Boy Likely Killed by Olive Brine. So Why Was No One Charged?

On Feb. 17, 2020, 7-year-old Isaiah Stark was vomiting, and his parents started driving him to a nearby hospital. He became unresponsive on the way there, and was dead by the next day. The coroner found the Colorado boy was killed by severe hypernatremia, or too much sodium, likely caused by drinking olive brine. But despite the fact that it's extremely rare for a person to be killed by hypernatremia—"It would have to be more than an accident. You'd need to drink it like a beverage," says a poison center director—and a mandated reporter had reported that Isaiah's parents used olive brine as a punishment, no charges were ever filed, reports the Denver Post in an extensive look at the case. The newspaper alleges Grand County covered up Isaiah's suspicious death, and implies his father's status as a police officer in the community may have played a role.

Jonathan and Elizabeth Stark became Isaiah's foster parents when he was three months old. He'd been born to a substance-using mother and had multiple developmental problems, and caseworkers reported that Elizabeth Stark seemed overwhelmed by parenting and reported many concerns about Isaiah's behavior. Nonetheless, the couple adopted him in 2017. Starting in 2019, Elizabeth Stark emailed the boy's doctor at least once a month, asking for things like "a stronger medication ... that will take the ability away from him to keep him awake and completely force his body to sleep?" Two days before his death, she had emailed the doctor reporting that she suspected the boy may not be sleeping enough at night because he kept falling asleep during the day, disrupting the family's activities. (Read the full, heartbreaking story at the Denver Post.)