Woman arrested in Chippewa
Falls was wanted on a child murder charge in MN
CHIPPEWA FALLS (WQOW) - A woman arrested on drug charges and
illegally using an ID in Chippewa Falls last week is facing
extradition to Minnesota on a child murder charge.
Nikki
Jean Potvin, 29, is charged with 3rd degree murder and 2nd
degree manslaughter in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota for an
incident that happened in early November 2020.
According
to the criminal complaint filed in Mille Lacs County:
Authorities describe the area where Potvin lives as "very
cluttered with burnt garbage, waste and abandoned household
items scattered throughout" the property with 12 campers and 30
vehicles.
Potvin told authorities she fell asleep in the
SUV and when she woke up, her 1-year-old daughter was sleeping
in her car seat. Potvin got out of the vehicle and went into one
of the campers, leaving the girl in the car which was running
with the heat on.
After an "unknown period of time," a
man asked to borrow Potvin's SUV. Potvin gave him the OK and
said her child was sleeping in the car, which was running. That
was between 12 and 1 a.m. on Nov. 6. The man said the car was
warm "as if the heat was left on high." A witness said the child
had been in the car for four hours.
The man took the
child out of the SUV and put it in a camper with Potvin. The man
believed at that point the child was already dead.
Potvin
took the child to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Authorities say the temperature at that time of night was in
the upper 40s to low 50s.
An autopsy on the little girl
showed the cause of death was "hyperthermia due to exposure to
heat."
Chippewa County Sheriff Jim Kowalczyk told News 18
Potvin was arrested in Chippewa Falls on June 9 on recommended
meth charges and misappropriating an ID. Kowalczyk did not know
why she was in Chippewa Falls.
On Tuesday, June 15,
Potvin was charged in Chippewa County Court with three counts of
misappropriating an ID to obtain money, two counts of identity
theft to obtain money or credit, possessing meth and possessing
drug paraphernalia. She was in court on Tuesday afternoon for an
initial appearance on those charges where a $2,000 signature
bond was continued.
She is being held in the Chippewa
County Jail until an extradition hearing on June 17 for the
murder charge.
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