Brittney Leigh Hensley was arrested in Alabama and extradited to Mississippi to face a child abuse charge.

• Police responded to a report of a child’s pill overdose at an extended-stay motel in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, on July 6.

• During the months of investigation that followed, the girl’s mother, Brittney Leigh Hensley, allegedly fled to Alabama, where she was apprehended on October 15.

• According to authorities, Hensley claimed she had also taken large amounts of drugs, but her blood tests did not support her story.

A Mississippi mother was accused of making a suicide pact with her young daughter – then, after her 10-year-old daughter took the pills, without keeping the pact herself, the deputy chief of the Ocean Springs police Steven Dye to PEOPLE.

Brittney Leigh Hensley, 37, was arrested by Ocean Springs police and charged with child abuse causing great bodily harm, according to her online post. reservation save. On Tuesday, October 29, she was taken into custody at the Jackson County Adult Detention Center in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where she is being held on $500,000 bail.

The case has not been brought before a grand jury, PEOPLE has learned.

“It’s very tragic,” Dye told PEOPLE in a phone interview, noting that police were seeking to turn over a strong case to the local prosecutor’s office. “These are cases that we wish would never happen, but at least when we deal with these cases and apprehend the bad guy, we can hold him to the ground about what he did.” For us, this is the main thing: people must be held responsible for their actions.”

Dye notes that the shocking details of the case in the quiet Mississippi beach town have had repercussions on the small seaside community. “No one wants to see a child hurt,” he said, adding that the officers involved in the case have children of their own and such cases of child abuse are “always a little bit more difficult for us.”

He adds: “Anytime we deal with a child in a situation like this, it’s very difficult. This touches our hearts. »

Police first responded to a report of a child overdose at a Studio 6 motel in Ocean Springs around 6:25 p.m. on July 6, Police Chief Ryan Lemaire confirmed to PEOPLE. The 10-year-old girl, whose name has not been released, was unresponsive when police arrived.

Inside the motel room, officers found “several unknown capsules and empty prescription medication bottles in a green backpack” near the child, according to Lemaire. The drugs were allegedly prescribed to Hensley.

The mother and child were transported separately by ambulance to Ocean Springs Hospital, where doctors intubated the mother and daughter, the chief said, adding that the girl was then transported by helicopter to the hospital. U.S. Women and Children’s Hospital in Alabama for further treatment and survived.

Investigators later learned that Hensley and her daughter had entered into a “suicide pact,” with both apparently agreeing to take the drug, Lemaire said. The deputy police chief added that Hensley told investigators she had also taken pills, detailing the amount of medication and the length of time she had been taking them.

But, citing the doctor’s statement, Dye told PEOPLE that blood tests performed on the mother while she was hospitalized were not consistent with her statements to investigators. He also adds that the doctor concluded that if the mother’s statements were “true and accurate, she would have died.”

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The exact results of the blood tests have not been released, but Dye says his claims don’t match what was found in his system.

Citing their preliminary findings, Dye says investigators believe the mother decided not to follow through on her part of the suicide pact.

As the case developed against Hensley, police say she fled to Alabama, where she had once lived and had family. In a statement posted to Facebook on Oct. 14, Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers said the mother was wanted on a felony child abuse charge involving the poisoning of a minor.

Authorities then issued an arrest warrant for her. On October 15, Huntsville police arrested her in Alabama.

She was then extradited to Mississippi. As of October 31, she had not been charged and it was unclear whether Hensley had yet retained an attorney.

Lemaire says the 10-year-old is now in the custody of Mississippi Child Protective Services.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “FORCE” to the crisis text line to 741741 or visit 988lifeline.org.