Portland detectives issued a public alert Friday for help to find a woman who fled a Northeast Portland home where her 2-year-old daughter suffered cardiac arrest and later died from fentanyl poisoning.
Police said they suspect Mary Elizabeth Jacobo, 26, has been involved in an armed carjacking and other violent crimes since she fled the home three weeks ago and said they consider her armed and dangerous.
Investigators said people should not approach Jacobo but call 911 with any information on her whereabouts.
On Sept. 12, Jacobo attempted to resuscitate her toddler but then ran out of the Fox Run manufactured home, telling a friend to call 911, according to a relative. The child, Aurora Fernandez, was pronounced dead at a local hospital later that day.
Jacobo fled because she said she faced warrants for her arrest, said Isa Smith, the toddler’s cousin.
Police said Jacobo is 5-foot-5, 135 pounds with hazel eyes and brown hair that may have been dyed blond recently. She has tattoos on the front of her neck, chest and left hand.
Jacobo’s father, Michael Jacobo, said he’s had no recent contact with his daughter. “I’m just scared I haven’t heard from my daughter since the day my granddaughter died,” he said in a text message Friday.
Aurora’s father, Jacob Anthony Fernandez, called Aurora “the sweetest most amazing child” who was “full of love and life.” In a social media post seeking money for his daughter’s memorial, he wrote that he’s devastated, and is “so angry and dying inside more and more every day.”
Earlier this week, police raided a duplex near Southeast 185th and Yamhill, where the mother was seen most recently but she apparently had left before officers arrived, said Tina Hodges, an aunt of Aurora. Hodges wants Aurora’s mother found to be held responsible for a death that was “avoidable.”
“I just picked up my niece’s ashes a half an hour ago,” Hodges said, adding that the funeral home reached her when it was unable to contact either the girl’s mother or father.
The toddler most recently had been living with her father because her mother was in and out of jail and on probation, according to his relatives. Court records indicate that when Mary Elizabeth Jacobo gave birth to Aurora, the baby tested positive for fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Aurora was mostly raised by her father and her maternal grandfather. Her parents separated a few months ago and Jacob Fernandez recently became homeless, often staying with friends and family, relatives said. He told family he would drop his daughter off with her mother every so often. Mary Elizabeth Jacobo had been staying at the manufactured home in the Fox Run complex for about five to six months, according to relatives.
The state Department of Human Services is initiating a critical incident review of the 2-year-old’s death, pending the outcome of any criminal investigation, according to state records.
Police asked anyone with non-time-sensitive information in the case to e-mail crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov, attention to the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit.
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