenced Feb. 11 to three to 15 years in prison with credit for 196 days served, the police department said.
Siegel was processed at the Police Department and placed in the Wood County Holding Center on $300,000 bond to await arraignment in circuit court, the police department said.