Mom admits to stealing dying daughter’s pain meds

TROY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri woman has been charged with stealing her terminally ill daughter’s pain medications.

Forty-six-year-old Carol Ballweg, of Troy, was charged Wednesday with four counts of stealing a controlled substance and two counts of abuse of a vulnerable person.

Police say Ballweg was the primary caregiver for her 20-year-old daughter who is in hospice care. Medical staff found bed sores on the daughter and began suspecting the daughter wasn’t being given the prescribed doses of fentanyl and oxycodone, so they tested her urine. Police say it showed no signs of the medications, even though Ballweg repeatedly requested refills ahead of schedule.

Police say Ballweg confessed to being addicted to opioids and using the medicine herself. Bond is set at $100,000. No attorney is listed for Ballweg in online court records.