An 8-year-old died of a fentanyl overdose after being exposed to his parents’ stash, police say. They’re charged with his murder.

When police arrived at Holly Back’s apartment in Coatesville on a humid morning last July, she was frantic, according to police documents filed this week in Chester County. Her 8-year-old son, Hunter, was unresponsive, slumped down and pinned between the recliner he had fallen asleep on and the wall behind it.

The boy had ashen skin. His lips and mouth were blue. He would later die at Chester County Hospital, killed by narcotics that, police said, his parents had a documented history of abusing, and in his father ‘s case dealing.

Back and her boyfriend, Mousa Hawa, are now charged with murder. But at the time, investigators were only scratching the surface of what they later described as the systemic neglect that pervaded Hunter’s short life.

As the first responders struggled to revive the boy, they found the telltale signs of drug abuse: empty glassine baggies and a box filled with what officers believed, and later confirmed, to be heroin, methamphetamine and other narcotics, according to the affidavit of probable cause for the couple’s arrests.

Hawa became irate when medics made this discovery, according to an account of the incident written by a Coatesville detective. He screamed at them to get out of his home, and seemed, the officer wrote, “more concerned with law enforcement searching his house than going to the hospital” with his son.

» READ MORE: Man and woman charged in overdose death of 6-year-old boy in Norristown

Hunter died from what an autopsy ruled to be fentanyl, morphine and cocaine intoxication. And his parents were charged Monday with third-degree murder, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and related crimes in connection with his death.

Back, 40, remained in custody Tuesday on $1 million bail. Her attorney, Brian McCarthy, declined to comment.

Hawa, 41, was already in custody when the charges were filed against him. He has been in county jail since February, awaiting trial for drug delivery resulting in death and related crimes for allegedly selling heroin in March 2023 to Tyler Stout, 32, who later died. It was not immediately clear if he had hired an attorney for the case filed this week.

The heroin found near Hawa’s son was stamped with the same distinctive logo, “Bad Bunny,” as the kind that killed Stout, according to the affidavit.

In a GoFundMe post asking for help covering funeral expenses, Hawa said Hunter “passed suddenly.”

Both Back and Hawa initially gave police the same version of events regarding Hunter’s death. They said the boy had taken a nap after coming home from school that afternoon, later waking up to eat some of the cheesesteak, pizza, and other food they had ordered from Domino’s for dinner, the affidavit said.

Hunter then fell asleep a second time on the recliner, where he ended up sleeping for the night. Hours later, about 2:30 a.m., Back told police she found her son slumped down in the chair in an unnatural position and called 911.

Both initially denied using drugs around the boy, despite evidence of drugs in their apartment, and said he did not have access to them, the affidavit said. After detectives discovered text messages between the two discussing using heroin, the couple admitted to using the drugs as “medicine.”

» READ MORE: A Norristown couple will face a county judge on manslaughter charges in a 6-year-old’s fentanyl overdose

They said that they had repeatedly warned their son not to touch the drug paraphernalia, telling him it was “daddy’s medication” and that he would get sick if he took it, according to the affidavit.

Detectives wrote in the affidavit that this explanation showed the couple “repeatedly chose to place their young child in a situation in which death or serious bodily injury was an almost guaranteed result.”

In interviews with the couple’s extended family, including Back’s sister and mother, detectives learned that Hunter had severe physical and developmental delays, and was still wetting the bed at 8 years old.

Back’s sister said she had temporarily gained custody of the boy after Back had been found overdosed on heroin in 2019. During the time Hunter lived with her, being fed healthy foods and given regular medical care, the boy’s conditions improved, the affidavit said.

Hawa later successfully petitioned the courts to return custody to him, and Back prevented her sister from seeing the boy, according to the affidavit. Coatesville Police responded to two incidents in 2021 in which Hunter was outside, unattended, in his underwear.

Hunter’s relatives told police they had last seen him on Easter 2023, during which he appeared unkempt and unwell and said that he “hated his parents,” according to the affidavit.