CLINTON, Mo. -- "She was such a beautiful, loving, happy little girl. She was happy all the time," says Cathleen Perron, about her 12-year-old daughter, Destiny Spitler. A daughter she's now mourning.
"I don't know what to think or how to think. I'm at a lost because this is so tragic," Perron told FOX 4's Robert Townsend during an interview Tuesday at her home in Clinton, Mo.
Early Saturday morning, police and paramedics rushed to the family's house on East Clinton Street and found Destiny not breathing. They preformed CPR on the child, but Destiny later died at the hospital.
It"s believed the curious Clinton Middle School sixth grader found her grandmother's Fentanyl pain-relieving patch in a trash can, put it on and accidentally overdosed.
Destiny died in her sleep at her family's home, where outside you'll now see a orange ribbon tied to a cross and pink flowers.
"And these kids believe that after 72 hours, the patches have no more medicine in them, but that's not true," says Perron.
"They're (the patches) are a high risk medication. You've got to be careful, " says Dr. Stephen Thornton, toxicologist, at The University of Kansas Hospital.
Dr. Thornton says the safest way to get rid of the patches is to flush them.
"I have to be honest. I would dispose of it down the toilet. I mean, I can't think of any safer way to do it," added Dr. Thornton.
Destiny Spitler
"It's tragic and I just don't want another family to go through what we're going through right now, " says Cathleen Perron.
Destiny Spitler was the oldest of three children. She dreamed of becoming a singer or a doctor.
Memorial fund
A memorial fund has been set-up for Spitler at Leeton Bank in Leeton, Mo., to cover the girl's funeral expenses
Visitation
Spitler's visitation will be held Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at VanZant Mills Funeral Home, Jefferson and Archer, in Clinton, Mo.
Funeral service
The funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday at the Northeast Baptist Church, where she loved to sing in the choir, her family said.
