Seattle mom charged in baby’s fentanyl overdose death was under state supervision by Dept of Children, Youth, and Families

According to King County Superior Court charging documents, 33-year-old Safarah Rotaya Red is accused of exposing her infant son to a deadly environment despite repeated warnings from child welfare workers about fentanyl use around children.

“The defendant had access to services and yet still placed such a vulnerable victim in a dangerous position where they were able to obtain deadly narcotics,” Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Logan Bryant wrote in a March 12 bail request. “Records reveal the defendant tested positive for fentanyl at least four times and would continue to deny such use to their DCYF social worker … the defendant was told about the dangers of fentanyl around children and yet disregarded that information.”

The child died Oct. 26, 2024. An autopsy determined the cause of death was acute fentanyl intoxication. Investigators say Red initially claimed a man forced a “white substance that tasted like fentanyl” into her mouth at the Othello light rail station and that her baby may have been exposed there as well. Police later said surveillance footage did not back up that account.

According to the arrest report, the video showed Red traveling through South Seattle with the baby, including at Rainier Beach and on a bus, but showed no sign of any assault. Apartment surveillance allegedly showed Red “singing and dancing” while pushing the child in a stroller shortly before the 911 call.

Investigators also say cameras captured her throwing two bags down a trash chute while she was on the phone with dispatchers as her baby lay unresponsive inside the apartment. When officers forced their way into the unit, they found the baby dead and cold to the touch. Police said boxes of used Narcan cartridges were near the child’s body. The medical examiner later found not only fentanyl, but norfentanyl in the baby’s system, evidence that the child had metabolized some of the drug, with the report stating the “most likely reason” was chronic exposure.

However, DCYF had prior contact with Red dating back to the child’s birth in November 2023. According to a 2025 DCYF child fatality review obtained by KOMO News, hospital staff reported Red tested positive for methadone and fentanyl and had regularly used fentanyl during pregnancy. CPS workers later discussed fentanyl safety with her, including the drug’s lethality and the need to wash hands and change clothes after use. Red reportedly showed workers a lockbox and said she had Narcan supplied by the hospital.

But the review states Red repeatedly tested positive for fentanyl over the following months while denying she was using. Family members also warned CPS that she was not complying with the agency’s safety plan. DCYF closed the case in June 2024, four months before the baby died.

Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn) has spent years trying to repeal or rewrite Washington’s Keeping Families Together Act, which allows children to remain with drug addicted parents. Passed in 2021 as House Bill 1227, the law raised the legal bar for removing children from their homes, requiring the state to show “imminent physical harm” before acting. Couture and other critics have argued that the standard effectively handcuffs CPS, social workers, judges, and police in cases involving active fentanyl use, forcing the state to wait until a child is on the verge of death, or already dead.

Couture has repeatedly introduced legislation to undo or narrow the act, arguing that it leaves children trapped in homes where hard drugs are present. His latest bill, House Bill 1092, sought to clarify that active use of hard drugs like fentanyl in a home with children can meet the threshold for removal when it creates serious danger. It also included a reunification path through treatment and documented sobriety.

In a prior interview on The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, Couture said, “Just in the first six months of this year, we had almost 100 critical incidents,” referring to child fatalities and near fatalities. “That is an absolutely disgusting record.”

That figure tracks with data from the Office of the Family and Children’s Ombuds, which reported 92 child deaths or near-deaths tied to the child welfare system in the first six months of 2025 alone, putting the year on pace to become the deadliest on record.

Couture has also pointed to earlier cases that exposed the consequences of the law. Among them: cases in Everett during which three babies overdosed in one day, one died, and two others were reportedly sent back to homes with fentanyl-abusing parents after being revived.

This session, after his bill and related proposals stalled, Couture attempted a rare procedural move on the House floor to pull three dead child welfare bills, two Republican and one Democrat, out of committee. After that effort failed, he posted a blistering statement on X. “Bad news. I’ve exhausted every possible option this session to save innocent children who are dying at alarming rates in our child welfare system,” Couture wrote.

https://twitter.com/TravisSCouture/status/2023685191668298076?s=20

He said the bills were intended to remove children from “the absolute hell of being locked in homes with parents who abuse hard drugs like fentanyl.”

“I was allowed 9 non-consecutive minutes to plead for these babies' lives,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, these attempts failed on party-line votes with all Republicans voting yes, and all Democrats voting no.”

Couture said he felt “devastated at the failure” because “the sickening abuse, neglect, malnourishment, and death of kids will continue.”

The latest tragedy comes on the heels of audits of DCYF that revealed major breakdowns in oversight, recordkeeping, and financial controls within the state’s child care subsidy system. From 2021 through 2024, the Washington State Auditor’s Office reported it was unable to fully audit the program because DCYF failed to maintain required provider-level data, making it “impossible” to trace payments to individual providers. As a result, more than $1.3 billion in spending was deemed unauditable due to missing documentation, highlighting systemic noncompliance with federal requirements.

A 2025 audit identified $37 million in questionable payments, tied to missing attendance records, overbilling, and a lack of proper verification. DCYF has also acknowledged $2 million in overpayments to more than 1,300 providers, while internal audits found that 67% of cases reviewed contained overpayments. Auditors have repeatedly flagged the agency’s reliance on a “pay and chase” model, where providers are paid before documentation is verified, increasing the risk of improper payments.