Mother found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2-year-old’s Benadryl death

People reports that a Virginia judge accepted Leandra Andrade’s plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on Wednesday, Jan. 14, in the 2022 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Lanoix. According to court and media accounts, Andrade was found unconscious at the Cutty Shark hotel in Virginia Beach in August 2022 and her daughter was discovered foaming at the mouth with what WTKR described as a fatal dose of Benadryl.

Andrade had been charged with aggravated murder and child neglect, and a second-degree murder charge was dropped, 13 News Now reports. Court documents obtained by WAVY allege Andrade fled the Washington, D.C., area with Lanoix after Lanoix’s father was awarded full legal custody, despite a stipulation that both parents had been granted joint physical custody.

Prosecutors allege text messages from Andrade on the night of Lanoix’s death included lines such as, “Neither one of us want the future you are manifesting; It will make you cry yourself to sleep at night,” and that some messages were later resent with phrases circled. A 2024 court-ordered forensic evaluation, cited in the stipulation of trial evidence, found Andrade met criteria for multiple disorders, including PTSD, major depressive disorder—recurrent, severe with psychotic symptoms, an unspecified eating disorder, and persistent depressive disorder with early onset and dissociative symptoms; the records also allege a prior suicide attempt.

Key Topics

World, Leandra Andrade, Lanoix, Benadryl, Cutty Shark Hotel, Virginia Beach