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A baby overdosed on fentanyl. Was it accident or crime?

Methuen police addressed the media Monday about a fentanyl case in which a 10-month-old girl had somehow ingested the drug and was revived twice on New Year’s Eve. Keith Bedford / Boston Globe

METHUEN — Was it a crime or a terrible accident? Did someone recklessly expose the 10-month-old to a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, or did the child ingest residue unintentionally left on a toy or other object?

And when police were trying desperately to revive the child, was the mother shuttling between her bedroom and the bathroom because she was flushing evidence, or just pacing in a panic?

These are a few of the knotty questions police are trying to unravel as they work to determine who, if anyone, is to blame for poisoning the 10-month-old with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic painkiller responsible for hundreds of deaths in Massachusetts in recent years. The girl had to be revived twice at Lawrence General Hospital on Saturday after suffering cardiac arrests.

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